Finish Line Opens 500th Store

The Finish Line will open its 500th retail store at the Mall of America on Friday, August 1, 2003. To celebrate the grand opening, Finish Line will give away 500 pairs of shoes to the first 500 customers in line…

Nugent Tapped to Head Ex Officio Merchandising

Ex Officio carved out a new senior management position focusing on merchandising and design. Pat Nugent will head up the overall product and inventory strategy, including management of product development, agent relationships, manufacturing strategy, and

Russell Promotes Flowers to Human Resource SVP

The Board of Directors of Russell Corporation announced that Ed Flowers has been elected senior vice president of human resources. Flowers, who joined Russell earlier this month, will be responsible for the overall human resources function for the Corpor

Reebok Puts Its Stamp on the Specialty Market…

The award for analyst bad timing has to go to Merrill Lynch who last week downgraded shares of Reebok from BUY to NEUTRAL, citing “the possibility of increased inventory and a growing risk from its increased presence at Foot Locker” as reported by Dow Jon

Coleman and Fleetwood in License Row…

One report after another came over the newswire concerning Coleman and Fleetwood’s folding R.V. trailer licensing deal. First, Coleman announced they would be terminating their licensing agreement with Fleetwood on May 12th 2003. Next, Fleetwood filed s

Deckers Latest to See Consumer-Direct Opportunity…

Shares of the parent company to Teva, Simple and Ugg hit a new 52-week high on Thursday before settling down to close at $6.92 on Friday, up 2.5% for the week. The surge was in response to a pretty solid second quarter report that saw sales increase 8.8%

Galyan’s Fills Open COO Role…

The retailer that call itself the “Nordstrom of sporting goods” looked to Bloomingdales instead for a president & COO, a role left vacant since Joel Silverman’s departure in March of last year. Ed Holman was appointed to the post last week after resignin

Luxottica Q2 Retail Comp Stores Sales Off 3.7%

Luxottica Group saw consolidated net sales for the second quarter decline 19.6%, or down 5.2% currency neutral, to €707.0 ($804.0) million verus the year-ago quarter. Consolidated net income for the quarter was €67.7 ($76.99) million and consolidated net

Ross Ups Burlington Bid in Sale Process

Burlington Industries, Inc. announced that the purchase price in its July 25th acquisition agreement with W.L. Ross & Co. LLC had been increased from $608 million to $620.08 million, both subject to various adjustments. The increase resulted from the sale