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Universal Web Consulting Helps Businesses Adapt to Online Marketing While businesses try to adapt to or build themselves around online techniques, many are looking for tips on how to utilize these resources. Universal Web Consulting offers solutions for business owners and marketers interested in learning. Phoenix, AZ (I- Newswire) May 31, 2012 - The LA Times recently published an article spotlighting the trends in online marketing. Last year, businesses spent as much as 35.6 billion dollars on Google advertisements alone, making the online marketing industry a rather quick success. Since the industry is growing incredibly fast, many business owners are looking for guidance on how to stay relevant in face of online culture. Universal Web Consulting offers such guidance to understand these new, but complex marketing techniques through easy- to- use online coursework. But why are people choosing to go this route instead of dedicating funds to print, television and radio ads? The article claims that people have found online marketing to reach better, more appropriate audiences, in "completely new and sophisticated ways." To make the most of these advanced marketing tactics, the article stresses the importance of web analytics. Universal Web Consulting highlights online marketing, because it has the advantage to show users how their effective their efforts are. The company's courses teach individuals how to track their success through online advertisement services such as Google AdWords. LA Times states that this is essential, because it allows users to change their course of action if their business is not getting the traffic they expect. Audience is a major part of online marketing that makes it unique from its traditional counterparts. The article states that while print and television allows companies to reach wide audiences, there is no guarantee that a specific group is actually paying attention. Online marketing, on the other hand, can target specific groups of people who are actively searching for your product or demonstrate in interest in the services you have to offer. Universal Web Consulting says that it is very important for a business to think about what their target audiences are, and why those people would be interested in what they have to offer. Their blogging and search engine optimization courses teach individuals how to craft their web content to reach out to a specific group of people. These actions require a little more work on the marketer's behalf, but can deliver more exceptional and cost- effective results than traditional practices. ABOUT: For those looking to expand their business online, Universal Web Consulting is an online- based educational program that offers many courses on the subject of online marketing. Universal Web These courses develop skills that assist these online entrepreneurs in building and advertising their websites, which ultimately enhances their brand and makes their services more attractive to targeted audiences. Universal Web Consulting courses cover a variety of topics, ranging from social media marketing to HTML. Some of these courses include: blogging, Google AdWords, SEO marketing, pay- per- click marketing, eBay marketing, and more. For more information about the programs that Universal Web Consulting offers, visit universalwebconsulting.com.
Additional Resources Company Contact Information: PR Authority Michael McGarety 10 W. Trade Street New York, NY 10005 Phone: 800-685-5476 Published in: Business Tags: Web Consulting Universal Web Consulting Universal Web Published on: May 31, 2012 Original Source: Universal Web Consulting Helps Businesses Adapt to Online Marketing
Published on May 31, 2012
While businesses try to adapt to or build themselves around online techniques, many are looking for tips on how to utilize these resources....


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Adidas sees record profits in 2011 as Olympics approach
Sportswear firm Adidas has unveiled its best-ever annual profits, as hopes rise that this year's Olympics will help it break more records.
It reported a 18% rise in net profits in 2011 to 671m euros ($881m; £559m), though the firm barely made a profit in the last three months of the year.
Rising sales in Eastern Europe and China drove demand, the company said.
Julia Caesar reports.
07 Mar 2012
- From the section Business

domain: news


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Vivo Y100 is expected to debut in India later this month. The phone’s essential features and hardware information were previously hinted in a report. In addition, the leak revealed the smartphone’s anticipated pricing range in India. According to rumours, the smartphone will be equipped with a MediaTek Dimensity SoC, running the most recent version of Android 13. The device could feature a slim and light body with a rear panel that can change colours. The company has now officially teased the some of the smartphone’s specifications.
Vivo tweeted a teaser of the Vivo Y100 where the phone’s rear panel design is revealed. We can see a triple rear camera setup along with an LED flash located within two circular units on the upper left side. The teaser also reveals that the upcoming smartphone by Vivo will be offered in at least two colour-changing variants — Black and Gold.
The Vivo Y100 will likely be the first Vivo phone to come in two colour-changing variations. While the Vivo V23 Pro and Vivo V25 Pro both featured colour-changing displays, they were only offered in a single colour option.
As reported previously, the Y100 from Vivo will only be offered in a single configuration with 6GB RAM and 128GB storage, and it may cost roughly Rs. 27,000 in India. The 6-inch HDR10+ AMOLED display on the Vivo Y100, which supports dual SIMs and 5G, is likely to have a refresh rate of 120 Hz, a 20:9 aspect ratio, and could run Android 13. The phone is reportedly said to be equipped with an octa-core MediaTek Dimensity 900 SoC, and an ARM Mali-G68 MP4 GPU.
The Vivo Y100 camera unit is likely to get a 64-megapixel primary sensor, an 8-megapixel secondary camera, and a 2-megapixel tertiary lens. The 50-megapixel front camera is expected to be located in a hole-punch slot at the top of the front display.
Featured video of the day
Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, Galaxy S23+ And Galaxy S23: First Look


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Facebook is a must-visit site for billions of individuals around the world every day, with many squeezing in time during a busy work day, family event and night out to check their Facebook “news feed.” And on special occasions, like Christmas or, most recently, Valentine’s Day,
Facebook use may reach an all-time high as users take to the social media site to update their statuses or declare their affection for a loved one.
While a lot of coveted Facebook time is spent sitting in front of the desktop, Facebook use is also getting just as big in the mobile world, according to a recent report from comScore, which evaluated United Kingdom users’ habits.
Facebook's 7.5 million unique mobile users spent an average of 2,500 million minutes on its site in December of 2010, according to a chart posted on Business Insider. Other sites, including Google and eBay, couldn’t even hold a candle to Facebook with regards to mobile use, as Google came in second with its 9.5 million users spending just 702 million minutes on Google through their phones in December. The list was rounded out by Yahoo, AccuWeather, Microsoft, BBC, Vodafone, Samsung, Orange and eBay sites, respectively.
So what do these statistics tell us about our friends in the U.K.? That they seem to be just like every other Facebook user in the world.
The facts speak for themselves: Facebook users are made up of a group of narcissistic, overly open people (myself included, of course) who think that everyone in the Facebook stratosphere wants to know their every move. They, likewise, want to know everyone else’s every move.
Does this make us bad people? Of course not, but it also demonstrates that lately many of us possess this compulsive need to know what is going on in our friends’ lives at any given time. Whether it is “stalking” an ex- boyfriend or girlfriend on Facebook to see if they are dating someone new, seeing how someone’s birthday party went or reading your friends up-to-the-minute statuses to see how their morning commute, lunch and job went, users want to constantly glean into other people’s lives.
In March 2009, Nielsen Online released a report called “Global Faces and Networked Places” that revealed that social networking sites, like Facebook, are used much more than e-mail as a primary means of communication.
On the Nielsen Wire blog, the company wrote: "Two-thirds of the world's Internet population visit social networking or blogging sites, accounting for almost 10 percent of all Internet time."
According to the social media king himself, Facebook, 50 percent of active users log on to Facebook in any given day and people spend over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook. And for those who can’t spend those precious minutes sitting in chair using their computer, they are relying on their phones to get their Facebook fix filled.
So what lesson can we learn from comScore’s recent fact that 2,500 million minutes are spent a month using a phone to access Facebook? Turn the cell off.
TechZone360 Web Editor
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Month: March 2014
Read more: “Quiet, please!” Nonwovens focus on acoustics.
“Quiet, please!” Nonwovens are concentrating on the acoustics market where they are gaining clout for their cost-effective performance at lower weights. “Silence is Golden” is an interesting article brought by Nonwoven Industry, which is very much in line with Ucomposites’ perspectives. By Sandra Levy, Nonwoven Industry. Remember the first time you turned on the sound…
Read more: Eco-innovating composites: Ucomposites awarded grant from European Commission
By Line Ladegaard Ucomposites has been awarded a grant by the European Commission’s Eco-Innovation Department for a specific innovative project on recycling and up-cycling of glass fiber technology. The project provides inputs for Ucomposites’ ongoing product innovation and R&D. This makes Ucomposites one of the most environmentally friendly composites product manufactures in the world. Read…


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YEREVAN, February 22. /ARKA/. The Yerevan Chocolate Company plans to export $6 million worth produces in 2021, and to bring their sales to $20 million in 2024, a senior executive of the company said to Minister of Economy Vahan Kerobyan, who paid a visit to the company today.
The press service of the ministry quoted the founding director of the company Sos Sahakyan as saying that the company’s sales in 2019 had increased by 30% compared to the previous year, but in 2020 the sales slashed by 15.7% from 2019.
Nevertheless, according to him, the shareholders have replenished the authorized capital of the company by 100 million drams. The company has also started producing local dried fruits, dried fruits in chocolate and dried fruit sweets, which will result in increased output and 400 new jobs.
“In 2021, we plan to expand the geography of exports and quadruple them to $6 million. The company plans to make large investments in the near future to expand production and purchase new equipment,” according to the ministry.
The company produces 160 types of products and exports them to 16 countries, including Russia, Georgia, Belgium, France, USA, Israel, Ukraine, China, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Belarus, Estonia, Mongolia, Sweden, Austria, the Netherlands.
The Yerevan Chocolate Company has been operating since 2006 and is known to Armenian consumers under the brands Mark Sevuni and Sonuar sweets.


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Source: David Jackson / USA Today
President Obama’s economic team is combining Cyber Monday and the Christmas shopping season with a warning about the perils of the so-called fiscal cliff.
A report released Monday details what the White House calls “the impact to retailers and consumer spending if Congress fails to act to avoid taxes going up on 98 percent of Americans at the end of the year.”
White House officials and congressional Republicans and Democrats are negotiating a new budget deal to avoid what they call the fiscal cliff, a series of automatic tax hikes and spending cuts that take effect in the absence of an agreement; that includes the expiration of the George W. Bush tax cuts.
Obama wants to extend the Bush tax cuts for everyone except Americans who make more than $250,000 a year; the Republicans want to extend all the Bush tax cuts.
To read this article in its entirety visit the USA Today.


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- Newslink Global Insurance Trends-Editor's Weekly Overview
- PRA publishes Solvency II Consultation Paper
- Insurance Europe and other EU industry associations raise concerns regarding application timeline for new EU disclosure rules for sustainable investments and risks
- S&P Global Ratings welcomes latest amendments to IRFS 17
- Charles Taylor board backs cash offer of £261m from LMP Bidco
- NeuralMetrics, a InsurTech data provider using natural language processing(NLP) technologies to power a real-time, alternative data engine for general insurers, announces official launch
- Duck Creek Technologies announces that it has been recognized as a Leader in the 2019 Gartner “Magic Quadrant for P&C Core Insurance Platforms, North America-its fifth consecutive time expired
- GlobalData says start-up Found has the potential to reduce claims in contents insurance expired
- Greenlight Re Innovations invests in US digital MGU Coterie-its tenth investment expired
- FCA appoints Howard as executive director of Risk and Compliance Oversight(R&CO) expired
- Lloyd's appoints Sansom as CRO-Chief People Officer Andrews to leave expired
- Ascent Underwriting appoints Western as CUO expired
9th June 2019
Pegasystems research indicates consumers lack trust in artificial intelligence (AI) and don’t understand the extent to which it can make their interactions with businesses better and more efficient
Consumers lack trust in artificial intelligence (AI) and don’t understand the extent to which it can make their interactions with businesses better and more efficient, according to new research from Pegasystems, the software company empowering digital transformation at the world’s leading enterprises. The study, which was conducted by research firm Savanta and unveiled at PegaWorld in Las Vegas, surveyed 5,000 consumers around the world on their views around AI, morality, ethical behaviour, and empathy.
Despite AI delivering the types of customized, relevant experiences people demand, many consumers still aren’t sold on the benefits. With many businesses turning to AI to improve the customer experience, it’s important for organisations to understand their customers’ perceptions, concerns, and preferences. Key findings of the study included:
-Consumers are cynical about the companies they do business with: 68% of respondents said that organisations have an obligation to do what is morally right for the customer, beyond what is legally required. Despite this, 65% of respondents don’t trust that companies have their best interests at heart, raising significant questions about how much trust they have in the technology businesses use to interact with them. In a world that purports to be customer centric, consumers do not believe businesses actually care about them or show enough empathy for their individual situations.
-There are serious trust issues with AI: Less than half(40%) of respondents agreed that AI has the potential to improve the customer service of businesses they interact with, while less than one third(30%) felt comfortable with businesses using AI to interact with them. Just 9% said they were ‘very comfortable’ with the idea. At the same time, one third of all respondents said they were concerned about machines taking their jobs, with more than one quarter(27%) also citing the ‘rise of the robots and enslavement of humanity’ as a concern.
-Many believe that AI is unable to make unbiased decisions: Over half(53%) of respondents said it’s possible for AI to show bias in the way it makes decisions. 53% percent also felt that AI will always make decisions based on the biases of the person who created its initial instructions, regardless of how much time has passed.
-People still prefer the human touch: 70% of respondents still prefer to speak to a human than an AI system or a chatbot when dealing with customer service and 69% of respondents agree they would be more inclined to tell the truth to a human than to an AI system. And when it comes to making life and death decisions, an overwhelming 86% of people said they trust humans more than AI.
-Most believe that AI does not utilize morality or empathy: Only 12% of consumers agreed that AI can tell the difference between good and evil, while over half(56%) of customers don’t believe it is possible to develop machines that behave morally. Just 12% believe they have ever interacted with a machine that has shown empathy.
One of the critical ways organisations can increase customer trust and satisfaction is to use all the tools at their disposal and demonstrate more empathy in their interactions. But empathy is not a common corporate trait–especially when trying to maximize profitability. As AI becomes increasingly important in driving customer engagement, companies need to think about how to combine AI-based insights with human-supplied ethical considerations.
To help improve empathy in AI systems, Pega has announced the launch of its Customer Empathy Advisor. For further details on how this feature provides businesses with an ethical framework to operationalize empathy and ethics in all customer interactions, visit www.pega.com/ai-and-empathy.
“Our study found that only 25% of consumers would trust a decision made by an AI system over that of a person regarding their qualification for a bank loan,” said Dr Rob Walker, vp, decisioning and analytics at Pega. “Consumers likely prefer speaking to people because they have a greater degree of trust in them and believe it’s possible to influence the decision, when that’s far from the case. What’s needed is the ability for AI systems to help companies make ethical decisions. To use the same example, in addition to a bank following regulatory processes before making an offer of a loan to an individual it should also be able to determine whether or not it’s the right thing to do ethically.
An important part of the evolution of artificial intelligence will be the addition of guidelines that put ethical considerations on top of machine learning. This will allow decisions to be made by AI systems within the context of customer engagement that would be seen as empathetic if made by a person. AI shouldn’t be the sole arbiter of empathy in any organisation and it’s not going to help customers to trust organisations overnight. However, by building a culture of empathy within a business, AI can be used as a powerful tool to help differentiate companies from their competition.”
Pega surveyed 5,000 consumers on their views on artificial intelligence, morality, ethical behaviour, and empathy. The results included responses from the US, the UK, France, Germany and Japan.
Pegasystems Trends(55 articles)


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This fall, 17 European convention bureaus across the continent announced the formation of a new alliance, designed to pool resources and share best practices to protect market share in the global meetings and convention arena.
This initiative—presently positioned as the European National Convention Bureaux—parallels the leisure consumer-facing Visit Europe consortia of 33 tourism bureaus, operated by the European Travel Commission. The launch date for an official website has not yet been announced.
U.S. bookings for meetings, conventions and incentive travel are coming back strong throughout Europe, as they are in many other long-haul destinations that were also deemed prohibitively expensive during the recession.
“We’re increasing our group sales staff 20% in Europe for 2015,” says Christopher Koleros, area director of sales/marketing, Europe, InterContinental Hotels. “There’s a lot of pent up demand for Europe right now, including secondary markets like Prague and Budapest, because so many groups curtailed their European programs after 2009.”
Therefore, the motivation behind the launch of the new European meetings destination marketing organization (DMO) is two-fold. One is to maintain top-of-mind positioning for Europe as a primary meetings location. With so many emerging destinations from Brazil to New Zealand rising on planners’ radars, it’s paramount for European countries to proactively ensure they remain competitive.


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Mauser Electronics will supply its vibration sensors for Analog Devices, the company said Thursday.
Called ADcmXL 1021-1, it will be able to detect overload and malfunctions on industrial and transportation equipment, the company said.
Users will be able to reduce repair cost and increase productivity, Mauser said.
It also has ultra-low output noise density of 26 μg/√Hz.
It supports high-pass filter cutoff frequencies of 1 kHz, 5 kHz, 10 kHz. It can detect multiple equipment platforms as well, the company added.


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The IRR was signed by Trade Secretary Gregory L. Domingo on Nov. 17. To ensure consumers protection from factory defects and raise the automotive industry's quality and safety standards, the Lemon Law took effect upon the publication of its IRR. ... Business World, 1 month ago
1 images for "gregory l domingo"
6:49 am Senator Paolo Benigno A. Aquino IV and Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Secretary Gregory L. Domingo inspect some of the substandard and uncertified Christmas lights seized by DTI personnel in Metro Manila for having no Import ...Balita.org, 3 weeks ago Auto Lemon Law's IRR can be relaxed further DTI Manila Bulletin, 4 weeks ago Gov't hopes to hammer out fiscal bill in time Philippine Daily Inquirer, 1 month ago Lemon law IRR awaits Domingo's signature Business Mirror, 1 month ago
[October 18, 2014] (TendersInfo (India) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Trade Secretary Gregory L. Domingo has announced that he wants the Philippine Information Technology and Business Process Management industry (IT-BPM) to expand by ...TMC Net, 2 months ago
Trade and Industry Secretary Gregory L. Domingo predicted a multidecade economic growth for the Philippines, and expected to surpass four Asean tiger economies. (Bal Kenneth Aballe/Davao Today Intern) The post appeared first on DavaoDavao Today, 2 weeks ago
Calls slower 2014 growth a blip, blames DAP controversy Share this: Blaming the controversy generated by the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) as the main culprit to the sharp decline in the third quarter GDP growth rate, which could bring ...Manila Bulletin, 3 weeks ago
The Philippines will start by March 2015 the first round of negotiations for a free trade agreement with the European Free Trade Association (Efta). The move is aimed at further broadening and strengthening the country's bilateral trade and ...Philippine Daily Inquirer, 2 hours ago PH, Efta to start free trade talks Philippine Daily Inquirer, 3 weeks ago
By Dec. 25, 2014, the Philippines will start exporting at least 4,000 tariff lines under zero duties after its petition to the European Parliament got approved, officials said on Friday. Trade Secretary Gregory L. Domingo said in a press briefing ...China.org.cn, 2 days ago XINHUA - Philippines to export at least 4,000 goods to EU at zero tariff Namibia Press Agency, 2 days ago
More from: , Individual.com...and 2 other sources
Yesterday, the European Parliament confirmed the European Commission's decision to grant the Philippines GSP+ status, EU Ambassador Guy Ledoux said in remarks at the Department of Trade and Industry's (DTI) briefing on Friday on the Philippines GSP+ ...Business World, 2 days ago EU grants zero duty on more PH products Manila Bulletin, 2 days ago
L ast Monday, Dec. 15, marked a milepost in the Philippines case filed at The Hague. It was supposed to be the deadline for the other party, China, to submit its arguments, which, as expected, the latter didn't, having announced from the onset its ...Philippines Daily Tribune, 5 days ago
The Digital Commerce Association of the Philippines (DCom) has sought government help to boost e-commerce in the Philippines and maximize this platform's potential benefits to local businesses. In a presentation at a stakeholders forum on Monday, ...Philippine Daily Inquirer, 6 days ago DTI to conduct an E-Commerce Forum Department of Trade and Industry, 6 days ago DTI backs formulation of e-commerce roadmap Philippine Daily Inquirer, 6 days ago DTI, private sector work to integrate local SMEs to global value chains Department of Trade and Industry, 2 weeks ago
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Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is now the second most profitable game of all time for publisher Ubisoft. That happened in less than twelve months; the game came out in November 2020. The company attributes this mainly to in-game purchases and DLC.
In the first half of Ubisoft’s fiscal year 2021, which runs from April 2021 to the end of March 2022, turnover of 718.2 million euros was recorded, 4.8 percent less than a year earlier. Almost half of that, 348.6 million, comes from player recurring investment. This includes revenue from microtransactions and DLC. Ubisoft says so in a statement to the financial results.
These recurring player releases are also the reason Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is already the company’s second-highest-grossing game within a year, according to Ubisoft. How much profit the game has made, and which game is in first place, is not mentioned.
Far Cry 6 is also doing well, according to Ubisoft. The company says the first sales figures “match” those of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey during the same period. Ubisoft also reports that the game time per player is 25 percent higher than was the case with Far Cry 5.
Furthermore, Ubisoft reports in its report which platforms performed best in terms of game sales. This shows that the PlayStation consoles in particular have caught up; in the second quarter of the current fiscal year, 37 percent of game revenues came from Sony’s platforms, which is ten percent more than in the second quarter of fiscal 2020.
The PC has a share of 20 percent in game sales; that is twelve percent less than a year earlier. Xbox consoles accounted for 19 percent this quarter, compared to 16 percent in 2020. Mobile platforms accounted for ten percent, down three percent, and Nintendo Switch had a seven percent share, up one percent from the second quarter of last year.


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Burlington sells tufted rug facility
February 12, 2001,
MONTICELLO, AR -When Saeid "Stephen" Korhani becomes the new owner of Burlington House Floor Accents' recently shuttered tufted rug facility here this week, expect to see some major changes.
But one thing will remain: the name Burlington.
As part of the acquisition, Korhani has exclusivity for the use of the name Burlington Rug Corp., Burlington's license.
"We negotiated a deal with Burlington because we wanted to continue using their name on our rugs," Korhani said. "Burlington is the most well-known brand in the industry."
Burlington announced on Oct. 26 that it would shut down the Monticello facility because the company was exiting the tufted rug business as part of its restructuring "Five Point Plan"-which includes efforts to eliminate unprofitable businesses, improve return on assets and reduce overhead and operating expenses.
Under the new management, about half of the Monticello facility's 750 employees will be downsized initially.
"We expect to rehire everyone within a year or two," Korhani said.
The average rate of service among the facility's employees is 19.5 years. "They are a very loyal staff," Korhani said, citing one of the main reasons he decided to buy the facility.
Among those employees keeping their jobs are six members of the top executive team. One of those top executives is Roger Miller, formerly divisional vp of operations and manufacturing, who will be promoted to president. Miller and a group of the facility's employees originally wanted to purchase the facility from Burlington but backed out due to financial problems.
Korhani expects also to hire four more top executives from outside the company to the top management team. "These new people will come from my previous contacts in the industry," Korhani said.
Korhani, originally from Iran, moved to Canada in 1981, where he and his family created the Korhani Group of Companies-one of Canada's largest suppliers of area rugs. Korhani served as president of his family's company, which had two distribution centers of more than 200,000 square feet.
But Korhani decided to establish a separate company in the United States when he heard Burlington's Monticello facility was for sale. On Jan. 26, Burlington Industries and Korhani sealed the deal.
"It was the right move," Korhani said.
Because several months have past since Burlington closed the facility, there have been concerns that a large portion of the company's $70 million to $100 million business-what Burlington generated over the past two years, respectively, from the facility-is lost to the competition.
Hoping to grab back not just the lost market share but more of it, Korhani plans to implement new production and distribution strategies.
Korhani said Burlington Rug Corp. will expand its tufted offerings with new colors, designs and sizes-not just scatter, but also area rugs.
"Burlington had been limited in that department over the past two to three years," Korhani said.
Also, Korhani has plans of stretching the company's retail reach into more upscale stores, like department stores, by implementing machinery to produce woven rugs.
And finally, Korhani will use his expertise in the area rug business to develop an international division that would export rugs to retailers in Asia, South America and Europe.
However, Korhani promised, price points for his new and expanded line of Burlington Rug Corp. rugs will be unchanged.
"We have no intention of increasing prices," Korhani said. "In fact we plan on reducing production costs and operational expenses."
Korhani said he just wants to make the most of his new acquisition.
"Our current production capability is $120 million without the weaving implementation," Korhani said. "We plan to work to potential."
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Vennetics, an innovator of telecommunications and IT applications, has been recognised as an InterTradeIreland Business Ambassador at a special event hosted by the President of Ireland, Mary McAleese and Minister for Enterprise and Innovation, Richard Bruton TD. Over 80 TDs and Senators were also in attendance at the event which recognised SMEs that have excelled through trade and innovation. Local representatives in attendance on the day included Gerry Adams TD and Gerald Nash TD.
As part of the exclusive event at Áras an Uachtaráin, President Mary McAleese described the InterTrade Ireland Business Ambassadors as ‘Champions of the future and leaders of change.’
Mr. Richard Bruton TD, Minister for Enterprise and Innovation commented, “Government does not create jobs, people and businesses do; and the role of government is to create an environment in which those businesses can prosper. I am determined to do everything I can to reduce costs, improve access to finance and encourage innovation so that good businesses can expand and create the jobs that our economy and society so badly need. If there is one thing Ireland – north and south – does not lack it is enterprising, creative, hardworking people, and I look forward to working with them to discuss what government and small business together can do to get people back to work”.
Also speaking at the event, InterTradeIreland Chairman Dr David Dobbin said: “We have supported companies right across Ireland, in every county and constituency and we are extremely proud of the examples of enterprise and innovation that are represented by our group of InterTradeIreland Business Ambassadors. We hope that through highlighting the achievements of successful local SMEs, we will inspire other businesses to take advantage of trade opportunities.”


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There was an article on Chron.com that I found interesting, and I want to share it with you. Texas A&M University privately acquired the 12thMan.com domain name from a company that had been using the domain name for its business but had ceased operations. The seller was unable to share the sale price, presumably due to a non-disclosure agreement.
Apparently, “12th man” is a trademarked term that is owned (and protected) by Texas A&M. According to the Chron.com article, “Texas A&M has been in the midst of an aggressive legal campaign to defend its 12th Man trademark.” In fact, last week, several news outlets reported on the Texas A&M UDRP filing against the 12thManThunder.com domain name. 12thManThunder.com was registered by a Buffalo Bills (NFL) fan who wants the team to stay in Buffalo. It appears that domain name is forwarding to BillsFanThunder.com.
Because of its long ownership history and prior usage, I assume the University would not have been successful using the UDRP process or the legal system to take 12thMan.com from the former owner, but it is always something a domain owner should be cautious about when negotiating with the owner of a trademark, especially if they aggresively defend the mark. Judging by the former owner’s comments in the Chron.com article, it appears he and the University were able to reach a mutually agreeable deal.
One thing I noticed is that the University does not own the .com domain name for its Aggies nickname. Aggies.com is owned by someone who does not appear to be associated with Texas A&M. It’s interesting that the University bought 12thMan.com rather than the Aggies.com domain name for its athletics website.


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PARIS — Beefing up its luxury lingerie portfolio, Belgian innerwear manufacturer Van de Velde has acquired the family-owned, Spanish premium lingerie firm Andres Sardá, including its sister brands Risk and University.
Van de Velde, advised by Paris-based investment banking firm Ohana & Co., purchased 100 percent of the shares of Eurocorset, Andres Sardá's holding company, plus the brand for 14.6 million euros, or $22.6 million at current exchange.
"Van de Velde's objective is to continue to acquire upscale lingerie brands with a view to developing a luxury lingerie retail network," said Ohana & Co. managing partner Karine Ohana, noting that last March Van de Velde acquired almost half of the luxury American chain Intimacy. "They plan to develop the chain in the U.S. and Europe to offer a new made-to-measure lingerie experience for women."
Van de Velde said Eurocorset generated 13 million euros, or about $20 million, in revenue in 2007, with almost half of its sales realized in Spain. Through the subsidiary Su Distribuidora Sul Tu Corpo S.L., the company operates four stores in Spain, including one outlet store. Members of the Sardá family will remain involved in the company.
Van de Velde, which already owns the Marie Jo, L'Aventure and Prima Donna brands, has worldwide sales of 130.3 million euros, or $202.2 million, and operates mainly across Europe and North America.
Alberta Ferretti's "Rainbow Week" sweaters are back. The designer closed her #MFW show with a few day-of-the-week sweaters, which first debuted on the catwalk last January as part of the pre-fall 2017 collection. #wwdfashion (📷: @delphineachard)


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Miki Watanabe, chairman of the izakaya chain giant Watami, pointed out that the government's decision was late regarding the extension of the state of emergency in the metropolitan area's 1 metropolitan area and 3 prefectures, and said that it would be until 8:00 pm. He said that the request for shortening business hours should be reviewed according to the actual situation of infection and the size of the store.
In response to the state of emergency, Watami closed about 80 stores in 1 metropolitan area and 3 prefectures, but has resumed business hours by 8 pm by the 8th.
However, as we have been making preparations such as purchasing ingredients on the premise that the declaration will be lifted on the 7th, it is said that the deficit will expand if we can not do business after 8 pm as it is.
Regarding this, Watami's chairman Watami said at a press conference on the 8th, "If we knew the extension three or four days earlier, we would not resume business. The resumption will cause great damage," and extended the state of emergency. He pointed out that the government's decision on the matter was slow.
In addition, regarding the request to shorten the business hours, which is uniformly set to 8 pm, Chairman Watanabe said, "We should investigate how the business hours and the size of the banquet lead to infection. Unless there is a grounded regulation. It is difficult to accept, "he said, recognizing that it should be reviewed according to the actual condition of the infection and the size of the store.


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Bella Shmurda trended for wearing a skirt to perform at the Big Brother eviction night.
The Musician wore a skirt, a hoodie and a jacket with spikes. Many people online made fun of him.
Netizens, perceived his mode of dressing as that of imitating crossdressers like Bobrisky, James Brown, and others, which inspired a new name from fans, ‘Little Miss Bella.’
The styling of the skirt was certainly poor, the top looked like he was going out in the snow, and the bottom like like he was going to play the bagpipe in Scotland.
There are many countries where men wear skirts.
In places like Scotland, Fiji, ancient Greece, Myanmar in South East Asia and even in some cultures in Nigeria, men tie wrappers that can be likened to skirts.
Website Designing/Management/Social Media – Iyanu Victor
The culture of the place determines what men or women can wear. The norm in Nigeria and most places is men wear trousers. In Scotland, you probably wouldn’t be mocked for wearing a kilt.
Besides the cultural aspect of it, modernity has made men – especially those in the entertainment industry, reject gender-normative fashion.
The trending movement is genderless fashion, which is why we see a lot of men painting nails, carrying women’s bags, and wearing makeup.
Certified French Tutor in Nigeria with Years of Experience – Ms Blessing Akpan
But even looking at it from the perspective of a male musician, many rappers have worn skirts to perform.
In 2011, Kanye West wore skinny leather pants and a leather Givenchy kilt.
Young Thug is famous for wearing skirts, and he told GQ that most of his clothes are women’s clothes. Snoop Dogg, Asap Rocky. P.Diddy and R. Kelly have all worn skirts.
Phones/Laptops/CCTV Installations – iHouse
There is always the interception between fashion and hip-hop, and there was a time sports apparel was the look of hip-hop but now we are seeing more genderless fashion.
Also, as a performer capturing people’s attention and creating buzz about your look is so important.
Meanwhile, Bella Shmurda had recently reacted to a statement on dropping out of University.
The singer said he dropped out of the Lagos State University (LASU) to pursue his music career.
In one of his tweets, Shmurda disclosed that he failed some courses while at the institution, adding that the failure eventually led to his decision to quit school.
Part of his tweet reads,
“Thank God I was stubborn and I never got to pass those exams then. Big thanks to @Poco__lee for telling me to do that vision2020 viral video, shoutout to @Olamide for his listening ears and open hands for upcoming acts”.


text: The man AMG showroom is in Affalterbach, Germany, and they recently put up a full-size teaser of the much anticipated AMG GT. The car is set to be revealed in October at the Paris Motor Show but we are bound to get a leak before then. For now we have this artistic sculpture shot to look at but we already know what shape the car will be. It will apparently go on sale in March next year and at first you will only be able to get your hands on the GT-S which packs the 4.0-litre V8 twin-turbo which pushes out 503 horsepower. Further down the line, a lesser variant will be launched with a detuned engine packing about 455 hp. AMG boss, Tobias Moers, hinted that the AMG GT-S will hit the 100 km/h mark in under 3.9 seconds. Really look forward to seeing some proper pictures of this car.


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After completing Resident Evil 7 and seeing the game through to its end, players were treated to a very brief teaser for an upcoming piece of DLC titled “Not A Hero.” The DLC was going to feature Chris Redfield, and it was set for a spring release. However, Capcom has just announced that the DLC will be pushed back. You can check out the development team’s video message down below.
According to the team, they had tried to finish up the DLC in time for the spring release. However, due to the overwhelmingly positive reception to Resident Evil 7, the team decided that the DLC’s quality simply wasn’t up to snuff, and it needed more time in development so that it could be worthy of fans’ expectations. No new release date has been announced just yet, but Capcom reassures fans that it will still be released for free. In addition to that, it was also mentioned that the team is currently working on a new piece of unannounced DLC, though we don’t have any details on that just yet.
Resident Evil 7 is now available on PS4, Xbox One, and PC.
- Stardew Valley’s Patch 1.2 Adds Support for 6 Languages, and Other Bug Fixes
- What Remains Of Edith Finch Gets a Hauntingly Beautiful Launch Trailer
- Persona 5 is Getting its First Official Display Figure for Ann Takamaki


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Cyber crooks hacked a computer networker’s Amazon account and ran up a £1241 bill.
Quick-thinking Luca Pintus alerted the online giant just in time and the orders were not delivered.
Yet, almost two months on, he still can’t get his money back.
Luca, 19, said: “I’m stunned that a billion-dollar company can’t get its act together. Amazon doesn’t appear to have a proper complaints department and the customer service is non-existent. It’s little wonder fraud is rife.”
Luca, a student at West College Scotland, spotted the strange orders on February 6.
He said: “I’ve been a customer for three years but haven’t bought anything for six to eight months.
“I noticed someone had placed orders for high-end items. These included a robotic vacuum cleaner costing £803.49 and a Samsung solid state hard drive at £412.70.
“The goods were to be delivered to an address in Braintree, Essex, and the hacker had used the name Andrej Zacharov. The transactions were charged to my Visa debit card.”
He phoned Amazon, who contacted the driver and told him not to deliver.
Luca, of Port Glasgow, Inverclyde, said: “They had managed to intercept the delivery just in time. I was told their fraud team would contact me via email within five days.
“The money was supposed to be refunded in 12 days.”
He did receive an email from Amazon 15 days after the fraud, claiming the money had been refunded.
Luca said: “They told me they had disabled the password to my account, blocked any changes made by the hacker and cancelled all pending orders. They also deleted my payment details. As for returning the money, I’m still waiting.”
Luca received further emails on March 14 and called again.
He said: “They assured me I’d be refunded. But when I called again, I still didn’t get anywhere. Please help.”
Amazon is no stranger to online fraud. The firm also suffered a major data breach in November, two days ahead of Black Friday, when customer names and email addresses were disclosed on its website due to a technical error.
I got on to Amazon and Luca now has his money back.
A spokesman said: “From time to time, customers may receive emails appearing to come from Amazon, which are false or phishing emails.
“The best way to ensure you do not respond is to always go directly to your Amazon account to make any changes.”


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Simbe's Tally robots will be deployed at 60 additional SpartanNash stores throughout the company's footprint.
SpartanNash is expanding its partnership with Simbe Robotics to bring Tally robots to dozens more of its locations. The food solutions company initially launched Tally at 15 of its stores in May of last year, and will now deploy the robots at 60 additional stores throughout SpartanNash’s Midwest footprint.
The robotics company’s Store Intelligence platform offers real-time inventory insights across the store to inform product stocking, ordering, merchandising and e-commerce fulfillment, allowing associates to ensure items are available for store guests with accurate location and price, and also freeing up their time for more customer-facing work.
"We first piloted Tally in 15 stores, and the success of that launch motivated us to expand Tally across more locations to help Associates save time in inventory tracking and spend more time on the floor serving our store guests," said Tom Swanson, EVP, corporate retail at SpartanNash. "The real-time data intelligence Tally provides helps ensure our store guests' favorite items always stay fresh, are adequately stocked and priced competitively, helping us deliver the ingredients for a better life."
[RELATED: What Is the Future of Grocery Automation?]
Swanson further explained to Progressive Grocer that as a customer-centric food solutions company, SpartanNash is committed to investing in innovation that improves the efficiency and effectiveness of its business operations, and Tally was an obvious choice to help do that.
“Tally is a quiet, slim robot that unobtrusively traverses our store aisles and provides us with unmatched speed, accuracy and automation to save us time with inventory tracking,” he said.
Tally is also a welcome sight for SpartanNash’s customers, Swanson said, with the team seeing faces light up with curiosity, amusement and delight when Tally cruises through the aisles. Swanson says the SpartanNash team explains to guests that Tally is another member of the team that ensures their favorite items are available when they need them.
“We’re always impressed with how SpartanNash embraces innovative technologies,” said Brad Bogolea, CEO of Simbe. “In retail’s fast-paced environment, every data point matters. The expansion of our solution is a testament to their relentless focus on strengthening operations, supporting associates, and delivering an optimal shopping experience. Working with the SpartanNash team is incredibly rewarding, and we can’t wait to see the partnership grow from here.”
Grand Rapids, Mich.-based SpartanNash operates two complementary business segments – food wholesale and grocery retail. On the retail side, SpartanNash operates 144 brick-and-mortar grocery stores, primarily under the banners of Family Fare, Martin’s Super Markets and D&W Fresh Market, in addition to dozens of pharmacies and fuel centers. The company is No. 41 on The PG 100, Progressive Grocer’s 2023 list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America.


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In this PwC report, the consultancy explores the impact of blockchain technology on the overall global economy. The following are excerpts from the report.
Blockchain technology has the potential to boost global gross domestic product (GDP) by US$1.76 trillion over the next decade. That is the key finding of PwC economists, who have assessed how the technology is currently being used and gauged its potential to create value across every industry, from healthcare, government and public services, to manufacturing, finance, logistics and retail.
Organisations are rethinking the way they operate as they grapple with the impacts of COVID-19 and the way the pandemic has accelerated many disruptive trends – such as the shift towards more digital ways of working, communicating and transacting with customers.
PwC economists expect China and the United States to benefit the most from blockchain technology over the next decade.
Our economists expect blockchain technology to bring benefits across a wide range of industry sectors.
Much of the value will be realised behind the scenes. We expect between 10% and 15% of worldwide infrastructure to be using blockchain within a decade.
The biggest beneficiaries look set to be the public administration, education and healthcare sectors.
PwC economists expect these sectors to benefit to the tune of $574bn by 2030, by capitalising on the efficiencies blockchain will bring to the world of identity and credentials.
Meanwhile, there will be broader benefits for business services, communications and media, while wholesalers, retailers, manufacturers and construction services will benefit from using blockchain to engage consumers and meet demand for provenance and traceability.
Follow Asia Blockchain Review on:
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20 Mar, 2018
IMR today was informed of the successful awarding of a matched funding commercialization grant from the Australian government. An excerpt from the government announcement is contained below where IMR were specially mentioned out of the 14 business that are to receive a share in the $7.4 million being awarded. IMR was awarded a significant portion of the $7.4 million dollars.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank the Australian government for their forward thinking vision and support of Australian technology and business.
14 businesses to get $7.4 million to innovate for the future
The Minister for Jobs and Innovation, Senator the Hon Michaelia Cash and the Minister for Small and Family Business, the Workplace and Deregulation, The Hon Craig Laundy MP today jointly announced that 14 Australian businesses have been offered commercialisation grants under the Entrepreneurs’ Programme.
The Entrepreneurs’ Programme is the Australian Government’s initiative to improve business competitiveness and productivity. It uses experienced Advisers and Facilitators, drawn from industry, to ensure businesses get the advice and support needed to improve their competitiveness, productivity and to seek growth opportunities.
Grants worth more than $7.4 million have been offered to assist the 14 Australian businesses undertake commercialisation activities to bring their new products, processes and services to market.
Some of the products, processes and services offered support through this funding include:
· Commercialising a smart solar lighting modular system for public places. This technology provides brighter, longer lasting solar lighting at competitive prices for government, councils and mining.
· Developing an ultrafast video compression software (Codec) that will transmit virtual reality and augmented reality data over 60GHz, Wi-Fi, 5G or the internet.
· Developing an online artificial intelligence assistant for school teachers worldwide. This technology will provide teachers with a curriculum mapped personal teaching program.
· Developing prototype technology to forecast rain and storm days ahead of time. This technology offers significant benefits to transport, insurance energy and natural resources industries.
The Entrepreneurs’ Programme commercialisation grants help Australian entrepreneurs, researchers and small and medium businesses find commercialisation solutions.
It aims to:
· accelerate the commercialisation of novel intellectual property in the form of new products, processes and services;
· support new businesses based on novel intellectual property with high growth potential; and
· generate greater commercial and economic returns from both public and private sector research and facilitate investment to drive business growth and competitiveness.


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The partnership between Wizkid and Ciroc is gradually paying off as the popular Vodka brand has made customized Starboy bottles.
Some months back we announced the partnership deal between the premium Vodka brand Ciroc and Wizkid.
The Starboy who is excited about the development shared what the new limited edition Starboy Ciroc Summer Colada looks like on Twitter.
RELATED: Latest Wizkid songs
Wizkid would be having his ‘Made In Lagos’ Concert this December on the 23rd.
— Wizkid (@wizkidayo) December 12, 2018


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DALLAS — January 4, 2018 — Leading brand experience company, Freeman, today announced that a founding group of top event technology companies have joined its open product ecosystem, FuzionSM. The recently announced ecosystem aims to help solve industry-wide integration challenges between digital solutions by connecting data across all points of the event life cycle to create a seamless experience for organizers and attendees.
These founding members represent voices across many segments of the events industry — including registration, mobile apps, floor plan management, abstract management and housing — demonstrating their commitment to shaping the future of the industry. Currently, the Fuzion ecosystem includes:
“In putting on a successful event, organizers may find themselves working with many different technology companies,” said Richard Maranville, executive vice president and chief digital officer of Freeman. “With Fuzion, multiple solutions from a variety of providers, including Freeman’s own solutions, will be easily integrated into a holistic platform. The idea is to make solution integration and selection simpler and more cost-effective, ultimately enhancing event experiences.”
Freeman will be collaborating closely with founding members to ensure Fuzion is a comprehensive solution that meets shared customers’ needs. Fuzion harnesses the power of combined industry experience and brings together innovators dedicated to making technology adoption easier for organizers.
With that in mind, as the Fuzion ecosystem expands, it will become more powerful for event organizers. In addition to Fuzion’s founding members, more than 25 event technology companies have expressed excitement about Fuzion and are in active discussions to join the platform. Freeman invites those interested in joining Fuzion to submit an inquiry through its developer portal at fuzion.freeman.com.
Freeman is the world’s leading brand experience company. We help our clients design, plan, and deliver immersive experiences for their most important audiences. Through comprehensive solutions including strategy, creative, logistics, digital solutions, and event technology, Freeman helps increase engagement and drive business results. What makes us different is our collaborative culture, intuitive knowledge, global perspective, and personalized approach, gained from our 90 years as an industry leader. Freeman is a family-owned company with 90+ locations worldwide and over 7,000 employees, 2,000 of whom are located outside the U.S. For more information, visit www.freemanco.com.
Matt Falso, on behalf of Freeman,


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In 2019, Gbfoods – makers of Gino, Jago, and Bama products – set out to build a fully backward integrated tomato processing factory in Nigeria. The goal was simple: To build a factory that produces raw materials on the farm and then processes them within the same area.
Not only does this minimise the post-harvest loss, but it also guarantees a direct line of conversion from farm products to finished goods. Once harvested, the fresh tomatoes will be converted to tomato concentrate which GBfoods uses to make Gino Tomatoes Mix and Gino Tomatoes Pepper Onion.
The factory, located in Kebbi State, was completed in 2020 despite the impact of COVID-19. The most critical ingredient for a tomato farm is a constant water source. While conducting research, GBfoods explored several states with good arable land to find the most suitable location for the factory. Kebbi State emerged as the destination of choice. Not only did it have the land the company needed, but it also had an adequate water source from a river nearby. GBfoods says that the support from the Kebbi State Government, the Emir of Yauri, and the Central Bank of Nigeria was crucial to the success of the factory.
As construction of the factory progressed, the world was hit by the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Countries shut down their borders and several cities in Nigeria and globally were locked down for health and safety reasons. To cope with the pandemic and any concerns it raised, GBfoods immediately put in place all safety measures required by global health standards. The team on site operated within a closed ecosystem that allowed no outsiders. All staff working and staying on site were tested regularly, not just for COVID-19 symptoms but also for other tropical diseases (like malaria, typhoid, hepatitis, among others). The company provided its staff with personal protective equipment (PPE) and had their vital signs checked daily. The resident nurse on-site also monitored their health regularly.
In 2018, the global tomato market revenue was $190.4 billion, up 6.5 percent from the previous year. The total amount of tomatoes produced worldwide totalled 188 million tonnes in 2018. According to PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), the production of fresh tomatoes in Nigeria has grown by 25 percent from 1.8 million tonnes to an estimated 2.3 million tonnes over the last decade. Nigerians consume roughly 2.3 million tonnes of tomatoes every year as it forms a major part of many local dishes, including the world-famous Jollof Rice. This shows there are a huge market for tomatoes globally and massive consumption needs locally.
However, the domestic production of tomato is at 1.3 million tonnes (after factoring in tomato wastage along the value chain). There is not enough to meet demand. To bridge the gap, Nigeria relied heavily on tomato paste importation in the past. This meant a significant loss of revenue and jobs for the country. Data show that the country imported tomato paste at an estimated cost of $360 million annually in 2016 and 2017. But things changed in 2017 as the federal government introduced a policy to boost the local production of tomatoes and set Nigeria up to be a major player on the global stage. Apart from increasing the local production of fresh tomatoes, the policy was also aimed at increasing the local production of tomato concentrates and reducing post-harvest losses. This set the stage for GBfoods to make history with the new tomato factory three years later.
Now with the factory in operation, over 1,000 jobs have been created, including 500 farming jobs, 150 factory jobs, and 150 construction jobs. The company says more jobs will be created upon expansion. Already, the project has impacted the lives and businesses of over 5,000 smallholder farmers in Kebbi State, according to the company. While building the factory, GBfoods also ensured the provision of amenities to support the host community, including the provision of clean water for cooking and drinking, even to communities nearby.
For GBfoods, this Factory presents an opportunity to increase local production of tomato products for sale and consumption. It also presents a long-term opportunity to export tomato concentrate to other markets, especially within ECOWAS. This sets Nigeria up for a much bigger role in the global market while improving the lives of its tomato farmers, boosting revenue, and diversifying the economy.


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Economic downturn or no economic downturn, India is not going to see any cut in the entry of international brands in the country. Come October 2009 and we will see Oviesee – a leading player in the Italian clothing industry setting up stores in the country.
The brand is entering India in a joint venture with Brandhouse Retails Ltd (BHRL). The total equity investment in the JV will be Rs 1.61 billion over the next five years for setting up around 190 stores across metros, tier I and II cities.
In terms of agreement, Brandhouse will hold 62.5 per cent of the total equity while the remaining 37.5 per cent of the equity will be in the hands of Oviesee. This brand would address young India and provide affordable ‘fast fashion’ for men, women and kids.
The JV will, for the first year, import the merchandise from Italy and thereafter will introduce local sourcing and manufacturing in a phased manner. The pricing will be in the mid-premium range with an aim to make it an affordable clothing. In terms of stores, the company has no plans to go the franchisee route and all stores would be 8000 square feet onwards. Initially the company will open stores in Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru.
— Zainab Morbiwala, Mumbai Bureau


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Buy a new or used Ford pickup and get a voucher … toward the purchase of a shotgun.
That's the deal one rural Ford dealership in Hawley, Minn., is offering starting Saturday to keep the trigger pulled on its truck sales in what has been a miserable winter for some stores across the Snow Belt.
But the dealership isn't just handing a gun to customers as they drive off.
Jason Jalbert, sales manager at Muscatell Burns Ford in far west central Minnesota, just east of Fargo, said the two-week promotion — the Muscatell Burns Outdoorsman Sale — offers buyers a $350 voucher with the purchase of any new or used pickup.
The voucher represents the value of a Remington 870 Express shotgun, which retails for between $350 and $650, depending on the options. The dealership is working with a sporting goods store in nearby Fargo, N.D., to complete the sale.
Jalbert said the store has about 80 to 90 pickups in stock.
He told KFGO radio station today that the promotion appeals to the dealership's clientele. Trucks account for 90 percent of the store's business.
"A lot of the employees are outdoorsmen and a lot of our customers' conversations revolve around that," Jalbert said. "It's been tremendously cold up here, with a long stretch of well below zero. But, we've done a year-over-year gain. And we certainly anticipate that strength to continue through 2014, especially with the launch of the all-new F-150."
The voucher can also be used toward the purchase of a new truck, as well as other items in the sporting goods store, Jalbert said.
And like all gun purchases, a background check is required.


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(Reuters) - German meal-kit company HelloFresh HFGG.DE raised its full-year revenue guidance on strong growth in the United States, its biggest market, sending its shares up 9 percent on Monday.
The company competes with Blue Apron APRN.N in the United States, delivering pre-packaged meal ingredients aimed at making home cooking more accessible.
HelloFresh’s first-quarter revenue jumped 44 percent, or 66 percent excluding currency effects, prompting it to increase its 2018 growth outlook to 30-35 percent on a constant-currency basis, up from 25-30 percent.
That contrasts with Blue Apron, which this month reported a 20 percent slump in first-quarter revenue.
HelloFresh has yet to make a profit but confirmed its goal to reach break-even on an adjusted EBITDA level in the fourth quarter of 2018.
Its shares rose 9 percent to 12.42 euros and are now up 17 percent since the company’s IPO in November.
HelloFresh overtook Blue Apron as the market leader in the meal-kit delivery in the United States late last year, based on customer numbers, and announced in March that it was buying U.S. rival Green Chef Corporation in a move that will boost revenue but will delay efforts to rein in losses.
Its customer base in the United States jumped 36 percent in the first quarter, while Blue Apron’s increased 5 percent, compared to the previous quarter.
HelloFresh has opened new distribution centers and continued to grow strongly, highlighting that it has far superior execution to Blue Apron, Berenberg analyst Robert Berg said.
The German company’s new annual revenue forecast does not include the positive impact from the acquisition of Green Chef, which is expected to contribute about $15 million per quarter from the second quarter.
HelloFresh’s margin on adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) improved by 7.1 percentage points in the first quarter to minus 7.3 percent.
Reporting by Sylwia Lasek, additional reporting by Thyagaraju Adinarayan in Gdynia; Editing by Maria Sheahan and Susan Fenton
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.


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India & Australia walk the talk and sign the historic Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement.Piyush Goyal
Minister of Commerce & Industry, Consumer Affairs & Food & Public Distribution and Textiles, Govt. of India.
The India-Australia Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (“IndAus ECTA”) was signed by Shri Piyush Goyal, Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Textiles, Government of India and Mr. Dan Tehan, the Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment, Government of Australia in a virtual ceremony, in the presence of Hon’ble Prime Minister of India, H.E. Shri. Narendra Modi and the Hon’ble Prime Minister of Australia, H.E. Scott Morrison today.
The deal removes trade barriers & unlocks potential across sectors with massive employment generation opportunities in both nations.
This is a watershed moment for our bilateral relationsPrime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi
Terming ‘people to people’ relations as the key pillar of the relationship between India and Australia, the Prime Minister said “This agreement will facilitate the exchange of students, professionals, and tourists between us, which will further strengthen these relations.”
Over 6000 sectors, including textiles, leather, furniture, jewellery, and machinery to get duty-free access to the Australian market as a result of IndAus ECTA.


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The team ‘just never figured out what it was’
Before Celeste was even a thought, the devs over at Matt Makes Games were working on Skytorn. A procedurally generated Metroidvania, the title was sidelined when Celeste began development. After a few posts reassuring that the action game would eventually get released, designer Noel Berry has confirmed in a blog post that Skytorn is no more.
“Having worked on the game for several years,” Berry writes, “we constantly struggled with what the game was. To its core, it was a procedurally generated adventure game without permadeath, but the procedural elements always clashed with the Metroidvania themes, and I didn’t know how to design around that.” That last element seems to be the sticking point. Berry couldn’t conceive a reason for why the game should be procedural but didn’t want to drop the gimmick, either.
“Taking out the procedural parts felt like it defeated the purpose of what the game was,” Berry continues, “so as it shifted towards a more linear adventure, the procedural map stayed but simply got more and more constricted, until the procedural-ness of it didn’t really mean anything.”
Restarting the project would mean throwing out much of the code for the game, so the team has decided cancelling it was the best course of action. The team will remain together, though, and will be showing off something about its follow-up to Celeste in the new year. “The Celeste team is sticking together and working on something new,” Berry concludes, “but we’re not ready to talk about what yet. We’ll have news to share in the new year.”
Skytorn is Cancelled [@NoelFB via Medium]


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Honey proclaimed 2015 ‘Flavour of the Year’
Given the ongoing debate over sweeteners’ role in the growing global obesity epidemic, many consumers are shifting their sweetener choices to more natural ingredients that don’t skimp on taste and or add extra calories to their daily intake. Riding the wave to this trend, Firmenich has named honey the Flavour of the Year for 2015.
Honey’s popularity has seen consistent growth over recent years as consumers gravitate toward food and beverage products considered artisanal and crafted, or locally sourced. Honey also has the ability to create a unique flavour impression that romances consumers of all ages. While universally sweet and at once full-bodied, the flavour also leaves a delicate impression that has consumers wanting more.
However, it should be noted that it’s not all sweet on the honey front. The decline in bee populations around the world could have potentially devastating effects on the planet and its food systems. The world needs bees in order to maintain a healthy ecological equilibrium and as bees buzz on the world’s stage, the appeal of their product has swelled.
Similar to wine, the taste of honey is greatly impacted by its geographic location, climate, soil and temperature, what is often referred to as its terroir. The combination of these elements is why the flower nectar has a special composition; and this gives the resulting honey from that nectar a unique flavour fingerprint. Depending on the terroir and the pollens the bees have gathered, honey can reveal a wide range of notes. What’s more, honey flavour can contain anything from light and delicate white flowers such as chamomile, lily of the valley or linden; to powerful and heady flowers such as jasmine or rose.
“You can just do so much with honey,” said Patrick Salord, senior flavorist at Firmenich. “For a flavour that is as sweet as honey is, it shows remarkable versatility. Depending on the application, you can tone down the sweetness, or even tone it up. It’s a flavour that has no limit in its potential, and people respond to that.”
According to Mintel data, honey flavour in food is growing across the world and across categories. “Honey was a logical choice for 2015,” said Mikel Cirkus, director of Firmenich’s conceptual design team and trend forecaster for the Flavour Division. “It is indeed a classic flavour, yet it is also a flavour which is having an enormous resurgence in popularity in recent years. Product developers are realising what a fantastic and versatile flavour honey is in regards to combining it with other tonalities.”
Blending honey isn’t new (think honey mustard), but there have been quite a few new combos in recent years. Need examples? Pizza Hut recently introduced a new sauce with honey and Sriracha. Similarly, while honey and poultry have been paired for decades (think honey roasted chicken), red meat and even shellfish have followed suit with items like honey-braised short ribs and honey-fried oysters appearing on menus.
The company predicts honey has the potential to enter the flavour canon in the likes of chocolate, vanilla and strawberry, perennial favourites that reach the ultimate flavour adjective: classic. Cereals like Honey Nut Cheerios and Honey Smacks, Bit-O-Honey candy, and honey mustard sauce are just a few of the industry’s gold standard honey products. Today, honey flavour can be found in a host of popular foods and beverages like Greek yogurt, cereal bars, ice cream, beef jerky, and alcohol (think vodka and whiskey).
Article from Foodproductdesign.com
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Search Results for:Cate Cadell
Singles’ Day, or Double 11, is the world’s biggest online sales event, outstripping the sales of U.S. shopping holidays Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined.
The move comes ahead of Singles’ Day which last year netted the firm over $25 billion in sales.
The company’s top rival, Tujia.com, raised $300 million in October 2017 and is backed by Chinese travel-giant Ctrip.com International.
Since returning to China, Liu has appeared at small signing events on behalf of the company but is yet to attend a high-profile public event.
The changes come less than a week after Jack Ma said he would step down as chairman of Alibaba in a year and hand the reins to CEO Daniel Zhang.
The subsidiary is registered in Hangzhou, home of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd
Alibaba is beefing up Ele.me’s war chest at a time when top competitor, Meituan Dianping, is preparing for a $4-billion HK listing.
Customers on Booking Holdings’ websites, including Booking.com and Agoda, will be able to hail Didi cars through existing apps as part of the agreement.
Lu is the latest in a series of high-profile AI experts to leave the company in the past year, amid fierce global competition for talent in the field.
The investment will make JD.com the second largest shareholder in Allianz China, said the insurance firm in a filing.


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IAAF President Sebastian Coe and Asics Director Naoki Matsushita ahead of the IAAF World Athletics Championships Doha 2019
ASICS and the IAAF are delighted to announce the renewal of their partnership and ASICS’ commitment to the world of athletics with the signing today of a new 10-year agreement as an Official IAAF Partner.
As Official IAAF Partner, ASICS will be present at and involved in all World Athletics Series events from 2020 to 2029, including the World Athletics Championships 2021 in Oregon and the World Athletics Championships Budapest 2023.
As part of the agreement, ASICS will kit out the officials and volunteers at all IAAF World Athletics Series events with ASICS’ footwear and apparel that will ensure the smooth running of these events. For ASICS this important partnership will allow a strategic expansion of its brand recognition internationally by association with the world’s top athletics events that are viewed by significant global audiences.
ASICS Chairman and CEO, Representative Director Motoi Oyama, stated: “I am so happy to have the honour of continuing our support of the IAAF as an Official Partner. The signing of this multi-year agreement is a demonstration of ASICS’ hope to both develop excellent products and contribute to the growth of the sporting world as a whole by supporting athletics around the globe as an Official Partner of the IAAF.”
IAAF President Sebastian Coe commented: “Global athletics is based upon solid foundations of modern governance and a renewed determination to protect and promote clean athletes. We are delighted to have the continued support and commitment of ASICS, a true sport performance brand, which will enable us to build on the successful partnership we began in 2017. This new agreement is a huge endorsement of a bright future for athletics whose universality and diversity makes it a natural partner for a global corporation like ASICS. We are excited to have a partner who shares our vision for a youthful innovative sport that promotes fair competition and healthy living.”


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Delectable doughnut company Krispy Kreme is being acquired by US coffee chain JAB for $US1.35 billion. The merger means Krispy Kreme will be privately held.
“For nearly 80 years, our iconic brand has been touching and enhancing lives through the joy that is Krispy Kreme,” said Jim Morgan, chairman of the board of directors of Krispy Kreme, in a statement.
“This transaction puts us in the best possible position to continue to spread that joy to a growing number of people around the world while delivering significant value to Krispy Kreme shareholders. I am confident the JAB team is the right partner with whom to continue building upon our incredible legacy.”
Krispy Kreme’s CEO Tony Thompson said the experience from JAB makes them an ideal partner to grow the doughnut brand around the world. The Krispy Kreme brand has been somewhat of a posterchild for word-of-mouth marketing. While it’s had its ups and downs – having to apologise for an accidental KKK stunt a year ago – the brand is so well-loved by consumers AdAge in the States ran an expose on the doughnut brand and the emotional attachment doughnut lovers have with the company.
In Australia, the brand has been busy as well. It recently launched a range of American Classics as a new digital initiative – each doughnut had its own tune attached which consumers could listen to via Spotify. Too, while it was an April Fool’s joke, the lickable ads and 3D printer had some wishing they were real things.
Thompson said the brand will continue to stay focused on its long-term strategy, and continue to deliver the same sweet treats many love.
“We look forward to working with JAB to continue bringing the joy that is Krispy Kreme to a growing number of customers. Together with our talented team and our passionate franchisees, we will continue to build on the Krispy Kreme culture, values and commitment to our customers and guests.”
Peter Harf, senior partner at JAB, added: “We are thrilled to have such an iconic brand as Krispy Kreme joining the JAB portfolio. This is yet another example of our commitment to investing in extraordinary brands with significant growth prospects.
“We feel strongly that Krispy Kreme will benefit greatly from our long-term focus and support for management’s vision in building on the legacy of this exciting brand as an independent standalone entity.”
Lead image via Krispy Kreme Facebook.
me&u, Australia’s first and leading mobile ordering and payment platform, has appointed Clementine Churchill as Head of Marketing as they continue to drive rapid growth and expansion in Australia and new international markets. A highly experienced marketing leader and recognised industry thought leader, Churchill joins me&u from My Muscle Chef, one of Australia’s top rated […]
MILO is on the search for Australia’s best made MILO, calling on fans to share their creations for the chance to win #TheMILOCup, via Ogilvy Sydney. This integrated campaign follows on from the success of last year’s ‘Hot v Cold’ campaign, which encouraged Aussies to settle the debate on whether MILO is best enjoyed hot […]
New research from Getty Images, a world leader in visual communications, has found that LGBTQ+ representation in ANZ remains low and stereotypical. It’s 2021 – this needs to change – especially in marketing and advertising. In partnership with GLAAD, the LGBTQ+ media advocacy organisation, Getty Images has launched a full-spectrum Guidebook in direct response to […]
Natural historian Sir David Attenborough is one of the most commanding and respected storytellers in the world and now the iconic series, David Attenborough Life Stories, is available on LiSTNR as part of SCA’s recently announced partnership with the BBC. David Attenborough Life Stories is a series of talks on the natural histories of creatures and […]
Menulog has doubled down on its marketing support for restaurant partners, with the promotion of Senior Marketing Manager, Rami Tamer, to a newly created role of ‘Head of Partner Marketing’, as well as the promotion of former-Blue 449 Performance Manager, Jaryd Buggins. In the new Head of Partner Marketing role, Rami will lead a team […]
ARN has announced Barry Drinkwater will be handing over his content director reins at 97.3FM and 4KQ to respected radio executive, Alisson Longhurst. Drinkwater has had a stellar career in radio spanning more than four decades, and was acknowledged as one of Australia’s Top 20 Content Directors by Radio Today in 2020. He began his radio career […]
Australia’s largest social enterprise is turning 25. On the anniversary of Australia’s first Big Issue magazine being sold on the steps of Melbourne’s Flinders Street Station in June 1996, Town Square has created a campaign to mark the occasion. 25 Years Big is a celebratory statement of pride, rendered in the iconic Big Issue logo […]
The Australian commercial radio industry has joined a global working group of broadcasters, carmakers and tech experts collaborating on the innovation of radio in Android Automotive. Android Automotive is Google’s infotainment operating system which is being built into new connected cars. Industry body Commercial Radio Australia is part of the working group, led by the […]
For the third consecutive year, Triple M’s No Talk Day will return on Thursday July 1 to raise awareness around men’s mental health and encourage courageous conversations on Triple M’s 45 stations across the country with support from partner Beyond Blue. From 6:00am – 6:00pm on July 1, Triple M is encouraging listeners to clear […]
Consumer shifts in how and where people buy products evolved significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic, creating new opportunities for retailers to use new channels, fulfilment strategies and payment options, according to the results of a new survey out today from BigCommerce and PayPal. While a majority of the 3,000 consumers surveyed from the United States, United Kingdom […]
Here is EVERYTHING you need to know about contextual advertising bar the curling wand and the hot pink leg warmers.
The brainchild of co-founders Gina Williams-Folau (main photo) and Greer Bland, the talent agency Liquorice was born out of a desire to make things easier for brand managers. Liquorice offers social talent for brands wanting to hit the sweet spot with Kiwi audiences. Launching with a roster of big names on board including Millie Elder-Holmes, Athena […]


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Time-tested online media to see budget increases
JANUARY 25, 2011 – According to a survey of business-to-business (B2B) marketers, traditional online tactics remain key to marketing success.
Just over half of B2B marketers surveyed told BtoB Magazine their budgets would go up this year, mostly by less than 15%. With a primary marketing goal of customer acquisition (69%), the greatest number of respondents expected spending increases to come from online (78%). By contrast, 44% said they would be spending more on events and 36% on direct mail.
Online, B2B marketers were most likely to report planned increases in marketing spending on their websites and email programs, followed by social media. These results differed in priority from those of a survey of general US marketers by RSW/US. Among that group, 65% planned to spend more on social media, followed by 47% on email. RSW/US did not report on increases in website spending.
More than two-thirds of B2B marketers already used social media marketing as of December 2010, where the main focus of marketing efforts was brand building. Despite customer acquisition being B2B’s top goal for the year, less than half of respondents were using social media for lead generation.
In 2010, social media, websites and email each received a median of 10% of B2Bs’ online marketing budgets. Spending levels were higher on display and video advertising.
By gathering the latest research and news from over 1,000 sources, eMarketer has established itself as the world’s leading provider of internet and e-business statistics. eMarketer’s Web site is at www.emarketer.com.


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Industrial Rubber Market by Type (Natural and Synthetic) and End-use Industry (Automotive, Construction, Manufacturing, Electrical & Electronics, and Others): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2019–2026
New York, Feb. 07, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Industrial Rubber Market by Type and End-use Industry: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2019–2026" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p05844043/?utm_source=GNW
The global industrial rubber market was valued at $29.8 billion in 2018 and is projected to reach $44.6 billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 5.2% from 2019 to 2026. Industrial rubber are polymers, specifically elastomer which can stretch and shrink. Industrial rubber can be produced from natural sources such as from latex found in trees or rubber and can be synthesized on an industrial scale. Gloves, tires, plugs, and masks are products made from rubber.
The rise in demand for industrial rubber from automotive industry is expected to offer growth to the global industrial rubber market. Asia-Pacific is one of the growing markets where rubber is utilized at a large scale. However, hazards related with rubber manufacturing and expensive cost is expected to hamper the market growth. Nevertheless, the global industrial market is yet to explore its full potential. Innovation and development in rubber industry such as manufacturing of eco-friendly rubber is expected to offer growth opportunity to the market.
The global industrial rubber market is segmented into type and end-use industry. On the basis of type, the market is bifurcated into natural and synthetic rubber. By end-use industry, the market is classified into automotive, construction, manufacturing, electrical & electronics, and others. By region, the market is analyzed across North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and LAMEA.
The key players involved in the global industrial rubber market are Sinopec Corporation, LG Chem Ltd., The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, Toyo Tire & Rubber Co., Ltd., Bridgestone Corporation, Lotte Chemical Corporation, Arkema S.A., Braskem S.A., Celanese Corporation, and United Rubber Industries India private Limited.
KEY BENEFITS FOR STAKEHOLDERS
• Porter’s five forces analysis helps to analyze the potential of buyers & suppliers and the competitive scenario of the industry for strategy building.
• It outlines the current trends and future scenario of the industrial rubber market size from 2019 to 2026 to understand the prevailing opportunities and potential investment pockets.
• Major countries in the region have been mapped according to their individual revenue contribution to the regional market.
• The key drivers, restraints, and industrial rubber market opportunities and their detailed impact analysis are elucidated in the study.
• The profiles of key players along with their key strategic developments are enlisted in the report.
KEY MARKET SEGMENTS
By Material Type
• Natural Rubber
• Synthetic Rubber
By End use Industry
• Electrical & Electronics
- North America
o Rest of Europe
o South Korea
o Rest of Asia-Pacific
o Saudi Arabia
o Rest of LAMEA
Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05844043/?utm_source=GNW
ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.
Intl: +1 339-368-6001


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Ofgem says Npower failed to record all details of the complaints it received and did not put in adequate processes to deal with complaints. It was also accused of not giving dissatisfied customers enough information about the Energy Ombudman’s redress service.
The regulator adds that Npower has now dealt with all the regulation breaches for which it was fined.
An Npower spokesman says: “A small number of processes were not correctly adhered to. Ofgem is now satisfied that all problems have been rectified and we are fully compliant with our obligations to our customers. We have zero tolerance for this type of issue and we’ll continue to work hard to make sure our customers are put first.”
It is the second large fine levied on a “big six” energy firm by Ofgem over the mishandling of complaints in recent months, after British Gas was fined £2.5m in July.
EDF Energy is also currently under investigation from Ofgem over the way it handles its complaints.
Sarah Harrison, Ofgem’s senior partner for sustainable development, says energy suppliers now have a “golden opportunity” to convince consumers that they can be trusted, by supporting the regulator’s sweeping reforms for the retail market.
“This is the quickest way of restoring consumer trust in an industry badly tarnished by poor supplier behaviour,” she adds.


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Two big candy companies hope they can make a sweet combination.
Ferrara Pan, the company behind Lemonheads and Red Hots, announced Wednesday it was joining forces with Farley's & Sathers, a company known for the Brach's brand and Now and Later.
The new venture will carry the name of Ferrara Candy Company, Inc.
"This transaction brings together two well-positioned candy companies with iconic brands and loyal consumer and customer followings to create a category leader," said Salvatore Ferrara II, the chairman and CEO of Round Lake, Ill., based Ferrara Pan.
Catterton Partners, the investment firm behind Farley's & Sathers, will remain a majority investor, the companies announced.
The merger remains subject to regulatory approval. The companies did not disclose the terms of the merger.