Content about Phoenix

OAKLAND, Calif. — Columbia Sportswear is headed to the Gartner Supply Chain Executive Conference, being held May 21-23, in Phoenix, Ariz., to share insights and best practices for deploying cloud technology alongside GT Nexus. 

Fred Pond, VP, CIO of Columbia Sportswear, and Kurt Cavano, chief strategy officer at GT Nexus, will share lessons learned from Columbia's technology approach to executing global procure-to-pay processes in which buyers, suppliers, financial institutions and other key third parties operate on the same cloud platform.

PHOENIX — Reality television star and Poison frontman Bret Michaels is bringing the eighties back to PetSmart with the Pets Rock collection, a line which has expanded to a throwback, neon-inspired line of apparel, toys and accessories for dogs.

Rebuilding Together has teamed up with Lowe's through its Community Partners program to provide free home repairs to four low-income homeowners and to support the Friendly House in the Central City neighborhood of Phoenix on Feb. 20 and 21.

In its six years of partnering with Rebuilding Together, Lowe's has donated $7 million and completed 958 projects across the country.

More than 100 Lowe's Heroes employee volunteers from area Lowe's stores will team with Rebuilding Together Valley of the Sun.

The Grocery Manufacturers Association inducted J. M. Smucker Company chairman Tim Smucker and Wegmans CEO Danny Wegman into its Hall of Achievement and presented Harris Teeter president and COO Fred Morganthall the award for Industry Collaboration Leadership.

BENTONVILLE, Ark. — Walmart is introducing a first-of-its-kind Centers of Excellence program that will offer its associates quality health care with no out-of-pocket cost for heart, spine and transplant surgeries at six of the leading hospital and health systems in the United States. 

PHOENIX — Sprouts Farmers Markets announced that Shon Boney, who has served as CEO since the company's founding in 2002, will assume the role of chairman of the board of Sprouts. Long-time Sprouts president Doug Sanders will become president and CEO, whereby he will continue to be responsible for all day-to-day aspects of running the business.

According to the company, Boney is taking on the chairman role in order to spend more time with his family in Sand Diego.

NEW YORK — Sprouts Farmers Market, a Phoenix-based natural-foods supermarket chain, has reached an agreement to merge with competitor, Sunflower Farmers Market, based in Boulder, Col. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The combined company will operate 139 stores in eight states under the Sprouts banner, with annual sales of approximately $2 billion. It will open about 12 new stores this year.

“Our operations are very similar," said Sprouts president Doug Sanders, who will lead the combined supermarket company.

ST. LOUIS — Aisle411, a mobile retail navigation service that helps shoppers locate products down to the shelf location, on Tuesday announced its service now is live in more than 1,000 stores with the addition of three markets — Las Vegas, Los Angeles and San Diego.

Other markets identified for expansion included Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Houston, Minneapolis, New York, Phoenix, Sacramento, Calif., Seattle and Washington, D.C.

PHOENIX - The board of directors of PetSmart has unanimously appointed Dr. Angel Cabrera, Ph.D., to the board, effective Dec. 9. 

Cabrera is president of the Thunderbird School of Global Management, a position he has held since 2004. Prior to joining Thunderbird, Cabrera was professor and dean at Instituto de Empresa in Madrid, Spain from 1998 to 2004.