New York City and London — Barnes & Noble, Inc. has been successfully acquired by Elliott Advisors (UK) Limited. Elliott’s acquisition of Barnes & Noble, the largest retail bookseller in the United States, follows its June 2018 acquisition of Waterstones, the largest retail bookseller in the United Kingdom. Barnes & Noble serves 627 different communities across all 50 states, where it remains the Number 1 bookseller in the United States. Elliott seeks to build upon this strong foundation as it addresses the significant challenges facing the brick-and-mortar book retail space …
retailers
New York City — Bona Design Lab, a global retail design and consulting firm based in New York City, has been recognized by the Retail Design Institute for the store design it created for ENEX, the licensee for Shell brand fuels and lubricants in Chile and operator of service stations as well as convenience stores under the Upa! and Upita! brands. The design was one of the finalists in the “Class of 2018 Winners” named by the Retail Design Institute in its 48th annual Store of the Year competition. The …
New York City — Luxury department store retailer Barneys New York has voluntarily filed for bankruptcy protection and has disclosed plans to close 15 of its 22 brick-and-mortar stores. The Chapter 11 filing in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of the Southern District of New York indicated that Barneys had more than $100 million in assets and more than $100 million in debts, according to The Wall Street Journal. Barneys plans to keep five of its flagship locations open, including its famous Madison Avenue store. The retailer will also continue operating …
Atlanta — Ace Hardware Corporation, the largest retailer-owned cooperative in the world, has selected Atlanta-based tech startup Deputy as its recommended people management and scheduling solution to its community of store owners and managers. “Not only does it take less time to make a schedule in Deputy, but after I’m done making it, there’s nothing else required from me until it’s time to make schedules again the next month,” says Bobby Heuser, owner of Heuser Ace Hardware in Bluffton, S.C. “Deputy enables my employees to do everything they need in …
Plano, Texas — J. C. Penney Company, Inc. has hired James (Jim) DePaul, a highly accomplished field executive with nearly 25 years of retail experience, as executive vice president of stores, effective August 5, reporting directly to CEO Jill Soltau. He joins JCPenney from Shopko. DePaul, who will oversee the company’s stores, store operations, store environment and design and asset protection teams, will be responsible for improving in-store and omnichannel operations. Mike Robbins, executive vice president of stores and supply chain, will be leaving the organization on August 3, 2019. …
Fort Myers, Fla. — GATES Construction has completed multiple projects at Daniels Marketplace located at the crossing of Daniels and Six Mile Cypress parkways in Fort Myers, Fla. The project buildouts include Club Pilates, Paradise Grill, Tide Dry Cleaners, Uh-Maze Bowls, Pearle Vision and Hand & Stone Spa. Design services are provided by Wakefield Beasley & Associates and Hand & Stone Franchise Corp. For over 25 years, GATES has provided construction management, general contracting and design-build services. Its diverse portfolio of commercial, healthcare, multi-family, club and hospitality, institutional and special …
Pittsburgh — The vitamin and health supplement niche of the brick-and-mortar retail market continues to experience intense competitive pressure, observes veteran retail consultant Jeff Green. So it came as no surprise to Green when GNC Holdings Inc. officials revealed in a second-quarter earnings call earlier this week that it will shutter up to 900 stores in North America by the end of 2020. “It used to be that specialty health supplements were only found in specialty stores such as GNC, Vitamin Shoppe and other regional chains,” says Green, a partner …
San Francisco — Gap Inc.’s Nancy Green, who currently leads the Athleta brand, will shift in early August to a newly created role as president and chief creative officer of Old Navy. In this new role, Nancy will lead Old Navy’s design, production, merchandising and marketing functions, and will report to Sonia Syngal, president and CEO of Old Navy. While a search is underway for Athleta’s next president, the brand’s well-established leadership team will report to Gap Inc. CEO Art Peck. “Nancy’s ability to drive growth is demonstrated by Athleta’s …
Fort Worth, Texas — Pier 1 Imports, Inc. has appointed Douglas Diemoz — former CEO of Crate & Barrel — to the newly created role of president of Pier 1. Additionally, Robert Riesbeck has been named executive vice president and chief financial officer. Both positions are effective July 22, 2019. Riesbeck succeeds Deborah Rieger-Paganis, who has served as interim CFO since April 2019. Diemoz will be responsible for day-to-day operation and performance of Pier 1’s business. He joins Pier 1 with more than two decades of retail industry experience with …
Parsippany, N.J., and San Francisco — Tru Kids Brands, the proud parent of the Toys“R”Us ® brand, and b8ta, the software-powered experiential retailer, have entered into a joint venture to bring Toys“R”Us stores back to the United States. The new store experience will be a highly immersive, smaller-format space. The first two new Toys“R”Us stores will open this holiday season, located in The Galleria in Houston, a Simon Mall, and in Westfield Garden State Plaza in Paramus, N.J. Brand partners and experiences will be announced in the coming weeks. “We …