Financial News

MONTVALE, N.J. — Grocer A&P has promoted Raymond Silcock to CFO. He succeeds Frederic (“Jake”) Brace, who is resigning from his roles as chief restructuring, financial and administrative officer in conjunction with A&P’s emergence from Chapter 11. Brace will continue to serve the company in an advisory capacity.

PURCHASE, N.Y. — PepsiCo's potato chip portfolio has hit a major milestone.

NEW YORK — Shares of Rite Aid crossed the $2 mark Wednesday afternoon following analyst speculation about the prospects of a takeover by Walgreens, according to published reports.

WASHINGTON — Retail sales continue to rise for 2012 as the U.S. Census Bureau reported results of February sales on Tuesday.

U.S. retail and food services sales for February, adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, were $407.8 billion, an increase of 1.1% from the previous month and 6.5% above the year-ago period. Retail trade sales were up 1.1% from last month and 6.3% above last year.

IRVINGTON, N.Y. — Prestige Brands has rejected an unsolicited proposal from Genomma Lab, which seeks to acquire the over-the-counter and household cleaning products maker for $16.60 per share in cash, calling the deal inadequate, opportunistic and highly conditional.

Americans are broadening their food horizons. ReportsnReports, an online market research reports library, published a new market research report titled “Packaged Food in the U.S.,” which indicated that ethnic food interest has drastically increased.

ELMSFORD, N.Y. — Specialty pharmacy provider BioScrip had sales of $483.3 million in fourth quarter 2011 and $1.8 billion in fiscal year 2011, the company said Friday.

The company's fourth-quarter sales marked an increase of $32.9 million, while the sales for the year were $200 million over fiscal year 2010. Meanwhile, the company had profits of $6.7 million for the quarter and $7.9 million for the year.

Mediterranean and Middle Eastern foods showed the biggest gains in the last three years in the ethnic food category. Sales of ethnic food products grew in food, drug and mass outlets by 3.5% in 2011, reaching nearly $3 billion by year’s end, according to a recent report from Mintel. That rate is the slowest measured in the past five years, according to Mintel.