InsideRetail

Missouri-based footwear giant Caleres has improved its market share despite facing challenges in a different back-to-school period. Second-quarter results saw a 5.6 per cent uplift in sales year-on-year to $695.5 million. This led to a bottom-line profit of $59.4 million, up from $7 million last year. But the profit jump was buoyed by $55.6 million in tariff refunds; Caleres is celebrating a market share gain, including a higher share of the women’s footwear sector.

Humboldt Merchant Services has agreed to pay $12 million in penalties and will no longer be allowed to process payments for high-risk merchants after the US Federal Trade Commission accused the company of helping fraudulent businesses collect payments from consumers. According to the FTC, Humboldt processed payments for more than 1000 merchants that were shell companies behind unauthorized billing schemes.

Harry Adjimi, the CEO of One Step Up, has led a group of private investors to acquire women’s fashion brand The Limited. The acquisition marks the end of private equity ownership under Sycamore Partners, which took the brand on following its retail bankruptcy in 2017. Other lead investors in the group have been identified as Eli Yedid and Ames Tebele.

The first iPhone in 2007 mainstreamed touchscreen technology, years after it was developed. Now Apple is betting its maiden foldable phone can do the same for a format stuck in a niche despite years of efforts from Samsung and Chinese rivals like Huawei.

The iPhone Duo straddles two eras at Apple. It was developed while Tim Cook was CEO but overseen by John Ternus, the former hardware engineering chief who succeeded him on September 1. Unveiled just eight days into Ternus’s tenure, Apple’s first foldable smartphone is therefore more than an inherited product. It is an early test of whether the engineering leadership that took Ternus to the top can help Apple regain its reputation for hardware innovation.

Casey’s General Stores has reported higher sales and profit in the first quarter as consumers continued to respond well to the company’s value proposition. Total inside sales rose 5.6 per cent in the quarter ended July 31, thanks to the strong performance of prepared food, dispensed beverage and grocery. Inside margin rose about 30 basis points, benefitting from a favorable mix shift and better management of the cost of goods.

As uncertainty spread through the creator economy during the pandemic, beauty content creator Jackie Aina and her partner, former finance executive Denis Asamoah, began to question their reliance on brand deals. “It gave us a moment to be like, ‘Wait, we need to be in control of our own destiny. Let’s create our own brand,’” Asamoah told Inside Retail. That decision led to Forvr Mood, a fragrance and lifestyle company that sold 10,000 units within hours of launching.

Amazon was sued on Tuesday in a proposed nationwide class action accusing the retailer of systematically discriminating against thousands of pregnant employees, including by firing some it claimed took too much time off. According to a complaint filed by four former warehouse employees, Amazon routinely violates federal and New York worker-protection laws by denying pregnant workers basic accommodations such as chairs, bathroom and water breaks, and time off for prenatal appointments.

Neighborhood Intelligence, formerly Bed Bath & Beyond, has terminated its proposed acquisition of F9 Brands. The company said it will not proceed with the deal or enter into a commercial or strategic collaboration with F9, after the latter “was unable to satisfy all closing requirements within the contemplated timeframe”. The two firms will continue to operate independently, and the terms and economics of the previously announced agreement are no longer in effect.

A shortage of fuel oil used in ships and power plants looms in the third quarter as refiners, increasingly squeezed by wars that have disrupted both crude processing and tanker traffic, prioritize output of diesel and other products at its expense. While crude oil has avoided major price spikes in recent months, refined product prices have soared as strikes damage refineries in Russia and the Middle East and curbs on ship traffic choke flows.