H&M, the retailer known for its affordable and fashionable apparel, will open a temporary store in Miami Beach on Friday. Reports are that the store will remain open until September, when the company plans to open a 22,000 square-foot, two-story store in the Lincoln Theatre, which was formerly home to the New World Symphony.
Talbots has agreed to be acquired by an affiliate of the private equity firm Sycamore Partners, the two companies said Thursday. Under the agreement, Sycamore Partners will acquire all the outstanding common stock of Talbots for $2.75 per share in cash. A previous offer from Sycamore Partners had called for $3.05 a share, but then negotiations stalled. In the press release issued Thursday, the companies said that the current transaction is valued at about $369 million when debt is included. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of this year.
Neiman Marcus is rebranding its contemporary departments within each of the 42 Neiman Marcus stores as Cusp shop-in-shops. Neiman Marcus first launched the Cusp brand in 2006 with two freestanding stores that offered consumers a contemporary assortment including apparel, shoes, handbags and accessories in a boutique environment. The brand has grown over time and now includes a total of six Cusp stores and Cusp.com.
Ashley Furniture Industries plans to open about 50 bedding stores under the Zzz's By Ashley banner, according to Furniture Today. The sleep shops will average about 4,500 square feet each, and will offer a wide selection of mattresses and sleep accessories. “I think we can open several thousand in the next 10 years,” Ben Thorud, the Ashley executive who is heading the new initiative, told Furniture Today.
Saying his goals are to "shrink the company's physical footprint and substantially reduce our cost structure," Best Buy interim CEO Mike Mikan provided details about the struggling retailer's plans to reduce costs by $800 million over the next three years. Mikan and his team are in the process of creating a turnaround blueprint designed to use IT, customer services and predictive analytics to more closely connect Best Buy to consumers. During Q1 of fiscal 2013, which ended May 5, 2012, the retailer closed 41 of the 50 underperforming big-box stores.
Clothing based on the 1960s “Mad Men” styles of Don Draper and Peggy Olson helped Banana Republic post its best first-quarter sales ever this year.
A Tacoma, Wash. man apparently angry that a friend's hardware store isn't doing well has been charged in an ill-conceived arson attempt at a Home Depot store in Seattle, reports the Seattle Post Intelligencer. Prosecutors say Randol W. Stebner, 53, started two small fires near the Aurora Avenue North superstore on May 14. Stebner admitted to lighting the fires and said he would do it again, according to court documents obtained by the newspaper.
U.S. mall owners have contemplated for years what they might do if aged and troubled retailer Sears Holdings Corp. closes many of its stores, leaving malls with gaping vacancies and few easy alternatives for filling them.
Talbots Inc. said Friday it will actively explore other strategic alternatives after Sycamore Partners said it won't buy the retailer. A May 5 exclusivity agreement with Sycamore Partners has expired and Talbots said it remains open to pursuing a transaction with the firm at $3.05 a share. Sycamore "informed the company that it is not prepared to execute a transaction at this time," Talbots said.
With J.C. Penney’s new pricing structure echoing that of Wal-Mart’s EDLP model, the most recent Retail Ratings Reports from BIGinsight indicates both retailers could face challenges when it comes to the women’s clothing category. For years Wal-Mart has led Kohl’s in the category, however, in November of 2011 Kohl’s surpassed the discounter and the two have been tangling for the top position ever since.
