Retail Briefs

The Home Depot opened Manhattan's largest home improvement store last week. The new location holds 105,000 square feet of merchandise.

Located at 23rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, the multi-level store offers a range of products, daily how-to clinics, same-day delivery and a full-time concierge. In an attempt to target the city dweller, the store will offer nine paint-mixing stations, a broad selection of decorative cabinet hardware and high-end appliances. A specialized showroom has also been set up to help customers visualize completed home improvement projects.

Though it claims over $45 billion in non-U.S. sales, Wal-Mart is not getting complacent with its international efforts, and hopes to grow that business significantly in the future, said Ed Kolodzieski, senior vice president and chief operating officer, International.

Having only .87 percent of the global retail wallet, and a presence in only nine of the top 20 GDP producing countries, is not good enough for Wal-Mart, according to Kolodzieski. “We have to improve our market share to become number one in more countries,” he said. Kolodzieski said, internationally, Wal-Mart is number one only in Mexico, coming in second in Canada, third in the United Kingdom and Brazil, fifth in Japan and sixth in Argentina. In total, the company maintains 1,514 non-U.S. locations.

To further its international aspirations, he said, Wal-Mart has developed a training program called Accelerated International Management — currently with 18 people enrolled — that seeks to groom top talent in the hopes of developing country leaders.

The Neiman Marcus Group has hired Steven Dennis as senior vice president, strategy, business development and multi-channel marketing. He will report to Burton Tansky, president and CEO of The Neiman Marcus Group.

Dennis spent 12 years with Sears, Roebuck and Co, where he held positions in strategy, new business development, general management and marketing. His most recent position was vice president, corporate strategy.

During his tenure with Sears, Dennis led the company's multi-channel efforts and played a key role in the creation of the new “Sears Grand” store concept and the acquisition of Lands' End. Prior to Sears, he spent five years with The NutraSweet Company in a variety of business development and new product marketing roles, and two years with Booz, Allen & Hamilton, Inc. as a strategy consultant.

JCPenney opened a location at the Stirling Center, 69340 Highway 21 in Covington, La., last week.

The store, covering 80,736 square feet, is a new format designed with wider aisles for shopping convenience, offering improved lighting and customer service centers, stated the company.