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“We are talking about changing the car’s character from being introverted to being extroverted. So the car is just more talkative,” he says.
To make this a reality requires at least two important things to happen. First, car manufacturers need to make the data from their cars available, ideally in a standard format. And secondly, the data needs to be easily shared.
The first of these problems is again being tackled by manufacturers like Ford. Working with New York City-based developers Bug Labs, the car manufacturer has released a prototype system called OpenXC. Drivers install a small piece of hardware in their car which taps into the vehicles sensors and control units and spits them out in a format that can be read by compatible apps on Android.
“OpenXC allows us to investigate what developers can do when we present the car in the same way as they see a smartphone software platform,” said Venkatesh Prasad, senior technical leader for Ford Research and Innovation, when the system debuted earlier this year. The system has since been distributed to firms and universities and has already spawned its first “vehicle-aware” applications.
One of the first was created by India's HCL Technologies and allows a driver to automatically update select contacts with his or her location. The idea is that by monitoring location and speed data from the vehicle, the app can determine if the driver will be late for a meeting and can then send an email or text message without any driver intervention.
That last bit is important. Car manufacturers are all too aware that they need to minimise distractions from these systems while driving, hence the common use of voice recognition. They maintain that many drivers already use web, communication and entertainment services in their cars, so these systems actually reduce the risk of distractions and increase safety. However, it is unlikely that it will be left to car makers to decide what is and isn’t appropriate. Already, regulators are beginning to scrutinise these systems and earlier this year, the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration launched a report that recommended voluntary guidelines for car manufacturers to reduce the risk of distraction.
Assuming that an acceptable solution can be found, the second part of the puzzle that needs to fall into place is how data is shared. At the moment, most manufacturers use proprietary computer systems, meaning that data produced by one car manufacturer is basically of little use to another. This becomes problematic for third-party app developers who would need to rewrite their code for each and every producer. But Beiker says that could soon change.
“I am expecting to see more and more applications that communicate with the vehicle directly, through a standardised interface,” he says. “I can very well imagine that over the next couple of years car companies might open up their firewall a little more, and say ‘here is our app store’.”
One project attempting to solve the problem is the EU-sponsored Cooperatives Vehicle Infrastructure Systems project, which aims to develop a “universal communications module” that can read data from any vehicle. The project has already published the architecture of the system it hopes to use.
It envisages that data would be channelled in two ways: to other cars and over mobile connections and DSRC (dedicated short-range communications) networks – a wi-fi like technology that is currently used for electronic road toll connection, for example. Car-to-car communication could be useful in safety systems, for example, allowing a car to prevent a driver pulling out of a blind junction if another vehicle is approaching or forming the basis of a peer-to-peer collision warning system to spot and advise about hazards on the road ahead.


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Conquer Online Behind the Scene Highlights: King of Kung Fu, Lee-Long
Highlights of the TQ team working on its new class, Lee-Long.
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domain: news


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The Chrysler Jeep logo is displayed on 2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee.
Chrysler and majority owner Fiat plan to build a new plant in Guangzhou, China, to produce Jeep SUVs, according to China's Xinhua News.
The new plant in Guangzhou will be capable of producing 160,000 Jeep SUVs annually and represents an investment of about $774 million, according to the report.
In January, Chrysler announced a framework agreement to build Jeep SUVs in China with Guangzhou, but a final partnership had not yet been announced. ...


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When President Obama announced the new Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards for 2025 last week, it included measures for cars and light trucks to achieve 54.5 mpg highway.
Read This Article
Chevrolet has been on a roll of late, with its 42-mpg Cruze Eco compact sedan and 40-mpg Sonic subcompact compact sedan and hatchback.
The new movie "Turbo" has spawned a real-life version of a Camaro that changes a snail's life.
With its little 1.4-liter turbocharged four-cylinder, the Chevrolet Sonic manages 40 mpg on the highway and 29 mpg in town.


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Bulgaria's retail trade decreased 12.2 percent over a year earlier in August 2020, after falling 17.5 percent in the previous month. It was the sixth straight drop in retail trade, amid the coronavirus crisis. Sales continued to drop for food, beverages and tobacco (-17 percent vs -22.8 percent in July); non-food products (-5.7 percent vs -11.8 percent) and fuel (-18.5 percent vs -21.1 percent). On the other hand, on-line sales jumped 43.1 percent, following a 22.2 percent surge in the prior month. On a monthly basis, retail trade advanced 2.6 percent, after an upwardly revised 2 percent gain in July.
Retail Sales YoY in Bulgaria averaged 6.23 percent from 2001 until 2020, reaching an all time high of 24.60 percent in March of 2007 and a record low of -20.40 percent in May of 2020. This page provides - Bulgaria Retail Sales YoY - actual values, historical data, forecast, chart, statistics, economic calendar and news. Bulgaria Retail Sales YoY - data, historical chart, forecasts and calendar of releases - was last updated on October of 2020.
Retail Sales YoY in Bulgaria is expected to be -5.00 percent by the end of this quarter, according to Trading Economics global macro models and analysts expectations. Looking forward, we estimate Retail Sales YoY in Bulgaria to stand at 17.30 in 12 months time. In the long-term, the Bulgaria Retail Sales YoY is projected to trend around 6.00 percent in 2021 and 4.50 percent in 2022, according to our econometric models.


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Don't be #SoldAPup
Today, we have launched our emotive ‘Sold A Pup’ campaign, to highlight the cruelty and deception currently surrounding the illegal selling and advertising of dogs and puppies. We are urging the public to support our petition to stop the illegal sale of dogs and help stamp out puppy farming in Ireland.
Part of the campaign includes an emotive new TV advert produced by Irish production company Cardel, directed by Katarina Lundquist and voiced by Irish singer, songwriter and composer, Lisa Hannigan. The animation demonstrates the horrendous reality of where purchased puppies may come from and how easy it is for puppy farmers to hide behind the façade of online adverts.
Laws were introduced in February of this year around the Sale, Supply and Advertising of Pets but many sellers continue to deliberately flout them. The new rules make it a legal requirement for puppies to be eight weeks of age or older before being sold. A microchip number for each dog must be displayed on the ad, as well as the Dog Breeding Establishment registration number, if applicable and a seller/supplier number for anybody selling more than five pets in a calendar year but sadly many online ads are not compliant.
We carried out research which revealed 72% of people are unaware of these regulations and 68% were unable to spot an illegal ad, leaving them open to being ‘sold a pup’ as recently happened an unsuspecting Dublin family. Bailey was advertised for sale online as a ‘Cockapoo’ for €1,150. Restrictions meant the family were unable to travel to collect him so a lorry driver friend, picked him up and brought him home. Upon arrival, it was clear Bailey was a completely different dog to the one advertised and the seller, who provided no paperwork, suddenly became uncontactable. A trip to the vets quickly established Bailey was in fact a Springer Spaniel and the poor dog was covered in lice, an indication of the poor conditions he originated from.
Speaking about the campaign, Executive Director, Dogs Trust Ireland, Becky Bristow said: “Most people wouldn’t dream of buying their dog from a puppy farm; however, the sad reality is many unwittingly do so! Puppy Farmers often go to extreme lengths to hide the true environment their pups originate from as they prioritise profits over the welfare of the dogs in their care.
The stringent enforcement the of the Sale, Supply and Advertising of Pets law is paramount because it gives puppy farmers nowhere to hide! Displaying a microchip number means that every dog sold is traceable back to the seller, while displaying a Dog Breeding Establishment number gives the purchaser the power to decide if they want to buy from a large scale commercial dog breeder or not.”
PR & Communications Manager, Dogs Trust Ireland, Corina Fitzsimons continued: “Shockingly, it is currently legal in Ireland to keep hundreds of breeding dogs in registered Dog Breeding Establishments, with guidelines recommending only one staff member required per 25 breeding female dogs, not to mention their puppies.
Often, members of the public are duped into thinking they are purchasing pups who have been raised in a family home when nothing could be further from the truth. So, we are appealing to people to not only consider the puppies but the poor mums who are left behind and have to go through it all again and again, churning out puppies from their little pens.”
We are urging the public to sign our petition to help end the misery behind the illegal sale of dogs using the hashtag #SoldAPup. We are calling on the government to enforce the already existing laws as a matter of urgency and to penalise those who do not comply.
Find us on Facebook, and Instagram or follow the conversation on Twitter using the hashtag #SoldAPup.
To sign our petition, please click here: DogsTrust.ie/SoldAPup


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Travel websites worry Congress will doom their business with new proposals
Published 7:27 am Thursday, May 31, 2018
By Martin Moylan
MPR News/90.1 FM
At the Twin Cities airport, you’ll find a lot of bargain-hunting travelers who shop comparison sites to land the best airfares.
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Marcus Drayton of Roseville said it may take some work, but it can really pay off.
“It’s just the way it is,” he said. “It’s just like how you would check when you’re going for anything, right?”
Drayton is pretty happy with the fares he finds and the competition that helps keep ticket prices in check.
“You have marketers coming in and trying to come up with new models — break the traditional models. And you have mainstream airlines responding in kind. I think that’s what capitalism is all about,” Drayton said.
But Elaine Pierce of Big Sky, Mont., said she’s had some exasperating experiences with Expedia.
“I just wasn’t able to control my ticket. I wasn’t able to upgrade it, change it,” she said.
Congress is weighing measures designed to address complaints like that, including one that Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar is backing. The proposals, which vary in scope, would require travel sites like Expedia and Travelocity to give customers more information and control over tickets. The requirements would extend to matters such as seat assignments, refunds and baggage fees.
The big online ticket agents may not display baggage fees, for example, but the expense can add up. So what initially looks like the cheapest fare could be the most expensive after those charges are applied.


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Lenovo Phab 2 Pro: First Phone With Google Tango Finally Available
The first ever phone with Google's Tango augmented reality technology is finally out today. The Lenovo Phab 2 Pro will have the 3D-sensing tech under its hood
The Tango camera tech's 3D capability allows the user to get the measurements of everyday objects like furniture by simply pointing the phone's camera at the subject. The tech can be useful in designing homes.
The Phab 2 Pro comes with 35 apps and is selling for $499.
CNET took the Phab 2 Pro for a spin and came up with more-than-impressive photos. A photo of a ramp inside the Google San Francisco office showed how wide it was while a coffee table was described as "life-like".
CNET had issues with how a reflective surface such as a soda can or a shiny floor can disrupt the 3D shot. Another problem the author encountered was how each Tango app took a while to load.
The Tango project started around two years ago. Google's Advanced Technologies and Projects (ATAP) division tasked Johnny Lee, a computer scientist who's one of the key contributors behind Microsoft's Kinect, to head the team responsible for Tango. Since then, Google have worked with a number of developers and companies.
On January 2016, Google partnered with Lenovo on a project to bring Tango to the consumer smartphone industry which is now available as the Phab 2 Pro.
Google indicated that there are plans to make more Tango phones in the near future - in 2017 to be precise - so expect other Google devices released next year to have the depth-sensing technology.
The Verge reported that Tango chief believes the sudden popularity of Pokémon Go made it easier to deal with their partners. In other words, if not for the game based on a 90s TV cartoon, augmented reality technology would not be available right now in the form of the Tango and the Phab 2 Pro.
Asus ZenFone 3 Zoom Has Dual Cameras And A Beastly Battery
The Asus ZenFone 3 Zoom featured dual cameras, a 3x optical zoom, great low-light camera performance, and an extremely excellent battery life for a better usage.
Asus ZenFone Supports Both AR And VR With Google Tango And DayDream View Compatibility
Asus unveiled the new ZenFone AR at the CES 2017 and impressed by being the first smartphone that can handle both augmented reality and virtual reality.
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Lenovo's Next Tango Project Imminent: Pros And Cons Of Google's 3D Technology
When the Phab 2 Pro was released, Lenovo debuted its first hardware sporting Google’s Tango technology. The tech company is now poised to release more items in this platform and is expecting competitors to soon follow suit.
Lenovo Phab 2 Pro 'Tango' Review: Best Augmented Reality Phone?
Here is a quick review of the Lenovo Phab 2 Pro. Click to know everything about its price, specs and features.
MORE IN ITECHPOST
'Tokyo Ghoul' Season 3 Delayed By Its Live-Action Movie? Ken Kenaki Returns With Another Identity?
"Tokyo Ghoul" season 3's release is delayed and there are countless speculations as to why it is being pushed back. Reports claim that the show is to give way to "One Punch Man" and "My Hero Acdemia" but new rumors say that it's lack of materials and storyline as well as its live-action movie are causing the delay.


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Apple Pay will make its long-awaited entry into Canada by the end of the year, but only for a very select group of consumers. Here’s what you need to know about the newest addition to the Canadian mobile payment landscape.
What is Apple Pay?
Apple Pay is a mobile wallet launched in the U.S. in fall 2014 and earlier this year in the U.K. It allows users to pay for in-store purchases using their iPhones or Apple Watches. It also lets users make online payments to retailers on their iPads and iPhones using apps.
How does Apple Pay work?
Customers fill out credit card information in the app and pay for purchases by tapping their phones on a terminal at a checkout.
In Canada, it will only be available at stores that accept American Express and have terminals that are enabled with near-field communication technology.
American Express only?
Yes, for now.
The exclusive deal gives Apple access to markets around the world, while only having to deal with one institution. In Canada, American Express largely acts as its own card issuer, with only one bank, Scotiabank, offering the card.
The deal also gives American Express first and exclusive use of a much-hyped product. The partnership returns some of the shine to the prestige brand after losing some co-branding opportunities such as its long-time partnership with Costco.
How many people will this serve?
American Express has the smallest Canadian market share of the big three credit card providers, which also include Visa and MasterCard.
The card’s five per cent Canadian market share pales in comparison to its rivals. Visa captures 41 per cent of transactions by dollar volume, Interac has 32 per cent and MasterCard accounts for 22 per cent, according to an April 2015 study by The Nilson Report.
American Express did not respond to inquiries about how many Canadians use their cards or the number of retailers and restaurants that accept them. Many merchants refuse to accept the card because the fees are higher than those for Visa or MasterCard. Apple Pay will also only be available to Canadians with the newest iPhone models.
Who else does this involve?
The deal with American Express limits Apple’s negotiations with a complicated web of players from network carriers to credit card companies to banks.
Apple didn’t have to make deals with the telecom companies because the technology is “carrier independent.” As for the big banks, Apple said only that the partnership in this instance is with American Express.
Are there plans to expand to other cards/banks?
Apple wouldn’t say, but referred to a statement that said “we want to bring it to as many of our users worldwide as possible.”
It remains unclear whether it will be expanded to other banks and credit card companies, despite speculation over the past months they would soon welcome the payment system.
As the Star reported Tuesday, sources said negotiations with Canadian banks stalled over fees and security.
The fees Apple wants to charge, reportedly 15 cents for every $100 in the U.S., could be an issue. The Big Five banks are also pushing customers to use their own mobile wallets, where fees aren’t an issue.
Why does Apple Pay matter?
Apple Pay’s limited availability means it is not yet the universal payment method that analysts believed would lead to wider spread adoption of mobile payments. However, the company’s “cool factor” could help raise awareness of the market.
The highly-fragmented Canadian mobile payment landscape is rapidly changing. Most of the big banks have their own wallets, while Canadian companies such as Suretap and UGO are competing to be universal payment systems.
The options currently available are limited to specific cards and institutions. All options aside from Apple Pay are limited to Androids and BlackBerrys, which excludes about 40 per cent of Canada’s smart phones.
So far, mobile payments have yet to take off in Canada, even though it has wider adoption of contactless terminals than in the U.S.
Just 11 per cent of consumers said they would use Apple Pay at least weekly in a recent Accenture survey.


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KESH achieves a profit of 4.5m euro due to recent rainfall
The profit of the Albanian Electricity Corporation KESH as a result of the sale of energy from 29 November to 18 December amounts to over 4.5m euros.
This amount is expected to be many times higher throughout December, as KESH has also opened another sales procedure for the period December 14 to 31, when it plans to sell an amount of 213,000 kWh.
Rainfall increased the influx of water to the Drin Cascade, and so far five energy selling procedures have been completed, affecting on the company’s revenue growth.
Of the 3 pre-sale operations, KESH secured about 2.2m euros, while in the fourth procedure the sale of 14,000 mwh provided about 705,000 euros.
The biggest profit was secured in the recent sale, which secured the company more than 1.7 million euros in revenue.
After a long period of drought, this is good news for the corporation, as the company’s 9 month balance sheet reported losses.
According to official data from KESH, for January-September, the company recorded a loss of ALL 4.2 billion, unlike the previous year, which marked a positive balance of ALL 1.7 billion.
*Material i përgatitur nga portali SCAN. Ripublikimi mund të bëhet vetëm kundrejt citimit të autorësisë dhe burimit origjinal.


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CES 2015 - Over the last year we've often discussed Silicon Motion's rise in the SSD controller space. The fabless semiconductor's SM2246EN controller was well received, first by smaller SSD manufacturers, and now by NAND flash fabs.
This week, SanDisk announced the new SSD Plus that is priced less than $70 in 128GB. The SSD Plus won't break any performance records but is clearly designed to break price barriers. SanDisk didn't brief media before introducing the SSD Plus at Storage Visions 2015, but since that time we've learned that Silicon Motion is inside with a custom variant of the SM2246EN controller.
Getting one NAND fab company to use your controller is a big step for a controller maker that was virtually unheard of one year ago. Getting two is big news for investors. Just days after the SanDisk announcement, Crucial, a division of Lexar and also a NAND flash manufacturer, announced the new BX100. Again, this new low cost consumer SSD with 16nm MLC flash is managed by a Silicon Motion SM2246EN controller.
They say when it comes it comes in threes. Analysts have recently come forward to state that Intel, a partner with Micron/Crucial/Lexar, has chosen a Silicon Motion controller for an unannounced consumer SSD that should break cover in the coming months. Most likely Intel will brand the new product in the 300 Series family, a low cost series that again is designed to increase the adoption rate of solid state storage technology, replacing mechanical hard drives.
None of this is all that radical when you know the history of the SSD market. SandForce quickly came to power but acquisitions and long product delays have left the door open for Silicon Motion to get a foot in the door. Now that Silicon Motion is sitting at the table, we think the real objective is for the company to use SM2246EN as a stepping stone for SM2256, a flash controller that takes advantage of new 3bit per cell technology that will further reduce the cost of solid state storage technology to consumers.
At this time, the NAND flash fab companies are also focusing engineering resources on high margin enterprise products. SMI provides reference designs, controller hardware, and firmware. This provides a low 4-month turn around, speeding time to market, which is opening more doors for the company.
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Nike is launching a new collection of Air Max sneakers that represent iconic major cities across the globe.
The Air Max 90 City Pack will represent New York City, London, Shanghai, Paris, and Tokyo.
Nike has designed each pair of shoes to represent a chosen profession for each city. For example, its new Paris sneakers pay homage to the city’s bakers, with an all-over white textile shoe to represent the profession’s uniform. The shoe also employs a wheat graphic sockliner with a “Baked Fresh Daily” logo to represent the profession’s signage.
Then there’s London’s postmen and postwomen shoe, featuring a round tongue emblem resembling a stamp with Nike’s co-founder Bill Bowerman, while the upper material of the shoe was inspired by the profession’s jacket.
The new collection will be available on the Nike app from January 30.
If you’re interested in nabbing yourself a pair, check out the designs below.
LONDON’s Postmen and Postwomen
NEW YORK CITY’s Fire Department
TOKYO’s Construction workers
SHANGHAI’s Delivery service workers
The entries for B&T‘s 2021 30 Under 30 Awards have, tragically, closed for another year. Now though (drumroll please), you can vote for our People’s Choice award! In the time-honoured tradition of award shows across the globe, we’re handing over voting power to you, the people. Use it wisely. The People’s Choice award is exactly what […]
Taboola, a global leader in powering recommendations for the open web, helping people discover things they may like, today announced the launch of #RecommendHER, a new global initiative to run during March 2021, that will provide $500,000 of free advertising on its network to women-owned businesses. This initiative empowers women-owned businesses to make a larger […]
The French skincare experts since 1954, Clarins is proud to celebrate all women at all stages of life. Listening to women is a key company motto and has always had an important role. Women inspire us: we invent, create and innovate for them. According to our founder Jacques Courtin-Clarins, women carry all the beauty of […]
This Mardi Gras weekend, BWS celebrated by bringing the glitz and glamour with store makeovers and drag queen drinks deliveries. Together, BWS and M&C Saatchi brought this project to fruition in three of the retailer’s Sydney stores near the Sydney Mardi Gras precinct – BWS Paddington South Dowling Street, BWS Paddington Oxford street and BWS […]
In honor of International Women’s Day, DDB has recreated Phyllis Robinson’s, the agency’s first female copywriter, most iconic speech using the voices of women from around the world. Dubbed the first lady of Madison Avenue’s creative revolution, Phyllis was a foundation employee of Doyle Dane Bernbach back in 1949. She was a pioneer known for […]
Sunday evening saw the premiere of Seven’s new game show Ultimate Tag which, as you might expect from the title, is an elite game of tag where every day Australians try to outrun ‘pro-taggers’ in a range of different obstacle courses. Ultimate Tag secured 447,000 viewers, cementing it as the eighth most-watched TV of the night. […]
Sportsbet has unveiled its latest campaign featuring the Elite Average Games and the ever-popular Aussie larrikin Gary Flynn, the Wheelie Bin Sprint champion. Developed by Sportsbet’s in-house team, in collaboration with production partner Palomina, the latest campaign features 6 x new sporting events and locations and is the second iteration of Sportsbet’s Elite Average Games […]
For International Women’s Day, Double J has released their list of the fifty game-changing women and gender-diverse artists in Australian music. The list includes artists like Biftek, Courtney Barnett, Jess Mauboy, Julia Jacklin, Julia Stone, Kasey Chambers, Kylie Minogue, Meg Mac, Missy Higgins, Olivia Newton-John, Thelma Plum, and Tkay Maidza. To celebrate the list, which shares the […]
Armytage, co-host of Seven’s morning show Sunrise, has announced her intention to depart the role, which she has held since 2013. According to a press release from Seven, the decision comes with the network’s “full support”, with new projects announced at a later stage. Armytage said, “the time has come for the sun to set on […]
The Foxtel Group today marked International Women’s Day with a series of new initiatives to increase the visibility and accessibility of women’s sport on Foxtel and Kayo and through the Foxtel magazine. Foxtel Group chief content and commercial officer Amanda Laing said: “As Australia’s largest and most experienced producer and broadcaster of elite sports, we […]
To rally the country to get behind the UN’s goal of achieving equality for women globally by 2030, UN Women Australia has unleashed ‘When Will She’ll Be Right?’, a powerful campaign that focuses the spotlight on gender inequality in Australia. Created by The Monkeys, part of Accenture Interactive, the campaign hijacks our popular saying, “She’ll […]
WPP AUNZ has a long-term commitment to welcoming and supporting diversity and inclusion across all its teams. It says it cannot truly deliver upon our commitment to providing the very best solutions to our clients without ourselves being reflective of the wide-ranging variety of individuals that make up the rich cultures of the countries we […]
Latest emma figures show news brands continue their digital growth trajectory with an eight per cent increase for the 12 months to December 2020. The latest release of emma (Enhanced Media Metrics Australia) for the 12 months to 30 December 2020 shows an eight per cent increase in digital readership compared to the same period […]
In this guest post, Hulsbosch’s creative director Marcel Wijnen, casts his design eye over what truly makes a brand and says it’s all about being true and essential… To do simple – and to be original – is a truly tough task. Not impossible, but not easy. Naturally, we can get lost in ‘striving for simplicity’ […]
Seven Victorian charities are uniting for a month-long virtual fundraising challenge - Power Up 2021 - between 28th February and 28th March. There’s no denying that 2020 affected everyone, but small charities experienced a huge drop in much needed donations and it is hoped the Power Up campaign will bring fundraising back to life.
South Australia’s largest independent supermarket chain, Foodland – with its unforgettable jingle “Foodland, the mighty South Aussies, yeah” – will launch a new campaign on 7th March. The campaign coincides with the chain’s $251m expansion program to open twenty-five new stores, revamp fourty-seven and create 2,500 new jobs over the next five years. Agency KWP! […]
A-listers turned out to Klarna's Sydney party last night. It did move significantly down the alphabet on B&T's arrival.


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1. More and more regulation
We’re seeing a vast amount of new regulation coming in, whether it’s UK-based laws, or external rules that impact those exporting to other regions around the globe.
One of the big messages from our October Business Leaders’ Forum was that the food and drink sector is currently overwhelmed with new laws. Not only is it costly but it’s not actually clear what’s required of them all the time.
This year we’ve seen some big proposals from the EU, which have been causing murmurs among industry players. One notable proposition are the potential changes to the EU Microbiological standards regulation 2073/2005.
As Karin Goodburn, director general of the Chilled Food Association, explained earlier in the year: the current law is fine…when it’s implemented properly. Now the EU is keen to change the law as a result of its high rate of listeriosis, but there’s concerns that this may cause unintended consequences.
As BFFF’s head of technical, Denise Rion, explained in an exclusive article for Food Manufacture: “These changes would mean that businesses would have to carry out challenge testing of products in order to set their shelf lives. And if challenge testing isn’t carried out, then Listeria would have to be non-detectable throughout the shelf life that is set.”
The EU has also brought in new environmental rules in an effort to prevent deforestation. In June, Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 on deforestation-free products came into effect. This mandates that any operator or trader who places certain commodities onto the EU market or exports from it, must be able to prove those products do not originate from recently deforested land or contribute towards deforestation.
However, there have been concerns aired around the methodology behind its benchmarking, with many calling for further clarity and transparency.
More than 1,000 companies have reported actions to mitigate against deforestation during 2022, with the food and drink sector demonstrating the lowest levels of governance out of the four industries.
This year also saw the introduction of the Economic Crime & Corporate Transparency Act. This sets out a new corporate criminal offence of the ‘failure to prevent fraud’ and has been rolled out in response to the rising level of fraudulent activity.
According to legal experts, Tenet, fraud now accounts for 41% of all crime in the UK, yet many businesses do not have an anti-fraud policy in place.
One of the key aims of this legislation is to drive culture change towards improved fraud prevention procedures in organisations.
As for next year, we’re also geared up to see a big shift around novel foods following the UK Government’s announcement that it’s looking into how the process can be reformed and made easier.
Osborne Clarke’s Katrina Anderson says she expects the first steps towards a new streamlined process to become apparent in 2024.
2. Business consolidation
Administration, closures and quick company rescues continued to play a starring role this year.
Figures published in July painted a gloomy picture for food and drink, with insights firm Kroll revealing administrations had more than doubled in the first half of 2023 compared to the same period a year prior.
Speaking with a range of experts, Food Manufacture was told that the hardships of the current economic climate were, of course, having a big impact on the industry, but this had also been a result of oversupply – namely the plant-based category.
“There’s a period of consolidation that’s happening right now that needs to happen,” said Matthew Glover, managing director of Veg Capital which saved Meatless Farm from closure earlier in the year.
"A lot has been said regarding the plant-based market recently, it's clear and obvious that whilst it will see continued growth and demand, the level of early capital and emerging brands has saturated the space," added VFC CEO David Sparrow. "Unfortunately, as with Meatless Farm, without the right business model or partners who believe in your strategy we will continue to see consolidation."
Experts at the most recent Food Ingredients Europe (FiE) event echoed this, whilst reassuring that plant-based lives on.
“We did see a slowdown in the past year, but I do think it’s something that’s starting to grow again,” Bianca Lefevere, product manager for BENEO – which acquired Meatless B.V. last year – told Food Manufacture at the Frankfurt 2023 show. “With any innovation you have this ‘peak innovation time’ when people are jumping onto these new ideas.
“Now, in plant-based, we’re in this place where we’re getting out from this ‘dip’.”
ICL Food Specialities agreed that plant-based had firmly established its rightful place, but it has since diversified – and we can expect more exciting ventures to come in this category, including more plant-based ‘seafood’.
While many of the plant-based brands dominated administration headlines this year, with Heather Mill’s owned VBites the most recent (at time of writing), 2023 also saw other industries struggling, with many companies having to close (or consider closing) sites. Among the names were 2 Sister’s Llangefni; Typhoo Tea’s tea blending and packaging site in Moreton, Wirral; and Carlsberg Marston’s Brewing Company’s Wychwood Brewery in Winey, to name a few.
Taking Wychwood Brewery as an example, it’s evident that consolidation is more wide-spread than plant-based. Its chief executive explained that the combination of a competitive UK ale market and turbulent economic outlook were responsible for the news, but by consolidating its brewery network the company could achieve greater efficiency and productivity.
Moves like this will result in pain and disruption in the short term certainly, but in the medium term it could also save a business from complete shutdown.
3. Alcohol tax
August 2023 saw the UK Government restructuring the taxation of alcohol.
Six new standardised bands were introduced across all types of alcoholic products, with tax rates calculated on the nature of product and litres of pure alcohol.
While many of the changes are set to benefit the food service industry, businesses producing and importing goods for off-trade consumption will likely be faced with increased costs, head of indirect tax at HW Fisher, Gerry Myton, told Food Manufacture.
“These are the biggest changes to the alcohol duty system in 140 years and businesses need to be prepared,” he said.
“As well as simplifying the system, the government is hoping that lower rates of duty on lower strength drinks will drive innovation into their production, and in the long-term help to encourage more responsible drinking habits in the UK.”
You now need to pay Alcohol Duty on products with an alcohol by volume (ABV) of 1.3% or more for any of the following:
- Cider, including perry
- Spirits, including spirit based ready-to-drink (RTD) products
- Wine, including sparkling and fortified wines
- Other fermented products (previously called made-wine) like fruit ciders
The new rules also apply in Northern Ireland as a result of the Windsor Framework, but it’s worth noting that some EU legislation still applies.
There are a few ‘reliefs’ available for small producers and draught (e.g. alcohol sold at pubs) following the introduction of the rule.
Details of the new rates can be found on HMRC’s website.
4. Cultivated meat
We’ve been seeing big strides made in cultured meat this year across the globe.
Back in 2020, we saw Singapore lead the way as the first country to go to market with law grown meat, with the US hot on its heels as second earlier this year as the FDA issued approvals to Upside in 2022 and Good Meat in 2023.
Then in July this year we saw the first EU member state – the Netherlands – to give the green light to cultivated meat tastings.
Only recently (November), we saw food tech firm Meatable opening a new facility in the Netherlands – to help scale up the production of cultivated pork by 900%.
The pilot plant based in Leiden is twice the size of its previous lab and office space, enabling the company to increase its bioreactor capacity from 50 litres to 200 litres – with a view to expand this to 500 litres.
Following the Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Act, which passed as law in England earlier this year, the UK Government has also pledged £2bn for engineering biology to boost alternative protein development.
However, not every country is on board with new age meats. Italy recently made the decision to ban the production and marketing of cultured meat products, at the same time as prohibiting the use of meat-related names for plant-based meat alternatives.
Producers will land fines between €10,000 (£8,737) and €60,000 (£52,422) for each violation.
5. FMEA 2024 finalists
The finalists for Food Manufacture’s prestigious awards ceremony have been announced, following the addition of new categories and a refined judging process.
Among returning accolades, the FMEAs introduced the Community Award, the Innovation Award, ESG Excellence Award, Employer of the Year, and Factory Manager of the Year.
For five of the awards (listed below), there was a further level of judging, which saw the entrants presenting in front of a panel:
- Factory Manager of the Year
- Business Leader of the Year
- Employer of the Year
- Future Talent Award
- Food/Beverage Manufacturer of the Year
Each candidate that successfully reached this stage was given 10 minutes to present, with a 10-minute Q&A with the judges.
The list of finalists the 2024 FMEAs can be found here. The winners will be announced at the event on Thursday 8 February at the London Hilton Bankside. Tickets are now on sale and available to purchase here.
All tickets to the Food Manufacture Excellence Awards include:
- Three-course dinner and champagne reception on arrival
- Awards ceremony hosted by celebrity talent
- After party, featuring dancing and entertainment.
6. Electric fleets
With the effects of climate change more visible than ever and ‘being green’ top of the agenda for customers and businesses alike, this year has seen a number of companies turning to electric vehicles (EVs).
PepsiCo has been among the big names to introduce EVs into its UK supply chain, as part of its 2040 net zero goal.
Partnering with freight mobility technology firm, Einride, the EV-powered trucks which have been deployed between the Walkers manufacturing sites in Leicester and Coventry are estimated to save the company over 1,600 tonnes in CO2 emissions.
Meanwhile, retail giant Tesco – which had committed to electric delivery vans back in 2020 with its first EV in Greater London – celebrated its 500th electric van in 2023.
The latest van went into service at the supermarket’s Sheffield Extra store, making it the store the first in Yorkshire to have a fully electric fleet. The store runs 14 home delivery vans, making 2,500 deliveries each week.
Tesco’s fleet of 5,500 home delivery vans deliver to 150,000 customers across the UK every single day. It has reportedly saved as much as 7,500 tonnes in the last three years since its electric roll-out, which serves as part of its commitment to have a fully electric fleet in the UK by 2030.
The summer also saw Welsh cheese maker Mona Dairy unveiling what it claims is the ‘UK’s first’ battery electric vehicle (BEV) tractor and trailer for milk haulage.
The debut of the new electric vehicle is the latest in a string of sustainability investments by the dairy firm, which began with the opening of a new £20m factory on Mona Industrial Park this summer.
Managing director Ronald Akkerman said the introduction of the Volvo BEV HGV tractor and trailer combination will help the business on the road to achieving net zero status.
The move made the company the first UK fresh produce supplier to deliver McDonald’s with an electric HGV and is part of an investment plan that will see it replace its current fleet with energy efficient, third-gen EVs. According to Agrial Fresh Produce, this new fleet will see a 13% improvement in miles per gallon, which it says will translate to an 800-tonne reduction in CO2 by the end of next year.
Following a successful trial in June, leading UK potato supplier Branston announced in November that it would be introducing its first fully electric truck into its fleet.
The permanent addition of a Volvo FM Electric 4x2 truck to its fleet forms part of Branston’s plan to be net zero by 2035.
The company is now training its drivers in EV operation, along with investing in other driver training to ensure that the rest of its fleet is driven as efficiently as possible. It will also be investing into a fast charger at its Scottish site to reduce charging time and to help build in needed infrastructure for its EVs.
7. Government postponements
Whether you see it as a welcome relief or an infuriating nuisance, 2023 has seen several delays and backtracks from the UK Government.
In May 2023, the UK Government announced a major U-turn which would have previously seen retained EU law scrapped by the end of this year.
Retained EU law (REUL) was established to ensure legal continuity immediately after Brexit, by preserving all EU law as it stood immediately before the UK’s departure.
However, a Revocation and Reform Bill allows the UK to amend or replace retained EU law. The original ‘sunset’ in the Bill was, however, replaced earlier in the year with a list of laws that the Government ‘intends to revoke’.
There had previously been concerns over the ‘bonfire’ deadline, with the Food Standards Agency (FSA) being scrutinised for its failure to produce a regulatory framework to replace at-risk EU laws.
Another notable push-backs has been the delay in multibuy deals on foods and drinks high in fat, salt and/or sugar (HFSS).
The policy had already been subject to a delay until October 2023 and June saw the Government announcing a further two-year extension to the new rules as a result of the cost-of-living crisis.
Commenting at the time, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said: “I firmly believe in people’s right to choose – and at a time when household budgets are under continuing pressure from the global rise in food prices, it is not fair for government to restrict the options available to consumers on their weekly shop.”
The health and social care secretary Steve Barclay echoed the UK PM’s sentiments, adding that the Government “remains committed” to tackling obesity and cutting NHS waiting lists.
One month later (July), we witnessed the postponement of the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), which was described by Ecoveritas' head of sustainability & consulting, Kathy Illingworth, as a “bittersweet” move.
Illingworth said the delay should allow Defra to build in more clarity, with the plans having been previously described as hazy by many in the sector. However, she also noted that this was no time for complacency from industry players who had called for the postponement.
“Those which prepare now will benefit from lower fee costs and show a strong brand response,” she added.
The scheme, which will see a producer’s responsibility for packaging extending to the post-consumer stage to help with recycling targets, will be rolled out in October 2025. Although, with a general election geared up for next year, it’s quite possible it could be delayed further.
The summer also saw Scotland delaying its Deposit Return Scheme until at least October 2025.
Circular economy minister Lorna Slater told Parliament this was a result of the UK Government’s refusal to agree a full exclusion from the Internal Market Act.
Prior to this announcement, the UK Government imposed several significant conditions on the scheme, including the removal of glass and the requirement to align aspects of the scheme with programmes across the UK – none of which exist at the moment or have regulations in place.
Following on from this, Scottish ministers concluded that a number of critical elements would be missing as a consequence.
“It is now clear that we have been left with no other option than to delay the launch of Scotland’s DRS, until October 2025 at the earliest based on the UK Government’s current stated aspirations,” Slater remarked at the time.
“This Parliament voted for a Deposit Return Scheme. I am committed to a Deposit Return Scheme. Scotland will have a Deposit Return Scheme. It will come later than need be. It will be more limited than it should be. More limited than Parliament voted for.
“These delays and dilutions lie squarely in the hands of UK Government that has sadly seemed so far more intent on sabotaging this parliament than protecting our environment.”
Later, in August, the UK also saw another delay to UK Brexit checks.
This law will impose border checks on food, animal and plant products coming from the EU and has already been postponed several times.
This latest delay came three years after the introduction of full controls on UK exports into the EU.
Ministers have since promised that the first stage of the UK’s own border operations model will begin in January 2024.
The full regime will be introduced over the course of the next year, with SPS (sanitary and phytosanitary) checks on medium-risk food, animal and plant products from the EU now not coming into force until 30 April, and checks for live animals from the EU due to start in late 2024.
NFU president Minette Batters described the postponement as “hugely frustrating”.
“For the past three years, our farmers have faced the full reach of EU controls on our exports while the EU has enjoyed continued easy access to the UK marketplace,” she said.
“This is not just an issue for competitiveness, with British farmers faced with additional costs and paperwork, but also for our nation’s biosecurity.”


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During its annual staff summit earlier this week, Great Lakes Brewing Co. owners Pat and Dan Conway announced that the company would be starting an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP), giving workers a minority stake in the company.
The Conways made the announcement Monday while presenting the annual “Conway Award” — historically given to a single employee — to all 245 workers of the 30-year-old, Cleveland beer company. News of the ESOP was first reported by the Cleveland Plain-Dealer.
The Conways also had a special beer — Extra Special Opportunity Pils — brewed for the occasion with a label that read: “For freshest taste: Enjoy on this day, May 21, 2018, and for years to come.”
Great Lakes CEO Bill Boor told Brewbound that the ESOP will start “relatively small” with the Conways diluting their ownership stakes annually in order to build the ESOP trust.
“This is more of like a gift from Pat and Dan,” Boor explained. “They’re allowing themselves to be diluted so that the employees can share ownership in Great Lakes.”
According to Boor, the Conways, who had maintained a fifty-fifty ownership stake in the brewery prior to Monday’s announcement, have been considering going the ESOP route for about a decade.
Great Lakes’ ESOP is non-leveraged, meaning the company will make contributions to the program as opposed to a “leveraged” ESOP in which a business borrows money in order to buy back shares from investors.
“This wasn’t designed to be a liquidity event for Pat and Dan,” Boor said. “It wasn’t designed to bring capital into the company. This is 100 percent focused on putting an ESOP in place so that our employees can share in the upside of Great Lakes.”
Cathy Ivancic, an advisor with Workplace Development Inc., which consulted with Great Lakes on the ESOP, described the plan as a “contributory ESOP.”
“It’s an additional benefit, and the company pays for those shares and makes a contribution,” she said.
Ivancic added that the ESOP will not cost anything to employees.
“In fact, at Great Lakes, it’s a contribution in addition to a very generous profit sharing and a 401K match,” she said, noting those benefits will continue.
The value of the stock — and contributions from the Conways this year — will be determined following an end-of-the-year independent valuation. Boor said contributions to employees will be based on a yet-to-be-determined percentage of income. He added that some of the plan’s details — including how long it will take for an employee to become vested — are still being determined.
Great Lakes, which sold about 150,000 barrels of beer in 2017, joins an expanding list of craft brewery owners who have chosen to turn their companies over to employees. Last July, Modern Times Beer Co. announced the implementation of an ESOP, giving the company’s workers a 30 percent stake in the 4-year-old San Diego-headquartered company.
Other beer companies that have taken similar paths include Deschutes, Harpoon Brewery, Left Hand, New Glarus, Alaskan Brewing Co., Voodoo Brewery, Odell Brewing (partial ownership), and New Belgium and Switchback, which are wholly-owned ESOP companies.
Harpoon CEO Dan Kenary has been a vocal proponent of ESOPs and challenged brewers to institute employee-ownership programs during last June’s Brewbound Session.
Boor told Brewbound that Great Lakes consulted with Kenary as well as Odell Brewing and others about the programs. (Harpoon produces Great Lakes’ canned products.)
“Dan sent us an email last night welcoming us to the club,” Boor said. “They’ve been a model for us.”
The announcement of the ESOP comes two months after Great Lakes announced the purchase of eight acres of land on the Scranton Peninsula, which the company has earmarked for a potential brewery project.
A sale price for the property was not disclosed, but Boor called the investment “significant.” A timeline for the project has not been set, but Boor added that finding a way to do the ESOP without taking on debt was important.
“We’ve got some big strategic decisions in front of Great Lakes that if we decide to go forward with them are going to need a healthy balance sheet,” he said. “So we found a way to get into the ESOP world without levering up our balance sheet and cutting up any strategic options.”


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Trader Joe's set for October opening in Coralville's Iowa River Landing
Coralville's new Trader Joe's grocery store is slated to open this fall, the Iowa River Landing announced Wednesday.
In a post to Facebook, the district announced the store, planned for the southeast corner of Interstate 80 and First Avenue, is expected to welcome shoppers in October.
"We know a lot of you are anxious to know when the new Trader Joe's will be opening," the post said, also noting that there are "more details coming soon."
The store's opening was first announced this past November. That announcement said the store will be about 13,000 square feet and is being built through a partnership between San Diego-based OliverMcMillan and Iowa City's Hodge Construction.
The Coralville store will be the second in Iowa, joining the 6305 Mills Civic Parkway location in West Des Moines that opened in 2010.
PREVIOUSLY:Trader Joe's to open Coralville store
Trader Joe's carries imported foods and beverages, including artisan breads, Arabica bean coffees, international frozen entrees, 100 percent juices, fresh crop nuts, deli items and vitamins as well as staples like milk and eggs.
The store also carries more than 3,000 items under its own private labels like Trader Jose's, Trader Ming’s and Trader Giotto’s. In its announcement, the company said it purchases from manufacturers more often than from distributors.
Wednesday's announcement comes days after another grocery store chain, Hy-Vee, announced it expects to begin work this fall on a planned store at the southeast corner of Forevergreen and Crosspark roads near Coralville's border with North Liberty.
Reach Andy Davis at 319-887-5404 or at email@example.com, and follow him on Twitter as @BylineAndyDavis.


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Bercow Radell Fernandez & Larkin is pleased to represent a number of clients that are transforming Washington Avenue:
Imperial Property, Moxy, Clay Hotel—Infinity Group, Washington Squared, Kimpton Angler’s Hotel, 1600 Washington Avenue—Paul Cejas, and 1685 Washington Avenue—Finvarb Group.
But 20 years later, after developers zeroed in on Ocean Drive, West Avenue and Lincoln Road, Washington Avenue looks like the proverbial cake left out in the rain — a tacky tangle of boarded-up storefronts, tattoo parlors, liquor stores, porn shops and enough cell phone repair businesses to service a small country.
Today, Washington Avenue is primarily a street people drive through in order to get where they’re going. But after nearly three years of research and planning, the City of Miami Beach is making an aggressive move to reactivate the area.
In April, the commission approved a resolution designating the stretch of Washington Ave from Fifth to 17th streets as a Business Improvement District (BID). The resolution creates a tax fund paid by developers and business owners in the area for improvement and beautification projects. The BID designation will be active for a period of 10 years.
The signs of major change are already visible throughout Washington Avenue. The facades of some historical buildings face the sidewalk like backdrops from a movie set while construction churns in the lot behind them. Many of the businesses between Ninth and 10th Streets have been shuttered, awaiting a gut renovation.
The first wave of development will bring hotels and retail complexes, with residential and office spaces to follow. The non-profit BID has an annual budget of $511,331 and will be bankrolled by special assessments levied on the properties within the District.
The new proposal isn’t the first attempt to revive Washington Avenue. Among several previous efforts, the most notable came in 2005, when city officials launched a 16-month, $13 million makeover of the street that included drainage improvements, roadway resurfacing and new streetlights.
But the current push differs from previous renovations by relaxing height and density restrictions — giving developers greater incentive to invest in more expensive projects. The new projects under construction or in development include:
▪ A new hotel spanning the east side of Washington Avenue from Sixth to Seventh streets. The south end of the building will offer about 300 hotel rooms in a seven-story tower; the north end will feature two floors of retail and restaurants. The project will sprawl over five aggregated lots bought by the New York-based Imperial Properties for $32.75 million in 2015 as Washington Squared LLC. Completion is scheduled for early 2020.
Architectural rendering of the north end of the 300-unit hotel being built on Washington Avenue between Sixth and Seventh Streets. The north end of the building will feature two floors of retail.
▪ Moxy South Beach, a 202-unit, seven-story boutique hotel that will take up most of the city block between Ninth and 10th streets on the east side of Washington Avenue. The New York-based Lightstone Group paid $29 million in 2016 for three properties at 917, 945 and 955 Washington Avenue. Groundbreaking is scheduled for later this year.
▪ Another hotel stretching across two existing lots at 1409-1413 Washington Avenue. Acastar Miami LLC bought the properties for $5.2 million in 2017.
▪ Ongoing renovations and expansions at two existing budget hotels, the budget Clay Hotel at 1434 Washington Ave. and the boutique Clinton Hotel at 825 Washington Ave.
▪ Two commercial developments, one at 709-729 Washington by Washington Squared LLC and another at 1427 Washington by Guimel Kodesh LLC, that will feature a combination of retail and restaurants.
▪ A five-story addition to the Kimpton Angler’s Hotel South Beach at 660 Washington Avenue that opened just last week. The structure adds 85 guest rooms ranging in size from 400-1,000 square feet to the existing hotel, bringing the total number of units to 132. Nightly rates start at $255.
The new wing of the Kimpton Angler’s South Beach hotel, located on the southwest corner of Washington Ave. and Sixth Street, is opening this week and features 85 rooms ranging from 400-1,000 square feet.
Two other major projects pending review are expected to be approved, said Debbie Tackett, chief of the Miami Beach Historic Preservation Board, are expected to be approved: A “major residential project” at 1600 Washington and another hotel at 1685 Washington, which currently houses a Citibank branch.
“Our hope is the work we’ve been doing will move Washington Avenue in the opposite direction than the one it’s been going,” said Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber. “Washington Avenue went into an abyss for a few years. It’s going to take a lot of investment to bring it back to where it needs to be. But a lot of private developers see what it is — a beautiful, wide street which should embrace business activity. It needs to be more than dark, vacant stores and surf shops.”
A master plan
While Washington Avenue fixtures such as the Wolfsonian-FIU Museum, the Miami Beach Cinematheque, the 11th Street Diner and the gay bar Twist have weathered the area’s downturn, city officials believe the street has great, untapped potential to serve as a common area for the residents who live to the west and the tourists staying at hotels on Collins and Ocean Drive to the east.
A Washington Avenue Vision and Master Plan was created by a Blue Ribbon Panel formed in 2015 to recommend zoning and city service changes to improve the area. The changes raise height restrictions to 75 feet (roughly seven stories) for buildings with sidewalk frontage greater than 200 feet, waive sidewalk permit fees for cafes and eliminate parking requirements for hotels and small office developments.
“Washington Avenue is like the hole in the doughnut,” said Blue Ribbon Panel member Lyle Stern, president of Koniver Stern Group consulting firm. “We have lots of tourists and residents straddling both sides of the avenue. The difficulty is populating it with businesses. Tourists enjoy Washington Avenue — it’s reminiscent of the Village in New York City 30 years ago, with all the head shops and boutiques and novelty stores — but it still needs to be cleaned up.”
A seven-story, 300-room hotel spanning a city block between Sixth and Seventh Streets along Washington Avenue, is currently under construction and due for completion in late 2020.
Eric Birnbaum, a founding partner with Imperial Companies, said the Sixth street hotel will incorporate the existing facades of the buildings from the 1920s and 30s that previously stood on the block. All of the new developments on Washington are respecting the requirements of the city’s Historic Preservation Board.
“Washington Avenue has a lot of character, which gives the neighborhood a bit of an edge,” Birnbaum said. “We see that as an opportunity. If you look at some of the most popular neighborhoods in New York — the Lower East Side or the Meat Packing District — they had a certain edge when developers started building there.”
Guest rooms at the Sixth street hotel will measure around 175-200 square feet — 20-25 percent smaller than the rooms at the Delano and the Shore Club, he said. But experts say the higher density facilitated by the new zoning laws on Washington Avenue means more units in smaller buildings — something that will generate the critical mass needed to revive the neighborhood.
Smaller can be better
The population of Miami Beach is so transient that many locals weren’t around during Washington Avenue’s heyday in the 1990s. Back then, Prince performed impromptu jam sessions at the cavernous Glam Slam disco, which he also owned. Madonna was a fixture at Liquid, the dance club where she hosted the release party of her “Ray of Light” album. Mickey Rourke opened an eponymous night spot, Mickey’s. Sean Penn and Simply Red singer Mick Hucknall were co-owners of the funky lounge Bash.
Rock bands performed live nightly at venues such as Washington Square and Rose’s Bar and Music Lounge. Fourteen of the 24 South Beach nightclubs surveyed in a 1994 Herald nightlife guide were on Washington Avenue. Restaurants such as The Strand, Lulu’s, Tiramesu and Osteria del Teatro (now on Collins Avenue) enjoyed devoted clienteles. Gianni Versace had come to Miami Beach to personally approve the new window display at his Washington Avenue store when he was fatally shot outside his Ocean Drive home in 1997.
On Nov. 18, 1997, a morning shopper trudged past the Versace billboard that shows more flesh than fashion outside the Versace store at 755 Washington Avenue in Miami Beach. The store has since closed.
City officials concede that it will take a while before Washington Avenue will command that level of activity again.
“These are major developments that will take at least 24 months to complete,” said Miami Beach Commissioner John Elizabeth Alemán. “You will see Washington Avenue blossom during that time frame. In the 1990s, there were lots of great bars and nightclubs on this street.
Washington Avenue wasn’t vibrant during the day, but at night it would light up. Then a competitive nightlife scene began in Miami and a lot of the nightclubs moved there. Over time, Washington Avenue started to look derelict.”
Alemán points out that some of Washington Avenue’s current tenants have appeal beyond the surrounding blocks. For example, the Miami Tattoo Co., located at 1218 Washington, was votedBest Body-Piercing Shop in 2017 by the Miami New Times, and Alemán said the store provides important services, such as the free removal of tattoo brandings for victims of human trafficking.
But Miami Beach Commissioner Ricky Arriola said the sheer volume of liquor stores, tattoo parlors and cell phone repair stores dotting Washington Avenue needs to be reduced in order to attract bigger tenants to the street.
“We’re trying to prevent retail that would scare off bigger tenants on Washington, Collins and Ocean,” Arriola said. “We need progressive legislation to create an environment that would bring better tenants to the area who don’t want to be next door to a tattoo parlor or a tarot card reader.”
Business owners and managers on Washington Avenue said they welcome the influx of customers the hotels will likely bring but worry their stores might be priced out of the neighborhood. Andrew Resnick of Resnick and Associates, a firm with substantial real estate holdings in Miami Beach, said the current rent rates on Washington Avenue range from $50-$70 per square foot — a bargain compared to Lincoln Road’s asking price of $300 per square foot.
Aiman Jamhour owns Amigo Wireless, a small phone store on the 700 block of Washington Avenue. His street already shows signs of a neighborhood in transition: A liquor store, tattoo parlor and smoke shop are wedged between tourist-friendly restaurants.
Jamhour said he “can’t complain” about sales. His store sees a steady stream of tourists looking for pre-paid phone plans to use while they’re visiting Florida and locals coming to buy a new phone or repair an old one. While panhandling is common in the area, the rent is about 30 percent cheaper than it is above Ninth Street, Jamhour said. His landlord has already warned that — with the new development in the area — his rent will likely go up to market value in a few years.
“Even if it goes to market value, if there’s a difference, if there’s action, movement in this block, it wouldn’t matter,” he said, referring to the increase in foot traffic he expects from the new hotels.
But while Jamhour and his neighbors see the need to revitalize the area, they also fear the city is trying to turn Washington Avenue into Bal Harbour.
“Higher-end clients wouldn’t shop in a small store like mine,” Jamhour said. “In five years or seven years, I think if it keeps going up in terms of prices and the hotels and stuff, small stores like mine won’t survive.”
Khandokar Islam, manager of the Friendz Food Market on the corner of Ninth Street and Washington Avenue, said he’s optimistic the addition of two new hotels near his grocery store on South Beach will be good for business.
Two blocks north, at Friendz Food Market on the corner of Ninth Street and Washington Avenue, manager Khandokar Islam was more optimistic. His grocery store, a “friends and family business” selling food, beer and beach supplies, has been struggling to compete with national chains.
“There’s a lot of competition,” he said. “Everywhere is a 7-Eleven, CVS, Walgreens. They are killing the small businesses.”
Islam hoped the hotel slated to move in next door would make the neighborhood more upscale. He worried that security concerns were driving customers away. At night, a tourist was more likely to go to a CVS or Walgreens, where there’s a security guard, than a mom-and-pop grocery store, he reasoned. “If you want to build up this area it’s okay,” he said.
– Rene Rodriguez and Kyra Gurney


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The COVID-19 pandemic and the recent oil price collapse has evidenced once again Colombia’s heavy reliance on oil exports. Will the implementation of paperless trade and an Internet of rules prepare Colombian economy to a Post-COVID-19 Global Economic Rebound?
Colombia tested positive for oil-dependence
After the first case of coronavirus was confirmed on early March, the Colombian government issued Decree 457 of 2020 that introduced a national lockdown for slowing the spread of the coronavirus. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Colombia’s central bank has forecasted that the Colombian economy will contract by between 2 and 7 per cent. In fact, according to Colombia’s National Statistics Department, the economic shutdown associated with the pandemic has affected the Colombian exportations that presented last March a decrease of 28.5 percent decrease compared to March 2019. As the bulk of the export slowdown was mainly explained by a 52 percent plunge of fuels and other extractive exports, the pandemic is reiterating a constant diagnosis of the Colombian economy: it has a high dependence on oil exports.
To avoid that the coronavirus disruption and the price war in the oil market turns the Colombian economy more vulnerable, the Colombian government should aim its efforts in reverting oil dependency as these exports account for 39.0% of the total FOB value of exports. However, instead of selecting winners and losers through industrial policy, Colombia should accelerate the digital transformation of trade for making more competitive its non-oil exportations in the global markets. This include developing paperless customs declaration systems as well as developing an Internet of rules.
Digital Healing – Enhancing Export Competitiveness through paperless trade
According to the 2020 World Bank’s indicator of “Trading across Borders” that refers to the time and costs associated with the logistical process of exporting and importing goods, Colombia ranks in 133 out of 190 countries. In comparison to other Latin American countries, Colombia performed worse than Peru, Mexico, Brazil and Argentina. In fact, as evidenced in Figure 1, in every indicator of the Trading across Borders, it was found that exporting is more expensive in Colombia in comparison to the average country in Latin America and that either export from or importing to Colombia takes longer than the average Latin-American country.
Considering the extensive time of cross border trade in Colombia and that as Groenfeldt (2017) findings suggest that the cost of the trade-related paperwork processing is estimated to be between 15 percent and 50 percent of the costs of physical transport, the implementation of a national policy to ensure that the border agency procedures are more transparent, direct and efficient, fostering better conditions of competitiveness of national goods is considered necessary for the Government of Colombia.
Blockchain could promote not only a paperless trade but an intelligent logistics chain that provides solutions in this complex ecosystem characterized by a variety and volume of actors, transactions, operations and rules. For instance, blockchain could allow the development of digital document transfer mechanisms that facilitate the traceability of the cargo, thus facilitating document management. It can also bring advantages for authorities given that transactions are observed in real time, improving the quality of information for the exercise of risk management. In this sense, Cram-Martos (2018) finds that having transactions recorded in a blockchain contributes to the digitization of transactions and reduces the number of physical documents, printed certificates, and reports for its purely digital version.
Not an easy road
Although the transition to a paperless trade in Colombia seems as the obvious response to make Colombian exports more competitive, it is not possible to anticipate a rapid transformation due to the heterogeneous levels of internet penetration in Colombia. While in Bogota, the capital city of Colombia, only 9 percent of the population does not have access to broadband internet, in the rural areas of Colombia the 30 percent of the households do not count with broadband internet.
In concrete according to Colombia’s National Statistics Department and the Ministry of Information Technologies and Communications (2018), 93 per cent of the total population centres do not have 4G infrastructure, 88 per cent do not have 3G infrastructure and 75 per cent do not count with 2G infrastructure.
However, the recent spectrum auction, held at the end of 2019, is expected to improve rural connectivity.
In the words of Jorge Barrera, Director of Communications Industry of the Ministry of Information and Communications Technologies,
“the spectrum auction will provide coverage to 3658 rural localities in 5 year and will upgrade the mobile telecommunication networks of for municipalities with less than 100 thousand inhabitants to 4G in 4 years. For this reason, the 4G coverage in rural areas is expected to increase from 9.71% to 78.6% in 5 years.”
Developing an Internet of Rules
Considering the digital gap, Colombia could still benefit from the implementation of an Internet of Rules. The “Internet of Rules” (IoR) represents an evolution of the architecture of “code as law”, as it implies not only the enforcement and provision of options but also the design of executable, digital, versions of laws that are published on the internet in a standard way (Atkinson, 2018).
Atkinson (2018) mentions that an IoR could use cellular networks in order to reach users that do not have access to the Internet or a device that allows them to connect to it, a situation that is not only common in least developed countries but also in Colombia. Users could consult and apply rules through SMS and mobile phone connected to a cellular network “via back-end systems connected to the Internet” (Atkinson, 2018). Also, an IoR will not have the interoperability problems that blockchains face, as these rules are accessible with almost any computer system”.
As a lack of clarity of tariffs and cross-border related regulation hinders MSMEs in effectively connect into local and global value chains, MSMEs could rely on an IoR in order to estimate ex-ante costs of export, in order to determine whether trade would be financially feasible or not.
Competitive digital economy for Colombia
Despite the early stage of development, embracing blockchain and an internet of rules could help diversifying the Colombian economy. The diversification could result not of developing industrial policy but by making it non-oil exports more competitive by achieving reduction in delays and costs through predictable and efficient movement cross-border procedures and logistic.
According to Daniel Gomez, Deputy Director of the Development National Planning Department of Colombia
“The double shock of covid and falling commodity prices has made it ever more urgent to accelerate policies to diversify Colombian exports. As this note argues, digital technologies and digital transformation will be critical for improving competitiveness of non-traditional exports and reducing vulnerability to external shocks. Colombia recently approved the national digital transformation and artificial intelligence policy, and will soon launch a new entrepreneurship, e-commerce, and digital confidence and security policies. A National task force on internationalization, with the participation of national and international experts, will help accelerate implementation of these policies as well as the identification of key reforms to consolidate recovery and long-term growth.”
However, while Colombia and many other developing countries may face some constraints in the implementation of blockchain technologies given limited internet penetration, the rapid increase in mobile penetration is as a gateway to these new and disruptive technologies. Given the future development of broadband mobile internet the automated mobile friendly and algorithm version of trade rules offered by an IoR could enable exporters to better understand regulations and apply the rules if they seek to engage in international trade. Lastly, with competitive digital economy Colombia will be able to plan for post-pandemic recovery and strengthen regional economies to adopt smart solutions linked to the Internet of Things that allow them to compete in global value chains.
ARTICLE: April 6, 2020 – The Day Trade Finance Went From Paper to Paperless
This article was written by a member of TFG’s 2020 International Trade Professionals Programme. Find out more here.
Disclaimer: The views that have been expressed on this page are that of the author, which may or may not be in line with their company, Trade Finance Global or London Institute of Banking and Finance’s view.


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T-Mobile US will pay at least $90 million to settle a Federal Communications Commission suit that alleged it looked the other way while third parties charged T-Mobile subscribers for services they didn't want.
Microsoft wants to help Android, iOS and Windows apps run offline as well as online, offering a way to improve app responsiveness and functionality when network coverage is bad or non-existent.
Uber is suspending its service in Portland, Oregon, for the next three months while city regulators there work to reframe local laws around taxis and car hailing apps.
Line, the messaging app from Japan, has acquired MixRadio, the free music-streaming service Microsoft gained through its Nokia acquisition, the companies announced Thursday.
Uber, in 2015, is resolving to make its car hailing service safer, partly by enhancing its driver screening through the use of biometrics and voice verification.
The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has filed a lawsuit accusing Sprint of illegally billing mobile customers for tens of millions[m] of dollars in unauthorized third-party charges.
Instagram's got five new filters that it hopes will improve people's smartphone photos by changing them less.
BT Group has entered exclusive talks to buy U.K. mobile operator EE for 12.5 billion pounds (US$19.5 billion), a deal that would help the carrier offer bundles of mobile and fixed services.
Android apps really do use those permissions they ask for to access users' personal information: one online store records a phone's location up to 10 times a minute, French researchers have found. The tools to manage such access are limited, and inad...
A successful iPhone 6 launch in the U.S. helped Apple increase its share of the smartphone market in the third quarter, but nemesis Samsung Electronics struggled, with upstart Chinese manufacturers nipping at its heels and growing ever stronger.
There's a new ride-sharing app in town that actually lives up to its name.
For all those times on Facebook when a "like" just doesn't cut it, the company is thinking about adding more options, though probably not "dislike."
While many activities have migrated online, Facebook is still eager to know how its users shop in physical stores.
IBM and Apple have unveiled the first results of their enterprise IT partnership: 10 mobile applications aimed at businesses in six industries as well as government users.
The updates Microsoft has made to its Intune PC and device management service this week are partly catching up to other MDM systems with features like containers for apps and files, a managed browser and bulk enrollment for iOS devices. But they also...
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Nuneaton’s first ever food and drink festival attracted an almost 50 per cent increase in people visiting the town.
Figures have shown that footfall in the town centre was 43 per cent up on Sunday compared to the previous Sunday – and that is down to the event.
Folk flocked to Queens Road on Sunday to make the most of the 40 stalls who had set-up, offering everything from curries to cocktails.
Now even more could be planned according to jubilant councillor Julie Jackson, Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council leader, who said: "Sunday's event was amazing.
"The town centre was buzzing all day long and footfall was up 43 per cent on the previous Sunday.
"I am delighted that the event was such a huge success and so well received by residents and visitors."
"I think the company’s passion and dynamism really came through on Sunday- the quality and range of the products on offer was absolutely outstanding," she said.
"I know that the company is delighted with turnout and the CEO has already been in touch this morning to discuss the possibility of future events – apparently the feedback from traders and visitors was superb.
“After such a successful day we’re confident in the knowledge that Nuneaton is a perfect location for large scale events of this nature and we can promise that there will be more to come.”
She went on that the firm who ran the festival, CJ’s Events Warwickshire Ltd, was so impressed that further events could be planned.
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Until a few years ago, the Rolls-Royce product portfolio revolved around one model line, and that was the Phantom. But with the launch of the Ghost in 2010, the Goodwood-based automaker is expanding further. As with the Phantom line, a long-wheelbase Ghost ensued, followed by a coupe in the form of the Wraith. And now, as might have been expected, Rolls-Royce has reportedly confirmed development of a new convertible based on the same platform.
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Nintendo of Europe have announced the last downloadable titles set to release across their WiiWare and DSiWare services, including reaction-based puzzle title ThruSpace: High Velocity 3D Puzzle for WiiWare and Popcap’s ever popular word-based brain teaser Bookworm on DSiWare.
The full list, all due to be available on November 5th, is as follows:
* ThruSpace: High Velocity 3D Puzzle, Nintendo – 800 Wii Points
* Bookworm, PopCap – 500 Nintendo DSi Points
* GO Series: Fatal Blow, GAMEBRIDGE – 200 Nintendo DSi Points
* Rytmik Rock Edition, Cinemax – 800 Nintendo DSi Points
CoroCoro Leaks New Ultra Beasts In Pokémon Sun And Moon
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TikTok moves on e-commerce | WARC | The Feed
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TikTok moves on e-commerce
Evolution of retail
In a move that will intensify its challenge to Facebook and quicken the trend of blending social media with e-commerce, TikTok has begun trialing in-app shopping in Europe.
TikTok’s parent company ByteDance will be hoping to mirror the huge success of TikTok’s Chinese equivalent, Douyin, which reportedly ran up $26 billion of online sales in its first year of operating.
- TikTok has started working with sellers in several European markets, including the UK, to test ways of selling directly to the millions who use the short-video app.
- It has run a number of shopping campaigns previously, notably last year through collaborations with Walmart and Shopify, but the current tests by TikTok are said to be a run-up to launching a global in-app shopping service.
- News of the venture comes as major social media players globally are racing to capture a share of an online commerce market that, according to projections by eMarketer, will be worth $5 trillion in 2021. Facebook brought in improvements last year aimed at enhancing the shopping experience on its platform and on Instagram; Pinterest has also moved into e-commerce by directing buyers to sellers’ sites.
“TikTok has a lot of learnings from China and Douyin, but the dynamics and infrastructure in the international market are different so they need to make sure they [adapt]. “ Rui Ma, partner with Synaptic Ventures.
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Bitcoin is now eight years old, but finding real economy uses for the underlying blockchain technology has been slow. However, thanks to the rise of Ethereum, the largest computing platform for blockchain technology, and more industry-focused start-ups and consortiums such as Ripple and R3, blue chip companies like Walmart and Santander are beginning to understand the value of blockchain. The core driver of this interest in blockchain is the ability to reduce logistical costs, prevent fraud and eliminate legal disputes through a transparent, immutable and decentralized record of transactions.
Microsoft has also launched its blockchain-as-a-service product, Ethereum Consortium Blockchain Network, making the technology accessible to the mass market and helping industries work more easily together.
What is blockchain?
- Blockchain (distributed ledger): An enormous database that enables the creation of a digital ledger of transactions to be shared among participating parties. Transactions must be verified and approved against each party’s stored copy before it can be added as a permanent record.
- Who makes the decisions? Each blockchain is underpinned by a “smart contract,” which holds the rules for processing any transactions made between participating parties.
- What is a smart contract? A contract written in software code.
No software is iron-clad
As a new technology, questions regarding security and transparency of blockchains have hampered more rapid adoption. Like all software, smart contracts are prone to bugs and vulnerabilities that hackers can exploit.
Recently, a hacker exploited a loophole in the smart contract of an Ethereum-based capital venture fund, known as a decentralised autonomous organization (DAO), which led to the theft of ether cryptocurrency. To mitigate the risk of fraud, the company held all transacted currency for a month before paying out, enabling it to implement a “hard fork,” a protocol that makes previously invalid blocks and transactions valid, and requiring all users to upgrade. Because of the implementation, investors’ losses were restored and the smart contract was updated.
This event revealed that blockchains are not immutable to risk, but can be amended if all parties agree to a change. Knowing that there is a solution to software bugs in smart contracts is crucial for the development of blockchain technology, as the inability to fix these bugs would surely alienate most businesses. However, the risk of loopholes in smart contracts somewhat undermines the argument that blockchain offers security through immutability. In fact, the U.S. Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) warned of the possible risk of fraud if a small group of financial companies were to engage in collusion against the remaining parties.
As a new technology, creators of smart contracts must rely on a relatively small pool of examples to write new ones, leading other smart contracts to the same vulnerability as DAO. Moving in this direction before vulnerabilities are discovered could expose early adopters to very costly learning experiences, but the long-term cost of fixing vulnerabilities will be much lower than the labour cost of processing and managing large amounts of transactions. Santander estimates that blockchain technology could cut the costs of processing cross-border payments and regulatory compliance by up to USD20B annually by 2022.
Changing to a new system is time consuming and requires agreement on a myriad of issues between parties, including regulators who have traditionally been slow to adapt to new technologies. Thus, the application of blockchain technology in the financial sector, the area where there is the biggest hype, is just beginning to take shape:
- Barclays executed a global trade transaction over blockchain technology in partnership with start-up Wave in September 2016.
- Santander piloted use of distributed ledger technology to process international payments through a mobile app, which can connect to Apply Pay, in June 2016. In September, Santander confirmed that it was working with Ether.camp on a project to allow customers to convert money from their bank accounts into Ether on a live public blockchain.
- Bank of America Merill Lynch, Royal Bank of Canada, Santander, UniCredit, Standard Chartered and Westpac Banking Corp are the founding members of Global Payments Steering Group, which has partnered with blockchain start-up Ripple to develop a rules-based blockchain payments network.
- Monetary Authority of Singapore announced in November 2016 its plan to launch a pilot project with the local stock exchange and eight local and foreign banks to use distributed ledgers for interbank payments.
These early moves show a promising level of cooperation between financial institutions, regulators and financial services blockchain software companies; however, the application of blockchain technologies in financial services is limited for the following reasons:
- Every node processing transactions must have total transparency, which will make it a deal-breaker for more sensitive services where a centralized database can offer greater security.
- Every node must keep a record of every transaction. Processing high frequency trading services on blockchain would consume too much computing power to be efficient, at least in the near term.
Will DAOs replace traditional businesses?
The bigger risk for companies across all sectors is that new DAOs will compete more effectively against established market players that rely heavily on people for logistical, legal, human resources and customer services management. A DAO can leverage multiple smart contracts to manage agreements with multiple stakeholders, functioning automatically without a need for human intervention. For instance, the company, Slock.it, uses smart contracts, distributed ledgers and the internet of things (IoT) to allow users to rent anything to anyone, processing all the lending and insurance agreements on the Ethereum blockchain.
Slock.it and other similar ventures will not necessarily replace players in the sharing economy, but may instead gain traction by partnering with them to improve the logistics of their businesses, benefiting existing businesses and consumers. In a more traditional example of partnership between software provider and customer, Walmart will implement a blockchain platform developed by IBM to manage its supply chain for pork in China to improve transparency and address issues relating to food safety in the country. In these examples, blockchain technology is helping to make existing systems more efficient, but it is not unrealistic to think that independent DAOs, or decentralised autonomous corporations (DACs), would be able to eliminate the need for the lawyers, accountants and bureaucrats whose role it is to confirm the trustworthiness and legal standing of contracts between parties.
Blockchain technology is also being considered for identity and personal data management. The ability to use blockchain to restrict access to identity or medical data to “trusted gatekeepers,” such as notaries public, lawyers, governments, insurance providers, is an attractive prospect in a world where it is difficult to confirm the use and authenticity of personal data. This is exactly what Ethereum start-up KYC-Chain aims to do.
It is also believed by some that the ability to keep personal data private without having to exclude yourself from social networks and other online activity could have a major disruptive impact on internet companies like Google and Facebook that rely on individuals’ data to power their advertising models.
Organizational and people implications
Blockchain has the potential to have a profound impact on organizational design, people, and how organizations view themselves. As work gets disaggregated and artificial intelligence replaces some “brain-based” roles that were historically considered less susceptible to automation, blockchain can hasten the emergence of the networked organization, reduce transaction costs, drive greater efficiency and require fewer layers in the organization.
In addition, blockchain has implications for traditional finance and accounting functions, such as accounting and treasury, to rethink how people conduct their work and the need to develop new skills that will enable them to engage with blockchain. Organizationally, it could also result in the creation of new roles or a new function that sits across IT security, finance and accounting.
Finally, business leaders will need to better understand the potential of this technology and the impact it has on the ecosystems they lead.
The “killer apps” for blockchain technology have finally started to take shape, though it remains to be seen whether the technology is flexible and secure enough to live up to its potential as a huge time saver in processing legal and financial transactions. The vulnerability in Ethereum-based DAOs smart contracts highlights a risk that many new adopters of distributed ledgers will face, with other snags likely to emerge as the platform grows. But the bigger risk is that the technology will evolve to supplant businesses as we know them. Borrowing from Bill Gates, although blockchain may not overhaul businesses in two years, we should not underestimate what it could do in 10.
Click here to learn more about comprehensive cybersecurity from Willis Towers Watson.
This post was co-written by Shankar Raman. Shankar is a Director with Willis Towers Watson. With close to 20 years of experience, Shankar has helped organizations around the world improve performance and accelerate growth through more effective strategy execution and capability development.


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The consultancy came through a pitch three weeks ago and has now delivered the work with billboards and press ads launching from today UK-wide, before an on-screen campaign on 11 July, ahead of the season’s launch on 20 July.
Omar Honigh, managing partner at Studio Hansa, has led the campaign based on the understanding that fans of the show are ‘passionate, knowledgeable and fervent collectors’ he says.
Visuals have been produced without Photoshop, says Honigh, who commissioned specially tailored suits so ‘fans’ appear in ‘half work-wear and half-Trekkie – perfectly divided down the middle.’
Honigh says it is hoped that the look and the message of the campaign will encourage younger viewers to watch the show.
This is the first campaign to be launched by the studio, which was set up in March by Honigh, who left Kemistry where he was managing director.
Honigh, who owns a vineyard, said at the time he has ambitions to specialise in wine branding.