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Public Bank has partnered with Petron Malaysia to launch two new co-brand cards namely, PB-Petron Visa Gold Credit Card and PB-Petron Visa Debit Card.
The new cards will offer customers up to 5% cash rebate on fuel purchases at over 560 Petron stations nationwide.
The PB-Petron Visa Gold Credit Card will provide unlimited 0.5% cash megabonus on other retail purchases and complementary personal accident insurance.
With this card, new-to-bank card members will be able to enjoy a one-time 0% interest balance transfer under a 12-month tenure plan.
The PB-Petron Visa Debit Card will offer 1% savings on their fuel purchases at Petron stations and unlimited 0.5% Cash MegaBonus on other retail purchases.
As part of the partnership, Public Bank Berhad has been running a three-month campaign since 1 April 2015 under which the first 900 qualified card members will get free fuel at Petron stations.
Public Bank Berhad senior COO Dato’ Chang Kat Kiam said: "This partnership will generate loyal customers to Public Bank and Petron while customers enjoy great rewards and savings with the new co-brand cards. It is a win-win situation for every party."


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Is Business Ready For The ‘Internet Of Assets’?
For the first time in history there are more active mobile connections in the world than there are people on the planet.
Digital analyst GSMA Intelligence’s real-time device tracker estimates that there are now more than 7.28 billion active mobile connections globally compared to 7.20 billion humans as per the US Census Bureau’s world population clock. What is more, these gadgets are multiplying 5 times faster than we are.
These intriguing statistics are not just about smartphones. They represent the interconnection of all sorts of uniquely identifiable devices [including M2M connections] across the worldwide internet infrastructure. It’s about the ‘Internet of Things’ [IoT] and the ‘Internet of Everything’ [IoE].
What is clear is that consumer products are spearheading this trend – we love our smartphones and tablets, our streaming media, and our wearables. Soon we’ll be living in smart cities with smart services. In many respects we are even giving up our privacy in return for real-time intelligence about our lives.
But what about business and the ‘Internet of Assets’?
As a market, we’ve reached several important milestones. We have the technology building blocks in place. The cost of entry is coming down. It has the potential to revolutionise every aspect of enterprise asset management [EAM]. Industry events like RFID Journal LIVE! showcase an array of stories about technology trials and early-stage implementations. But compared to the consumer market, we’ve been somewhat slow and unimaginative on the uptake.
We at Relegen believe business needs to shift its obsession with the technology [such as RFID tag form factor and cost] and focus on how to create value from the data and insights generated by it.
We need to spend our time exploring the ways it can be applied to make our businesses not only run better, faster, safer but value-creating activities that deliver differentiation and brand new ways of doing things.
Only when we are less defined by the technology and driven more by what it can accomplish, will we begin to unlock the true potential of the ‘Internet of Assets’ [IoA] and the power of enterprise asset intelligence [EAI].

domain: news


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The Scottish Motor Trade Association (SMTA) has gained confirmation that car dealers are permitted to continue with click and sales amid tighter COVID-19 lockdown regulations announced yesterday.
SMTA chief executive Sandy Burgess said that he was “delighted” to receive confirmation from the Scottish Government that the car retail sector would be able to continue selling vehicles as the country continues to battle the pandemic.
Speaking to AM this morning (January 14) Burgess said: “I am delighted to receive the news. It's a sensible and pragmatic outcome. Some members are relying onclick and collect right now, while others don’t want to do it, but this clarification ensures that the option is still there and that’s vital for the sector as a whole.”
A memo received by Burgess last night delivered clarification of the new lockdown ruling in Scotland, announced by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon yesterday. It stated:
- Outdoor car lots are currently essential retail in level 4.
- Current stay at home requirements are that you should only leave your home for an essential purpose. As has always been the case for areas in level 4 people should not be going to car lots to browse for vehicles that are not required.
- New regulations coming into force on Saturday mean that people will only be able to go to a dealership to collect a purchased vehicle or to deliver or collect a vehicle for a repair, service or MOT.
People in Scotland face further lockdown restrictions from Saturday, which will see rules around takeaway and click and collect services tightened.
However, car dealerships have been classified shops selling essential items - such as clothing, footwear, baby equipment, homeware and books - which are still allowed to offer click and collect.
News of the continuation of click and collect in Scotland could provide reassurance for retailers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland after reports yesterday of a widespread move to axe such sales for anything other than supermarkets.
Burgess said that he acknowledged Sturgeon’s move to tighten click and collect sales for many retail outlets had been motivated by a desire to tackle the issue of people congregating outside stores.
He agreed that there was “absolutely no comparison to be made between to car dealership and a high street store like Argos”, and said: “I think (Nicola Sturgeon) understands that. Our members are providing a safe, outdoor service via scheduled appointments. The aim of the new legislation is to stop queues, congregations of people, particularly indoors.”
Burgess said that allowing click and collect in car retail would make part-exchanges safer, allowing cars to be delivered by a customer and set-aside for a period of time, rather than driven away following a vehicle delivery.
He also acknowledged the current role automotive retailers serve in helping to mobilise the nation. He said: “People are being urged to be mobile to go and be immunised with the vaccinations right now, but deterred from using public transport.
“Private transport and our sector, therefore has an important role to play.”
Commenting on the news that Scottish car retailers will be allowed to trade after Saturday's rule changes, National Franchised Dealers Association (NFDA) chief executive, Sue Robinson, said: "Following continuous discussions with our franchised dealer members in Scotland and the relevant Government departments, it is positive that the Scottish Government has confirmed with the NFDA that ‘click & collect’ and delivery services of vehicles bought online can continue.
“Franchised dealers have demonstrated ‘click & collect’ and deliveries can be performed in a COVID-secure way protecting the health of colleagues and customers.
“This will allow our members to continue to offer a safe option to all those that need to buy a car during these challenging times."
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Local Legends now producing biltong
Local Legends new biltong
Australian beef jerky producer Local Legends has added biltong to its range of products.
Biltong is similar to jerky but is usually larger in size and is air dried.
Local Legends biltong is made from Australian steak and was created as a way to grow the Local Legends business whilst still providing consistency in product range.
Michael Langtry, National Sales Manager at Local Legends, said biltong will allow Local Legends to bring new consumers to the food snacking category whilst maintaining its business values.
“Local Legends is all about natural protein, an active lifestyle, a positive eating experience and honest, Australian quality,” Langtry said.
“We know that traditionally, people either eat jerky or biltong, not both, but as the industry leaders in category innovation, we pride ourselves on being able to go against the grain, diversify and appeal to new consumers.”
Local Legends biltong is now available at Woolworths supermarkets.
There could soon be much more quinoa thanks to an Australian-led scientific breakthrough.
Pepsi Co’s Gatorade has secured its partnership with the AFL for the next three seasons.
Australian food charity, OzHarvest, has opened the country’s first ‘rescued food supermarket’.
Coca-Cola has launched a new sugar-free version of Coke set to replace Coke Zero.
Australian family-owned fresh produce company Montague have announced they are launching a debut app...
Cutting saturated fat in children’s diets reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease in adulthood a ...
Dairy producer Parmalat says it is set to disrupt the Australian iced coffee market by introducing “...
FOOD, cafes and restaurants remained resilient as July sales figures fizzle amid blows to consumer c...


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Industry LinksTools and Graphs
Cloud Office at Rackspace Unifies Rackspace and Microsoft Business Productivity Tools With Trademark Fanatical Support for an All-in-One Customer Experience
SAN ANTONIO, TX – October 23, 2014 — /BackupReview.info/ — Rackspace® (RAX), the #1 managed cloud company, today announced it has created a new business unit — Cloud Office at Rackspace — to unify its portfolio of industry-leading Rackspace and Microsoft® business productivity and collaboration tools. The suite of solutions available under Cloud Office at Rackspace includes hosted Microsoft Exchange and Rackspace Email, Microsoft Lync® and Microsoft SharePoint® collaboration tools and Jungle Disk® backup services, all backed by Fanatical Support®.
Cloud Office at Rackspace provides a foundation of fully managed business productivity tools to help businesses of all sizes improve communication and collaboration. The Cloud Office portfolio gives customers the flexibility to choose from a broad set of solutions delivered on a variety of technology platforms to help meet business requirements. Cloud Office at Rackspace enhances customer productivity with a team of specialists who take on the burden of deploying, managing and troubleshooting, so customers can focus on their core business.
“We’ve combined the power and expertise of Rackers, who understand that each customer has unique needs in their work environment, with a broad selection of productivity tools to help customers manage and run their business in a way that meets their specific needs,” said Bret Piatt, general manager of Cloud Office at Rackspace. “We are proud to deliver this IT productivity suite as a service to exciting new companies as well as established brand names including Edelman, Jordan Lawrence, Star Network Services and 42 Inc.”
Support from the Cloud Office at Rackspace team includes direct access to a dedicated team of specialists who deliver Fanatical Support. Solutions are backed by industry-leading SLAs, including 100 percent uptime guarantee for Hosted Microsoft Exchange.
Customers can use tools supported by Cloud Office at Rackspace to:
“As we continue to see wide-spread adoption of hosted productivity solutions from SMB to the Enterprise, businesses are increasingly looking for help to introduce these technologies into their organizations and manage them in a way that reduces pain points and maximizes employee productivity,” said David Smith, research director and lead analyst at Aragon Research. “Rackspace’s significant experience in cloud hosting and business productivity positions them as a competitive choice in the cloud productivity market, particularly for organizations that are seeking a fully managed model.”
As an industry leader in cloud-enabled technologies, Rackspace is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and a four-time Microsoft Hosting partner of the year. In addition, Rackspace received the gold Stevie American Business Award for Customer Support in 2012. Cloud Office at Rackspace is available in all regions.
To learn more, visit www.rackspace.com/cloud-office/
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100 years ago: “Durango’s first newspaper editor dead: Mrs. Caroline Romney, pioneer newspaper publisher and editor, died Thursday at the home of her sister. Mrs. Romney came to Colorado in 1880 and started the first newspaper in Durango in 1881. Her office and printing press were housed in a tent pitched in the snow. Mrs. Romney founded The Record, a paper which later became The Herald.”
75 YEARS AGO: “Elk tracks up fresh cement job: Ouray street and water commissioner Gus Nickle says: ‘It’s all right for the elk to eat my turnips and sweet peas, browse on my imported tulips, and even tip over my garbage can, but when they come in on Main Street and track up a perfectly good cement patch in front of one of the most widely known and historic hotels in Colorado, that is carrying it too far.’”
50 YEARS AGO: “The annual ‘Coloride to Telluride’ will be held this weekend when fall colors are at their best in the high country. With only two restaurants open in town, the job of feeding the crowds will be assisted by the Band Mothers, whose home cooking pleased everyone last year.”
25 YEARS AGO: “In 1967, Dustin Hoffman’s character in “The Graduate” was told the wave of the future was plastics. In 1991, he might be told plastic recycling. Americans discard 2.5 million plastic bottles every hour. Few are recycled. But plastic bottles are now being reshaped into elegant pile carpet ... and just five recycled soft drink bottles make enough fiber-fill for a man’s ski jacket.”
Most items in this column are taken from The Durango Herald archives, Center of Southwest Studies and The Animas Museum. Their accuracy may not be verified.


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February 6, 2006
Iran cuts trade with Denmark: Iranian minister
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran has cut all trade ties with Denmark
because of the publication of satirical cartoons of the Prophet
Mohammad, Iranian Commerce Minister Massoud Mirkazemi was
quoted as saying by the Iranian student news agency ISNA.
"All trade ties with Denmark were cut," he was quoted as
telling a news conference.
entering its customs areas. Iran imports $280 million worth of
goods from Denmark a year.


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After COVID-19 put a halt to in person tours on campus, Emily Hervol, assistant director of admissions, said Kent State’s admissions office wanted to offer a different way prospective students and their families could visit campus, so they created a virtual tour option.
While students and parents can sign up for the 3-D campus tour already offered on Kent State’s website, the virtual tours offered through Kent State’s admission office will be formatted differently. Each prospective student and family will have their own Microsoft Teams account where they are paired with a tour guide for a personalized tour around campus without having to be there in person.
“We try to pair them [students and tour guides] up by major, if not major then by hometown, then by interests,” Hervol said.
The tours will all be one-on-ones to give a personalized experience to the student and family, which allows the personalization and introductions to go beyond your name and major, Hervol said.
“We know it’s not the same, but we want students to have a personalized, positive experience,” Hervol said. “We’re coming up with new ideas every day to enhance the experience.”
The virtual tours launch on Monday, this story is continuing.
Madison Knaack covers consumer technology. Contact her at [email protected]


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By Brendan Conway
Gold’s price has taken exchange-traded fund redemptions hard this year, but bulls have a hope, and its name is “emerging markets.” Many gold-bullish analysts are looking to consumers of jewelry and other non-investment uses in China and India as this market’s salve.
It’s not a sure bet, at least not all the time. Gold’s price is down 1.1% this morning, falling back under $1,400, thanks in part to new restrictions on gold imports by India’s central bank.
From Dow Jones Newswires’ Tatyana Shumsky:
The Reserve Bank of India restricted trading agencies from importing gold under a deferred payment plan, extending an earlier ruling that barred banks from importing gold under the same plan. The central bank has been stepping up its fight to curb speculative gold purchases that have increased the country’s current account deficit.
India is the world’s largest gold market, accounting for about 28% of world demand for the metal thanks to a long tradition of giving and purchasing gold for religious festivals and weddings. But with very little domestic production, the vast majority of the metal is imported from overseas.
Over the past year and a half the government has also raised the import tax on gold to 6% from 2%, but these measures haven’t had much impact as imports have surged in recent months following a sharp decline in gold prices.
The SPDR Gold Trust (GLD) is down by 1.1% Tuesday morning. The closed-end fund Sprott Physical Gold Trust (PHYS) is off by the same amount and Central Fund of Canada (CEF), another closed-end fund, is down 1.7%. Market Vectors Gold Miners (GDX) is down 2.3% and Market Vectors Junior Gold Miners ETF (GDXJ) is down 1.9%. iShares Silver Trust (SLV) has shed 1.5%.


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Leaked information and images of an upcoming convertible allegedly called "Pixelbook" have emerged online and the device is expected to launch on October 4 at Google's hardware event.
Apple has just announced the highly anticipated iPhone X at its annual launch event held at the spanking new Steve Jobs Theater near the company's new 'spaceship' campus in Cupertino.
At the ongoing September launch event at the new Steve Jobs Theater in Cupertino, Apple has unveiled the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus smartphones featuring improved cameras and internal specifications.
At its ongoing event in Beijing, Xiaomi has unveiled yet another new smartphone alongside the bezel-less Mi MIX 2 and it is the Mi Note 3 phablet, which features dual cameras and mid-range specs.
Xiaomi has taken the wraps off the Snapdragon 835 powered Mi MIX 2 bezel-less smartphone at an event held in Beijing. Sales are expected to begin in China from the 15th of September
At its event in Beijing, Xiaomi has announced the newest addition to its laptop lineup in the form of the Mi Notebook Pro, packing a high-end 8th-gen Intel Core i7 processor and a premium build.
The U16 Max from Oukitel with a 6-inch screen and a hefty body is powered by Android Nougat, has a large battery and performs decently in daily use, but is this large phone for you? Let's find out.
Gboard, Google's keyboard for Android, has received a significant update today in which the company introduced the ability to send stickers and personalized Bitmoji in conversations and posts.
British smartphone maker, Wileyfox seems to have worked with Microsoft to build a Windows 10-powered mid-range handset aimed at business-users looking for a "no-compromise" device.
Microsoft today announced a number of collaboration features such as co-authoring in Excel and new Yammer apps that are now available for Office 365 users as part of the August 2016 update.
Apple is rumoured to launch an advanced iPhone variant in a couple of weeks, and to tackle the threat of losing sales, Samsung might be planning to launch its next flagship earlier than usual.
After announcing a Cortana-powered speaker a few months ago, HARMAN has announced two speakers with support for Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant, making three voice assistants available in its range.
Logitech has unveiled a new keyboard for designers and creators with an input dial which acts in a similar fashion as the Surface Dial in supported applications such as Photoshop, Excel, etc.
Logitech has revealed that it is adding a premium Bluetooth speaker to its MX lineup of products, known simply as Sound which will offer a great design and audio quality for a price of $99.99.
Last month, HMD Global announced the refreshed Nokia 105 and Nokia 130 feature phones with improved designs and a few under the hood changes. The latter is now available in India for Rs. 1,599.
About four months since the launch of the original Redmi 4A, Xiaomi has launched a new variant of the smartphone with more RAM and storage. The first flash sale for the device starts in half an hour.
XIaomi seems to be all set to launch the next generation of its bezel-less Mi Mix smartphone in a couple of weeks, as the company has posted a teaser image of the device on its official Weibo account.
Samsung is expected to launch the Gear Fit2 Pro wearable today at its Unpacked event, along with the Galaxy Note8. The device's listing on the Samsung website has already gone live though.
AccuWeather has found itself in an awkward situation, after collecting user-identifiable data from iOS users that could be used to track them, despite revoking location access in its mobile app.
Dutch police have arrested five individuals under the suspicion of stealing iPhones worth 500,000 euros in a rather movie-esque manner by tailgating a moving truck on the motorway in a van.
Google has updated Gboard, the company's third-party soft keyboard for iOS with integrated YouTube and Maps search, and a new Ink feature for drawing doodles and random text that can be shared.
Minecraft gamers can now enjoy cross-platform play on their Windows 10 PC and Android devices with the Better Together Beta, which is now available on these platforms. Xbox One support is coming soon.
The Nokia 8 flagship smartphone from HMD Global could be launching in a few weeks, but almost every bit of information about the device has now leaked online through benchmarks and various sources.
Researchers have discovered that a few smartphones made by Chinese OEMs are being shipped with a tampered Android core library that features one of the most sophisticated malware strains for Android.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed off the ban on virtual private networks and proxies, that was approved by the lower house of the country's parliament last week along with another law.
Yet another image of the upcoming Galaxy S8 Active smartphone from Samsung has leaked online, but this time the device is visible in greater detail, thanks to the high resolution of the image.
An unreleased cloud-based photo editor from Adobe similar to its Lightroom product accidentally made an appearance for some Creative Cloud users, before it was removed by the company.
Following in the steps of China, the Russian parliament has passed a bill to ban the use of various tools such as proxies and VPNs, which allow unrestricted access to foreign content in the country.
Alcatel's mid-range PULSEMIX smartphone with MotoMod-style SNAPBAK covers for enhanced sound, battery or just fancy lighting is now available from Cricket Wireless for just $79.99.
Google has released a major update to its search app on Android and iOS that brings a news feed featuring personalized content such as calendar events and news alerts for topics of the user's choice.
YouTube users can now watch short previews of videos by simply hovering on the thumbnails while accessing the video streaming website on a PC using Google Chrome or the Opera browser.
Smartphone maker, Nextbit, which was acquired by Razer, has announced that it will be ending support for its handset by the end of this month. Software updates are expected to continue till 2018.
According to the recently updated Google Support page for Android Pay, users in the UK can now link their American Express credit or debit cards with Google's mobile payment platform in the country.
Google has launched a new app on the Play Store in Philippines called Triangle that allows users to block certain apps from using up their mobile data, view balance and prevent rouge usage.
India's chief of cybersecurity has revealed that the country's government is pushing for Microsoft to offer a one-time discount on Windows 10 for users to upgrade from less secure versions of the OS.
The next flagship smartphone in LG's V-series, the V30, might feature a unibody design and wireless charging capability if a leaked image of the device's midframe is any indication to go by.
Google Photos has hit version 3.0 and the update is now rolling out for Android and iOS, as well as the web application with sharing features such as Suggested Sharing and Shared Libraries.
The design of the Galaxy Note8 flagship smartphone from Samsung was recently leaked by a case-maker, and now a report has revealed that the company will launch two storage variants of the device.
A tweet from Google's Project Fi account has suggested that the virtual network may gain support for an affordable mid-range smartphone from one of the company's partners later this year.
Microsoft has revealed that Accenture has begun upgrading its employees' PCs and laptops to Windows 10 and by the end of next year over 400,000 deployments of the OS will be done in the company.


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A Huawei executive recently gave some important declarations to the media at a press conference held in Vienna. Huawei’s Austrian country manager, Fred Wangfei, said that the company doesn’t have plans to go back to using Google services, even if the government of the United States lifts the trade ban. However, Huawei released a statement to give Wangfei’s words, another perspective.
Just as a note for others who read this. There was no wiggle room in what Huawei told me, I asked them several times (as I was rather surprised myself) and they insisted on not going back to Google – even if the US ban falls.
— Andreas Proschofsky (@suka_hiroaki) January 30, 2020
After some controversial declarations from a Huawei executive, the company has released a statement to Android Central saying that:
“An open Android ecosystem is still our first choice, but if we are not able to continue to use it, we have the ability to develop our own.”
Huawei has indeed been working on improving its ecosystem since May 2019, when Trump’s administration placed the company on the entity list. After that, Huawei has been receiving several reprieves from the ban, allowing them to buy from US companies, while the United States and China work on a new trade deal.
Yes, Huawei wants to keep on being part of the Android family, and it also wants to keep on using Google mobile services, but if that doesn’t happen, it’s also prepared to keep on going by itself. In the meantime, Huawei will keep improving its app store, and it will also work to create its own ecosystem that will exist alongside Android and iOS.
Source Android Central
Via The Verge


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Will let states define what kind of e-com deliveries will be allowed
Shreya Nandi |
Last Updated at April 26, 2021 06:12 IST
Despite several requests from the industry to define essential and non-essential commodities, the Centre has indicated that it will not step in. Instead, it will let the respective state governments take a call on categorising essential and non-essential goods, as localised lockdowns have been imposed to contain the spread of Covid-19. Senior government officials said that, right now, the central government’s priority is to ensure supplies to micro containment zones. Deliveries of non-essential items may have to wait until after the second wave peaks. “Our focus is on saving lives right now. It’s for the states to define (what are essential and non-essential goods) in accordance with their requirements. They will take a call for the time being or at least till we hit a peak (number of Covid-19 cases),” a senior government official told Business Standard. The Centre may step when cases start declining, if required and may look at allowing e-commerce companies to deliver non-essential items.
For the time being, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) will not step in and leave it on the states to make their rules on delivery, the official explained. To be sure, unlike last year, there isn’t a nationwide lockdown this time around. While Maharashtra was the first state to impose a curfew, several other states, including Delhi, Jharkhand, followed suit and imposed restrictions as cases spiked. However, unlike last year, supply chains have not been disrupted this year and e-commerce logistics have not seen a massive impact. Some states have also imposed night curfew and district-wise lockdowns. Nearly 350,000 people tested positive for Covid-19 in the last 24 hours in India, according to Union health ministry data as on Sunday. While the e-commerce industry has been asking for all kinds of deliveries to be allowed, without distinction of essential or non-essential goods, offline traders have said that if e-commerce firms are allowed to operate without restrictions, then traders in physical markets should also be allowed to operate business activities pertaining to non-essential goods. “We also need to look at the broader perspective,” the official cited above said, adding that the Centre will intervene in the future, if needed. Earlier this month, industry body National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) had written to the CEO of Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation, secretary of the DPIIT, and secretary of the home ministry, requesting them to allow e-commerce companies to deliver all goods and services and not restrict them to just “essential” ones.
- Italy and Germany impose travel ban from India
- Rajasthan and Maharashtra to vaccinate all above 18 for free
- India fastest in World to administer 140 million Covid vaccines
- Himachal Pradesh imposes a night curfew in 4 districts from April 27 to May 10
- Union minister Babul Supriyo tests Covid-positive for the second time
- UP govt has placed an order for 10 mn doses of anti-Covid jabs for the vaccination drive
- Govt will let the respective state governments take a call on categorising essential and non-essential goods
- Deliveries of non-essential items may have to wait until after the second wave peaks
- The Centre may step in when cases start declining, if required and may look at allowing e-commerce companies to deliver non-essential items
- Offline traders have said that if e-commerce firms are allowed to operate without restrictions, then traders in physical markets should also be allowed to operate business activities pertaining to
- non-essential goods
Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance.
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First Published: Mon, April 26 2021. 06:12 IST


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The company said the funds will be used to install new caramel production lines, with an output of 1,290 tonnes of products per month expected as a result of updating the Klaipeda factory, which it bought in 2006.
Roshen said the work would begin at the end of 2010, with €3.3m to be invested in the initial phase, and resulting products expected to be on the European market in March 2011.
The confectionery group, which has four factories in Ukraine, a facility in Russia as well as the plant in Lithuania, is also building a second confectionery plant in Russia, with construction expected to start towards the end of this year. Roshen hopes to increase its share of the Russian confectionery market from the current three per cent to five per cent.
Earlier this week, the company, which produces around 25 per cent of all Ukrainian confectionery and has over 10,000 employees, announced a 35 per cent increase in sales for the first half of the year, compared to the same period in 2009.
The manufacturer of a range of sweets, chocolate, sugar candies, cookies, waffles, fruit jellies and cakes said that sales totalled US$ 425m during the first six months of 2010.
Roshen said that output in the period reached 184,000 tonnes, an increase of 12 per cent on the same period in 2009.
Industry analysts said that the confectionery group, appears to be rebounding strongly from what was a very challenging 2009 for Ukraine when the economy was severely hit by external shocks and exacerbated by domestic vulnerabilities.
According to Leatherhead Food International, Central and Eastern European chocolate sales rose 9.1 per cent annually between 2004 and 2008, making it the fastest growing chocolate market in the world, in contrast to the rate of increase of annual sales of chocolate in Western Europe - 2.2 per cent in dollar terms between 2004 and 2008.
And Leatherhead researcher, Chris Brockman, recently told this publication that he sees scope for acquisition opportunities within the Central and Eastern European markets, including the Baltics, citing a lot of second tier domestic confectionery firms in that geography which could provide growth opportunities for some of the multinationals.


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News apps? Readers just say meh!
More and more, tablet computer users are choosing browsers over apps for their digital news delivery, says (the latest survey from the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism), based on interviews with 9,513 U.S. adults — one of the largest such surveys ever conducted.
In other words, tablet and smart-phone users given the choice between reading chicagotribune.com or other news sites on their device's browser or on a dedicated app that formats content specifically for the mobile device will chose the browser format, which is optimzed for desktop and laptop computers.
Some 60% of tablet users (and 61% of smartphone users) say they mainly use the browser for reading news. That’s up sharply from just a year ago, when 40% said they favored browsers. While the proportion who say they mostly use apps has held roughly steady at 23% (versus 21% a year ago), the segment that uses both equally has halved, from 31% to 16%.
I have to say I'm one of them. App-driven sites tend to be less complete and less flexible than browser sites. Browser sites play much more nicely with comment features, hyperlinks and such useful secondary programs as Instapaper (which saves content for later, offline reading).


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Earlier today, Microsoft announced that the company will be launching Windows 10 on July 29th. The company showed off some of the features from Windows 10 in a new video, which reveals a new feature for Cortana. In the video, it seems like Cortana is able to display notifications on the taskbar. Take a look at the video below to see on the notification on action (at the 1:25 mark):
As you can see on the above video, Cortana displays notifications for reminders. The personal assistant will probably be able to display other notifications on the taskbar – however, currently, the feature isn’t available to Insiders just yet.
What do you think of Cortana notifications on the taskbar? Discuss in the comment section below!


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The ministry of housing and urban affairs (MoHUA) has launched the Swachh Toycathon under the Swachh Amrit Mahotsav recently.
About Swachh Toycathon:
The competition is a convergence between the National Action Plan for Toys (NAPT) and Swachh Bharat Mission phase two (SBM 2.0).
It seeks to explore solutions for the use of waste in manufacturing toys.
The National Action Plan for Toys (NAPT) 2020 was introduced to promote the Indian toy industry including traditional handicrafts and handmade toys with the objective of establishing India as a global Toy hub.
The competition will be open to individuals and groups to bring forth innovation in toy designs using dry waste.
It will focus on efficient designs that can be replicated on a larger scale, toys that comply with minimum safety standards, as well as aesthetics of the toys.
Center for Creative Learning, IIT Gandhinagar is the knowledge partner for the initiative.
The competition will be hosted on MyGov’s Innovate India portal.
Status of Toy Market:
Global toy market is worth nearly $100 billion.
Of which, India contributes only around $1.5 billion.
India imports around 80% of toys from abroad, which means crores of rupees of the country are going abroad on them.
Swachh Bharat Mission phase two (SBM 2.0).
SBM-U 2.0, announced in Budget 2021-22, is the continuation of SBM-U first phase.
The government is trying to tap safe containment, transportation, disposal of faecal sludge, and septage from toilets.
It will be implemented over five years from 2021 to 2026 with an outlay of Rs.1.41 lakh crore.
It focuses on source segregation of garbage, reduction in single-use plastic and air pollution, by effectively managing waste from construction and demolition activities and bioremediation of all legacy dump sites.
Under this mission, all wastewater will be treated properly before it is discharged into water bodies, and the government is trying to make maximum reuse a priority.


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Armagh is the home of Saints and Scholars and we thought there was no better time to put your literary knowledge to the test.
With World Book Day celebrated today (Thursday, March 2) it seemed like the perfect opportunity.
World Book Day is the biggest reading celebration of its kind, designated by UNESCO as a worldwide celebration of books and reading, and marked in over 100 countries all over the world.
But how much do you know about some of the most famous books ever written?
All answers will be in our newsletter on Tuesday March 7, to sign up CLICK HERE


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By Burney Simpson, Staff Reporter
Two entrepreneurs are introducing an autonomous vehicle and electric cargo bike designed to reduce the costs arising from the last-mile delivery and returns of e-commerce merchandise in urban areas.
Burlingame, Calif.-based Udelv is launching this month an autonomous, electric-powered cargo vehicle designed for short deliveries and pickups.
Removing the driver with a commercial driver license will make the Udelv cheaper to operate. Its storage space could make it easier to return e-commerce purchases, a sector that has a return rate up to 30% of sales compared with about 11% for the entire retail sector, according to the National Retail Federation.
Merchants already are trying to address the returns issue. Amazon.com joined with Kohl’s Corp. to accept returns at 82 stores in Los Angeles and Chicago. And Wamart in November began its Mobile Express Returns program at 4,700 stores, where the consumer begins the return process through a smartphone app then takes it into the store.
The Udelv vehicle is somewhat of a mystery as the startup company won’t discuss basics such as the vehicle’s weight and size. Plans call for an official unveiling Jan. 30.
Udelv CEO Daniel Laury said the vehicle will drive itself but have a driver behind the wheel for the launch as required by California law. The vehicle will be overseen by a telecommunications command and control center as it travels. Consumers will interact with the merchant using a smartphone app.
The Udelv program requires consumers to come to the curb to pick up their groceries or package. The process will be the same for returns when consumer will be required to bring their package to the vehicle and place it in its cargo space, Laury said.
“There will be some adaptations by users on both sides to make this work,” he said. But this “will decrease consumer inconvenience and significantly reduce costs for retailers.”
Laury said that Udelv will give consumers a two-hour window to meet the vehicle. And many consumers seeking to return goods will prefer to interact with an autonomous vehicle instead of driving to the post office or UPS store.
Laury said Udelv has received interest from delivery firms, shippers and retailers. In the near term, he sees such merchants as grocery, food, pharmacy and caterers as users of the vehicle.
Also, electric bike manufacturer Rad Power Bikes has fashioned its RadBurro cargo-carrying tricycle.
The RadBurro can carry up to 700 pounds, cover a range of 40 to 80 miles on a single charge and costs $5,499, compared with the $25,000 cost of a delivery van, according to Rad Power. It costs about $1 for a full day’s charge in the Seattle area.
“There is a tremendous market need for last-mile transportation and fulfillment alternatives due to the explosion of e-commerce, the rise of urban centers, and the ever increasing demand for same-day deliveries to high-density residential areas,” said Rad Power CEO Mike Radenbaugh.
Seattle-based Rad Power estimates the total cost of ownership of a RadBurro over five years at $13,624 when adding up the trike purchase, insurance, and maintenance. That compares with $64,125 for a delivery van over five years.
UPS Inc. is testing a similar three-wheeled cargo trike from Truck Trike in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and Pittsburgh, and completed a test in Portland, Ore., in 2015, said Tom Madrecki, director of urban innovation and mobility. Madrecki declined to share results of the Portland test but said the trike can be cheaper than delivery vans in certain neighborhoods.
A recent study from the Supply Chain Transportation and Logistics Center (SCTL) at the University of Washington found that challenges for trikes are “smaller cargo capacity, slower speeds, and severe weather conditions,” according to Measuring the Cost Trade-offs Between Electric-Assist Cargo Bikes and Delivery Trucks in Dense Urban Areas.
The competitive advantage of an electric trike is contingent upon the distance it must travel from depot to neighborhood, number of stops, the distance between stops, and number of parcels per stop, according to the study.
“The question is whether (the trike) can use bike lanes and can they park at the curb or on the sidewalk. If they just use the road or park like a regular delivery truck then there’s no improvement,” said Anne Goodchild, SCTL director and study co-author.
Goodchild notes that delivery methods evolve and that these two new companies, if successful, will join a host of options.
“Many ask, ‘When will everything be delivered by drone?’ That’s not going to happen,” Goodchild said. “These delivery alternatives will be added to the mix of (delivery) products we use.”


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Attendees will see the latest gear manufacturing solutions at MPT Expo
After more than a year of COVID-19 pandemic challenges, gear manufacturers are ready to get back to work. This includes learning about the latest technology available to the industry, so Helios Gear Products looks forward to exhibiting at the 2021 Motion + Power Technology Expo (MPT Expo) September 14–16, 2021. Gear manufacturers of all types should attend the show to see the latest for processes like hobbing, shaping, thread milling, deburring, grinding, inspection, and more. “The expo is a critical research tool for manufacturers to stay up-to-date on industry trends and manufacturing disrupters,” said Adam Gimpert, Helios president.
In the Helios show booth, manufacturers will see a Hera 90 CNC gear hobbing and thread (worm) milling machine with unified gantry automation. This machine offers a single platform for automatically hobbing and milling parts up to approximately 3.5” outside diameter. With its 6,000 rpm cutter spindle, the machine productively handles small parts with small hobs by maximizing surface speeds. This high-speed spindle also enables productive milling of worms. Moreover, this machine will demonstrate its versatile, easy-to-set-up automation system to prove its place as the industry-leading workhorse at an unbeatable price for fine-pitch gear manufacturing.
The expo is a critical research tool for manufacturers to stay up-to-date on industry trends and manufacturing disrupters,
Show attendees will really want to stop by and learn about the Neo power skiving machine, which offers this cutting-edge technology at a fraction of the price compared to competitors in the market,
Manufacturers who attend the Motion + Power Technology Expo will discover the latest solutions for hobbing, deburring, inspection, and grinding by seeing demonstrated CNC equipment and a variety of cutting and abrasive tools at the Helios Gear Products booth. Show attendees can ask questions and learn from Helios experts on-the-spot while viewing machines and tools that enable globally competitive production of gears.
Connect with gear manufacturing experts.
See the latest in gear technology.
Meet & learn from industry experts.
Experience live demos.


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Apple and Samsung will be off to court once again come November 12 as the tussle over the level of damages the Korean firm is due to pay the Cupertino-based company continues.
Last summer saw a long, drawn out legal battle between the two manufacturing giants, with Apple claiming a number of Samsung smartphones had infringed on a variety of its patents.
Samsung was initially ordered to pay Apple $1.05 billon (around £652 million) in damages, but that was reduced by $450.5 million in March this year - and it's the latter of the figures which is up for debate in November.
My dad is bigger than your dad
Obviously Samsung isn't too happy about having to pay Apple anything and this isn't the only topic the firms have clashed on, with a seemingly never-ending list of law suits and allegations between the two.
The trial in November will focus on 13 Samsung products and the judge in charge of the case, Lucy Koh said: "This is going to be Groundhog's Day, you're going to be reliving July of 2012" - oh boy, sounds thrilling. We can't wait...
So it looks like we're in for another gargantuan clash of the tech titans in the run up to Christmas, let's just hope Santa doesn't strike them off his list.
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John joined TechRadar over a decade ago as Staff Writer for Phones, and over the years has built up a vast knowledge of the tech industry. He's interviewed CEOs from some of the world's biggest tech firms, visited their HQs and has appeared on live TV and radio, including Sky News, BBC News, BBC World News, Al Jazeera, LBC and BBC Radio 4. Originally specializing in phones, tablets and wearables, John is now TechRadar's resident automotive expert, reviewing the latest and greatest EVs and PHEVs on the market. John also looks after the day-to-day running of the site.


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Cryptocurrency Adoption and trends in Philippines in 2021
It is estimated that over 4.3 million people, 4.0% of Philippines’ total population, currently own cryptocurrency.
Bitcoin peer-to-peer trading activity in Philippines reached record highs in 2020, with volumes exceeding $1 million USD and consistently holding above $500,000 USD since early May.
According to new report in 2021, The Philippines is one of the world’s fastest adopters of cryptocurrency. It is shown that The Philippines has the third-highest uptake of cryptocurrencies globally.
There was a high level of awareness of cryptocurrencies in Philippines (74%). 53% of Filipinos expressed interest in investing in cryptocurrencies in the future while 39% of Filipino cryptocurrencies owners said that they would use these assets as a means of payment for online purchases.
Nichel Gaba, CEO and founder of Philippine Assets and Digital Exchange, said, “Between December 2020 and today, something happened to put bitcoin and cryptocurrencies into a space where even traditional portfolio managers need to consider them. We are living in interesting times in cryptocurrencies.” Companies like his has seen up to a 70-fold increase in transactions and a 15-fold customer increase in less than a year.
Cryptocurrency ownership is extremely prevalent in the Philippines. Rather than using the market for speculation, the segment of the Filipino population that has turned to cryptocurrencies largely comprises people living in urban regions, wealthy professionals and people who use the blockchain to send money. While remittances represent 10% of GDP in the nation, roughly three-quarters of the population are without a bank account. Blockchain technologies and cryptocurrencies have helped to fill this gap, with the average remittance fees for cryptocurrency exchanges hovering at 30-50 basis points.


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Rosetta Stone Acquires Online Language Service Livemocha
Rosetta Stone (NYSE:RST) said on Tuesday it purchased Seattle-based Livemocha, an online language-learning rival, for $8.5 million in cash.
The deal, which closed on Monday, gives Rosetta Stone a larger footprint in cloud-based services, as consumers move away from traditional software like the discs Rosetta Stone is known for selling.
Livemocha also gives the company a cheaper alternative to its current offerings, which can cost more than $350. Livemocha offers free courses and premium services, such as private tutoring, and utilizes a community of over 16 million language experts, instructors and multi-linguists, according to Virginia-based Rosetta Stone.
“We are in the process of transforming Rosetta Stone to be the most dynamic and ubiquitous technology-based learning platform in the world. Our acquisition of Livemocha will help accelerate that transformation,” Rosetta Stone President and CEO Steve Swad said.
West Stringfellow, Rosetta Stone’s chief product officer, said Livemocha will enable the company to migrate legacy products to cloud-based distribution, while also adding a low-cost or free alternative product.
Rosetta Stone added in its announcement that Livemocha’s headquarters in Seattle and development offices in Austin, Texas, and San Francisco expands the company’s footprint and will help it attract talent to develop new products.
Shares of Rosetta Stone were up 40 cents at $15.46 Tuesday morning. The stock is up more than 22% this year.


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Changes could be coming for some of the people doing business in New Jersey’s Urban Enterprise Zones because the Christie administration is proposing a 3.5 percent tax on some business to business transactions. Elizabeth Mayor Chris Bollwage told NJTV News Managing Editor Mike Schneider that this will hurt businesses, but consumers will still only have to pay 3.5 percent sales tax in these zones — half the normal rate.
Bollwage said that he first saw this proposal when the budget was introduced and not a lot of people know about it. He said that it is now coming out to the forefront and he contacted his representatives about it. He said this is a new tax on local businesses in Urban Enterprise Zones.
“There are 32 [Urban Enterprise Zones] in the state. We have been awarded one of the best in the nation at one point, but Gov. Christie has methodically over the last four years reduced the benefits of the Urban Enterprise Zone. This is just another nail in the coffin of Urban Enterprise Zones throughout the state,” said Bollwage.
The Urban Enterprise Zones were set up under Gov. Tom Kean and were originally the idea of Secretary Jack Kemp, said Bollwage. He said that the zones have a reduced sales tax for areas where the money paied on the reduced sales tax comes back to that zone for economic investment. The zones are often referred to as blighted.
“We wouldn’t have the Jersey Gardens Mall if it wasn’t for the Urban Enterprise Zone. We wouldn’t have some of the major developments in Elizabeth. Between 1993 to 2002, we generated about $1 billion in investment in the city of Elizabeth alone. That wouldn’t have happened without the Urban Enterprise Zone, the ability to give loans, the ability for more walking police, the ability for the businesses within those zones to buy equipment and structures that would enhance their business tax free,” said Bollwage.
Bollwage said that Christie is clever because he is leaving the 3.5 percent sales tax for the consumers, which is half of the normal sales tax. He said that all of the other benefits of the Urban Enterprise Zone have been eliminated under the Christie administration.
“Christie has been really diabolical when it comes to urban areas. The ability for his administration to attack the economic incentives that occur in urban areas has historically never happened before,” said Bollwage.
Bollwage said that it is interesting that Christie wants to eliminate the realty tax, which is generating $300 million per year. He said that Christie would like to eliminate the taxes that benefit the wealthier, the people who can afford to sell a house and pay an extra $6,000, as opposed to helping people who really need a break on the sales tax, the mom and pop businesses of New Jersey and Urban Enterprise Zones. He said that once again even the Chamber of Commerce has been extraordinarily silent on this issue when this affects a core constituency of theirs and they should be out beating the drum to help these people.
“At one time when we were able to work the Urban Enterprise Zones to the fullest, we had over 1,000 businesses in the city of Elizabeth signed up. Because Christie has taken away administrative funds over the last three years, the amount of businesses that are signed up in Urban Enterprise Zones has steadily decreased because no one is going out after him. So it is a chicken and egg syndrome because Christie will then say there is nobody in the Urban Enterprise Zone any more. We are going to lose the ability to enhance businesses as a result of this. We are going to lose the ability to encourage businesses to grow in Urban Enterprise Zones,” said Bollwage.


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Technology firms Rongwen and Silver Spring Networks have teamed up to connect more than 30,000 smart lights in China’s third largest city.
At Smart City Expo World Congress, held in Barcelona earlier this month, China-based intelligent street lighting company Rongwen and San Jose, California-based IoT connectivity specialist Silver Spring Networks unveiled plans to roll out a network of smart LED street lights in the Chinese city of Guangzhou.
Guangzhou is China’s third largest city after Beijing and Shanghai and has a population of over 14 million people. It is also China’s third largest economic hub and a major foreign trade port, and has committed to reducing its carbon emissions up to 45 percent by the end of the decade.
In this project, Rongwen will combine its patented LED street lights and outdoor lighting controls with Silver Spring’s StreetLight.Vision (SLV) central management system for smart lighting. The companies claim that this will boost the city’s energy savings by over 70 percent.
Read more: Smart streetlights may mean big savings in Cardiff
Reducing carbon emissions
Data compiled by China’s National Bureau of Statistics shows that streetlights in China more than doubled over the decade from 2004 to 2014, from 10.53 million to 23.02 million. In recent years, lighting energy consumption in China amounted to 14 percent of total energy consumption, with streetlights and landscape lighting energy consumption making up 38 percent of the total. Many are still based on high-pressure sodium bulbs, which consume a lot of energy, so replacing these with LED technologies is a step in the right direction.
According to Zhixiong Lee, general manager of Rongwen, the combination of the company’s technology with that from partner Silver Spring will help city officials in Guangzhou better manage resources and reduce overall carbon emissions.
“Rongwen is using Silver Spring’s pioneering smart city platform to provide seamless IoT connectivity to more efficiently operate existing city-wide resources to achieve immediate cost savings and speed time to value for smart city initiatives,” he said.
“We believe that the scalability and sustainability of this system will allow cities such as Guangzhou to grow their network to millions of devices in the future.”
Read more: Echelon connected streetlights to get smart with IBM Watson
Investing in smart city tech
Jeff Ross, vice president of channel at Silver Spring Networks, added: “Guangzhou is an example of a major hub deploying an IoT network to drive sustainability, create resource efficiency and build a more livable city, which in turn draws in new investments.
“We are thrilled to connect smart city devices in our first project in China, as Rongwen deploys our standards-based platform to connect street lights and establish a foundation for additional smart city services for the Guangzhou Development Zone.”
“By working with our partners, we continue to evolve our standards-based platform’s capabilities, in an effort to address our cities’ biggest challenges, such as traffic congestion, pollution and public safety.”
Read more: Smart lights ‘to be most popular IoT device in the next decade’ – Philips


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UW has created tools that both automate data warehouse access provisioning and turn over the decision-making from IT to the data custodians themselves.
Technology company Philips has launched a set of LCD displays that adhere to the Open Pluggable Specification, useful in digital signage.
A cloud storage company has released a version of its product specifically designed for colleges and universities.
Communications technology company Motorola Solutions has unveiled two new entrants--the XPR 7550 and XPR 3500--in its Mototrbo (pronounced "moto-turbo") two-way digital radio portfolio.
Sure, voice over IP can save your schools money; but don't neglect the security aspects in your rush to get it running.
If you think it's a hassle to change your password regularly or take other measures to protect the personal data within your realm, consider the alternative.
Mass notification company Cooper Notification has begun introducing LED-based notification products.
ESET has released ESET Endpoint Antivirus as a replacement for NOD32 Antivirus 4 and ESET Endpoint Security to replace Smart Security 4.
A northeastern Pennsylvania university is adding live broadcast televisions to its emergency campus alert system.
An analysis of online transactions highlights schools with the lowest fraud rates.


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Social media platform Hootsuite on Thursday announced it closed in on $60 million in new funding, bringing the company's total funding to $250 million.
The Vancouver-based firm also said it was buying Zeetl, a Canadian social telephony startup, which will let it integrate voice calls into Hootsuite's dashboard. Ryan Holmes, the CEO of Hootsuite, told Mashable that the feature will let companies skip a few steps to perform customer outreach. "It cuts out the need to DM, follow or any of the other rigamarole," Holmes says. For example, if a customer is complaining about a brand on Twitter, than a rep for the brand can initiate a voice call to find out what the problem is and address it before it becomes an issue. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
See also: The Beginner's Guide to HootSuite
The purchase comes as Hootsuite recently surpassed 10 million users and boasts support from about three quarters of the Fortune 1000. The platform lets those brands publish status updates on Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus and other social media outlets via a single dashboard. Such success prompted the new funding from an unnamed "large Boston-based asset manager."
Previous funding has come from Accel Partners, Insight Venture Partners and OMERS Ventures, among others. The most recent round, last August, was for $165 million, which may have put Hootsuite's valuation in the billion-dollar range. The company says the valuation has now doubled since then, but declined to offer a specific figure.


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(Reuters) - Fannie Mae , the largest U.S. home funding source, said on Wednesday it sold $1 billion of benchmark bills at mixed interest rates compared with last week’s sale of similar maturities.
Fannie Mae said it sold $500 million of 1M bills due Aug. 22, 2018 at a 1.880 percent stop-out rate, or lowest accepted rate, up from the 1.879 percent rate for $500 million of 1M bills sold on July 18.
The company also sold $500 million of three-month bills due Oct. 24, 2018 at a 1.975 percent rate, down from the 1.984 percent rate for $500 million of three-month bills sold last week.
The 1M bills were priced at 99.854 with a money market yield of 1.883 percent. The three-month bills were priced at 99.501 with a money market yield of 1.985 percent.
Settlement is July 25-26.


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Back in 2001, Coca Cola’s marketing team decided to retire the iconic ‘Holidays are Coming!’ advert. You remember the one. It portrays a caravan of bright red Coke-branded trucks lighting up the countryside, with Santa right at the back sipping a bottle of Coca Cola. Six years later, the company decided to bring it back. Why? Because apparently scores of customers phoned in to tell Coca Cola that for them the advert marked the ‘beginning of Christmas’. This little story illustrates just how deeply TV advertising is stitched into popular culture during the festive season.
This isn’t lost on the world’s biggest brands. Last year, US retailer Kmart was so desperate to ensure its holiday advert was appreciated by as many consumers as possible that it was released on September 8th. That’s a full 105 days before Christmas! Although, predictably, social media exploded with fury, it’s another example of how seriously retailers take customer acquisition in the festive season.
While this urgency is understandable – Christmas is ‘make or break’ for almost every retailer – it is perhaps a little myopic. According to statistics from Comscore, a staggering 66 per cent of online shopping carts are abandoned before customers ‘check out’. That’s right. At the exact moment that retailers are spending vast sums of money on advertising to attract potential customers, they are ignoring the would-be customers who are just a few clicks away from awarding them a sale. How’s that for irony?
We’re talking serious money here. According to Capgemini and IMRG, in December 2013 alone UK shoppers spent over £11bn online. Never mind 66 per cent, if just a small percentage of those abandoned baskets had been converted into a sale, there are a number of retailers right across the country that might have enjoyed a much happier Christmas. Perhaps the first question UK retailers should ask themselves this year is not ‘how many customers can I attract?’, but rather ‘how do I convert the ones that I already did attract?’
There are a number of different reasons that customers don’t follow through on an online transaction, however very few of those reasons are entirely unavoidable from a retailer’s perspective. Consumers are often distracted or interrupted midway through a purchase, and then forget to return. Sometimes a customer will place items in a basket, then go away to ‘think it over’ and never come back. Another common issue is that the product is out of stock, or the fulfilment option the customer is searching for isn’t available.
For the disrupted shopping journey, emerging omni-channel technology is increasingly capable of enticing customers back to a website to finish what they started. For example, retailers with a properly joined up, integrated e-commerce platform can remind a would-be-customer about a purchase via email, SMS, social media or in-app. They can ensure that a returning shopper knows there is something sitting in their basket and encourage them to go back and ‘close the deal’, recovering the lost revenue.
If a journey is abandoned because of stock or fulfilment issues, then, come January, retailers must take a long hard look at their omni-channel strategy. Using omni-channel commerce solutions, it is increasingly possible for retailers to provide customers with ‘endless aisles’, seamlessly source and ship out-of-stock products from other locations. In the 21st century, no product should be out of stock. It’s that simple. Secondly, every online retailer should have invested in technology that enables customers to receive their product exactly as they want, whether that’s in-store through click and collect, or perhaps a same-day delivery service. There’s simply no excuse not to.
Right now, with Christmas craziness well underway, retailers are simply knuckling down, strapping in and keeping everything crossed for a successful festival season. However, once the dust has settled, the inevitable inquest begins: did we hit our online sales target? If not, why not?
Come the New Year, some retailers will need to ask themselves a tough question: does it really make sense to prioritise a big budget advert – a billboard, a print ad, a TV spot – over ensuring our order fulfilment and basket conversion strategy is cutting edge?


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- Local PP Homo Raffia offers decreased significantly on October 29
- Shenzhen Juzhengyuan’s new PP lines have started production
- PP prices will be under pressure due to additional supply
As the market had just resumed after the Golden Week holiday, SSESSMENTS.COM’s team noted that on October 8, the local offers for PP Homo Raffia were adjusted down between CNY50-100/ton ($7-14/ton) following the decreases in the futures market. In the third week of October, the local offers for PP Homo Raffia hiked up by CNY50-100/ton ($7-14/ton) in line with the firmer futures prices. Moving to the beginning of the week commencing October 21, the offers were trimmed between CNY50-100/ton ($7-14/ton) as the futures prices softened. However, as the futures market showed increases since Tuesday night, October 22, traders initiated an increase in spot offers a day after between CNY50-100/ton ($7-14/ton).
On October 29, the local offers for PP Homo Raffia were adjusted down twice within the same day with a total reduction of CNY250/ton ($35.5/ton) compared to offers on October 28, SSESSMENTS.COM was told. Sources stated that the adjustments on local offers were made to trim the wide gap between spot and futures prices after the decreases in the futures market.
In the import market, the offers for Indian PP Homo Raffia cargoes decreased between $10-20/ton compared to the last trading day on September 30. By the week commencing October 14, offers for Middle Eastern cargoes were recorded stable to decrease between $10-20/ton while offers from an Indian petrochemical producer dropped $25/ton, all compared to a week earlier. Sources added to SSESSMENTS.COM that the deals for dutiable cargoes, such as Middle Eastern cargoes were concluded at $1,000/ton on LC at sight, CIF China Main Port basis in the fourth week of October. Moving to the final week, import Indian PP Homo Raffia offers decreased by $10/ton from a week earlier.
After the Golden Week holiday, SSESSMENTS.COM was told that the demand remained slow. However, by the third week of October, the buying sentiment for PP showed a slight improvement as supported by the loosened trade tension between China and the U.S although the procurements kept on an as-needed basis. Moving to the fourth week, the buying sentiment softened again as buyers drew concern on the progress of the new PP plants inside and outside China since the additional supply will put pressure on PP prices.
On the production side, market sources informed SSESSMENTS.COM that Shenzhen Juzhengyuan has already brought the new PP plant no.1 with a capacity of 300,000 tons/year on-stream during the National Day holiday. On October 28, sources informed that Shenzhen Juzhengyuan’s new PP line no. 2 with a capacity of 300,000 tons/year has been brought on-stream as well.
Looking ahead, market sources opined that PP prices in China will be under pressure as the supply is predicted to outpace demand, SSESSMENTS.COM was told.
Tags: Asia Pacific,China,English,EN PP CHINA MSS,MonthlySSESSMENTS,Northeast Asia,Polypropylene (PP) China PP Prices,PP pricesNovember 22, 2019 6:34 PM


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Todd Juenger, media analyst of Bernstein Research, writes: “We believe viewership, TV advertising and pay TV subscribers will not recover to their pre-crisis levels, and rate of decline will increase as SVOD [subscription video on demand services] substitution continues.”
Traditional linear TV, which saw a 5% rise in total day persons 2+ viewership in March and April versus a year ago, has now fallen to 15% to 20% decline levels in July, versus the same time period in 2019 -- per Bernstein Reserach analysis of Nielsen data.
During the same early pandemic period, prime time was only down 5% in mid-April, but is now seeing 20% declines in July viewing versus a year ago.
“COVID-19 brought audience declines to a halt, but the effect didn’t last,” he writes.
Though sports programming is coming back for some major sports -- Major League Baseball, for example, and soon the NBA and NHL -- cord-cutting issues will probably get worse.
While Juenger says there is no clear picture of how the April, May and June period performed in terms of cord-cutting, AT&T recently said it lost 954,000 subscribers (DirecTV, U-Verse, AT&T TV) in its second-quarter reporting period.
Pandemic issues were compounded by the lack of sports from March though July.
“This has been exacerbated by the fact that, due to production shutdowns, there is a small and declining amount of fresh entertainment content being offered by the TV networks. Pretty soon, that will trend down to ‘zero,’ ” he writes.
This has forced viewers to move more to in-home video on-demand services, like Netflix, which continues to offer fresh programming.
At the same time, lower traditional TV viewership has forced advertisers to do “zero-based budgeting” when it comes to linear TV, with more money going to “digital platforms -- some of which will be captured by the TV network companies themselves, but not most of it.”
He added: “Our belief is that both viewership and advertising spend will recover to a new normalized rate significantly below pre-pandemic levels.”
At present the TV networks are easing their way into the AVOD spectrum with only Comcast ( NBCU ) going ful tilt and only just beginning. However, if and when Comcast attains its fairly modest AVOD subscriber goals, this will force Disney and CBS as well as other "establishment TV" players to move in aggressively. So it is not a lock to assume that most streaming audience time will be to ad-free services. Maybe now---but I doubt that this will be what the future holds a few years hence. What advertisers need to grasp is that TV GRPs are going to cost them a lot more---like double or even triple what they are used to paying---and not only on SVOD but also in the rump of "linear TV"---which, by the way, will still account for 50-60% of all ad GRPs in four or five years. As the supply of "linear TV" GRPs shrinks the sellers are sure to demand significant rate hikes---and advertisers who have been so CPM-fixated in the past will have no choice but to pay---as the alternatives--- AVOD and various forms of "addressable TV"---- will charge even more.


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According to Heather Dougherty, Hitwise’s director of research:
In the US, Bing ranked 17th among all websites out of over 450,000 websites, up from 5120 the week before the official launch when the website was merely a placeholder. Within the Search Engines category, Bing ranked 4th out of the search engines tracked by Hitwise and Bing Image Search ranked 15th for the week ending June 6, 2009.
In Canada, Bing hit the top 10 among all websites during the first week of launch and captured 1% of all Canadian Internet visits last week. Bing also ranked 3rd last week in terms of the market share of visits within the Search Engines category behind Google Canada and Google.
That’s quite a hot start, though it remains to be seen how long that traffic level can be sustained. It’s driving awareness with its TV ad campaigns, media coverage, and curiosity, but those things won’t keep Bing going at these levels for long. Microsoft needs to offer searchers something that exceeds what they can get from their current search engine — most likely Google — to make them change their behavior.
The surge in traffic is at least worth a short-term look from advertisers. Melissa Mackey took a look at Bing from an advertiser perspective today in “Can Bing Really Bring It for PPC Advertisers?” She says it’s more than just rebranded Live Search, and Microsoft has promised more advertising innovations coming down the line soon.


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Posted by Dave Frankland on September 27, 2009
[Posted by Dave Frankland]
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While Ben Bernanke has been raising our hopes that the recession is "very likely over", we're noticing a change in the conversations that we're having with marketers and vendors alike. These conversations seem to reflect that the economy is getting stronger, purse strings are loosening, there's greater talk of RFPs and vendor evaluations - this week alone, our team had inquiries about vendor selection with marketers in insurance, retail (and it's almost Q4!), travel, pharmaceutical, and telecom.
So, while we're delighted that the rebound might be real, we also hope that marketers pay attention to the lessons from a little over a year ago. While it's easy to point the finger at the Wall Street rogues, plenty of firms took on too much risk or paid more attention to acquiring new customers than focusing on the ones they had.
As marketers, we can learn from the past year and do our part to help ensure that the turnaround sticks. How?
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Driven by strong organic growth in Europe, Faurecia’s profitability in the first half of 2016 exceeded expectations encouraging the company to up the earnings guidance for the next quarter.
French car parts supplier raised its full-year guidance on profit and cash generation after reporting a stronger first-half performance in Europe.
European carmakers have been upgrading their European auto market forecasts since the start of the year as the recovery in demand gathers pace.
Faurecia’s operating income rose to 490 million euros ($539.2 million), or 5.1 percent of total sales, over the first six months of the year compared with 384 million euros a year ago.
“Faurecia’s robust profitability in the first half of 2016 … was driven by a strong organic growth in Europe, clearly outperforming automotive production, a profitability breakthrough in North America and robust profitability in Asia,” Chief Executive Patrick Koller said in a statement on Monday.
Faurecia, which is 47 percent owned by French carmaker PSA Peugeot Citroen, said it expected operating margin on total sales of no less than 5 percent, versus its previous guidance of 4.6 to 5 percent.
The company also targeted net cash flow of minimum 300 million euros, compared with its earlier expectation of around 300 million euros.
Faurecia confirmed its guidance on total sales growth in 2016 of 1 to 3 percent.


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The Japan Tourism Agency on Wednesday ordered JTB Corp. to file a report and take preventive measures by June 24 after the major travel agency said it fears personal information on 7.93 million people has been leaked through unauthorized access to its server.
The information includes customer names, addresses, email addresses and passport numbers. Around 4,300 passport numbers that may have been leaked are still valid, JTB said Tuesday. No misuse of the data has been confirmed so far, the agency said.
The Metropolitan Police Department began probing the matter on Tuesday, investigative sources said.
JTB said i.JTB Corp., one of its group companies, apparently came under attack when an employee opened a virus-infected email file that gained access to customer information.
“I apologize for causing trouble and worry to our customers and other people concerned,” JTB President Hiroyuki Takahashi told a news conference.
The leaked data may include information on customers who used online travel booking services offered by the mobile phone carrier NTT Docomo Inc.
With a workforce of around 26,000, JTB is Japan’s leading travel agency. It posted a group net profit of ¥12.58 billion on sales of ¥1.34 trillion last year as it benefited from the spike in foreign travelers to Japan, particularly from China.
Japanese companies are stepping up efforts to prevent unauthorized access to servers and the leaking of information via virus infections. Yahoo Japan Corp. and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. have also experienced data leaks.
In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever.
By subscribing, you can help us get the story right.


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Two years after it became obvious that electric and hybrid vehicles are here to stay, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is still hard at work trying to figure out the standards that will govern battery testing and automotive electrification.
In an effort meant to speed up the process, the EPA announced it would create an Integrated Battery Cycling System in Ann Arbor, Michigan, which will be in charge with creating the required standards.
To get the facility and process up and running, the EPA brought on board simulation and testing specialist AVL, who will provide the tools required for the batteries to be tested and standards to be created.
AVL will supply the EPA with the Lynx battery test automation platform, that will be used to shed some light into the blurry picture that is battery testing.
"We will provide the EPA with a battery test system that includes vehicle-simulation capabilities that allow maneuver-based testing at the battery level," said Phil Kingham, AVL director of Test Bed Systems. “The result will give OEMs and battery developers guidance to help create testing scenarios they can easily replicate in line with demanding automotive applications.”
According to the EPA, the new battery testing grounds will be completed and ready for action by the end of the year.


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Scout goes above and beyond Google Maps and Apple Maps by offering help finding destinations along with alerts for bad traffic on the daily commute.
Console-quality games on iOS could be closer than ever, which means a TV-connected device makes even more sense.
The carrier shows off its first destination store, based in the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn., which is designed to provide further education on wireless products.
The carrier is looking to go beyond smartphones and tablets and provide consumers with more wireless experiences.
A driver is cited after he allegedly pulled a passenger out of his car and then smashed her phone.
A new company called Mesoloft will rocket your ashes to near space, where they will likely traverse the globe before becoming the seeds of raindrops and snowflakes.
Search in Google Maps, and you will find more. The service adds event calendars, personal itineraries, and multiple destination support.
Imgur's new GIFV format means animated images load faster, look better and play when shared on social networks. Will the 1987-era GIF format finally fade from use?
Following Tesla's news that it's bringing autopilot to its electric sports cars, CEO Elon Musk says autonomous, self-driving cars aren't far off either.
The crowdsourced navigation app introduces a feature called Waze Places that lets you add details and photos of places you discover along your route.


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After providing a tease last week, Shanda Games and 2K Games officially announced Borderlands Online exclusively for China earlier! Developed by Gearbox Software, the game will launch next year. Shanda Games has announced it will also be publishing a Borderlands mobile game in the country, although I am not sure if it is one of the current existing ones.
For the China-exclusive Borderlands Online, the characters are divided into classes: Warrior, Wizard (?!), Berserker, and Ranger. The game will build on the existing Borderland titles, and 2K Games will set up a new team to develop and maintain the game in China (most likely with help from Gearbox Software as well). The move is somewhat similar to Activition’s Call of Duty Online, which is exclusive to China too. Welcome to Pandora!


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Anna Malmhake, the chief executive of Irish Distillers Pernod Ricard, has said that the "punitive" excise increases on spirits over the past year has meant that the group's Irish performance is in "stark contrast" to its successes overseas.
A 35% increase in excise on spirits (20% in December 2012 and 15% in October 2013) "has had a severe impact on the Irish market," Malmhake warned, following the release of Irish Distillers Pernod Ricard's H1 results, for the period ending 31 December.
"While we recognise the financial constraints that the government is under," she said, "the recent series of punitive increases imposed on this vital part of the agri-food industry will have serious consequences, not only for established producers such as Irish Distillers but for new start-up Irish whiskey distilleries, publicans, retailers and all of their employees."
She called for the "reintroduction of the ban on below-cost selling", as was the case under the Groceries Order, and urged the government to "work with all stakeholders to develop and introduce evidence-based solutions that will address alcohol misuse instead of punishing the majority of consumers who drink responsibly, with relentless tax hikes."
In its H1 results, Pernod Ricard posted net sales worldwide of €4.57 billion, with profit from recurring operations up 2% to €1.36 billion. Jameson, in particular performed well, with 16% sales growth and 13% volume growth. In addition, a total of 54 markets for the drinks brand are now in double/triple digit growth worldwide.
© 2014 - Checkout Magazine by Stephen Wynne-Jones


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Just seven stocks – Apple (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT), Alphabet (GOOG), Amazon (AMZN), Nvidia (NVDA), Tesla (TSLA) and Meta Platforms (META) – make up close to $11 trillion in market value and contributed about 75% of returns of the S&P 500 in the first half of 2023, according to a recent Bank of America report.
Big Tech is soaring to new heights – largely by quickly gobbling up any potential competition.
That worries the Federal Trade Commission and the Biden administration. The so-called “magnificent seven,” they fear, could become monopolies that buy and squash any new innovation so they can remain on top.
The question is whether the FTC and White House have the power to stop that.
What’s happening: Two years ago, Lina Khan, 34, became the youngest and perhaps most progressive leader of the FTC’s 100-plus year history.
Khan’s tenure was heralded as the start of a new era of antitrust governance in the US that would challenge decades of loose policy towards mergers and acquisitions, which allowed tech titans to swallow up their competition and emerge as companies with trillion-plus dollar market caps.
So far, those challenges haven’t made a huge impact.
Apple is now worth $3 trillion, the only company ever to reach that milestone. Khan, meanwhile, was unable to successfully block Microsoft from closing its $69 billion purchase of videogame publisher Activision Blizzard last week. The FTC is appealing, but lost a similar case earlier this year when it was unable to prevent Meta Platforms from purchasing virtual reality startup Within Unlimited.
Earlier this month, Khan sat before Congress for more than three hours while facing a barrage of criticism from Republican policymakers who accused her of “harassing” businesses during a House Judiciary Committee hearing.
“You are now zero for four in merger trials,” Representative Kevin Kiley, a Republican from California, said to her. “Why are you losing so much?”
But Khan appears undeterred, and late last week, the FTC and President Joe Biden released a set of long-anticipated draft updates to the nation’s merger guidelines, introducing potentially comprehensive changes to the way the US government reviews mergers and acquisitions for the first time in more than a decade.
The proposed changes could lead to major shifts in how the US government identifies — and tries to block or alter — deals it believes are anticompetitive, reports my colleague Brian Fung.
Some members of the business community aren’t happy about that.
But on Monday, Khan defended her record and actions at The Economic Club of New York.
“In federal court, we have lost two merger cases. We have brought somewhere between 13 and 20, depending on how you count,” Khan said. “In the scheme of our merger enforcement program, losing two is OK.”
The FTC, she said, doesn’t have any specificity about how big or small a business should be. “Congress, when passing the antitrust statutes, was setting out a policy preference, in many cases, for competition over monopoly,” Khan said. “That said, the statutes don’t prohibit being a monopoly. They only prohibit becoming a monopoly through illegal tactics. And so that’s the sort of thing that we look at.”
What’s next: Khan, who first garnered attention when she wrote a 98-page article about Amazon’s anticompetitive behavior for the Yale Law Journal, is undeterred. She’s preparing to take on Amazon headfirst in the coming months with a big antitrust suit.
Khan’s FTC has already put forward three cases against Amazon, but according to a Bloomberg report, they are getting ready to take them on once again. The suit, reported Bloomberg, will focus on Amazon’s core marketplace business – alleging that Amazon uses its power to reward merchants that use its logistics services and punishes merchants that don’t.
Tech earnings also begin this week. Alphabet and Microsoft report on Tuesday afternoon followed by Meta on Wednesday.
From CNN’s Samantha Delouya
Lazarus Limo usually starts his day at 10 a.m. ET, driving passengers and delivering food for Uber around Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
“I tend to set a minimum target of how much I should get by the end of the day. As soon as I get my target, that’s it; I’m done for the day,” he said. His goal is usually to make between $200 and $300 and, depending on the day, achieving it may take him between 8 and 10 hours, he told CNN.
But that’s just his weekday job.
On weekends, Limo, who is 28 years old, works as a “Dasher,” delivering food orders for DoorDash.
He is one of millions of people in the United States who participate in the so-called “gig economy,” a term that has grown in popularity over the last decade to describe the rise in freelancing work through apps like Uber, Lyft, Doordash and Instacart.
Government data on this group of workers is elusive. The last time the Bureau of Labor Statistics officially tracked workers with alternate job arrangements was 2017. But workplace experts say the number of gig workers is growing, and their impact is being felt throughout the economy. It could even be distorting government economic data, they say. For example, easy-to-access work through mobile phones may be keeping the national unemployment rate lower than it would be without the rise of these workers. It may also be a factor helping more people avoid bankruptcies, providing a fallback option for those who have been laid off from work in recent years, they say.
“People who have access to the gig economy borrow less money than people who don’t. You can think of it as an alternative to debt for some people — as a way to get through volatile times,” said Louis Hyman, a professor of labor and business at Cornell University. “Society needs to account for these different kinds of experiences.”
Read more here.
Have you tried to get tickets to go see the Barbie movie? I have and it’s nearly impossible – there are only front row tickets available for more than a week out.
That’s something I haven’t seen in a while, since well before the pandemic began. Insiders are hoping that this isn’t a fluke and that after years of declining box office profits, cinema is staging a comeback.
Summer blockbusters “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” have given the troubled film industry a big shot in the arm, reports my colleague Anna Cooban.
The films raked in a combined $511 million in box office sales over their opening weekend, according to Boxoffice.com, which cited data from Warner Bros., the producers of “Barbie,” and Universal Studios, which is behind “Oppenheimer.”
It was “Barbie” that came out on top, earning $337 million globally, compared with “Oppenheimer’s” $174 million. That gave the pink-drenched film the largest opening weekend of 2023 so far and the biggest-ever debut for a female director. (Warner Bros., is owned by CNN’s parent company Warner Bros. Discovery.)
The unlikely pairing seems only to have fueled interest in both. AMC, the world’s largest movie theater chain, said last week that 60,000 people had bought tickets to see both films on the same day.
“The Barbenheimer phenomenon was the catalyst to something we hadn’t seen for years in this industry: rather than driving the cultural conversation around seeing a movie, it became a global viral campaign around going to the movies,” Daniel Loria, editorial director at Boxoffice.com, told CNN.
But whether the success of both films will translate into a sustained revival of the movie industry remains to be seen. Big budget films like DC’s “The Flash” and Disney’s “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” have underperformed this summer, and an ongoing strike by Hollywood actors and writers over pay and working conditions has temporarily stopped production on most films.
DISCLAIMER: Independentghana.com will not be liable for any inaccuracies contained in this article. The views expressed in the article are solely those of the author’s, and do not reflect those of The Independent Ghana


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By ESPN Staff WriterOn the heels of Gemma’s latest success, a Korean beauty company is now the #1 hair care brand in Korea.
Korean Hair Care’s new #1 Korean Beauty brand, Gemma, launched in late July.
The Korean beauty brand’s first Korean-language ad is featured in the #2 spot, which features Gemma founder Kim Hee-yeong in her native South Korea.
Kim said the ad is about growing a brand, not about trying to be a copycat.
“The Korean beauty industry is evolving rapidly and Gemma is just the latest example,” Kim said.
“Gemma’s innovative beauty is about a more natural approach, so it’s not about copying anyone.”
Gemmases original Korean-English marketing campaign, in which Kim talks about the importance of being “real” and that “real people” have a lot of influence, has been watched by nearly 2.4 billion people on YouTube.
“Gemmea has been one of my favorite brands ever since we launched,” Gemma CEO Jeong Seok-gyun said.
“We want to help people enjoy the beauty products they love without relying on the brand name.”
Gems newest beauty line, Rosemary Hair Care, is now available for $39.99 and has more than 1,500 products on the company’s website.
The Rosemary line includes a $30 skin whitening gel, a $15 moisturizer, a shampoo and conditioner, and a $3 body scrub.
The Rosemary Beauty line includes six skincare products, including three cleansers, two moisturizers, a moisturizer and a toner, according to Gemma.
Kim added that the brand has also expanded its beauty range to include “more natural” products like hair care products, so customers can choose what’s best for them.
Gemmas Korean-only brand, K-beauty, also launched in July and has 1,000 products on its website.
Kim explained the brand aims to create “beauty that is more personal,” while offering “more value.”
“It’s not a matter of ‘how do I make more money’ or ‘how much does it cost,'” Kim said of K-Beauty.
“It’s a matter about personalizing beauty, being authentic and giving a better experience.”
Gema’s Korean-marketing campaign features Kim talking about how to stay focused and focused on her career.
“It helps you keep on your feet,” Kim added.
“The beauty you see is your makeup.
Don’t worry about what others think of you.”
K-beautys Korean-friendly brand, Glamis, launched last September and has over 700 products on their website.
The brand, which is based in Seoul, was launched by Kim in 2010.
The first product, the Rosemary-only Rosemary Gel, is a $50 gel with six products, according a Gemma press release.
Gema has also partnered with Korean-based cosmetics brand, Lush, which launched in April.
The Lush brand offers “unique” cosmetics, such as face masks and face scrub, that have been developed with Korean technology, according the press release, which also includes details about how the products are made.
The K-Glamis Korean-exclusive brand, Nippon Glam, is also now available on the Lush website.
“I feel a sense of pride in our brand,” Kim told ESPN.
“We are here today because of Korean-American women and girls who love the brand.”
Kem, who also serves as the head of Lush’s Asia division, said the company has also added a number of products from other Korean companies in the Korean-speaking markets.
The Korean-owned cosmetics brand K-mart, which was the #4 seller of Korean cosmetics in 2016, is one of the top-selling Korean-made beauty brands in Korea, according Gemma data.
In April, the company partnered with South Korean beauty retailer K-Mart to launch a new line, Lippo, featuring “Korean-inspired products for the Korean beauty market.”
The brand was launched in September and includes Lippos five skin-whitening products, three moisturizers and two hair-whipping creams.
Lippo was launched on the Korean makeup website Kbeauty.com in November, with the launch of a limited-time offer.
Kim also said the brand is aiming to be “the first Korean brand to have a global presence.”
“We have a really strong brand, but we need to continue to make it better and better,” Kim explained.
“That’s why we want to bring our Korean beauty and our Korean-ness to more markets.”
Gemeas Korean-centric makeup line, Gom, was recently launched in the United States, with a total of 1,400 products.
“Our focus is to make Korean-inspired cosmetics as comfortable and affordable as