Management

J.Crew Group Inc. is considering bringing its Madewell business to the public markets in the wake of rival Levi Strauss & Co.’s own $623 million offering. Madewell, the denim focused starlet of the J.Crew family, could go public as soon as the second half of this year, the company announced Thursday. Struggling parent company J.Crew also named Michael Nicholson as interim chief…

Amazon.com's CEO Jeff Bezos called on other retailers to match Amazon’s benefits and $15 minimum wage in his annual letter to shareholders filed Thursday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. "Today I challenge our top retail competitors (you know who you are!) to match our employee benefits and our $15 minimum wage," Bezos wrote.…

Signet Jewelers Limited, the world's largest retailer of diamond jewelry, said last week that it's planning to close 150 underperforming stores during its current fiscal year and that by fiscal year's end it plans to reduce its store base by 13 percent over a three-year period, according to a company press release. Signet, which has 3,300 stores…

Retailers are under pressure like never before. The continued growth of online stores such as Amazon.com coupled with rising brick-and-mortar store rents are creating an unforgiving market. It seems that every week another big brand announces it's closing stores or going into liquidation. The effects ripple across the industry, as the loss of an anchor…

Sears is opening stores again. The department store chain that has closed hundreds of Sears and Kmart locations over the past few years announced this week that it will open three “Sears Home & Life” stores in May. The stores will be located in Anchorage, AK; Lafayette, LA; and Overland Park, KS. The new  stores will offer…

Target Corp will raise its U.S. minimum wage to $13 an hour in June, from $12 currently, increasing its payroll costs and putting new pressure on rival Walmart to attract retail workers in a tight labor market. Minneapolis-based Target employs over 300,000 workers and runs 1,845 stores in the United States. The company is investing…

The ailing Italian luxury fashion house Roberto Cavalli has shuttered its North American operations, hours after the brand said it was seeking a deal with creditors to stave off a bankruptcy filing and less than a week after the departure of its creative director, Paul Surridge. On Friday, the brand confirmed that it intended to…

Bed Bath & Beyond laid off about 150 of its 65,000 employees last week, CNBC reported. Anonymous sources familiar with the matter told CNBC that a little less than 50 workers, largely in the field-support team, which helps staff stores at namesake Bed Bath & Beyond stores, lost their jobs. In addition, fewer than 100 department and…

Ascena Retail Group announced today that it’s selling a majority interest in its maurices discount apparel brand to an affiliate of private equity firm OpCapita for approximately $300 million, according to a company press release. Ascena expects to receive $200 million in cash after expenses from the deal, as well as a minority interest in maurices.…

Rent the Runway, the online service that provides designer dress and accessory rentals, announced on Thursday a $125 million investment co-led by Franklin Templeton Investments and Bain Capital Ventures that values the company at $1 billion. The financing is the largest funding round Rent the Runway has raised to date, and will bring total equity raised to…