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By Natalie Noble
Production issues around the globe and increasing trade tensions are building uncertainty within Western Canadian crop markets. Usually a question of supply and demand, this harvest’s prices face more determining factors than the average year as crops come off the combine.
Typically supply, in terms of crop acreage and yield, is the bigger swing factor in pricing predictions, where demand tends to fluctuate much less. Today is not so typical.
“Since winter there’s been more than usual uncertainty on the demand side with the trade war between the U.S. and China, our own problems with China and our canola and in India with peas,” says Jonathon Driedger, senior market analyst for FarmLink Marketing Solutions.
However, FarmLead CEO Brennan Turner says demand for canola outside of China, and the demand for high protein wheat, malting and feed barley has been looking more positive. “Relative to Agriculture Canada’s estimates, I think they’re low,” he says.
Here’s how Driedger and Turner weighed in on crop pricing expectations for this fall, and beyond.
By the Crop
The price outlook on canola is causing concern for a couple of reasons. Despite expectations for a smaller harvest this year, problems with exports to China left a lot of old crop available. In addition, the global soybean market is expected to remain well-supplied.
“Even if there are weather issues in the U.S., South America had a big soybean crop,” says Driedger. “As long as relations with China remain murky and supply of soybeans stays strong, there’ll be concerns with canola. I’m a bit guarded to the downside with canola.”
However, dry conditions across Saskatchewan likely mean a below average canola yield this fall, and Turner says this could open opportunity for farmers later in the year.
“I think we might have a surprisingly low canola production year come September and that could catapult October and November highs for a more aggressive two-to-three-month rally,” he says. “We should be first filling our contracts and then probably not make another sale until maybe early November.”
While Canadian wheat prices will likely be similar to those of last year’s harvest, lower than expected production in key exporting countries like Russia and Australia could mean even better prospects.
“The drought issues in Australia are ongoing, so the result is opportunity for Canadian wheat that Australia would usually own, especially in the Southeast Asian markets or even into Australia themselves,” says Turner.
Feed barley is also expected to remain reasonably supported as demand looks to remain strong both domestically and internationally into winter.
“The outlook for corn is stronger than last year and that helps lift grains overall in general. I think we’ll have a reasonably tight feed grain market in Western Canada,” says Driedger.
For malting barley, little difference from the last several years is expected.
“It seems like forever we’ve traded in a sideways range with malting barley and that outlook seems to be similar. The crop will be larger, so that’s not great for prices,” says Driedger. “Harvest quality will come into play, but demand is steady enough and I think we can expect a relatively flat outlook for malt barley.”
Turner adds there were record barley and wheat exports as the 2018-19 season wrapped in July. “With that in mind, it should carry on at least into the start of the 2019-20 crop year and probably throughout it.”
Like canola, pulse prices are also a big question mark this year. Canada’s two biggest customers are China, a multi-faceted political hot potato, and India, complete with trade barriers, tariffs and unstable import policies making uncertainty a believable certainty. While China continues to buy a lot of Canadian peas, a positive for the time being, ultimately it is India’s market that decides where prices go.
Turner says pulse pricing will be a function of what happens in India for the monsoon season. “They’re starting to get more heavy rains and if there are production concerns in India for their pulse crop, they’ll probably relax some of those import tariff issues or lessen the degree of the severity of those tariffs.”
That could mean an improved outlook further into 2020 as demand there and in other countries increases. It could also open the door for red lentils in the longer term.
“This may not show up quite yet at harvest, but over time some of that demand may build in some of these importing countries so Canada can come to the global market in a bigger way,” says Driedger.
His outlook for pulse pricing is relatively flat in the shorter term, but supportive in the longer term.
A Global Game
With so much of Canada’s crop production destined for export, world demand is a key player in the marketing game. Meanwhile trade politics are increasing uncertainty in varied and plentiful ways. For the longer-term perspective, analysts are looking at how the overall trade environment is going to evolve.
“Canola, Canada, China, Huawei and Trump; this is the headline stuff, but underneath it all we have an environment that is just less pro-trade than it has been,” says Driedger. “I view it as a structural concern that adds greater uncertainty. It’s hard to quantify how it might play out. We’re certainly watching this with great interest.”
Developing markets overseas also affect Canada’s harvest-time prices.
“The Black Sea has become more of a player in terms of lentils and pea production,” says Turner. “Their harvests tend to come off a little earlier than here in Western Canada, and this is another reason why around harvest time, we’re expecting prices that aren’t necessarily as attractive.”
While there have been years with good pulse prices at harvest, it happens rarely and is usually caused by a demand rush or production issues.
“Producers should grab those dollars if they see that upswing,” says Turner. “But for the most part, the September timeframe should be more about filling contracts than contracting for the first time.”
Production issues around the globe can also open doors for Canada’s ag industry. Unable to satisfy their own domestic demand this year, Australia has had to import Canadian wheat and canola.
“Because Canada and Australia tend to compete in a lot of different areas, but mainly barley, wheat and canola, I think there’s a healthy opportunity for those three crops considering that Australia is likely to remain in a drought for this third straight year,” says Turner. “The one area I’m probably most excited for is our wheat production.”
Even in challenging markets, opportunity is there for the taking for the prepared and proactive. One solution is to avoid typical seasonal lows through contracting. At harvest time markets are typically so well-supplied, prices tend to decline in early fall.
“The first dynamic is that you shouldn’t really be selling off the combine. You should be filling contracts,” says Turner. “There’s always a doubt around not being able to sell something until it’s actually produced, but when was the last time you didn’t produce at least 20 per cent of what you expected? Contracting even 20 per cent of expected production and capturing that higher premium available around May and June is what people should be looking to do. If you don’t, you’re bound to be locking in prices well below those values because of supply coming into the market in late August and September.”
Good marketing plans and risk-management approaches can also help farmers find opportunity through market volatility.
“When markets do pop higher, farmers can create good selling, risk management and hedging opportunities even in a generally lacklustre price environment,” says Driedger. “Over the course of a year, you’re going to see decent selling opportunities at different times for the different crops on the farm. It requires discipline, attentiveness and a good farm plan, but opportunities do pop up.”


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Asos Chief Nick Beighton’s Exit: Why ‘Fresh Eyes’ Proves a CEO Successor’s Most Challenging Dilemma
Following Nick Beighton stepping down as CEO of Asos, Doug Baird, founder and Chief Executive of New Street Consulting Group, looks at the challenge for CEO successors keen to take fresh eyes to a new role.
The so-called ‘successor’s dilemma’ is a well-debated, and still highly intriguing, subject. A great deal surrounding this dilemma has contemplated the search for new CEOs, preparing them to take the leadership reigns and how the relationship develops between the incoming leader and the incumbent.
Many factors of the successor dilemma are now facing the Asos board and as the business transitions to a new CEO, the board will still need to consider the careful management of this process and the role of Asos’ interim leader. This must be achieved alongside other senior-level changes – the company’s chair is due to depart in the near future.
The key, of course, is to find the required experience, skills, aptitude, values and cultural fit of a CEO successor. Although there’s a lot for the Asos board to contemplate, in this instance, none of it is necessarily the most challenging or fascinating aspect of the successor dilemma – that belongs to the choices the new CEO will have to make between the old and the new.
A fresh pair of eyes
As reported in media, company statements from Asos, which accompanied Nick Beighton stepping down, alluded to it being time to ‘deliver the next phase of global growth’ and the need for a ‘fresh pair of eyes’ being needed for the business. This is against a backdrop of a share price that’s almost halved in value this year and profit warnings from the business. Asos profits are expected to be off by as much as 40% and ambitions are to grow sales from around £3.9 billion to £7 billion within four years.
Taking all of this into account, it would appear there’s not much of a dilemma for the CEO successor at Asos to consider between what’s gone before them and what’s needed for the future under their leadership. Surely, fresh eyes equal fresh thinking and fresh ways of doing things to take the business forward? This would be extremely short-sighted and is a case in point about the challenge of taking ‘fresh eyes’ to a new senior leadership role doesn’t necessarily have to mean doing something completely new or different.
Taking all of this into account, it would appear there’s not much of a dilemma for the CEO successor at Asos to consider between what’s gone before them and what’s needed for the future under their leadership.
A successful legacy
Much of the reported financial challenges surrounding Nick Beighton’s departure have deflected from his success at Asos. He was a lead part of a growth journey that during his 12 years with the business saw the company expand from a couple of hundred employees to over 3,000 and sales rise from circa £200 million per annum to almost £4 billion. Recently, Asos pre-tax profits for the year to the end of August 2021 climbed 25% to £177.1 million.
Whilst a new CEO would, undoubtedly, take notice of such stellar numbers and strong past performance, they could be blinkered by the board’s overwhelming ambition for growth. At the time of Nick Beighton’s departure, Asos’ chairman was quoted as saying that while significant progress had been made in recent years, there was “more to do to accelerate the pace and intensity of commercial execution”.
This level of bold ambition and pursuit of global growth can inadvertently encourage a new leader to resist going against popular opinion. The boardroom desire for fresh eyes risks becoming something of a logical fallacy, much like the emperor’s new clothes, and is often satisfied with a new CEO leaning towards flash new strategies and making sweeping changes.
In many cases when a new CEO joins a company on a fast and high growth journey, the most effective fresh eyes are those that can spot the best parts of existing leadership, management and operational practices, and find ways to fine-tune them. These incoming CEOs can expertly blend the old and the new in small, seamless steps to address challenges, while realising boardroom ambitions and without wholesale changes that risk being disruptive and counter-productive. They are successors who can strike a balance between managing the powerful shareholder desire for change and the practicalities for achieving success.

domain: news


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A meeting of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council with participation of the Heads of Government of the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union and the Chairman of the Board of the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) Tigran Sargsyan will take place in Moscow today.
According to the EEC, council members will consider development of the integration association, international cooperation, implementation of the digital agenda of the union, and interaction of countries in industrial and agricultural sectors.
Prime Ministers, Chairman of the EEC Board Tigran Sargsyan and the Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic will sign a free trade agreement between the EAEU and Serbia.
It is planned to sign the following international agreements at the meeting of the Intergovernmental Council:
— About features of operations with precious metals and precious stones within the EAEU;
— On measures aimed at unifying the selection and breeding work with farm animals within the framework of the union.
«The heads of government of the EAEU countries will consider a statement on the occasion of the entry into force of an agreement on trade and economic cooperation between the EAEU and China. It was signed on May 17, 2018 in Astana (Kazakhstan),» said the EEC.
It is expected that a number of decisions will be made in the field of digitalization of the economies of the EAEU countries and in the jewelry industry.
In particular, the procedure for interaction between the centers of competence of the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union and the Eurasian Economic Commission within the framework of the implementation of the digital agenda of the Union was approved. Members of the Intergovernmental Council will be presented with an action plan on promotion of jewelry products of the EAEU countries on the markets of third countries.
The meeting will be attended by the Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan Mukhammedkaly Abylgaziev. He left for Moscow the day before.


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NEW YORK (MainStreet) — If you’ve resolved to lose weight or get healthier this year, you’re not alone. According to a 2013 Outlook Survey organized by TD Ameritrade, 42% of Americans made health-related resolutions this year.
If you’re asking yourself how you’re going to lose weight and still maintain your budget, our budget experts say if you’re careful, eating a healthy diet is no more expensive than picking up that value lunch at your local fast food joint.
Here are 10 of their tips for losing weight while still maintaining a fat wallet:
1. Make monthly resolutions. “When a resolution is fresh in our minds, we tend to approach it with more vigor and commitment,” says Jeanette Pavini, a savings expert with Coupons.com. “So instead of thinking about the whole year, break it down by month.” That just doesn’t mean your weight goal resolutions, either. Pavini suggests shaking up the routine. For example, if your goal is saving money while losing weight, resolve to get into a habit of clipping coupons in January. In February, resolve to brown bag your lunch instead of eating out. Keep making those resolutions to form new habits throughout the year.
2. Ditch the gym. You don’t need a pricey gym club membership or a personal trainer to get healthy, says Dan Giuglianotti, a physician and certified health fitness specialist at the American College of Sports Medicine. Giuglianotti advises, “Try to get 30 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise at least five days per week while watching what you eat and your clothes will start fitting better.”


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TOKYO (AP) — Japanese electronics makers Panasonic Corp. and Sharp Corp. both stuck to full year forecasts for massive losses even as results for the latest quarter got a boost from the weaker yen.
The two Osaka-based companies are among the Japanese electronics makers battered by price plunges in gadgets and hot competition from more successful rivals such as Apple Inc. and South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co.
Panasonic reported a 61.4 billion yen ($667 million) profit for the October-December period Friday. It had a loss of 698 billion yen in the previous quarter and a loss of 197.6 billion yen a year earlier. Quarterly sales slipped 8 percent to 1.8 trillion yen ($19.6 billion).
The company, which makes Viera TVs and Lumix digital cameras, said global demand weakened for flat panel TVs and digital products and devices while sales grew in LED lighting and auto-related equipment.
Sharp, which makes Aquos TVs and solar panels, reported a smaller flow of red ink for October through December. Its quarterly net loss shrank to 36.7 billion yen ($399 million) from 173.6 billion yen a year earlier.
It posted an operating profit for the period, the first time in five quarters, thanks to a recovery in liquid-crystal panel TVs and devices for smartphones. The operating result excludes one-time gains and losses to provide a clearer picture of financial performance.
Key to its improving fortunes was a return to the black in flat-panel TV operations, which had lost money for a year until the latest quarter. Sharp is promising to return to profit for the fiscal year through March 2014.
Sharp's quarterly sales rose 15 percent to 678.2 billion yen ($7.4 billion).
But both companies left unchanged their dismal forecasts for massive losses for the fiscal year through March.
Continue reading this story on the...


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Action Fraud warning over fraudulent website
We have been made aware of a fraudulent website using our name.
Members of the public who are searching for the official website (for example on search engines) may be directed to the following website: https://www.actionfraudsolicitors.co.uk/
Visitors to the site, which is purporting to be a legal firm, may then be asked to supply personal or financial information. This website is not legitimate, is in no way connected to Action Fraud and our Cyber Prevention and Disruptions team are working to get it shut down.
- Under no circumstances will Action Fraud request for you to make a payment to report or use our services.
- If something feels wrong then it is usually right to question it. Websites may appear trustworthy, but it is important to verify through a trusted source.
- If you have been a victim of fraud or suspect a company of fraud please contact Action Fraud via the only website that is legitimate https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/
If you have been a victim of fraud or suspect a company of fraud please contact Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040 or via the online reporting tool.
ActionFraud is the UK’s national fraud and cyber crime reporting centre.
We provide a central point of contact for information about fraud and cyber crime.
The easiest way to report fraud and cyber crime is by using our online reporting tool.Report
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Entries in 'financial report' (23)
Ubisoft has announced fourth quarter and full year financial results for its fiscal calendar, reporting significant revenue increases in nearly every division.
Sony has reported financial results for its fiscal 2013, showing unsurprising declines across the board as it prepares to transition from one console generation to the next.
Angry Birds creator Rovio raked in $195m in revenue last year, thanks in large part to merchandise sales for the popular casual IP.
Activision Blizzard has released its full year financial report for 2012, recording revenue of $4.8bn thanks to Call of Duty, Diablo, and Skylanders.
Activision Blizzard has announced its financial figures for Q3 2012, with the firm showing increases seemingly across the board.
Japanese mobile gaming giant DeNA generated $609m in revenues during Q2 2012.
EA has announced its financial results for the prior quarter ending on June 30th, with reports and figures revealed for Battlefield 3 Premium, Origin, and more.
Zynga’s latest financial report has investors jumping ship in a hurry.
Take-Two Interactive has reported fourth quarter and full-year results for its fiscal 2012.
Atari has reported a decrease in revenue for its fiscal 2012, and in the wake of the results the publisher has begun some major restructuring.
Square Enix has posted a loss of £91m (YEN 12bn) for its fiscal year ending March 31st, 2011.
Japanese publisher Konami generated YEN 12.9bn (£98m) in profit for its financial year ending March 31st 2011, a three per cent drop from last year’s YEN 13.3bn (£101m).
Sainsbury’s has seen a small increase in profit of one per cent during its fourth financial quarter.
Atari’s revenues dropped from €92.5m (£77.7m) to €41m (£34.4m) year-on-year during the nine months ending December 31st.
Nintendo has reported a 46 per cent drop in profits since its previous financial quarter.
Toys R Us has posted international sales of $965m for its second quarter ending July 31, 2010 – a drop of $26m year-on-year.
Catalogue retailer Argos has posted a five per cent year-on-year dip in sales to £924m in its fiscal quarter ending August 28th.
Take-Two has announced net revenues of $354m for its third fiscal quarter ending July 31, 2010 – up from last year’s $95m.
Ubisoft has become the No.2 publisher in UK and Europe as it announced game sales almost doubled year-on-year.
HMV has stated that despite what it describes as “a very challenging year” for the video games market that saw it decline 25 per cent year-on-year, the retailer has gained ...


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Miley Cyrus mixing and mingling with her fans in Mzansi. Not lagging behind is actress and musician, Miley Cyrus. The international star was spotted at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town this week, doing some shopping and taking snaps with fans, who were super excited to spot her.
South Africa is clearly the place to be for some of our favourite American stars, including Micheal B Jordan, Meagan Goode and T.I.
Miley, who is also a coach on The Voice USA, was seen at Recycled Flip Flop Sculptures with store owner Davis Ndungu.
The Wrecking Ball hitmaker was also spotted at PRESENT Space.
Miley Cyrus popping into PRESENTspace today, what an insanely nice person!! PRESENTspace are Big Fans Of Miley! #PRESENTspace #mileycyrus
Cape Townians surely do get to see the best stars, don’t they? We wonder when these stars are heading to over to other parts of the country.


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Technology has a crucial role to play in a world where companies have to act on environmental, social and governance priorities as much as financial ones. That was one of the messages from this year’s World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos.
The purpose of technology is to support this shift, while also continuing to disrupt business and society.
Here are five key takeaways from world and industry leaders’ discussions at Davos 2020:
1. We’ll see a blurring of the digital and physical worlds
“Machine learning and AI is going to be built into every machine and every application,” Dan Schulman, president and CEO of PayPal told the audience in Davos. ”That’s going to change how quickly we can do things.”
This will involve payments and many other applications, where the physical and the digital world will merge.
Financial services were out of the starting boxes early, combining over-the-counter and digital interactions. Skype meetings with financial advisors are now offered as standard at the UK’s Nationwide Building Society, for example. Other sectors are now following suit.
This combining of the physical and digital – or “phygital” – is changing the brick-and-mortar customer experience across the board.
Uniqlo in Japan, for example, is streamlining the checkout process with systems that recognize customers when they enter the store, either using artificial intelligence and facial recognition or by digital identification via IoT chips. When they reach the checkout, all items in the basket are automatically identified via chips in the clothes.
Ultimately, such new technologies serve to benefit all stakeholders, creating efficiencies through automation, winning back shoppers from online marketplaces, impacting the bottom line, and helping to mitigate climate impact by enabling demand-led production approaches.
2. There will be a move towards platform companies
A by-product of digitalization is the rise of the platform company. The eBays and Airbnbs have led the way, but many other companies have gone down the same route: platforms bring together producers and buyers, users and products, creating communities and resources that can be accessed on-demand and that help add further value to a product or service.
Siemens has just created its Additive Manufacturing Network, for example, a platform connecting manufacturers and suppliers globally. It is already used by companies including sports retailers and manufacturer Decathlon to streamline its supply chain.
In healthcare, Apple and Google – two of the established platform companies – are disrupting traditional business models by offering healthcare analytics and communications tools.
3. Technology disruption is moving into the industrial space
While we have talked about Business 4.0 for some years, many of the anticipated technological shifts are only just coming into their own.
Shop-floor automation, cloud connectivity, IoT and AI are enabling manufacturers to hand previously manual processes over to technological tools.
As a result, manufacturing can be more flexible, adapt to customer demand more easily by scaling volumes up and down, and become more decentralized, with smaller factories and local distribution centers.
Feeding into this is additive manufacturing – often referred to by the name of one of its subsets, 3D printing – which allows for highly tailored, individualized production runs where traditional batch manufacturing required large volumes to create economies of scale.
Ericsson CEO Börje Ekholm said at Davos that his company is building a factory to serve the entire US/North America 5G networking market – with only 100 staff. The smart factory will use Ericsson’s own industrial 5G solutions. It will also pursue certification under the LEED green building rating system.
4. Building trust in AI is critical
Trust is critical to these changing business models, and the issue of technology governance was a hot topic in Davos, in particular in the context of ensuring the responsible use of AI – a technology critical to the progress of digitalization.
A framework put together by the World Economic Forum and its partners over the past year helps organizations roll out AI responsibly. And a new governance initiative it announced this year further aims to build trust among stakeholders rather than breed fear and discord.
The aim is for AI to be human-centric, maximizing the opportunities the technology offers while mitigating against any harm that may be done if it is given too free a reign.
Issues that the Forum’s AI framework will help companies address include data quality, minimizing bias, the level of human involvement, and the ethics of data collection and use.
5. Business will continue to evolve as the 21st century develops
Stakeholder capitalism, a system in which businesses exist to serve the interests of all their stakeholders, was the focus of Davos 2020.
Technology enables great efficiencies, but, “The efficiency of the whole is not necessarily supplying an opportunity to the parts,” Robert F Smith of Vista Equity Partners told a CEO panel on Leading a 21st Century Corporation at Davos. He cited the growing wealth gap and associated social issues as counterpoints to the flourishing technology sector.
Chuck Robbins, CEO of Cisco Systems, stressed during the same session that acting more responsibly for the benefit of all stakeholders is not just a CSR exercise – investing in the community ultimately has a business impact. For example, without affordable housing and community infrastructure nearby, a firm won’t attract good employees.
The purpose of technology
If Davos made one thing clear, it was that we live in a world of constant flux, where old paradigms are breaking down quickly, and new ones are still emerging.
As the digital transformation of the world continues, the challenge is for technology to serve its purpose by moving this process along and effecting positive change, all while being mindful to balance risk and opportunity, and profit and responsible and inclusive growth.
About the author(s)
Business & Technology Services
TCS’ Business and Technology Services organization combines the power of business excellence with digital innovations to help enterprises and leaders be purpose-driven and performance-oriented, making the shift from shareholder value to stakeholder value. By harnessing the abundance of data, talent, connectivity and capital, B&TS helps leading companies around the world build ecosystems that fuel growth and innovation, foster collaboration and engagement across ecosystems, improve health, safety, and well-being, enabling empowerment and inclusivity, and driving sustainability and positive environmental impact.


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Clemenger BBDO Australia
Tue, 08 Feb 2022 08:52:00 GMT
Swisse has launched a new brand platform, Reach For Your Reason, encouraging Australians to discover their motivation for creating and maintaining a holistic wellness routine.
The new platform is anchored in the insight that nothing drives us like our deep-seated motivation; that is what keeps us going through all of life’s challenges.
In a sector that often touts quick fixes, magic pills and silver bullets, the platform is a category-defining statement that products alone are not enough. While Swisse’s premium formulas and products can help people perform, people need purpose first and foremost, before they pick up a product. Whether we are physically or emotionally exhausted, digging deep inside ourselves and finding our reason gives us the power to push forward.
“Swisse provides a foundation for achieving sustained health and happiness but to live a full life Australians must first understand what they’re living for. Once they’ve found that reason, together the possibilities are endless,” said Kerrie Wade, marketing director ANZ H&H Group.
“This campaign is just the first moment in a series to encourage Australians to approach their health and happiness with a greater sense of personal meaning and instil a sense of possibility about what they can achieve.”
ClemengerBBDO Melbourne was appointed as Swisse’s creative agency of record in July 2021.
“We’re asking you to do one thing before you take Swisse, ask yourself why. Because Swisse is only part of the solution, it takes motivation and understanding to truly be successful on your health journey,” said Rich Williams, Executive Creative Director ClemengerBBDO Melbourne.
Reach For Your Reason launched this week with an integrated multivitamins campaign through TV, OOH, path to purchase, online and digital extensions, and is the first in a series of content that will highlight the brand’s extensive portfolio.
Categories: Supplements, Beauty & HealthClemenger BBDO Australia, Tue, 08 Feb 2022 08:52:00 GMT


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Canada’s trade surplus narrowed 3.5% in January from December, but exports and imports both fell, surprising analysts and raising the likelihood of another interest rate cut next month.
Statistics Canada said the trade surplus was in line with analysts forecasts at C$5.23 billion ($3.96 billion) in January from December’s C$5.42 billion surplus, but shrinking exports and imports caught the market by surprise.
“The shocker here was that both exports and imports tumbled in the month, we were looking for a bit of a pullback from strong December results, but nothing close to the 4.7 percent drop in exports and the five percent sag in imports,” BMO Nesbitt Burns’ Sherry Cooper said.
“The (central) bank will not see another trade report before they decide on rates in April, and this one is troubling.”
Auto exports fell for the third time in four months, Statscan said, attributing more than half of the decline in exports and over a third of the fall in imports to that one sector alone.
“Exports have declined in seven of the last 10 months, and the 4.7% drop from December was the largest in nine months,” Statscan said. January’s exports fell to C$31.85 billion from December’s C$33.43 billion.
January imports fell to the lowest level since June 1999, C$26.61 billion from December’s C$28.01 billion, it said.
Two weeks ago, the Bank of Canada cut interest rates to support demand - which it said was slightly weaker than expected at home but slightly stronger abroad - so the latest trade figures add to the likelihood of another cut in April.
“Obviously, these numbers don’t augur well for growth,” Toronto-Dominion Bank’s Marc Levesque said. “These are horrible numbers. There’s not a single positive element in this report.”
Auto exports, which were very volatile in the second half of 2003, fell more than 10% in three of the last four months because of consumer uncertainty in the market.
Statscan said machinery and equipment exports fell 5.5% from December although strong aircraft exports partly offset the decline.
Auto plus machinery and equipment exports combined account for more than 40% of all Canadian merchandise exports. ($1=$1.32 Canadian) (Reuters)


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Cebu City: Gotianun-led Filinvest Land Inc. (FLI) is raising its capital expenditure (capex) for its 50-hectare Cebu township to P35 billion from P25 billion previously in order to enhance the office and residential component of the original master plan.
Josephine Gotianun-Yap, president and chief executive officer of FLI, said in a briefing that the company will increase funding for the 50-hectare City Di Mare (CDM) township project in Cebu to upgrade its residential and office development components.
“The capex for SRP [South Road Properties] is P35 billion for the enhanced master plan. We make sure that we can keep up with the latest urban trends in development nowadays,” Gotianun-Yap told reporters on Tuesday.
She said that under the enhanced master plan, “there will be added office components. Before, there was more residential. There is now more BPO. The retail was always there, but some of the residential has now a little bit more density than [in]the original [plan]”. This is in response to the stronger demand for office units, she added.
FLI said its township project is master-planned as an evergreen lifestyle hub, with some 60 percent of the entire development devoted to open spaces with greeneries and parks. Of the remaining area, about 20 percent or 8 hectares will be developed into a retail mall under the Il Corso brand; 70 percent will be turned into a residential development comprising mostly of mid-rise buildings of up to 15 floors each; while 10 percent will be allocated for office towers or business process outsourcing (BPO) hubs.
Gotianun-Yap said the CDM, which started development in 2010, will take more than 10 years to complete. She said 25 percent will be completed in the first quarter next year as a part of Phase 1 and development of Phase 2 will follow soon after, also next year.
Tristan Las Marias, FLI first vice president for Visayas and Mindanao, said in the same event that the company was “on track” to meet Phase 1 completion in the first quarter of next year, consisting of the townhouse, pool, some open spaces, and the seven residential buildings under the Amalfi and Sanremo Oasis brands.
The residential component of Phase 1 includes two mid-rise residential buildings under the Amalfi brand with a total of 600 units, and five mid-rise residential buildings under the Sanremo Oasis brand with 2,000 units.
The two medium-rise residential developments offer two-bedroom units priced at P85,000 per square meter (sqm) for a 26-sqm unit under Amalfi, and P90,000 per sqm for a 36-sqm unit for Sanremo Oasis.
Phase 2 will focus on the development of an “exclusive collection” of condominium units for the high-end market as well as development of BPO hubs and some parks.
Gotianun-Yap said the township will also install a hotel component – likely under its Crimson Hotel brand – but this will be built in the latter part of the development.
For its retail segment, the 8-hectare Il Corso will cost P4 billion to build, apart from the P35 billion capex for the CDM township.
The 50-hectare CDM is within the Cebu City government’s 300-hectare reclaimed South Road Properties, which is also home to the massive 30-hectare Cebu Seaside mall of SM Prime Holdings.
“We look forward to broadening and intensifying our efforts in Cebu. Filinvest’s presence in Cebu is strong. We will continue to commit investments as Cebu deserves the best projects. We will contribute to its local tourism and economic progress,” Gotianun-Yap said.
FLI recently raised P7 billion from a bond issue to finance its capital spending in the next 15 months as the company focuses on tripling its office portfolio by the end of 2015.
This year, the company launched more projects outside Metro Manila including developments in Iloilo, Cagayan de Oro and Palawan. In 2015, majority of the new launches will rise in Northern Luzon and Central Visayas such as in Dumaguete, further expanding its presence nationwide.
Incorporated in 1989, FLI is the property unit of Filinvest Development Corp., mostly engaging in township projects that consist of retail, residential and office spaces.


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Acuity Brands, Inc. (AYI - Free Report) teams up with CIRCADIAN ZircLight, Inc. to enhance the commercialization of the circadian lighting technology.
Over the past five years, CIRCADIAN ZircLight has developed various lighting solutions to address the need for circadian lighting. Through this partnership, CIRCADIAN ZircLight intends to accelerate the commercialization of the Zirc branded technology through Acuity Brands’ portfolio of indoor luminaires, across North America.
Need of Circadian Lighting
Circadian lighting supports the human circadian rhythm. Human body responds to the key circadian signal in natural light. Importantly, researchers reported that not having enough daytime exposure to blue-rich light may impact one’s alertness and productivity.
Notably, the Zirc LED technology provides lighting control solutions that are more in tune with the key circadian signal of natural light, unlike traditional lighting system.
Acuity Brands has a portfolio of innovative lighting solutions. The company remains focused on expanding these solutions in other channels. Importantly, the partnership — which also includes licensing of CIRCADIAN ZircLight intellectual property — will allow it to diversify its existing portfolio.
Innovation to Boost Profitability
Acuity Brands boasts a diversified portfolio of innovative lighting control solutions and energy-efficient luminaries. Also, it has been working on smart business strategies to achieve continued growth.
In fiscal 2019, the company introduced almost 100 new product families to its industry-leading portfolio. This enabled the company to gain market share in product categories and sales channels.
It is confident about the lighting and related industry, as well as building automation systems that have the potential to experience solid growth over the next decade.
The company — which shares space with Orion Energy Systems, Inc. (OESX - Free Report) , Energy Focus, Inc. (EFOI - Free Report) and LSI Industries Inc. (LYTS - Free Report) in the Zacks Building Products - Lighting industry — remains cautiously optimistic for fiscal 2020, thanks to U.S.-China trade tensions and tariffs. Shares of Acuity Brands, which currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), have underperformed its industry year to date. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Nonetheless, the company’s leading market position along with diversified portfolio of innovative lighting control solutions and energy-efficient luminaries are expected to drive growth.
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ZIMBABWE ACCIDENTALLY LEAVES DOOR OPEN FOR CRYPTO. Here’s a recipe for creating a fertile environment for alternative payment systems: outlaw the system everyone is currently using. When the Zimbabwean government made the nutty step of banning digital payments – used for 85% of transactions by individuals, due to severe shortage of cash – it clearly wasn’t trying to promote bitcoin. In forcing people to go to a local bank to redeem funds locked in popular payments apps such as Ecocash, its goal was to protect the embattled Zimbabwean dollar. In a statement, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, said the move was “necessitated by the need to protect consumers on mobile money platforms which have been abused by unscrupulous and unpatriotic individuals and entities to create instability and inefficiencies in the economy.” The thinking is that Ecocash, which enables currency trading, is making it easier for people to dump the local currency. But here’s the thing: Ecocash, which said it suspended cash-in-cash-out functions (presumably because its banking lines will be cut) is still keeping in-app payment facilities open. And it said nothing about stopping its fairly popular service allowing people to buy cryptocurrency. Not surprisingly, since the ban “demand for bitcoin has skyrocketed,” according to African crypto news site, bitcoinke, with “sources claiming bitcoin is now selling at at 18% premium above the market rate.”
While both the Bitcoin and Ethereum networks are powered by the principle of distributed ledgers and cryptography, the two differ technically in many ways. For example, transactions on the Ethereum network may contain executable code, while data affixed to Bitcoin network transactions are generally only for keeping notes. Other differences include block time (an ether transaction is confirmed in seconds compared to minutes for bitcoin) and the algorithms that they run on (Ethereum uses ethash while Bitcoin uses SHA-256).
So, let’s dismiss claims like those of Ethhub.io co-founder Anthony Sassano. He argued that because bitcoin token transactions on Ethereum deny miners fees they would otherwise receive on the bitcoin chain, bitcoin is becoming a “second-class citizen” to ether. You’d hardly expect people in countries where dollars are preferred to the local currency to think of the former as second class. And just as the U.S. benefits from overseas demand for dollars – via seignorage or interest-free loans – bitcoin holders benefit from its sought-after liquidity and collateral value in the Ethereum ecosystem, where it lets them extract premium interest.
Yashu Gola is a Mumbai-based finance journalist. He is profoundly active in the bitcoin space since 2014 – and has contributed to several cryptocurrency media outlets, including NewsBTC, FxDailyReport, Bitcoinist, and CCN. Academically, Yashu holds a bachelor's in information technology, with majors in data structures and C++ programming language. He has also won the 'Atulya Award' for his efforts towards raising $100,000 for an India-based farming project. Bitcoin vs. Ethereum - Everything you need to know! (Similarities & differences)


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Accedo has announced the acquisition of advanced TV solutions provider Hibox.
The deal will see Hibox’s flagship Aura and Smartroom products complement Accedo’s offering of TV software solutions in a content portfolio the company says offers “unparalleled flexibility and cost efficiency for customers.”
Between them, the companies have “hundreds of customers worldwide” for whom they power video experiences.
Michael Lantz, CEO, Accedo, said: “We are thrilled to be joining forces with the highly talented Hibox team. Their world class products deliver great customer value and we can’t wait to present our joint solutions to the market.”
Staffan Granholm, CEO and co-founder, Hibox, said: “Accedo’s global presence and award winning products and solutions complement Hibox’s offering well. We believe that Hibox has one of the best technology platforms in the world for the customer segments we support, and together with Accedo , we’re ready to grow even faster.”
The transaction will be completed in the coming weeks, and Accedo said that joint solutions “are immediately available.”
ICYMI: Amazon set for US$1 billion NFL streaming deal digitaltveurope.com/2021/03/05/ama… https://t.co/v8pAI05Ujn
05 March 2021 @ 21:00:00 UTC
ICYMI: Digital TV Europe is excited to announce the release of our 2021 Industry Survey!
Thank you to our sponsors… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
05 March 2021 @ 19:00:02 UTC
DTVE: the week in view – The live-streaming revolution digitaltveurope.com/comment/the-li… https://t.co/pt7qxb6Ul7
05 March 2021 @ 18:32:30 UTC
Vodafone Portugal gets Gametoon in renewed SPI/FilmBox deal digitaltveurope.com/2021/03/05/vod… https://t.co/I0gFmgtOFb
05 March 2021 @ 18:00:00 UTC


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Just in case you haven't been keeping up with the news lately, the U.S. - Mexico border is not the only place immigration officials are trying to secure.
The illicit Doug trade began to boom two decades ago when American parents stopped naming their children "Doug" or "Douglas." The Canadian underworld saw its chance to profit from this and built Doug farms where pregnant girls are paid money to name their new boy babies "Doug." Once the Dougs mature, they are smuggled across the border to find jobs in retail, thus taking jobs away from Americans.
Most of the Dougs are white males with curly blonde hair who end up working at coffee bars, donut shops and sporting goods stores. A few even find employment at car dealerships and insurance companies. On the street they're known as DGs, Home-Dougs, or Doogie Howsers.
According to informants, violence among the mighty Doug cartels has escalated in recent months, but so far has stayed on the Canadian side of the border.
Most northern-state citizens recognize that something has to be done about the illegal Doug problem, but fear police officers might succumb to racial profiling, stopping anyone based on their skin color or curly blonde hair.
So far, the federal government has not made any statements concerning the matter.


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Posts tagged Magic
PayPal is making some of the advances it’s pushed in mobile-app payments available on the Web, the company announced Tuesday. Its in-app checkout experience, which it calls One Touch, is now rolling out to websites which already use PayPal’s payment technology.
Consumers will notice a new option to stay logged into PayPal, which will remember their payment options. In a marked change, PayPal will no longer force shoppers to change their payment method from a default bank-account withdrawal; instead, the service will remember the credit or debit card or bank account they prefer, and use that each time. It’s how PayPal works in mobile apps already.
Bank-account withdrawals are more profitable for PayPal, as I noted when I interviewed David Marcus, then PayPal’s president, in January 2014. “That’s over,” Marcus told me, vowing to change the checkout experience to be more straightforward. Now that day has come: PayPal is no longer tricking its customers into using a payment method they may not prefer.
Mobile First—And Then The Web Must Follow
There’s a deeper significance to PayPal’s move, one the whole industry should pay attention to. It’s an example of a technology first designed for mobile devices that is migrating into the broader Web. Consider how Flipboard, a company which became famous as an app developer, is now shifting its news-reading experience back to the Web.
For years, the innovation in e-commerce has been focused on mobile apps. That’s where PayPal’s Braintree subsidiary made its name, powering frictionless mobile transactions in apps like Uber, Airbnb, and HotelTonight.
That click-and-you’ve-paid convenience has been missing from the Web, which still uses a confusing array of popups and redirects to process even simple e-commerce transactions. When you squeeze that Web shopping experience into a mobile browser, the result is disaster—or, to use the technical term, abandoned shopping carts.
Bill Ready, the former CEO of Braintree who was recently promoted to be PayPal’s global head of merchant and next-generation commerce, says that his customers were seeing a 50% rise in completed purchases by adopting the simpler One Touch checkout process within apps.
“We saw such huge results that we’re taking the native buying experience and rolling it out across the Web,” says Ready.
Most sites using PayPal won’t have to do anything to get the upgrade—it will happen automatically through the code their sites call up from PayPal’s servers.
Ready notes that this upgrade will be easier on merchants than on mobile, where PayPal required developers to adopt a new software-development kit, the V.zero SDK.
He admits that PayPal hasn’t done extensive testing that lets it predict the kind of uplift that websites will see from a simplified checkout experience, but he predicts that particularly on mobile versions of e-commerce sites, online retailers will see more completed purchases.
Some Things Still Don’t Check Out
Ready’s team hasn’t quite finished the job, though. Even before PayPal bought Braintree, Ready was touting a vision of e-commerce where his company’s servers would safely store credit and debit cards and let consumers use them from site to site and app to app.
This latest upgrade to PayPal’s checkout doesn’t integrate with Braintree’s so-called “vault” technology. If a customer has stored a credit card with Uber, a Braintree merchant, in an app on her phone, she won’t automatically have that card available when she shops on her laptop for dresses at Jane.com and checks out with PayPal. (Nothing’s stopping her from storing the same card in both places, but eliminating that busywork of entering a card over and over again is what Ready’s vision is all about.)
PayPal president Dan Schulman, who’s slated to become the company’s CEO when the payments company spins off from eBay Inc. later this year, hinted that more change might be coming in a recent eBay earnings call—specifically touting Ready’s role in combining PayPal’s disparate systems, which include Venmo, a person-to-person payment system which serves as another kind of digital wallet for debit- and credit-card accounts:
Bill as you know was the CEO of Braintree, and what we really did by putting that together is … combine the Braintree platform and the PayPal platforms much more closely together so that we are able to being able things like One Touch not just on full-stack integrations and on mobile, but into the PayPal base … And so we are taking the things that we’ve learned through both Venmo and Braintree, putting them together with some of our other acquisitions to provide to our PayPal embedded base, not only the services that you see now, but services that we will introduce even as of this quarter that will take us to a whole different level as a result of that integration together.
There are a couple of months left in this quarter. Plenty of time for Ready’s team to lash together more of the company’s systems—all in the name of faster shopping.
View full post on ReadWrite
Although he hasn’t yet yet demonstrated a product or even a proof-of-concept, Magic Leap CEO Rony Abovitz has already begun to lambast his competition—in particular, Microsoft’s HoloLens augmented reality headset.
Magic Leap claims to be developing some as-yet unspecified blend of augmented and virtual reality via a mysterious and also as-yet unspecified “lightweight wearable.” It’s raised a ton of money—more than a half billion dollars—from Google, Qualcomm and a bunch of venture capitalists.
In a Reddit Ask-Me-Anything session yesterday, one Redditor asked Abovitz about how he would compare Magic Leap’s mystery product to the HoloLens—and Abovitz didn’t shy away from the opportunity to start throwing bombs:
There are a class of devices (see-through and non-see-through) called stereoscopic 3D. We at Magic Leap believe these inputs into the eye-brain system are incorrect—and can cause a spectrum of temporary and/or permanent neurologic deficits.
At Magic Leap we created a digital light-field signal technology that respects the biology of the human eye-brain system in a profound and safe way—and the experience is awesome—and unlike anything you have ever seen before (except for the real world) :-)”
What kind of deficits could these stereoscopic devices cause? What evidence leads to these beliefs? Other Redditors asked these questions and more, which Abovitz declined to acknowledge or answer, leading more than a few to call him out as an Internet huckster.
“Utter rubbish—no sources for your assertion,” one commenter with the handle SimplicityCompass wrote. “This AMA is a joke—you have said nothing solid about your product, just marketing fluff.”
A Magic Leap … Of Faith
It’s difficult not to sympathize with Abovitz’s critics. To date, Magic Leap hasn’t revealed much about what kind of product it’s developing, how it works, or why we should care.
As the Abovitz quote above indicates, however, the company hasn’t been shy about making big, if unsupported, claims for its technology. And Magic Leap now seems ready to throw its weight around a bit.
Microsoft will show off more information about the HoloLens at its Build conference in late April and early May. Meanwhile, Magic Leap’s timetable, technology, and product remains a complete mystery to everyone except Magic Leap. Even with Google’s backing and a $600 million war chest, Abovitz and his bold promises so far sound less like magic and more like a mere illusion.
Lead image courtesy of Magic Leap, Hololens image courtesy of Microsoft
View full post on ReadWrite
UTC PR Clinic – How to Leverage The Magic Combination of SEO and PR for …
Utah Technology Council will host a PR event on October 3 at 8:00 9:30 a.m. to demonstrate how to blend and combine SEO and Public Relations for optimal marketing and online reputation success. At the event, Kelly Shelton, CMO of Boostability, one of …
View full post on SEO – Google News
The biggest barrier to effective content marketing? Cutting through all of the noise online. Here’s how to identify, romance and engage influencers to co-create and promote incredible content that delivers for your audience and your brand.
View full post on Search Engine Watch – Latest
Is it just me, or does it seem like Google starts celebrating April Fools’ Day earlier and earlier every year? No company on the web takes April 1st more seriously than Google, as we’ve been covering for years now: Google’s April Fools’ Day 2013 Joke-A-Thon: YouTube…
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.


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Nintendo’s Reggie Fils-Aime has gone on record to say that the company’s not yet “thinking seriously” about a successor to the Nintendo Wii just yet.
“… When the software developer comes forward with an idea that can’t be executed on the current platform, that’s when we start thinking seriously about the next system. We’re not there yet, from a Wii perspective.”
“For us, technology is not an endpoint. Technology is an enabler for fantastic consumer experiences. So from a hardware standpoint, we are always looking at technology. But in the end, the technology has to enable a new, unique experience.
“So when people talk about high definition for the Wii console, our feedback is that that by itself will not create a brand new experience. Therefore, we’re not interested. What we have to push for are groundbreaking new experiences. Technology has to enable it, not to be a means all by itself.”
– Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime


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New Zealand telecommunications giant Telecom has sold AAPT’s consumer division to iiNet for $60 million following iiNet shareholder approval.
The announcement to the ASX follows reports that the sale was going ahead to the Perth-based service provider.
When combined with the sale of Telecom’s shareholdings in Macquarie Telecom and iiNet in July, the company generated $140 million from the transactions.
According to the statement, the sale rationalises Telecom’s non-core assets in Australia allowing management to focus on its network wholesale and corporate businesses.
CEO Paul Reynolds said he believed AAPT would be well positioned for future growth through the new focus on its core strengths which include operating its nationwide network.
As reported by Computerworld Australia in early September, AAPT said its migration of the consumer business to iiNet was tracking to schedule and would be complete by the planned 30 September deadline, according to AAPT CEO, Paul Broad.


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PLEASANTVILLE, N.Y. -- There's a popular catch-phrase: “Know your farmers, know your food." And there's nowhere better to get up close and personal with your local purveyors than with a farmers market.
You picked five among the best in Westchester County, each of which will be profiled this week.
Go here to vote for your favorite; you can only vote once.
The DVlicious contest ends at 5 p.m. Friday, Aug. 14 , with the winner announced at the end of the month. Below is the "dirt" on one of the finalists.
Pleasantville Farmers Market , Memorial Plaza, Pleasantville, (914) 205-4545
Hours of Operation: Saturdays 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Goes Until: Until Nov. 23, then the market moves indoors to the Pleasantville Middle School cafeteria at 40 Romer Ave.
Vendors You'll Find: Fifty-five vendors including Captain Lawrence Brewing Co., Alpacatrax, Conant Valley Jams, Dutch Desserts, Healing Home Foods, Kreimhild Dairy Farms, Mead Orchards, Orwasher's Bakery, Pura Vida Fisheries, Simply Planted Greenhouses and Stefan's Plure Blends.
Of Special Note: "We curate a whole slate of activities," said Peter Rogovin, who runs the market. "We have a rigorous and transparent application process."
Worth special mention: the farmers market gives a scholarship to a graduating senior and recently introduced an initative called Marketbucks where people can swipe their debit or credit cards and are given coins to spend at the market.
Click here to sign up for Daily Voice's free daily emails and news alerts.


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Scientists have long warned of the dangers to human health created by the practice of feeding antibiotics to farm animals. Three of the nation's largest poultry companies -- Tyson, Perdue and Foster -- have been quietly eliminating antibiotics over the past few years. Other poultry, beef and pork producers should do the same.
An estimated 70 percent of antibiotics used in the nation are fed to healthy farm animals to promote growth and guard against unsanitary conditions. Many of these drugs are the same as, or similar to, those used to treat people. With excessive use, antibiotics become ineffective because bacteria develop resistance.
Although Tyson, Perdue and Foster have set a good example, Americans can't rely on companies' voluntarily doing the right thing. Other corporate farmers still routinely use millions of pounds of antibiotics each year.
Congress and the Food and Drug Administration should ban the practice. U.S. Rep. Sherrod Brown of Ohio has taken the lead by proposing a bill to phase out the use of antibiotics in healthy animals within two years. His measure also would bar the use of Cipro-like antibiotics in all poultry, sick or healthy, within six months. Only the Bayer Corp., which makes Cipro, has spurned a government request that all pharmaceutical companies stop selling such drugs for poultry.
Meanwhile, consumers can be sure the chicken they buy is free of drugs by purchasing items labeled "antibiotic-free" or "organic."


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McGrath: Security Freeze an Option to Protect Consumers
HELENA – Montana Attorney General Mike McGrath Wednesday reminded Montana consumers who are concerned about the safety of their credit information that a security freeze is one of the most effective ways to deter identity theft.
“Since July of last year, Montanans have had the option to proactively ‘lock up’ their credit information so no one can access it without their permission,” McGrath said. “The freeze prevents a thief from falsely using someone else’s identity to apply for a credit card or get other credit.”
The freeze is easily lifted if consumers plan to make a major purchase, open a new credit card or take out a loan. The new law took effect July 1, 2007.
Here’s how the freeze works in Montana:
- To place a freeze, consumers contact each of the three credit bureaus – Equifax, Experian and TransUnion – and provide identifying information and pay the $3 fee to each bureau. The $3 fee is waived for consumers who are victims of identity theft. In such cases, the consumer must place the freeze within 24 hours of filing a police report and must submit a copy of the report to the credit bureaus.
- The bureaus must place the freeze on an account within five business days. Each bureau will then send written notice that the freeze is in place. The confirmation will include a personal identification number (PIN) and will have instructions on how to lift the security freeze.
- Once the freeze is in place, a creditor who requests information will get a message or code indicating the file is frozen.
- To temporarily remove a freeze, consumers must contact the credit bureaus by phone, using the PIN. There is a $3 fee per credit bureau and consumers can specify whether the freeze should be lifted for a specific date range, or for a specific creditor.
- To permanently lift a security freeze, consumers must call the credit bureaus and use the PIN. There is no fee to permanently lift a freeze.
McGrath said a fraud alert is another option. A fraud alert is a special message that people who suspect they may be identity theft victims can have placed on the report a credit issuer receives when it checks a consumer’s credit rating. The alert tells the credit issuer there may be fraudulent activity on an account.
“A fraud alert is not the same as a security freeze,” McGrath said. “While a fraud alert may slow down the process of someone getting credit in your name, it does not stop it.
“A security freeze will stop someone else getting new credit in your name.”


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Sales of domestically produced new cars fell 16.4 percent in the first 10 days of July from the same period a year ago, according to data released today by the five major U.S. car companies.
The daily selling rate of 13,540 cars for the July 1-10 period was the lowest since 1958, when 12,038 were sold each day.
Analysts said that, although the sales of 108,318 cars in the eight selling days of early July were behind the 129,572 sold in the period last year, it was a bit of an improvement over sluggish June sales.
And General Motors Corp., which had an 18.9 percent decline in early July, announced a dealer incentive program on slow-moving subcompact and compact models. That should help spur sales later in the month, analysts said.
GM said it sold 61,844 cars in the July 1-10 period, down from 76,296 in the period in 1981. Ford Motor Co.'s tally was 29,071 cars, down 3.7 percent from 30,182. Chrysler Corp. said it delivered 13,817 cars, down 15.9 percent from 16,435 in the same 1981 period.
Sales for American Motors Corp., which only releases monthly sales figures, was estimated at 2,200, down 38.1 percent from 3,555, and Volkswagen of America Inc. was off 55.3 percent, from 3,104 last year to 1,386.
All the automakers except GM had sales incentives in effect during the period.
Arvid Jouppi, an auto industry analyst at Colin Hochstin Co. in Detroit, said the seasonally adjusted annual rate for July, based on the first 10 days, could be about 4.9 million vehicles. That would be only a marginal improvement from June's poor results.
John Hammond, an analyst at Data Resources Inc. in Lexington, Mass., said Ford's comparatively good showing for the period might result from the fact that the automaker will wind up a promotion later this month.
Traditionally, the final sales periods of a promotion are strong because buyers rush to take advantage of the offer, he said.
Ford is offering extended warranties and free maintenance on some luxury and subcompact models through July 31.
For 1982 so far, the five automakers sold 3.043 million new cars, down 11 1/2 percent from 3.44 million in 1981.
Dealers said that GM's incentive program will give dealers $400 for each of the following models sold through Aug. 31: the Chevrolet Chevette, Cavalier and Citation; Pontiac T1000, J2000 and Phoenix; Oldsmobile Firenza and Omega; Buick Skyhawk and Skylark; and Cadillac Cimarron.
All but the Chevette are front-wheel-drive models introduced by GM in the past two years. Industry trade publications reported earlier this week that GM has backlogs ranging between 77 days and 171 days of the cars. A 60-day inventory is considered idea.
Some GM dealers said the $400 payments from GM can be used as rebates, for advertising or for sheer profit. One Chevrolet dealer said salesmen in larger cities where there is more competition likely will hand the money out as rebates.
Two dealers said they liked the program. "We can't afford to have those cars sitting here on Sept. 23," the start of the new model year, one of them said.
In other auto industry developments:
* United Auto Workers President Douglas Fraser predicted that General Motors Corp. and the Japanese automaker Toyota will jointly build cars in GM's vacant Fremont, Calif., assembly plant.
Speaking at a news conference at the Communications Workers of America convention, Fraser said the site is better suited for the work than another at Southgate, Calif.
* Chrysler reportedly told the UAW that it will close its Detroit trim plant next year unless the United Auto Workers union agrees to one of two survival plans. The Detroit News said that one plan involves a series of concessions and work rule changes to improve productivity, while, under the other, Chrysler would sell the plant to employes for a nominal fee.
* GM's Pontiac and Chevrolet divisions are eliminating high-priced frills on their 1983 base-model J cars in an attempt to boost the sales of the poor-selling autos.
Chevrolet will establish its Cavalier Cadet, a stripped version, as its base model, abandoning the base model carrying the frills, while Pontiac plans to make the J2000 S as its base-model J car for 1983.
The Cadet and J2000 S are priced several hundred dollars below the base model Chevy and Pontiac J cars.


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Chennai-based customer support software company Freshdesk is looking for a stock market listing. In an interview with the Economic Times newspaper, Girish Mathrubootham, CEO and founder of the company has indicated that the five-year-old company is looking to bring its initial public offering (IPO), although it is yet to file paperwork with capital market regulator SEBI. There is no timeline set for Freshdesk IPO, although senior executives expect it to list in 2-3 years.
If all things go according to plan, then we see ourselves becoming a publicly listed company in 2-3 years
– Girish Mathrubootham, CEO and founder, Freshdesk.
Mathrubootham said Freshdesk had at least two acquisition offers but the management decided to turn them down in favor of a market listing.
Freshdesk made headlines in April 2015 when it received USD50 million funding from Tiger Global, Google Capital, and Accel Partners. The Series E funding brought total venture investment in the company to USD94 million.
Ushering in new era
An IPO by the enterprise software player would mark coming of age of the Indian startup ecosystem. While e-commerce players have been in the limelight for attracting the best of the venture capital, other technology startups like Freshdesk have also been making steady inroads.
Last year, Freshdesk’s global competitor Zendesk had a fantastic listing on the US stock markets followed by a 40% pop on the listing.
Meanwhile, the recent changes and relaxations in listing norms brought about by SEBI are encouraging technology startups to look at the prospects of stock market listing in India more favorably. First signs of this massive change in attitude are already visible as e-commerce player Infibeam has filed papers with SEBI for a listing on NSE and BSE.
Starting January 2016, SEBI has made it mandatory for all investors to follow the ASBA (Application Supported by Blocked Amount) route for IPO investments. Another major improvement is the compressed listing schedule of six days after the application process is over. Currently, it takes companies 12 days (T+12) after the application process to get listed on stock exchanges.


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Staff at a popular Yarm pub say they're taking steps to rid the place of a bad stench - after a customer complained of an "awful smell of sewage".
The Black Bull has been plagued by the terrible stink for at least a week.
At one point it was so overpowering that one punter, who visited last weekend, was forced to "stand outside for a little while".
Staff said it was down to tree roots damaging the drainage system, the customer claims.
'The Bull' - as it's known - has not yet confirmed what's causing the smell but said it is aware of the pong and wants it sorting sooner rather than later.
A spokesman for Mitchells & Butlers, which owns the High Street pub, one of the busiest in the town, said: "We are aware of the problem and will be getting it sorted as soon as possible.”
The customer told Teesside Live: "We went to the Black Bull for drinks with friends. As we went in there was an awful smell of sewage, although there were air fresheners around the premises it could not mask it.
"We actually went outside for a little while, as the smell was so strong.
"We came back into the building as a little too cold but had to sit as far away from the smell as we could.
"We were informed that it was coming from the drains, that roots of the trees outside were damaging the drainage system and they would need to take up a large section of the pub to resolve the issue."
The Bull had a big revamp earlier this year including new food and drink menus and pre-bookable 'VIP shelters' in its extended garden, creating a further 10 jobs.
Mitchells & Butlers has other venues across Teesside including the Toby Carvery pubs at Marton and Wolviston, the Horse and Jockey, in Norton, and The Pied Piper, at Ormesby.


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Philips' Intelligent Supermarket Lighting Talks To Your Smartphone
In addition to offering efficient LED lighting that the company says will require no special infrastructure changes, the light fixtures act as a positioning grid. “Each fixture is identifiable and able to communicate its position to an app on a shopper’s smart device,” reads a Philips press release. “This enables the shopper to get information related to his position in the store as they move around the store and location-based services to be triggered. Communication with the smartphone is by Visual Light Communications.”
If you’ve ever stomped around a grocery store trying to find that last one oddly-located item you need (bonus if you’ve done it with a tired, melting-down child), this would be a welcome innovation. You’d be able to walk into a grocery store with nothing more than a general idea of what you want to make for dinner, and the system’s app on your smartphone can produce a recipe with an ingredient list, tell you where to go to find said ingredients, and even plot the most efficient route to get to those items.


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Analysts expect TCS
to post 9 per cent YoY growth in March quarter revenue aided by certain large deals such as Postbank and Prudential Financial, ramp-up in multiple $50-100 million deals won in the preceding quarter, and strong demand in areas of cloud and customer experience. READ MORE
Infosys: The company on Sunday said its board will consider a buyback proposal at its meeting on April 14.
Barbeque Nation: UTI Mutual Fund acquired 1.77 per cent equity stake in casual dining restaurant chain operator Barbeque Nation via open market operations on April 8, taking its total shareholding in the company to 5.01 per cent.
Castrol India: The company has entered into an exclusive supply arrangement with ki Mobility Solutions in India wherein Castrol will supply lubricant products to ki Mobility's multi-brand workshops.
Balrampur Chini Mills: The firm said its board has approved a higher investment of Rs 425 crore for a new distillery plant of 320 kilolitres per day (KLPD), which is expected to commence by December 2022.
Shakti Pumps: Shakti Pumps (India) on Sunday said it is planning business expansion next year as the company eyes a bigger share in the Centre's PM-KUSUM scheme of solar water pumps.
NMDC: The demerger process of NMDC's Nagarnar Steel Plant (NSP) in Chhattisgarh into a separate entity is expected to be completed by August-September of this year, a source said.
M&M: Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) will put in fresh investments to the tune of Rs 3,000 crore on its electric vehicles business in the next three years, while it looks for more alliances and partnerships in the vertical, according to a top company official.
Ambuja Cements: The company is pursuing growth opportunities and evaluating plans including brownfield expansions at Bhatapara and Maratha to reach 50 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) capacity. It is also looking at significant debottlenecking opportunities across all plants, said Ambuja Cements, a subsidiary of Swiss building materials company LafargeHolcim, at its Annual General Meeting.
AU SFB: AU Small Finance Bank said the RBI has approved reappointment of Raj Vikash Verma as part-time chairman of the bank for two years.
Vodafone Idea: The telecom department has issued a show-cause notice to Vodafone Idea Ltd (VIL) over non-payment of licence fee for the fourth quarter of FY2020-21, with regard to some circles, a PTI report said.
VIP Industries: Rekha Jhunjhunwala held 2.32 percent equity stake in the company as of March 2021. Rakesh Jhunjhunwala through two accounts had held 5.31 percent shareholding in the company as of December 2020.
Solara Active Pharma Sciences: The board of directors of the company approved the amalgamation of Aurore Life Science, Empyrean Lifesciences and Hydra Active Pharma Sciences with itself.
Tata Communications: The company has extended its partnership with Bahrain Internet Exchange to offer high speed internet connectivity with very low latency for a superior quality and seamless viewing, gaming and download experience for customers in Bahrain.
Tata Power: After year-long negotiations, the Tatas have terminated their near $2- billion investment deal with Malaysian state owned oil and gas company Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) in Tata Power’s proposed renewable energy infrastructure investment trust (InvIT), said a media report.
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Arcade-style blaster Nano Assault Neo has been in the Wii U eShop since the console launched, and has been keeping plenty of people entertained ever since. The game wasn't perfect, however, as it had a few niggling issues that needed to be fixed; fortunately Shin'en Multimedia, the game's developer, stated an update would be released to sort them out
Thankfully the promised update is now available to download from the Wii U eShop free of charge. The update will rectify problems players have been having with GamePad disconnection issues and the online ranking flags.
Updates seem to have been made much easier to implement on Wii U, with many developers praising Nintendo for lowering restrictions found on various other platforms. Shin'en Multimedia revealed to us in our developer interview while talking about this very update that "there are no restrictions in such updates by Nintendo".
We gave the heart-racing blaster a glowing report in our Nano Assault Neo review, so this update certainly comes as welcome news.
What are your thoughts on the game? Are you happy an update has been released?


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Circle, the issuer of the second-largest stablecoin USDC, plans to launch a Euro-backed stablecoin on June 30 on the Ethereum blockchain. However, the EUROC digital currency will be launched from the United States.
The digital currency will be backed by euro-denominated reserves held within the U.S. regulatory perimeter, beginning with Silvergate Bank.
“There is clear market demand for a digital currency denominated in euros, the world’s second most traded currency after the U.S. dollar,” said Jeremy Allaire, co-founder and CEO of Circle. “With USDC and Euro Coin, Circle is helping to unlock a new era of fast, inexpensive, secure and interoperable value exchange worldwide.”
It will be interesting to see what the European Central Bank (ECB) thinks about this. The ECB declined to comment when requested.
As with any jurisdiction, the ECB is protective of monetary sovereignty and has repeatedly warned about the dominance of foreign-based payment systems such as Visa and Mastercard within Europe. One of the key rationales behind launching a digital euro CBDC is to ensure Europe keeps sovereignty over its own payment systems, something that ECB board member Fabio Panetta reiterated just yesterday.
Circle’s announcement with its U.S. location makes a yes vote to a digital euro even more likely when the time comes.
Central bankers have highlighted the need for regulations around digital currency to converge globally to avoid regulatory arbitrage. Circle’s EUROC could result in some back and forth between the ECB, the Federal Reserve and the U.S. Treasury.
When the EU’s crypto legislation MiCA comes into force, theoretically, the EUROC will not be usable within the European Union as it currently stands. The MiCA legislation states :
“No person or legal entity shall offer asset-referenced tokens within the Union to the public, or seek an admission of such assets to trading on a trading platform for crypto-assets in the Union, unless the issuers of such asset-referenced tokens have been authorised to do so in accordance with Article 19 by the competent authority of their home Member State. Only legal entities that are established in the Union shall be granted an authorisation.”
However, there are possibly some gaps in that wording.
We contacted Circle asking if it has future plans to issue via a European-regulated entity but did not receive a response in time for publication. The company already has significant operations in EU member state Ireland, where it invested $451 million in March.
Circle’s Head of Strategy, Dante Disparte, held a similar role at the Diem (Libra) stablecoin project, which regulators and central banks blocked despite attempts to be regulatory compliant. It’s possible that experience influenced the initial choice of the U.S. jurisdiction.
Update: added the final paragraph, details re Irish subsidiary, ECB declining to comment


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On January 12, 2018, Major League Soccer (MLS) announced that it partnered with Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) to create an eSports league, eMLS. The league will feature the best EA Sports FIFA 18 players in the United States and Canada. eSports is a form of competitive video gaming where gamers participate in tournaments such as the International, the League of Legends World Championship, the Evolution Championship Series, and the Intel Extreme Masters, in order to win cash prizes.
Nineteen of the 23 MLS teams will recruit their own players from their local regions to compete in local tournaments. It is unknown why the remaining four teams were not included. From the local tournaments, the MLS teams will narrow their selection down to one player and this player will represent the MLS team in the new eMLS league. This player will also represent their respective MLS team at the inaugural eMLS Cup that will be played in April 2018, at the PAX East gaming festival in Boston, MA. The winners from the PAX East gaming festival will serve as the qualifiers for the United States and Canada to the EA Sports FIFA 18 Global Series Play-offs, which could eventually lead to a FIFA eWorld Cup spot. Last year, the world’s FIFA champion, England’s Spencer “Gorilla” Ealing, took home $200,000.
MLS already has a partnership in place with EA Sports, but the new partnership aims to build the MLS brand “both domestically and internationally.” MLS is following the trend of many of the major national sports leagues. As we have previously covered, the NFL and the NBA already have existing eSports leagues, nor is the MLS the first to come up with the idea of an eSports league based on the popular FIFA games. In France, Russia, and Belgium, there are existing eSports leagues that use FIFA.
According to Gary Stevenson, MLS Business Ventures President and Managing Director, “This step forward into competitive gaming is a key component in our partnership with EA Sports to promote deeper engagement and connections between MLS supporters and millions of FIFA players around the world.”


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Pets at Home store is set to open its doors in the town
Alnwick's Pets at Home store will be officially opened today, with the creation of 14 jobs.
The store, on Willowburn Retail Park, will have a Groom Room and an adoption centre.
It will provide dedicated products for dogs, cats, small animals, chickens, birds and fish as well as wildlife.
The shop will be officially opened by Alnwick Mayor Alan Symmonds at 10am, although the store welcomed customers from yesterday as part of a soft launch.
Area manager Andrea Bruce said: “There was a strong demand from Alnwick pet owners for Pets at Home to come to town and we’re very pleased to have been able to grant them their wish.
“Pets at Home is committed to recruiting from the local area and I’m pleased we’ve found a team of talented individuals in Alnwick. They’re all extremely passionate about pets and can’t wait to get started.”
The new, 9,000 sq ft store has created jobs for local people, including the creation of new grooming positions, having received more than 400 applications.
All colleagues at the store receive extensive training on pet care and pet knowledge which is endorsed by City & Guilds, providing a stamp of approval that demonstrates the value of its training.
Store manager Anthony Griffiths has been with Pets at Home for nine years, having previously worked at the Newcastle Byker branch.
Anthony, said: “It’s been a busy few months and now my team and I can’t wait to open the doors and welcome our new customers and their pets to the store.”
The store’s adoption centre is run by independent charity, Support Adoption for Pets. Since being established in 2006, the charity has helped more than 1,000 rehoming centres and animal welfare organisations across the UK by awarding grants and running fund-raising campaigns with Pets at Home.
As part of this, local animal rescue organisations are being urged to nominate themselves to receive financial support from the charity partnership scheme.
It offers help from Support Adoption For Pets and Pets at Home through a range of activities and also eligibility to be nominated and take part in the national fund-raising drives run by Support Adoption For Pets during the year.
To become part of the scheme, email [email protected]


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|By Business Wire||
|July 18, 2014 05:43 AM EDT||
Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/wsjdmg/global_online) has announced the addition of the "Global Online Video Platform Market 2014-2018" report to their offering.
The Global Online Video Platform market will grow at a CAGR of 13.16 percent over the period 2013-2018.
An online video platform is a SaaS platform offering hosting, encoding, and customizing, which can also act as an embedded player for organizations that want to upload and distribute their own content. The platform provides an end-to-end tool set for distributing, downloading, publishing, and measuring online video content for both on-demand and live delivery. It allows enterprises and media companies to convert an online video into any format and share it across platforms and devices such as iOS, Android-enabled smartphones and tablets, PCs, digital set-top boxes, and TVs. Organizations start with do-it-yourself solutions for posting videos and as they scale up their video publishing operations, they adopt a video platform.
The Global Online Video Platform market is a significant part of Global Online Videos market. The report describes the size of the market based on direct revenue, which is generated from the issue of new subscriptions, technical support, and software maintenance.
The report, the Global Online Video Platform Market 2014-2018, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the Americas and the EMEA and APAC regions; it also covers the Global Online Video Platform market landscape and its growth prospects in the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.
- Brightcove Inc.
- Kaltura Inc.
- Limelight Network Inc.
- Ooyala Inc.
Key Topics Covered:
- Executive Summary
- List of Abbreviations
- Scope of the Report
- Market Research Methodology
- Market Landscape
- Market Segmentation by the Objectives of the User
- Market Segmentation by End-users
- Geographical Segmentation
- Key Leading Countries
- Buying Criteria
- Market Growth Drivers
- Drivers and their Impact
- Market Challenges
- Impact of Drivers and Challenges
- Market Trends
- Trends and their Impact
- Vendor Landscape
- Key Vendor Analysis
For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/wsjdmg/global_online
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MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Best Buy's net income rose sharply in the second quarter, as the struggling electronics retailer slashed costs and worked to make its website more competitive.
If someone would appoint me the "Master of the Social Security Universe," or give me some other appropriate title that would allow me to change any law or regulation on Social Security's books, I would immediately get rid of the earnings penalty provisions of the law. These are the rules that limit the amount of money a Social Security recipient under the age of 66 can earn if he or she is working while collecting benefits.
NEW YORK (AP) - Electric bills have long been take-it-or-leave-it affairs: Pay one rate for all the power you used the month before, no matter when you used it.
CARMEL (AP) - Cadillac is showing off a low-lying two-door coupe that likely is the prototype for the brand's re-entry into the big, elegant and expensive luxury car market.
WASHINGTON (AP) - U.S. developers broke ground on homes at a faster pace in July. But the rise was all due to apartment construction, which is typically volatile. By contrast, builders began work on fewer single-family homes - the bulk of the market - and sought fewer permits to build them.
MEXICO CITY (AP) - Mexico's Aeromexico airline and its ad agency have apologized for a producer's casting call requesting that only light-skinned people apply as actors for a television commercial.
MENOMONEE FALLS, Wis. (AP) - Kohl's second-quarter net income declined 4 percent as expenses climbed, and the retailer trimmed its outlook for the year.
NEW YORK (AP) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's biggest retailer, said the weak global economy continues to batter its low-income shoppers.
NEW YORK (AP) - Facebook plans to test a mobile payments service that lets users make purchases inside mobile applications using payment information they have added to their account on the social network.
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Obama administration, under pressure from black college presidents and lawmakers, has made changes to the PLUS loan program that may help thousands of families qualify for the college financial aid.
NEW YORK (AP) - Lawyers for American Airlines pressed a judge Thursday to approve the company's plan to merge with US Airways and exit bankruptcy protection, but the judge delayed a ruling because of the federal government's lawsuit against the merger.
WASHINGTON (AP) - The financially struggling U.S. Postal Service is revamping its priority mail program to raise revenue and drive new growth in its package delivery business.
SAN JOSE (AP) - Cisco's earnings and revenue grew in the latest quarter as demand for its computer networking equipment increased. But CEO John Chambers called the global economy "challenging and inconsistent" and the company said it is cutting about 4,000 jobs, or about 5 percent of its work force.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Consumers waiting for Microsoft's revamped version of its latest Windows operating system will be able to get the software beginning Oct. 17.
NEW YORK (AP) - The government is trying to put a stop to rising airfares and fees by blocking the latest airline merger - but for fliers, it's already too late.
DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) - Elvis Presley had one; so did Clark Gable. It was even the sedan of presidents. Then the name vanished amid an invasion of newer luxury cars from Europe and Asia.
MEXICO CITY (AP) - Export-oriented commercial farms in Mexico's Baja California state say they have offered farm workers a 15-percent wage increase to end a two-week-old strike.
NEW YORK (AP) - A McMuffin for dinner? It might happen, as McDonald's plans to test an all-day breakfast at some locations in the San Diego area starting next month.
SEATTLE (AP) - Amazon.com is introducing a referral service to help people to get projects and chores done around their homes.
NEW YORK (AP) - Madonna, Rihanna, Beyonce and Jay Z are among the A-List musicians who are co-owners of Tidal, a streaming service being billed as the first artist-owned platform for music and video.
DETROIT (AP) - Volvo Cars is planning to build its first-ever U.S. assembly plant as part of a push to increase sales here.
NEW YORK (AP) - StubHub is suing Ticketmaster and the Golden State Warriors, alleging it unfairly required fans looking to resell tickets to use Ticketmaster's resale exchange.
DETROIT (AP) - Tesla Motors says it will reveal a new product next month, but it's not a car.
NEW YORK (AP) - It was a tempest in a coffee cup.
NEW YORK (AP) - Americans bought less soda for the 10th straight year in 2014, with diet sodas shrinking more than their sugary counterparts, according to a report released Thursday.
WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) - A hearing on whether to approve the bankruptcy sale of assets of electronics retailer RadioShack opened Thursday with the company seeking court approval of the purported winning bid, and an attorney for a losing bidder describing the auction as a sham and asking a Delaware judge to reopen the sale process.
LOS ANGELES (AP) - For anyone who's ever dreamed of being on "American Idol" or "The Voice" as a performer or judge, a new app seeks to make their fantasy come true.
NEW YORK (AP) - New phones from Samsung and HTC will be available in U.S. stores starting April 10.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Facebook's Messenger app is evolving into a multitasking tool equipped to send an animated fist bump to a friend at one moment and then get a little business done in the next.
WASHINGTON (AP) - IRS workers would be prohibited from using private email to conduct official business under a bipartisan bill passed Wednesday by the House Ways and Means Committee.


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In the past month, Coca-Cola Co. agreed to pay $5.1 billion for a British coffeehouse chain. And who knows what obscene amount for sports-drink company BodyArmor. And pocket change for a little beverage brand called Moxie.
PepsiCo’s buying what’s essentially a kitchen appliance-making company (SodaStream International) for $3.2 billion.
Going back two months or so, Conagra’s paying $10.9 billion for Pinnacle Foods, That’s billion with a B. And not long before that, Nestle paid $7 billion for the right to distribute Starbucks products. And just before that, General Mills bought Blue Buffalo pet food company for $8 billion.
How desperate are these companies?
How does a coffeehouse chain fit into Coca-Cola strategy? Ditto for the PepsiCo, Nestle and General Mills buys. The Conagra-Pinnacle deal? Well, if you’re happy with second- and third-choice brands in mature (possibly dying) categories, when the experts say shoppers are buying either the leading brand or the store brand, then those two companies were made for each other. But $10.9 billion?
On the other hand, I know five companies whose top-line sales will grow next year. That’s the common thread here, top-line growth at any expense. Food and beverage companies seem to have peaked in about 2014 and have had a hard time growing ever since. In 2015, both sales and profits for many declined. But the second year, processors had started aggressive cost-cutting and profits resumed growth even as sales continued to decline. But you can’t keep cutting costs and losing sales forever.
Four of the five companies mentioned in those first few paragraphs have seen their sales decrease three years in a row, and the fifth, PepsiCo, eked out a tiny increase in 2017 after two straight years of decline. But that’s behind them all now, they’ve bought their way to sales growth. Hopefully, income growth will follow.
That’s not always the case. This month’s news pages tell of Campbell offering for sale just about every acquisition former CEO Denise Morrison made during her seven-year tenure (except Snyder’s-Lance). And Post Holdings shifting its private brands business – and much of its debt – into a newly formed company, 8th Avenue Food & Provisions, that Post will share with a private equity firm.
Post in a former life was a huge part of Ralcorp until the latter spun it off in 2012. Which allowed Ralcorp to be swallowed up by ConAgra for $6.8 billion ... only to be sold three years later to TreeHouse Foods for a mere $2.7 billion. Even bargain acquisitions may not be bargains: The difficulties in making that buy pay off gave TreeHouse its first annual loss in its history.
On the other hand, Tyson Foods last month paid $2.16 billion for Keystone Foods, one of the biggest animal protein suppliers to McDonald’s. Now that is interesting. And synergistic.
It’s a tough time to be a big food & beverage company. I don’t have the answer to organic growth of top and bottom lines. If I did, I’d be the new CEO of PepsiCo. But I am smart enough to think the companies that will be around in the future are making careful, synergistic acquisitions, not ones that just inflate the top line.
We’ve retired an editor
Kevin Higgins, our managing editor and plant operations writer for the past five-plus years, retired on Aug. 31. Some of you, especially the plant operations people, know him; all of you benefited from his many years and several jobs writing about – studying, really – the food and beverage industry.
Readers of all job categories should know him for his wide-ranging cover stories on such subjects as “Can GMOs Be Saved?” (this past June), “Nurturing New Age Food” (June 2017) and “Little Food Ascendant” (February 2016). His September 2015 cover story on Josh Tetrick, maverick founder of vegan mayonnaise company Hampton Creek (titled “Hero or Hustler?”) made him a finalist for a Jesse H. Neal Award, which is the equivalent of a Pulitzer Prize in the trade press. Very prestigious.
He had been writing about the food and beverage industry, with emphasis on the plant operations side, for 20 years. That’s enough to tire anyone. So give a read to this month’s cover story, which is his swan song, and virtually wish him well, as we do.