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Archives for July 2010

Top 10 U.S. Retailers are Discount and Grocery Heavy Hitters

walmart_supercenterThe National Retail Federation (NRF) has released its ranking of top U.S. retailers for 2009, and the power players are primarily discounters and grocery retailers.  Given the challenging economy in the United States that continued in 2009, it’s not surprising that even discount superstores saw a shift in sales from non-essentials to essentials (such as grocery products like food) leading sales figures.

Check out the list of the top 10 retailers in the U.S. according the the NRF report below (via TheStreet):

1. Walmart

Is anyone surprised that Walmart is in the top spot?  Probably not.  The interesting part of Walmart’s story in 2009 is that much of the company’s growth has actually been overseas, but U.S. sales are still strong.  The company’s grocery business accounted for more than half of its 2009 sales.

2. Kroger

Kroger is a grocery retailer that stays strong despite competition from discounters like Walmart and Target.

3. Target

If Walmart is on a list, it’s usually safe to assume that Target won’t be far behind.  Target has been focusing on growing its own grocery segment, PFresh.  Do you smell a trend yet?

4. Walgreen

Walgreen jumped two spots on the NRF ranking thanks to opening new brick and mortar stores and a couple of sizable acquisitions.

5. Home Depot

As you’d expect, Home Depot’s business in the U.S. depends on the housing market, which has been struggling.  Despite the economy, Home Depot managed to take the fifth spot on the NRF list.

6. Costco

Another discounter that points to its grocery section as the reason the company’s volume grew in 2009 is Costco.

7. CVS Caremark

Just as Walmart and Target go hand-in-hand in the world of big-box discounters, CVS and Walgreen go together in the world of pharmacy retailers.  Thanks to its own acquisitions, CVS managed to grow its sales by 13% in 2009.

8. Lowe’s

Walmart and Target, CVS and Walgreen, Lowe’s and Home Depot.  These are competitors that constantly try to differentiate themselves from each other.  Lowe’s attributes some of its recent growth, despite the continued struggles in the U.S. housing market, to government stimulus programs.

9. Sears

Sears has been experiencing dropping sales but still takes the #9 spot on the NRF list of top retailers in the U.S.  Sears is hoping some of the company’s new incentives, promotions and programs (including an online marketplace, appliance layaway program, and streaming movie and TV downloads partnership) will help boost sales in the near future.

10. Best Buy

Big-box electronic stores have lost a lot of popularity in recent years, and only two make the NRF list of top 100 retailers in the U.S. in 2009.  Best Buy is one of those electronics retailers, which ranks #10 with approximately one-third of the company’s sales coming from consumer electronics and another third coming from home office products.  The company saw strong sales in 2009 of high-definition televisions, netbook computers, and smartphones.  However, sales of entertainment software such as video games, CDs and DVDs were down.  Best Buy has some big plans in the works for increasing sales in 2010 and beyond, including a video download service (to compete with Netflix and similar services from Blockbuster) and new store openings as well as 1,000 new Best Buy Mobile stores.

What do you think?  Any surprises on this list of top U.S. retailers by sales volume?  What company would you like to see drop from this list or added to this list in the future?  Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

Image: Flickr

Tales From Corporate Governance Surveys

There is always something happening in Corporate Governance.

Two recent notable items are —

corporate governance

KPMG and the New York Stock Exchange-Euronext recently offered IPO Bootcamps for companies considering an initial public offering (IPO). Participating companies were asked to name their top three challenges in preparing for an IPO. The results are a bit surprising. The top three items were –

  • improving corporate governance (64 percent)
  • preparation of a robust business plan (40 percent) and
  • preparation of financial track record (36 percent).

Often, it’s the small details that companies overlook that can cause headaches down the road. For example, while many companies realize that corporate governance is a demanding issue, when selecting board members, many don’t consider that an important role for directors is working with management to ensure the right tone at the top for ethics and compliance. (Aamir Husain, a partner in KPMG LLP)

This is encouraging. Fostering compliance and ethics at the early stage of a company’s formation increases the likelihood that these issues will be properly executed as the company grows.

The PWC CEO Survey is extensive but some key items stand out:

  • most CEOs outside of financial services believe the economic crisis has not changed public perceptions of their industries. They believe the trust issue is restricted to the banks and isolated to countries that experienced the worst banking crises.
  • The view that companies can rebuild trust through new remuneration models appears to be held by a minority of CEOs from virtually every country.

While small start-up companies realize the importance of trust and ethics, CEOs at large established companies (at least according to the PWC Survey) still don’t get it.