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A lot is cooking and brewing in Lane County’s food and beverage industry.
The industry, which includes such well-known brands as Cafe Yumm!, Ninkasi, Nancy’s Yogurt and Yogi Tea, has long helped define Lane County and contributed steadily to the local economy.
Someone new has recently started working in Lane County’s kitchen.
Food entrepreneur and consultant Micah Elconin was hired last July as a “sector strategist” by the Lane Sector Strategies Team, a collaboration of workforce, economic development, and city and business leaders.
His job is to meet with local food and beverage business people, helping them connect, identify industry needs and develop action plans.
“I’m an advocate and a catalyst,” Elconin said.
Lane County is home to more than 150 food and beverage producers, with 3,865 employees and an annual payroll of $169 million, according to the state Employment Department. The industry’s annual average wage last year was $43,740, slightly higher than the overall Lane County average of $41,534.
Guiding Elconin’s work is an advisory board of 21 industry leaders, from Jason Lafferty, chief executive of SnoTemp, a Eugene cold storage company, to Bonnie Glass, owner of Eugene-based Euphoria Chocolate Co.
Nearly all of the board members know each other, Elconin said.
“I feel my work was accelerating a process that was already underway,” he said. “It’s an honor and privilege to devote time to listen closely to those needs and put real focused effort into figuring out how best to serve them.”
Elconin’s work as a sector strategist is funded by Lane Workforce Partnership, Lane County, the Eugene Area Chamber of Commerce, Eugene Water & Electric Board and Lane Community College.
Elconin also is a mentor in residence at RAIN Eugene, Lane County’s local business accelerator, helping entrepreneurs in Eugene, Springfield and nearby communities. RAIN Eugene is a local nonprofit organization that helps entrepreneurs and startup companies.
Elconin has been a personal chef, sales manager and business consultant. He earned his MBA from the University of Oregon and helped launch the Neighborhood Economic Development Corporation’s Sprout! Regional Food Hub in downtown Springfield.
Food and beverage industry advisory board member Whit Hemphill, co-owner of Wildtime Foods, said he and other business people have met and shared ideas in the past, but it has been difficult to sustain momentum because they all are busy running their companies.
Wildtime Foods makes Grizzlies brand granola, trail mix and raw grain cereals. It employs nearly 40 people at its facility in Eugene’s Whiteaker neighborhood.
Now, “we have someone like Micah who is working full-time solely on this collaborative effort,” Hemphill said.
“Micah has a good history with the food industry and a history here in Eugene,” he said.
“I think he’s the person for the job, and he’s doing a great job so far.”
Food and beverage firms have put these priorities at the top of their list:
Workforce development; recruitment and retention of employees.
Food product development services.
Launching an industry association.
Advancing the workforce goal, the University of Oregon is helping spread awareness of Lane County’s growing food and beverage sector, and of job opportunities in the industry.
This spring, the UO Lundquist College of Business will introduce a course on the food and beverage business, open to undergraduates and graduate students.
“It’s a broad-brush survey class,” instructor Beth Hjelm said. She said the course is designed for students to apply the business skills they’re learning to a specific industry, to understand food business dynamics from a local to global level, and to have the opportunity to visit a variety of firms around the state.
Hjelm will be teaching the course after returning from six months on sabbatical, during which she met with over 70 firms, from startups founded by UO alumni, such as Red Duck Foods and Picky Bars, to Oregon giants, such as Tillamook and Pacific Foods.
“I don’t think a lot of students understand the nature of food — certainly not food processing,” Hjelm said.
“I’d love it if (the course) would generate people who would want to go work (in the industry) and see it as a viable career,” she said.
The Lundquist school also is hosting various events, such as a food and beverage business career fair for UO students on Feb. 8.
“There will be 30-40 companies, sort of a “Who’s Who” of food and beverage manufacturers regionally,” Elconin said.
In late October, Elconin helped coordinate a panel of food and beverage industry experts to take part in the UO’s Innovation Summit.
Elconin said the UO’s interest in and support of the local industry will pay off.
“We’ll see more students from Lundquist College of Business launching food and beverage companies, and we’ll see more of those students being hired by local food and beverage companies,” he said.
Local food companies, including Euphoria Chocolate, Chocolate Alchemy, SnoTemp and GloryBee Foods, also have reached out to area high school students.
In early October, businesses opened their doors to nearly 100 students from 14 local high schools as part of a program highlighting manufacturing jobs.
The tours on National Manufacturing Day were organized by the Eugene Chamber of Commerce, Oregon Manufacturing Extension Partnership and Connected Lane County, a collaboration of local schools, government and business focused on boosting students’ engagement in school and preparing them for college and careers.
Another priority, according to local food and beverage companies, are product development services, such as help modifying home recipes for larger-scale production, and help with packaging design.
Oregon State University’s Food Innovation Center in Portland offers many of these services, especially for early-stage companies. Elconin said he’s exploring the possibility of collaborating with that program to better serve local firms.
Food testing is another area ripe for collaboration.
Established companies regularly test their products for quality and safety. Some routinely send samples to labs in Portland, Seattle or even farther away, Elconin said.
“Those folks are saying, ‘We send these things off,’?” he said. “?‘It would be great if we had a more central or local point of contact to do these things.’?”
“We might find it doesn’t make sense to build a lab from scratch here,” Elconin said. “Maybe the answer is some kind of aggregated courier service.”
Another priority is to create a Lane County food and beverage manufacturing industry association, Elconin said.
He said he hopes to help launch one this summer.
An association would help market the region, spreading the story of local food and beverage producers to a wider audience, Elconin said.
As a sector strategist, Elconin said he hopes to do for Lane County’s food and beverage industry what Matt Sayre, vice president of the Technology Association of Oregon, has done for the local tech sector.
“Matt has done me a big favor,” showing what can be possible when an advocate/catalyst helps support an industry, Elconin said.
“I like to joke he’s done me a big favor and stacked the deck against me,” Elconin said.
“Now everyone knows it’s possible, but, man, he really knocked it out of the park,” he said.
Elconin said the takeaway from watching Sayre work is “the more we do, the more we can do.”
Follow Sherri Buri McDonald on Twitter @sburimcdonald . Email email@example.com .


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Broadband performance transparency
What are the true broadband speeds consumers should expect? How high is the latency on the line? What are the hidden costs?
These are questions that broadband consumers have faced for years, but the answers haven’t always been forthcoming. That looks set to change in the US, however, with the FCC once again throwing its weight behind a ‘nutrition label’ scheme, which would “require broadband providers to display easy-to- understand labels to allow consumers to comparison shop for broadband services”.
In the same way a pot of yogurt will display key information such as fat and sugar content, so broadband providers will be told to disclose details such as average speeds, data allowances and network management practices. The goal is to arm consumers with more information about the broadband products they’re buying, to give them a true sense of the performance and the costs they can expect once a line is activated.
What impact will the nutrition labels have on broadband buyers and the providers themselves? And are there any lessons the US can learn from countries who’ve pursued similar initiatives before? We’ve spoken to experienced regulators and SamKnows’ own expert to find out.
Is speed still the killer metric?
Packet loss and latency becoming critical for modern apps
It’s fair to say consumers, broadband providers and regulators have been largely focused on raw download speed since broadband performance first started being measured independently. However, the increased reliance on videoconferencing seen during the pandemic and the advent of cloud gaming and ‘metaverse-like’ applications has thrown the focus onto other performance-critical metrics.
For example, Walter Johnson highlights the importance of including packet loss data on the new labels. “Don’t forget, the last administration cut back and took out packet loss, as if it didn’t matter,” he said.
“The rule of thumb is if you have more than 1% average packet loss in your network, it’s pretty bad. If you have more than 2% packet loss, it’s pretty unusable for a lot of applications.”
Johnson says he would like to see the new labels encompass a metric for carrier consistency, shifting the focus away from speed and giving a greater weight to factors such as packet loss and latency, even if many consumers don’t understand those terms.
“The information can be coalesced into nuggets that people understand,” Johnson said. “You can turn that into a metric that’s one form of reliability and compare that to an industry standard.”
What's on the labels
The FCC is consulting with broadband providers and other interested parties on what exactly should appear on its labels, but it’s not starting from scratch. In 2016, the FCC launched a voluntary labelling scheme for broadband providers, but it’s fair to say it didn’t garner widespread support. We’ll come back to why it didn’t take off later.
In the meantime, however, the FCC is using the 2016 label template as a starting point for the new, mandatory scheme – and nobody could accuse the FCC of not trying to be comprehensive. There are no fewer than 18 different pieces of information that broadband providers will be told to disclose to consumers at the point of sale. These can be broadly broken down into three different categories: charges, performance and network policies.
When it comes to charges, broadband providers will be required to disclose the monthly cost of the connection, both if the customer is on a month-to-month deal or a two-year contract. Data caps, excess data charges, the cost of renting modem/gateways and any other fees must be disclosed before purchase.
As for broadband performance, broadband providers will be forced to declare typical download and upload speeds, latency and packet loss. On the sample templates, typical is defined as “typical peak usage for this tier of service, consistent with the Open Internet Orders and FCC guidance”.
It’s not only fixed-line providers who will be subject to the labelling system, either. There’s a broadly similar label for the mobile broadband providers too, this time with a little more detail on data charges for specific allowances (ie. 20GB, 40GB and 100GB plans).
There are no fewer than 18 pieces of information that broadband providers must disclose
How labels could look
How might the nutrition labels convey information about broadband performance? We asked SamKnows’ head of creative to give us his ideas, shown below.
Will labels stick?
As previously mentioned, this isn’t the FCC’s first swing at nutrition labels. The first attempt to implement them in 2016 fell flat. However, FCC chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said from the moment she took office in January 2021 that “we have work to do to put consumers first” and she seems intent on doing just that. The key change this time around is that there will be no wriggle room for ISPs. “The FCC’s last effort to put labels like this in place never got that far,” said Rosenworcel in a recent statement. “It was also just voluntary. But this is different. The broadband nutrition labels we are proposing today are mandatory.”
She wants the broadband labels to be as easy to understand as the health information on a pack of cornflakes. “If you walk into any grocery store and pull boxes of cereal from the shelves, you can easily compare calories and carbohydrates,” said Rosenworcel. “That’s because they have a common nutrition label. It’s black and white, simple to read, and easy to understand. It helps consumers make good choices.”
“I think the FCC needs to o the same with broadband,” she added. “That’s because it is now an essential service – for everyone, everywhere. So we want to make it easier for consumers to compare their options and understand just what they’re signing up for. We want to end efforts to bury facts in the fine print and we want to stop unexpected costs and fees.”
Allowing consumers to accurately compare the performance of different broadband providers is key, agrees Walter Johnson, a former member of the FCC’s Office of Engineering & Technology and a chief architect of the Measuring Broadband America programme.
“There’s no marketer in the world – whether it’s internet services, cars or potatoes – that really wants to be transparent,” he said. “They don’t want to say ‘well, I’m selling potatoes at $10 a pound, but if you look down the street you can buy at $9 a pound’. It is against the grain of a marketer to provide any information which makes their product comparable to some other product.”
The only exception to that rule, Johnson said, is “if you can definitively prove you’re better than somebody else”.
As was witnessed with Measuring Broadband America, publishing data prompted the broadband providers to raise their game around reporting periods – and the improvements that were made were lasting.
We want to end efforts to bury facts in the fine print and we want to stop unexpected costs and fees.
How labels could look
Here’s an alternative set of label designs from SamKnows’ head of creative, this time focusing on color-coding to help consumers rate performance at-a-glance.
Making meaningful data
Walter Johnson believes the success of the 2022 labels will also hinge on the reliability of the information they provide. That will require strict standardization of the performance metrics being quoted to prevent providers from naturally trying to make their products look as good as possible.
“I can show you an average number and say ‘well, here’s my average performance,’ but maybe it’s taken when the sun is out and the moon is full,” said Johnson. “There’s different ways to calculate these [averages] and it’s not the number itself that’s important, whether you’re getting 100 megabits under one calculation or 90 megabits under another calculation. It’s how you compare them.”
Johnson gives the example of one well-known internet speed test, which quotes a latency measurement as the speed of the fastest packet it was able to get through the network during the test. “The important thing is not ‘here’s the magic way to calculate it’,” said Johnson, “but everybody’s got to do it the same way.”
SamKnows’ director of government projects, Roxanne Robinson, points out that the FCC already has access to much of this data measured in a standardized form via the Measuring Broadband America programme.
“It’s an enormous data set that is available to them, particularly on this kind of quality-of-service metric and the industry is very familiar with it,” she said.
She suggests that average speeds expressed as a range, rather than a single figure, might give a more accurate picture of the typical performance that consumers can expect to see.
I can show you an average number.... but maybe it’s taken when the sun is out and the moon is full.
In the current draft of the label, there are only four performance metrics stated: upload and download speed, packet loss and latency. Over time, however, Walter Johnson believes it’s critical to improve the quality of data being presented to consumers at the point of sale, and to focus on specific applications – not least video streaming.
“We need to bring in better statistics on consistency or reliability of the network, because the averages don’t capture the total experience,” said Johnson.
“If you’re reading a gas meter, you really don’t care if it takes five seconds longer. If you’re watching Game of Thrones or if you’re doing an operation on somebody remotely, and we’re heading into an environment where these things matter, then understanding consistency is important.”
“Don’t ever interfere with Game of Thrones,” Johnson warned, only half-jokingly, “at least in the United States.”
Is there a danger that consumers could be bamboozled with too much information at the point of sale? Johnson thinks simple measures could help. “One thing I would like to see on it [the label] is what’s the industry average, because then I know whether the carrier I’m dealing with meets the industry average, exceeds it or is below it,” he said.
The average, Johnson argues, would help ease confusion over technical terms such as latency and packet loss. “Every parent who sends a child to school [in the US] might not appreciate what a 93 or 94 means on a score, but they do know if their child is performing above expectations, at expectations or below expectations.”
Every parent who sends a child to school may not know what a 93 means, but they know if their child is performing above expectations.
Lesson from abroad
The US isn’t the first country to try and give consumers better information when it comes to buying broadband services. In the UK, for instance, regulator Ofcom has long had a Voluntary Codes of Practice on Broadband Speed, which is adopted by most – if not all – of the UK’s fixed-line providers.
The codes were last revised in 2019 and included measures to improve the relevancy of line speed estimates, by ensuring those estimates reflected peak- time performance. They also required signatories to provide a minimum guaranteed speed at the point of sale.
The end result is that broadband speed advertising has become more realistic in the UK. Take for example, BT’s Fibre 2 product, which was previously advertised as an “up to 80Mbits/ sec” or “up to 76Mbits/sec” line. It’s now promoted on its website as having a “67-73Mbits/sec download speed range”. Most other providers quote similar figures, even those who don’t participate in the voluntary code.
“There was a disconnect between the speed that was being advertised to a customer and what you actually might receive in your home,” said Roxanne Robinson.
“For example, you might have had an ISP offering a product at 76Mbits/sec download, but there are so many things that can affect that top speed – anything from the number of subscribers using the network, the number of people accessing a particular service at a particular time, or even just the type of line that you have.
I think that Ofcom wanted to make sure that you had information that was more about what you were most likely to get, rather than the absolute best speed you could possibly get in the most perfect conditions.”
“It’s a much more realistic way to sell and that’s really what the voluntary code has helped to achieve,” Robinson added. “It’s much clearer, more realistic information at the point of sale.”
New Zealand is currently creating a marketing code of its own, which too looks set to focus on peak-time speeds, showing that regulators are learning from the experience of one another.
There was a disconnect between the speed that was being advertised and what you might receive in your home.
Bringing the industry with you
The key to any of these regulatory schemes is involving the industry and bringing the broadband providers with you. As we discussed earlier, the 2016 US label scheme partly failed because it became a political football. But giving the broadband providers
a clear benefit for participating, even in voluntary codes, is vital for encouraging participation, according to Roxanne Robinson.
Reflecting on her experience with Ofcom’s scheme in the UK, Roxanne said: “Ofcom and SamKnows have worked together for over 10 years. When Ofcom published its High Level Testing Principles for its Voluntary Codes of Practice, this was based on the SamKnows testing methodology.”
That led to closer cooperation with the ISPs. “Using the SamKnows methodology as a blueprint for how to collect accurate internet performance data meant that we could work with the ISPs in the UK to embed our SamKnows Router SDK into customers’ CPE. This allowed ISPs to conduct testing at an enormous scale, that wasn’t previously possible with just our Whiteboxes.”
The end result is that both the regulator and ISPs get access to vastly more quality of service (QoS) and quality of experience (QoE) data than they would have previously, not to mention the benefits of delivering greater transparency to consumers.
“We’ve seen ISPs who want to join projects such as Measuring Broadband America or Measuring Broadband UK because they see the benefit of being involved and being able to talk about it. It’s something that resonates with their customers and it’s something that helps them attract people to their brand.”

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It’ll soon be a bit more expensive to rent movies and games from Redbox. Starting December 2, the price to rent a DVD at one of Redbox’s nearly 44,000 kiosks will increase by 25 percent, from $1.20 to $1.50 per day.
Redbox is also raising the price of Blu-ray rentals to $2, a 33 percent increase from the current $1.50 rate. Gamers are being hit the hardest, however, as rental fees are going up 50 percent, from $2 to $3. The new game rental rates go into effect January 6, 2015.
In a press release on the matter, Redbox said they expect an adverse impact on rental volume as a result of the price change. That said, Redbox’s parent company, Outerwall, believes the price increases will help offset future declines in the physical rental market.
J. Scott Di Valerio, Outerwall's chief executive officer, noted that this is the first time Redbox has raised prices on Blu-ray discs and video games and only the second time in more than 12 years that they’ve raised prices on DVDs. He insists that Redbox remains the best value in new-release home entertainment.
Once a disruptive service that helped eliminate video rental stores, Redbox is now on the opposite end of the discussion as people continue to migrate to more convenient sources of entertainment. By that, I'm of course referring to streaming video providers like Netflix and Hulu, among others.
Physical media still holds an advantage over its streaming counterparts, however, as movies are often released to disc much sooner than they arrive online.
Will the price hike affect your decision to continue to use Redbox?


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Tata Motors has been fostering a long-range variant of the Nexon EV, which was additionally as of late spied testing on our streets. As per sources, the long-range Tata Nexon EV is scheduled for a market send off by April this year. The refreshed vehicle will accompany a greater battery and a couple of other mechanical redesigns, in spite of the fact that we don’t anticipate any critical surface level changes on the new model.
As we had solely announced in December last year, this new form of the Nexon EV will accompany a bigger 40kWh battery pack. That makes it 30% bigger than the current Nexon EV’s 30.2kWh battery pack. The Nexon EV at present has an ARAI-confirmed scope of 312km, so the bigger battery pack could be conveying a scope of more than 400km on the authority test cycle.
One more striking redesign for the long-range Nexon EV could be an all the more remarkable charger. According to spilled data via web-based media, the long-range Nexon will be accessible with an all the more remarkable 6.6kW AC charger. Right now, the Nexon EV is accessible with a 3.3kW AC charger that requires generally around 10 hours to top up the battery to 100%. A bigger battery will obviously build the charging time. To battle this, Tata could be offering the 6.6kW AC charger as a choice, albeit the current 3.3kW AC charger is likewise expected to be held.
The bigger battery pack will likewise require a few adjustments to be made to the Nexon EV’s floor dish, and the boot space is additionally accepted to have been forfeited. Notwithstanding, it’s a fair compromise for more prominent reach, considering that EVs are filling in their ubiquity and EV purchasers will require more from their vehicles than simply being a city runabout.
The refreshed Nexon EV is likewise expected to get circle brakes at every one of the four corners, as the SUV would become heavier because of the bigger battery pack, accordingly requiring extra halting power. Different updates could incorporate new, selectable regen modes that changes the power of regenerative slowing down, Electronic Stability Program (ESP), and another plan for the composite wheels. We, be that as it may, don’t anticipate some other huge corrective outside or inside update.
The long-range Nexon EV is relied upon to be evaluated around Rs 17 lakh-18 lakh (ex-display area). This implies it will in any case keep a value advantage over adversaries, for example, the Hyundai Kona Electric and MG ZS EV, which are brought to India through imported CKD (totally wrecked) units.
All things considered, the MG ZS EV itself is expected an update this month, which will present to it a bigger battery. Yet again it should along these lines have the option to put some distance among itself and the refreshed Nexon EV. And keeping in mind that Hyundai will likewise be sending off the Kona Electric facelift in India this year, it is not yet clear on the off chance that it accompanies a bigger battery or not. If not, the Kona Electric and refreshed Nexon EV will have truly similar specs, however the Nexon EV would have an edge in its valuing.


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‘Everything goes up’: New Zealanders make painful sacrifices as cost of living soars | New Zealand
In Auckland, a widower considers selling his house to get by; in Whakatane, an adult student returns to live with his parents because he cannot afford to rent; in Wellington, an early childhood teacher goes without food to pay her bills.
As the cost of living explodes in New Zealand, so do the sacrifices made by its citizens.
Inflation in Aotearoa has hit a three-decade high, driven by rising gasoline and housing costs. It shows no signs of slowing down – inflation hit 5.9% at the end of 2021, and ANZ, the country’s largest bank, expects it to continue rising in 2022. The cost of living increased by 5.2% for the average household in one year. .
“Anything goes up: groceries, a coffee at the local cafe, a burger at the little local pub ($21), a car service at the local garage, a haircut,” says Wellingtonian Pal Andre Ricard, 49. .
“Leaving aside the basic costs of living, the cost of rent and buying a home is off track…and salaries stay the same.”
Walk into any supermarket and the prices for basic items can be mind-boggling. For $100 you will get: a dozen eggs, a carton of milk, a loaf of bread, a block of cheese, a head of lettuce, a block of butter, a chicken, a bottle of wine and a box of diapers.
Last week, in a blow to brassica lovers, cauliflowers were priced at $15 apiece. Annual food prices have seen the biggest increase since 2011, peaking at 4.5% between December 2020 and 2021.
“The cost of groceries has been rising quite rapidly,” says Auckland resident Jijo James.
James, 28, says he used to pay $100 for a typical grocery store before the Covid-19 shutdowns, but a similar package now costs between $180 and $200. “I was content to buy only essential items and cut down on extra expenses,” he says.
Bills like internet and electricity have also gone up, says James. “But my income stayed the same, making it harder to save for any potential emergency. I went from being able to save money every week to living paycheck to paycheck. .
Regulator reveals measures to improve competition
In a draft report from last year, the Commerce Commission found that New Zealand shoppers face some of the most expensive grocery products in the OECD. The commission also found that the profit margins of New Zealand supermarkets – which are dominated by a duopoly – were consistently higher than those of international grocery chains.
The two big supermarket businesses – Foodstuffs and Woolworths NZ – dominate wholesale and distribution, making it difficult for other businesses to secure wholesale supplies at competitive prices.
On Tuesday, the Commerce Commission revealed its final recommendations on what needs to be done to improve competition and affordability. He failed to break the duopoly and force them to sell some of their stores, opting instead to make more land available for new grocery stores by changing planning laws to free up sites.
The competition regulator also called on big players to improve access to wholesale supplies and prices for smaller players, and recommended the creation of a grocery sector regulator and settlement system. disputes to resolve disputes between wholesalers and suppliers.
Anna Rawlings, chair of the Commerce Commission, said “competition in this industry is not working well for consumers”.
“We believe the best way to improve the conditions for competition is to allow others to enter and expand into the sector by freeing up land for development and providing additional wholesale access to supply. in the grocery store.”
Consumer Affairs Minister David Clark said the government would implement the recommendations. “New Zealanders are obviously paying too much at checkout,” he said.
“If we do not see significant changes in the sector, we will consider other measures. »
Increase in housing and rents
The grocery store isn’t the only area where people are feeling the pinch. Housing affordability is at an all-time high, with the average property now worth 8.8 times the average household income, according to property analysts CoreLogic. For these households, it would take nearly 12 years to save enough money for a deposit.
Rents and household bills have also increased. National median rents reached $540 per week, up $50 from a year earlier, while utilities rose 32% in the June quarter of 2021 and gasoline prices rose 30% in the year to December.
Melanie Watterson, a 31-year-old from Wellington who studies full-time and works part-time as an early years teacher, says the cost of living is “crushing”.
“To make sure I cover my electricity and cleaning bills, I have very little left and often have to go without food,” she says.
“Managing financially when I was working full time was difficult and since I was a student a year ago it became unmanageable. It’s very overwhelming.
When winter comes, those costs become “ten times higher,” she says. “Homes in New Zealand are often unsanitary, poorly insulated and have mold problems, so electricity bills end up being huge.”
For Joshua Mainwaring in Whakatane, his income could cover his rent but not much else. “I love so many 30-somethings who gave in and ended up at my parents’ house,” he says. “I had planned to go to university in Wellington, but the cost of rent there is so high that I have to take a gap year first to save money on my living expenses.”
Even the owners are struggling. Keith Marshall, a 74-year-old pensioner and widower in Auckland, says he is part of the “asset-rich but cash-poor” generation. His retirement pension has increased slightly in recent years, but not at a rate commensurate with the rising cost of living.
“I’m not talking about daily coffees, brunches, restaurants, takeout, online streaming services or buying the last thing you need on a credit card,” he says. “I can’t afford any of these things. My only social outing a week is to see a movie at senior citizen’s price.
Marshall carefully monitors his expenses using spreadsheets, but there’s still nothing left at the end of the pay period. “Unfortunately, if this rate of inflation continues or increases, I don’t see how I could continue to live as I do now. What that may entail, I dread to contemplate.
Over the weekend, the National Party vowed to drop government tax policies to help soften the blow from the rising cost of living, which its leader Christopher Luxon called a “crisis”. “The average Kiwi family is worse off than 12 months ago and the government must act.”
But Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern dismissed the idea that New Zealand was in a rising cost crisis, saying global pressures were driving high prices, not government policies.
“Yes, these times are tough. We’ve seen the impact of inflation, but we’ve also seen people predicting that we’ll get out of it throughout this year. Things will start to get better and easier,” she told Newshub. “We are experiencing high inflation, like many countries right now.”


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Two members behind Kiss, the make-up clad rock band from the 70s known for songs like Detroit Rock City and I Wanna Rock ‘N’ Roll All Night, are also restaurateurs and Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley want to bring their chain to the Chicago area. Simmons and Stanley, in town for a concert Friday in suburban Bridgeview, told the Tribune they’d like to open 10 to 15 restaurants and bring a corporate office to the area in the next five to seven years. Rock & Brews debuted in 2012 in Southern California and has grown to 20 locations.
Wings, salads, burgers, and craft beer are part of the formula at other locations. Simmons, who bears a legendary lengthy tongue, wasn’t tongue-tied during his interview. He’s rather confident that Rock & Brews will be successful in Chicago despite the fierce restaurant competition. “Either Chicago is America or it's not. Everywhere we've gone, it works beyond expectation. The only thing you could say is, it's not going to work here because we're in Zimbabwe,” Simmons told the Trib.
Ownership is still negotiating its first location and hopes to open it somewhere in the area next year. Simmons and Stanley want locations near O’Hare and Midway, so Bill Murray could have company in Rosemont. Expect lots of TVs, tons of Kiss merchandise for sale, and pictures of the band’s favorite musicians on the walls. Customers have drawn comparisons to the Hard Rock Cafe.
Rock & Brews may appeal to the same dad rock-loving crowd that piles into Kuma’s Corner. However, it remains to be seen if the burgers can match Kuma’s quality. Stay tuned for more.


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NEW YORK — The 72,000-square-foot Saks Fifth Avenue store in Skokie, Ill., and its lower-level 33,000-square-foot Off 5th outlet will both close in July, as the company continues to weed out weak locations and shift resources to flagships.
More closings are expected. Estimates from retail experts range from just under 10 to up to 15 regular-priced stores that ultimately could be closed. The parent company, Saks Inc., does not comment on potential closings. The timing of any closing announcement depends on agreements with landlords.
Since October, the Saks Fifth Avenue division has announced 11 closings, including Skokie.
As Saks seeks to raise sales productivity and margins, and work off lower inventories, additional Off 5th outlets also are expected to close.
Saks Fifth Avenue currently operates 57 stores and 52 outlets, as well as saks.com. The top 10 flagships are in Manhattan, Boca Raton, Fla., Atlanta, Beverly Hills, San Francisco, Chicago, Dallas, Boston, Miami and Houston, and several are getting beefed up this year, with the corporation pumping about $150 million into capital improvements.
Some other top stores are in Bal Harbour and Palm Beach, Fla.; Tyson's Corner and Chevy Chase in metro Washington, and Troy, Mich.
A massive renovation project at the Fifth Avenue flagship in New York, the details of which were expected to be disclosed last fall, is on hold. The company has been distracted by government investigations regarding alleged improper collections of vendor allowances at Saks Fifth Avenue and accounting procedures related to the timing and the recognition of the allowances, as well as management changes.
The Skokie store, opened in 1978, has long failed to meet expectations and was downsized to include an Off 5th in 2003. Both units are leased.
"They should have closed this store many years ago. A lot of designers want to get out, and it's been in dire need of renovation," said a retail source. "Saks' biggest dilemma is that it has too many stores, and the focus got off the flagships. They have been trying to run a Saks image across the chain, but with a limited budget. The dollars were spread too thin. Neiman's has been much more focused."
Issa Rae stopped by WWD's NYC headquarters to talk about season two of "Insecure," which premieres this Sunday on HBO. Click link in bio for all the details. #wwdeye (📷: @jgreenery; Styled by @mayteallende)
A Stella McCartney sketch of a custom dress made from protein-based silk in partnership with biotech lab Bolt Threads. The dress will be displayed at The Museum of Modern Art's upcoming design exhibition, "Items: Is Fashion Modern?"


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At some point last month we told you the upcoming Snapdragon 810 chip was faced with some production issues. And that this situation could bring about repercussions related to numerous new flagship devices.
The chipset was introduced back in April 2014, but we are yet to see the platform arrive in a real life product. At CES 2015, LG introduced the G Flex 2 bendy smartphone which draws life from this particular SoC.
The handset is expected to go on sale later this month in South Korea, so we... (read more)


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On Sept. 1, as many U.S. businesses closed early for the Labor Day holiday weekend, Juicero Inc.—a lavishly funded startup that once sold a $699 Wi-Fi-connected juice press—announced it was shutting down forever.
Juicero’s demise was not unexpected. Its collapse was the consequence of unsustainable costs, unflattering headlines and a bungled product launch. After attracting about $134 million in funding from such illustrious investors as Google Ventures and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Juicero was losing about $4 million a month. Four years after its founding, the startup was unable to find new backers willing to fund its ambition of making fresh juice accessible to all.


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Once again, we find our city government making inappropriate deals to toss our comprehensive plan out the window. We had a considerable battle with the city over this in our neighborhood not long ago, which I won't go into here.
Now we find that the mayor and council are trying to cut some kind of sweetheart deal with this man who's proposing a new market in the light-industrial area. I'm sure he'd like that—buying cheaper land for his new place while downtown stores that play by the rules are run out of business. Right now, they're taking steps that will result in more empty shop windows in the middle of our town, a real turn-off for tourists.
How many chances do we have to get this right? Everyone needs to show up at this next meeting on Dec. 6 at 5:30 p.m. and speak up.


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Shopping mall tycoon's £800million CSC swoop
American mall tycoon David Simon has stepped up efforts to gain control of Capital Shopping Centres after offering to fund the bulk of the UK property giant's £1.6billion takeover of the Trafford Centre.
Simon, whose Simon Group is the largest shopping mall operator in the US, yesterday said he'd be willing to buy £800million of new shares in CSC, with proceeds used to buy the Manchester retail mecca.
The offer would leave Simon Group with a stake of as much as 27 per cent in CSC, which owns the Lakeside Centre in Essex.
Retail mecca: David Simon has said he'd be willing to buy £800million of new shares in CSC, using the proceeds to acquire the Trafford Centre in Manchester
He also stated that his proposal to launch an offer for the whole of CSC, which has been rebuffed, remained 'on the table'.
His dramatic intervention in an open letter to CSC chairman Patrick Burgess marks the Simon's attempt to prevent the FTSE 100 group falling into the hands of UK property mogul John Whittaker, who owns the Trafford Centre through his Peel Holdings vehicle.
Under the current deal, which has yet to be approved by investors, Peel would have swapped the shopping centre and its £800m of debt for a stake of as much as 25pc in CSC.
In his strongly-worded letter, Simon again accused CSC of 'overpaying' for the Trafford Centre and claimed 'other shareholders have expressed similar concerns'. 'CSC is contemplating transferring significant control to Peel, while failing to extract a premium for it,' he argued.
Instead, Simon is offering to buy 206m new shares in CSC for 400p each, some 9 per cent higher than under the deal with Whittaker.
If no other CSC shareholder subscribed to the share offering, Simon Group would end up with a stake of just under 27 per cent.
Shareholders will vote on the proposed takeover of the Trafford Centre at an extraordinary meeting next Monday.
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Eric Willard, 23, has been charged with burglary after deputies say he broke into a department store through a rooftop air conditioning panel early Saturday morning.
According to deputies, Willard was drinking at Peckers Pub with his mom, and got into an argument with her.
The bar and deputies say Willard then went to the Ormond Beach Mall on Ocean Shore Boulevard and climbed to the roof of a nearby Bealls Outlet store and pried open an air conditioning panel and fell into the store.
Deputies say he didn't take anything, but surveillance video shows him in the store stumbling around for 17 minutes.
A few days later a deputy who had given Willard a trespass warning at Peckers Pub recognized the man shown in the stores' surveillance videos as Willard. He was arrested Monday afternoon and booked into jail in Daytona Beach.
Willard told deputies he doesn't remember being in the Bealls store.


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- ArticleLG becomes the manufacturer of Google's upcoming smartphone "Taimen"
LG becomes the manufacturer of Google's upcoming smartphone "Taimen"
Earlier, we came across a news revealing that Google will bring up 3 new devices this year codenamed as;
Among these three devices, Taimen will be the largest.
Lately, we've also heard that Muskie might not be released. This gives us hint that only Walleye and Taimen will be revealed this year. Also, Taimen is highly expected to be manufactured by LG. An issue is spotted on Google Issue Tracker with a title USB PD Compliance Failure.
One of the comments in that report seems to take off the curtains by revealing that LG will be the manufacturer of largest upcoming Google device, Taimen. If the news of only two devices being revealed is true, it means Walleye and Taimen are going to be completely different from each other in terms of specs, size, and design.
Anyhow, official words by the company are still pending. We expect to hear more of the news soon. Tell us your views about the news and let us know your interest in LG being the manufacturer of Taimen. Comment below!


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By Tamanna Desai,
Tech & Innovation Assistant Editor
South by Southwest is a music, film and technology conference held annually in Austin, Texas to foster creativity and market newcomers in the three aforementioned industries.
The conference is known to attract some of the most influential people in our nation from President Obama and executives of Yahoo to celebrities such as Lena Dunham and Katy Perry. This year, however, many reports mention a decline of attendance for the innovative section due to a decrease in funding in Silicon Valley technology startups.
The decrease in funding and consequently moderate atmosphere in Silicon Valley are partially a result of the ongoing Apple vs. FBI conflict. Encryption was in fact a prominent topic at the SXSW convention. Nonetheless, many startups did attend the conference and there were four main trends that have potential to become the next big development.
The McDonald’s happy meal box virtual reality headset revolutionizes the fast food experience. At the South by Southwest conference, attendees were transported into the happy meal environment. Creativity was stimulated by allowing them to decorate the virtual reality box they were in.
Similar to McDonalds in terms of enticing people to try out virtual reality, Samsung mobile’s new initiative is dropping off portable virtual reality boxes to those who tweet at Samsung mobile requesting to experience #VRonDemand.
A topic in which Twitter was also mentioned at the SXSW convention was the shift from social media to social messaging and what that means for marketers in terms of consumer behavior. Consumers are starting to steer their social media usage to applications that are more instant messaging based such as Snapchat. Many consumer reporters speculate that the main reason why Facebook is still alive and considered one of the top used social media applications is an outcome of the messenger component. This kind of medium is considered to be the dark social. Similar to the dark web, the dark social is an invisible space where intimate instant messaging takes place, i.e. Snapchat “chat” function and twitter direct messaging. Venturebeat.com says that “59% of all online sharing is via dark social and 91% of Americans regularly share information via these methods”. In regards to privacy and marketing, the government, and digital marketers will need to narrow their focus onto the dark social and initiatives need to be taken in that sector.
The third biggest topic discussed at the SXSW was artificial intelligence and the use of robots in everyday life from the emotive robot called Jibo to the flying camera named Lily. Jibo’s purpose is to assist people of all age through interactive methods physically and mentally. Although there are many things Jibo can’t do yet, some which include thinking on its own in response to human behavior, the emotive robot has been developing at a faster rate than expected. On the flip side, Lily the flying camera was introduced. USA Today calls Lily, “coolest scientific achievement or discovery that before 2015 was only possible in science fiction.” This unique device is thrown into the air and then, with a tracker, it follows the person wearing the tracking device and uses its GPS and computer vision to memorize the person’s face to make sure that it stays within a certain range of its person. According to popphoto.com, Lily can fly 100ft above, 100ft away and travel at a maximum speed of 25mph from where the wearable tracking device is located.
Along with emotive robots and wearable parts that come with them, is the topic of connected hardware that Sony’s research and development lab program introduced at the South by Southwest conference. The “N Project” is a neck collar that is connected to a set of headphones and can deliver what it is told via audio commands. The headphones have a built in GPS and camera. Sony also introduced and presented on the interactive table top that acts as a hologram projector for any IOS device. Sony Lab let attendees of the South by Southwest conference to be the initial testers of the product and requested feedback on ways to improve and develop it.
South by Southwest has been the premier conference for tech start-ups and multi-billion dollar companies to showcase their prototypes and ideas. It has been the biggest convention in the nation to host such influential figures and futuristic topics.
A version of this article appeared in the Tuesday, March 22nd print edition.
Contact Tamanna at


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Nearly 100 companies from across the Valley made the cut on the annual Inc. 5000, which ranks the fastest-growing private companies in the U.S.
Unlike last year, no Arizona companies from areas outside the Phoenix region made the cut.
The list includes companies from a wide swath of industries ranging from technology and software to real estate and restaurants. Familiar names such as Scottsdale-based GoDaddy, Phoenix-based WebPT and Phoenix-based Auction Systems were among those that have become relative stalwarts on the annual list.
“It is an honor to be recognized in the Inc. 5000 list for the 11th consecutive year, amongst some of the most distinguished and accomplished businesses throughout the U.S.,” said Auction Systems founder and CEO Deb Weidenhamer. “As Auction Systems continues to grow and extend our reach overseas, giving American businesses a simplified avenue to sell product in China, it’s increasingly more important to be part of this network of companies that are committed to advancing the U.S. business community globally.”
Others that had become perennial members of the list, such as Sprouts Farmers Market and LifeLock Inc., fell off because they went public.
One Scottsdale company even cracked the Top 10.
Health firm Plexus Worldwide was ranked No. 8 on the prestigious Inc. 500 list, posting a mind-boggling 16,458 percent growth rate over the past three years.
Overall, 13 Phoenix-area companies made the Inc. 500, as we revealed yesterday.
Inc. ranks its annual list by percentage growth over a three-year period.


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CINCINNATI (FOX19) -Cash will no longer be accepted at all, but one of the Taste of Belgium locations to help stop the spread of COVID-19.
"If you think about the number of times money exchanges hands, especially in the situation we're in today, it's one of the most simple things we can do to help everyone stay healthy," founder, Jean-François Flechet said. "It's an idea we've been considering for a while and the reopening of our Bistros presents an ideal opportunity to transition to a cashless checkout. Few people pay with cash these days, and we've simplified the process pay at tables and counters with credit and debit cards."
The Banks and Rookwood locations will have their outdoor dining available to customers. The indoor dining at their Over-the-Rhine location will open soon, Fletcher said.
Fletchet says their stand at the Findlay Market location will continue accepting cash.


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Apple mail warning, Skype scam, ignore free streaming video and more finance scams.
Welcome to Cyber Security Today. It’s Friday April 24th. I’m Howard Solomon, contributing reporter on cybersecurity for ITWorldCanada.com.
To hear the podcast click on the arrow below:
Attention iPhone and iPad users: Executives, reporters and others worry about their security are being warned to temporarily not use the standard email app that comes with those Apple devices after the discovery of a serious vulnerability. A San Francisco security company called ZecOps says the problem allows a hacker to infect a device by sending a specially-crafted email. There’s no attachment that has to be clicked. In some cases a victim will be infected without having to click on the email to read it. ZecOps believes devices of six specific people have already been hacked. Apple has been notified and is expected to release a quick fix shortly. iPhone and iPad users should be looking for it.
UPDATE: Many news services are quoting a statement from Apple casting doubt on the ZecOps conclusion. “We have thoroughly investigated the researcher’s report and, based on the information provided, have concluded these issues do not pose an immediate risk to our users. The researcher identified three issues in Mail, but alone they are insufficient to bypass iPhone and iPad security protections, and we have found no evidence they were used against customers.”
“These potential issues will be addressed in a software update soon,” the statement added.
Attention Skype users: A hacker is trying to infect your device by sending an email that looks like it came from the Skype team. The emails seen by a security company called Cofense have the subject line “Notification” and the victim’s email address. It has the familiar Skype logo. The message says you have a number of pending notifications, and to see them click on the Review button. That will lead to a login page that looks like it’s from Skype. And the website address starts with the phrase “Skype-online.” But its a fake to capture your login username and password. In fact it automatically fills in your email address, so all you have to do is fill in the password. One way to tell its a fake is the website address is “skype-online0345”, which is probably meant to look like Office365. Here’s another: Check who sent the message. In these cases the attacker hacked the email of people victims know and sent it from their email accounts. But if its a message from a friend, why does it appear to come from the Skype team? It shouldn’t, which is why its a fake.
I’ve talked before about scams that trick companies into sending money to a criminals’ bank account instead of the real partner’s account. Security company Check Point Software has discovered another one. Briefly, the scam works like this. Email accounts of targeted employees of a bank or investment company, usually of executives or people in the finance department, are hacked so the criminal gets to know how the company works. Then a lookalike website is set up so the criminal can create an email account similar to the target company. After that the criminals intercept email to create fake money transfer requests from a partner company or create new money requests. In this investigation about a half a million dollars was lost. This type of scam can be defeated with tough email security so accounts can’t be hacked. And those who handle money transfers have to be trained to verify where money is going, particularly if there’s a request to change the usual bank account it goes to.
Finally, beware of free. It may turn out to bite you. That’s the message from security vendor ZeroFox about streaming video scams going around social media. Some are tied to the COVID-19 pandemic, saying there’s a limited time offer of free service to existing streaming customers due to the so-called “quarantine.” One scam distributed across WhatsApp has a link to what looks like a real streaming media site. You know its a con if you have to answer some questions like ‘Are you taking care to prevent the virus from proliferating?’ Then you are asked to share the free offer with 10 other people in order to activate the free subscription. That, of course, just spreads the scam. You enter your subscription username and password, which the crook captures. Then you get sent to the real service provider’s web page. Scams like this are common.
That’s it for Cyber Security Today. Links to details about these stories can be found in the text version of each podcast at ITWorldCanada.com. That’s where you’ll also find my news stories aimed at businesses and cybersecurity professionals. Cyber Security Today can be heard on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or add us to your Flash Briefing on your smart speaker.


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Apple on Monday touted the results of a new review from financial consulting firm Assessment Group that states the Application Store was accountable for $517 billion in believed overall billings and profits of both of those actual physical solutions and products and services and digital items in 2019.
Of that quantity, Apple states it will take a 30 % reduce of just $61 billion of those people revenue, as which is the portion of full billings that constitutes digital-only goods. That features the largest classification, mobile online games, as properly as in-application buys, subscriptions, and unit sales of paid out apps. In-app advertising, also mainly devoted to cell gaming, makes up one more $45 billion. Of every little thing else — from ride-hailing computer software to meals shipping and delivery applications to cell retail stores from Ideal Buy and Focus on — making up the remaining $413 billion, Apple will take no lower, the review states.
These figures are generally in line with what we know about the company’s speedy-expanding solutions organization and how substantially it would make on a weekly and month to month foundation from the Application Store. But it is attention-grabbing to see a concrete breakdown of this granularity.
Why are these quantities particularly crucial to Apple? Effectively, the business needs not just developers but also regulators to feel of the App Retailer as a sprawling overall economy that is, in Apple’s terms, “dynamic, competitive, and flourishing.”
The Iphone maker is just one particular of the several substantial tech organizations now below a nearer regulatory microscope in Washington, as tech-centered task forces within the Section of Justice and the Federal Trade Fee get a nearer appear at whether or not Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft have also a lot power and wield it in anti-aggressive approaches.
Apple in particular has faced criticism above the decades for its obligatory 30 per cent lower, earning the ire of organizations that operate competing services, like Spotify, and accusations and at the very least one particular lawsuit from developers who say it operates the App Retailer like a monopoly. In the situation of Apple’s long-managing feud with Spotify, the European Union is now investigating Apple after its songs streaming rival filed a formal antitrust grievance.
The added pressure seems to have led to some purchaser-welcoming new characteristics, like Siri assist for Spotify. A lot of the conversation about Apple’s romantic relationship with builders these days centers on whether or not it is come to be a benevolent dictator that dangers overstepping its bounds or, as Apple sees it, a mutual benefactor in a symbiotic ecosystem.
Regulation apart, there are some intriguing figures in the report, which breaks out app categories by revenue. The research reveals that vacation apps like Expedia and airline cellular applications are dependable for making $57 billion in bookings and profits when ride-hailing applications and food items shipping and delivery create $40 billion and $31 billion, respectively.
But considerably and away the most significant profits generators, as the review calculates them, is the retail industry’s cellular counterparts, which features the mobile apps of significant chains like Walmart and Focus on:
Of the $519 billion the Application Retail store ecosystem supported in 2019, the study discovered that revenue from physical items and solutions accounted for the most significant share, at $413 billion. Inside that group, m-commerce applications produced the large the greater part of sales, and of all those, retail was the largest, at $268 billion. Retail applications contain those people that digitally characterize brick-and-mortar merchants these types of as Focus on and Best Invest in, as effectively as virtual marketplaces that promote actual physical merchandise, these kinds of as Etsy, but do not incorporate grocery shipping and delivery, which is its have category.
Other sorts of m-commerce applications were between the most significant resources of gross sales from actual physical goods and expert services. Travel applications, including Expedia and United, accounted for $57 billion. Experience-hailing applications, which include Uber and Lyft, comprised $40 billion in product sales, and meals shipping apps, together with DoorDash and Grubhub, manufactured up $31 billion.
There’s also an appealing geographic breakdown that says the US accounts for fewer than 50 percent of the whole $517 billion at just $138 billion although China contributes an estimated $246 billion.
Introvert. Beer guru. Communicator. Travel fanatic. Web advocate. Certified alcohol geek. Tv buff. Subtly charming internet aficionado.


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Gasoline prices rose nationwide for the third week in a row to an average of about $2.30 a gallon . The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported Tuesday that motorists last week paid an average of $2.296 a gallon for regular grade gasoline, up 5.5 cents from $2.241 the prior week. Retail gasoline prices are about 5.6 cents higher than they were at this time last year. The most expensive gasoline was on the West Coast, where a gallon cost $2.596, up from $2.536 the previous week. The cheapest gasoline remained on the Gulf Coast, where a gallon of regular rose to $2.131 from $2.091 the previous week.
DRS unit wins $51M contract
DRS Technologies Inc.'s optronics unit in Melbourne-Palm Bay has received a $51 million contract to provide engineering, maintenance, repair and other support work for the Army's OH-58 Kiowa Warrior attack helicopter fleet, the company said Tuesday.The contract is part of a five-year program potentially worth $514 million that DRS won in December 2003. So far, the optronics unit has received deals worth about $230 million to support the OH-58 night-vision navigation and infrared weapons targeting system. DRS received the latest award from the Army's Aviation & Missile Command at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Ala.
Ikea to break ground for store
Swedish furniture retailer Ikea is expected to break ground today for an Orlando store slated to open in the fall. The 309,000-square-foot store will be located on a 22-acre site on the southeast side of Mall at Millenia, at Conroy Road and Eastgate Drive. It will be the second Ikea store to open in Florida and will employ about 350 workers. Ikea has a store under construction in Sunrise in South Florida scheduled to open this summer.
AirTran presses to explain bid
Discount airline AirTran Airways is pressuring Midwest Airlines to set a date for its annual meeting so AirTran can explain to shareholders why it wants to take over the regional airline. AirTran CEO Joe Leonard urged Midwest's board of directors in a letter Monday to meet no later than April 26. Leonard said shareholders deserve to hear the offer and blasted what he called Midwest's "campaign of misinformation" designed to get shareholders to reject AirTran's offer of $345 million in cash and stock for the airline. A spokeswoman said Midwest's board of directors had not received the letter but would respond soon.
Court limits antitrust awards
The U.S. Supreme Court overturned a $79 million antitrust award against lumber producer Weyerhaeuser Co. in a ruling that will help shield companies from claims that they illegally tried to drive a competitor out of business. The justices said Tuesday in a unanimous ruling that a jury used the wrong standard in concluding that Weyerhaeuser monopolized the Pacific Northwest market for finished alder, a hardwood used in furniture. A now-defunct rival accused Weyerhaeuser, the world's biggest forest products company, of overbidding for scarce logs. The ruling is a victory for large U.S. companies, giving them more room to bid aggressively for raw materials and other supplies without the risk of violating federal antitrust laws.
Shire PLC buys U.S. drug firm
Shire PLC, the U.K. maker of attention-deficit drug Adderall XR, agreed to buy New River Pharmaceuticals Inc. for $2.6 billion to gain full control of Vyvanse, a potential successor. Chief Executive Officer Matthew Emmens said the acquisition will boost profit growth for 2009 by increasing Shire's share of the $3.3 billion U.S. hyperactivity disorder market. Adderall XR, which makes up more than half of the company's sales, will lose patent protection in 2009. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has requested further information from the firm about Vyvanse. Shire said it's optimistic about getting approval of the drug. New River is based in Radford, Va.
Hewlett-Packard Co.'s first-quarter profit jumped 26 percent as the company benefited from higher sales of laptop computers, printers and printing supplies during a robust holiday spending season. The company said it earned $1.55 billion, or 55 cents a share, for the quarter ended Jan. 31, compared with $1.23 billion, or 42 cents a share, for the same period last year. Revenue rose to $25.1 billion from $22.7 billion.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. reported a better-than-expected 9.8 percent increase in fourth-quarter profits, helped by new strategy and cost-control measures at its flagship U.S. stores division. Profit for the period ending Jan. 31 was $3.94 billion, or 95 cents a share, up from $3.59 billion, or 87 cents, from the year-ago period. Sales rose 10.9 percent to $98.09 billion.
Taylor Woodrow PLC, Britain's biggest homebuilder, boosted second-half profit 5.5 percent as U.K. sales increased and orders in the United States helped the company ride out the worst housing slump in 15 years. Net income was $348 million, compared with $329.8 million a year earlier. Sales rose 3.7 percent to $4.3 billion.
Brambles Ltd. of Australia, the world's biggest supplier of pallets used to move and store goods, said first-half profit rose 50 percent as sales advanced at its pallet-hire and document management divisions. Operating profit climbed to $270.6 million in the six months ended Dec. 31, from $180.1 million a year earlier. Sales increased to $1.87 billion from $1.71 billion. The company's CHEP pallet and container pooling unit is based in Orlando.


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DigFin recently covered the return of global banks to Asia’s merchant acquirer space, most recently by J.P. Morgan.
We positioned this as a determination to retake the commanding heights in merchant payments from fintechs. But that’s not the whole story.
In J.P. Morgan’s case, it is relying on a fintech to enable it to do digital acquirer services at scale. It turned to India to find the right partner.
“India is among the leading markets in Asia Pacific in key segments of digital innovation,” said Madhav Kalyan, managing director and head of payments for Asia Pacific at J.P. Morgan.
The bank aspires to build a suite of real-time payments services for customers in expanding number of regional markets, and incorporate that into its broader treasury services, making merchant acquiring a path to providing working-capital solutions.
“Clients are going digital and using non-traditional payment systems,” Kalyan said, citing mobile wallets and new infrastructure such as India’s Unified Payments Interface. “Real-time reconciliations are all-important to digital marketplaces.”
It has many of the necessary systems and tools in-house – the bank has already moved its payments business onto the cloud, for example – but it needs to find partners for critical elements that let it bring a complete solution – quickly.
The bank ended up working with In-Solutions Global (ISG), a Mumbai-based payments fintech that provides cloud-based services to banks and processors, both in India and in Australia and the Middle East.
But partnering with J.P. Morgan was of a different scale for ISG: “It’s one bank operating in multiple markets,” noted Sachin Castelino, the fintech’s chief strategy and transformation officer (pictured).
That is a change from working with clients operating in a single market, and for Castelino, a validation of the company’s grit. “This shows our true capability and the scale of what we’ve built,” he said.
From local to regional
ISG was founded in 2004 as a reconciliation service for card payments and ATM networks in India. It has two licenses: Payment Aggregation and Payment Gateway (PAPG) and Pre-Paid Instrument (PPI).
Together these have enabled it to expand into many areas of payments, as its bank and processor clients sought to digitize flows from end to end. ISG lets them onboard merchants, service those businesses, and settle payments on traditional schemes such as Visa, Mastercard and India’s RuPay.
- Read more:
- What J.P. Morgan’s acquiring push says about Asia payments
- Digital banking is built on the cloud
- What is fintech’s fate in S.E. Asia if e-commerce fails?
It then branched into servicing merchant acceptance of pre-paid cards and credit cards, and then with the rise of e-commerce, to help them process online payments in real time.
Each extension was made possible by adopting cloud-first compute, modular (“microservice”) architecture so each product could serve merchants in real time (such as with customer onboarding), all stitched together via APIs.
This setup made it possible for ISG to extend these services to J.P. Morgan in India and other Asia-Pacific markets. The relationship means ISG can now also service other clients in these new markets without having to reinvent any wheels – while also allowing J.P. Morgan to reach local merchants, or service multinationals operating in multiple places.
The partnership is still evolving. J.P. Morgan has seconded a handful of staff to ISG’s office to help it navigate the bank’s systems and processes. This is sometimes about tech, but often about ensuring ISG conforms to data- and payment-related regulations in new markets.
“We’re still learning how the bank’s legacy technology and new tech work together – where the balance lies,” Castelino said. “We try to understand the local regulatory requirements and automate as much as possible.”
Kalyan says he expects to work with ISG to enter more markets. “Asia has the largest digital ecosystem and the largest consumer base,” he said.


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According to recent Nielsen reports, Yu Yu Hakusho tied with Dragon Ball GT as the top-rated show on the Cartoon Network among males 9-14. During the same week, the series shot to the #2 spot on the Toonami Block, next to Dragon Ball GT for teens 12-17.
"We are pleased to expand on the popularity of the Yu Yu Hakusho brand by introducing the franchise to next-generation console players," said Nancy MacIntyre, Vice President of Marketing for Atari's Beverly Studio. "By pairing the authentically recreated Dark Tournament saga with unique interactive gameplay modes, we feel we have created an unrivaled interactive anime experience."
Yu Yu Hakusho: Dark Tournament propels players into the dangerous Dark Tournament fighting arena where they assume the role of one of more than 25 characters, and engage in high-powered Spirit Attacks to bring down opponents. Arcade and survival modes lead gamers through a series of increasingly difficult battles with AI-controlled adversaries, and an integrated card game provides the opportunity to use cards earned in combat for an all-new strategy game.
Created by Digital Fiction, Yu Yu Hakusho: Dark Tournament is rated 'T' for Teen and is currently available for PlayStation2 at a suggested retail price of $39.95. For more information, please visit www.yuyuhakusho.com.
More articles about Yu Yu Hakusho: Dark Tournament


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Discountsupermarket chain Kwik Save has been resurrected five years after it went into administration with the launch of its first convenience store to hit the Nike Force Sky High Wedge Sneaker Womens
Ian Bishop, marketing director atCostcutter Supermarkets Group, said: "Kwiksave is a very strong brand that is synonymous with value, and this commitment remains at the heart of our new offer.
strapped families seek Air Force One High Gum bargains during the economic downturn and there are plans for more throughout the country.
The new store follows the increase of credit crunch busting stores as cash Nike Air Force 1 High Men's White
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It has also changed the name as part of the revamp from Kwik Save to kwiksave.
200,000 readers in Greater Manchester.
Free morning newspaper, The Metro, published every weekday, is also part of our portfolio,
The kwiksave store is part of Costcutter's strategy to grow its convenience store format though itskwiksave brand as well as Costcutter and myCostcutter.
Kwik Save relaunches with convenience store format in Bolton
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high street in Greater Manchester. The store in Little Lever, Bolton, has been re launched with a new red and black logo by Costcutter Supermarkets Group, which bought the rights to the name after Kwik Save went out of business in 2007.
Bhavesh Parekh, who runs the new kwiksave store, said: "We are at the heart of the local community and it is vitally important to us that we provide good quality products and exceptional value to our customers and the kwiksave brand allows us to do this.
"The response from the local community has been fantastic and we've already seen a massive uplift of new customers since the fascia was installed."
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- Its trade war with the U.S. could damage both China's economy and its credit rating if it lingers on, ratings agency DBRS said.
- China's debt is rising, and it might respond with more monetary easing if it can't reach an agreement with the White House.
- Other ratings agencies also have warned about deterioration to China's standing.
Escalations in its trade dispute with the U.S. not only could dent China's economy but also impact its credit standing, according to ratings agencies.
China's credit remains strong despite a weakening economy and a high-stakes tariff battle it is engaged in with the U.S. However, should the impasse linger on, the damages could become greater and start having some deeper impacts.
"The tariff war is negative for China especially at a time when its policy makers are battling problems of rising debt and increasing leverage in its economy," analysts at ratings agency DBRS said in a note. "The economic impact on China of rising tariffs would be broader than just via its trade with the U.S."
An accompanying release said the impact of more central bank intervention could impact "the future of [China's] public debt ratio and China's rating."
Reductions in credit ratings often translate to higher interest rates for a country's bonds. China's debt is currently equivalent to $5.3 trillion in U.S. dollars, or about 43% of its GDP.
DBRS, the fourth-largest ratings agency in the world, has China rated "A," which is its third-highest classification. However, it recently changed the outlook to negative as the tariff issues pile up.
"China remains a middle-income country that generally lacks the historic openness, institutional credibility and transparency of the major global financial centers," the firm said in an earlier note.
Negotiators on both sides say they remain optimistic a deal can be reached, though markets have been focused on the more immediate impacts of existing tariffs and threats of ones to come.
The U.S. this month hiked its tariffs to 25% from 10% on $200 billion of Chinese goods. China retaliated by raising its tariff rate from 10% to 20%-25% on $60 billion of U.S. imports. The U.S. is seeking a number of concessions, particularly focused on opening Chinese markets and halting the theft of intellectual property and forced technology transfers.
Should the U.S. not get what it is seeking, President Donald Trump has threatened to slap tariffs on another $300 billion in Chinese imports. The U.S. had a $419.2 billion trade deficit with China in 2018, on $539.5 billion in imports and just $120.3 billion in exports. The deficit through the first three months of 2019 was just shy of $80 billion.
Other ratings agencies have noted the danger to further intensifying relations.
"An abrupt breakdown in trade talks, if that were to occur, will inject considerable policy uncertainty, increase risk aversion and lead to an abrupt repricing of risk assets globally," Moody's analyst Madhavi Bokil said in a note. "In China, increased US tariffs will have a significant negative effect on exports amid an already slowing economy."
Fitch said China could offset the additional tariffs with more monetary easing, but noted it expects GDP to fall to 6.1% this year from 6.6% in 2018.
Should the U.S. extend its sanctions, that could knock off another half-point from the growth figure, the agency said.
"But if trade tensions eventually lead to blanket U.S. tariffs on all Chinese goods, the potential rating impact could be greater, as it may tempt the authorities to abandon their restrained approach to policy easing, and adopt credit stimulus measures that exacerbate the country's already significant financial vulnerabilities," said Brian Coulton, Fitch's economist.


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Jamba Juice, the leading provider of healthy, fun and on-the-go food, snacks and beverages, announced today the latest details of its comprehensive eco-sustainability strategy. Spearheaded by CEO James D. White, the new initiatives build upon the company’s track record over the past two years of reducing waste, introducing recyclables and utilizing more organic ingredients.
“We are extremely pleased to announce our latest green initiatives as we continue to build upon our work,” said James D. White, CEO of Jamba Juice. “In January, for instance, we introduced a new oatmeal menu item made with organic steel cut oats, a first in the QSR category. Not only has it been a hit with customers, it also provides a great case study on how we can be successful with other organics going forward.”
Among the other initiatives to launch at Jamba is the test phase of an electricity reduction project designed to cut energy usage at store locations by an estimated ten percent. The company is also helping to develop best practices for energy conservation through its work with the U.S. Green Building Council on a pilot project to create two new LEED rating systems – LEED for Retail: New Construction, and LEED for Retail: Commercial Interiors. Currently, two Jamba stores are in the process of obtaining LEED Green Building Certifications.


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- In TECH NEWS, G7 nations can’t agree on digital tax, Neuralink announces some amazing stuff and South Koreans complain about 5G
- In ONLINE NEWS, Netflix loses subscribers, eBay lifts profit forecasts and FaceApp is accused of dodgy data usage
- In CONSUMER/RETAIL NEWS, UK inflation steadies, Watches of Switzerland enjoys good times, Hotel Chocolat puts in a solid performance and GVC benefits from online gambling
- In OTHER NEWS, I bring you a cautionary tale involving a vacuum robot as well as some arty buildings…
So G7 can’t agree, Neuralink announces some amazing developments and 5G ain’t all it’s cracked up to be…
G7 nations struggle to reach compromise on digital tax (Financial Times, Victor Mallet) shows how difficult it has been for the US, Japan, Germany, UK, France, Italy and Canada to agree on how to tax big tech companies who minimise what they pay by booking profits in low-tax countries. Funnily enough, the US is against measures like France’s new 3% turnover tax given that America is the country whose companies are going to be hit hardest. * SO WHAT? * It seems like everyone wants some kind of tax harmonisation to make it harder (or, ideally, impossible) for companies to just shuffle their profits around the world so they can make the minimum tax spend. Given that the G7 can’t decide with seven nations in the room, prospects for an OECD decision when this is debated in a year or so’s time – with its 129 member states – don’t look all that great. Big Tech lobbyists will obviously do their best to delay/disrupt any decision and in the meantime, places like Ireland will continue to rake in the revenues!
Elon Musk unveils plans to build mind-reading implants: ‘The monkey is out of the bag’ (The Guardian, Julia Carrie Wong) is a very exciting story about the “brain-machine interface” startup Neuralink which announced some major advances in a presentation on Tuesday night at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. Basically, the company implants tiny chips into the brain which
communicate with machines and can enhance the functionality of “implantees” in conjunction with AI. Neuralink is hoping to get FDA approval for a human clinical trial next year on a version of its device that is “only intended for patients with serious unmet medical diseases”. * SO WHAT? * This sounds great, but like most of Musk’s ventures, it sounds very costly, time-consuming and is beset with practical challenges. However, everyone loves a trier – and wouldn’t it be amazing if Neuralink (and other such companies in this field) could achieve its goals! Parkinson’s could be cured, blind people could be given their sight back etc. Wow.
Then in South Koreans complain at poor quality of 5G network (Financial Times, Song Jung-a) we see that the world’s biggest 5G network is getting criticised for poor quality, slow connections and a lack of apps that take advantage of the new tech. The country launched 5G in April and over 1.6m people went 5G by the end of last month, accounting for 77% of 5G users globally. * SO WHAT? * First World problems and all that, but it would seem that these teething problems are due to a shortage of base stations and the whole US/whole world vs Huawei thing could make rapid expansion more difficult. Samsung is aiming to release a 5G smartphone next month with Apple’s offering expected next year. This sort of thing happens with every new generation – and it gets better every time. I’m sure the situation will improve vastly in the next year or so – and when it does, whole new possibilities will open up. Game-streaming, for instance, will get more popular and will ultimately kill the use of stand-alone consoles – and possibly gaming computers – as download speeds go ballistic, IMHO.
Netflix takes a beating, eBay stays positive about the future and FaceApp data usage attracts attention…
Netflix reports first drop in US users in nearly a decade (Wall Street Journal, Joe Flint and Patrick Thomas) heralds the rather big news that Netflix’s subscriber numbers are in trouble. The news sent its share price down by 11% in early after-hours trading. The company added 2.7m subscribers over the quarter – way less than the 5m it had expected and the 5.5m it added in the same period last year. * SO WHAT? * This ain’t great given that the likes of Disney, Apple, WarnerMedia and NBCUniversal are all lining up to launch their offerings later this year – you would have thought that numbers are going to go down further as rivals take away their content from the platform (they’ve already lost their two most-watched shows – “The Office” and “Friends”). Netflix will clearly hope that more good quality proprietary content will stem at least some of the tide of deserters – but it is in for a rough ride. I think that Netflix will suffer for the short-to-medium term, but its new rivals will soon come to realise how expensive the business is and potentially consolidate – I just can’t see them all operating separately forever because surely there are only so many subscriptions their customers can take!
Ebay lifts profit outlook amid tepid revenues (Wall Street Journal, Sebastian Herrera) highlights an upbeat eBay
which managed to publish better-than-expected results and up its forecasts although its revenue growth suffered. It also announced a partnership with Indian e-commerce startup Paytm Mall and sold its German flash-sale site brands4friends. The news sent its share price up by 5% – impressive, considering it has shot up by around 40% so far this year already. * SO WHAT? * This is all good, but the company has been facing increasing pressure from rival Amazon and from activist investors which will probably result in a sale of some of the assets such as StubHub and its classifieds. Personally, I don’t think that eBay is the force it once was as new rivals continue to muscle in on its core business. However, new ventures and more focus on other revenues such as advertising should help it to pull through an increasingly competitive ‘marketplace’.
In FaceApp data use comes under scrutiny (Daily Telegraph, Natasha Bernal) we see that the sudden spike in popularity of a smartphone app that can “age” you has highlighted privacy concerns about what AI could do with a massive archive of people’s faces. The “age challenge” spread on social media has helped to push it up the app charts. FaceApp is made by the Russian company Wireless Lab and when you sign up, the Ts and Cs say that you are giving it a “perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide, fully-paid, transferable sub-licensable licence” to use and reproduce your image. Clifford Chance lawyer Jonathan Kewley said that the app could be in serious breach of Europe’s GDPR laws. * SO WHAT? * There are all sorts of things that these photos could be used for, so let’s hope that something gets down about this pronto.
UK inflation stays steady, Watches of Switzerland has a great time, Hotel Choc continues to perform and GVC benefits further from online gambling…
Levelling fuel prices keep inflation steady at 2pc – for now (Daily Telegraph, Tim Wallace) cites the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics which show that consumer prices were up 2%, in line with the Bank of England’s target. * SO WHAT? * This is potentially good news for most as wages rose by 3.6% over last year. Having said that, prices could potentially go up sharply in the event of a no-deal Brexit as the pound would be expected to weaken, thus lifting prices of imports. If prices go up, the Bank of England may raise interest rates to keep a lid on them but consensus at the moment is that the Bank will not raise rates.
Then in a swift scoot down the high street, Time serves Watches of Switzerland very well (The Times, Ashley Armstrong) highlights the strong performance of this high end watch retailer in its first set of results since its flotation in May. Watches of Switzerland has 128 shops under the Goldsmiths, Mappin & Webb and Watches of Switzerland brands as well as the American jewellery chain Mayors. It announced a 180% hike in pre-tax profits and a 28% rise in luxury watch sales – a segment that represents 82% of the business. It is the largest retailer in the UK of Rolex, Cartier, Tag Heuer and Breitling. Average spend per customer is
£4,000 and 19% of sales are to tourists – half of them Chinese. * SO WHAT? * This looks like a great little business. Presumably, sales to tourists will rise in the event of a no-deal Brexit if the pound goes through the floor.
Further down the high street Hotel Chocolat making a mint as it spreads overseas (The Times, Ashley Armstrong) shows that the British chocolatier continues to go from strength to strength as it saw a 14% rise in sales and predicts profits to be in line with expectations despite splashing out on 16 new shops and expanding into the US (for a second time). It now has 167 stores in the UK and 10 abroad. Chief exec and co-founder Angus Thirlwell said that the chain’s success was due to the fact that “we aren’t just sitting around and waiting for people to come into our shops”. Good on them!
GVC’s online gambling bet pays off as retail business suffers (Financial Times, Alice Hancock) shows how the owner of Ladbrokes Coral has mitigated some of its disastrous UK performance with an 18% increase in revenues from its online operations, despite a strong performance in the same period last year that included the Football World Cup. * SO WHAT? * I think that this is signalling the direction that bookies have got to go as their cash cow business of FOBTs has been cut off at the knees by recent legislation. Everyone and their dog in this business is shutting shops and online is way cheaper. UK gambling groups are scrambling to make inroads into the US market at the moment following the recent trend of legalising sports betting but GVC is lagging behind the likes of William Hill, which is now the only UK gambling company to operate in all eight states that have legalised sports betting.
And finally, in other news…
I thought I’d leave you with two “alternative” stories today. The first one is not for the squeamish: Man left ‘traumatised’ as robot vacuum causes havoc after encoutering dog p00 (The Mirror, Zahra Mulroy https://tinyurl.com/yy39pvjy). Yes, it went about as well as you’d expect it to…clearly the owners were rather clumsy on this. Then to balance that out, I thought I’d highlight An artist is leaving mind-bending optical illusions on buildings worldwide, and they’ll make you do a double-take (Insider, Darcy Schild https://tinyurl.com/y37gmng2). Some of these paintings are incredible!
Some of today’s market, commodity & currency moves (as at 0856hrs green is up, red is down). THIS IS INTENDED AS A ROUGH GUIDE ONLY!
|FTSE 100 *||Dow Jones *||S&P 500 *||Nasdaq**||DAX *||CAC-40 *||Nikkei **||Shanghai **|
|7,535 (-0.55%)||27,220 (-0.42%)||2,984 (-0.65%)||8,186||12,341 (-0.72%)||5,572 (-0.76%)||21,046 (-1.97%)||2,901 (-1.04%)|
|Oil (WTI) p/b||Oil (Brent) p/b||Gold Per t/oz||£/$||€/$||$/¥||£/€||$/₿|
(markets with an * are at yesterday’s close, ** are at today’s close)


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In September, Containerlift joined other freight forwarders from across the globe at the annual CCA & Focused Conference, in Shenzhen, China. Shenzhen is one of China’s newest cities with a population that has grown from 30,000 in 1980 to over 21 million in 2016!
Joost Baker (Managing Director) and Paul Reeves (Shipping Manager), traveled out to China for two weeks to meet customers, the shipping lines and forge stronger relationships with CCA and Focused Group freight forwarders across the globe.
Paul Reeves explains; ‘Joining its first freight forwarding network, the Focused Group, is a key step in Containerlift’s ongoing and rapid development in to the shipping industry. Establishing strong relationships with strategic partners around the world and in particular on key shipping routes will ultimately help us offer a better and more comprehensive service to existing customers. It also presents many opportunities for Containerlift to capture new business and a platform upon which we can continue to build. Since returning from China last week we have had a great deal of follow up work and exciting lines of enquiry for new business.’


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For almost a year now growers in the Lea Valley, UK, had to keep their greenhouses empty because growing vegetables simply doesn't add up anymore. Yet up until now, the consequences of the situation do not seem to have sunk in at the public, or at the government level. "The fact that you cannot turn on the production of food in an instant has come as news to some," says Lee Stiles.
The last of this seasons Lea Valley Tomatoes grown in Essex, England were still on the shelves well into November. How that will be next year, remains uncertain, says Lee Stiles. "Unfortunately the situation amongst Lea Valley Growers remains serious. Many growers have still not received agreeable prices from the supermarkets for next year. This means that they cannot plan for January plantings and, if they do plant, it will be in late February to March, if at all."
It's the combination of high energy prices, a lack of workers available and uncertainty about the prices, resulting in growers leaving their greenhouses empty. It's not just the fresh produce growers having to deal with this situation. The effects bear on the poultry sector as well, resulting in a shortage of eggs in supermarkets currently.
Dear Sainsburys…..if you need a top up I know a man…… pic.twitter.com/ev7HzZfG4r— nick matthews (@totalbristol) December 5, 2022
The UK government has installed a price cap of £2.19 per therm until April 1st - however according to Lee this doesn't bring growers enough confidence to plant without knowing the prices they will receive. "A minority of growers may plant in Late January but this is just to secure enough labour for the whole season and they will do so at a loss."
Aside from the growers' personal situation and the developments within the industry, it also becomes clear that consumers can hardly relate to growers and the work they do, Lee concludes. "Last week the media were in shock that growers are deciding not to grow food in Britain. The fact that you cannot turn on production of food In an instant has come as news to some."
It seems consumers hardly have any idea how growers need to plan months ahead in order to produce food. "And it isn’t as easy as just switching to cheaper foreign imports anymore as we have seen with the fragile supply chain & global distributions to the energy market. When you only produce a quarter of your own energy or food the slightest disturbance overseas can have dramatic cost implications for British consumers, and also leave a country vulnerable to those who would weaponize food & energy security."
Today, an emergency press conference will be held. Ahead of that, the National Farmers Union warned the current egg shortages “could just be the start” as multiple farming sectors were impacted. “I fear the country is sleepwalking into further food supply crises, with the future of British fruit and vegetable supplies in trouble", president Minette Batters said to the BBC.
And still, to the government and the public, the situation doesn't seem to be getting through, Lee notices. "It wasn’t long ago that we were issuing movement papers for essential food workers during lockdown, now we cannot get government to travel 20 miles to visit growers."


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Toyota’s North American boss has a long-term homework project: To figure out a way to convert recent lessees-turned-buyers back into lessees three or four years down the road.
It’s a tough task, David Christ admits, and one that will require a lot of creativity to complete as inventory and reduced incentives have slashed leasing penetration this year. But given what a vital tool leasing historically has been for automakers and dealers, Christ says the industry will need to find an effective answer. Speaking to Automotive News on the eve of the Los Angeles Auto Show, David Christ said.
“Toyota’s leasing percentage right now is about 14% [of total sales], and it would normally be [near] 30%, so that’s nearly 15% of the business which is now in a retail contract instead of a lease. That’s a concern, because a customer on a lease cycle is normally back in three years, and it’s an automatic opportunity to re-lease them a new car or sell them a new car.”
Getting those customers back into the dealership on something close to a normal leasing cycle “is something we’ve got to create, because historically we’ve had 30% of our portfolio just automatically coming back.”
Leasing has matured into an essential tool for the auto industry. It not only drives new-vehicle sales, but off-lease vehicles — especially those that came with prepaid maintenance, as Toyota’s do — also serve as valuable feedstock for highly profitable certified pre-owned vehicles. Leasing also provides automakers and dealerships with a relief valve for their monthly sales, allowing them to pull lease vehicles forward if sales are slow or extend lease terms if inventories are tight.
But leasing rates industry-wide have been hammered because of low inventories from production and parts interruptions over the last 18 months and the requisite pullback in automaker incentives that followed. As automaker leasing subvention waned, consumers often found lower monthly payments in installment loans. Charlie Chesbrough, senior economist at Cox Automotive, wrote last month:
“After reaching a modern peak of nearly 34% [of all new-vehicle sales in the United States] in February 2019, leasing share has been falling. Cox had forecast 2022 leasing penetration would fall to 19%, and it could go even lower based on current trends.”
Christ said that leasing at Toyota and across the industry is unlikely to return to pre-pandemic levels “until the industry has inventory and dealer stock, and demand does not exceed supply.” When that happens, he said, Toyota’s traditional leasing customers would probably return to lease contracts if terms went back to something closer to normal. “To me, the leasing change is more about the dynamic of the marketplace and the change in transaction price than it is about whether customers really want to lease or not,” Christ added.
But, he says, luring them back might take creativity and is likely to be on a schedule more stretched out than 36 months because of the time it will take for their current retail contracts to build equity. Luckily, with inventories only just now starting to build off their historic lows, the brand has time to come up with something new to roll out mid-decade, Christ said:
“We’re going to have to appeal to them differently or market to them differently, but we think we can give them an opportunity to come back to us in three or four years off of retail contracts. It’s something that we need to keep working on. I don’t think we’re there yet as far as having a need to do it, because our demand exceeds supply still. But at some point, that’s going to tip over. And when that happens, we’ll be ready to talk to those customers and get back to leasing.”
Source: Auto News
A computer animation professional with over 23 years of industry experience having served in leading organizations, TV channels & production facilities in Pakistan. An avid car enthusiast and petrolhead with an affection to deliver quality content to help shape opinions. Formerly written for PakWheels as well as major publications including Dawn. Founder of CarSpiritPK.com