GNC is owned by the Ontario Teachers' Pension Board Plan, its affiliate Ares Corporate Opportunities Fund II, and management. GNC filed to go public in September 2010.What's good for the customer is good for GNC Acquisition Corporation (formerly General Nutrition Centers). GNC operates the world's leading nutritional-supplements retail chain devoted solely to items such as vitamins and dietary products. The company also makes Rite Aid private-label products. It sells its products online, as well, through a partnership with drugstore.com. GNC has 2,800 company-owned retail stores in the US and Canada; 1,900 store-within-a-store sites in Rite Aid's drugstores; and 2,220 franchised stores in 47 countries.

The Children's Place Retail Stores, Inc. operates as a children's specialty apparel retailer in North America. The company provides apparel and related accessories for children from newborn to 10 years of age. It designs, contracts to manufacture, and sells apparel and accessories and other children's-oriented merchandise under The Children's Place brand name. The company has differentiated departments to serve the needs of girls and boys, baby girls and boys, and new born. As of January 30, 2010, it owned and operated 947 The Children's Place stores and an online store at childrensplace.com. The Children's Place Retail Stores, Inc. was founded in 1969 and is based in Secaucus, New Jersey.

In France the company operates Pro à Pro Distribution, which supplies foodservice operations, and the Coccinelle and Colruyt retail chains.Colruyt and its subsidiaries carry names that are well-known in Belgium and France. The company retails or distributes a wide variety of consumer home and office products, groceries, and computer equipment and services. In Belgium, Colruyt operates some 240 discount supermarkets under the Colruyt and OKay banners, as well as more than 2,300 BIO-planet organic food stores. It also supplies independently-owned SPAR supermarkets with food. The retail group also operates the DreamLand chain of toy and baby product stores, as well as convenience retail stores and gas stations.

Kohler Mira went from dreaming in the shower, to dreaming about the shower. Founded in the 1920s, Kohler Mira is a leading UK bathroom products company. The company's offerings, which include showers, faucets, enclosures, trays, and brassware, are sold through bath and housewares specialty retailers in more than 40 countries worldwide. Its names include Mira Platinum, Biocote, and Mira Eco. Mira developed the world's first thermostatic shower, which gained popularity in the 1960s. Then called Mira Showers Group (which included its Rada, Meynell, and Alstone brands), Kohler Mira Limited company was acquired by US-based Kohler Co. in 2001 and became Kohler Mira.

Brookstone is a nationwide specialty retailer offering an assortment of consumer products that are functional in purpose, distinctive in quality and design and not widely available from other retailers. Brookstone first introduced itself to the world in a small classified ad selling "hard-to-find tools" in Popular Mechanics Magazine. The year was 1965. From the beginning, quality of product, quality of service, and quality of people have been a hallmark of Brookstone. The first catalog consisted of 24 black-and-white pages, with detailed, no-nonsense information on features, capabilities, measurements, materials and anything that would help the customer with his or her buying decision. As Brookstone's catalog success grew, its operations expanded. In 1973, Brookstone opened its first retail store in Peterborough, New Hampshire, where an unsolicited walk-in trade quickly developed. Today, Brookstone manages operations through its headquarters in Merrimack, New Hampshire, and in its Distribution Center and Customer Service Department (web, mail and telephone orders) in Mexico, Missouri. Meanwhile, the Company currently operates more than 300 retail stores throughout the United States and Puerto Rico, primarily in premium shopping malls, lifestyle centers and the nation's busiest airports, and opens 10 to 15 new stores each year. Originally a catalog company, Brookstone today operates a multifaceted Direct-Marketing business that includes catalogs, e-mail and affiliate marketing, and an online site offering hundreds more products than are available in our retail and airport stores. From the start Brookstone created a fun, interactive shopping experience. At our stores customers are encouraged to try products out for true, hands-on shopping. Every visit to Brookstone is an opportunity to discover new and ingenious items of superior quality—all in a friendly environment of customer service and integrity that simply can't be found anywhere else.

Auchan's mammoth markets make room for more than meals. France's second-largest food retailer (behind Carrefour), Auchan operates some 740 supermarkets and about 515 hypermarkets (French for supercenters) in about a dozen countries. France represents 47% of Auchan's sales, but the firm has stores throughout Europe and in China, Dubai, Russia, and Taiwan. (Auchan exited the US, Mexico, and Morocco in recent years.) Its hypermarkets carry up to 100,000 products, including groceries, apparel, consumer electronics, and fast food. They also provide travel services. Auchan's other core businesses include banking (Banque Accord), and shopping mall development (Immochan). The founding Mulliez family controls Auchan.

Gerrity's Supermarkets is a member of the Shursave Supermarkets Co-op.Gerrity's Super Market is not yet part of a matriarchal society but does boast that it's where Mom is "always in charge!" The regional grocery chain operates about 10 supermarkets under the Gerrity's Supermarket banner in Lackawanna and Luzerne counties in northeastern Pennsylvania. The regional chain also operates an online grocery order and home delivery service. Founded in 1895 by William Gerrity, the family-owned company is run by mother and son team Joyce ("Mom") and Joseph Fasula.

Founded by Tom Singh in 1969, New Look was taken private in 2004 by the private equity firms Apax Partners and Permira, who've twice failed to sell it. Growing as fast as its teen customers, New Look sells apparel, lingerie, shoes, and accessories at about 660 New Look stores in the UK and Ireland and 300-plus Mim shops in France and Belgium. Most New Look shops are in the UK but the chain has a growing presence in Ireland, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and now Russia. The retailer also sells apparel online. New Look targets tweens (pre-teens), teen girls, and their mums (if they're hip) with value-priced clothing. Most of its products are private label and the stores sell plus-sized and maternity apparel.

Leader's Holding Company (better known as Leader's Casual Furniture) is a small furniture chain that that operates some 20 retail showrooms throughout the state of Florida. The furniture retailer sells such brand names as Capris, Jonathan Taylor, Carlton, Tropitone, Palm Springs Rattan, and Garden Classics. As part of its products portfolio, the company peddles indoor (including wicker and rattan) and outdoor home furnishings and related accessories. The family-owned company got its start as a single retail location in St. Petersburg, Florida, in 1971.

LiveDeal (formerly YP Corp.) is an Internet yellow pages and local online classifieds provider. The company offers goods and services listed for sale through its online classified marketplace at classifieds.livedeal.com; LiveDeal also publishes about 17 million business listings via its business directory at yellowpages.livedeal.com. Sources of revenue include advertising sales, a pay-per-lead program with major auto dealers, and optional listing upgrade and e-commerce/fraud prevention fees. The company changed its name from YP Corp. after its 2007 purchase of online local classifieds marketplace LiveDeal.

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