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Top Retail News

Abercrombie books 1Q loss, warns of more red ink
(May 15, 2009), Abercrombie & Fitch Co. Friday reported a fiscal first-quarter loss Friday of nearly $27 million, a number that could jump by millions more after the retailer books a non-cash write-down tied to its struggling Ruehl chain.

The New Albany-based retailer said that for the first quarter ended May 2 it lost $26.8 million, or 31 cents a share. That compares with profit of $62.1 million, or 69 cents a share, a year ago

New steakhouse coming to Jacksonville
(May 14, 2009), An upscale steakhouse with only four other locations in the nation is coming to the Southside of Jacksonville.

The 9,300-square-foot III Forks Steakhouse is expected to open in Tapestry Park later this year.

North Carolina bans smoking in bars, restaurants
(May 14, 2009), Gov. Beverly Purdue says she will sign into law a bill passed by the North Carolina House of Representatives on Wednesday that bans smoking in bars and restaurants in a state where tobacco once was king.

The House approved by a 62-56 vote a version of the smoking ban that had been passed by the state Senate. The measure will make it illegal for restaurant and bar owners to allow smoking in their establishments. Patrons wanting to light up will have to do so outside.

Cigar bars and private clubs are exempt from the new law.

H&R Block restructures tax business
(May 14, 2009), H&R Block Inc. realigned the structure of its tax business into one corporate entity overseen directly by CEO Russ Smyth.

Previously, the company’s retail tax, digital tax, franchise operations, company field operations and corporate units in the tax sector operated under separate entities all under the umbrella of the holding company, Kansas City-based H&R Block Inc. (NYSE HRB).

Kohl’s Q1 profit drops 11%, still beats Street
Menomonee Falls, Wis. (May 14, 2009) Kohl’s Corp. said Thursday its first-quarter profit fell 11% on reduced consumer spending, but its results exceeded Wall Street expectations.

Analysts expected revenue of $3.62 billion. Actual revenue for the quarter was $3.64 billion, a 0.4% increase. (more…)

If any of my readers/members/friends/associates are going to be in Las Vegas this weekend and the early part of next week and want to meet, please shoot me a note to dan@sponsorshipinsights.com.  I am also going to start scaling back my blog postings to about 3 times per week as my work schedule is getting pretty busy.

Since sponsorship and Real Estate are inextricably linked, here is some wonkish Real Estate News in advance of the conference for interested parties

Smart, experienced and successful.  I will submit some actionable interpretation of this information in the coming days.  For now, here are the results of our first survey completed by group co-manager, Melinda Sigal

A BIG Thanks to Melinda for putting this all together!  If you are not a member of our LI Group , please join.  Also we always welcome your comments/suggestions/feedback.

For those of you time-challenged, we begin with the summary…

SUMMARY – WHAT DOES ALL OF THIS MEAN?
75% of our members are between 26 and 50 years old, almost 40% have 10+ years and almost 25% has 15+ years experience in sponsorships. Almost 2/3 of our membership is Managing/Director level or higher (this does not include consultants).
Most members joined for professional development, sponsorship Q&A’s and networking.
Opportunities – since 1/3 of our members have 1-5 years experience, we might think about putting together a mentoring program, and/or a program that uses the expertise of our 20% members with 15+ years experience, asking them to author articles such as “How to’s …” webinars, etc. We may even be able to put on a virtual tradeshow-type event. There are lots of different kinds of programs we can develop and we’d love to get some feedback. (more…)

Last week I was invited by Scott Kaplan of CBRE to join a group of about 20 commercial property developers for an information exchange regarding the current state of retail development.  They brought together their clients to share issues and solutions on how to deal with the challenges they face.

It was a dynamic exchange and moderated wonderfully.  We spent some time listening to Scott and others present their perspectives on what is happening within their specific niche in the industry.

From my perspective (more…)

I just spent the morning at the ICSC Shopping Center Conference.  I hosted a discussion on developing new revenue through common-areas of retail destinations.  I also listened to a few minutes of a discussion hosted by a few ICSC Trustees and leaders in the industry.  Here are a couple of interesting insights: (more…)