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|The Robin Hood Fallacy: Blagojevich Wants Corporations to Foot the Bill for Social-Service Plans|
|News/Features - Feature Stories|
|Wednesday, 28 March 2007 02:37|
Green owns the Cordova-based company Bob's Blacktop. His company brings in annual revenues of roughly $750,000, he said, and he doesn't offer his three employees health insurance. He doesn't have health insurance, either.
"I myself have had a couple surgeries, and those bills are just stacking up," Green said this week. "And I'm just having to make monthly payments on them."
Green supports the governor's four-pronged "Investing in Families" plan, which would increase funding for health care, education, and state pensions. (Details of the plan can be found at http://www.illinois.gov/gov/budget2007.cfm.)
Few would disagree with those funding priorities, but the catch comes - as it typically does - with the payment mechanism, the fourth prong. Blagojevich has proposed a "gross-receipts tax" that would boost state tax revenues by an estimated $6.1 billion a year. The tax would be applied to all revenue brought in by companies with income greater than $1 million a year.
The tax rate would be 0.5 percent for "goods-producing" businesses such as manufacturers, wholesalers, construction companies, and restaurants. The rate would be 1.8 percent for service businesses. Some goods - most notably groceries and drugs - would be exempt from the tax.
Green, whose company hosted a visit by Blagojevich earlier this month, said he likes the benefits of the plan - particularly the element that would provide all Illinoisans with access to affordable private health insurance - and said he doesn't have a problem with the tax.
"The gross receipts would take care of us on health care," he said.
And even though the business doesn't currently meet the revenue floor for the tax, he thinks a $5,000 tax for his business on $1 million in revenue would be reasonable. "You pay your fair share of taxes," he said.
And he claims that he wouldn't pass on the cost of the new tax to his customers. "Even when our fuel prices rose last year, we didn't raise our prices," he said. "We kept them the same. I just didn't take as much of a profit."
I asked Green if he thought he was a typical business owner in terms of not increasing his prices to account for higher costs. "I'm probably not [typical]," he said. "I'm probably one of the very few that look at things like that. I'm not out to be a millionaire or to be rich. I'm out for having money and buying things and enjoying life."
The governor's plan is being sold as "tax fairness," as a way to force big business to foot a reasonable share of the bill for state services. According to Justin DeJong, director of communications for the governor's Office of Management & Budget, individuals paid $8.5 billion in income taxes in Fiscal Year 2006, while business paid only $1.5 billion in corporate-income taxes.
The pitch is that small businesses and consumers won't be affected, and that this will be a way for the state to capture new revenues from companies that in the past have avoided corporate-income-tax liability.
But that premise, critics charge, is full of false assumptions. It first assumes that all businesses are like Bobby Green's - that they're willing to eat the cost of a new tax. Second, it assumes that suppliers to small businesses won't pass the tax on through their higher prices. Third, it assumes that a business that earns more than $1 million in revenue is no longer a small business.
In the simplest terms possible, the stated premise of the gross-receipts tax is that the business community in Illinois can and will absorb $6.1 billion in new taxes without passing that cost onto consumers.
"In most cases," DeJong said, "we believe businesses will build the gross-receipts tax into the cost of doing business" - as they do with higher utility or property-tax costs, for example. Instead of raising prices, DeJong said, companies might cut back on other expenses or reduce staffing.
If you're skeptical of that claim, you're not alone.
"Yeah, right," said Kathaleen Mosley, president and co-owner of Harris Pizza. Her company has more than $1 million in revenue, and she said that Harris will likely need to raise its prices to account for the gross-receipts tax and a July 1 increase in the state minimum wage.
"If the gross-receipts tax were to go into effect in Illinois, it would undoubtedly increase the cost of goods and services in our state," said Doug Whitley, president and CEO of the Illinois Chamber of Commerce. "The governor wants to hide the true cost of government from the citizens of the state by trying to wash taxes through the economic supply chain of the business community so that the individual does not directly see the income or sales tax go up. ... That money's going to come in the form of higher prices."
"I'm kind of leery of it," said Representative Mike Boland. "I do think it's going to be passed on to consumers. ... So it might just turn into sort of a gigantic sales tax."
At this point, neither the business community nor local legislators are buying the governor's plan.
But that doesn't mean that it's dead. Members of the Illinois General Assembly from the Quad Cities - all Democrats, like Blagojevich - make clear that they could be convinced to support the plan, but that their votes have a price tag.
The Hidden Tax
Set aside what Blagojevich wants to do with the revenue from a gross-receipts tax. Tax policy is complicated enough by itself, and deserves a discussion separate from the equally complex issues of health-care and education funding.
The tax question should come first, because the scope of any legislative initiative will be dictated by the amount of revenue that can be raised for it. And if the Illinois General Assembly nixes the gross-receipts tax, the governor's health-care and education initiatives probably aren't going anywhere.
That's because the governor has pledged not to raise sales or personal-income taxes, a promise he's still committed to. "He reiterated that when we met with him, that ... he'll veto any type of sales or income tax," said Representative Pat Verschoore.
"The governor has drawn a line in the sand in opposition to any income- or sales-tax increases, and by so doing, he's put himself ... in a pretty serious box about what the possible choices are," Whitley said.
The governor is positioning the gross-receipts tax as a necessary correction to the state's tax policy.
The thinking behind the gross-receipts tax is that big business isn't paying a fair share of taxes in Illinois. DeJong said that the Illinois Department of Revenue has identified 12,500 companies in the state that paid an average of $151 in corporate-income taxes in Fiscal Year 2006.
According to a "tax fairness" paper prepared by the governor's office, "In 2004, 37 of the Fortune 100 companies doing business in Illinois paid zero dollars in state income taxes, yet averaged $1.2 billion in Illinois sales."
The Illinois Chamber of Commerce bristles at the assertion that business isn't contributing its share. According to the "2006 Illinois State & Local Business Tax Burden Study" co-commissioned by the chamber, businesses paid $29.1 billion in state and local business taxes in Fiscal Year 2006 - 49.8 percent of all state and local taxes. The key distinction is that while the governor's office is only looking at the state corporate-income taxes, the chamber takes a wider view, incorporating property taxes, for example.
The governor's "tax fairness" paper further argues that a gross-receipts tax is a more-equitable way of generating revenue than the current corporate-income tax, which would be phased out over four years under Blagojevich's plan. "Most economists agree that the least disruptive tax on business is one with a broad base and a low rate - with the idea being the bigger the pool of businesses being taxed, the lower the tax rate can be to achieve revenue targets," it states.
The paper is correct that broad-based, low-rate taxes are preferred by economists. (A discussion of how the gross-receipts tax in not good tax policy can be found in the "Good Politics, Bad Policy" section of this article.)
One problem with a gross-receipts tax, though, is that - unlike a corporate-income tax - it doesn't care whether a business is profitable.
"It doesn't matter if you're having a good year or a bad year," said Jeff Nelson, chair of the Illinois Quad City Chamber of Commerce. "You still pay."
Harris Pizza's Mosley stressed that the gross-receipts tax doesn't take into consideration fluctuations in business. An ice storm, for example, could hurt business for weeks, reducing or eliminating profitability, she said. She added that she doesn't foresee closing her Rock Island store because it's a destination, but noted that a gross-receipts tax in Illinois makes Iowa - where Harris has three stores - more attractive.
The profit-insensitive gross-receipts tax highlights a dilemma in corporate taxation: You either tax gross revenues, or you risk getting nothing from a corporate-income tax. "We shouldn't tax people when they haven't made a profit," said state Senator Mike Jacobs. But "corporations are very skilled at making sure they don't have a profit."
Another fundamental political issue with Blagojevich's proposal is that few people buy the argument that it's a tax on businesses at all; it's a consumer tax masquerading as a business tax.
"It's the kind of tax that a person doesn't get a bill for," Jacobs said. "People will pay it, but they won't see themselves paying it. ... That in a nutshell is the fallacy of the governor's argument. Those corporations are not going to pay that tax. They're going to pass it on. ... That's just the way the system is."
"A business will adjust to taxes imposed on it, and those adjustments will increase the tax burden on households; there is nowhere else for it to go," wrote John L. Mikesell in the January 2007 paper "Gross Receipts Taxes in State Government Finances: A Review of Their History & Performance." (The paper, which was prepared for the Council on State Taxation and the Tax Foundation, is available at http://taxfoundation.org/files/bp53.pdf.)
"It's a bad tax precisely because it's a hidden tax, and consumers and workers and investors who bear the economic burden of the tax never see it," said Chris Atkins, a staff attorney with the Tax Foundation. "They don't understand that they're paying the tax in the form of higher prices, or lower wages, or lower returns on their investment. One of the hallmarks of good tax policy is transparency. You want people to understand the tax burden. You want people to understand the true cost of government services. This is particularly important in a democracy, where you want people to make good, informed decisions about the level of government services they receive. So hidden taxes are a big no-no in a sound tax policy."
The political appeal of a gross-receipts tax is that citizens might feel business is footing the bill for the governor's proposals. But that assumes they don't understand the mechanics of business, and the reality that they'll be paying the tax in one form or another.
Beyond that, the business community is particularly angry that Blagojevich argues that small business will be spared from the gross-receipts tax.
That claim is untrue for two reasons, they say. First, small businesses that use suppliers that bring in more than $1 million annually will pay the tax indirectly. "Those businesses that fall into the million-dollar exemption are still buying goods and services from companies who are over the exemption," Atkins said, "and who are going to try to pass that cost onto them in the form of higher prices. ... Even if they don't pay the gross-receipts tax to the state, they're still going to face higher prices for their inputs that they buy."
In that way, the gross-receipts tax is doubly hidden - hidden from consumers and small businesses who are ostensibly not targeted by it.
"When the governor says this gross-receipts tax is not going to be applied to businesses with a million dollars or less in gross receipts, the owners of those businesses know better," Whitley said.
Another key issue is whether a company that brings in a million dollars in a year has graduated to the class of big business. "The million dollars in gross receipts is really our core small business," Nelson said. He added that in general, a small business with 10 employees is going to generate $1 million a year in gross revenue.
Nelson said that a million-dollar business is "your standard downtown-Moline restaurant."
DeJong said that 75 percent of Illinois businesses would be exempt.
Whitley said he didn't know what percentage of Illinois businesses have less than $1 million in gross receipts, but he was quick to point out that "every small-business person in Illinois feels threatened by the governor's gross-receipts-tax proposal, because if they're not a million dollars, they certainly aspire to be a million-dollar business."
Nelson said the Illinois Quad City Chamber is asking members to provide details on how the gross-receipts tax would affect them but didn't yet have the information. "We hope it [the response] is deep enough that it'll be fairly reflective of our membership," he said.
The local chamber does track the number of workers its members employ. According to Tiffany Williams, marketing and communications coordinator for the Illinois Quad City Chamber, 45 percent of chamber members have 10 or more full-time employees.
Nelson said he thinks the gross-receipts tax would hit small businesses the hardest, because they won't be able to avoid them. Large, national-scale companies - those that the tax is meant to target - will likely be able to dodge them, he said. "My guess is those top-50 businesses still aren't going to pay anything under the gross-receipt tax," he said. Instead, they'll sign their contracts in other states.
That gets to a core issue of corporate taxation, Atkins said. "The corporate-income tax is not going to be a viable revenue option for many states in the 21st Century global economy," he said. "Capital is just too mobile for states to be able to truly be able to tax corporations." He added that large companies are "highly sensitive" to corporate-income tax, and will move their business wherever the tax burden is lower.
Whitley said that the gross-receipts tax is bad for the Illinois business climate, sending a message that the state is unfriendly to business.
"Business owners can make choices about where they spend their capital," he said. "When the governor chooses to vilify business ... the message that businesses will begin to receive is, ‘Maybe I should reevaluate my relationship with Illinois.'"
He said they won't necessarily move jobs from the state, but they might choose to invest their capital elsewhere. "He's telling business owners and managers that ‘We really don't like you.'"
Some businesses, Whitley said, might find their way around the taxes. "Hell, I'm just going to create more businesses, more business units, and I'm going to keep all of them under a million dollars," he said. "Business people are thinking already about how they can restructure the way they do business to try to avoid this tax."
But even if that's true, he added, it's still damaging: "Why do you want to force companies to try to restructure?"
Verschoore also raised the concern that the tax could provide an incentive for businesses to stop growing. "What would be the incentive to hire people?" he asked. "What's going to stop them from laying someone off? ... It might backfire on him."
The Price of Career Suicide
The three state legislators from the Quad Cities area were cool to the governor's proposal, but none ruled out voting for a gross-receipts tax if the conditions were right.
Both Representative Boland and Senator Jacobs said they could support a gross-receipts tax if the governor came through with some major capital money for the Quad Cities.
"I will be much more interested in the governor's gross-receipts-tax plan if he's able to deliver $75 million to build a Western Illinois University in Moline," Jacobs said. "If I'm going to be asked to commit career suicide ... I am a strong believer in the need for a public university in the Illinois/Iowa Quad Cities. ... I'm willing to put my neck on the chopping block, and that cost is $75 million."
Jacobs also said that he understands that every legislator has a pet project. "When you increase a budget by $6.1 billion, you ought to be able to accommodate those legislators," he said. "I'm open. I'm ready to negotiate."
Boland was a little less bold in his demands, but he had the same message. "I'm going to hold off final judgment just to see if there might be something that we can get for the Quad Cities region that would be well worth it," he said, citing money for the Western Illinois University campus, Highway 30 in Whiteside County, and the Thomson Correctional Center. "We've got some things that I want to keep in the bag to bargain with, just in case. I would say it's going to be a very hard sell right now, his tax."
He noted that the state outlay in the Quad Cities would need to be significant. "It'd have to be massive," Boland said, throwing out the conservative costs of the three projects: $70 million, $40 million, and $40 million, respectively. "I don't expect that to happen, so I don't expect to support it. ... I'll keep the door open at least a crack."
Representative Verschoore didn't offer any conditions that would lead to his support but noted that lawmakers are presented with comprehensive budget legislation. He said he might end up voting for it as part of that larger package but said, "The way it's proposed right now, I probably will not be voting for it at this particular stage of the game, because everything I'm getting is negative." He said he's gotten at least 25 comments on the proposal, and all have been negative.
One problem, he said, is that citizens have difficulty getting their heads around the gross-receipts tax, because it operates in a different way than traditional corporate- or personal- income taxes, with their myriad deductions. "I don't think they [citizens] totally understand it," Verschoore said. "And I'll be truthful with you: I really don't know if I totally understand it."
Boland said he doesn't see the gross-receipts tax going anywhere this legislative session. "To me, it looks dead in the water," he said.
Yet the Illinois Chamber of Commerce is still treating it as a legitimate threat. "The gross-receipts tax needs to be dead and buried before the General Assembly's going to be able to move on to the next phase," Whitley said. "It's realistically an option at this point because the governor wants it to be. ... As long as the legislature's in town, it's possible the gross-receipts tax could pass."
Good Politics, Bad Policy
If the gross-receipts tax is such a bad idea, what's the alternative?
With Democratic majorities in both the House and Senate, the governor should find legislators receptive to his health-care-, education-, and pension-funding priorities. The challenge is agreeing on a way to pay for them.
"I support the notion that we should provide more money for education," Jacobs said. "I support the notion that we should provide health care for every person in Illinois. And I support the notion that we should pay our bills on time."
"The governor wants universal health care," Boland said. "I want universal health care. ... We just to have to find I think a better way than the gross-receipt tax for getting the money to do that."
And even if the legislature doesn't support the governor's ambitious plans, the state has serious financial problems that aren't going away. Whitley acknowledged that the state needs to generate roughly $2 billion in revenues to cover its exisitng financial obligations.
"We're not saying that the state doesn't need more revenues," Nelson said. "But before you add new programs, you have to take care of what you have in front of you first." That takes money, too.
Both Jacobs and Verschoore said a major tax hike in Illinois is inevitable this year.
But few people want to commit to an alternative funding mechanism. "The [state] chamber has not taken a position on any new revenues for the state at this time," Whitley said. "That's not to say we wouldn't, but we haven't."
"A corporate-income tax or a plain income tax is a fairer method," Jacobs said. "People would understand it better." Both Boland and Verschoore said they might favor expanding gambling to generate new revenue, or closing corporate-income-tax loopholes. Verschoore also said he might support an income- or sales-tax increase.
"There's more than one way to get to heaven," Boland said. "We can make progress toward that [universal health-care] goal. We've been making progress toward it. ... We can come up with some new sources of revenue ... ."
A gross-receipts tax might be more palatable to legislators and business groups if the exemption amount were bumped up. Nelson suggested that a $5-million exemption might make some sense.
But that doesn't address fundamental flaws in a gross-receipts tax.
"Gross-receipts taxes are great politics," said the Tax Foundation's Atkins, because citizens don't receive a bill for them. "They're just bad policy. ... The problem is that they're hidden."
That's just the beginning of the problems with gross-receipts taxes. Atkins said good tax policy is transparent (people know they're paying them), neutral (treating all parties equally), stable, and pro-growth.
Gross-receipts taxes are stable.
But they're not neutral. For one thing, there's the "pyramiding" effect, in which the tax is applied at each stage of production. For example, if a company's product has 10 inputs that are purchased from other corporations, each of the inputs is subject to the gross-receipts tax for the company that sells it. And, of course, the final product is subject to the tax. So the tax is built into the input price at each stage and compounds itself. A product with fewer production stages is taxed less than a product with more production stages.
This, Atkins said, encourages companies to integrate vertically. "The tax system should treat people and businesses the same regardless of how they're organized," he said.
Blagojevich's proposal, with its two tax rates, is "an acknowledgment of the pyramiding nature of the tax," Atkins said. But separate rates undermine the simplicity of the tax. "What was supposed to be a broad-based, low-rate tax now - because of its inherent flaws - has become a two-rate tax," he said. "And it may become a six-rate tax." Washington state's gross-receipts tax now has six rates, he said.
Furthermore, Atkins said, gross-receipts taxes don't qualify as properly broad-based. "The gross-receipts tax, though it seems broad-based, is really almost too broad," because many products gets taxed multiple times through the production process. "You can only get to that point [a fair gross-receipts tax] by allowing deductions for purchases or for costs, which is basically what a corporate-income tax does."
And corporate-income taxes, Atkins noted, are decreasingly effective because of the mobility of capital. Of course, he added, all business taxes are hidden to a certain degree.
That leaves only two good tax-policy options: sales tax and the income tax. Illinois' sales tax doesn't presently apply to services, so expanding that might be an alternative way to capture new revenue. "In a proper sales tax, services should be part of the tax base," Atkins said.
While business organizations typically don't favor tax increases, they generally agree with Atkins that sales and income taxes are the fairest way to increase revenue.
"I'm not saying I favor either one of them," Nelson said. "I'm simply saying: If they're going to look at ways to generate revenue, they need to look at a method that's spread over the largest population base."
Nelson also seconded Atkins' assertion that taxes should be pro-growth, noting that the gross-receipts tax is fundamentally punitive and is likely to drive businesses away and retard growth.
"You can't eat your seed corn and survive," he said.
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Apart from three clamshell foldable phone designs, Xiaomi has also patented four large screen foldable smartphones that unfold into a tablet. All of them look like ‘Galaxy Z Fold 2’ with some minor differences between them.
Earlier, Xiaomi had filed a patent for a foldable smartphone with a quad-camera system that rotates forward for selfies and back for regular photos.
The smartphone maker filed the design patent for an inward bending phone in China and also put 48 images to showcase the handset.
boAt raises over $100 million from Warburg Pincus — analysts expect the headphone brand to double its revenue to ₹10 billion this financial year
OnePlus Band India launch date, price and everything you need to know
WhatsApp will stop working if you do not agree to its new terms and privacy policies
Toyota Fortuner 2021 launched at a starting price of ₹29.98 lakh — here’s all you need to know from looks to specification and features

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4 ways the meeting industry is changing and how hotels can capitalise
Matthew Stubbs is CEO of BookingTek
The meetings and events industry is "thriving", says to Issa Jouaneh, general manager of American Express Meetings & Events. In fact, the industry is set to grow in all regions of the world in 2018, according to the company’s latest research.
But growth doesn't mean the industry will stand still.
Technology and demographics mean that 2018 is likely to be a year of accelerating change, and hotels can adapt to stay ahead and take advantage of the new opportunities. In this article, we investigate four global trends in the meetings market.
1. More digital natives entering the workplace
The media loves stories about millennials entering the workplace, and how they’re changing the way business is done. But 2018 will be one of the first years when Generation Z, or the iGeneration, enters the lower rungs of management – someone who was born in 1995 will be turning 23 years old next year.
As we know, younger people not only feel more comfortable using technology, they increasingly expect it – and sometimes won't engage with companies and organisations at all that haven’t adapted. Younger people like solving problems on their own through technology, and increasingly expect companies to offer them on-demand online tools to get things done.
For example, new research suggests that members of Generation Z actively avoid engaging with people over the phone, if at all possible. According to a survey by LivePerson, almost 75 per cent of Generation Z and millennials said they prefer to text message – as opposed to actually speaking to people.
Hotels that want to tap into this burgeoning class of younger managers and bookers must provide on-demand online means for them to make their bookings. And this not only means online booking for event spaces and meeting rooms, but also for catering, entertainment and technology requirements too.
2. Businesses embracing informal, shorter, and less structured meetings
One of the other potential results of this influx of younger people into the workforce is the rise of shorter, less formal, less structured meetings and events.
Whereas in the past a meeting might have been in people's diaries months ahead of time, the new normal is the last-minute 'break out' session to quickly brainstorm an issue or discuss a topic. This may also be a result of the growth in smaller companies and consultancies, who need to book a meeting quickly for half a day when one of their clients happens to be in town.
This will be music to hotel's ears. They can fill their excess meeting room capacity at short notice. For example, recent research by BookingTek found that the average lead-time for a meeting booking online is now just seven days, which demonstrates why digital is a good way to tap into this market.
But hotels and other venues that want to capitalise on this trend should also consider making their meeting spaces bookable in smaller increments of time, even down to one hour windows.
3. Meetings are now expected to be experiential events
Some people have blamed it on social media, others on the increasingly competitive economy. Either way, meetings are increasingly expected to be experiential events. It’s no longer enough just to collect together a group of clients around the table or in an audience for an event. Instead there has to be photogenic food; attractive flower arrangements; a dedicated massage room; or something else that makes the event stand apart, such as a bubble machine, smoke machine, or AI-powered guest identification.
Companies now want to create events that help them stand apart from their competitors. They also want to use the event to market their brand. They want their customers or clients to share photos of the events with their friends, colleagues and family on social media. In fact, event planners are increasingly saying that they need their events and meetings to be 'Instagrammable'.
“Creating 'an experience' is pivotal. We find that the most successful planners are always looking for ways to create value and meaning for their guests beyond the four walls of the meeting space," said Andrew Flack, Vice President of Marketing & Hilton and eCommerce Americas at Hilton.
This is good news for hotels who should see this trend as an opportunity to generate more revenue by offering their customers exceptional catering, and where possible, providing them with the facilities they need to help their events truly stand out – all preferably bookable online ahead of time.
4. Changing types of events and meetings
If you look at the figures, it also seems that the types of events and meetings are changing. One of the most interesting changes has been the rise, in the UK at least, of the number of events held by charities. Charities are increasingly seeing that fundraising events – from smaller intimate gathering to larger annual galas – are a fantastic way to engage with their supporters and showcase their good work. In fact, according to research by Eventbrite, since 2007, the number of fundraising events has increased by 700 per cent and participant numbers have doubled.
There are other emerging types of gatherings and meetings too. For example, luxury companies – recognising the need to engage more intimately with their valued customers – are holding more high-end private events, and in order to recruit the best talent in a very competitive market, technology companies have taken to holding intensive programming events, called hackathons.
As the type of events and meetings change, hotels should look to stay responsive and reactive; continually adapting and preempting these new requirements. One of the best ways for hotels to do this is to build personalisation, informed by data, into every engagement with their meeting bookers. For example, if a charity arranged an event in another city within the same hotel group with specific catering requirements, this information should be accessible to all other hotels – so that they can pre-empt these bookers’ needs.
The meetings and events business is going from strength to strength. These four trends provide hotels with additional insight to get ahead of their competitors, and show their bookers that they can meet their changing needs.


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Tully’s Wants To Be Greener Than Starbucks
Seattle-based coffee company Tully’s is implementing a handful of environmentally friendly business practices in hopes of pulling customers away from Starbucks, the Seattle Post Intelligencer reports. The company will increase prices to help offset the costs involved.
Tully’s said its stores will use 100 percent certified Fair Trade and organic espresso for drinks, fully compostable paper cups for hot beverages and low E fluorescent lighting. Tully’s also will begin a recycling collection program, which includes coffee grounds, in its stores.
The company, which is in five states, will roll out the programs in about one-third of the stores and transition the rest during the next six months.
To pay for its new programs and to offset the rising cost of milk and coffee, Tully’s is raising its prices 3.5 percent, or just less than 11 cents per drink. In July, Starbucks raised its drink prices by an average of 9 cents.
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Chapter 11 for Linens 'n Things
Retailer files for bankruptcy after big drop in profit
Published 4:00 am, Saturday, May 3, 2008
A Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing by Linens 'n Things is the latest sign that the retail sector is becoming leaner and meaner amid a difficult consumer environment.
On Friday, the bedding and home-furnishing retailer filed a petition in bankruptcy court in Delaware and said it will close 120 underperforming stores, almost a quarter of them in California.
"There's clearly a shakeout going on in the retail industry which will continue through the rest of the year," he said. "I think the weaker players are going to be in difficult shape here."
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The New Jersey company said economic factors such as the housing crisis, tightening credit markets and a downturn in consumer discretionary spending, particularly in the housewares and home furnishings sector, led to a "precipitous decline" in profitability and liquidity.
The factors worsened in the first quarter of 2008, the company said.
Linens 'n Things named Michael Gries of the restructuring firm Conway Del Genio Gries & Co. as chief restructuring officer and interim chief executive officer. Current CEO Robert DiNicola will become executive chairman.
The bankruptcy filing is expected to be a boon to rival home-furnishings retailer Bed, Bath & Beyond Inc.
"The number of stores Linens 'n Things is closing is equivalent to almost 15 percent of Bed, Bath & Beyond's core store base, so there is significant opportunity to gain market share," said William Blair & Co. analyst John Murphy.
Consumers are likely to lose out as well. Brian Riley, senior analyst at the research firm TowerGroup, estimates the filing will freeze about $42 million in consumer gift cards, affecting about 400,000 customers. While consumers may think of the gift cards as cash, the bankruptcy court considers gift cards as debt, and therefore holders are not necessarily going to get paid.
Linens 'n Things, which operates about 589 retail stores in 47 states, joins specialty retailers Sharper Image Corp. and Lillian Vernon Corp. in seeking bankruptcy protection.
Burt Flickinger, managing director of the consulting firm Strategic Resource Group, said this may be just the beginning. "There is going to be a record number of store closings through bankruptcy in the next 150 to 1,500 days, as the retail recession becomes the worst the U.S. has seen in 30 years," he said.
Underperforming stores to close
Linens 'n Things plans to close 27 stores in California, including eight in the Bay Area:
-- Daly City
-- Pleasant Hill
-- San Jose (two)
-- Union City


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Specsavers' Keith Gulliver to lead TSB's internal content arm in transformation role
TSB has appointed a head of marketing transformation, social media and content in former Post Office and Specsavers marketer Keith Gulliver, tasking the exec with leading a new "internal content studio".
Markey said Gulliver's role would be very "future focussed" / TSB
Overseeing social and content strategy, Gulliver will be charged with steering The TSB Studio, which is being launched with the help of in-house specialist Oliver Agency to bolster the brand's internal marketing capabilities.
The move from the bank to invest in a production arm within its walls comes amid big brands such as Unilever pulling some agency work in-house as part of efficiency drives.
Having joined Specsavers as interim head of marketing in 2017, Gulliver will bring with him a unique insight into, and experience of, in-house models. His own career has at points dovetailed with that of his new boss, TSB chief marketing officer Pete Markey.
Both worked together at the Post Office where Gulliver was marketing communications director from 2015 to 2017. They were also colleagues at insurance firm RSA where Gulliver served as head of brand while Markey held the role of chief marketing officer.
Commenting on the new appointment, Markey said Gulliver's role would be "future focussed" and that it would look at how the bank can broaden its marketing operatiions and agency model while shaping its future brand strategy.
He added: “He will also play a key role in building our internal social and content capabilities to reflect the needs and demands of today’s customers. This includes creating our internal content studio which we are very excited about."
Gulliver said he was excited about taking on the brand's strategy and bulking up TSB's in-house expertise so it can be "more agile, and more connected" to better meet the needs of its customers.
Markey took over as TSB’s chief marketing officer at the end of August 2018 when Nigel Gilbert retired from the bank.
Gulliver now joins a team that includes: Emma Stacey, head of marketing and engagement; Jo Newman, who was recently appointed as head of SME marketing; Justin Bell, head of marketing research, effectiveness and planning; Mark Addleman, head of CVM; and Malcolm Hunter, who is director of brand strategy and partnerships.


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Actavis Totowa Recall Digitek, Other Generic Drug. Actavis Totowa, the company that has recalled a variety of drugs this year, including Digitek tablets and fentanyl patches, has attracted the attention of lawmakers on the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Chairman John Dingell (D-Mich.) and Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) have sent a letter to the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) seeking information about the Actavis recalls.
In April 2008, Actavis Totowa recalled Digitek tablets because some of the medication contained twice the active ingredient normally found in Digitek. According to the FDA, the Digitek defect could cause serious and even fatal reactions in users. The FDA deemed the Digitek recall a Class I recall, its most serious recall.
In August, Actavis issued another recall of all generic drugs made at its Little Falls, N.J. facility. The recall was prompted by an inspection at the facility which revealed that operations did not meet the FDA’s standards for good manufacturing practices. The Little Falls factory also produced some of the faulty Digitek recalled earlier.
When the Actavis generic drug recall was announced, the FDA said that products made at the company’s other manufacturing facilities were not suspect. But in a letter to FDA Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach, both Dingell and Stupak questioned that assertion. They note that at least one other Actavis unit, Actavis Atlantic, LLC, had recalled fentanyl pain patches in February 2008 because of a dangerous manufacturing defect.
Their letter asks von Eschenbach to provide their Committee with all information pertaining to all FDA-regulated products
Their letter asks von Eschenbach to provide their Committee with all information pertaining to all FDA-regulated products that Actavis has received approval to sell since January 2003, as well as all drugs Actavis imports to the U.S. regardless of approval date.
The Congressmen want to know if the FDA was deceived by Actavis when it inspected the company’s facilities, or if the agency failed to do adequate inspections.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee is also investigating the FDA’s role in another generic drug scandal involving the Indian drug maker Ranbaxy.
Last month, the FDA banned generic drugs made at to Ranbaxy plants in India. In addition to the import alert, the FDA said it won’t approve any drug applications that list the two suspect Ranbaxy plants as a source of ingredients.
In February, federal agents raided the US corporate offices of Ranbaxy in New Jersey, as well as a manufacturing facility in the state. The raid – and criminal investigation – was prompted, in part, by problems uncovered in FDA inspections a year earlier at the company’s plant in Paonta Sahib, India. That inspection found inconsistencies in the company’s manufacturing processes and maintenance of data.
In July, US prosecutors filed a motion in federal court in Maryland alleging that Ranbaxy forged documents relating to an investigation into the quality of the company’s drugs sold in the this country.
The investigation is also looking into allegations that Ranbaxy made weak or adulterated HIV drugs that were given to thousands of AIDS patients in Africa. Prosecutors have accused the company of concealing violations of good manufacturing practice regulations from FDA.
In a letter written to the FDA this July, Dingell and Stupak wrote that court documents related to the Justice Department probes of Ranbaxy indicated that for 18 months the FDA was aware of problems but “did nothing to remove the suspect products from the market, or even notify the pharmacists in this country”.
Need Legal Help Regarding Actavis Totowa?
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Twitter boost from Theo Paphitis for Welwyn Garden City business
- Credit: Gloria Holmes
The founder of a Welwyn Garden City business has received a boost from retail entrepreneur Theo Paphitis.
Gloria Holmes, owner of GH Virtual Assistant, tweeted Theo about her business during Small Business Sunday and was one of six weekly winners to gain a retweet by Theo to his near half a million Twitter followers.
The weekly initiative, set up by Theo in 2010, now has over 3,000 #SBS winners and supports small businesses in the UK.
Business and retail entrepreneur and self-confessed shopkeeper Theo re‐tweeted Gloria Holmes’s message to his almost 500,000 followers. They are also profiled on the #SBS website (www.theopaphitissbs.com) that is exclusive to all Small Business Sunday winners.
GH Virtual Assistant offers support with business admin, including contacting prospective candidates, following up enquiries, sending emails and creating spreadsheets, plus conducting research and creating engaging content on social media to boost a company's online presence.
Gloria said: "I started my business during the pandemic and am always on the lookout for ways to promote my business. I heard about Theo’s initiative and it is great to have support from Theo and be a part of his community.”
Small business champion Theo, the chairman of Ryman Stationery, Robert Dyas and Boux Avenue, said: “We are thrilled to welcome new #SBS members every week and highlight just how important it is to support our small businesses here in the UK.
"My vision is that everyone who has ever won an #SBS re-tweet from me becomes part of a friendly club; like-minded individuals who can share successes and learnings. The website will also give a valuable profile to the winners chosen and I wish Gloria every success.”
- 1 Concerns raised over ‘grotesque’ 5G mast plans ruining iconic WGC view
- 2 Vandals trash toilet on WGC train
- 3 Homes selling fast at sought-after Welwyn Garden City development
- 4 The latest court results for Welwyn Hatfield and Potters Bar
- 5 Fight to save village Green Belt from development
- 6 Autism wellbeing event coming to Welwyn Garden City
- 7 Village off-licence at risk from plans for rival outlet
- 8 New safety signage installed at Stanborough Lakes
- 9 Nissan rolled in three-vehicle crash on M25
- 10 Six charged and £11,000 seized after drug raids
Anyone looking for a re‐tweet from Theo should tweet him about their business on Sunday between 5pm and 7.30pm and include the hashtag #SBS. Six lucky businesses are re‐tweeted every Monday at 8 PM and then invited to enter their profile on the new website, attend the annual #SBS networking event and take advantage of the networking opportunities.


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Abernathy MacGregor Group and Hill+Knowlton Strategies are behind the media push for Amsterdam-based D.E. Master Blenders 1753's deal to merge its coffee business with brands of Mondelez Internationalto create a pure play company with $7B in global revenues.
Master Blenders ownsDouwe Egberts, L’OR, Pilão and Senseo, while Mondelez markets Gevalia,Jacobs, Carte Noire, Kenco, Tassimo and Millicano.
It will pay $5B to Mondelez, which will control a 49 percent in the renamed Jacobs Douwe Egberts company headquartered in the Netherlands. Mondelez was spun off from Kraft in 2012.
The new venture is designed to better compete with leader Nestle in the $80B global coffee market, where prices are soaring due to record droughts and widespread plant disease.
AbMac, which is owned by Havas, handles PR for the deal in the US.WPP’s H+K works the European beat.


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(NEW YORK) — Chevrolet is saying bye-bye to the Bolt.
The Chevy Bolt hatchback, as well as its crossover Bolt EUV sibling, will cease production this year, General Motors has confirmed to ABC News.
The Bolt starts at just under $27,000 before federal and state electric vehicle incentives, making it the cheapest way to get into a new EV in the United States.
In a statement, a Chevy spokesperson called the Bolt a “huge technical achievement,” but went on to say that “as construction continues at the Orion Township, Mich., assembly plant in preparation for battery electric truck production beginning in 2024, Chevrolet confirmed Bolt EV and EUV production will end late this year.”
“When the Bolt goes out of production, the American market will have lost its last affordable EV,” said Ed Niedermeyer, an auto industry analyst. The next cheapest electric car on sale is the Nissan Leaf S, which has an EPA-estimated range of 149 miles on a charge. That’s more than 100 miles short of the Bolt’s 259-mile range.
Chad Kirchner, editor-in-chief of EV Pulse, said GM’s decision to ax the Bolt shouldn’t come as a shock.
“It’s not surprising at all,” he said.
In 2021, the Bolt was the subject of multiple recalls over its battery, made by LG Chem. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, rare manufacturing defects made during the production of those batteries “may pose a risk of fire when charged to full, or very close to full, capacity.” GM issued a statement at the time advising Bolt owners to park their cars outside, and at least 50 feet from other vehicles. The company said at the time it would replace the battery modules. NHTSA says about half of the affected cars have had that replacement done.
The Bolt was also developed before GM rolled out its “Ultium” platform – an electric vehicle architecture that underpins everything from GMC’s Hummer EV pickup truck to a midsize Cadillac SUV called the Lyriq.
The Bolt was launched for the 2017 model year. While it wasn’t GM’s first electric effort, it was the company’s first EV sold in all 50 states. And it sold well – the Bolt was the best selling non-Tesla EV in the last two quarters of 2022.
The company says more affordable Ultium-based Chevy EVs are going to launch soon, including an electric Equinox SUV that’s expected to start around $30,000. Even still, Niedermeyer says price remains a hurdle for wide-scale EV adoption.
“Weak profits in EVs and a lack of regulatory support for lower price points will continue to place the emphasis on expensive premium EVs,” said Niedermeyer. “Only by emphasizing that EVs are best suited to the weekday driving that starts and ends at home, and by aligning incentives for cars and chargers with the opportunity that use case presents, will truly affordable EVs become a widespread phenomenon.”
In the meantime, Kirchner said until the Equinox goes on sale, GM could be leaving market share on the table in the growing EV market.
“I think they’re leaving a fairly big hole in the affordability segment,” he said, adding, “I think that EVs are being priced out of a certain customer’s price range, and that is the customer that could benefit the most from an EV.”
Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.


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Spark New Zealand revenue down, remains focused on growth strategy
FYI, this story is more than a year old
Spark New Zealand has released its half-year results for the FY15 financial year, and says the results show the company is continuing to deliver on the goals set out in its long-term growth strategy.
Earnings before interest, tax expense, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) from continuing operations were down 3.5%.
This includes the impact of non-recurring rebrand costs and the higher reorganisation costs versus the prior year.
Taking these items into account, operating earnings were broadly flat, says Spark.
Spark’s net earnings from continuing operations after tax for H1 FY15 were $147 million, unchanged from H1 FY14.
Operating revenues from continuing operations declined 2.7% to $1,797 million.
Spark says this is largely as a result of the ongoing and historical decline in consumer use of legacy fixed and voice products.
IT services revenue rose 6.9%, underpinned by the ongoing repositioning of Spark Digital (formerly Gen-i) and investments in Cloud computing, through Revera and Appserv, and in data centres, including new and expanded facilities.
The tight management of operating costs remained, with expenses from continuing operations reducing 2.4% to $1,361 million, reflecting the ongoing flow-through benefits from the Turnaround Programme.
Mark Verbiest, Spark New Zealand chairman, says, “More than two years ago, we made the decision to build our business around a digital services future inspired by the needs of our customers in a rapidly changing world.
“At the time, we outlined a two-phase approach: first, resetting the business by stabilising revenue and margins and reducing costs; and subsequently, moving to create value by driving market revenue and margin growth, with continuing improvement in unit costs.”
“The first half of the 2015 financial year saw Spark New Zealand remaining on-plan as we near the end of this first phase of repositioning.
“The decline in core retail product revenues evident in recent reporting periods, due to lower demand for legacy and fixed voice services and sharp declines in broadband pricing, showed further signs of moderating, while underlying net earnings from operations were flat compared with the corresponding period in the previous financial year,” says Verbiest.
Simon Moutter, Spark New Zealand managing director says, “There has been sustained growth in good quality mobile connections, up another 108,000 in the period since 30 June 2014, as Spark New Zealand continues to close the gap on the competition.
“Total mobile revenues grew by 2.4% however the market remains very competitive, particularly in the business segment where revenues have actually declined on the back of continuing price reductions and data bundle expansion.
“Our performance in the broadband market also reflected the competitiveness of the market, with Spark New Zealand’s share of connections declining slightly.
“That said, gains were made in broadband revenue and profitability as we weighted our efforts toward higher-value customers through the introduction of higher-end products and the provision of valued broadband services for Spark New Zealand customers, such as Lightbox.”
Moutter says the rebrand from Telecom to Spark New Zealand in August last year is already making a difference to online and store traffic, to increased customer preference and consideration and to Spark's market share momentum.
He says there has been an emphasis on delivering a range of additional services that consumer’s value such as Spotify, Lightbox, nationwide WiFi, Socialiser and others that help the Spark New Zealand brand to differentiate itself.
“This has been supported by our multi-brand strategy, which has seen Skinny mobile and Bigpipe broadband improve their market presence," says Moutter.
He says business customers have benefited from the ongoing repositioning into Cloud computing and data centres, Spark's network nationwide fibre services, the optical transport network, and 4G mobile network.
Moutter says, “Our focus during the second half of the financial year will be on maintaining intensity of execution, reflecting our determination to build on the firm foundation that is setting up the company for growth.
“In August 2014 we provided guidance of low single digit growth in EBITDA and low single digit decline in revenue. However, it is still uncertain as to the date the new Chorus input charges will take effect, with the possibility of backdating.
“Subject to a final Commerce Commission decision on backdating, we remain on track for this guidance with, as we saw in the 2014 financial year, more of the benefits of our actions expected to show through in the second half.
“Our overall confidence around continuing solid market performance and cash generation has enabled the directors to declare a half-year dividend of 9 cents per share.
“More than a million New Zealanders have an ownership stake in Spark New Zealand, either directly as shareholders or indirectly through KiwiSaver investments.
"And with an ever-growing dependence on high-quality connectivity and services for consumers and businesses alike, Spark New Zealand has an important role to play in our country’s future progress. That’s a responsibility that helps drive our ambitions.”


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When it comes to marketing at Coca-Cola relevance and consistency are the secret recipe for success according to VP sparkling brands Wendy Clark.
Addressing an audience at Cannes Lions today (24 June), Clark said that in order to stay fresh as a 123 year-old brand the two parts need to come together with scale to keep engaging Coca-Cola’s target audience.
“It’s actually one of our core strengths,” she said. “Consistency, times relevance, done at scale and done over time - those four things have been at the core of what Coke has done…No brand manager comes to Coke and says I’ll change the logo, it just doesn’t happen.”
To stay relevant. the brand looks to the passion points that appeal to teenagers and young adults and wraps it marketing around those elements to avoid becoming a “grandad brand”.
“There’s not a set of levers that’s available to you so what you have to do by definition is make it so relevant for the next generation that it can maintain its place in the marketplace, because if you don’t you are dangerously close to becoming a dad’s brand, your grandfathers brand .
“The number one and two passion points for teens are sports and music, which is why Coke is all over sports and music. So it’s about where you put that really consistent brand. When you get the relevance right, the consistency pays off in spades because it becomes iconic instead of old. And iconic can be cool, old is not cool.”
Clarke also urged marketers and brands to be brave but authentic in their marketing campaigns or risk losing out to the competition.


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In the era of left-wing companies using their brands to influence politics, Patagonia is one of the leaders. The outdoor clothing giant has particular contempt for President Donald Trump and has picked battles with him to drive sales and to create a loyal customer base of deranged Democrats.
Their latest advertising campaign / far-left anti-Trump political activism was launched in response to President Trump returning millions of acres of land to western states from whom Barack Obama stole them with the stroke of his authoritarian pen.
From The Washington Times:
Republicans in the White House and on Capitol Hill declared war on Patagonia this week after the outdoor clothing giant sued President Trump and told its customers the commander-in-chief “stole your land” by reducing two highly controversial national monuments in Utah.
Powerful Republicans in Congress sent out emails Friday taking direct aim at Patagonia and pushing back hard against its claims that public land had been stolen from American citizens, marking the latest instance of a high-profile company going toe-to-toe with the GOP in a political battle.
Since the announcement, Patagonia’s website has featured the declaration, “The President Stole Your Land,” along with a link to how customers can “fight back” against the administration.
I don’t know about you, but I certainly would never buy anything from these filthy hippies.


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The Business of Books
With the inauguration of the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature this week Kipp skim through the world of books.
March 10, 2011 9:33 by shafeer
How could Kipp bring you a business of books without having at least one slide on a company that revolutionized the way books were sold? Amazon, was started by Jeff Bezos, who called his website “Earth’s Biggest Book Store.” Though in its first six months it sold only half a million dollars worth of book, by 1996 and 1997 it was reporting sales of $15.7 million and a more impressive $147.8 million shortly after. The website which sells not only books, but clothes, electronics, furniture and whole lot of other stuff, is still one of the primary seller of books both traditional and e-books, especially since the launch of the Kindle.
In pictures: STEP Conference 2015
Top 7 tips to surviving Gitex Shopper
Abu Dhabi's TDIC delays fundraising plans for huge shopping mall
The online industry: Your life, on screen
Lack of sleep is affecting you more than you think


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Despite being competitors, common business interests often prevail.
Developing a new model entirely from scratch is an expensive thing. We're talking hundreds of millions of dollars expensive. Whenever an automaker sets out to do so, it often considers looking for a partner to share the investment. There's always the possibility of a win-win scenario. So when Mercedes first began to develop its current generation of front-wheel-drive models, specifically the A- and CLA-Class, it called a few competitors to see if any were interested in doing business.
Mercedes CEO Dieter Zetsche recently admitted that "when we were planning the current generation of FWD vehicles we were entertaining a number of discussions with BMW, with Fiat, with VW to check whether it makes sense to do something together." In the end, however, Mercedes opted to sign the dotted line with Renault-Nissan. In addition to the two aforementioned Mercedes models, the co-developed FWD platform will also underpin the upcoming entry-level Infiniti Q30. What else is being planned with this platform is still a bit of a mystery, but Mercedes and Renault-Nissan have also teamed up to work on future engine development.


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CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Montgomery County officials will begin checking to make sure local businesses have posted the necessary signage requiring customers to wear masks.
According to a release, law enforcement agencies and building inspection departments for the county and City of Clarksville will begin stressing that businesses must post signs requiring the public to wear face coverings.
Under the county’s mask mandate, businesses are required to post signs at their entrances.
“We are seeing a tremendous spike in COVID-19 cases in our community, and it seems daily that we set a new case record,” Montgomery County Mayor Jim Durrett said. “My recent order requiring mask wearing also requires businesses to have a sign placed on their door requiring masks. Yet, I see all over the place where this is not the case. We need businesses to follow through and help us with this essential public health requirement.”
Sheriff John Fuson said if a business does not have a sign, they will provide one for them. If necessary, Fuson said they will give the business a warning and also document which businesses have signs and which ones do not.
“We will approach this from an educational standpoint but when called for, give a proper warning. We will also document which businesses we encountered and whether or not they had a sign posted so that we can take the proper action if we return to the business," Fuson said.
“People and businesses need to understand that the County Mayor’s legal order on masks and signs is more than a suggestion,” Clarksville Mayor Joe Pitts said. “This order has the weight of law, and all our departments will be stressing that we require and expect compliance in the marketplace.”


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According to the latest Scottish Retail Consortium figures, in June 2014 total Scottish sales decreased by 1.1% compared with June 2013, when they had increased by 2.8%.
Like-for-like sales decreased by 2.6% on last June, when they had increased by 0.3%.
Taking account of shop price deflation, June's total sales were up 0.7% in real terms, the highest real term growth this year, excluding January and Easter.
The figures released by the Scottish Retail Consortium and KPMG, show that food sales were down 1.4% on a total basis and by 3.3% on a like-for-like basis.
Meanwhile, total non-food sales decreased by 0.8% with like-for-like sales dropping 2% compared to June last year.
Although the figures represent a slight improvement on May, the SRC said they rounded off a weak second quarter.
SRC head of policy and external affairs David Martin said: "Warmer weather at the start of the month helped to get shoppers out, but as the weather cooled down so did sales.
"It is clear that cash conscious consumers have grown comfortable with value, especially on food, and continue to benefit from competitive pricing driven by stiff competition between the major grocery retailers. The continued decline in like-for-like food sales in June is suggestive that last month wasn't any different.
"Despite a slight set back in consumer confidence in June, overall consumer confidence has rebounded significantly throughout 2014 and where consumers have made savings, they now have the confidence to loosen their belts and increase spending on those discretionary non-food items.
"Fashion continues to benefit from this confidence, with clothing and footwear the best performing category in June and the only category to report positive total sales growth now for two consecutive months."


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Image Credit: KCL Cattle Company Ltd.
After more than a year of negotiations, Canada, the U.S. and Mexico have reached an agreement on NAFTA. The new, proposed agreement is called the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement (USMCA).
The agreement is good news for Canadian beef producers, as it preserves the duty-free trade in live cattle and beef, which has benefited all three partners under NAFTA. The existing rules of origin and the mechanisms for fair dispute settlement also remain intact.
Brian Innes, president of the Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance (CAFTA) issued a statement on the new agreement: “We welcome an agreement to renew NAFTA. Free and fair trade has made our agri-food exporters globally competitive. We’re very pleased that free and fair trade of North American agri-food products will continue.”
The U.S. is Canada’s largest trade partner for beef and live cattle, and the new agreement ensures that will continue. “USMCA gives the Canadian beef industry critically important ongoing access to our largest markets: U.S. and Mexico,” said Bryan Walton, ACFA’s president and CEO. “This is an integrated industry here in Canada and free trade in North America benefits producers in all three countries.”
Why diversification still matters
The uncertainty over NAFTA has been trying for Canada’s beef producers, and it has highlighted the need for Canada to expand its global reach and forge new trading partnerships.
Trade with Asia recently received a boost with the signing of the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). Speedy ratification of this deal is of the essence for Canadian producers to ensure Canada is on the ground floor when it comes to securing lower tariffs with other partners.
Europe is another market that provides export opportunities to Canadian beef producers. The Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) is designed to encourage free trade between Canada and Europe, although Canada doesn’t currently fill its quota for beef exports because there are not enough Canadian packing plants qualified to send beef to Europe.
“The most important thing that we got out of reaching this USMCA agreement is we’ve removed most of the cloud of uncertainty that was hanging over the Canadian economy and discouraging investors from moving forward,” said John Weekes, former chief negotiator for NAFTA.
The pursuit of an ambitious international trade agenda is one of the key tenets of Canada’s National Beef Strategy, which is designed to ensure that Canada’s beef producers are positioned to weather challenges and take advantage of opportunities. You can read more about that in ‘4 reasons the National Beef Strategy is important to Canada’.


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Domino’s Pizza will start giving customers loyalty points even when they order pizzas from somewhere other than a Domino’s.
The company’s new Points for Pies program starts Saturday and uses artificial intelligence to award points to customers who order anything resembling a pizza, even if it’s from one of the chain’s rivals, one of the thousands of local pizza restaurants or even a frozen pie.
The offer will run through April 28, when members of Domino’s loyalty program will be able to earn free pizzas even if they don’t order a single pie from the chain itself.
“We think it’s a risk worth taking,” Domino’s Chief Brand Officer Art D’Elia said in an interview. “We really believe that no one loves pizza more than we do. We’re willing to do crazy things like this that our competition isn’t willing to do.”
Points for Pies uses artificial intelligence to determine whether someone does in fact have a pizza. Customers download the company’s app and sign up for the loyalty program—existing members’ apps will be refreshed Saturday.
Using the app, customers scan the pizza they’ve just received and get points toward a free pizza.
Domino’s loyalty program enables members to earn a medium two-topping pizza once they get 60 points. “They can earn all of those 60 points without having to purchase a Domino’s,” D’Elia said. “We treat all our pizza equally.”
“You can go get a DiGiorno and take a picture and get points. You can get a Giordano’s pizza and take a picture and get points. We really mean this.”
Domino’s has generated attention over the years by using technology in new and unique ways. It will deliver pizzas to parks and stadiums, for instance. And last year it started paving potholes in communities around the country as part of its Paving for Pizza program. In prior years the company started letting customers order pizzas via TVs, smartwatches and other devices.
In this instance, Domino’s is highlighting its Piece of the Pie Rewards program, not to mention local pizza concepts.
The company shot an advertisement for the program from Antico Pizza in Atlanta, a family-owned concept that was a favorite of Domino’s CEO Ritch Allison when he lived in the city before he came to work for the Ann Arbor, Mich.-based chain. Allison is featured in the ad.
The program is limited. The company expects to give away 100 million points on Super Bowl weekend, a huge day for pizza delivery when the company typically sells 2 million pizzas and 4 million chicken wings. It typically sells 40% more pizzas on Super Bowl Sunday than a typical Sunday.
It will also award as much as 100 million points in the 12 weeks afterward.
For the company, the promotion is being designed to get customers to sign up for the loyalty program and download the app—which Domino’s has used to help generate consistently strong sales growth in recent years.
The promotion has come as chains have grown bolder in their marketing efforts. Burger King last month generated significant buzz by offering customers 1-cent Whoppers if they ordered them through the app from a McDonald’s.
This one goes a step further by actually encouraging customers to eat pizza no matter where it’s from. “We hope that people take full advantage,” D’Elia said. “We want consumers to engage in the brand and category.”
To be sure, Domino’s benefits the most because ultimately the customers have to go to one of the chain’s locations to redeem their free pizza. Domino’s has more than 15,000 locations globally.
“When they come redeem their points, they can sample our product,” D’Elia said. “This is a great way to get people to come back.”
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OVB24 is a digital-only local news publisher operating a group of local news portals in southern Germany. In September 2017, we started our new project, rosenheimsbeste.de, to reinvent the concept of yellow pages and guides for the local market by leveraging social networking mechanics.
Our rosenheimsbeste.de provides not only listings, but also rankings of businesses for a whole variety of categories. The ranking is solely determined by our users with a Facebook “Like” voting mechanic on rosenheimsbeste.de.
The site earned instant credibility and very fast audience growth, in turn enabling us to successfully upsell subscription premium entries, even though they have no influence on the ranking.
As a digital local news publisher, we have learned several lessons through the process of creating a modern local guide that everyone in and around the city knows and talks about:
Create true audience value by giving listings credibility through a simple way of user voting.
Use a corresponding news portal to reach people in and around the city to promote the listings and motivate people to vote.
Leverage social media accounts on Facebook and Instagram to promote listings in hope of creating viral effects in terms of voting appeals from businesses and users personally involved in those businesses.
Create and grow a new audience on the Web site to be attractive enough for the business owners to pay for premium entries.
Create a new profit centre with significant long-term contribution to your bottom line.
Create value for the news portal and social media accounts by distributing relevant content for the users as a side effect.
Every week we pushed one list through promotion on the corresponding Facebook and Instagram accounts and on the news portal. As the Facebook posts created lots of engagement, the post reach was quite high. Also, every week we saw businesses and individuals posting on Facebook asking their friends and fans to vote for them.
A few months after launching the site, we saw the audience was growing by each listing we added. Once the site was known within the city, more businesses became interested in listing and getting a premium entry.
By steadily adding new listings and receiving additional votes, the quality of this site will further increase over time, creating evermore value for advertisers and audiences alike in a virtuous cycle. Thus, we are optimistic about the long-term potential of the subscription-based, premium-entry business model. We even get customer requests for premium entries before the listing is promoted. We are on track to creating a new profit centre with significant long-term contribution to our bottom line.
What we have also seen is that rosenheimsbeste.de is a perfect fit for our corresponding news portal and social accounts, as we are able to leverage reach to create a truly valuable local service.


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Adygei cheese to be sold in Turkey, Azerbaijan and the UAE. Krasnogvardeysk milk factory will start to supply its brand products to these countries before the end of this year. Now the factory is negotiating adygei cheese export to the USA as well.
Factory’s cheese is produced using traditional technologies.
Six years ago the adygei cheese manufacturer entered German market. Since then the factory has exported 152 tn of cheese, including 26 tn in 2017. Product range includes both fresh and smoked cheeses. They are sold not only in Russian goods shops, but in REWE supermarket chain as well. This year the volume of export supplies to Germany is to increase to 100 tn of cheese.
According to the Federal Custom Service of Russia, trade between the two countries grew by 30% to $5.5 bn in 2017. Relations have seen a marked progress in finance, agriculture...
According to the Federal Custom Service of Russia, in 2017 Russia-Japan trade turnover has amounted to $18.261 bn, while in the first half of 2018 it has stood at $10.053 bn.
For the first eight months of 2018 Lipetsk Region’s Trade Turnover has reached $3965.3 mln, it is a 26.7% increase compared to the same period of the previous year.
About the models of business development in another country and professional secrets is told by a practicing expert on work in international markets Anna Trubetskaya


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Doorstep delivery of vegetables is a boon for busy professionals. More so if delivery is timely and without wilted surprises.
Start-up Vegebasket, a Jamshedpur-based social enterprise under ASBS Foods and Spices, launched by state food minister Saryu Roy on Sunday at a city hotel here, promises farm-fresh vegetables procured directly from Patamda farmers.
Started by Jamshedpur entrepreneurs Sanjeev Kumar Singh, Brajesh Kumar and Arundhati Ghosh with an investment of Rs 15 lakh, Vegebasket also aims to educate farmers about organic farming and help them increase their profit without middlemen. A lot like M’ma Farm, the brainchild of agro-entrepreneur and founder Santosh Sharma, here, the focus is not on vegetables and milk, but only vegetables for now.
Also, unlike M’ma farm, which grows its own organic vegetables and sends messages to customers on what’s available, Vegebasket procures vegetables from farmers, which are not organic right now, and lists the stock on its website.
The trio of Singh, Kumar and Ghosh, however, have introduced innovative conveniences for customers.
Customers can book vegetables through the website www.vegebasket.co.in anytime between 8am and 5pm. More conveniently, customers can give a missed call to 9667623377 for a call back from the company and place their order over phone in the same time slot. Delivery will take 24 hours but customers can choose their time slots by calling up. One can pay online or choose Paytm or cash on delivery (COD) options.
At present, the Vegebasket website has 28 variety of vegetables grown by 50 farmers of Patamda with whom the firm has tied up.
The website will also deliver fruits but those will take three to five days as fruits aren’t locally grown.
“We are also building an app,” said Singh. “We are encouraging our farmer partners to reduce pesticides from Day One. We will go completely organic in two years.”
He added their main aim was helping farmers get buyers conveniently. “These farmers come to Jamshedpur thrice a week but get peanuts for their produce. The bulk of their profits is grabbed by middlemen. We are eliminating that so that farmers and customers get a better deal.”
Contacted, a Patamda farmer who has tied up with Vegebasket, Luvkishore Mahto said he hoped the venture would do well as it had the potential to change their lives.
Roy appreciated the start-up. “Farmers produce food but they eat less. They need better earning opportunities so that they and their children aren’t malnourished,” he said.


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Denny’s Corp. sold nine more restaurants to franchisees in the fourth quarter ended Dec.25 and “substantially completed its refranchising strategy,” company CEO John Miller said Tuesday.
For the full year, the 1,703-unit Spartanburg, S.C.-based family-dining brand sold 105 restaurants to franchisees, the company said in releasing fourth-quarter earnings. The company had earlier targeted the refranchising of between 115 and 125 restaurants for the entire program, and it has sold 113 of those.
“As we look ahead, we will continue our efforts to upgrade the quality of our real estate portfolio and execute on our commitment of being the world's largest, most admired, and beloved family of local restaurants,” Miller said in a statement.
“This focus, along with the substantial completion of our refranchising strategy, should result in a higher quality, more asset-light business model and the sustainable creation of additional stakeholder value in the coming years,” Miller said.
As announced in January, Denny’s domestic systemwide same-store sales increased 1.7% in the fourth quarter, including a 0.5% increase at company restaurants and a 1.8% increase at domestic franchised restaurants.
For the fourth quarter, Denny’s said net income rose to $117.4 million, or $1.90 a share, from $43.7 million, or 67 cents a share, in the same period last year. With the refranchising, revenues were $541.4 million in the quarter, compared to $630.2 million in the prior-year period.
Denny’s Corp. last week promoted Mark Wolfinger, formerly chief financial officer, to president of the brand, assuming some of CEO John Miller’s duties.
Other leadership changes included naming Robert Verostek as chief financial officer, to succeed Wolfinger, and John Dillon as executive vice president and chief brand officer.
As of Dec. 25, Denny’s had 1,703 franchised, licensed and company family-dining restaurants around the world, including 144 abroad.
Contact Ron Ruggless at [email protected]
Follow him on Twitter: @RonRuggless


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NEW DELHI: SRS Ltd will invest up to Rs 900 crore in the next two years to expand retail network of its various consumer centric businesses such as hospitality, cinema, jewellery and real estate.
"We will invest between Rs 700-900 crore in the next two years to expand retail network of our various businesses. We are also foraying into the pharmacy business with the launch of our first store 'SRS Pharmacy' next week," SRS Ltd Group President and Chief Strategy Officer Tinku Singh told PTI.
The firm plans to open 30 SRS Pharmacy stores this fiscal.
"Our plan it to open 100 pharmacy stores every year. We have all the approval in place. We are testing the waters. We will also launch online pharmacy portal next month," SRS E-retail Ltd Managing Director Pratik Jindal said.
Singh added that the company has drawn an aggressive expansion plan to increase its footprints across business verticals.
"We will fund up to Rs 900 crore investment through a mix of internal accruals and debt," he added.
SRS Ltd, which reported a turnover of Rs 3,824.84 crore in the previous fiscal, has presence across various sectors such as retail, hospitality, real estate, cinemas and jewellery.
In the same time period, the express delivery model, with under 15 minute delivery promise and near perfect fulfilment rates has been getting a lot of traction with customers and expanding rapidly, the company said in the email.
In China, homegrown stores like Taobao, Tmall and JD.com have an unshakable dominance in online retail. But now, the only other billion-people-plus opportunity open to American capital is also slipping away from its grasp.


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The U.S. Census Bureau’s durable goods orders fell 0.1% in July, according to the Commerce Department. Durable goods orders is a main economic indicator measuring current industrial activity.
The print is another way to look at the supply chain as goods orders provide insight into earnings in industries such as machinery, technology manufacturing and transportation. Durable goods numbers that are high indicates an economy on the upswing while a low number indicates a downward trajectory.
Hit by supply constraints, new orders for products meant to last at least three years decreased to a seasonally-adjusted $257.2 billion in July as compared with June. Over the past year, durable goods have risen every month except for April and July 2021.
While falling, the print was stronger than expected as consensus was -0.5%. The monthly average for 2021 has been +1.3%. Transportation orders brought the number down, while Non-Defense, ex-Aircraft orders — a well-known proxy for “normal” business spending, like office space and computers, was unchanged from the previous month. This marks the first non-improvement in business spending since the negative number registered in February.
As durable goods are expensive items that last three years or more, they are infrequent purchases, and examples include machinery and equipment, such as computer equipment, industrial machinery, and raw steel, as well as more expensive items, such as steam shovels and tanks. A significant component of durable goods are commercial planes, which not surprisingly, are not seeing a surge in new orders.


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Apple is close to gaining clearance to open its first retail store locations in India, according to a source familiar with the matter speaking with Bloomberg. Apple will be re-submitting its retail presence application to the Indian government due to a format problem, but Bloomberg‘s source said that India plans to push the application through without issue.
Due to the fact that Apple is „a provider of cutting-edge technology,“ the Cupertino-based company will be exempt from a rule set by the Indian government that states any foreign businesses selling a single brand must acquire 30 percent of its product’s manufacturing inputs locally. Since Apple manufactures most of its products in China, the stipulation has been an issue for the company in trying to make headway into the Indian retail market.
„Most of the growth in India will come from new users coming into the Apple ecosystem, unlike in the West where growth is mainly from existing users upgrading,“ said Tarun Pathak, a senior analyst at Counterpoint Technology Market Research, based near New Delhi. “You can expect the stores to focus mostly on iPhones.”
Due to the high-end pricing of the iPhone, Apple has remained a small share of the smartphone market within India for the past few years. With 2 percent of the market, Apple is behind companies like Samsung (26 percent), Intex (10 percent), and Lenovo (9 percent) in terms of smartphone sales.
Last summer, Apple announced the Authorized Mobility Resellers program in India, which was reported to be focused on opening 500 retail store locations across 12 cities in India. With such a small share of the country’s 220 million smartphone users, it seems Apple is finally getting closer to increasing its foothold in the country.Прочетете повече
Apple is finally correcting an issue with Siri that it has known about since at least 2011. The problem has appeared when users ask the virtual assistant to show nearby facilities that offer abortion services. For years, the results have directed people toward adoption centers, which is kind of the opposite of what they were […]
Apple’s enterprise mobility head for the India region has quit to set up a new Indian smartphone company, selling Android devices. Sharad Mehrotra joined Apple in October 2007, the year that Apple launched the iPhone. Since then he has worked to build Apple’s brand in India, which the company has been particularly keen on pushing […]
As it looks to find a better foothold in the Indian smartphone market, Apple today reduced the price of the bestselling iPhone 5s in the country by nearly half of what it sold for in September (via CNET).
Officially, the 2013 iPhone has been reduced from 44,500 Rupees ($665) to 24,999 Rupees ($370) in an effort by Apple to make the two-year-old smartphone more attractive to users in India, where smartphone competition is normally priced below $300.
India is currently the third biggest smartphone market in the world, following China and the United States. Although Apple has a large presence in the latter two countries, it currently doesn’t even crack the top five list of smartphone manufacturers in India.
„To drive volume [in India], Apple will need to keep focus on older iPhone generations,“ IDC’s Kiranjeet Kaur said, explaining that older generations will cater to the country’s large midrange smartphone market. Kaur added that there’s a „limited“ amount of penetration the company can achieve by exclusively selling in the premium price segment.
Besides the premium pricing of the company’s products, multiple factors have prevented Apple from having the kind of success it experiences in some other regions, including its strict real estate investment laws barring Apple from building traditional brick-and-mortar stores in the country. High import taxes applied to products not manufactured in the country’s borders also hinders Apple’s growth, and allows the market leader Samsung to flourish due to its India-based smartphone manufacturing plants.Прочетете повече
Tim Cook accepted the Ripple of Hope Award in New York last night. During his speech at the the benefit for the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights, the Apple CEO touched on a number of world issues, from protections for the LGBT community, to the Syrian refugee criss. Cook also cited […]
Donald Trump has said that his “real dream” is for Apple, along with other U.S. companies, to bring their manufacturing back to the United States. Trump made the comments during an interview to promote his new book, Crippled America. “We think of Apple as an American company,” Trump said. “But they make their product in […]
Apple has implemented a carrier billing feature that lets Russian customers purchase iTunes content like apps, movies, music, and books using a phone number, reports CNBC. Purchases made with a phone number linked to an iTunes account are then added to a user’s monthly cellular telephone bill without the need for a credit card, debit card, or iTunes gift card.
For its new mobile payment initiative, Apple has teamed up with Beeline, the third largest wireless operator in Russia. Beeline’s Russian site says the mobile billing feature is now available to Beeline customers in the country, with the payments powered by San Francisco-based company Boku.
Apple’s partnership with Beeline comes a month after it established a similar partnership with German carrier O2. As of late October, O2 customers are also able to link a phone number to their iTunes accounts to purchase iTunes content that’s added to a monthly cellular phone bill.
According to CNBC, Apple has started expanding into carrier billing due to lower carrier rates. While carriers have charged as much as 10 to 30 percent to handle transactions in the past, Apple has secured a deal with better rates „in the single digits.“
Apple’s carrier billing partner Boku has partnered with dozens of carriers around the globe, so it’s likely Apple will continue to expand its carrier billing initiative to more countries in the future. Boku works with all of the major carriers in the United States and has established partnerships in countries like Germany, France, Korea, the UK, and more.Прочетете повече


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It has come to light that the keyless entry and engine start/stop systems of cars have caused many deaths and injuries in the United States. This feature, which boosts driver convenience by several notches, was first introduced by Mercedes Benz in 1998. The feature totally eliminates the use of keys. The feature has now trickled down to even some of the budget cars.
As per a recent report, this feature has caused as many as 28 deaths and 45 injuries in the US since 2006. These casualties have been caused by the carbon monoxide gas emitted by cars with the keyless ignition system. Many victims have suffered brain damage due to the harmful effects of poisonous gasses. The aforementioned report goes on to mention that some owners forgot to turn off the engine after parking the cars, equipped with keyless systems, in closed spaces. Since most modern cars are pretty silent at idle, the owners didn’t realize that their car engines are running. On being left running over elongated periods of time, the exhaust fumes containing carbon monoxide filled the vicinity. This resulted in deaths and injuries.
In 2011, the Society of Automotive Engineers even issued recommendations to car manufacturers to install audible or visual alerts that can remind the drivers to turn off the car engine on leaving the vehicle. A new set of laws is expected to be put into force as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has proposed a new regulation that would require the vehicles to warn the drivers to switch off the engine before leaving the car. While this would be a welcome move, manufacturers could oppose it as it would cost them more than $ 5,00,000 a year to offer the proposed safety alarm. Some manufacturers, however, have already installed a system that turns off the engine in case the car has been idling over a sufficiently long period of time. While this study is based on the US market, many cars on sale in India come with the keyless feature. Hence, a safety alarm to warn Indian drivers to turn off the engine before leaving the car makes complete sense even in our scenario.
Is it really a big worry, though, in India?
Not really for us here. This is because most of us do not have garages that can be closed when parked, attached to our houses. In India, we park often in open garages if it is a house, outside apartment buildings, underground parkings which are open and so on. These are not closed, and hence not a big worry. However, if you have a house with an attached garage that can be closed – and if there are ways for gas to enter the house, you should be doubly careful about to ensure that the car is shut down when parked.
Source- NY Times


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PW will publish a special supplement about the Texas Book Festival, set for November 4-5 in Austin. The issue will feature all the information needed to navigate the show, including interviews with the authors slated to appear, details about the programming and the times for panels and other events.
The supplement will be published in the October 16 issue of PW and distributed, free of charge, at the show, to the expected 50,000 attendees.
“PW‘s Texas Book Festival Spotlight will be a real help to festival-goers in deciding how to spend their time and which events to attend,” said Julie Wernersbach, the festival’s literary director. “The quality of the Spotlight offers a great opportunity for readers to discover authors and for authors to gain exposure.”
The Texas festival, which will host 300 authors this year, is the second consumer book fair PW has partnered with to create a special issue. Last year, PW published a supplement for the Miami Book Fair and will do so again for the 2017 show, which is scheduled for November 12-19.
“The ‘Miami Book Fair Spotlight’ was a huge success last year and was enthusiastically received by the show attendees. Due to its success, we have renewed our partnership with the Miami Book Fair for the next five years,” said Joe Murray, associate publisher of PW.
This year’s the Miami Spotlight will be published in the October 23 issue of PW and distributed for free during the festival, which is expecting 100,000 attendees and 600 authors.


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CI reported last month that Jumpstart Micro, a FINRA-regulated Funding Portal able to list securities under the Reg CF exemption, had been acquired by Issuance. Today, Issuance is officially acknowledging the business expansion, noting it will now be able to raise capital under Reg CF as well as Reg A+ and Reg D.
Darren Marble, co-founder & CEO of Issuance – who is also now CEO of Jumpstart Micro, issued the following statement:
“We are excited to expand our services to include Reg CF offerings. With Reg CF’s easier pathway to launch compared to Reg A+, we believe Issuance’s new Reg CF product offering will be a powerful tool for companies looking to raise capital and achieve their growth objectives.”
Issuance states that Jumpstart Micro will provide a new revenue stream for the company adding that Reg CF is a natural “stepping stone” to Reg A+.
Under Reg CF, a company may raise up to $5 million in growth capital by selling securities to both accredited and non-accredited investors. A firm must utilize the services of either a broker-dealer or Funding Portal. A company raising money under the Reg A+ exemption may raise up to $75 million.
Issuance notes that issuers have raised over $1.1 billion under Reg CF, with the market seeing 98% year-over-year growth.
Currently, there are dozens of Funding Portals operating in the space as well as a few broker-dealers. The Funding Portal portion of the business is dominated by a handful of platforms, with most offering the full stack of exemptions to support firms looking for multiple funding rounds.
Marble says the process of launching an investment crowdfunding campaign has never been easier.
“We are excited to launch the first Issuers on our new platform in the coming weeks.”


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British department store TK Maxx withdrew a shirt from sale Wednesday after customers complained that it mocked the Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris, a terrorist attack that claimed the lives of 11 people in January. The shirt that read "Je Suis Over It" stirred outrage online, as consumers interpreted the message as making fun of the Charlie Hebdo solidarity slogan "Je suis [I Am] Charlie."
The Charlie Hebdo massacre was the worst domestic attack France has seen in decades, and thousands of people around the world, especially in neighboring European countries like the U.K., showed their solidarity with the French people through the slogan "Je suis Charlie." The catchphrase came under considerable criticism because of some of the more provocative content the satirical weekly has produced, though most people embraced the slogan simply for its show of solidarity.
"It’s appalling that a global brand has allowed a T-shirt like this to be produced and sold in stores," Tom Young, 23, told the U.K. tabloid the Mirror. Young saw the shirt in a store in Bristol, England and was very offended by the slogan. "Even if the message did not intend to cause upset in relation to the tragic event, I am adamant it should be taken down from stores immediately," he said.
— Charlie Hebdo (@_charliehebdo) August 12, 2015
The chain, which has 280 stores across Britain, immediately withdrew the shirt and apologized to all whom it had offended. Representatives from TK Maxx and from the U.S.-based manufacturer, Reason Clothing, both said the design for the shirt predated the Charlie Hebdo attacks and was first created in May 2014. The shirt was also being sold by the online retailer ASOS, which has also withdrawn its sale and apologized to customers.
“It is never our intention to knowingly offend or cause upset to anyone, least of all those affected by the terrible tragedy in Paris in January 2015 this year," said an ASOS representative.
The attacks occurred in Jan. 7, 2015, when two masked gunmen stormed the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo, shooting and killing 11 unarmed cartoonists and editors and wounding 11 more. The terrorists killed magazine staff over content depicting the Prophet Muhammad in a way they perceived to be offensive.