Content about Company Reorganization

NEW YORK — Sales during the month of April edged up for wholesalers Costco and BJ's Wholesale Club, the companies reported Thursday.

Issaquah, Wash.-based Costco reported a 17% increase for the four weeks ended May 1 to $6.8 billion, compared with the year-ago period. For the period ended April 30, BJ's disclosed a sales increase of 12.2% to $871.7 million, compared with April 2010.

ISSAQUAH, Wsh. — Costco experienced a 17% increase in its monthly sales ended April 3, totaling nearly $7.2 billion.

Costco was positively impacted by the calendar shift; the company's five-week period for March included 35 days this year, compared with 34 days last year. The wholesale retailer noted the comparable-store sales saw an 11% boost. Excluding such effects as inflation in gasoline prices and strengthening foreign currencies, which had a positive impact on comparable sales, Costco said comps would have increased 7%.

Weis Markets streamlined its internal connection between wellness and pharmacy earlier this year with an organizational restructuring that folded the Weis Lifestyle Initiatives department, led by registered dietitian Karen Buch, into the grocer’s pharmacy division. It is the first official move by a supermarket retailer to literally draw a direct line between food and pharmacy.

MONTVALE, N.J. — Bankrupt grocer A&P has announced the election of Greg Rayburn to its board of directors, replacing Dr. Jens-Jürgen Böckel, who has resigned from the board.

BENTONVILLE, Ark. — In a swift move by Walmart, Duncan Mac Naughton has been appointed the retailer's chief merchandising officer for its U.S. division, less than three months after being named the company's merchandising EVP.

Mac Naughton, who joined Walmart in October, was part of the big-box retailer's restructuring of the merchandising department, which involved divvying the responsibilities among four EVPs, directly reporting to Walmart U.S. president and CEO Bill Simon. Mac Naughton oversaw the consumables, health-and-wellness and Walmart.com businesses.

WHAT IT MEANS AND WHY IT'S IMPORTANT Walgreens hasn’t finished knocking down its organizational silos.

(THE NEWS: Integrating health solutions for payers, Walgreens unifies pharmacy, wellness, led by Crawford. For the full story, click here)

The latest move came Monday, when the drug store and health services giant revealed the full outlines of its massive restructuring of all its healthcare operations.

This installment of Business of Beauty includes L'Oréal's 100 years in beauty, a roundup of color cosmetics sales in 2008, Coty's success with Del Labs, Revlon's restructuring, value products' effect on the hair category, shopper buzz and more. Click below to download the PDF of "Business of Beauty – Budget Beauty."