Gregg Steinhafel is stepping down from his role as president, CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Target, effective immediately. Steinhafel, a company veteran, has been with the company for 35 years and was appointed CEO in May 2008. Taking over as interim President and CEO is Target’s CFO John Mulligan. Steinhafel will remain on the board in an advisory capacity.

The move comes after Target has been unable to completely redeem itself after the December data breach involving as many as 40 million shoppers’ credit card details and the personal data of 70 million customers, including their names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses.
“He held himself personally accountable and pledged that Target would emerge a better company,” says the company in a statement. “We are grateful to him for his tireless leadership and will always consider him a member of the Target family.”
After the news, Target shares dropped almost three per cent to $60.05.

Danone, the company behind Activia and Oikos yogurts, is planning to improve the nutritional content of its products by 2016, starting by lowering the sugar content of its children’s yogurts in the U.S. to contain a maximum of 23 grams of sugar per six ounce serving.

Currently, only 30 per cent of Danone’s yogurts intended for children meet that standard. The company also hopes to have 75 per cent of its yogurts be low fat or fat free by 2016.
This move is part of the Partnership for a Healthier America, created in conjunction with U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama, working with the private sector to address childhood obesity. Danone plans to invest US$3 million in nutrition education and research as part of the initiative.

Walmart has announced two changes to its web team that will help in its ongoing fight against Amazon.com and encourage more online business.

Walmart.com President and CEO Joel Anderson has resigned from the company and moved on to discount teen retailer Five Below after three years with the company. Fernando Madeira, currently Walmart’s president of its Latin American e-commerce arm, will assume leadership of the American website in addition to maintaining his current duties, among others.

Walmart.com has hired approximately 1,000 employees to its e-commerce team in Silicon Valley in the last 18 months, as the company’s Brazil team increased by about 600 employees in the same time period. In addition, Walmart has announced three new e-commerce centres in Texas, Pennsylvania and Indiana over the past few months.

“It is important that we all understand the shift that has happened in technology and retail, what it means for us, and what we’re doing to win,” says Walmart CEO Doug McMillon.

According to a new report from the Organic Trade Association (OTA), U.S. retail sales of organic products rose to 11.5 per cent in 2013, or US$35.1 billion. 92 per cent of these were food or beverages. OTA executive director Laura Batcha says, “There was strong growth in produce and eggs, but we’ve also seen a resurgence in sales of some organic packaged foods such as snacks and cereals. Daily growth was positive but somewhat curtailed by lack of supply, but breads and grains were up 11.6 per cent.” Walmart made a move to go more organic recently by announcing plans to launch organic Wild Oats products for a new and more affordable price at 2,000 stores.

A recent survey involving 1,016 adults showed that while 84 per cent of U.S. consumers purchase organic food, with 45 per cent of them buying it at least once a month, they don’t necessarily know what organic means.

The survey by Opinion Research Corporation for Consumer Reports showed that a little under half of the consumers surveyed thought that organic means that the poultry, meat or eggs had a living space or went outdoors. Both of those are, in fact, requirements of the National Organic Program.

Other interesting consumer thoughts include 81 per cent believing organic fruits and vegetables had no toxic pesticides, while 91 per cent thought they shouldn’t contain any, and 66 per cent wished for a label on the products that indicated where specifically it was grown and processed.

Walmart Canada’s president, Shelly Broader, is being promoted to executive vice president, president and CEO of Europe, the Middle East, sub-Saharan Africa and Canada. In her new role, Broader will be in charge of retail operations and business development for these regions. Broader, who will be based in Canada, will continue to oversee the Canadian business until her new replacement is determined, which Walmart says it will announce at a later date. “Shelley has been a strong leader since joining Walmart Canada and is the ideal person to leverage the tremendous potential the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) region holds for our company,” says David Cheesewright, president and CEO of Walmart International. In her new position, Broader will oversee regions that employ over 285,000 people at 1,345 stores. “Walmart has strong operations and excellent teams of associates in Canada, sub-Saharan Africa and the United Kingdom that are well-positioned to drive future growth,” says Broader. “I look forward to working with the teams to build on this success and to bring our mission of saving people money so they can live better to even more families across the region.”

United Natural Foods Inc., a leading natural food distributor, announced its plans to purchase Tony’s Fine Foods, a distributor of perishable food products, in late May for US$196 million. The deal is expected to close in July and gives the company a boost against mainstream distributors, according to UNFI. It allows it to offer several “perimeter products” to its main distribution networks, according to Steve Spinner, CEO of UNFI.

“Given the growth in our space, competition has also increased. Conventional food distributors and continued movement to direct distribution by supermarkets for fast moving products will pressure our growth as the industry expands,” says Spinner.

The Tony’s line includes specialty protein, cheese, deli, food service and bakery goods distributed throughout the Western United States, Alaska and Hawaii.
In addition to the acquisition, UNFI has invested in a 450,000 square foot distribution centre in Wisconsin to deal with growing demand.

“Our sales growth, almost 14 per cent ahead versus the prior year, continues to prove the natural organic and specialty products are not a passing trend for the fast growing permanent part of consumer purchases,” says Spinner.