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- Modern Land stopped working to make a $250 million dollar bond payment that developed on Monday.
- The Chinese designer, which deals with green jobs, pointed out unanticipated liquidity concerns developing from a variety of aspects.
- Recently, embattled competing Evergrande suddenly made an $835 million payment to overseas shareholders.
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Chinese designer Modern Land ended up being the most recent business to miss out on a bond payment, showing that the nation’s home market stays in chaos.
The Beijing-based designer, which is noted in Hong Kong, stated in a declaration on Tuesday that it had actually stopped working to pay back a $250 million dollar bond that developed on October 25.
Modern Land blamed the missed out on payment on an unforeseen money crunch emerging from a variety of aspects “consisting of the macroeconomic environment, the realty market environment and the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The business had actually asked shareholders previously in October to extend Monday’s due date by 3 more months, however ended the proposition recently.
Modern Land, which develops energy-saving houses, stated it is dealing with legal counsel Sidley Austin and anticipates to engage independent monetary consultants quickly to develop a prepare for onshore and overseas stakeholders.
Prior to missing out on the payment, Modern Land attempted divestitures, loaning, and including tactical financiers, Bloomberg reported, mentioning Chinese outlet Cailian Press. Research study companies consisting of OANDA and Lucror Analytics called the occasion a “default,” although the business didn’t define whether the occurrence makes up an occasion of default.
The Hang Seng Mainland Home index fell as much as 5%, while the Hang Seng Residential or commercial property index fell 1.9%.
Modern Land’s shares, which have actually been halted from trading because October 21, are down 55%currently up until now this year.
Several designers have actually defaulted this month, although Evergrande made one offshore bond payment worth $835 million ahead of due date recently.
Evergrande, which is at the center of the China residential or commercial property storm, has another grace duration payment due on October 29, with experts stating financiers will be carefully expecting whether it makes that payment. It deals with a variety of multi-million dollar payment due dates in the coming weeks.
Fantasia and Sinic, 2 other smaller sized Chinese designers, have actually likewise defaulted on their financial obligation. Chinese customers in general have actually defaulted on overseas bonds worth a record of a minimum of $8.7 billion up until now this year, according to Bloomberg.


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VinFast, Vietnam’s first high-volume automaker, plans to set up a new manufacturing facility in North Carolina with the eventual investment expected to reach $6.5 billion.
The factory is expected to become operational in 2024 and eventually will have the capacity to produce 150,000 passenger vehicles annually. It also will assemble electric buses, as well as batteries and motors. Employment could reach as much as 13,000.
“Having a production facility right in the market will help VinFast to proactively manage its supply chain, maintain stabilized prices and shorten product supply time, making VinFast’s EVs more accessible to customers,” Le Thi Thu Thuy, Vingroup vice chair and VinFast Global CEO, said ahead of the project’s formal announcement on Tuesday afternoon.
A rapid start
The automaker was founded in 2016 and based in Haiphong, the primary port city in northern Vietnam. It is part of the Vingroup, a conglomerate operating a diverse portfolio of businesses including schools, shopping centers, hospitals and resorts.
VinFast produced its first vehicle in 2019, a modified version of the BMW X5 SUV. But it announced a shift in direction during the LA Auto Show last November, planning to phase out vehicles using internal combustion engines in favor of battery-electric vehicles. It revealed two different models in Los Angeles and followed up with three more during a presentation at the Consumer Electronics Show in January.
The five SUVs cover what the industry refers to as the A, B, C, D and E segments, basically from subcompact to full size. The largest offerings were originally dubbed the VFe-35 and VFe-36 when unveiled in Los Angeles. The range will now go from VF5 to VF9. The four largest models, the VinFast VF6, VF7, VF8 and VF9, will be sold in the United States. The little VF5 will be limited to Europe and Asia, officials told TheDetroitBureau.
Learning a few key lessons
Taking a page from the playbook early on used by Japanese and South Korean automakers, VinFast plans to appeal to consumers with a value-oriented focus delivering lots of features at a relatively mainstream price. The VF8, for example, will start at $41,000, the VF9 for $56,000. Both those models will be produced at the North Carolina facility.
Production is set to begin on those models later this year. Early products will be shipped to the States from VinFast’s Haiphong assembly complex that will have a capacity of 950,000 EVs by 2026, according to a statement from the automaker.
“VinFast’s transformative project will bring many good jobs to our state, along with a healthier environment as more electric vehicles take to the road to help us reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” said North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper.
As many as 13,000 jobs could be created if VinFast meets its target. The assembly plant itself is expected to cost around $2 billion, but the other projects VinFast has laid out could bring the total figure to $6.5 billion.
“The investment certainly declares their commitment to be part of this market,” said Stephanie Brinley, principal auto analyst for IHS Markit.
The Vietnamese startup will be just one of a number of EV wannabes, however. Tesla recently began production in Berlin and operates another new facility in Shanghai, as well as U.S. plants in California and Texas. In recent months, both Lucid and Rivian have launched production at factories of their own, and a number of other nascent EV makers hope to carve out niches in the U.S. market — though several, including Faraday Future, Byton and Lordstown Motors, are struggling for survival.
Companies like VinFast face a number of challenges, said Brinley, starting with the fact “It’s getting to be a crowded market,” especially as established automakers such as General Motors, Ford, Toyota and Volkswagen introduce their own EVs. So, said Brinley, “it’s going to be difficult to stand out.”

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Maersk Drilling Trainees
Alexander joined Maersk Drilling as a trainee less than a year ago. He takes us through his first impressions of the work and the industry as a whole.
Kudsk and Schmidt on Maersk Drilling Safety & Environment
Join Gregers Kudsk, VP of Technical Management at Maersk Drilling, and Jens Schmidt, CEO of Maersk Drilling Venezuela, in their talk about the development of our company through superior safety and innovative technology.
Sustainability in Maersk
By focusing on safety, reducing CO2 emissions, fighting corruption and investing in growth markets, Maersk is working hard to fulfill their goals of having sustainability as the main driver. Meet Claus V. Hemmingsen, CEO of Maersk Drilling and Head of the Maersk Sustainability Council.


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Millions of families hit by price rises in ‘no deal’ Brexit scenario: report
The average yearly household bill would rise by £260 in a “no deal” scenario.
Millions of families would be hit by price rises of more than £500 a year with the poorest taking the biggest hit if Brexit happens without the UK reaching a withdrawal deal with the European Union, a report warns.
The average yearly household bill would rise by £260 in a “no deal” scenario in which Britain imposes the same tariffs on the EU as it does for other World Trade Organisation (WTO) countries.
But three million families could see price rises of more than £500 while the proportionate impact on the poorest fifth of households would be 33% greater than on the richest fifth, the joint report by the Resolution Foundation and Sussex University’s UK Trade Policy Observatory found.
It shows that walking away from deadlocked Brexit negotiations would be the “worst possible outcome”, the authors said.
The analysis of a “no deal” scenario where the UK imposes WTO “most favoured nation” tariffs on the EU found that levies on dairy imports would rise by 45%, meat products by 37%, and clothing, footwear, drinks and tobacco by 10%.
These tariffs would feed through into significant price increases, with the average price of dairy goods rising by 8.1%, meat products by 5.8% and cars and other vehicles by 5.5%, the report said.
The hit to living standards would be greater for lower-income households as they tend to spend a greater share of their income on food and essential items of clothing which would be most affected by new tariffs.
A different “no deal” Brexit scenario, in which the UK unilaterally reduces all tariffs to zero, would reduce household spending by an average of £130 a year.
But this is unlikely to happen as it would reduce Britain’s ability to strike free trade deals around the world, and expose some industries to “sharp competitive pressures” as other countries would not be obliged to reduce their own tariffs.
Stephen Clarke, economic analyst at the Resolution Foundation, said: “The Government has said that while it wants a comprehensive trade agreement it is also preparing for a ‘no deal’ scenario when we leave the EU.
“Such an outcome – which could see the UK imposing tariffs on EU imports – would increase the annual shopping bills of millions of households by £500, with poorer families taking the biggest hit.
“While trade may not have been the biggest issue in the referendum, it is one that will affect the day-to-day living standards of every family in Britain.
“The Government must rightly continue to prioritise a comprehensive new trade agreement with the EU in order to avoid households having to fork out for a ‘no deal’ outcome through higher prices and squeezed households budgets.”
Ilona Serwicka, research fellow at Sussex University, said: “Our research shows that this (no deal) scenario will increase the cost of essential goods, such as food and clothes, which will impact most adversely on those households who already struggle to get food on the table and make ends meet.
“To avoid the real economic danger of a ‘cliff-edge’ scenario – that will see the cost of living for households up and down the country go up – the UK Government must realise that walking away from the negotiating table is the worst possible outcome.”
Shadow Brexit minister Jenny Chapman said: “This report is further evidence of how a no deal Brexit will hit family budgets and the potential dire consequences of the Government’s chaotic handling of the Brexit negotiations.
“Britain crashing out of Europe without a deal is simply not a viable option. No deal risks price hikes in the shops as a result of extra charges on everyday items, such as food and drink. And yet, the only solution ministers have offered to this potential crisis is ‘dig for no deal’.
“Theresa May must use this week’s EU Council meeting to end the deadlock in Brexit negotiations and protect Britain from an economic cliff edge. That means agreeing strong transitional arrangements within the single market and a customs union.”
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Checkout fraud accounted for $35 billion, or one-third, of all retail shrink in 2011, and this problem is the Achilles heel of most retailers because it’s hard to spot and stop.
StopLift Checkout Vision Systems and ScanCam, which were both on exhibit at the National Retail Federation Loss Prevention expo in San Diego on June 12-14, aim to cut those losses. They use different approaches, but both recognize that security cameras and weight sensors alone aren’t enough.
Checkout fraud can take various forms, from fake or evasive scans by store employees to ringing up a $12 pound of coffee as a $1.19 pound of bananas. The problem often worsens when stores install self-checkout systems, which have theft rates five times higher than that of regular checkout stands, according to the federation.
“No one has time to sit and analyze all that footage,” said Peter Mattschull, president of S-Tron Security Electronics, the first North American dealer for ScanCam.
Cameras also don’t detect when an item that was passed in front of the scanner hasn’t actually registered with the point-of-sale system.
Such types of theft can eat away at earnings. If your profit margin is 2 percent, said StopLift CEO Malay Kundu, whenever you lose an item, you have to sell 50 more units of that item to break even.
New Zealand-based ScanCam’s strategy against the theft is simple: Attach an LED light to the scanner that flashes at existing security cameras every time a scan is verified. This allows security to see quickly, in real time or in review later, which items are being rung up and which aren’t. The sticker price is $200 per light.
Matteschull said loss-prevention specialists have reported being able to conduct four times the number of investigations with ScanCam than without it.
Kundu has a virtual library filled with video of customers using creative ways to get through self-checkouts with more merchandise than they paid for. One man on screen scans a cheap bottle of lemonade repeatedly while transferring more expensive soda bottles from his basket to the bagging area.
“This is the problem,” Kundu said. “The bad guys always think of it. They can be very sophisticated. That’s why you need people like us on the other side.”
StopLift’s newest product, the Self-Checkout Accelerator, tries to put an end to irregularities at self-checkouts by drawing on video technology similar to systems used for trying to identify terrorists at airports. For a monthly fee, the software flags unscanned merchandise at the checkout aisle and alerts the attendant before the customer leaves.
It also cuts down on the “false alarms” that have driven many customers to avoid self-checkout lanes -- and prompted retail chains like Albertsons to remove them altogether.
Instead of giving up on self-checkouts, Kundu said now is the time to embrace the technology and help it evolve to be more effective, not just at preventing shrink but also at improving the experience for honest shoppers.


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The New York Times has never been afraid to show up in Los Angeles just to offer a scathing food take — but at least this one comes from Tejal Rao, the Times California critic who has lived here for more than two years now. Per Rao, it is California (not New York) that currently claims a superior bagel culture, thanks in part to Los Angeles stalwarts like Pop’s Bagels, Yeastie Boys, Maury’s, and more. Of particular focus is Courage Bagels, the Virgil Village newcomer that has drawn massively long lines since first opening back in October, 2020. “Go for the burned everything if you love to lick your fingers and pick up the crispiest, most browned bits of onion and garlic that inevitably shake off a bagel in motion,” says Rao of Courage’s bagels in the story.
Naturally such a hard-hitting thesis isn’t sitting well with some folks online, who have described the post as nothing more than “expert trolling.” Or maybe, just maybe… it’s true.
In other news:
- The folks at Goop have launched a ghost kitchen restaurant call, appropriately, Goop Kitchen, with early availability only to those on the Westside. Reps tell Eater the restaurant’s menu of soups, salads, and more will slowly become available to more areas over time.
- Want to help support the still-closed event venue world? Check out Sustain the Scene, a non-profit initiative that is partnering with a ton of local spots like the Lodge Room, El Cid, the Comedy Store, and beyond to sell merch, food, drinks, and more to raise funds that will help keep these places going during the pandemic.
- A new home meal kit outfit called In Good Company is starting in Los Angeles with plans to bring food from restaurants right to your freezer. Dishes include chicken mole negro from Guelaguetza, lasagna from Knead & Co., and dumplings from Hui Tou Xiang.
- Longtime Wolfgang Puck group chef Lee Hefter is moving on from the company after some 28 years of service, says co-owner Barbara Lazaroff.
- A rooftop bar called Bar Bohemien is coming to Citizen Public Market in Culver City this month.
- Plant-based Mexican pop-up Todo Verde has a new residency inside of Nativo in Highland Park. The limited run will last at least through the end of this month. Meanwhile, Hollywood’s Broken Spanish residency at Neuehouse has been extended, and will now run through April. with seatings on Wednesday night as well.
- Culver City’s Platform development is partnering with a number of independent restaurants and food pop-ups like Chainsaw and Caribbean Gourmet, running various collaborations


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Shree Eco Visionary Pvt Ltd (SEVPL), a leading manufacturer of electric vehicles (EV) in Nepal, in collaboration with Explore Nepal and other tourism entrepreneurs, is all set to launch EVs for the tourists on the occasion of the World Tourism Day on September 27. The three- and four-wheel vehicles will be used for sight-seeing, airport-to-hotel transport and other shuttle services. Notably, according to a 2005 survey jointly conducted by Kathmandu Electric Vehicle Alliance and Kathmandu Environment Project, 59% foreign tourists identified vehicular emission as the most pressing environmental concern of Kathmandu; 69% deemed the Valley’s air quality “poor” thus spoiling their sight-seeing and mountain-viewing experiences. Unsurprisingly, 94% preferred travelling in EVs, with 79% showing their express willingness to foot the bill for the pollution-free ride.
This indicates a clear preference of foreign tourists for a pollution-free environment and their readiness to contribute to keep it clean and green. Hence, the introduction of EVs for tourists will send a very positive message to prospective tourists that Nepal pays close attention to their preferences and is at the same time aware of its duty to protect the environment. Indeed, this latest move can be used to buttress Nepal’s image abroad. In the end, the importance of the government promoting and supporting such constructive initiatives of private players who play such a big role in attracting tourists and foreign reserves into the country cannot be overemphasised.


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His insight is to identify the clear strategic positioning of this new camera:
OM Digital Solutions has launched their new OM-1 flagship camera and the strategic positioning of the company is now crystal clear.
On the online photo forums and groups, some are excited by the new OM-1 while others get caught up in arguing spec details and full frame this versus not full frame that. The discussions are, frankly, boring.
Thomas Stirr’s observation, though, is that this is not necessarily the camera for a studio or perhaps wedding photographer. Instead, this is a camera for those who value “speed, durability, portability and weatherproofing”.


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Corona importer loses big in beer industry dustup
Constellation Brands' stock plummets after the Department of Justice blocks Anheuser-Busch InBev from buying Grupo Modelo.
Last summer, A-B made a $20.1 billion deal to increase its 50% stake in Mexican brewer Grupo Modelo and take control of its Corona, Modelo and Pacifico brands.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the Department of Justice filed suit on Thursday to prevent the deal from going down, saying it "would result in less competition and higher beer prices for American consumers." That undid Constellation's plan to buy Modelo's 50% stake in Crown Imports for $1.85 billion and become the sole exporter of Modelo products. That, in turn, sent Constellation stock plummeting more than 24% and forced Nasdaq to temporarily halt trading because of the volatility.
That's a shame for Constellation, but it's also a sign that the Justice Department didn't like the smell of this deal one bit. A-B and Constellation's argument was that Modelo's sale of its stake in Crown Imports gives Constellation the U.S. market share for any Modelo, Corona and Pacifico products sold in the U.S. Never mind that A-B would own Modelo and use its extensive distribution system to send it all over the country: Constellation would be the necessary middle man and take that unwieldy burden off A-B's shoulders while doubling its revenue in the process.
Even though Mexico's antitrust group OK'd the deal, the DOJ still wasn't buying it. Taking A-B out of the equation for a moment, Crown Imports' 5.7% U.S. market share is nearly equal to that of the entire craft beer industry combined, according to industry group the Brewers Association. It's larger than the 4% U.S. presence of European megabrewer Heinkeken and five times that of Guinness owner Diageo (DEO).
A-B has vowed to continue its battle in court, but the damage to Constellation has already been done. Constellation's plans for 2013 hinged on A-B's deal for Modelo being completed in the first quarter. Without it, Constellation's 2013 looks not only half-empty, but skunked.
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is a thunderstorm in the atlantic, or utilities to merge and ask for higher prices, or for cable
and internet providers to use their monopoly powers in each city to gouge their customers,
but a beer company merger could be bad for the economy. i guess they didn't make the right
campaign donations during the elections. what a rip-off for the consumers. but we are safe
from the big beer monopolies. a giant load of crap is what it is !!!
Anyone who is against this doesnt understand that the DOJ is preventing a monopoly. That is within its purview.
Making sure the market stays open for smaller breweries is what best for everyone.
Looks like they forgot to buy the right congressman! They will get it right next time remember NAFTA!
Washington is worried about our beer, they should be concerned about the recent spike in gas prices why isn't anyone focusing more attention on that? $.39 spike since Jan 1st come on that's a monopoly.
I prefer cask conditioned ale found in US micro breweries and in England. My opinion
of american beer is similar to having sex in a canoe, f-----g close to water.
LOSERS. DEM'S DONT GET IT.
"THE BUSINESS OF AMERICA IS BUSINESS". PROVIDES JOBS--JOBS PROVIDE TAXES--TAXES GIVE MONEY TO DEM'S TO WASTE. YOU WOULD THINK THEY WOULD "GET" THAT.
Bud bought Rolling Rock, stopped making it in Latrobe and basically killed the brand. They might be doing the same thing to Corona not expanding its distribution.
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While incompetent bosses like Michael Scott and Andy Bernard typically can’t survive in the workplace, office romances are a very real part of corporate culture.
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[BRIEFING.COM] The S&P 500 ended this week with a bang, roaring to a new all-time high on the back of stronger-than-expected economic data, influential leadership, and an ongoing appreciation for the Fed's monetary policy support.
The bullish bias was evident in premarket action as the S&P futures pointed to a higher start without the benefit of any definitive news catalyst. Stocks indeed benefited from a blast of buying interest at the opening bell on this ... More
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All hail the bull market, which ended the week with a big rally. But it also is starting to look a little like 1987, which suffered an epic blow-out.


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Canadian Economy Takes Fresh Hit as EU Trade Deal Collapses
(Bloomberg) -- Canada’s listing export sector took another blow Friday as talks to seal a trade deal with the European Union broke down, adding to questions about what will drive the economy forward.
The country is already facing three straight years of growth below 2 percent, the weakest stretch since at least the 1960s. Business spending is still hurting from the oil-price shock, as well as volatility around a fractious U.S. election and Brexit. The breakdown in negotiations over the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement will chill two-way trade worth about C$93 billion ($70 billion) a year and about C$380 billion of direct investment.
Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz and a high-profile government advisory panel said this week boosting growth may require potentially unpopular measures such as expanding trade agreements and increasing immigration. Poloz said Wednesday the central bank’s governing council came close to cutting interest rates due to a diminished export outlook, but held off in part to gauge the effect of government spending measures introduced this year by Finance Minister Bill Morneau.
“This is a real setback,” Peter Hall, chief economist at Canada’s trade finance bank, said of CETA. “That’s a major loss of opportunity,” he said in a phone interview, adding the deal could have lifted trade by C$12 billion a year.
Poloz has said that with Canada’s potential annual growth rate slowing to about 1.5 percent, anything that adds a percentage point or two matters. He cited new trade deals and targeted infrastructure spending as antidotes to sluggish growth. Canada should press ahead with a new infrastructure bank and expand immigration levels to boost long-term growth, Dominic Barton, head of Morneau’s Advisory Council on Economic Growth, said Thursday in a report.
“I’m concerned about the spread of protectionist rhetoric,” Poloz, who is also the former head of Canada’s trade-finance bank, told lawmakers Wednesday. He said policy makers need to do a better job of explaining the benefits of free trade.
For Canada, the damage from slowing global trade has been clear. The economy will grow just 1.1 percent this year as exports contribute 0.2 percentage points to the expansion, the central bank said in its latest quarterly forecasts. Business investment is the biggest drag, slowing growth by 0.8 percentage point, as oil and gas companies in Alberta shut production made unprofitable with crude around $50 a barrel.
Bombardier Inc. and Magna International Inc. are among a dozen major Canadian companies that rely on Europe for at least one-third of their sales, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland walked out of talks on Friday with European officials she said aren’t “capable” of finishing the deal. That still leaves open other agreements with China and India and the Trans Pacific Partnership.
Barring an export uptick, Canada’s economy is more or less reliant on consumer spending and fiscal stimulus, and it’s unclear that an increase in either would be healthy for the country in the long run.
The talks weren’t just about the movement of goods. A collapsed trade deal with the EU would undermine Canada’s efforts to loosen foreign investment rules for European companies. Canada was poised to raise the threshold for reviewing foreign investment from EU countries to C$1.5 billion as part of the trade pact.
The agreement also was meant to loosen restrictions on government procurement and intellectual property, with Canada opening up its procurement market to European companies and extending the term of patent protection.
In addition, CETA would have given the country’s auto industry a leg up. Canada and the EU had agreed to phase out auto tariffs on both sides over seven years. The deal would have allowed Canada to export 100,000 cars that don’t meet the 50 percent made-in-Canada “rule of origin” requirement.


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Berlin — The German economy will be pre-pandemic size in 2021 as the shortage of microchips has hit production in the automotive industry and COVID-19 regulations have delayed the recovery of Europe’s largest economy in the last few months of this year. Could not return to.
Gross domestic product rose 2.7% in 2021 after plunging 4.6% in the first coronavirus crisis in 2020, Federal Statistics Bureau preliminary figures said Friday.
Numbers consistent with analysts’ predictions in a Reuters poll mean that Germany’s economic output was still about two percent below pre-crisis 2019 levels, the agency said.
The world’s fourth-largest economy shrank in the last three months of 2021 after growing in the previous two quarters as the recurrence of the colonavirus infection led to new restrictions on retail and hospitality. Said the agency.
According to a spokeswoman, initial estimates showed a quarterly reduction of 0.5% to 1.0% in the fourth quarter.
The main growth drivers for 2021 were a surge in exports and huge public spending to mitigate the effects of the pandemic.
However, the development and domestic production of the COVID-19 vaccine by German startup BioNTech has also boosted growth, a spokesman for the Statistics Bureau said without quantifying the impact.
Germany reached a record € 215 billion ($ 24.87 billion) in net new borrowings last year after achieving an unprecedented total of € 130 billion in 2020 to fund the fight against COVID-19. Increased to.
The public sector deficit at all state levels increased to € 153.9 billion, or 4.3 percent of economic output.
The Ministry of Economy said in a monthly report that the ongoing supply bottleneck of key commodities in manufacturing is likely to continue for some time.
Most economists will shrink again in the first three months of 2022 after the German economy shrinks in the first two quarters of 2020, driving into another technological recession defined as the second consecutive quarter of shrinkage. I expect it.
($ 1 = 0.8744 euros)
By Michael Nienaber and Miranda Murray


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AP Møller-Mærsk – here comes another 'abandon ship' warning...
The one-stop shop is increasingly disliked
Maersk has completed its first airfreight charter after dumping the Damco brand last month.
It was the first of 11 charter flights for a tyre manufacturer in Thailand, with the cargo arriving in Nagoya, Japan, on Sunday.
Sasiphen Klaimanee, area head of airfreight at Maersk Thailand, Malaysia & Singapore (TMS), said while the client was previously a regular air cargo customer for Damco, the current airfreight capacity crunch required finding a new charter flight solution – in this case, one of the new breed pax-freighters.
She told The Loadstar: “We have been dealing with many different airlines, and AirAsiaX (XJ) offered the best fit, both on charter cost and on load ability.”
Maersk said this was the first airfreight shipment after Damco’s air services were combined with Maersk’s logistics products, as of early October, in order to complement its “end-to-end offering for clients around the world.”
Maersk TMS managing director Rupesh Jain said the shipment demonstrated the company’s ambition to become the “integrator of container logistics.”
He added: “We have provided our ocean customer with extended landside services and, by offering this air solution, we have truly completed the transport mode circle.
“By combining the speed of air with the cost savings of other modes, customers will be able to reduce inventory and improve their service offerings by fast response time at an affordable price.”
Maersk has been busy expanding its rail freight services, too. With air and sea capacity plummeting this year, high demand saw the company turning its trial ocean-rail product between Europe and the Far East and Russia into a permanent weekly service.
The move to axe Damco was announced last month, the Danish transport and logistics group aiming to “boost its value proposition”.
However, Maersk has been criticised for “never-ending changes in strategic direction”, having previously switched logistics services from Maersk Logistics to Damco and now back to Maersk.
Yesterday, the company confirmed there would be around 2,000 redundancies as a consequence of axing the Damco and Safmarine brands, as well as the rationalisation of back office and sales roles at subsidiary carrier Hamburg Süd.


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Some PlayStation 4 owners have reported successfully getting refunds for Anthem, claiming that Sony readily offered them their money back upon request. Online reports from customers claim they were provided a full refund after citing the game’s “broken” nature to chat representatives. News of the refunds comes amid new reports claiming the BioWare game is causing some PS4 consoles to crash and, in some cases, bricking them.
Anthem, an online multiplayer action game from BioWare, was published by Electronic Arts on February 22. The game is available for the Xbox One and PS4 consoles, as well as PC, but many players have reported a slew of problems with the title. An update was released in recent days that was supposed to fix the issues, but instead PS4 players say a new problem has emerged.
Over the last 24 hours or so, a number of Anthem players have published reports online claiming the game causes their PlayStation 4 consoles to completely shutdown as if the device had been physically unplugged. In a Reddit post published today, user “TheMadTitanGuantlet” claimed that their PS4 “has been completely bricked to the point of not even turning on because of Anthem.”
Another user claims they received a CE-36329-1 ‘System Software Error’ after the game caused their PS4 to crash and completely shut down. It’s unclear when this problem started; most reports have been published within the last day or two, though a small number go back farther. Reports from users indicate that all variety of PlayStation 4 consoles are impacted by these bugs.
Amid the crash reports comes other news: Sony is apparently offering PlayStation 4 owners full game refunds for Anthem upon request. Variety reports having successfully requested a refund with “no questions asked,” and a growing number of players have offered similar anecdotal reports online.


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By Stephanie March
By Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl
Harvest Beer Festival
By Parties Editors
The Morning After
By Tad Simons
Arts Off The Cuff
by Arts & Nightlife Editors
By Allison Kaplan
ASID MN Showcase Home
By Edina Realty
Super Real Estate Agents
Super Mortgage Professionals
The FAM Editors
By Emily Howald Sefton
By Real Brides-to-Be
Coming Soon: Red River Kitchen at City House
By: Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl | Posted: 03/05/2014
Have you been freaking out about pesticide and herbicides killing all our pollinators (butterflies, bees, moths)? Well, as anyone who regularly reads my work knows, I think this is the biggest food story of our time. And over the winter the news about butterflies kept getting worse, as did the news about bumblebees, including Minnesota’s own cute rusty-patched varietal. Heck, that’s why we’re having a big pollinator party, panel, and Save the Bees event on March 18.
Can’t wait? I have good right now news too! I just got off the phone with Dale Bachman and John Daniels of the local garden store Bachman’s, and it turns out they've gone neonic free! Neonicitonoids are the systemic insecticides that are expressed in every cell of a plant and in its nectar and pollen. They've been widely credited as one of the many problems challenging pollinators, and there's even been protests at Home Depot and other big box stores because their plants, their tomatoes, and everything else are neonic treated. Thus, why it's such a big deal that Bachman's has made the move.
“We’ve decided to elminate neonics,” Bachman said. “In all our production operations, in the plants we produce, in nursery stock and outdoor plants, in any plants which are out and available for pollinators.”
But there’s one caveat, Bachman told me, so far they can only speak the production they control, which is the great majority of what they sell but they also sell some plants from other vendors and are working with those companies to make sure everything is neonic free.
For instance, they get tomatoes from one local vendor and have commitments that all of Bachman’s tomatoes will be neonic free, and from this point forward they will spend the rest of the season getting those commitments from their other vendors, but as of right now they can say that all of their native plants such as milkweed or butterfly weed and all of the plants they grow themselves such as shrub roses will be neonic free.
So, hooray! Thank you, Bachman’s! So stop by Bachman’s flower show at Macy’s when it opens on March 23, the theme will be Secret Garden, and now you’ll have a little insider info: Bachman’s secret is that its flowers are safe for pollinators.
Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl is a senior editor at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine.See bio
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NEW YORK, Feb 14, 2010 / FW/ — Earlier today, Italo Zucchelli, Creative Director for Calvin Klein Collection Men unveiled the brand’s Fall 2010 collection to thousands of people around the globe as the label streamed its runway show live at www.calvinkleincollection.com and at www.facebook.com/calvinklein
This was a first for Calvin Klein as the label leverages the power of social networking and bringing fashion to your mobile appliance, thus making fashion also portable.
Though thousands shared the front row seats with Ryan Phillippe, Chace Crawford, Jared Leto, Kellan Lutz, Mehcad Brooks, Hidetoshi Nakata, and Lee Pace, there was actually a very intimate crowd at the company’s headquarters in New York who saw the catwalk show live.
Nothing can replace the excitement of seeing a new collection up close and personal especially in menswear where innovations are subtle and cerebral.
For Fall 2010, Italo Zucchelli proposes tough, tactile and powerful silhouettes that feature exaggerated textures, extreme surfaces, and multiple layers.
Overall, materials were sleek and technical fabrics were tailored and constructed into suits and overcoats which enhanced this season’s masculine collection in a sophisticated palette of earthy and metallic tones.
The show featured over a dozen exclusive models, including River, Eric W., Tim R., Axel, Armand, Phillipp, Florian, Kadeem, Eric S., Carlos, and David A., who is currently featured in the men’s Spring 2010 Calvin Klein Collection advertising campaign.
Photos by Dan Lecca, courtesy of Calvin Klein


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The Apollo 11 moon landing, 45 years on: Looking back at mankind’s giant leap July 21, 2014 at 9:32 am
On July 20, 1969 — 45 years and one day ago — Neil Armstrong became the first human to walk on the Moon. Buzz Aldrin would soon follow suit and climb down the ladder of the Apollo 11 Lunar Module (the Eagle), and the pair would then spend two and a half hours being the first ever humans to explore the surface of another world. Let’s take a retrospective look at some of the awesome photos from Apollo 11, and explore some of the fun (and perhaps lesser-known) factoids from the mission.
Malaysia Airlines flight 17 shot down in Ukraine: How did they do it? (updates) July 20, 2014 at 7:58 am
Malaysia Airlines flight 17, a Boeing 777 carrying 280 passengers and 15 crew, has been shot down over Ukraine. Yes, this is the same Malaysia Airlines that lost flight 370 in the Indian Ocean earlier in the year. It isn’t yet confirmed who shot down the plane, but we have a military source who believes it was probably Ukrainian separatists, using a Buk missile system that was given to them by the Russians. Suffice it to say, if Ukrainian separatists have just blown up a commercial airliner using a Russian weapon, we are almost certainly looking at a massive geopolitical crisis.
The $300 GoTenna turns your smartphone into a CB radio, lets you send messages when you have no cell signal July 18, 2014 at 12:30 pm
If you’ve ever had a cell phone, you know how frustrating it can be when your network fails. Areas with little to no signal can be absolutely infuriating, and overcrowded events can be just as bad. To sidestep this problem, the folks at GoTenna have developed their own ad-hoc network for sending messages. It’s an incredible concept, but with an asking price higher than most smartphones, there’s no way that this implementation is going to take off anytime soon.
MIT upgrades human hand with two extra robot fingers. But why stop there? July 18, 2014 at 11:00 am
While the human hand, with four fingers and opposable thumb, is pretty darn awesome, it still falls woefully short when it comes to some tasks — such as opening a soda bottle or peeling a banana. MIT, which is obviously a firm believer that we can and should enhance humans as far as physically possible, has a solution: a wrist-mounted robot that gives you two extra fingers. With the so-called “7 Finger Robot” equipped, you can both grasp a soda bottle and turn the cap at the same time. According to the MIT engineer who led the project, Harry Asada, some users might even begin to perceive the robotic helping fingers as part of their body — “like a tool you have been using for a long time, you feel the robot as an extension of your hand.”
Biologists discover electric bacteria that eat pure electrons rather than sugar, redefining the tenacity of life July 18, 2014 at 8:51 am
Some intrepid biologists at the University of Southern California (USC) have discovered bacteria that survives on nothing but electricity — rather than food, they eat and excrete pure electrons. These bacteria yet again prove the almost miraculous tenacity of life — but, from a technology standpoint, they might also prove to be useful in enabling the creation of self-powered nanoscale devices that clean up pollution. Some of these bacteria also have the curious ability to form into “biocables” that are centimeters long, and conduct electricity as well as copper wires — a capability that might one day be tapped to build long, self-assembling subsurface networks for human use.
US scientists push ahead with memory-boosting brain implants, but we still have to crack the brain’s code first July 17, 2014 at 2:05 pm
As the latest effort to build some kind of implantable “memory bridge” now takes form at Lawrence Livermore National Labs (LLNL), we might ask — can such a device actually work?
Meet Jibo, the world’s first family robot – built by MIT’s social robotics master July 16, 2014 at 12:41 pm
Cynthia Breazeal, an MIT professor and one of the pioneers of social robotics, has unveiled “the world’s first family robot.” Called Jibo, the all-white desktop-sitting robot has more than a passing resemblance to a certain robot from a recent animated Pixar movie. The robot, which will cost around $500 when it’s released, will have a range of abilities that will hopefully make it the perfect companion to have around the house — such as telling stories to kids, automatically taking photos when you pose, easy messaging and video calling, providing reminders for calendar entries, and companionship through emotional interaction.
Tesla announces the Model 3: At half the price of the Model S, Tesla wants to take EVs mainstream July 16, 2014 at 8:30 am
Tesla’s Elon Musk has revealed his company’s plans to take on compact executive cars, such as the BMW 3-series, with the Tesla Model 3. The all-electric Model 3 (which was originally going to be called the Model E) will be around 20% smaller than the Model S, and will have a shorter range of around 200 miles — but it will have ‘strong performance’ like the Model S and start at just $35,000 (the Model S starts at around $70,000).
Raspberry Pi 2 targeted for 2017, current model gets much-needed upgrade to Model B+ July 14, 2014 at 4:07 pm
The little computer that could, the Raspberry Pi, has been due for a hardware upgrade for quit some time, but the manufacturers have revealed that the anticipated day likely won’t come until 2017.
Harvesting energy from humidity: Free, green energy from leaping water droplets July 14, 2014 at 3:01 pm
The study of a super-hydrophobic surface has led to discovery of a method for generating power from condensation. Condensing water droplets literally leap off the surface and produce an electric charge that can be harvested.


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Britannia: Good Day All Along
In the highly competitive packaged snacks market, Britannia has been a dominant player and continues to hold its ground
Photo Credit :
The colours in the brand’s earlier logo — red white and green are perhaps etched clearly in the memories of every middle aged Indian, especially those who associated biscuits with Britannia. What started as a supplier of service biscuits to Second World War armed forces has now transformed into a leading packaged food giant. Today the company continues to be on the path of reinventing itself and changing according to the times and consumer taste, aggressive competition and food industry reforms notwithstanding. Yes, it is true that not many brands can withstand the test of time, especially when market forces compel them to keep evolving and adjusting to newer demands and newer consumer preferences.
Britannia, which completed 100 years recently, is one of the few examples of a brand that has sustained its reputation for over a century now. The company was first set up in Kolkata in 1892 with an investment of Rs 295 and incorporated in 1918 as a public limited company. The other brand that comes close to Britannia in the same category is Parle G, which has shown brand endurance for nearly eight decades. Despite competition, Britannia has now grown to become a Rs 10,000 crore behemoth, which reaches 50 per cent of Indian consumers with its network of over five million retail outlets.
The company also has many firsts to its credit. In 1954, Britannia pioneered the high quality sliced and wrapped bread industry in India and, in 1963, the company ventured into the cakes portfolio. It first breached the Rs 100-crore mark in 1983 and entered dairy products in 1997. In 2007, Britannia industries formed a joint venture with the Khimji Ramdas Group and acquired a 70 per cent beneficial state in the Dubai-based Strategic Foods International 65.4 per cent in the Oman-based Al Sallan Food Industries.
Biscuit industry in India
India is currently the world’s third largest biscuit manufacturing nation after the US and China. According to 6Wresearch, the Indian biscuit market is projected to reach $8.2 billion by 2023. Besides Britannia, major companies operating in the biscuit market of India include ITC, Parle Biscuits, Surya Food & Agro and Unibic Foods India. However, in the organised sector, the industry is dominated by Britannia and Parle, which account for 70 per cent of the industry’s volumes.
Call it cookie, or call it a biscuit, Indians truly love this form of baked bliss. And there is proof. In the FMCG category, the penetration of cookies and biscuits is quite high in both urban and rural markets. In urban areas, the penetration is as high as 94 per cent while in rural areas it is 83 per cent. The biscuit industry annually contributes Rs 8,000 crore to the FMCG industry and if we look at category wise market share, it is dominated by glucose biscuits (44 per cent) followed by Marie (13 per cent), milk (12 per cent) and cream (10 per cent).
The biscuit market has the potential to grow manifold and Britannia has dominated the category for long. So, what has helped the brand stay so enduring? According to Varun Berry, MD, Britannia Industries, a large part of this formidable brand identity is about the people who have been part of the brand’s journey and about cost leadership, which Britannia has mastered over the years.
“All the people who have been involved with the brand have done a fantastic job of creating them,” says 56-year-old Berry, who joined Britannia in April 2014. “I think it is very difficult to create the kind of brands we have been able to create. We have also been able to create this whole thing about cost leadership. We have got this intense mindset of cost leadership, cost savings and cost efficiency programmes. So, that is something I don’t think any large FMCG in India has been able to create,” points out Berry.
Going for a makeover
Despite having a formidable brand and having presence in over 60 countries around the globe, Britannia recently went for an image makeover by reimagining its core identity — the brand logo. While many companies would be averse to experimenting with a new identity, Britannia has traditionally taken the reinvention game in its stride. In 1997, the brand played the reinvention game, which helped it further consolidate its leadership position.
In 2018, the brand has done it again and Berry explains the reinvention formula. “It was not a small exercise. We researched this for almost a year and 2-3 months. The objective was set up-front. The objective was that we cannot walk very far away from where we are because we are doing so well and the brand is such a strong brand. It was not that we could just wander very far away and create some other Britannia.”
He further adds: “Moreover, there were some things which were clearly laid out that these are must haves, but what was required was modernisation. We have been with ‘Eat Healthy, Think Better’ for a very long time and, as a result, we have been able to create a right kind of image for ourselves which is — being good for you but at same time being exciting as well.”.
Britannia launched a massive rebranding exercise and changed its logo without sacrificing any of its core values. Speaking about the rationale behind the big rebranding exercise, Ali Harris Shere, VP, Marketing, Britannia Industries adds, “We just fixed things without them being broken and that is the best thing to do. When you are on a strong wicket and doing well, you have the confidence to take the change, you should make the change and that is what we have done. We, in Britannia, have to take a big leap so change was required. We are moving in the right direction and we have taken very good care that we don’t alienate our existing consumers and we keep those connections that we have with them.”
A new beginning?
Backed with strong numbers and a diversified consumer taste, the company is also focusing on becoming a total foods company. To make it happen, the leadership is carefully evaluating new product line ups and looking to leverage opportunities that exist in the rapidly growing branded foods category.
“It is about making sure that you play in a lot more categories and that is the objective. We were very focused, we have played in biscuits and it has become very large and robust as a business today. We have been able to create competitive advantage, so we have got a shield around us. Now can we start to look at other categories and can we start to build a business which is a macro snacking business rather than just a biscuit or a bakery business. We are not really looking at going to centre of plate, we are not looking at lunch and dinner, but we are looking at macro snacks which is everything that you snack on during the day,” explains Berry.
Value Vs volume: A tough competition
If we look at the numbers, Britannia continues to grow at a steady rate. Britannia Industries net profit for the quarter ended 31 March was Rs 263 crore compared with Rs 211 crore in the year-ago quarter, an increase of 25 per cent. While the growth numbers are in its favour, experts believe that the brand can grow even faster if it moves beyond the value war to focus on the volume game too.
Harish Bijoor, brand expert and founder, Harish Bijoor Consults says that while Britannia won the value wars it focused less on the space of volume and thus is facing tough competition from rival brands. “The Britannia journey has been a journey of good distribution for a long many decades. In the early days, in a nation where biscuit manufacturing was considered a local enterprise, the one who had the better distribution won. That was the early story of Britannia’s success. In the1990s and the years of the 2000 series thereafter, in came a focus on brand marketing. It is here that Britannia won the value wars, creating a whole pack of value-added offerings that took the story of premium biscuits further,” says Bijoor.
“In the bargain, Britannia focussed less on the space of volume and more on the space of value-added offerings. The market today has gotten carved into two spaces. One is the volume space where Parle biscuits rule. The other is the value-added space where Britannia leads, only to be met by competition from both an ITC Foods at one end, and a revamped and newly invigorated Parle Platina at the other end,” he adds.
Richard Rothman, author and MD of Open Mind Consultancy, says that Britannia needs to leverage new opportunities to continue its market dominance. “I would say the company needs to focus on investments in products and markets where it has “the right to win,” and not gamble on suicide attacks against much larger and well entrenched brands. The key to continued success will be the ability to relentlessly focus its resources on the very best opportunities.”
While staying not out at 100 may be a feat in itself, however, the growing competition in the space can only be tackled if the reinvention leads to another winning innings, and looking at Britannia’s track record, it should.


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IoT Technology will dominate the Bluetooth market in the Future
The overarching features of Bluetooth are ushering IoT manufacturers to integrate IoT devices with Bluetooth technology. Adding Radio Direction Finding(RDF) and Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) technologies quadrupled Bluetooth’s ability…
How IOT helps to enhance Enterprises Work Space Security
Robust IoT authentication process, stringent firmware update policy, Streamlined IoT network, limited IoT platform access, and regular IoT device monitoring are few of the guaranteed practice that helps to enhance…
These aspects of your life will soon be permeated (and changed forever) by IoT
The Internet of Things or IoT is a lofty technology that connects devices and appliances to the global internet network so that they become a part of a ‘smart’ web…
- Why the Apache Lucene and Solr "divorce" is better for developers and usersCommentary: A decade ago Apache Lucene and Apache Solr merged to improve both projects. The projects recently split for the same reason, which is a really good thing for users of search services.
- Microsoft announces new Azure AI capabilities for apps, healthcare, and moreThe latest announcements will help companies enhance their voice-enabled application experiences and provide critical data management across healthcare industries.
- Open source success has everything to do with innovation, not vendor lock-in concernsCommentary: A new survey suggests many get it wrong when they assume companies choose open source to avoid lock-in.
According to Statista, the market revenue from collaboration software is going to be more than $13.58 billion by 20… https://t.co/aJPONDdDHcFollow
According to a study, the overall global automation testing market size is expected to grow from $12.6 billion in 2… https://t.co/YLPg3cneEVFollow


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SEVERAL of the world's largest advertising agencies, apparently believing that they are not large enough, are contemplating joining forces to negotiate for and buy time and space from broadcasters and publishers. Europe is their current interest, but the United States may not be far behind.
Last week, the Omnicom Group, the second-largest ad agency holding company, and Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide, the fourth largest, confirmed widespread industry rumors that they were holding discussions about consolidated media buying. (J. Walter Thompson was part of these talks but dropped out.) Young & Rubicam and Foote, Cone & Belding are also considering a joint European media buying unit, which could supplement a media buying firm Y.& R. is beginning in the Netherlands next month with Ogilvy, Thompson, Leo Burnett and two others. These and other combinations would follow the move to consolidate all of Saatchi & Saatchi's various media buying operations in Britain.
More combinations will undoubtedly ensue. ''Everybody is talking to everybody,'' said Michael Drexler, the executive vice president for media at Bozell, Jacobs, Kenyon & Eckhardt, which is also exploring joining a European buying network.
The immediate cause of this frenzied activity is the planned unification of the 12-nation European Community in 1992, which will eliminate national trade and tariff restrictions and allow goods and services to flow freely across borders to 320 million people, a market a third larger than the United States'.
Increasingly, this ''United States of Europe'' will be served by broadcasters whose reach extends beyond national boundaries. (The first pan-European soap opera is scheduled to begin airing next year.) Already, the growth in European television has been explosive. While there were only 38 television channels in all of Western Europe in 1982, today there are 93, and two years from now there will be 110, according to a report by Young & Rubicam.
European advertising, once tightly restricted by individual governments, has been keeping pace. Television ad spending, which was less than $6 billion in 1986, was $8.3 billion last year and is expected to grow to almost $13 billion in 1990, according to a study by Saatchi & Saatchi.
In Europe, unlike the United States, advertisers and their agencies have for several years been able to receive significant discounts by purchasing print space, and lately broadcast time, in bulk. Independent media buying services in France were the first to take advantage of volume buying. In defense, the established ad agencies began to form buying pools on a country-by-country basis. The contemplated pan-European buying units, like the one Ogilvy and Omnicom are discussing, are a natural evolution of this recent convention.
But the underlying reason the large agencies are examining media-buying combines is fear.
One worry is Saatchi & Saatchi and its ability to control the European -if not the global - media market by collecting its separate media buying operations into a single unit. While Europe is the current focus of the Saatchis' interest, Allen Banks, executive vice president and media director of Saatchi & Saatchi DFS Compton, confirmed that the agency is having ''informal, conceptual discussions'' about combining its media buying functions in the United States as well.


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Mumbai:Titan Company expects sales will
increase by more than 10% this year, following Indian government measures that
aim to create a more mature economy.
Mumbai: Maharashtra Chief Minister Shri
Devendra Fadnavis graced the 43rd India Gem & Jewellery Awards (IGJA 2016)
hosted recently by Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) and
powered by GIA to recognise and reward star performers of the Indian gem and
Antwerp: Belgium’s exports of polished
diamonds were almost flat in March, boosted by a significant rise in shipments
to India, according to data published by the Antwerp World Diamond Centre
New York: The Gemological Institute of
America (GIA) is piloting a free gemology guide for artisanal miners in
Firestone Diamonds has recovered a 110
carat gem-quality light yellow diamond, during the ramp up phase at its
Liqhobong Diamond Mine in Lesotho.
New York: Signet Jewelers is working with
the Diamond Producers Association (DPA) and product-testing firm UL on an
initiative to establish quality criteria for equipment that detects synthetics,
the jeweler said, as reported in Rapaport.
Antwerp: Paola De
Luca, widely recognized as the world's leading expert on jewellery design
and jewellery trends, will be conducting a seminar for participants at the
premiere edition of the CARAT+ diamond and diamond jewellery show in Antwerp on
Moscow: Back in September 2016, ALROSA
announced a partnership with Indian company KGK Diamonds Private Ltd, a global
leader in diamond cutting, to develop cutting and polishing facilities in
Eurasian Diamond Centre in Vladivostok. The agreement entailed ALROSA assisting
KGK in the creation of a diamond cutting company on the territory of the
Diamond Centre in the Far East, supplying rough diamonds to the company taking
into account the existing long-term obligations to other buyers.
Mumbai: India’s exports of gems and
jewellery grew 9.5 per cent to about $29 billion during April-January 2016-17,
driven largely by demand in India's major markets like the US.
Bangkok: Thai government agencies and
Presidents from gems and jewelry associations across ASEAN joined the Thai Gem
and Jewelry Traders Association (TGJTA) to promote the inaugural Thailand Gems
& Jewelry Fair, which will be held from June 15 to 18, 2017 at IMPACT
Challenger 2, Muang Thong Thani, Bangkok, Thailand.
Showing 1051 to 1060 of 1688 (169 Pages)


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This is the greatest gift in the world, to give a gift to the kids, to give them the gift of freedom.
Bohemia, NY (PRWEB) May 21, 2013
On May 21, city bike designer, Linus Bike, praises the Rock Hill Bicycle Club for promoting safe cycling guidelines for Richmond Drive Elementary School fifth-graders.
According to an article on Herald Online, Jamie Burton, advocacy director for the Rock Hill Bicycle Club worked with groups of Richmond Drive Elementary School fifth-graders on how to ride bicycles correctly and safely.
The students were taught on mountain bikes where they learned how to control the bikes and how to safely give hand signals to passing cyclists and motorists.
The outing was a part of an effort by school officials to get students outside and be active as a way to “combat childhood obesity.”
Burton told Herald Online, “This is the greatest gift in the world, to give a gift to the kids, to give them the gift of freedom.”
She went on to say that the day’s lessons “give kids confidence and teach them responsibility – that their actions affect the persons behind them.”
Jason Latty, a representative of Linus Bike, a city bike designer, believes childhood education on cycling safety is a great way to keep the activity safe. “It is an amazing initiative by the school district to get these kids outside and active while teaching them important lessons that will keep them safe when riding their bikes. This increased awareness is something they can pass on to other cyclists. I hope this initiative by the district will inspire both surrounding districts and schools across the nation to get involved with promoting safe cycling.”
Linus Bike is a California-based bicycle manufacturer that specializes in creating vintage style city bikes and commuter bikes. Not simply a bicycle company, Linus Bike sells a complete line of accessories for the environmentally conscious and for those who have a fondness for European style bicycles and the great tradition of European cycling.


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Garmont International, a leading mountain and outdoor footwear brand based in the Veneto region of Italy, has appointed Andrea Nalesso as new CEO: with numerous years of experience in the outdoor and sports industries, Nalesso takes over from Pierangelo Bressan, who remains chairman of the board as well as a GARMONT shareholder.
Hashtag: #GarmontBoots #GetOutside
Vedelago (TV), 10th November 2023 – Riello Investimenti SGR, majority shareholder through its Italian Strategy fund, together with the minority shareholders have identified Andrea Nalesso as the ideal figure to lead Garmont International on the development path mapped out for the coming years, convinced that his experience in the outdoor and active industries will prove invaluable in the challenges that await the company in the coming seasons.
Andrea Nalesso’s career path is devoted to two sectors that find in Garmont the ideal match: the outdoor and footwear markets. In fact, following several years as sales director in GEOX and Dainese, Nalesso was general manager of several equipment and footwear brands in the Oberalp group, returning to Dainese before his arrival in Garmont.
“This is an exciting opportunity. Garmont is a historic brand that knows how to combine innovation and tradition: it is internationally renowned for its quality footwear in the outdoor market. – commented Andrea Nalesso, new CEO of Garmont international – I am proud to lead a company with so much heritage and am pleased to place my experience in the footwear and outdoor industries at Garmont’s service to achieve important goals.”
In line with the development plans of the past few years, Pierangelo Bressan, who had taken over the reins of the company in 2014 to lead the brand’s relaunch, remains as President of the Board of Directors as well as shareholder in the company, ensuring continuity and consistency in the growth plans.
“Since entering the share capital of Garmont at the beginning of 2021,” commented Nicola Riello, Garmont’s majority shareholder through the Italian Strategy fund, “the company’s potential was very clear to us, as well as the need, shared also by our minority shareholder Pierangelo Bressan, for a gradual succession plan aimed
at identifying the best successor for the new phase of business development. With his strong professional background, we have found the ideal candidate in Andrea and are confident that he can take up the baton from Pierangelo and lead the company towards its new goals.
I would like to thank Pierangelo Bressan for his enlightened guidance from 2014 to today; thanks to his dedication and entrepreneurial expertise Garmont was relaunched, returning to the top of the outdoor market.”
Pierangelo Bressan, President of Garmont International, added, “The last few years have been very important for Garmont, a historic and prestigious brand that, with commitment and satisfaction, we were able to relaunch. I was in agreement from the outset with the new shareholders on the strategic plan for a new direction in the interest of growth and strengthening also our international presence. The arrival of Andrea Nalesso is part of this broader project. I am certain that his contribution will enable Garmont to realize its development plans, continuing to focus on the quality, reliability and innovation that have always distinguished it on the market.”
Among the innovative initiatives that Garmont has undertaken in recent seasons and that Andrea Nalesso is called to continue, is the development of footwear with a strong sustainable footprint, a choice that is as important as it is articulated, in a sector where production has a significant environmental impact. From a commercial point of view, the new CEO will continue on the path of internationalization, opening new markets and expanding the existing distribution base, with an omnichannel focus.
For more information: https://it.garmont.com
ProgressPlay brings forward the future of casino management with revolutionary AI
Once again, casino and sports platform provider ProgressPlay are ahead of their time with a new wave of technology innovation that has helped the company to attend major shows during 2023 with soaring confidence based on pioneering proprietary technological advances that have featured strongly in annual awards shows.
The company’s future-centred thinking and ambitious AI product development attracted a raft of operators and partners attending last week’s SiGMA Europe in Malta. A raft of casino operators during the show had the opportunity to see firsthand ProgressPlay’s new tech which offers a comprehensive gaming management solution across multiple channels and products.
ProgressPlay’s enhanced iGaming platform provides operators with a powerful real-time AI-driven proprietary flow tool for optimising the performance of an online casino in a dynamic data ecosystem. Real-time player interaction provides compliance teams with the information to manage and interact with players.
Last year, ProgressPlay undertook an ambitious reframe of their technology with new proprietary Responsible Gambling automation and tools at its heart. ProgressPlay’s new platform manages player accounts, payments, bonuses, loyalty programs, fraud prevention and games, using robust tools and analytics.
ProgressPlay Sales Manager Marina Nahhas said: “ProgressPlay’s innovative Responsible Gambling software covers topics like KYC, player activity, affordability levels, and a transparent audit trail. These topics resonate heavily with operators and we were delighted with the level of engagement around this revenue-critical activity during the week we spent in Malta.”
ProgressPlay’s combo sportsbook and comprehensive turnkey solution, including casino platform, player management, payments module, and affiliate software are designed to boost operators seeking to effectively drive both revenue and efficiency with the latest cutting-edge technology.
Over 150 online casino brands have partnered with ProgressPlay covering a unique combination of casino games and sports-betting. ProgressPlay’s sportsbook offers up to 40,000 live betting markets and services across 20 languages while the latest platform offers a slick AI-driven UI/UX, and extensive value-added services alongside thousands of casino games, including slots, online casino, live casino, poker, table games, and sportsbook, across all devices and currencies.
ProgressPlay CEO Itai Loewenstein said: “Commercial agreements are being driven by our breakthrough technology that enables deployment of our AI tools for greater efficiency and revenue-generation. SiGMA Europe has been the last stop in a busy year and we believe that since we first launched our new technology in London at the beginning of the year our sophisticated Responsible Gambling tool has quickly moved beyond the early-adopter stage.”
SiGMA Europe 2023 in Malta: Slotegrator shares key insights
Every year, SiGMA Europe gathers iGaming professionals together to connect, share insights, and sum up the year. This year, the event was visited by over 20,000 participants from over 100 countries. The Slotegrator team found the trip to be truly inspirational and is ready to share its insights.
SiGMA Europe was the best place to summarize the results of 2023. For Slotegrator, this year was dedicated to researching customers’ requirements and desires, players’ interests, and industry tendencies. Throughout the year, Slotegrator visited events in four huge iGaming markets – Africa, Asia, LatAm and Europe – to get a clear picture of what those markets are like.
At each of these events, the team gathered firsthand knowledge on how to improve Slotegrator’s flagship products and provide even better service to the company’s clients.
At SiGMA Europe 2023 in Malta, the Slotegrator team presented new features of its turnkey online casino platform and the phenomenal mobile solution – Telegram Casino – which was first presented by Slotegrator in 2017 and updated in 2022.
Slotegrator’s top managers also had plenty of meetings with partners about the company’s APIgrator solution – a unique solution for the fast and seamless integration of online casino games into gambling platforms. The solution incorporates more than 15,000 various slots, card games, live dealer games, and virtual sports from 100 world’s leading developers. In 2024, Slotegrator will present to the market plenty of new partnerships with providers from different parts of the world.
“SiGMA Europe 2023 was a great event for our team, as usual. To gather in such a great place to meet partners, to summarize preliminary results of the year, to outline plans for the future – it was the right decision,” says Yana Khaidukova, Managing Director at Slotegrator.
Slotegrator mentions that the composition of the iGaming world is changing: new companies have already appeared and will continue to appear not only for occuping a part of the existing market, but they form new niches, as they come with new spectacular offers and solutions. It is the reason why the competition increases many times, and it gives the industry new directions of development.
As for providers, their number is increasing very rapidly. Small companies are growing into large ones, which shows the success of their solutions, and new companies come with fresh ideas, games and experience that players like.
One trend that is only going to increase is the interest in crash games. Prominent studios are introducing new examples of fresh crash games. Leaders, who are already successful in this niche, such as Aviatrix, continue to modify their crash game and expand it into new markets and continue to win the hearts of new players by providing them with an amazing gaming experience.
According to the Slotegrator’s observations, many Asian companies took part in SiGMA Europe 2023, which suggests that the Asian vector will be very popular next year.
Here are some additional key insights from SiGMA Europe that the company will carry into next year:
- Responsible Gaming is growing more and more important to players, operators, and regulators.
- It’s essential to embrace innovation. New technologies can let operators offer players more choices and solve problems faster and more effectively.
- Operators need to keep increasing their security and anti-fraud measures. Scammers are always on the lookout for new ways to defraud casinos, so operators need to try and stay a few steps ahead of them.
- Players want to be a part of a community. Platform operators should create a welcoming atmosphere by offering features like multiplayer chats where players can connect with each other.
- It’s essential that online casinos show loyal players their appreciation. Better bonuses can keep players coming back, as well as referral programs where players earn rewards for bringing in new leads.
- Cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and blockchain tech in general are here to stay. Finding ways to integrate them can help you offer your players a better, more modern experience.
- Player behavior should be constantly analyzed in order to identify trends and enhance player retention strategies.
As for the last point, Slotegrator is set to release internal reports on the state of the industry that provide an analysis of player behavior and predictions for the development of the industry in 2024. To be one of the first to receive the reports, subscribe to Slotegrator’s social media channel here.
Since 2012, Slotegrator has been one of the iGaming industry’s leading software and business solution providers for online casino and sportsbook operators.
The company’s main focus is software development and support for online casino platforms, as well as the integration of game content and payment systems.
The company works with licensed game developers and offers a vast portfolio of casino content: slots, live casino games, poker, virtual sports, table games, lotteries, casual games, and data feeds for betting.
Slotegrator also provides consulting services in gambling license acquisition and business incorporation.
More information: https://slotegrator.pro/
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Lincoln is doubling its ad budget this year and launching a campaign directed at rejuvenating its brand image among the nation's young (ok, younger). Whether or not Lincoln can pull off such a stove-pipe-hat trick, especially when it doesn't have the models — other than its, er, trucks — to do so is beyond us. The campaign already ditched the Town Car in the ads in favor of the new Zephyr, its relative youth-oriented hopeful. Still, the company doesn't seem to have haven't picked a theme song yet (like Cadillac's "Rock and Roll"). We're thinking maybe something off of The Smiths' "Meat is Murder" could help do the impossible by causing total confusion. Couldn't hurt.
The Ghosts of Lincoln Town Car Future [internal]


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In the last one month, many people have asked me a simple question: “But what about bitcoins?”
Between 2013 and now, the price of a single bitcoin has gone from close to zero to more than $19,000. In fact, in 2017, the price of a bitcoin has gone from less than $1,000 to more than $19,000.
This astonishing price rise has been noticed by people. But before we go any further, let’s understand what is a bitcoin? It’s a digital currency that does not use banks or any third party as a medium. It is governed by a string of cryptographical codes that are not easy to break, as they are believed to be of military grade.
The law of demand basically states that demand for something tends to pick up when the prices are low. But this basic law in economics does not tend to apply to various forms of investments. This includes, stocks, real estate etc. A large bunch of people start entering the stock market only once it has rallied significantly. The same is true about real estate.
Along similar lines, the bitcoin has caught the attention of people at large, only after having risen significantly in price. This is a point well worth remembering.
In late 2008, when the investment bank Lehman Brothers went bust, the Western world plunged into a serious recession. In order to come out of this, the Western central banks led by the Federal Reserve of the United States, the American central bank, decided to print a huge amount of money and pump it into the financial system.
The idea was to increase the supply of money and make it less costly, that is, drive down interest rates. At lower interest rates, people and corporations were more likely to borrow and spend money, and this in turn would help businesses and the overall economy.
At the same time, this power to create unlimited amount of money out of thin air created a fear that if central banks continued with this strategy, sometime in the future paper money would lose the ‘perceived value’ it had.
There was a fear that with such a huge amount of money being printed, it would unleash consumer price inflation, and money would lose value. While, that hasn’t happened, all the money has led to huge asset price inflation, stock markets and real estate markets have risen across the world, as a large chunk of the printed money has found its way into these markets.
Bitcoin was a response to this phenomenon given that unlike paper money it cannot be created out of thin air. The number of bitcoins is finite and it cannot go beyond a limit of 21 million. Hence, people initially bought into it. But, over the last year or two, at least, the people entering it are largely speculators looking to make a quick buck and that has driven up the price as fast as it has.
The trouble is the history of money essentially shows that, even though, all new forms of money are created by the private sector, they are ultimately taken over by the government. The government basically has three powers: 1) The right to “legal” violence. 2) The right to tax. 3) The right to create money out of thin air by printing it.
And this right to create money out of thin air comes from the basic fact that the people accept government money as money, in the economic transactions that they carry out. In the years to come, if economic transactions, that is the buying and selling of things, move towards bitcoins, the governments all over the world are not going to like it.
No government likes any competition against the pieces of paper that it deems to be money. And given this, the governments all over the world will want to crackdown on bitcoins sooner rather than later. What the believers in bitcoins like to say to this is that the virtual currency has been built with this eventuality in mind. How this plays out, only time will tell.
The column originally appeared in the Bangalore Mirror on December 21, 2017.


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Goulet Motosport’s Hawkesbury Bike Fest can’t help but be a hot topic.
Last year, for its 3rd edition, Bike Fest entertained over 20,000 people.
This year is a rather special case because the fourth edition of Bike Fest isn’t even upon us and for weeks, people have been discussing it.
It all started when, a few months back, news of Bike Fest’s cancellation for 2018 exploded in the local news and on social media.
According to Yves Charlebois, Goulet Motosport Sales Rep and one of Bike Fest’s organizers, the 2017 edition (despite being a resounding success) only managed to break even, financially.
“To be clear, the goal of Bike Fest isn’t to make money… but losing money can’t be an option either,” said Charlebois.
“If Goulet Motosport invests tens of thousands of dollars in the event and we end up losing it because of rain, that’s all folks.”
To prevent this, Bike Fest organizers tried to obtain financing through grants. Sadly, the solicited government entity declined, stating “too many applicants” as the reason for their refusal.
Jump starting the 4th edition
News of Bike Fest’s cancellation spread like wildfire.
According to Charlebois, feedback was so intense that organizers couldn’t help but give the whole thing another go.
“We gave ourselves two weeks to find a bunch of local sponsors. What really helped us gain momentum is the Town of Hawkesbury’s contribution. They offered to pay for our emergency services, police and firefighters, during the event. It’s a huge help, since that amounts at roughly $10,000.”
In terms of local businesses, the event found itself a new, major sponsor with Caisse Populaire de Hawkesbury.
The COMZAC-BIA also joined the list of sponsors, alongside many anonymous donors. Indeed, Bike Fest’s reputation has grown so much in the past few years that a group of 100 bikers from Thunder Bay, recurring Bike Fest visitors, sent $2,000 to help this year’s edition.
More sponsors wanted
“We haven’t yet reached the full amount we need to produce the event, but we managed to gain enough support to kickstart the process,” said Charlebois.
Currently, Bike Fest organizers are running an aggressive recruitment and financing campaign with the hope of getting new sponsors and volunteers.
Charlebois stated that Bike Fest is open to giving new, major sponsors various perks.
Anyone interested is sponsoring the event or volunteering can contact Yves Charlebois at Goulet Motosport (613 632-3462 or [email protected]).
The 4th edition of Bike Fest will take place on August 30, 31 and September 1st, 2018. The festival grounds will surround Main Street between John and McGill. The event will feature games, music, shops, food and anything worthwhile related to the motorcycle culture.


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Despite a year of collaboration between HM Revenue & Customs, ICAEW,
standard setters BSI and the software industry, demand for the new standard has
Richard Anning, marketing director at business software giants Systems Union
said: ‘The main issue for us is where the demand is for the standard. We don’t
see much demand from customers or tax authorities; we’re adopting a wait and see
Other figures in the industry also questioned whether there would be interest in
the ‘publicly available specification’, known as PAS76.
A lack of interest among the providers would mirror a previous situation when
an attempt by HMRC to launch a VAT software accreditation failed.
An HMRCspokesman said: ‘Feedback from HMRCaudit staff and our national VAT
telephone advice service has, for some time, reported a demand from business for
HMRC to recommend tax safe VAT accounting packages.’
HMRC controversially launched its plans at industry event Softworld
Accounting and Finance, in March 2005.
Details of the scheme infuriated the ICAEW, who claimed that its own tax
software accreditation was adequate for software companies, and further
compliance would be a waste of money passed on to software companies’ clients.
IR35 employment status tax rules may result in workers losing part of their income, says professional body
Committee expresses concern about costs to businesses and April 2018 implementation date
Drastically fewer offices for HMRC in the hope to reduce their running costs
An 80% increase in additional revenue for HMRC coincides with a crackdown on income tax avoidance


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Apple iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro are currently available for pre-ordering in India from Apple India Online store and via Apple authorised retail stores. The deliveries for the same will start on October 30. The company is currently offering customers a Trade-In facility to exchange their old smartphone with a new iPhone 12.
Apart from this, Apple India official retailers like India iStore is also offering customers an additional cashback offer of up to Rs 6,000 on purchasing the device with a HDFC Bank credit/debit card. Apple retailers are also offering no-cost EMI options, and exchange offers via partners like Cashify and Servify.
Apple iPhone 12 64GB variant is priced at Rs 79,900, the 128GB variant is priced at Rs 84,900 and at Rs 94,900 for the 256GB variant. The iPhone 12 Pro is priced at Rs 1,19,900 for the 128GB storage variant, at Rs 1,29.900 for the 256GB variant and at Rs 1,49,900 for the 512GB storage variant. The company during this time is offering a discount of up to 22,000 on exchanging and an old iPhone.
Apple official retailers are offering up to Rs 6,000 cashback on purchasing the device using an HDFC Bank credit card and up to Rs 1,500 cashback on HDFC debit cards. Additionally, retailers are also offering customers no-cost EMI offers till up to 16 months. Comparatively Apple India Online Store is offering customers EMI options starting at Rs 9,404 per month.
Apple India Online store is also selling the AppleCare+ package along with the new iPhone 12 for Rs 16,900, which will extend the warranty to two years from the date of purchase.
Apple has stated that the iPhone 12 white and blue colour options will see a delayed shipment. The white colour option will start shipping on November 3 and the blue option will start shipping from November 6. If confused about what iPhone to purchase you can make use of the company’s Shopping Assistance options. There you can select the chat with the iPhone Specialist option to clear any of your doubts.
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In honor of National Small Business Week (May 1-7, 2022), the U.S. Chamber of Commerce calls on Congress to embrace free enterprise principles to emphasize what small business owners, founders, and entrepreneurs need from their government to grow and thrive.
America’s 32.5 million small businesses account for more than 99% of all U.S. companies and employ just under 47% of private-sector employees. In the last two years, entrepreneurship has risen at unprecedented levels, leading to the largest increase in new business applications in recorded history.
To sustain this trend, policymakers need to nurture small business growth. To that end, the U.S. Chamber introduced a Small Business Bill of Rights to summarize the basic rights of business owners in America—and set forth policies the U.S. Chamber supports.
This declaration presses elected leaders to provide an environment where small businesses can:
1. Hire and manage employees
The government should not unduly burden a small business’s ability to establish their own employment policies nor interfere with their ability to fairly compete for talent, including using independent contractors and part-time workers.
2. Establish the terms on which they do business
Small business owners should be free to manage the daily operations of their business, including establishing terms of service and entering into contracts without unnecessary government intervention.
3. Be protected against frivolous lawsuits
A small business has the right to operate without fear of profit-based litigation that uses the threat of lawsuits to extort payments.
4. Benefit from their business and direct its future
Small business owners should enjoy the return on the businesses they build and be free to determine the future of their business, including the ability to sell the business or leave it as an inheritance.
5. Operate free of onerous regulations
Small business owners have the right to be heard in the development of rules and regulations that affect their livelihoods, their employees, and their communities and for government to take into consideration the disproportionate impact regulations can have on small businesses.
Small business principles entrepreneurs can embrace
“These five principles summarize the basic rights of every small business owner in this country, and they should be embraced by every elected leader across our national, state, and local governments,” said U.S. Chamber Vice President of Small Business Policy Tom Sullivan.
“Small business owners have faced challenge after challenge with the spirit of entrepreneurship and grit that built our country. It’s more important now than ever, in the face of rising inflation and labor shortages, that our elected leaders keep small businesses top-of-mind when crafting legislation.”
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is the world’s largest business organization representing companies of all sizes across every sector of the economy. Our members range from the small businesses and local chambers of commerce that line the Main Streets of America to leading industry associations and large corporations. They all share one thing: They count on the U.S. Chamber to be their voice in Washington, across the country, and around the world. For more than 100 years, we have advocated for pro-business policies that help businesses create jobs and grow our economy.
© YFS Magazine. All Rights Reserved. Copying prohibited. All material is protected by U.S. and international copyright laws. Unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this material is prohibited. Sharing of this material under Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International terms, listed here, is permitted.


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The new Picanto initially will offer a choice of two gasoline engines used in the current generation and shared with the Hyundai i10. It is assembled on a new mechanical platform that also will be shared with a future i10.
Juan Lopez Frade, general manager of Suzuki Iberica, hopes to sell 1,000 units of the Ignis, which has just reached showrooms in the region, over the coming 12 months. The vehicle was unveiled at the 2016 Paris auto show.
Since Panasonic bought into FICOSA the companies have launched new products such as an electronic rearview mirror that works with cameras and have accelerated the development of modules used in connected and autonomous cars.
Sales mainly will be built on three CUV models: the refreshed ASX and gasoline and plug-in hybrid versions of the Outlander. Another CUV, the Eclipse Cross coupe, debuts at the upcoming Geneva auto show and comes to market late in the year.
Dealers in 2016 averaged 1.6% profitability on 2016 sales of €7 billion, a margin far from the desired 3% “that has already been reached by our colleagues in the U.S.,” says Jaime Roura, president of Spain’s Federation of Auto Dealers Assns.
Hyundai Spain General Manager Polo Satrustegui forecasts 55,000 sales and a 5.5% market share for 2017, but says deliveries and share could reach 58,000 and 8%, respectively, if the government renews a cash-for-clunkers subsidy program for at least the ninth time since 1994.
Nissan Spain executive Alan Johnson says NT500 production is being terminated because sales of the truck didn’t justify the investment required to upgrade its engines to meet European emissions standards.
Mazda Spain sees a flat result this year, estimating it will sell only about 18,500 units. CEO Jose Terol says that is because he expects the midyear launch of its best-selling CX-5 to curtail sales of the model it will replace.
The fifth-gen Ibiza is one of the first vehicles built upon VW Group’s MQB A0 platform, a shorter variant of the new, weight-saving MQB platform. Future VW Polos and a small CUV based on it also will use the MQB A0.
Nissan ranked eighth in sales and claimed a 5% share of the Spanish market in 2016. The automaker’s strength was in CUVs, where it held a 14% share of a segment that occupies nearly 25% of the overall market.
Alfa Romeo, Bentley, Buick, Lincoln, Maserati, Mini and Subaru win their first Wards 10 Best Interiors trophies, while Honda, Lexus and Mazda return to the winners’ circle. Thirty-one nominees were evaluated....More


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Publix Super Markets Inc. reportedly has a new concept cooking — one that may help the grocery chain muscle its way into the smaller-space retail arena.
Lakeland, Fla.-based Publix is said to be working on a new 20,000-square-foot prototype store that it could put into seaside communities and college towns, real estate sources told the Orlando Business Journal. Representatives from Publix were unavailable for immediate comment, but the move would follow a national real estate trend where retailers are shrinking from big boxes to footprints that fit better in urban communities.
A smaller store would also compete with niche grocers such as Trader Joe's.
Typical Publix grocery stores range from 40,000 to 60,000 square feet.
Publix began its march into the Charlotte market last year and has since opened five stores in the region, most recently in Matthews. The company has announced plans for 14 Publix locations in the Charlotte market, including a mix of new and remodeled sites.


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India’s largest online fashion retailer Myntra will become a mobile app-only shopping platform starting 15 May, confirming months of speculation about the company’s expected move.
Myntra and its parent Flipkart both shut their mobile websites in their first big move towards becoming mobile app-only shopping platforms.
According to Myntra, They generate more than 90% of its traffic and 70% of its orders from its mobile app.
“We believe fashion is a very personal experience. The best fashion experience, therefore, is a truly personalized and engaging one that is only possible through the device that is closest to you (mobile phone),” Myntra said in an email to customers on Saturday.
The moves by Myntra and Flipkart toward mobile app-only stores are intended to accelerate a consumer shift towards using smartphones as the preferred medium of shopping online, save costs and reduce dependence on the likes of Google Inc for luring new customers.
India shoppers have been the fastest adopters of mobile shopping; large mobile-only shops abroad are rare.
The number of mobile Internet users in India is expected to reach 213 million by June, according to a 2014 report by lobby group Internet and Mobile Association of India and market researcher IMRB International. Another report, a joint effort by Google and A.T. Kearney, predicts that by 2017, India will have 480 million mobile Internet users.
However, Myntra and Flipkart are taking a big risk by shutting their other platforms.
The online retailers are involved in an intense battle with Snapdeal and Amazon India for dominance of India’s e-commerce market and may not be in a position to lose out on any sales to these rivals, analysts said.
And even though Amazon and Snapdeal get a large part of their traffic from mobile, these firms aren’t shutting their other platforms.
Apart from competitive pressures, infrastructure issues that are entirely beyond Flipkart’s control may put at risk any potential efforts by the company and Myntra to become app-only.
Payment failure rates are significantly higher on the mobile because of inconsistencies in mobile Internet speed, which also hurts the user experience on the mobile. Then, there are questions about whether mobile operating systems on low-cost smartphones will be able to support apps such as Flipkart’s and others in a seamless manner.