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The Canadian Lobster Industry has launched a new brand to help it compete more effectively in global markets.
The new brand – which consists of a set of core values, vision, mission, brand promise and a logo that brings it all together – is designed to help the Canadian lobster industry tell their story on the global stage, not just against lobster from other countries but also against other premium proteins.
“Canada is the world leader in lobster harvesting, live shipping and processing but due to our size and fragmented structure we have not told a consistent story to the world,” says Jeff Malloy, president of the Lobster Council of Canada and CEO of the Acadian Fishermen’s Co-operative on Prince Edward Island. “The strong new brand is going to help position Canadian lobster (worth approximately $1.7 billion to the Canadian economy) for future growth and long term sustainability for our coastal communities.”
The brand comes at the right time says Geoff Irvine, executive director of the Lobster Council of Canada.
“So much is happening in the sector now with increased cooperation and collaboration amongst key stakeholders as well as enhanced market opportunities opening up with the both the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement with Europe and the Canada–Korea Free Trade Agreement,” he says. “This new brand is going to help the industry internally to come together and celebrate the values which unite us, and to position lobster more effectively in the increasingly competitive global food industry.”
Extensive research with international customers and the internal industry helped identify the core values and strengths that the lobster product embodies. Twelve core values, which range from Canada’s rigorous food safety guidelines to Canada’s cold, pristine natural environment that helps produce the tasty crustacean, are emphasized in the new brand.
“Our research revealed that globally Canadians are viewed as being genuine and this integrity is also associated with our lobster,” said Irvine.
The brand definition was well received by key industry stakeholders at the internal launch in late March at the Lobster Summit in Halifax. Further feedback was solicited from trade commissioners from key lobster markets and hundreds of key seafood buyers at the Seafood Expo North America in Boston. In early May the brand will be launched in Europe at Seafood Expo Global in Brussels.
Closer to home the logo is making an impact. Chris Harris, a lobster harvester from Cape Breton, noted, “As the first link in the lobster value chain we are excited about the new brand and take the promise (To consistently and sustainably deliver the highest quality and most flavourful live and processed lobster to consumers who value the best) to heart every day we are at sea. I plan to put the logo on the side of my boat as soon as I can. I like the logo and more importantly I think that the brand which stresses the importance of quality is one that everyone in the industry can get behind, as we look towards building a stronger industry and future for the next generation.”
Established in 2009, the Lobster Council of Canada brings together Canadian lobster industry stakeholders, including harvesters, live shippers, processors, First Nations peoples, and provincial and federal governments, to work on projects of mutual benefit. Areas of focus currently include lobster quality and traceability, a national lobster branding and promotion strategy, market access challenges and opportunities and industry communication. With government support and members from across Atlantic Canada and Quebec, the Lobster Council of Canada is recognized as the voice of the Canadian lobster industry.
MORE ABOUT THE BRAND:
Vision: Canadian lobster is recognized as the global ‘Gold Standard’ of premium protein based on quality, flavour, texture, consistency and sustainability – driving greater long-term value and growth for the entire industry.
Mission: Increase demand and price for the world’s most delectable and healthy protein, fortifying economic sustainability by rewarding everyone within the Canadian lobster value-chain, and the communities in which they live, for generations to come.
Promise: To consistently and sustainably deliver the highest-quality and most flavourful live and processed lobster to consumers who value the best.
Pristine Natural Environment: Canada is synonymous with a wild, cold, pure and pristine natural environment. It envelops mother nature’s gift to us ensuring Canadian lobsters thrive in an ocean environment most advantageous to superior quality.
Collaborative: Canadian lobster harvesting, processing and live shipping has been a part of the fabric of our communities and coastlines for generations. Continued collaboration and industry cooperation across competitors and across borders ultimately creates stronger outcomes for all.
Wild: Harvested by traditional methods in the harsh environment of the North Atlantic, Canadian lobster is one of the purest protein sources on earth. With no additives, no manufactured feed and no hormones, Canadian lobster is a delicious and healthy protein source grown as nature intended.
Independence: Fierce industry independence is united by pride and passion to create a culture-of-care for the lobster, the health of the fishery, the quality of product, and for one another.
Quality: Canadian hard-shell lobsters are harvested at their absolute peak quality form, providing greater meat yield and longer life expectancy enabling better transportability that ensures a higher quality end-product.
Consistency: Customers around the world can expect predictable, consistent quality and timely delivery thanks to unique seasons that are aligned for optimal quality and market conditions.
Flavour: The frigid waters of the Canadian North Atlantic produce the most desirable lobster environment on the planet. The result of these natural and essential qualities is a Canadian lobster with an unparalleled sweet flavour and delectable texture.
Versatility: Invention and innovation is the intersection between what needs to be produced and what could be produced. It is this innovative spirit that creates opportunity for growth through trial, discovery, education and new food experiences.
Sustainability: Our long history of sustainable management practices ensures a healthy environment, a prosperous economy and a vibrant future for generations to come. This steadfast attention to conservation management of our high-quality healthy-stock reinforces Canada as a global leader of wild-caught lobster.
Traceability: Canada is a world leader in the ability to systematically identify and track all stages of the harvesting, production, processing and distribution value-chain.
Food safety:Canada’s regulatory food safety guidelines lead the quality assurance regime for the Canadian lobster industry. Further delicate handling and care practices embraced by everyone in the value-chain ensures the highest product integrity and end-quality.


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On Tuesday, April 25, 7-Eleven, Speedway and Stripes, along with participating independent Franchise owners and operators, are hosting a National Hiring Day event across more than 13,000 locations in the U.S. and Canada. The convenience retailer is looking to hire motivated, customer-obsessed employees to fill 50,000 positions across its family of brands ahead of the summer season.
7-Eleven, Speedway and U.S.-based c-store operator Stripes, along with participating independent franchise owners and operators, will be hosting a National Hiring Event on Tuesday, April 25. The family of brands are looking to hire 50,000 new driven and customer-centric employees across more than 13,000 stores in the U.S. and Canada.
[Read more: "7-Eleven aims to make its new EV charging network among the largest in North America"]
Those interested can apply at participating 7-Eleven, Speedway and Stripes store locations from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. local time or by visiting careers.7-eleven.com and speedway.com/careers. Same-day interviews are available for in-person, store-level applicants.
"Every year, National Hiring Day marks an exciting time for our brands. Expanding store teams with the addition of 50,000 new roles will help our brands gear up for the busy summer season and our favorite day of the year, Slurpee Day," said Treasa Bowers, senior vice-president of human resources at 7-Eleven. "We're proud to offer our newest employees at corporate-owned locations a variety of career benefits including flexible work schedules and competitive pay, and we're looking forward to growing our 7-Eleven, Speedway and Stripes family."
As summer approaches, newly hired employees will help meet the surge in demand both in-store and through orders made online via the 7NOW Delivery app, which offers over 3,000 of customers' favorite beverages, snacks, and more. With real-time tracking, the 7NOW app lets customers know when to expect their orders, typically in 30 minutes or less.
7-Eleven also has corporate openings across IT, maintenance, technology, and other areas. Visit careers.7-eleven.com to view and apply for those opportunities

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Five days after removing a "for sale" sign from ALPO Petfoods Inc., the chairman of Grand Metropolitan PLC's food division visited the South Whitehall Township company and ordered top management to move out.
Ian A. Martin, who heads American operations for ALPO's parent company, broke the news on Tuesday to Frank Krum, ALPO's president and chief executive officer, and his right-hand man, Willard H. Cressman, senior vice president of finance.
ALPO's 1,500 employees were informed later that day that Krum, 56, was being replaced by Rob Hawthorne, 45, previously president and chief executive officer of Pillsbury Canada.
Industry analysts yesterday attributed the move to the expensive promotional campaign to introduce ALPO's new cat food.
Krum will serve as a special adviser to Martin on trade and industry relations. Cressman has elected not to stay with the company, a Grand Met spokeswoman said.
"Rob (Hawthorne) is very strong in marketing and management," said Mary Carroll, a spokeswoman for Grand Met. "He knows the United States' food industry. That makes him very good for the job.
"Frank (Krum) will be a special adviser for Ian. It's a significant role."
Krum, Cressman and Hawthorne were unavailable for comment yesterday.
While Hawthorne was busy meeting employees in the Lehigh Valley, Martin was in New York discussing the move with industry analysts.
"I would like to stress that we are firmly committed to ALPO as part of our food sector," Martin said in a statement prepared for analysts in New York. "We will apply the same aggressive strategies and ambitious forecasts that we do in all other parts of the food sector."
Grand Met, with annual sales of $15 billion, has owned Pillsbury Co. since last year, when it completed a $6.68 billion hostile takeover of the Minneapolis-based food company.
At the time of the takeover, ALPO was completing its ninth year as a subsidiary of Grand Met.
But the 54-year-old pet food company was put up for sale on Feb. 8, when Grand Met Chairman Allen Sheppard decided it didn't fit into the conglomerate's plans to focus on its human foods business.
Meanwhile, ALPO spent a record $70 million in promotions and advertising for the introduction of its new cat food this year, including the use of the cartoon character Garfield as "spokescat."
ALPO, the sixth-largest pet-food maker in the United States, holds 9 percent of the $1.3 billion canned cat food market and 5 percent of the $1.1 billion dry cat food market.
ALPO, which earned $45 million in 1989 on sales of about $400 million, now expects cat food sales to top $100 million in 1990.
Because of the rapid growth of its cat food sales, ALPO was pulled off the selling block on May 24.
Martin said Grand Met and potential buyers were "not able to reach agreement as to the value of ALPO's recently launched cat food business."
But that wasn't enough to sustain Krum in a position he'd held since 1988, an analyst said.
"The cat food introduction was rather expensive," said Stephen M. Carnes, an analyst with Piper Jaffray & Hopwood of Minneapolis. "It was a costly endeavor for them.
"Grand Met has made a strategic decision to run ALPO as a division and take it off the sale block.
"But they don't want to put the Pillsbury Dough Boy on ALPO products. They won't mix brands.
"Grand Met has strategically placed who they feel are the best people to run their divisions."
Hawthorne, who started his career in the marketing department of General Mills, joined Pillsbury in 1986 as vice president-marketing. He's a graduate of Ryerson Polytechnical Institute, Canada.
Krum, ironically, began his career as a marketing manager for the Canadian operations of Campbell Soup Co.
He later became a senior vice president with Mrs. Smith's Frozen Pies, a Pottstown-based subsidiary of Kellogg Co., before joining ALPO as a senior vice president of sales and marketing in 1981.


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BERLIN—Germany started imposing document checks for people entering the country Sunday, seeking to stem the tide of migrants streaming in by suspending a cornerstone of European integration: open borders.
The temporary border controls—announced on the eve of a European Union interior ministers’ meeting on Monday to find measures to cope with the escalating migration crisis—came as a warning shot to other countries in the bloc. It indicated that Germany, the EU’s largest country and top destination for refugees and other migrants, was prepared to undermine Europe’s treaty on passport-free travel if other countries didn’t take in more of the hundreds of thousands of people arriving from the Middle East and elsewhere in search of a better and safer life.
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Compass - February 2020
We hit the catwalk, Cowie on coronavirus and VCTs backing Britain.
By Annabel Brodie-Smith
Fashion and investment companies! I’m in investment nirvana with this heady combination of two of my favourite things. With the razzmatazz and glamour of London Fashion Week starting soon, you might be surprised to hear that investment companies have holdings in Burberry, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Next, Moncler and Zara. We’ve talked to Nick Train of Finsbury Growth & Income and Catharine Flood from Scottish Mortgage amongst others about their fashionable investments.
Another investment area that is hotting up is the Venture Capital Trust (VCT) sector which is celebrating its 25th birthday later this year. VCTs invest in Britain’s small and most ambitious companies and have created more than 27,000 jobs since they started. But what impact is Brexit having on these companies and where are VCT managers finding opportunities? Find out more about this and the ESG benefits of investing in VCTs, including stimulating regional growth and investing in green businesses.
I’ve also made some videos where I discuss Brexit, VCT investments and all things ESG with VCT managers, Will Fraser-Allen, Manager of the Albion VCTs, Dr Paul Jourdan, Co-Manager of Amati AIM VCT and Charlie Winward, Manager of the Northern VCTs at Mercia Asset Management. In addition, John Davies, manager of the Seneca Growth Capital VCT, explains his investment strategy with plenty of examples.
Will Fraser-Allen – Albion VCTs, Dr Paul Jourdan – Amati AIM VCT and Charlie Winward – The Northern VCTs discuss how Brexit will affect their portfolio.
Concerns about coronavirus have shaken markets recently but it has hit Asian markets the hardest. It’s devastating to hear about the human cost of coronavirus. Our investment guru, Ian Cowie was due to look at Asia this month (before we’d even heard about coronavirus) and it’s well worth reading his views on the prospects for the region. He also explains why he holds his Asian investment companies which include Henderson Far East Income and JPMorgan Indian. Did you know that six in ten human beings live in Asia?
Finally, the AIC’s Ian Sayers explains why it’s time for regulatory action after the winding-up of the open-ended fund, Woodford Equity Income. Our solution for open-ended funds is ‘reliable redemption’ which means that investors would be given a notice period that matches the realistic time it takes to sell the underlying assets. Of course, there is a better option and that’s called an investment company but then I might be biased…
Wishing you all a good (and fashionable) month!
Communications Director, AIC
À la mode
The investment companies with fashionable holdings
As catwalks are constructed and outfits chosen, the capital is preparing to celebrate London Fashion Week. From 14 February global fashion brands will showcase over 250 designers and generate orders worth an estimated £100m.
Many of the world’s most iconic brands are fashion brands, and with increasing numbers of wealthy customers in key emerging markets, the long-term prospects for the industry look bright despite current concerns about the coronavirus. How are investment companies approaching this theme and what does a fashion brand add to a portfolio? Ahead of London Fashion Week, the AIC has spoken to investment company managers about their holdings in Burberry, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Next, Moncler and Zara.
Annabel Brodie-Smith, Communications Director of the AIC, said: “Fashion is a subject close to my heart. Currently, the impact of the coronavirus is very concerning, but emerging markets worldwide present a long-term opportunity. Fashion brands often enjoy remarkable pricing power and customer loyalty. Admittedly, fashions come and go, and what is in vogue today can quickly become old hat. But investment companies, which have stood the test of time for over 150 years, are a good way to back these innovative fashion businesses for the long term.”
Nick Train, Portfolio Manager of Finsbury Growth & Income, said: “According to Interbrand’s 2019 survey of the 100 most valuable brands in the world, there are nine luxury fashion brands that make it into that top 100. Burberry is one of them – rated less valuable than Vuitton and Hermes, for instance – but still in that iconic cohort. Meanwhile, there are only five UK brands of any description in Interbrand’s 2019 top 100 – HSBC, Land Rover, Mini, Burberry and Shell.
“It appears, therefore, that Burberry is not only rare from a global point of view, it is extremely rare in the context of the UK economy and stock market. It is, for instance, the only luxury fashion brand in the FTSE 100. Now, being rare is not enough to make any company a great investment, but it’s a useful start. Of course, a Gucci or a Prada are competitors to Burberry, but neither they, nor any other luxury company, has the same heritage as Burberry. And by definition, none of them can claim the same ‘style anglais’ – because Burberry is the only one that can represent that type of Britishness. It’s a style beloved of Asians – meaning that Burberry offers a wonderful participation in the growing wealth of that region over decades to come.
“Some investors worry that Burberry’s business is volatile, because of its luxury and fashion character and it is true that its sales and profits are not as predictable as, say, a toothpaste manufacturer. But it is important to take a longer-term perspective. Since Burberry listed as a public company back in 2002 its shares have risen more than tenfold, despite the ups and downs. We think its best years are still ahead and the shares become a buy on periodic scares about China.”
Kering – owner of Gucci & Yves Saint Laurent
Catharine Flood, Corporate Strategy Director for Scottish Mortgage, said: “Within the luxury brand end of the spectrum, Kering owns a fine collection of globally recognised houses, including Gucci, Balenciaga and Yves Saint Laurent. Yet perhaps more impressive is the group’s leaders’ willingness to embrace the power of creative destruction for long-term growth and development. Kering’s Chairman and CEO, François-Henri Pinault, has long believed that ‘luxury and sustainability are one and the same’ and the adoption and development of new synthetic materials by the group, despite its deep heritage in natural luxury materials such as leather, demonstrates its willingness to innovate as the world changes.
“While many companies try to identify the threats to their existing businesses, far fewer have a culture which enables them to respond to those challenges. The ability to adapt is crucial to ensuring a company’s longevity and value creation. This is why we look for precisely such traits within the companies Scottish Mortgage holds as we seek to own the small group of extraordinary growth companies which drive long-term equity returns.”
LVMH – owner of Louis Vuitton & Christian Dior
Sam Morse, Portfolio Manager of Fidelity European Values, said: “LVMH is the number one luxury goods company in the world. It has an unrivalled portfolio of brands across fashion and leather goods, for example Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior; wines and spirits such as Hennessy and Moët & Chandon; perfumes and cosmetics like Givenchy; and watches and jewellery such as TAG Heuer and Bulgari. It has consistently delivered good cash flow return on investment coupled with strong growth, and it remains extremely well placed to benefit from the ongoing growth in luxury goods driven by emerging middle classes, particularly in China. Its brand equity, scale and diversification also makes it relatively defensive within its peer group if demand slows.”
Zehrid Osmani, Manager of Martin Currie Global Portfolio Trust, discusses why he holds consumer luxury brand Moncler.
Zehrid Osmani, Portfolio Manager of Martin Currie Global Portfolio, said: “Moncler is a global leader in super premium down jackets with a rich heritage and tradition. We believe that the structural growth potential of the company is compelling, and its ability to innovate is strong. The market, however, seems overly focused on short-term concerns around the slowdown in China and is overlooking the long-term growth opportunity.
“The management has an exemplary track record and is clearly executing its business plan. For example, the CEO and Creative Director are ensuring that the brand remains fresh and that innovation is driving exciting new product ranges which is helping to deliver strong top-line growth. Crucially, Moncler is very protective of their brand and clever management of inventory levels is ensuring that margins remain high.
“Given Moncler’s greenfield growth opportunities and strong creative content, we believe it could achieve a low teens top-line growth, with returns remaining high given the prudent approach to inventories by the management team. We forecast a return on invested capital of around 48% rising to around 58% over our five-year forecast for this company.”
James Goldstone, Manager of Keystone, said: “Once upon a time Next was a store-based retailer that had launched a successful catalogue. Before the internet existed, catalogues were the closest thing to internet retailing and this heritage has enabled the company to evolve into a leading digital multi-brand retail platform and logistics business, combining online and store-based retailing. This is the model for the retailer of the future.
“But the innovation within Next goes beyond logistics – Next is using its digital platform and social media to advertise its products to consumers reaching all age groups. Not only does the company sell its own Next and Lipsy brands but it achieves the same margin selling over 1,000 third-party labels like Armani, Hobbs, Levis and Hugo Boss.
“The shape of the business is markedly different to just four years ago: 51% of sales are now online compared with 39% in 2015. In the 2019 half-year results, 80% of online clothing sales were Next brand, growing at 4% a year, and non-Next brand accounted for 20% growing at 26% per year, a significant transformation by any measure.”
Inditex – owner of Zara & Massimo Dutti
Catharine Flood, Corporate Strategy Director for Scottish Mortgage, said: “Created in 1985 Inditex, owner of Zara, uses an innovative supply chain model to allow it to respond to its customers’ demands in a timely fashion. This contrasts with many of its traditional high street competitors’ more inefficient approach of convincing consumers to buy what they have already produced for a given season. Not only have Inditex’s brands expanded geographically over the years, the group has also embraced the potential e-commerce challenge to its own business. Inditex has developed online stores for its brands as well as selling a selection of their brands through Europe’s largest digital fashion platform, Zalando.”
Small and mighty
How VCT investments are pulling their weight in post-Brexit Britain
Brexit has taken place, but there remains much uncertainty about the UK’s future relationship with the EU and how that will affect trade. What impact is Brexit having on the UK’s dynamic smaller companies? Where are managers finding investment opportunities today? What are the economic and environmental benefits of investing in small but ambitious companies?
At a media roundtable held by the AIC, Will Fraser-Allen, Manager of the Albion VCTs, Dr Paul Jourdan, Co-Manager of Amati AIM VCT and Charlie Winward, Manager of the Northern VCTs, discussed their recent investment activity, the effect of Brexit on smaller companies and their overall outlook for the sector.
Their views have been collated alongside comments from Trevor Hope, Head of Growth Investments at Mobeus Equity Partners, Managers of the Mobeus Income & Growth VCT and Rodney Appiah, Director at Foresight Group, Manager of the Foresight VCTs.
Annabel Brodie-Smith, Communications Director of the AIC, said: “This year marks the 25th birthday of VCTs. Since then-Chancellor Kenneth Clarke launched them in 1995, VCTs have channelled vital investment into the UK’s small companies.
“As the UK departs Europe and embarks on a new course, there has arguably never been a more important time for investment in our most ambitious businesses. Since their inception, VCTs have created more than 27,000 jobs and driven over £1.4 billion of exports. Venture capital investing also can have positive social and environmental impacts, making VCTs an interesting prospect for the increasing number of investors who are looking for returns on their money beyond the financial.”
What will Brexit’s influence be on smaller UK companies?
Will Fraser-Allen, Manager of the Albion VCTs, said: “Unsurprisingly the smaller unquoted companies most impacted by Brexit will be those selling to EU customers and those relying on an EU workforce living in the UK. The software businesses within the Albion VCTs’ portfolios tend to sell globally, with the US being the largest target market. It is reduced access to European software developers that poses the greater challenge, as well as the risk of a broader economic slowdown.”
Dr Paul Jourdan, Co-Manager of Amati AIM VCT, said: “Brexit will bring ongoing uncertainties into the business environment for at least another year, and more likely two to three, whilst a new trade deal with Europe is worked out and then implemented. Of greater importance to small unquoted companies will be the quality of government decision making in general and the emphasis that is put on continuing to cultivate an environment supportive of young and innovative businesses.”
Trevor Hope, Partner of Mobeus Equity Partners, Managers of Mobeus Income & Growth VCT, said: “Successful smaller unquoted companies are by their nature and necessity fleet of foot and are used to reacting to factors outside their control. However, saying that, there are more than 5 million SMEs in the UK, many of which are reliant upon importing services and material as part of their offering, exporting their goods and services and/or requiring the ability to employ non-UK nationals. All of these areas now have a level of uncertainty. Ultimately Brexit may create greater opportunities but in the short term this uncertainty will make an already difficult job that much harder.”
“As the UK departs Europe and embarks on a new course, there has arguably never been a more important time for investment in our most ambitious businesses."
Annabel Brodie-Smith, AIC
Where are you finding opportunities?
Dr Paul Jourdan, Co-Manager of Amati AIM VCT, said: “We're excited about stocks in two sectors in particular: video games and healthcare.
“The video games market continues to grow steadily relative to other leisure areas as the graphic and design possibilities continue to improve. The demand for content shows no sign of abating particularly as Apple and Google enter the market. We think this is a trend set to continue. Amati AIM VCT's exposure is through Frontier Developments, one of the UK's leading video game studios based in Cambridge, and Keywords Studios, which provides a wide range of services to video games developers worldwide.
“The healthcare sector is seeing an extraordinary array of technologies which have been developed over the last 20 years reach commercial stages, which has created a rich seam of innovation. The VCT has a good deal of exposure to this theme through recent investments in companies such as Angle, which is commercialising Parsortix, a device which harvests circulating tumour cells from the blood, creating opportunities for early cancer diagnosis.”
Trevor Hope, Partner of Mobeus Equity Partners, Managers of Mobeus Income & Growth VCT, said: “We are excited by the roll out of 5G – not only the significant improvement in person-to-person communication but also machine-to-machine communications. Access IS is a Mobeus VCT portfolio company which provides data capture technology for transportation and ticketing, with over 200 airports around the world currently using their technology. Access IS are working on innovative solutions for smart cities which will be supported by 5G technologies.”
Rodney Appiah, Director of Foresight Group, Manager of the Foresight VCTs, said: “There are a number of sector themes evident in our portfolio, namely e-commerce, B2B enterprise software and healthcare services. Since Foresight Private Equity’s inception in 1985, investing in tech-enabled businesses has been at the heart of what we do and this continues to be the case today. The impact of technology in driving disruption, accelerating innovation, increasing business productivity and supporting the rapid scaling of UK businesses provides a fertile ground for successful VCT investing and hence guides our sector focus.”
Will Fraser-Allen, Manager of the Albion VCTs, said: “Albion’s focus is on B2B software, healthcare and tech-enabled businesses in the UK. Current themes include Digital Risk Management, where we recently invested in Elliptic, a leading provider of anti-money laundering compliance and forensic investigative services in cryptocurrencies; and Machine Learning and Automation, where recent investment Speechmatics is leading the way in speech recognition and transcription technology.”
What are the economic, social and environmental benefits of VCT investing?
Rodney Appiah, Director of Foresight Group, Manager of the Foresight VCTs, said: “At Foresight, we believe that the incorporation of ESG principles into our investment approach will not only generate attractive economic returns, but also broader long-term benefits for the regional communities in which our investee companies operate. We formally integrate ESG principles into our investment decision-making and investment management practices.
“We believe that VCT funding can be a great enabler for companies to improve their internal processes and create a better workplace for employees whilst also creating new job opportunities within their communities. One of our portfolio companies, Mowgli, a chain of Indian street food restaurants, has nearly tripled its number of employees since investment from 120 to over 300 with the opening of new sites supported by our investment.”
Will Fraser-Allen – Albion VCTs, Dr Paul Jourdan – Amati AIM VCT and Charlie Winward – The Northern VCTs explain the economic, environmental and social benefits of VCT investing.
Dr Paul Jourdan, Co-Manager of Amati Aim VCT, said: “AIM VCTs support companies at the initial stages of a flotation on AIM. Over the last decade AIM has become one of the most successful junior stock markets in the world, and much of this success can be traced back to companies which floated with the support of VCT investors. Some of these, such as Frontier Developments, which we invested in 6 years ago, now employ in excess of 500 staff in the UK.
“Because VCT-supported companies are often deploying new technology, it is inevitable that some of our investments will involve technologies which are aimed at tackling climate change and this is an area in which we are keen to support promising businesses.
"Last year we invested in Velocys, which has developed the technology to adapt the Fischer Tropz gas-to-liquids process to enable the production of jet fuel from waste products. Planning permission for the first full-scale commercial plant is being sought currently at Immingham in the UK, in partnership with Shell and British Airways' parent company, IAG.”
Trevor Hope, Partner of Mobeus Equity Partners, Managers of Mobeus Income & Growth VCT, said: “From an economic perspective, by investing in smaller and younger companies which might otherwise struggle to raise capital, VCTs are supporting their growth which provides a positive impact for the UK including increasing employment, knock-on economic activity and greater tax take.
“MPB, a Mobeus VCT portfolio company which provides a digital platform to facilitate the trading of used photo and camera equipment, has grown its number of employees from 20 to 120 post the Mobeus initial investment in 2016. MPB is also a great example of a ‘recommerce’ business as it is encouraging and facilitating the use of second-hand equipment rather than the production of new cameras and therefore is having a positive environmental impact.”
Rodney Appiah, Director of Foresight Group, Manager of the Foresight VCTs, said: “Foresight understands the importance and value in backing a diverse range of entrepreneurs and we are proud of our track record in this area. At present, of the 1,800 opportunities our team reviews every year, fewer than 5% are founded or led by women, yet around 15% of our portfolio companies have female founders.
“From an environmental perspective, Foresight’s approach incorporates a tried and tested framework to improve the environmental footprint of the businesses we back. This can be achieved through established and adopting environmental policies, improved recycling and resource management, supporting responsible suppliers and helping to identify sustainable operating practices.”
Will Fraser-Allen – Albion VCTs, Dr Paul Jourdan – Amati AIM VCT and Charlie Winward – The Northern VCTs explain their outlook for the VCT sector.
Outlook for the sector
Will Fraser-Allen, Manager of the Albion VCTs, said: “VCTs have recently celebrated their 25th birthday and reflecting over those years the industry can be proud. VCT money has created thousands of successful companies and more than 27,000 jobs, adding millions to the UK economy. Over the next 25 years, VCTs will be critical to fostering even more business opportunity and success that can, despite Brexit, create growth and jobs for the smaller companies in the UK technology sector that are the future of our economy.”
Trevor Hope, Partner of Mobeus Equity Partners, Managers of Mobeus Income & Growth VCT, said: “My outlook for the VCT sector remains generally positive. As a model for encouraging investment by individuals into what must be considered a relatively higher-risk financial product, it continues to attract strong levels of capital. VCTs are delivering on their remit of investing that capital into younger companies that might struggle to raise risk capital elsewhere. If VCT managers can continue to show positive returns to shareholders whilst also supporting the development of the UK’s future industry leaders then I believe the industry will be in a good place.”
Rodney Appiah, Director Foresight Group, Manager of the Foresight VCTs, said: “The UK remains an excellent place to start, scale and sell a business, with broad pools of talent and an entrepreneurial culture. As a regional investor, we know that entrepreneurial ambition is not confined to London & the South East. We believe the VCT funding environment, supported by fund managers like Foresight, plays a key role in supporting investment activity across the UK. Notwithstanding Brexit, our outlook for the VCT market remains positive.”
Dawn of an Asian century?
Ian Cowie explores prospects in Asia
Will the coronavirus mean the world economy - and Asia in particular - catches a cold? History includes an alphabet of health scares from avian influenza, or bird flu, right through to the Zika virus via severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), swine flu and many others.
Without in any way wishing to diminish the human tragedy of those directly affected, history also relates how medical advances helped humanity cope. The viruses H5N1, or avian influenza, and H1N1, or swine flu, which the World Health Organisation defined as “pandemic” more than a decade ago, were horrific for those involved but economic activity eventually returned to business as usual.
So it may pay investors to look beyond the headlines and consider the bigger picture. Six in ten human beings live in Asia, which is also home to half the world’s middle class, according to United Nations (UN) data.
The International Monetary Fund estimates that Asia now generates nearly 47% of global economic output. The UN reckons that 21 of the world’s 30 biggest cities are in Asia. No wonder Narendra Modi, the prime minister of India, declared: “Asia has become the main growth engine of the world. We are now living through the Asian Century”. To put that growth in perspective, this continent accounted for less than 20% of global gross domestic product (GDP) in 1950. Japan and South Korea initially led the way but China - the world’s most populous nation, accounting for nearly a fifth of humanity - has overtaken them both.
It’s more than 30 years since the communist leader Deng Xiaoping began to move his country away from Maoist Marxism toward “socialism with Chinese characteristics”, sparking explosive economic progress. That created tensions with America, the world’s biggest economy, but these have recently eased with both nations signing preliminary trade agreements.
Coming down from the clouds, how have all these global trends affected this individual investor? I am jolly glad I bought shares in what was then Fleming Indian Investment Trust at 63p each in June, 1996. They now trade as JPMorgan Indian (stock market ticker: JII) and, despite ongoing coronavirus fears, trade at 730p.
An investor never forgets his or her first ten-bagger. However, I actually made more money out of Baillie Gifford Shin Nippon (BGS) because I began this holding just over a decade ago, when I was investing larger sums than when I was younger.
This Japanese Smaller Companies investment company delivered eye-stretching total returns of 657% over the last decade, according to independent statisticians Morningstar, and 172% over the last five years but made modest gains of 2.3% in 2019. So, instead of topping up BGS, which remains one of my top 10 most valuable holdings, I recently bought some shares in JPMorgan Japan Smaller Companies (JPS).
Unlike BGS and JII, neither of which pays any income, JPS delivers a dividend yield of 4.3%, partly funded from capital reserves. That enhanced dividend policy helped JPS generate a total return of 29% last year.
This investor, who intends to fund retirement through income drawdown and pensions freedom, is also happy to be a long-term holder of Henderson Far East Income. HFEL delivers an inflation-busting dividend yield of 6.4% that has grown by an average of 4.2% per annum over the last five years.
Finally, Fidelity China Special Situations (FCSS) completes the Asia-focussed portion of my investment company portfolio, with a more modest yield of 1.7%, five-year annualised income growth of 27% and total returns of 15% last year.
Despite these facts, it’s notable that FCSS shares remain priced about 10% below their net asset value (NAV); and the same is true at JII. Reasons to be fearful about Asia are obvious but double-digit discounts might provide long-term investors with reasons to be cheerful. History rarely repeats itself but it often rhymes.
Ian Sayers examines the dangers of holding illiquid assets in open-ended funds
Ian Sayers, Chief Executive, AIC
Imagine if an instant access bank account offered a juicy rate of interest. You, along with thousands of others, decide to put your money in. Then the bank cuts the rate of interest, so you decide to take your money out. The bank then tells you that, because so many other savers tried to do the same, the bank can’t handle the demand for cash and so they have decided to freeze your account for six months. When you complain, you are referred to the terms and conditions where, buried in the legal detail, the possibility of this happening is mentioned. Imagine how you would feel.
In essence, this is the fate that has befallen investors in Woodford Equity Income Fund. The biggest difference in these scenarios, I would suggest, is in the response to such events by regulatory authorities. In the case of the hypothetical bank account, intensive news coverage would doubtless lead to a political enquiry and then speedy regulatory changes to “make sure this never happens again”.
But in the case of Woodford? Well, aside from a huge amount of press commentary, no regulatory changes are planned until September this year. And even these were not prompted by Woodford itself. They were prompted by the suspension of property funds after the Brexit referendum, suspensions that were the result of essentially the same problem. So four years will have passed before any changes to regulation are in place, and these are not only inadequate but will actually make things worse.
Promising daily redemption for funds holding assets that could take many months to sell simply can’t work. Other jurisdictions around the world ban open-ended funds from holding these ‘hard to sell’ assets. However, there is a less drastic approach which will prevent such problems in the future - what we refer to as ‘reliable redemption’ in a report we recently published.
All these problems could be prevented if the notice period investors in open-ended funds have to give to get their money back were matched to the time it realistically takes to sell the underlying assets. For plain vanilla equity funds, this could still be just a day, or a few days at most, hardly unreasonable for an equity fund we all accept should be held for the long-term. For property funds, notice might need to be six months or a year. And nothing would prevent a manager from handing back the money earlier if asset sales were quicker than anticipated.
Gone would be the need to suspend funds, or for funds to hold (and for investors to pay fees on) large amounts of cash or to sell assets into weak markets. Performance would improve and investors would get what they are really paying for.
The problems have been discussed and debated for years – it’s now time for a solution.
John Davies takes us on a tour of Seneca Growth Capital VCT
Since we launched our VCT offering in August 2018, we haven’t been hanging around. We’ve raised more than £6 million, made five investments and paid dividends in 2019 totalling 3.0p.
Seneca Partners, the managers of Seneca Growth Capital VCT, have extensive experience in growth capital. We have raised and deployed more than £60 million of EIS and VCT growth capital funds into 45 SME companies across 85 funding rounds since we undertook our first EIS growth capital investment in 2012.
One of our differentiating features is our base in the North West. As a result of this, we enjoy strong regional deal flow, particularly in the North of England, which means we get to see some deals that other investors don’t see. This can be useful, especially at a time when many VCT investors are seeking to increase the diversification of their VCT investment portfolio.
Another unusual feature is that Seneca’s growth capital team invests across both unquoted and AIM-quoted companies. We intend that our VCT will also invest in both markets (most VCTs specialise in one or the other). Being able to access AIM deal flow provides another source of opportunities and allows us the flexibility to invest wherever we see the best opportunities.
Our VCT is focused on providing growth capital to well-managed businesses with strong leadership teams that can demonstrate established and proven concepts in addition to growth potential. All five of the investments made by Seneca’s VCT since launch have been co-investments alongside EIS funds we also manage. We believe this allows the VCT to participate in a higher number of investments of a larger scale into more established businesses than would have been possible on a standalone basis.
Investors choosing to invest with Seneca this year will, of course, get exposure to the existing five investments that have already been made in addition to the new investments that Seneca’s VCT will make this year. The five existing investments made by Seneca’s VCT include one AIM-quoted company and four private companies and in our view all have exciting futures:
- SilkFred is a fast-growing online marketplace for independent ladies’ fashion brands. The business was founded in 2011 with the aim of creating an efficient marketplace for emerging fashion designers to bring products to market and establish their brand in the sector. The business now works with about 600 independent brands, selling to over 500,000 customers.
- Fabacus Holdings is an independent software company that has developed a technology solution aimed at bringing transparency to supply chain networks, with an initial focus on resolving the interaction and information flow between global licensors and their licensees.
- Old St Labs is a provider of cloud-based, supplier collaboration tools for large, blue-chip customers, enabling them to manage key supplier relationships and strategic project work. The core product, Vizibl, seeks to make supplier collaboration much more straightforward, with a key focus on compliance, cost savings, increasing efficiency and driving growth across their clients.
- Qudini is a B2B software company that provides a software solution for appointment bookings, queue management, event management and task management in the retail sector – enabling businesses to improve shop floor operations by managing staff activity, breaks and performance, and by assigning tasks at store or head office level.
- SkinBioTherapeutics is an AIM-quoted life science company focused on skin health. SkinBioTherapeutics' platform applies research discoveries made on the activities of lysates derived from probiotic bacteria when applied to the skin.
We are pleased with the diversity and opportunity for growth that exists within Seneca VCT’s current portfolio of investments and we’re looking forward to adding new investments in addition to developing this existing portfolio with confidence.
Seneca Partners Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Your capital is at risk and dividend payments are not guaranteed. Past performance is not a guide to future performance.


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TLD Registry Ltd., owner and operator of two fully Chinese domain name extensions, .在线 (Dot Chinese Online) and . 中文网 (Dot Chinese Website), announced that its Beijing-based wholly foreign-owned entity (WFOE) company has received full accreditation status from China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), the state agency of the Chinese government that regulates the Internet from within China. TLD Registry has now joined the shortlist of among the first foreign new generic top level domain (new gTLD) registry’s to achieve this status.
The accreditation means that TLD Registry’s .在线 and .中文网 domain extensions are legally recognized by MIIT, which allows Chinese citizens and organizations the ability to obtain an Internet Content Provider (ICP) license that must be displayed in the footer of any website hosted within China using the extension(s). This is significant in being able to host a website from within China, as it greatly reduces the risk of getting blocked or shut down without notification due to the lack of a valid ICP license. It also means that foreign companies who wish to market their products and services on a website within China will experience much faster access to their sites by Chinese citizens, due to their websites now having the option of resolving from a host inside of China, thus bypassing the firewall and other latency issues that can block access and sales. ICP licenses are only granted if the utilized domain extension is accredited by MIIT.
The ability to register .在线 and .中文网 and host a website legally from within China effectively provides a linguistically correct and culturally relevant alternative for a population of nearly 1.4 billion people (of which 721 million are internet users) and the largest e-commerce market in the world.
“Receiving MIIT’s accreditation is one of the greatest milestones we’ve achieved as a China market focused business,” said Arto Isokoski, CEO of TLD Registry. “SMB’s, corporations, startups, brand protection agencies, investors, and anyone else in China who wishes to use one of our domain extensions for their website can now do so with ease and official approval.”
Several foreign registry operators have been vying to obtain the coveted MIIT accreditation due to China’s massive and lucrative market, however they must endure a rigorous and timeconsuming process.
Some of the steps required for foreign registries to become compliant with MIIT’s regulations and move closer to receiving the accreditation includes incorporating a Wholly Foreign-Owned Enterprise (WFOE) in China, providing Real Name Verification (known as “VSP” in China) for all registrations from mainland Chinese citizens or organizations processed by Registrars based in China, and providing Chinese-specific data escrow services.
“Dot Chinese Online and Dot Chinese Website are fully-Chinese domain extensions that demonstrate a commitment to Chinese audiences,” Isokoski said. “The massive and growing population of internet users in China now have another choice to legally host their website using a domain name in their own native language.”
TLD Registry’s newly acquired accreditation immediately places .在线 and .中文网 in a competitive position within the marketplace of just 30 other legally recognized domain extensions in China. The accreditation provides TLD Registry and its Registrar distribution channel inside of China with the ability to now aggressively promote its TLDs to various mainland Chinese audiences — from direct selling premium names to corporations, to the implementation of digital marketing programs to attract SMB’s, brand protection agencies, domain investors, and everyday consumers.
The new legal status of .在线 and .中文网 in the China marketplace establishes immediate trust and credibility with Chinese consumers, as well as optimism for the future of Chinese internationalized domain names and how they are viewed by Chinese regulators. TLD Registry is one of the first new gTLD Chinese IDN registry operators to receive full accreditation status to date.


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Bloglines, the venerable RSS reader, will cease to exist in a few weeks, according to its owner, Ask.com.
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iPhone owners globally complain: the phone would not respond to their touch and freezes while operating. iPhone Touch Disease gaining the company another court matter.
The iPhone ‘touch disease’ has got famous all over the internet within a few days of its complaint. iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus tend to freeze or hang while using them. The phones would not respond to any touch command thereafter. It hinders important tasks and wastes a lot of time to recover. Freshly out from a court proceeding against VirnetX, Apple is facing proposed class-action lawsuits in both U.S. and Canada.
The accusation states that the California-based tech giant was well aware of the defect in the iPhones. Even after a number of complaints and enquiries, it did not take any relevant action which led to the iPhone Touch Disease.
“As they began to have more and more complaints and people were going to them — and we’ve had significant numbers of people contact us — they brushed it under the rug,” say Regina lawyer Tony Merchant.
Apple had two cases filed against it in September by a Merchant’s firm, Merchant Law Group. One of them was only for Quebec residents while the other was entirely Canada-wide.
The proposed suit would include all the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus customers. It will take place at Court of Queen’s Bench for Saskatchewan. It claims that the company supplied a defective product and must be held for that. Also, it said Apple “knowingly and intentionally concealed” the defect from its customers. It was not able to provide a relevant remedy for the same.
All Apple has done to solve the problem, according to Merchant, is offer a price for the defect. The price reaches about $300 each customer.
The United States Censures Apple Further
In August 2016, a similar proposed class action was filed in the U.S. District Court for Northern California. It accuses Apple of being aware of the defect in its iPhones for a long time and turning a blind eye to it continuously. Moreover, it alleges that Apple refused to solve the problem for customers free of charge, taking the responsibility upon the company as it should have.
The three lead plaintiffs involving, in that case, alleged that their iPhones suddenly froze hindering their daily work. Also that the company demanded more than $3000 for repair. Troy Crandall, the equity analyst at 3Macs in Montreal, recently said that Apple thought the Bendgate problem was the root of this issue as well.
Not many weeks after the launch of iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, people began complaining that the smartphone easily bent under pressure. The previous three iPhones including the iPhone 7 have slender designs which can make them pliable. This was just more fuel to the flames of the iPhone Touch Disease. Apple is receiving technical complaints continuously. And unless it elaborates what exactly is going on, judging the problem would be quite difficult.
‘A piece of crap’
Trina Rae Wiegers, the lead plaintiff in the cross-Canada suit says “You miss calls, you can’t text, it’s a horrible piece of crap,” . She bought the iPhone 6 a while after it was launched back in 2014 in Prince Albert, Sask. She took advantage of a two-year phone plan contract and purchased the brand new iPhone at just $200. The price is a couple hundreds of dollars less than the original cost of iPhone 6 at the time.
The woman complaints that a few months after her warranty had expired. Which is near to some months before now, her phone began to freeze up and wouldn’t respond to any touch commands at all.
“It’s frustrating as hell because you’re missing phone calls from your kids. I have three kids. I use it for work, You miss calls, you can’t text, it’s a horrible piece of crap,” she says
The suit also alleges that her problem has a very simple cause behind it. The touchscreen controller chips in the phone’s motherboard are not properly secured. This can result in some minor malfunction on regular usage of the phone. Reportedly, she did not start the complaints in the first place. There were other complaints before hers, which started the speculations about the iPhone Touch Disease.
What Apple Advisors claimed
Wiegers also says she contacted Apple a number of times regarding the issue but never received a satiating response. She shared her online chat in August with senior adviser “Dave” from Apple Support. In the transcript, she mentions her problem to the adviser and also says she has previously seen many people complaining about it online. Moreover, she even sent Dave a link to a recent blog from an online repair guide, iFixit. This blog had named the problem “iPhone’s Touch Disease”
The adviser responded that the problem was a manufacturing issue from Apple and he had no more information in reference to it. He reminded Wiegers that her warranty had expired and she will have to get the phone repaired. He said, “tell the engineer to look into it.”
“I just about felt like throwing my phone through the screen at him, All I want is for Apple to fix my damn phone,” says Wiegers.


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TTD Group’s hotel booking numbers plunged in the fourth quarter, with the hotel industry reporting its first year-on-year drop in occupancy.
The U.S. investment bank reported a 6.3 percent decline in hotel book-to-stay traffic, and booked 6,719 hotel stays in the quarter.
Bookings also dropped 1.7 percent in the hotel and hospitality segment.
The average price of a hotel stay fell 5.6 percent to $1,038.20 in the three months ended March 31, the biggest decline since Q4 2017.
TTD Group also reported a 2.6 percentage point decline in total booked hotel room bookings, down from a 3.5 percent decline the year ago quarter.
The company reported a $10.3 million loss for the quarter, a decrease of $6.1 million or 4.3%.
The hotel industry is a crucial part of TTD Holdings’ $2.8 billion cash flow, and the company is also in the process of closing two of its other hotel properties.
As a result of the drop in bookings and occupancy, TTD has cut its dividend by 5.9 percent, from 1.9 cents per share to 1.5 cents per half share.
It also has reduced the dividend yield, which is the average yield a stock pays on its debt.
Read more on TTDBank.com:What we know so far about TTDs hotel business


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If there is one conclusion to draw from the company earnings reported on Thursday, it is this: Cloud computing is a booming business.
This point was never much in doubt, but the numbers sure reinforced it. Amazon said that Amazon Web Services, its cloud computing platform, is growing rapidly and would soon be a $10 billion a year business. Microsoft, widely considered the runner-up in the cloud computing market, said its commercial cloud business was also going gangbusters and has a $9.4 billion annualized run rate.
The two companies calculate their cloud revenue in different ways, so apples-to-apples comparisons are a fool’s errand. Suffice it to say that the two have found a sweet and highly profitable spot.
That makes some other news on Thursday all the more interesting. Facebook said it planned to shut down Parse, a toolkit for mobile developers that was supposed to provide an inside track to the cloud computing business. Parse was bought in 2013, when Facebook was looking for more revenue. (That is no longer much of a problem.)
In the end, Mike Isaac and Quentin Hardy write, the costs of competing against the top cloud businesses would take more resources than Facebook wanted to supply.


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The Stalls at Pickwick to feature mix of antiques, vintage and crafts
BUCYRUS - Owners Kent and Laura Stuckey have finally decided what to do with The Pickwick Place's third building.
The Stalls at Pickwick is expected to open early this summer, occupying the southernmost of three almost-identical long, brick buildings at the site.
The Stalls will offer selected vendors an opportunity to sell "artisan wares, vintage finds and unique gifts," Laura Stuckey said Monday.
The other two buildings opened in 2016, a year after the Stuckeys started selling produce off a wagon in front of the buildings. "That's when we were starting on construction," Kent Stuckey said.
They didn't buy the property with a master plan for its future.
"I was an elementary teacher, and he's a dairy farmer. This was not on our radar of things we were going to do with our life," Laura Stuckey said.
"Our son wanted to grow fruits and vegetables for a living, so we needed a good location to sell those things," she said.
"We had the opportunity to purchase this, my dad was like "You need that,' so they helped us get going with this site here," Kent Stuckey said. "That's how we got into this site. Then we had these buildings, so we were like, 'What are we going to do with these buildings?'"
They knew one would be used to sell produce and a farm market, and decided one would be an event center. Those became The Market and The Lofts, respectively.
They had several thoughts on how to use the third building, and ultimately decided on vendor space.
"Our vision for it is different than a traditional antique mall in that we're going to have a mix of antiques and vintage and new items, and crafts. So not strictly antiques," Laura Stuckey said. "We like the idea of supporting talented creators, and also people that have curated some beautiful relics. We just want to support other people in what they do, too."
"Should be a good balance," Kent Stuckey added. "Should be a place people really want to come and shop; because there should be a little something for everybody."
"We've always been about being part of the community and I think this will be a nice addition to the community here. It will be a nice addition to the property here — just give people one more reason to come out here. I think it will be good for the town. We're excited about it. "
They started looking for vendors by putting a sign on the building, and attracted some interest, they said.
"We posted on Facebook Wednesday evening, and we've had a tremendous response. We've had quite a few request for applications," Kent Suckey said.
Potential vendors are being asked to fill out an application form.
"It will be a little bit of a process to see if it's a good fit, for them and for us," Laura Stuckey said.
"We want a nice mix of products in there; we don't want to have much duplication," Kent Stuckey said. "It doesn't do anybody any good to have 10 vendors selling the same thing. It's not good for us and not good for the vendor."
In addition to a base fee for the booth, vendors will be charged a commission on sales. But other than maintaining their space, vendors will not have to work at the Stalls: A staffer will handle sales, Kent said.
Booths, which will vary in size, will be available on both floors of the 14,000-square-foot building. They expect to have room for about 60 vendors.
"There will be some small spaces for someone who just has a small line of things they want to sell," Kent Stuckey said. "We want to try to accommodate a little bit of everybody."
The hope to open The Stalls in mid-June. Hours have not be determined yet, but will be similar to the Market's 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sundays. Sharon Sparks will be the manager.
"When we get this barn done, by no means are we complete here with the operations. I'm 51 and she's not 50 yet, so we got a lot of years left to keep building things," Kent Stuckey said. "We got a long list of things we want to do here. We have a couple things that we'd like to do as soon as we can. Each project is probably a couple more years down the road.
"We opened this building and the market on the same day, and we're not opening two on the same day again."
To request an application to be a vendor at The Stalls at Pickwick, email firstname.lastname@example.org. For details, call 419-689-5030.


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As economic uncertainty clouds the immediate fortunes for businesses, a recent survey from Boston Consulting Group (BCG) found that CEOs remain focused on positioning their businesses for growth.
According to the report, “CEO Outlook 2023: Caution, Optimism and Navigating the Road Ahead,” 73% of C-suite executives expect macroeconomic uncertainties to be a key challenge this year, yet 79% are optimistic in their company’s performance. BCG said that “while cost cutting is clearly their priority, most companies are doing so in ways aimed at resetting their organizations for growth and enhancing resilience.”
“This nuanced CEO outlook holds true even in sectors where big layoffs have recently dominated the news. For instance, top technology company executives in our survey cited retaining and developing talent and boosting innovation in the year ahead as equally important—if not higher—priorities than shedding workers, particularly in North America,” the report noted. “Our study also found that companies that have devoted the most energy to improving resilience are outperforming their industry peers in total shareholder returns and are more prone to reinvest their cost savings in areas that could give them a strategic advantage.”
The BCG survey of 759 global executives in energy, industrial goods, health care, tech and media, financial institutions, consumer goods and transport/infrastructure/travel/logistics.
To read the complete article, please click here.


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Breitling, one of the vital global’s most famous watchmakers, has hopped at the bandwagon and begun accepting virtual currencies as a type of cost as the usage of cryptocurrencies will increase globally.
The Swiss timepiece maker has joined forces with the cryptocurrency cost services and products corporate BitPay to simply accept Ethereum, Shiba Inu, Bitcoin, and different cryptocurrencies in its on-line retailer.
Breitling joins a mess of luxurious firms that experience taken the lead in cryptocurrency adoption over the last a number of months, as the overall acceptance of bitcoin continues to play out.
Breitling Accepts Extra Crypto
Breitling said that BitPay additionally accepts Bitcoin Money, DogeCoin, Litecoin, Wrapped Bitcoin, and 5 stablecoins, together with Binance USD, Dai, Gemini Greenback, USDP, and USD Coin.
In a tweet Wednesday morning, BitPay stated:
“Luxurious watch logo, @Breitling now accepts crypto! Welcome to #BitPay, we’re excited to spouse with you to convey new cost choices in your consumers.”
Breitling’s web site displays that the Staying power Professional watch prices $3,300, whilst the Premier B21 Chronograph Tourbillion 42 Bentley is priced at $53,560.
In line with CoinMarketCap knowledge, on the time of newsletter, the Premier B21 Chronograph Tourbillion was once price virtually 2.5 BTC, as Bitcoin traded at $20,797, up 0.33 % at the day however down 3.32 % over the previous seven days.
BTC general marketplace cap at $382 billion at the day-to-day chart | Supply: TradingView.com
As prior to now reported via Bitcoinist, type firms Balenciaga and Gucci, luxurious e-commerce Farfetch, and Swiss luxurious watchmakers Hublot and Tag Heuer have introduced they are going to settle for bitcoins thru BitPay.
Tag Heuer has published extra ambitions to go into Internet 3.0 and liberate a classy NFT assortment.
Crypto For The Automobile Business, Too
Along with the trend trade, bitcoin acceptance has additionally higher within the automotive trade.
Final yr, Submit Oak Motor Vehicles of Houston natively built-in Bitcoin services and products thru NYDIG, letting purchasers to buy luxurious vehicles with bitcoin-backed financing.
Breitling has already used cryptocurrency into its endeavors, maximum particularly launching the “Breitling Blockchain” initiative. The watchmaker created a virtual passport NFT with traits like tradability, traceability, and the “Breitling Industry” platform to commemorate the disclose.
The corporate’s first design workshop was once arrange in 1884 on Position Neuve 1 in Saint-Imier via Léon Breitling, then 24 years outdated, in accordance with the Swiss financial downturn.
Since then, the company has established itself as one of the vital country’s most well liked watchmakers. In 2017, the logo was once offered to CVC Capital Companions, a personal fairness company.
Featured symbol SwissWatchExpo, chart from TradingView.com


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West Wales is one of the last remaining blanks on the Sainsbury's map, and it became clear that the supermarket group had ambitions in the area when it acquired the former Somerfield store in Lampeter after Co-op found itself with two supermarkets in that town.
Lampeter was never going to be a lone outrider for long given the way supermarket distribution networks operate, and the store group was soon busy with plans for a large new store in Cardigan. The proposed supermarkets in Cross Hands and Llandeilo would have been two more dots in the supply chain.
The surprising thing was always the scale of the proposed supermarket in Llandeilo, and the supermarket group itself was telling the truth when it recently described the proposed development as marginal. The truth was that a store on that scale would have struggled, and it would inevitably have had to suck the lifeblood from existing businesses in town to make the sums add up.
Even more questionable was the county council's decision to support the application in the face of the evidence.
Both Sainsbury's and the County Council invested a lot of PR capital in this exercise, and both have ended up with egg on their faces. Sainsbury's now looks like a petulant bully, and the collapse of the plan has dealt a further blow to the integrity of the council itself.
The council leader, Kevin Madge, finds himself under investigation for his part in the press release scandal, and there will be more calls for a root and branch inquiry into the workings of the council's planning department. What is now very clear is that the arm's length relationship which ought to exist between the quasi-judicial functions of the planning department and the council's executive has long since broken down.
Plaid Cymru summed things up well in its comment on the decision when it said,
It is clear the Council’s executive and Sainsbury’s are unhappy with their actions being scrutinised. The decision to withdraw the planning application indicates serious flaws in the planning process and disdain for planning legislation.
Sainsbury's has also been having a torrid time over its much delayed plans for a large new store in Cardigan. The plans met with strong local opposition, and after millions were spent preparing the Bath House site, the store group recently had to acknowledge that it was still trying to sort out problems with the stability of the land.
Just like Llandeilo, the proposed Cardigan store is too large, although unlike Llandeilo Sainsbury's will find itself competing for business with Tesco and Aldi. Tesco put in plans for a large store extension as soon as Sainsbury's showed up, and so Cardigan can expect the two groups to slug it out, most likely at the expense of the town's independent retailers.
That will be a great shame because Cardigan has been transformed in recent years, partly thanks to Ceredigion County Council but also partly thanks to the efforts of a number of local initiatives, such as Pwllhai. The result is that civil society is alive and kicking in Cardigan, whereas over the border Carmarthenshire's top-down, Big Brother approach views local initiatives with contempt and a distraction from the real business of doing mega-deals with Mega Bucks Inc.
Perhaps the most interesting comment yesterday on the Llandeilo fiasco came from Simon Buckley, chief executive of Evans-Evans Brewery, who was quoted by Robert Lloyd on his blog here.
Mr Buckley, who has fought hard on behalf of local businesses throughout the Sainsbury's saga, said:
I now challenge Carmarthenshire Council's chief executive Mark James (and the other senior officers in the council) to meet with me and other employers in the area to discuss what the council can do to support us.
I would hope that they would be able to offer a similar level of support to that which they (the council) showed in backing the Sainsbury's plan.
But can the leopard change its spots?


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Three years can be a long time in politics — and in business.
A day after its IPO, super-app Paytm is now worth less than food delivery player Zomato. After a 27% fall in its stock price on listing day, Paytm currently has a market capitalization of Rs. 1.08 lakh crore. In comparison, Zomato, which has seen its stock double since its IPO, is now valued at Rs. 1.17 lakh crore.
This a stunning turnaround in the fortunes of the two startup unicorns — just three years ago, Paytm was worth 10 times as much as Zomato. In 2018, Zomato had just entered the unicorn club after raising $200 million, and was valued at $1.1 billion. In comparison, Paytm had a valuation on $10 billion the same year.
Things had continued roughly on the same trajectory in 2019 — Paytm had been valued at $16 billion in 2019, while Zomato had seen its valuation rise to $3.6 billion that year. In 2020, Covid had hit both companies hard, but Zomato had probably been hurt more — it had seen its orders plummet, and it had fired staff to cut costs.
But as the Covid lockdowns ebbed away, Zomato had rebounded smartly. Its order volumes had quickly risen past Covid levels, and its valuation rose too — Zomato’s valuation had risen to $3.9 billion in December 2020, and to $5.4 billion in February 2021. Paytm, meanwhile, hadn’t raised funds, and continued to be valued at $16 billion.
But as both companies went public in 2021, their IPOs couldn’t have gone more differently. Zomato had the first movers’ advantage, becoming the first Indian startup to go public, and its stock shot up nearly 65% on opening day. Paytm, though, ended up having India’s worst IPO since 2011, and saw its stock crash 27% before it hit the lower circuit and the trading in the share was halted.
It’s hard to tell why the reaction on the public markets for so markedly different from Zomato and Paytm. It’s possible that the public markets rewarded Zomato for its focus on restaurants and food delivery, while Paytm, which operates in tens of verticals but doesn’t quite dominate any of them, didn’t find a similarly welcome reception. It’s possible that Zomato had the first-movers advantage, but the sheen had been taken off startup stocks by the time Patym listed. But whatever the reasons might’ve been, listing publicly on the stock markets has completely flipped the pecking order of two of India’s most prominent startups.


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By Cameron Abbott and Jessica McIntosh
It’s uncomfortable to think one of the world’s biggest business leaders has this week stood up and told us all ”our own information from the everyday to the deeply personal is being weaponized against us with military efficiency” what’s more uncomfortable, these powerful words are only a small snippet of a seriously forceful and passionate speech Tim Cook delivered in Brussels on Wednesday.
Cook stated how Apple sees first hand just how often technology is harming rather than helping individuals, ‘platforms and algorithms that promise to improve our lives are actually magnifying our worst human tendencies’ – Cook effectively confirmed, the tech dark side is real, it’s not us being dramatic or something that is imagined, it’s here, it’s happening and everyday people are affected.
The result of this dire situation is that companies, like Apple can create a digital profile of us which allows them to understand (on an extreme level) us, better than we understand ourselves. Although, unsurprisingly Cook took the opportunity to promote how Apple protects user privacy, perhaps mindful of how their competitor Google takes a more active approach to data analytics.
Cook urged the US to enact a federal privacy law which would allow individuals:
- The right to have personal data de-identified.
- The right to have greater knowledge regarding their data being collected.
- The right to access their data and correct if necessary; and
- The right to more security.
Clearly Apple wishes to define its position on data privacy in the market as a competitive position. Siri may not understand you as well as Alexa, but without saying it directly, Cook wants you to know there is a reason for that. If it drives a single coherent privacy law in the USA all the better we say.


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Why New York Restaurant Workers Are Leaving the Industry, And What Would Make Them Stay
The COVID-19 outbreak has had devastating impacts on the restaurant industry, with 6 million workers across the country and over 200,000 in New York losing work temporarily or permanently. Tipped restaurant workers, who are over two-thirds women, reported facing dramatically decreased tips and increased health risks and harassment in restaurants during the pandemic. This report documents the massive exodus of workers from restaurants, their reasons for leaving, and what would make them stay. Half of New York workers report that they are considering leaving their restaurant job with the pandemic and 90 percent say they are leaving due to low wages and tips, significantly higher than the national sample (76%).


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Octoling amiibo up for pre-order on the Nintendo UK store
Posted on October 5, 2018 by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News
The Nintendo UK store has opened pre-orders for the upcoming Octoling amiibo for Splatoon. Consumers can reserve the package here. It’ll come with the Octoling Boy, Octoling Girl, and Octopus.


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On March 27, the 2021 Chaoyang Fashion Summit was held in the Chaoyang District of Beijing. International fashion experts were invited to discuss topics such as fashion-driven high-quality development, initiating the "Chaoyang Consensus" to build Chaoyang into a city of fashion.
Adhering to the principles of openness, inclusiveness, cooperation, and mutual benefit, the 2021 Chaoyang Fashion Summit aims to present a multi-dimensional collection of fashion ideas which are integrated into new development concepts and fashion-driven high quality development, all from a global perspective. The theme of the summit is "Fashion Energizing High-Quality Development and The Construction of an International Consumer Center". More than 100 guests from government departments, institutes of higher learning, fashion industry organizations, and design institutions discussed multiple topics such as the development of Beijing as an international consumption center, fashion-driven high-quality development, the integration of fashion and technology, the digitalization of fashion enterprises, the cultivation of new growth points and new drives, as well as Chaoyang's role as a pioneer for global fashion.
During the summit, the Chaoyang District People's Government of Beijing Municipality, together with China National Textile and Apparel Council, Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology, and participants jointly initiated the Chaoyang Consensus on "fashion energizing high-quality development". This consensus puts forward a common vision of creating new thinking regarding development, seeking new development paths, shaking up development patterns, and sharing new results from development.
According to a relevant official from Chaoyang District, the Chaoyang Consensus is an important outcome of the 2021 Chaoyang Fashion Summit. Chaoyang District hopes to take the lead in the effort in developing an international consumption center by adhering to the Chaoyang Consensus, pooling all social resources, and building a smart platform for international fashion and cultural exchange.
Boasting various international resources, Chaoyang District is known as China's closest district to foreign affairs, and serves as a window of Beijing for international exchange.
(Note: Content source is from Beijing Daily and The Beijing News.)


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Microsoft has abandoned the wearable market after the second generation of Microsoft Band and despite rumors that the company may be considering a new smartwatch, we have no evidence that such a device is coming.
Despite having little time to live, Microsoft Band was an over-sophisticated activity tracker far ahead of its opponents at the time. It offered features that few or even no competitor had, such as an ultraviolet sensor, and introduced features that were available in the past to more complex and costly devices, such as heart rate zones.
However, for some reason, Microsoft suddenly decided to abandon this particular industry, leaving Microsoft Band back out of the wearable market.
And despite the rumors circulating for a third generation of Microsoft Band and an Xbox branded smartwatch, we do not see that anywhere. Something that's odd, at least, especially when we look at the following:
1) Smartwatches are an ever-expanding market
Microsoft tried to evolve beyond the focus of the software and invest more in other products, with the Surface lineup being the living proof that hardware is now a priority for the company. And while the services cloud and Office 365 are Microsoft's leading developers, there is no doubt that the hardware is so powerful that it can quickly become a catalyst of the same trend.
Smartwatches are now an ever-expanding market, and data provided by Canalys earlier this month revealed that they account for 80% of the wearable business's total revenue.
In total, 20,5 million units were sold in the first quarter of the year, while 59% of LTE-supported models were Apple watches. This shows how quickly this market evolved and how Apple succeeded in becoming the leader of an industry formerly dominated by Fitbit in a few years.
In addition, according to analysts' estimates, smartwatch sales could double 2018, reaching 141 million units from just 5 million units to 2014.
2) Microsoft has the expertise to build a smartwatch
The first and second generation of Microsoft Band were both live proofs that Microsoft has the know-how to create a powerful smartwatch and the company's appetite for innovation could also help in this respect.
3) The ever-expanding Surface Hardware family
Since the launch of the first Surface model, Micronsoft's long-term design for this new brand was to expand it with new devices based on completely unexplored ideas that would bring a number of benefits that customers could not imagine.
A Surface-branded smartwatch with new features would be clearly aligned with this strategy and would allow Microsport to compete with Apple's smartwatch, but with a number of advantages, such as platform support. It would also allow the Surface brand to expand beyond the desktop, which was previously not feasible without a smartphone


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Switzerland has ranked top as the world’s most innovative country for the second year running, according to the 2019 edition of the Global Innovation Index (GII).
The global benchmark that is now in its twelfth edition - seeks to help policymakers better understand how to accelerate and measure innovative activity, as well as social and economic development - saw Sweden, the US, the Netherlands and the UK rank closely behind – INSEAD reported.
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Bahrain welcomed a total of 12.7 million tourists in 2017, a remarkable increase in comparison to the previous year.
The kingdom also witnessed an 11.85 per cent increase in the number of tourists accessing the kingdom through the Bahrain International Airport, an 11.87 per cent jump in visitors through King Fahad Causeway and 23.2 per cent coming in through Khalifa bin Salman Port.
Looking to further enhance the Bahrain’s position as a leading tourist and business destination, the Bahrain Tourism and Exhibitions Authority (BTEA) explored different projects to further boost tourism during its first board meeting for the year.
Headed by the Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism and chairman of the BTEA, Zayed bin Rashid Al Zayani, the board discussed the latest developments projects aimed at enhancing the kingdom’s position as a leading destination for hosting exhibitions, conferences and incentives in the region.
One of BTEA’s plans includes the development of the Manama Souq project, which entails the opening of a number of cafes and restaurants as well as various facilities and services. This will result in revitalising the souq and reviving the economic and commercial sector. The board also announced that it will be launching amphibious tours to facilitate the movement of visitors in the kingdom.
During the meeting, the board also expressed their satisfaction with the positive results of the 2017 financial report as well as expressed their gratitude to the management and employees of BTEA for their sincere efforts in achieving the authority’s plans in order to position the tourism and exhibitions sector as a main contributor to the national economy.
Source Credit: TradeArabia News Service


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This marks the end of a chapter for Amazon and swift fall from grace for Price, who’d come up with the business plan for an Amazon entertainment division, launched the unit and ran it from Day 1.
The resignation was fully expected. As we reported last week, it was considered virtually impossible for Price to be accepted as an Amazon chief going forward following the details of sexual harassment allegations against him made public last Thursday.
“He would be completely ostracized,” one person said on Friday, noting that it would be hard for the studio to attract female showrunners and actors in the current post-Harvey Weinstein environment where there is very little tolerance for sexual harassment.
While the tipping point for Price’s ouster was the release of salacious details about how he propositioned The Man in the High Castle executive producer Isa Hackett Dick during Comic-Con 2015 in San Diego as well as statements by actress Rose McGowan that he’d known about her rape accusations against Harvey Weinstein, Price already had been under heavy scrutiny.
Rumors were flying in the spring, when information about the incident started to surface, that Price could be leaving, with Paramount TV president Amy Powell as a name tipped as a potential replacement. Following the recent sexual harassment allegation against Price, there is a consensus that, as Amazon officially moves to finding a replacement for Price, the new head of Amazon Studios likely would be a woman, with Powell again speculated about.
Besides Powell, other names of seasoned high-level female TV executives I’ve heard as suitable candidates include former HBO Entertainment president Sue Naegle, A+E Networks CEO Nancy Dubuc and Fox chairman Dana Walden. Also mentioned as possibilities are ABC’s Channing Dungey, NBC’s Jennifer Salke, and Warner Bros.’ Susan Rovner, whose name has come up for a number of jobs recently but is believed to be locked into a long-term contract. (Not all of the other executives mentioned are believed to be available and/or interested either.) The only potential internal candidate is head of event series Sharon Tal Yguado who only recently joined the streaming service.
One quirky potential obstacle in the recruitment of a new top entertainment executive could be Amazon’s thriftiness that not many top-level Hollywood executives are accustomed to. Amazon execs fly mostly coach and stay at reasonably priced hotels, and company employees don’t even get free Amazon Prime membership.
Since the rumors about a possible executive shakeup at Amazon Studios first surfaced in May, there had been an increasing number of reports about a chaotic environment at the studio, potential conflict-of-interest situations and clashes with talent, with Goliath co-creator David E. Kelley, one of a number of showrunners who have exited their Amazon series, recently calling Amazon’s entertainment division “a bit of a gong show” in a WSJ article.
Price, a close friend of disgraced mogul Harvey Weinstein, also had forged an alliance with the now-embattled Weinstein Co., orchestrating very expensive deals for $70 million Matthew Weiner series The Romanoffs and $160 million two-season pickup of a David O. Russell drama starring Robert De Niro and Julianne Moore. Following Price’s suspension, Amazon on Friday cut ties with TWC, scrapping the Russell series after spending tens of millions of dollars and taking over The Romanoffs.
Price’s official exit raises a serious question about the future his top lieutenant Joe Lewis, credited with early Amazon Studios awards standouts like Transparent and Mozart in the Jungle. He, along with Price, also has been scrutinized recently over potential conflict-of-interest issues. (Lewis’ girlfriend, Yara Martinez, was cast in Amazon’s The Tick.) Also considered on shaky ground is Amazon’s head of alternative Conrad Riggs.
In addition to the Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning Transparent and Globe-winning Mozart in the Jungle, other critically/commercially successful series developed and launched under Price include dramas Bosch and The Man in the High Castle.
Even before Price’s exit, Amazon Studios already had been in transition.
Just before the Primetime Emmy Awards, where Amazon was left empty-handed while SVOD rivals Hulu and Netflix picked up trophies, Amazon Studios got new directives from Seattle to overhaul its programming strategy, pulling away from niche shows to focus on big, broad (largely genre) hits of the size of HBO’s Game of Thrones. That comes after the streaming service has spent a reported $4 billion a year with no watercoolor title to show for it and expensive misfires like Woody Allen’s Crisis in Six Scenes.
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Under fire for launching a television ad attacking Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown, the California Chamber of Commerce said Thursday that it will take the spot off the airwaves.
The surprise move followed complaints from some of the chamber's member companies and directors, including UC President Mark Yudof, said chamber President and CEO Allan Zaremberg.
The spot slammed Brown for his record as California governor and mayor of Oakland. Brown and his wife, Anne Gust, former general counsel for clothing retailer Gap, complained to some member companies, Zaremberg said.
Yudof, who wrote in a Facebook posting that "I did not and do not approve of" the ad, talked personally to the chamber head Wednesday.
Four chamber directors sent the group, which claims about 100 board members, a letter demanding that it stop running the ad.
"We've had members that liked the ad, and we have some members that rather we not continue with that," Zaremberg said.
He said the chamber would be rotating to another commercial that doesn't advocate any position. The Brown ad was still running on Sacramento-area cable TV stations late Thursday afternoon.
To read the complete article, visit www.sacbee.com.