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ATLANTA — Aaron's, a lease-to-own retailer specializing in the sales and lease ownership of residential furniture, consumer electronics, home appliances and accessories, has named David L. Buck as its new COO.
 
The company’s current COO, Ken Butler, 60, will retire May 1, after 39 years. Butler will also resign from the board of directors.
 

Chairman, president and CEO of Fast Retailing Tadashi Yanai is among the 2013 Time 100, the magazine's annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. 

Yanai was the only retail and CPG company executive to make the list. Other notables with a connection to the retail industry included Samsung CEO Oh-Hyun Kwon, Paypal co-founder Elon Musk and fashion designer Michael Kors. The complete list will appear in the April 29 issue of Time, available now.

FedEx on Wednesday reported average daily package volume growth of 10% during the third quarter at its ground division, but it wasn’t enough to offset weakness elsewhere and profits were well short of analysts’ estimates.

CINCINNATI — Macy's reported fourth-quarter sales and earnings growth that exceeded company expectations, prompting it to issue new guidance for 2013. 

In the food industry’s largest ever acquisition, the H.J. Heinz Company has agreed to be acquired by an investment consortium of Berkshire Hathaway and 3G Capital.

Heinz shareholders will receive $72.50 a share in cash, a 20% premium to the prior day’s closing price of $60.48, which was at an all time high.

NEW YORK, NY — The National Father’s Day Council, a nonprofit that recognizes modern day role model fathers, has named Terry Lundgren, chairman, president and CEO of Macy’s Inc., as a recipient of its 2013 "Father of the Year" Award. Lundgren joins President Bill Clinton, Founder of the William J. Clinton Foundation and 42nd President of the United States, as a fellow honoree. The awards will be presented at the 72nd Annual Father of the Year Awards in New York City on Tuesday, June 11. 

NEW YORK — The National Retail Federation has elected Saks chairman and CEO Stephen I. Sadove to chairman of the NRF board of directors and chairman of its executive committee. Sadove succeeds NRF’s chairman, Terry J. Lundgren, who is chairman, president and CEO of Macy’s.
 

Weaker than expected December sales at Target will cause fourth quarter profits to come in at the low end of an earlier forecast, the company said.

Sales at Target for the five week period ended December 31, increased 0.8% to $10.2 billion while same store sales were essentially flat, below the company’s guidance which called for an increase in the low single digits. The performance was driven by a low single digit decrease in comparable store transactions, offset by an increase in average transaction size.

A worse than expected 1% decline in November same store sales indicates the holiday season is off to a slow start at Target.

The 1% decline was substantially worse than the low single digit increase the company forecast at the start of the month when it reported a 2.4% increase for October that was toward the low end of guidance. The November weakness suggest traffic trends may be deteriorating at Target as the company said blamed the decline on a decrease in comparable store transactions following that metric’s flat performance in October.

MENOMONEE FALLS, Wis. — Kohl’s third quarter sales increased 2.6% to $4.5 billion, and comparable-store sales were up 1.1%, in line with the company's expectations.

The retailer's net income for the third quarter rose 14% to 91 cents per diluted share. Net income was $215 million compared with $211 million, or 80 cents per diluted share, a year ago.

A 4.2% increase in August same-store sales at Target was at the high end of the company’s forecast range.

The solid showing during August was noteworthy because it came on top of a prior year increase of 4.1% and was attributable primarily to an increase in average transaction size. According to Target, about three fourths of the increase was due to growth in ticket with increase shopper traffic accounting for the remainder of the comp increase.