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People On the Move

Neiman Marcus: The multichannel apparel marketer has promoted its retail division president/CEO Karen Katz to executive vice president of the parent company, Neiman Marcus Group. The company has also promoted the Group’s senior vice president and CFO James Skinner to executive vice president and CFO.

Sears: The multichannel retailer has hired Louis Ramery as its new senior vice president, customer relationship marketing. Ramery, who’ll have overall responsibilities for developing and executing the Sears Holdings’ relationship marketing strategies and programs, will report to Maureen McGuire, Sears Holdings’ chief marketing officer. He was previously with Digitas, a marketing agency network.

J.C. Penney: The multichannel retailer has appointed Ruby Anik director of brand marketing and senior vice president. Anik was previously with electronics retailer Best Buy, where she oversaw marketing communications as a senior vice president. She reports to Penney’s Chief Marketing Officer Mike Boylson.

The Home Depot: Roger Adams, senior vice president and chief marketing officer of the multichannel home-improvement retailer, recently resigned. Vice President of Advertising John Ross has been named interim head of the company’s marketing unit.

Talbots: The multichannel women’s apparel company has promoted Philip Kowalczyk to COO. Kowalczyk previously was president of the company’s J. Jill Group division.

Acquisitions

Audio Editions: The audiobooks cataloger has acquired the exclusive license for the use of the Audio Book Club company assets, including its brand, Web site and customer list. The agreement, for an undisclosed amount, establishes Audio Editions as the world’s largest catalog seller of general interest audiobooks.

Legislative Affairs

Congress has extended the moratorium by seven years on Internet access taxes. E-mail and text messaging also will remain tax-free under the bill. The current moratorium, first enacted in 1998 and renewed twice since then, expired in October.

Financials

OfficeMax: The office supplies multichannel retailer’s third-quarter earnings rose 61 percent as it overcame soft retail sales with the help of cost-cutting measures and the weak dollar. It also opened fewer stores than originally planned. Net income rose to $49 million from $30.4 million a year ago, when costs related to the company’s headquarters’ consolidation and severance lopped close to $13 million off its earnings. Sales increased 3 percent to $2.32 billion from $2.24 billion.

PC Mall: The computer equipment cataloger posted net income for its fiscal third quarter 2007 of $3 million, an increase of $1.1 million and 56 percent ahead of the same period last year. Net sales for the third quarter were $287.7 million, an increase of $45.5 million or 19 percent greater than $242.2 million last year.

MSC Industrial Direct: The B-to-B cataloger of metalworking and maintenance, repair and operational supplies posted net sales for the fourth quarter of its fiscal 2007 of $450.5 million, compared to net sales of $385.9 million for the same quarter last year, an increase of 16.7 percent. Net income in the fiscal 2007 fourth quarter rose 39 percent to $47.4 million, vs. $34.1 million last year. Net sales for the fiscal 2007 full-year period increased 28.1 percent to $1.7 billion, from $1.3 billion a year ago. Net income for the fiscal 2007 full-year period totaled $173.9 million, an increase of 27.5 percent over net income of $136.4 million last year.

Brookstone: The housewares and gadgets multichannel marketer reported total net sales of $91.3 million in its third fiscal quarter, a 4.0 percent increase from the same period last year. Brookstone reported a loss from continuing operations of $9.4 million in the third fiscal quarter, compared to a loss of $9.5 million last year.

Catalogers’ Updates

Bombay Co.: The home furnishings cataloger-retailer’s inventory sale was approved by a U.S. bankruptcy court, including inventory of about 320 U.S. home furnishings stores, which then will close. A joint venture of Gordon Bros., Retail Partners and Hilco Merchant Resources bid about $105 million for the U.S. inventory after a two-day auction. In addition to the U.S. stores, a group of companies is buying Bombay’s 50 Canadian stores and its inventory for less than $20 million, assuming the leases and continuing to run the stores under the Bombay Canada name.