OPERATIONS / SUPPLY CHAIN

York, Pa. -- Bon -Ton Stores said its CEO, Brendan Hoffman, will step down early next year. The announcement follows a disappointing fourth quarter for the company.

Hoffman, a former CEO of Lord & Taylor, will leave Bon-Ton on Feb. 7, 2015, when his contract expires. He also will step down as director. Hoffman cited "strictly personal reasons" for his decision to leave.

He was appointed CEO of Bon-Ton in February 2012.

New York -- Swatch Group SA is suing Target Corp. for illegally selling watches that copy Swatch watches.

Swatch, in a lawsuit made public on Monday, accused the retailer of infringing its designs for "multi-colored" and "zebra watches." The watchmaker said the quality of the Target watches is inferior compared to its own and that their sale is likely to confuse consumers and hurt Swatch's sales.

San Jose, Calif. – EBay Inc. is reportedly urging shareholders to reject a slate of board members nominated by activist investor Carl Icahn and instead support nominees picked by the company. According to Reuters, EBay recommends shareholder vote to re-elect four existing directors: CEO John Donahoe, company co-founder and managing director Fred Anderson, Intuit co-founder Scott Cook and former Agilent Technologies CEO Edward Barnholt.

Foothill Ranch, Calif. -- The Wet Seal Inc. has appointed Deena Varshavskaya, Nancy Lublin and Adam Rothstein as new independent members of the company’s board of directors. The appointments expand the size of the board from seven to nine members.

Jacksonville, Fla. -- Bi-Lo Holdings, LLC, parent company of Bi-Lo and Winn-Dixie supermarket chains, is converting seven existing Harveys stores to Winn-Dixie stores and three existing Winn-Dixie stores to Harveys stores. These stores are part of the pending acquisition of 134 operating stores from Delhaize Group.

Harveys stores in Brunswick, St. Marys and Valdosta, Ga. are affected, as are Winn-Dixie stores in Americus, Albany, and Leesburg, Ga.

New York -- Supervalu directors Mark Neporent and Lenard Tessler have stepped down from the company’s board of directors as a result of Cerberus-owned Albertsons’ deal to acquire Safeway.

Neporent and Tessler were both appointed to the Supervalu board in 2013 as designees of Symphony Investors, a Cerberus Capital Management L.P.-led investor consortium. Symphony Investors owns approximately 20.9% of Supervalu’s outstanding common stock, and has the right to designate replacement directors for Neporent and Tessler.

Washington, D.C. – The National Retail Federation (NRF) calculated retail employment was down 6,700 in February 2014, yet up 205,500 year-over-year. The biggest job losses were seen in electronics and appliance stores, and sporting goods, hobby, book and music stores.