Retail briefs

Staff -- Home Textiles Today, 9/2/2002 12:00:00 AM

Kmart reaches out to Hispanics

In an effort to further reach its significant Hispanic customer base, Kmart will publish its weekly advertising circular in Spanish throughout the United States. Starting last week, its full-color ad circular has been translated into Spanish and released in conjunction with September's Hispanic Heritage Month to be featured in 10 prominent Spanish language newspapers across the country and also in 160 stores that serve communities with large Hispanic populations. The initiative is based on research indicating more than 55 percent of all Hispanics living in the United States are within 15 minutes of a Kmart store.

In other company news, Kmart said that its liquidity is sufficient and that it will not seek authority to increase the size of its current $2 billion debtor-in-possession credit facility. The retailer, which filed for Ch. 11 in January, said its latest projections show that at the peak of seasonal inventory build it will have $1.1 billion of cash and available credit under the DIP facility, enough to meet its post-petition obligations to vendors. Earlier last month, Kmart said it would seek authority from lenders to boost the maximum size of the DIP facility by up to $500 million in order to provide additional comfort to suppliers and the factoring community.

Grimm retires as Sam's Club chief

Tom Grimm, president and ceo of Wal-Mart's Sam's Club division, has announced his retirement. Replacing Grimm will be Kevin Turner, most recently Wal-Mart's chief information officer. Turner will report to Tom Coughlin, who will now serve as president and ceo of Wal-Mart and Sam's Club USA.

In addition, the company has promoted Linda Dillman, current vp of international systems development, to senior vp. Phil Sutterfield, executive vp of merchandising for Sam's Club, also has announced his retirement. Doug McMillon, current senior vp and gmm for Wal-Mart, has been promoted to executive vp, succeeding Sutterfield. Gary Severson, current vp and dmm for Wal-Mart, has been promoted to senior vp, succeeding McMillon.