text:
For all the trends and changes that are emerging, there is little doubt that the economic fallout of COVID-19 will have the greatest impact on shopper behaviour over the next few years.
Before this crisis we were already reporting the rise of recessionary-like shopping behaviours, including the growing use of discounters, increasing own-label participation and caution in trading up. In January we also highlighted a deterioration in our outlook for restaurants, bars and pubs as shoppers reported plans to cut back on eating and drinking out.
Since then we have seen consumer confidence collapse. Latest figures from the GfK Consumer Confidence Barometer showed its headline measure falling by 27 points in a single month.
Unfortunately, things are likely to get significantly worse before they get better, in part because at the moment the economy is being shielded by the government’s furlough scheme and the deferral of mortgage payments by those unable to meet their monthly obligations.
These measures will not last forever, however, and in time we will start to understand the true economic impact of COVID-19. Even the most optimistic forecasts factor in the inevitability of rising unemployment, a recession and, in the medium-to-long-term, higher levels of taxation.
Shopper’s finances, already strained, will come under severe pressure.
Re-evaluation of value
The changing economic environment is already leading many shoppers’ to reframe their perceptions of value and we expect that trend to intensify over the months ahead.
Shoppers feel under threat and will become more risk averse in their attitudes and behaviours. Budgeting and money saving initiatives will become the primary influences in decision making.
For younger shoppers this reframing of value will be most pronounced. For millennials and gen Z, this crisis is their first economic shock – their only adult experience of recession and rising unemployment.
Wants versus needs
Another value consideration relates to shoppers’ changing perceptions of what is essential and what is not.
In the past few weeks many shoppers have become fully aware of how little they can spend, from realising how much eating and drinking out had cost, to people reviewing their monthly direct debits to decide what should stay and what should go.
The boundary between what is viewed
as essential and
non-essential expenditure continues to shift.
Changing dynamics on the supply side will also alter shoppers’ balance of the value equation.
Inflation, particularly on many imported goods, will push up prices. We may, for example, start to see greater focus on seasonal produce
Also, we have already seen how supermarkets have substantially reduced promotional participation in recent weeks. How quickly and to what extent will promotions be reintroduced?
The financial implications will be wide reaching and, in many cases, difficult to accurately predict. However, Savvy’s initial view of the financial implications include:
- The crisis has broken well established habits that will not necessarily return. This is a reset moment
- Shoppers are likely to exhibit heighted loss aversion and will seek security
- Promotional mechanics with a guaranteed reward or high chances of win will perform better
- Shoppers will be more reluctant to try higher priced NPD
- Increasing use of shopping lists and meal planning (inc. digital) •Shift back to the ‘big shop’ to help budgeting
- Online shopping growth, again driven by budgeting
- Shoppers may show more reluctance to pay a premium for convenience
- Increasing use of coupons
- Big brands may benefit from a flight to safety as shoppers turn to what they know
- The ‘bounce back’ may not live up to hopes, especially if economic damage escalates


text:
Germany’s leading chemical manufacturer Lanxess AG has announced the acquisition of the chemical and wind power business of Mumbai based Gwalior Chemical Industries, in a deal valued at Rs 536 crore. The acquisition will be funded through internal accruals.
The deal marks the first Indian acquisition by Lanxess and is in line with its longterm strategy of expanding in BRIC countries which accounted for approximately 16 per cent of its total revenue in 2008. Lanxess is bullish on growing its business in Asia, and India is the second most important Asian market for the company after China. The company recently took over the business and production assets of China-based Jiangsu Polyols Chemical and intends to continue to purchase companies available at attractive valuations.
Gwalior’s business matches the portfolio of Lanxess’ basic chemicals unit and will reinforce its production capabilities in the Indian market. Gwalior is expected to invest the sale proceeds in its power generation and specialty chemicals businesses and plans a cash distribution of Rs 100 crore to its shareholders.

domain: news


text:
Memphis Black Restaurant Week kicks off – FOX13 News Memphis
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — For the seventh year, Memphis Black Restaurant Week kicks off and this year is bigger and with more expectations than ever.
This is an opportunity for companies to show off their best.
With a long line to enter the popular black-owned Sage on Main Street as a backdrop, we spoke to Cynthia Daniels, Memphis event planner and founder of Black Restaurant Week.
“Sage is definitely a favorite of a lot of Memphians. What I love is that people come from all over town downtown…people come from Collierville, from Bartlett,” Daniels said.
“It’s amazing how many people step up to try the new restaurants on the list. It starts before restaurant week…as soon as I market that a rest is participating, people go there that day. You’ll get about two months of residue,” she said.
28 restaurants on the list, with new and old favorites, included.
“Chef Tam’s underground cafe…she was able to move to a much bigger venue,” Daniels said.
“It was amazing to see the growth,” Daniels said. “To know the first year, about 3,000 Memphians participated, and now we have at least 40,000 to 50,000 people who will participate; we even have delivery apps now,”
“We get a big crowd during Black Restaurant Week,” said Khadijah Muhammad, manager at Sage. “It has helped the company a lot. Many people come to see us. »
To see the full list of participating restaurants, visit their site.
©2022 Cox Media Group


text:
Kia India profits jump 150% to $250 million in FY2023, turnover hits $4.6 billion
A 44 percent growth in volumes in FY2023 to 269,229 units helped Kia India register its best operational performance since its market entry in August 2019.
South Korean car major Kia India continues to scale new peaks in the country and has posted a turnover of $4.6 billion, with profits breaching the $250 million mark for FY2023.
Kia India has seen its profits grow over 150% in FY2023 to Rs 2,122 crore versus Rs 825 crore profits registered in FY2022. Meanwhile, turnover rose 53% year on year to Rs 38,783 crore versus Rs 25,300 crore in FY2022.
A ramp up in domestic sales and increased demand in overseas markets, helped Kia India produce at almost 100 percent capacity, helping get the best out of its production facility at Anantapur in Anantapur. As per SIAM data, Kia India produced a total of 359,323 vehicles in FY2023, up 52% YoY (FY2022: 236,036 units).
According to the carmaker’s FY2023 financial filing with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, sourced from business intelligence platform Tofler, a director's note stated: “During the year, the company sold 269,229 units in the domestic market and 85,756 units in the export market. Your directors are confident of achieving higher growth in sales in ensuing years.”
The strong performance was led by its range of SUVs – the compact Sonet, midsize Seltos and MPV Carens – which gave the company with its 269,229 UVs a 13% share of the fast-growing Indian utility vehicle market which sold a total of 20,03,718 UVS in FY2023. The year-on-year sales growth was 44% (FY2022: 186,787 units).
The Carens MPV, which sold 70,314 units in FY2023, has clocked cumulative sales of 123,573 units from launch in February 2022 till end-October 2023.
Kia, which ranks among the top three SUV makers in the country over the past few years and the fifth UV maker in FY2023, overtook longstanding MPV champion Toyota Innova. The Carens sold 70,314 units to the Innova’s 55,574 units.
With its performance in FY2023, Kia India has become the fastest automaker to breach the Rs 30,000 crore turnover mark and Rs 2,000 crore in profits in about five years’ time. Interestingly, its sister company Hyundai Motor India drove past a turnover of Rs 60,000 crore for the first time in FY2023 but the maker of the Creta has been in India for over 25 years, which highlights the sharp rise of the Kia brand in India in just five years.
The company, which broke into the top 5 car makers chart in India in just three years, is now a key contributor to Kia globally. In CY2022, with 254,556 units, Kia India accounted for 9% of Kia’s global volumes. Kia India, however, is facing stiff challenge from a resurgent Toyota Kirloskar for the No. 5 position in the passenger vehicle car market with the latter's strong showing in the SUV space with new products like HyRyder and HyCross.
Capacity expansion to 430,000 units to cater to demand
Kia commenced mass production in August 2019 with an annual production capacity of around 300,000 units. Through adroit productivity enhancements, it was able to produce over 350,000 units in FY2023. In early July 2023, to cater to growing demand, Kia India announced capacity expansion to 430,000 units, with the fresh capacity to come on stream by mid-2024.
While launching the facelifted Seltos in July, the company unveiled its mid-term vision called Kia 2.0 which targets growing its market share to 10 percent and also double its dealer network to over 600 stores. At present it has a network of 425 touchpoints across 213 cities and is focused on strengthening its footprint across the country to cater to growing demand in the hinterlands. Now, the company is readying itself to launch the new Sonet compact SUV in December 2023 to sustain brand excitement.
In July, Kia launched the Seltos facelift at Rs 10.90 lakh through to Rs 19.80 lakh for the top-spec automatic variants. The Seltos X-Line is priced at Rs 20 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi.)
Kia’s top management had assured that the product excitement for the company will continue as the new ground-up compact EV in India for global markets and an RV EV are likely to hit the roads in the next few years. This will help Kia expand its addressable market and bring in incremental sales.
Tae Jin Park, Kia India’s managing director, had told Autocar Professional in February this year that the company is following a top-down strategy with its EVs.
"EV 9, EV6, a grounds-up EV designed for India and the world, and the RV EV – these are multiple options the company is working on to expand the model line-up. We are also exploring assembly of EV6 in India to make it more attractive," Park had said in July 2023.
In April 2021, Kia India reimagined itself in line with its new brand identity, ‘Movement that Inspires’ aimed at offering customers meaningful experiences backed by innovative products and services. Till date, Kia India has launched five vehicles for the Indian market – the Seltos, the Carnival, the Sonet, the Carens, and the all-electric EV6.
Till end-FY2023 Kia India had completed over 889,000 dispatches from its Anantapur plant, including 693,000 domestic sales and over 196,000 units exported. With over 260,000 connected cars on Indian roads, Kia India is among the connected car leaders in the country, claims the company.
The brand has built a network of 425 touchpoints across 213 cities and is focussed on strengthening its footprints across the country to cater to the growing demand in the hinterlands.
IIT Bombay, one of India’s top technical and research institutions, honours Kinetic Group chairman Dr Arun Firodia, one ...
New assembly line at Plant A expands total manufacturing capacity at the Manesar plants to 900,000 units per annum. Alon...
Partnership with Exide Energy enables Hyundai Motor and Kia to equip future EVs in the Indian market with locally produc...


text:
When some fans spotted some PS4 exclusive games listed on Amazon France with the PC version, there was a wave of excitement as fans thought that the games would be released on PC but it looks like that won’t be happening after all.
Some of the popular games that were spotted with a PC version on Amazon France include games like Persona 5 Royal, Bloodborne, The Last of Us Part II, The Nathan Drake Collection, Gran Turismo Sport and more.
Soon after the news started spreading, Sega / Atlus has come out to clarify that the listing is an error and that they will be looking to take it down. Sony soon follows up by telling IGN that the listing is not accurate and that they did not announce that these games will be heading to PC.
Sadly, for those that want to play the game, the only way you will be able to do it is on the PS4 for now.


text:
Diversus Media Group is managing this exciting event along with our partnering associations North Edmonton Business Association(NEBA), West Edmonton Business Association(WEBA) and South Edmonton Business Association(SEBA) and the Kingsway District Association(KDA) are hosting a 2015 Lunar New Year celebratory dinner. The event will be held at the Chateau Lacombe Hotel on Friday, February 20, 2015.
Welcoming The Sheep, Gateway to a LNY Celebration is the theme of this year’s event, encouraging businesses in Edmonton to support each other and to support cultural diversity from all four corners of the City.
This event will be an addition to many other Edmonton Lunar New Year events and will add to the exciting festivities. 2015 is the Year of the Sheep and is representative of the first full moon of the New Year!
We will have a New Year market from 5pm to 7pm, with dinner and entertainment program starting at 7pm. At the market, we will have art and craft demonstrations and sales, calligraphy for New Year’s and in general, New Year souvenirs for sale. The New Year market is open to the public. The reception for the dinner guests will be in the same area which allows the guests to shop, mingle, eat snacks and appetizers and drink at the market place. There will also be a draw for 2 direct flight tickets (worth $3000)to Amsterdam courtesy of KLM and the Edmonton International Airport and also women’s diamond ring (worth $1200) courtesy of Westmojnt Jewellers.
The 2015 Lunar New Year will be on Friday, February 20th., 2015 at the Chateau Lacombe Hotel.


text:
Amazon’s Fire TV is straight-forward to hook up and start using out of the box. But there’s more you can do. Here’s a look at some of the other features.
Tag Archives | amazon
Amazon Tips, Tricks, How To Galleries, Reviews and News.
Amazon’s Fire TV has a unique feature that allows you to do voice search via the remote. While it’s cool, your searches are stored on Amazon servers.
This week Amazon unveiled its Roku and Apple TV streaming set-top-box competitor called the Fire TV. It includes a lot of power under the hood and can play games.
Amazon Prime offers a feature that allows you to get a free pre-released eBook once a month. Here’s a look at how to get your free eBook each month,
Amazon offers an instant coupon page that you might now know about. Here’s how to find and use the Amazon instant coupons and save money of purchases.
As the popularity of Amazon grows, we should all assume the attacks against our Amazon accounts will as well. With that in mind, today I changed my Amazon password and decided to pass on steps – more as a reminder than anything.
If you’re a major geekoid with tons of devices and use Amazon Cloud Player, it’s a good idea to periodically deauthorize the ones you don’t need. Here’s how
Amazon is already into the spirit of giving. The online vendor is offering a portion of its own revenue to charities when users sign up select where their favorite foundation.
Amazon is widely known for its customer service and low price shipping. This week the massive online retailer decided to ask customers to purchase larger orders if they would like to continue using free shipping.
When Amazon initially launched its Instant Video app on iOS, it lacked AirPlay support. Now thanks to a recent update, you can stream to your Apple TV.
Amazon is making some big changes that could drastically change the way we feel about both physical books and ebooks. What if when you bought one it automatically came with the other?
Amazon is giving away more free stuff, and this time it’s a compilation of the top 10 apps it has ever featured for its free appstore free app of the day.
Are you a gamer? Amazon just started up its late summer games sale and is offering discounts on hundreds of titles for PC and console alike.
Amazon occasionally just gives things away. This time around its a $5 off promotion for orders exceeding $25.


text:
THE 1950s had to end sometime, and in Detroit the soaring tailfins of 1959 models put an exclamation point at the conclusion of an exuberant decade of unchecked optimism.
Inspired by aircraft of the 1940s, tailfins inched upward through the ’50s to reach their zenith on the 1959 Cadillac. That car and many others presented a comic-book vision of travel — over the earth and through space — that was to evolve in the early ’60s into less fanciful designs more attuned to the actual spacecraft that were by then putting Americans into orbit.
“Tailfins embodied a feeling of prosperity and jet-age excitement,” said Jeffrey Leestma, president of the Automotive Hall of Fame here. Last weekend the Hall of Fame made tailfins the theme of its annual classic car show, which included 40 models.
This Sunday, another collection of fins will command attention at the Meadow Brook Concours d’Élégance in Rochester Hills, Mich. A display called “Fins and Chrome: The Convertibles of 1959” will feature 14 models, including one of each of the Big Three’s car lines.
“General Motors and Chrysler became involved in a game of one-upmanship in fins,” Mr. Leestma said. “And they grew to a huge extent by 1959. By 1963 or so they were completely gone.”Continue reading the main story
The cars set into the ground at the Cadillac Ranch near Amarillo, Tex., chart the growth of the fins that sprouted on ’48 Cadillacs. Harley Earl, the legendary G.M. designer, was inspired by the sight of a twin-tail P-38 fighter plane during World War II. It was a symbolic moment: a spark of inspiration passed from one of America’s greatest practical designers, Kelly Johnson of Lockheed, to Earl, the man who brought Hollywood glitz to Detroit.
Tailfins gave customers an "extra receipt for their money in the form of a visible prestige marking,” Earl said. Fins moved down the G.M. line from Cadillac to the iconic 1957 Chevrolet. But by the late ’50s G.M. had made plans to trim its fins even as Virgil Exner, the top Chrysler designer, pushed them to new heights with his Forward Look.
A G.M. designer largely responsible for the flamboyant ’59 Cadillac, Chuck Jordan, recalled how Chrysler’s 1957 cars influenced the G.M. models that followed. In interviews, he has recalled driving to a Chrysler factory where he stared at rows of big-finned Plymouths.
In a 2006 interview with Motor Trend, he said: “I’m looking through the fence and all I could see were fins, fins, fins. And I thought, ‘Wow!’”
Mr. Jordan and other young designers warned Earl that the company was about to be outfinned, and G.M.’s planned 1959 designs were tabled in favor of new ones — with bigger fins.
Referring to the iconic Cadillac, he said: “The 1959 was like letting a tiger out of the cage — saying, ‘go!’ Then we got sobriety.”
Even station wagons grew fins, as did car-truck combinations like the Ford Ranchero and Chevrolet El Camino. Compact cars like the Rambler had fins, too. Soon, fins spread overseas. Mercedes-Benz got them, as did the Amphicar that doubled as a boat. In the Soviet Union, ZILs and Moskviches were not immune to the trend.
Fins evolved: the upright planes of the ’57 Chevy became flatter, wider and more horizontal by ’59, suggesting the wings of a dragon.
Most of the fins of 1959 were accented with rocketlike taillights, their conical red lenses suggested frozen thrust. The Cadillac had a pair of thruster lamps on each fin; the De Soto had three apiece.
The poet Robert Lowell was heir to a New England literary tradition that included Herman Melville, a connoisseur of the metaphor and the metaphysics of finned creatures. In “For the Union Dead” in 1960, Lowell saw something sinister, even sinful, in the tailfin:
giant finned cars nose forward like fish;
a savage servility
slides by on grease.”Continue reading the main story


text:
The company’s standout items were computers, appliances, tires and gardening items as it handily exceeded analysts’ expectations with an increase of more than 6 percent in comparable sales.
Showing it needn’t yet fear death by Amazon, Costco on Wednesday reported sales growth in June that far exceeded analysts’ expectations.
Sales at Costco stores in the U.S. open at least a year grew 6.3 percent in June from the same month last year, excluding the impact of fluctuating gas prices and foreign exchange.
Companywide, sales rose 6.5 percent, the Issaquah-based warehouse retailer said.
That was far greater than the consensus estimates of 4.3 percent growth in the U.S., and 4.7 percent companywide, as compiled by Consensus Metrix.
“Six percent growth in the US is very impressive,” John Heinbockel, an analyst with Guggenheim Partners, wrote in a research note Thursday, contrasting Costco with “an increasing number of retailers struggling to grow their brick & mortar” sales.
In total, Costco reported net sales of $12.17 billion for the five weeks ended July 2, up 7 percent from last year.
Among the standout items were computers, appliances, tires and gardening items.
The result in the U.S. was “notable” because it followed the company’s membership fee hike on June 1, Michael Lasser, an analyst with UBS, said in a research note Thursday. “Now, it will have this added pool of profits from which it can use to invest back into the business. This is core to how Costco’s model works.”
In addition, the retailer’s traffic gains of 4.5 percent in the U.S. and 4 percent worldwide “suggest it is holding its own against online competition,” Lasser wrote. “While many retailers have faced increasing pressure from online retail, Costco’s latest results help serve as a reminder of just how powerful its membership model has become.”
Neil Stern, analyst for McMillanDoolittle, wrote that while no company is e-commerce resistant, “Costco probably took an unfair hit when Amazon announced their acquisition of Whole Foods.” Costco shares lost nearly 9 percent in the immediate aftermath of Amazon’s $13.7 billion deal last month.
Costco, which has been growing its e-commerce operations, albeit slowly, will likely be less affected in the short term as food and commodities increasingly move online, Stern wrote. “Costco will need a better e-commerce strategy but it will not prevent them from out-performing now.”


text:
AB InBev was the sole alcohol advertiser on the Super Bowl for more than 30 years
Anheuser Busch, part of Anheuser-Busch InBev, remains the NFL’s exclusive beer and hard seltzer sponsor, and does plan to buy national ads in next year’s game, a said.
Next year’s Super Bowl will air on Fox on Feb. 12, 2023.
The decision by Anheuser-Busch has given its competitors an opportunity to get in on the game.
“It was a no-brainer. Literally the moment we saw the announcement, we got to work on securing the Super Bowl spot,” said Molson Coors Chief Marketing Officer Michelle St. Jacques. “This is a huge opportunity to bring our biggest brands to the most-watched sporting event in the US”
To date, Molson Coors has only purchased one 30-second ad spot, Ms. St. Jacques said. She declined to comment on which Molson Coors brands might be featured in the game.
The company over the past three years has focused on separating its two biggest sellers, Miller Lite and Coors Light. It has been marketing Miller Lite as a “beer’s beer” by, for example, running a campaign in which Miller Lite mocks the recent hard seltzer trend by launching competitors’ products into outer space,
Coors Light repositioned itself as a relaxation brand using ad campaigns with themes such as “Made to Chill” and “The Official Beer of Everything Unofficial.”
Molson Coors has also recently focused on promoting beer alternatives such as Topo Chico Hard Seltzer and Simply Spiked Lemonade.
Although the company has been shut out of the national TV networks’ ad rosters during the Super Bowl, Molson Coors has run campaigns that play off the game and its rivalry with Anheuser Busch.
When Anheuser-Busch bought a Super Bowl commercial last year to promote Bud Light Next, for example, Molson Coors secured the URL budlightnext.com and set it up to redirect to joke websites.
It also ran a Miller Lite promotion around the Super Bowl that included a virtual bar on the digital platform Decentraland.
Ms. St. Jacques said Molson Coors would continue to try to reach Super Bowl fans beyond the game, even with the addition of an official Super Bowl commercial.
“It’s not about a 30-second spot,” said Ms. St. Jacques. “It’s about everything that goes around it and making sure that you are giving people not only something that catches their attention during a really cluttered time period, but gives them a reason to reach for your brand and your beer.”
Anjali S. Bal, an associate professor of marketing at Babson College, said exclusivity agreements have historically been viewed as a way for brands to command the conversation during a major event.
“But because of social media, because of other ways that we can engage with our consumers, we see that as less powerful an agreement,” she said. “I think part of the reason we’re seeing some companies move away from that is because it doesn’t have the same gravitas as when we had more unidirectional communication.”
She said she thinks more alcohol brands will advertise in the Super Bowl.
“I think we’re going to see an upswing just because the opportunity is there. I also think we’re going to see more of a testing of the waters,” she said.
Credit: www.Businesshala.com /


text:
(Bloomberg) — Chang Yung-fa, the billionaire founder of Evergreen Group who turned a second-hand bulk carrier into Asia’s biggest container-shipping line, has died. He was 88.
He died at 11:05 a.m. on Jan. 20, Evergreen Group said in an e-mail. No cause was given.
Chang, the son of a seaman, started building his business almost five decades ago by buying a used bulk vessel and became one of Taiwan’s richest people. He was chairman of Taipei-based Evergreen Group, which owns Asia’s largest container fleet through Evergreen Marine Corp.; EVA Airways Corp., the island’s largest airline by market value; Evergreen Sky Catering Corp., an airline-catering company; and hotel chain Evergreen International Hotels.
Chang has a fortune of at least $1 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. “The oceans and ships occupy very important places in my life,” Chang wrote in his autobiography, published in 1997. The tycoon called himself “a natural-born son of the ocean.”
Evergreen Marine, the company that kick-started his business empire, was established in 1968 with the used bulk vessel. It since expanded into an operator of more than 190 ships, according to information from shipping-data provider Alphaliner.
The company posted a net loss of NT$2.41 billion ($72 million) in the quarter ended September compared with a profit a year earlier, as a global economic slowdown hurt shipping.
Chang also was an advocate of closer economic relations between Taiwan and China. In 2008, Taiwanese and Chinese airlines including his group’s EVA Airways began regular flights across the Taiwan Strait after the lifting of a six-decade ban on direct transport links.
His personal holdings as of Dec. 31 included 6 percent of publicly traded Evergreen Marine and 2.9 percent of EVA Airways, Taiwan’s largest airline by market value, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. His youngest son, Chang Kuo-wei, is chairman of EVA Airways. Evergreen Group is the benefactor of non-profit organizations such as a maritime museum and symphony orchestra, its website shows.
Born Oct. 6, 1927, in Taiwan’s northeastern coastal town of Suao, Chang was the third of seven children. He started working as a clerk for a Japanese shipping company as a teenager while attending night school and went on to spend 15 years as a sailor, rising to the rank of captain, according to his memoirs.
Chang became the family’s breadwinner when his father died in 1944, as his two elder brothers had married by then, according to the book.
He was married in 1953 and had four sons and a daughter. In 1989, his son Chang Kuo-ming was kidnapped for a $1.9 million ransom. The younger Chang was eventually released unharmed, and his three kidnappers were apprehended and executed by Taiwanese authorities the following year, the Associated Press reported at the time.
By Vera Eckert (Reuters) – Container shipping firm Hapag-Lloyd said surging demand for bulky goods like exercise equipment from locked-down consumers may flatten out in the second or early third quarter,...
By Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen (Reuters) – Shipping group Maersk ($AMKBY) said on Wednesday it would accelerate plans to decarbonize sea-borne container shipping by putting the world’s first vessel powered by carbon-neutral...
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.


text:
Alloy Polymers buying compounding plant
RICHMOND, VA. - Alloy Polymers Inc. of Richmond is buying a compounding plant with 110 million pounds of annual capacity in Gahanna, Ohio, from Basell NV.
The purchase price was not disclosed. Alloy officials said the firm will retain the plant's 70 employees.
Basell, a leading polypropylene maker based in Hoofddorp, the Netherlands, was limited in its ability to expand in Gahanna, and instead will expand a similar compounding plant in Jackson, Tenn., said Basell spokesman Nick Nagurny. The firm will transfer a 35 million-pound-capacity twin-screw extruder from a plant in Wilton, England, to the 14-acre Jackson plant when the Wilton site closes later this year.
Alloy, a toll compounder founded by owner Subhash Pahuja in 1982, employs 100 and operates 100 million pounds of capacity on 13 twin-screw extrusion lines in Richmond. The firm focuses on engineering resins, such as nylon, polybutylene terephthalate and polycarbonate. The Gahanna site mostly compounded PP, which is only a small portion of Alloy's business. Alloy now will be able to compound some of its engineering lineup in Gahanna, according to Alloy market development manager James Kochanksi.
Markets for Alloy's products include automotive, aerospace, rigid and flexible food packaging, specialty film and textile/fiber.
As part of the sale, Alloy will provide toll compounding services to Basell at the Gahanna site for four years. Basell expects to consume about half of the Gahanna plant's output in that time period.
``When looking at our customers' current and future needs, we believe Gahanna is a perfect fit for us,'' Pahuja said in a news release.
Growing Badger Color moving to larger plant
MUSKEGO, WIS. - Although many compounders are working to recover from disappointing 2001 results, the folks at Badger Color Concentrates in Muskego are singing a different tune.
Badger, a color compounder founded in 1998 by Clariant Masterbatches veterans Michael Fatta, Michael Madey and Ed Bieber, will move into a new, 50,000-square-foot plant in nearby Mukwonago this fall. The $2.5 million site, about 20 miles west of Milwaukeee, is more than three times larger than the current facility.
The new site will be adjacent to Seaquist Closures Co., an injection molder that accounts for about 25 percent of Badger's sales.
Badger's sales doubled in 2001, hitting the $3.5 million mark. Sales for 2002 are expected to be between $6 million and $7 million, according to Fatta.
Most of the expansion cost will be financed by a $2.3 million industrial revenue bond from the state. The bond is essentially a low-interest loan that Badger will repay over 10 years, Fatta said.
Badger will move its mix of six single- and twin-screw lines to the new site, and plans to install two new twin-screw lines by year's end. The firm will spend about $500,000 on the new equipment.
In addition to boosting Badger's immediate job count from 32 to 50, Fatta expects the move to create 30 more positions by the end of 2004.
Badger mostly produces lots of 100-200 pounds, with the bulk of its products based on polyolefins and PVC. It can fill most orders within five days.
``We're in a pretty heavy injection molding and sheet extruder area,'' Fatta said. ``There's no one else up here.''
Accel to establish color center in Ohio
NAPERVILLE, ILL. - Color compounder Accel Corp. of Naperville is focusing on dry color work by establishing a development center in Avon, Ohio.
In the last six months of 2001, Accel added rotational molding ovens and pulverizers in Avon, although officials declined to say how much the company has spent on the project. Technical specialist Dave Phillips, who has more than a decade of experience in the field, will lead the dry color initiative.
Dry color accounted for about 10 percent of Accel's sales in 2001, but the market is growing, according to President David Knowles.
``It's not a huge market, but it's one we're pretty good at and it's one that's significant in Ohio,'' he said. ``We're seeing opportunities in toys, housewares and sports and recreational equipment.''
Markets targeted for dry color products include rotomolding, compression extrusion and caulk. Knowles added that Cleveland-based compounder PolyOne Corp.'s decision to close its plant in Broadview Heights, Ohio - which had produced dry color and other color compounds - could create opportunities for competitors such as Accel.
Accel, founded in 1998 by Dwight Morgan, now operates 15 lines and employs 60 at sites in Naperville and Avon. The firm posted sales of about $10 million in 2001 after reaching $6 million the previous year.
The company is looking to expand via acquisition or by opening a new site. Knowles said Accel expects to have a site in the Southeast by early 2003 and is looking at the Northeast and regions west of the Mississippi River as well. The firm snagged Phoenix Color and Compounding Inc. of Sandusky, Ohio, in late 2000 and moved the Phoenix assets to Avon.
Clariant acquires 3 lines from Action
EASTON, MD. - Color compounder Clariant Masterbatches -has acquired the in-house compounding unit of one of its Canadian customers.
Easton-based Clariant purchased three single-screw extrusion lines for an undisclosed price from Action Colour Concentrates of Oakville, Ontario. Action produced color concentrates for Mac Closures Inc., a Waterloo, Quebec-based injection molder of caps and closures. Action was located inside Mac's Oakville plant.
Clariant will transfer the Action machines to a plant it is building in nearby Etobicoke, Ontario, that will open in midyear. Two of Action's six employees will transfer there as well.
Action sent about 75 percent of its output to Mac, and sold the rest to outside accounts. Action's outside customers now will be served by Clariant's sites in Ontario and Lachine, Quebec.
``There's some possibility of growth into other markets,'' said Yvon Garneau, sales and marketing manager for Clariant Canada. ``But this is more about solidifying our relationship with Mac.''
Action's lines have an annual capacity of about 500,000 pounds. Its annual sales were less than $1 million.
The Canadian market represents about 14 percent of Clariant's total North American sales, estimated at $240 million. The firm ranks as one of the three largest color compounders in North America, along with PolyOne Corp. of Cleveland and Ampacet Corp. of Tarrytown, N.Y.


text:
Wais Shaifta, who previously served as the company’s chief operating officer, assumed the role of acting chief executive in July.
The online GP service confirmed CEO Eren Ozagir’s departure, adding that the company’s COO, Wais Shaifta, has assumed the role of acting CEO.
Digital Patient 2
This month’s industry round up features news that Public Health England has selected the Stone Group to replace existing Windows 7 devices.
A former NHS Improvement chairman has been appointed to an advisory board of the private GP digital service Push Doctor.
What a year 2017 has been in the world of digital health. It was a year you couldn’t avoid with AI, the ICO and CQC looming large.
A private online video GP consultation service has been found to be delivering unsafe care in a damning report by the Care Quality Commission.
Digital Patient 7
The government is hoping to bring digitally disruptive services in-house through its revamped NHS.uk website.
Digital Health reporter Laura Stevens takes a look at online and video consultations with GPs, and asks whether these will remain private services, or find a role within the NHS.


text:
Hotcan targets consumer market
Historically the self-heating cans have been supplied to the police, defence and emergency response markets. But Mark Taylor plans to launch Hotcan to the consumer market.
He said: “We are positioning the product as the only real convenient hot meal whether you’re in the office, on a building site or at home and there is no messing around with pots, pans microwaves or kettles.”
Hotcans have been produced for over 30 years and in 2010 Heat Food and Drink took over the product and set up a brand new manufacturing facility in the UK. The firm started production properly late last year.
The company is currently in the process of developing a new range of self-heating meals which should come to the market in the next 18 to 24 months.
“It’s all a bit hush-hush at the moment but it’s very exciting,” adds Taylor. “These developments will help turn Hotcan into the major worldwide brand I believe it will become. At the moment the main push is on the sales and marketing of the product with new accounts being opened daily in both the UK and abroad and hopefully by the end of the year Hotcan will be more widely available in the retail sector.”


text:
Skipping right over the 5400 designation1 In many Asian cultures, the number “4” is unlucky, so this comes as no surprise. , this morning Nikon has replaced the outmoded D5300 (14 months old!) with the sparkly new Nikon D5500. I would say that the most significant difference between the two cameras is the digit in their names except that the D5500 has been adorned with a new touchscreen, which will probably be a boon to those who are used to taking photos with their smart phones. I assume that these are the same people who buy the shiny red version of the camera.
The D5500 gains one stop of “native” ISO sensitivity, up to 25600 from the D5300’s 12800. However, the D5500 still uses the same sensor and EXPEED 4 processor as the D5300, so it’s unlikely that there’s any significant difference in noise for those of us who shoot RAW; there’s most likely simply an improved noise reduction algorithm for those who shoot JPG.
Our hero has also dropped some weight. While an unladen D5300 weighs 16.9 ounces, the D5500 has slimmed down to a mere 14.8. But that’s not all the D5500 has lost. The D5300’s built-in GPS is also conspicuously missing.
Perhaps more interestingly, Nikon has announced a new FX 300mm f/4E PF ED VR telephoto lens that is the smallest and lightest in its class. It’s 30% shorter and 1.5lbs lighter than Nikon’s previous model, according to the press release. Nikon has also announced a 55-200mm f/3.5-5.6 as an entry-level companion zoom to the kit 18-55mm.
Price and Availability
When it hits store shelves in February, the Nikon D5500 body will cost $899, or it can be found bundled with the Nikkor 18-55 or 18-140mm VR lenses for $999.95 or $1199.95, respectively.
Privacy & Cookies Policy
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.


text:
ST. LOUIS – A St. Louis man admitted to selling hundreds of fake temp tags and other counterfeit items Thursday during a federal court hearing.
Mario Cooks, 35, pleaded guilty to three felony counts of fraudulent transfer of an authentication feature. He also admitted to producing 27 fake insurance ID cards and an undisclosed number of fake dealer license plates.
According to his indictment, Cooks sold fake temporary tags for $60 each and the fake dealer plates for $650 each. Investigators say he regularly manufactured these items until an undercover bust.
In June 2022, the St. Charles Police Department received a tip that Cooks was selling fake temporary tags and dealer license plates. Around that time, an undercover officer arranged to buy a counterfeit temp tag for $60. More transactions followed, and Cooks sold the officer two more counterfeit temp tags and two counterfeit motor vehicle insurance ID cards.
Authorities began a court-approved search of Cooks’ home in Dec. 2022. Investigators found computer equipment, a printer, two counterfeit motor vehicle insurance identification cards, blank sheets of temporary Missouri Department of Revenue paper with authentication features, and more.
A forensic analysis of the computer equipment revealed Cooks had produced hundreds of fake tags.
According to the indictment, people who are trying to hide their possession of a stolen vehicle or dodge their financial obligations were most likely to purchase fake temporary tags and other documentation.
After pleading guilty, Cooks could face up to 10 years in prison and $250,000 in fines.


text:
The pending lawsuit between NVIDIA on the one hand, and Samsung and Qualcomm on the other can have major consequences.
It is not small items, when the big boys are suing each other on the other side of the Atlantic. NVIDIA have sued Samsung and Qualcomm, and now they’ve gotten the justice system to look at whether some Samsung products will no longer be sold in the United States.
A long line of Samsung’s highest-profile products can stand for the shot. NVIDIA will have stopped the sale of Samsung products, among other things, with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 600, 800, 801 and 805. It is specifically the Qualcomm Adreno, arm’s Mali and imaginations PowerVR-grafikartikturer, that is the problem.
It includes among other Samsung Galaxy Note 4 and Note Edge, Galaxy S, Galaxy Tab, Galaxy S5 Note Pro and several others.
The GPU is the question
NVIDIA has in their actions highlighted 7 patents, as they believe that Samsung and Qualcomm has violated. They cover all the GPU, which is a place NVIDIA excels.
As mentioned above, then it is the part of the chip that controls the graphics, which has got NVIDIA to go on the rampage, and in fact it is the first time in the company’s history that they have entered into in such an action.
Samsung Seeking US Sales Ban on Ericsson Products …
Is Apple losing grip in patent war with Samsung?
Galaxy Tab 10.1N Escapes Apple Sale Ban In Time For …
Is Apple losing grip in patent war with Samsung? (12/5 …
Apple seeks US Samsung sales ban plus $707m in damages …
Evolution Of Samsung Since The Smartphone Patent Wars …
Samsung allowed to sell Galaxy Tab in U.S. as court lifts …
Galaxy Nexus back on sale in US after Apple’s ban is …
Patent Wars: Apple VS Samsung
Samsung launches patent attack on iPhone 5
New Technology Products: Samsung loses bid to overturn US …
Apple Granted EU Wide Ban On All Of Samsung’s Galaxy S …
Apple iPad vs Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 Battle for the …
Samsung Galaxy Nexus, Galaxy S II, other old phones banned …
Programmer Eye: Apple wins Samsung tablet ban in …
Apple made Galaxy Tab a ‘household name’: Samsung
Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 faces ban in European Union : India …
Tablet wars: Apple seeks to destroy rival Galaxy
Apple wins key German patent case against Samsung (Update)


text:
|Max Talbot models the new uniform |
) Defensemen Ryan Whitney and Brooks Orpik
and forwards Ryan Malone and Maxime Talbot were on hand as the Pittsburgh Penguins unveiled their new uniforms at the Galleria at Pittsburgh Mills, just off Route 28 in Tarentum.
All 30 NHL teams will be sporting new uniforms for the 2007-08 season as part of the new Rbk EDGE Uniform System -- designed to meet the performance demands of today’s NHL player. The introduction of these new uniforms at the start of season marks the first time in the history of North American professional sports that a uniform innovation has been implemented league-wide.
After more than two years of research, the NHL and Reebok created a uniform system that features technologically-enhanced materials and fabrics that are more breathable, more water-resistant, more comfortable and more compatible with equipment.
The Penguins’ logo and colors will remain the same, although there will be some modifications to the striping, the shoulder areas, the pants and the socks.


text:
A study by the Brussels-based Transport & Environment group analysed 565 journeys taken by 20 vessels to and from Europe operated by four of the world’s largest carriers, Maersk, Hapag-Lloyd, MSC and CMA CGM, and found that the lines were over-charging in more than 90% of cases.
Jacob Armstrong, shipping manager at T&E, said: “Shipping giants are ripping off customers by using environmental measures as a way to charge customers more. Whether it's disruption in the Red Sea or a new carbon price, shipping companies always win.”
The T&E survey cited an “extreme case” which the group estimated Maersk charged an extra €325,000 in EU ETS levies. And the NGO said that the Danish carrier adds on average around €60,000/voyage, while MSC adds €25,000, CMA CGM €14,000 and Hapag-Lloyd €23,000/voyage.
“While the individual profits for each voyage are not always that high, for carriers with hundreds of vessels this represents millions in surcharge profits every year,” claimed T&E.
Moreover, Southern European governments that have warned carriers will avoid Mediterranean ports in favour of terminals outside of the EU, such as in North Africa, will see these ports lose business but Armstrong asks, “why would they [avoid EU ports] if they’re making money from it [the EU ETS]?”
Far from avoiding the ETS, shipping companies appear to be profiting from it, and so are unlikely to look for alternative terminals.
Meanwhile, shippers questioned the ability or desire of some governments to implement carbon charges.
The Global Shippers’ Forum (GSF) for example is concerned that the rising costs of shipping will increase costs further down the line and ultimately cause inflation, leading to an economic downturn.
“You shouldn’t be decarbonising shipping by throttling demand,” warned GSF MD James Hookham.
“This behaviour, if true, is not going to help engender the trust, transparency and truth that’s needed to help get the shipping industry to net zero with the willing support of its customers,” he added.
IMO secretary general Arsenio Dominguez recently told journalists at the MEPC 81 that he is confident that an economic pricing mechanism will be in place by 2027, as mandated by the member states, “but I’m not sure what form it will take”, he conceded.
Shippers, however, are sceptical that the member states have the desire or the ability to police the carriers, with Hookham suggesting that the introduction of a global carbon pricing mechanism will be a green light for carriers to continue to operating on fossil fuels, safe in the knowledge that shippers will be forced to pay, opening the way for some 20 years of profiteering by carriers.
“With a global carbon levy moving ahead at IMO there is an increasing likelihood that the switch to zero-carbon fuels in shipping is going to be funded by shippers of goods rather than shareholders and shipowners,” explained Hookham. “Governments must build in the checks and audits to ensure any levy funds raised from customers are used to fund the transition and not to support a share price”.
The EU ETS is will only levy charges for 40% of emissions this year, with the charges rising to 70% and 100% of emissions in 2025 and 2026 respectively.
Hookham has voiced concerns that these increases will be a greenlight to even greater profiteering.
Maersk, however, responded to what it believes is a flawed analysis by T&E.
The carrier said it is positive that T&E’s analysis demonstrates there is competition between shipping companies when it comes to EU ETS costs.
Nevertheless, “The analysis lacks many of the factors that affect EU ETS costs for shipping companies and therefore the surcharges. The methodology underpinning the analysis is flawed, which leads to inaccurate conclusions.”
With significant costs related to the EU ETS the carrier said it levies a standalone charge in order to provide transparency for shippers.
“Transport & Environment’s analysis uses a €90/t CO2 figure as a general ETS price for Maersk even though the article it quotes clearly states that the figure is only for estimation purposes. No fixed price of €90/t CO2 has been announced,” explained Maersk.
The Danish line said it, “updates its emissions surcharge on a quarterly basis to ensure alignment to the latest EUA price.”
Maersk added that T&E analysed selected trades, but, its analysis relies on outdated surcharge estimates for these trades.
“These older estimates reflect a higher EUA price, leading to higher costs. This in turn leads to the wrong conclusions when compared to the current levels. Newer surcharge estimates are available on Maersk.com and reflect lower EUA prices.”
Copyright © 2024. All rights reserved. Seatrade, a trading name of Informa Markets (UK) Limited.
|Add Seatrade Maritime News to your Google News feed.


text:
The concern over power blackouts becoming increasingly more common in parts of Europe and the US has added another level of jeopardy to the energy crisis that has pushed prices up around the world.
Last weekend, people in California were asked to reduce air conditioning and cut other electricity use during peak heat as record high temperatures added further strain to a creaking power system. The state’s renewable energy sources, such as solar, dip at critical times and older, less reliable infrastructure cannot always bridge the shortfall in demand.
California’s grid operator urged people to conserve power between 4pm and 9pm, including avoiding charging electric cars.
The timing of this measure regarding EVs could not be more ironic, as the state last month announced a ban on the sale of new petrol-powered cars by 2035. It shows the limitations of the technology while we remain in an energy transition that we hope will get the world to net zero and limit global warming.
There is plenty of momentum for EVs at the moment. US President Joe Biden wants at least half of new vehicles sold in the country to be electric or plug-in electric hybrids by 2030.
This ambitious target has also raised the prospect of loosening US mining regulations to ensure that there is enough domestic production of electric vehicle minerals. There will be an environmental cost to such a move, of course, but it is seen as imperative.
As China controls 60 per cent of the world’s lithium mining, 77 per cent of battery cell capacity and 60 per cent of battery component manufacturing, many US electric carmakers, including Tesla, rely heavily on imported battery materials.
The current energy crisis also highlights the fragility of one of the benefits of owning an electric vehicle over a conventional car – cheaper running costs. Now EV owners will be impacted by the rising costs of energy. Had, for instance, British Prime Minister Liz Truss on Thursday decided against capping energy bills for households and businesses at about £2,500 (about $2,900) a year, the cost of a full charge at home for an EV could have been nearly double by the end of the year.
As individuals, it might seem as if the decision to buy an electric car – and more people are doing so – can be a quick personal aid to the global effort to reduce carbon emissions. On the face of it, this might seem worthy.
However, it still cannot be overstated that the definition of the word "transition" in the phrase "energy transition" is what needs to be most understood, as we push towards a net zero carbon world.
The transition period requires finding a balance between climate efforts, access to affordable energy sources and supporting economic recovery – and mitigating all the associated impact on the planet such as rising emissions. Managing this return to growth following the Covid-19 pandemic has not been easy amid the current shocks to economies.
Everywhere we look, there is the daunting prospect of overhauling systems – food, health, trade and, of course, energy. At an individual level, the same balance must be found too.
The temptation to see a single transaction about personal mobility as the apex of what an individual can do to help is understandable. It seems such a quick win in the face of what might otherwise be a demoralising challenge. Also, the marketing around the sale of electric cars is becoming more powerful by the day.
Owning an electric car, however, could also become a way to put the realities of our changing world out of sight and out of mind, because it does not address their impact on resources or the energy supply and demand dynamic. In many instances, the emissions are not saved but rather only displaced, given that grids are rarely fully powered by non-carbon emitting energy.
In the worst case, the delusion of assuming that owning an electric car is any kind of total solution to the climate crisis can result in some people thinking that they now have the moral licence to act more unsustainably in other areas of their lives. As a society, we have accepted the hard truths about the unsustainable way we have been living and working.
That is an accomplishment in itself. But to believe that the choice of car is more important than it is, would be a betrayal.
Thinking in terms of broader groups of people is the only effective strategy. Rarely is such a dialogue present where electric vehicles are concerned, instead it is about the individual only and what it says about him or her.
We should ask, instead, what we can do as organisations – at work, at school and at play – to help mitigate global warming and also what we can do to help avoid the risk of energy blackouts from over-burdening our energy resources.
Of course, long-term mobility will change and traditional fuel-powered vehicles will become outdated – just as other inefficient and damaging technologies have been superseded. It will only be one part, however, of the broader mosaic of a more sustainable future.
By all means, as an individual, rethink your methods of transport, but as one element of a wider lifestyle shift that includes understanding how our energy systems work and determining what choices would be the greater benefit to the largest number of people.
Or risk – as we see in California – a struggle to stay mobile despite the shiny new car parked outside.


text:
WASHINGTON/BEIJING (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday he was taking steps to authorize new tariffs on $325 billion in Chinese imports as officials began last-ditch talks to avert an escalation of a trade war that threatens to derail the global economy.
With acrimony between Washington and Beijing rising, there was little time to salvage a trade deal between the world’s two largest economies before another round of punitive tariffs are triggered.
Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin started two days of talks late Thursday afternoon in Washington after a major setback.
Reuters on Wednesday revealed the extent of the rift that has opened between the two countries, reporting that a draft trade agreement text sent by Beijing on Friday night was riddled with changes that marked reversals in Chinese commitments that undermined core U.S. demands.
Trump responded by ordering a tariff hike. Thursday’s trade talks started only just a few hours before the increased duties on $200 billion of Chinese goods, to 25 percent from 10 percent, was due to begin at 12:01 a.m. EDT (0401 GMT) Friday.
Trump said on Thursday he was “starting … paperwork today” to impose a 25 percent tariff on the $325 billion in Chinese goods untouched by the trade war so far.
China is expected to retaliate, as it has with previous U.S. tariffs, effectively subjecting all trade between the world’s two largest economies to punitive levies. Consumer products, including cell phones, computers, clothing and toys, would be especially hard hit.
Trump, who has adopted protectionist policies as part of his “America First” agenda aimed at rebalancing global trade and boosting U.S. manufacturing, accused Beijing of reneging on commitments made during months of negotiations.
“We were getting very close to a deal, then they started to renegotiate the deal. We can’t have that. We can’t have that,” Trump said at an event at the White House.
Trump said if the two sides cannot make a deal, the United States would go back to manufacturing products that China now makes. “It’ll be the old-fashioned way, the way we used to do it: We made our own product.”
U.S. stock indexes closed lower on Thursday ahead of the trade talks, though they pared losses after Trump said he had received a “beautiful” letter from Chinese President Xi Jinping. U.S. oil prices slid and U.S. Treasury yields fell as investors sought safe-haven assets.
Data released Thursday showed the U.S. goods trade deficit with China shrank to its smallest level in five years in March, which could further embolden Trump as he escalates the trade war with Beijing.
Tariffs will not apply to cargoes that have left China before the 12:01 a.m. Friday start time for the higher rates, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said on Thursday, giving a grace period to shippers with goods en route.
China appealed to the United States to help salvage the deal earlier on Thursday. Commerce Ministry spokesman Gao Feng said the decision to send Liu to Washington despite the tariff hike threat demonstrated China’s “utmost sincerity.”
“The U.S. side has given many labels recently, ‘backtracking’, ‘betraying’ etc. … China sets great store on trustworthiness and keeps its promises, and this has never changed.” he told a news briefing in Beijing.
A source familiar with the talks said China’s changes to the language of the draft trade deal were so extensive it could take a month to fix them, assuming the United States rejects them.
The talks could still go several ways, a person close to the discussions said.
China could make some concessions to prolong talks even after tariffs and retaliation. The two sides could end negotiations, given they are so far apart. Or China could reverse the changes to the text and return the negotiations to where they were a week ago and work toward a deal to be signed at the G20 summit in Japan in June, the source said.
In seven chapters of the draft, China deleted commitments to change laws to resolve complaints that caused the United States to launch a trade war: theft of U.S. intellectual property and trade secrets; forced technology transfers; competition policy; access to financial services; and currency manipulation, sources told Reuters.
The stripping of binding legal language from the draft struck directly at Lighthizer’s highest priority. The U.S. trade representative views changes to China’s laws as essential to verifying compliance after years of what U.S. officials have called empty reform promises.
Trump told supporters at a rally in Florida on Wednesday that China “broke the deal,” and vowed not to back down on imposing new tariffs on Chinese imports unless Beijing “stops cheating our workers.”
A protracted trade war between the United States and China would damage the world economy, disrupt supply chains and rattle investors already nervous over a global slowdown.
Additional reporting by David Lawder, Doina Chiacu, Humeyra Pamuk and Alex Alper in Washington, and Se Young in Beijing; Writing by David Lawder; Editing by Paul Simao, Simon Webb and Leslie Adler


text:
It seems more than everApple plans to manufacture sapphire crystal screens for its future smartphones, especially theIphone 6. Indeed, 9to5Mac reports that GT Advanced, the manufacturer of Apple, is preparing to manufacture sapphire for iPhone screens.
Thanks to import / export documents recovered by the site, we know that GT Advanced has placed this order for components from Intego Sirius Sapphire Display Inspection Tool. According to other transport documents and data provided by the company Margolis, GT Advanced has already received 518 manufacturing units, in addition to an order for 420 other machines (which have yet to be assembled).
The first 518 units could be used to manufacture between 103 million and 116 million 5 inch iPhone screens per year. The additional machines could almost double this annual production with an additional 84 million to 94 million screens. Finally, GT Advanced has also ordered more than 100 tonnes of graphite material for the ovens.


text: yes it's the moment that everyone wants to hear the nintendo wii is going hd The Wii's always been getting a lot of flak from its critics who say that it's not really "next-gen." Well maybe this piece of news will keep them quiet. According to a report from What They Play, the second generation Wii will be closer to "next-gen," and "far more than a simple refresh of current hardware." For now, it's given the nickname "Wii HD." According to their sources, it seems that Wii HD will have HD visuals, and a "greater emphasis on digitally distributed and backwardly compatible content." That last one suggests that Wii HD might actually have a hard drive or a large flash memory solution. The report hails the transition to the second generation as similar to how the original Game Boy jumped to the Game Boy Advance. Previous reports from other sources suggested that Nintendo is also looking to holographic data storage for its next console. This kind of tech can hold anywhere from 300 GB to 1.6 TB. Nintendo also revealed before that they are working on a Wii storage solution, although they didn't say if it was for this generation or the second generation. If they're working on it now though, chances are we'll see it on Wii HD.


text:
Canonical has announced some changes in terms of device support for Ubuntu Touch. The list once included the 2012 and 2013 variants of the Nexus 7 as well as the Nexus 10 for tablets and the Galaxy Nexus and Nexus 4 for smartphones. Furthermore, many were expecting support to be added for the Nexus 5. Moving forward though, the list will be cut to one tablet and one smartphone.
Those devices include the Nexus 4 and the 2013 Nexus 7. This is all being done in the push to Ubuntu 14.04, which for those unfamiliar, corresponds to April 2014 for a release timeframe. Basically, this will allow the Ubuntu engineering team to “ensure focus on the [Nexus 4] and emulator polish” in time for the April release.
This also doesn’t rule out future support for other devices. Essentially, this simply appears to be the best way the Ubuntu team will be able to ensure the April release deadline. Moving past 14.04, and there is potential that future builds could support some of these older devices, or for that matter, the Nexus 5.
The other aspect mentioned by the engineering team dealt with the Nexus 5. The reason that wasn’t being swapped out for the Nexus 4 at this time comes down to the costs involved in switching. Simply put, it was said the costs would be “too high” under the current set of plans.
Aside from official support, Ubuntu Touch could still surface for other devices based on community involvement. For now though, no news has arrived in terms of upcoming community builds being released, which means Nexus 4 and Nexus 7 2013 builds are the only ones likely to be arriving in April.
VIA: OMG Ubuntu


text:
VC Firm Predicts Marketing Technology Investments Will Climb To $120 Billion Over Next 10 Years
Foundation Capital partner Ashu Garg says CMOs will spend 10 times the current $12 billion they invest in martech and software.
Venture capitalist Ashu Garg predicts marketers are going to be spending ten times what they currently spend on marketing technology over the next ten years.
In Garg’s recently published “MarTech and the Decade of the CMO” white paper, the general partner at Foundation Capital says he expects the current $12 billion CMOs invest in software and technology will climb to $120 billion by 2025.
[pullquote]The CMO of tomorrow is the data nerd of today.[/pullquote]
According to Garg, only one percent of marketing budgets currently go to software/tech investments. He forecasts this amount to increase substantially over the next decade as the role of the CMO transitions into what Garg defines as the “CeO” or Chief Experience Officer, “owning the end-to-end customer experience.”
“While the growth rate of overall marketing spend will remain unchanged,” says Garg, “Its composition will change dramatically and technology will command a larger share of the budget.”
Garg’s paper lists a number of other marketing forecasts, including how more than 80 percent of all media will be consumed digitally by 2020.
“We predict that consumers will spend more than 50 percent of their time consuming media (or 360+ minutes per day) on their mobile devices,” writes Garg who goes on to claim 100 percent of all print, radio and television advertising will be sold programmatically eventually.
The paper references a Gartner survey of CEOs that listed digital marketing, ecommerce and customer experience management as the top three most important technology-related business needs, driving home the point that the three leading overall technology-related priorities for CEOs all fall under the responsibility of the CMO.
CEOs Rank Top 3 Most Important Technology-Enabled Capabilities To Improve Business
Garg’s paper makes the case that to survive in the coming years, CMOs will need to focus on: marketing ROI, media buying, content creation, mass personalization and taking a larger role in closing the deal.
The full paper can be downloaded from Foundation Capital’s website here: MarTech and the Decade of the CMO: How the software revolution will grow 10X in 10 years.
Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily MarTech. Staff authors are listed here.


text:
Lubricants can provide answers to current manufacturing challenges
Manufacturing is dealing with major supply chain issues that have worsened during the two-year COVID-19 pandemic. Lubrication engineers and experts can help, but the struggle ahead is going to be a long one.
Manufacturing was going through major changes before the pandemic happened. A lot of what had been taken for granted was starting to change in new ways thanks to technology and methodology changes. While the pandemic did not cause many of the supply chain issues, it has made the situation worse and forced manufacturers to confront these challenges due to the effects they’re having on society.
Neil Canter, president of Chemical Solutions and technical advisor to the Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers (STLE), a CFE Media content partner, said in a video interview the supply chain issues are going to be with us for a while.
“The supply chain issues are having a huge impact with the lubrication industry,” he said. “Many lubricant companies, big and small, are having trouble obtaining raw materials. You really have to start with raw material suppliers who are sourcing products all over the world.” He added they send their materials down the supply chain to customers who need them to prepare raw material derivatives and finished lubricants. This process has been refined over many years but difficulties became apparent even prior to the pandemic. Now it’s even harder due to the world we currently live in.
Of COVID’s effect on the supply chain, Canter said, “The pandemic has certainly made it worse. We are changing as a society whether it be in the U.S. or overseas. People are spending more time at home. People are changing and companies are adjusting to that. From a manufacturing perspective, that makes things harder because you cannot manufacture things in your home.”
For lubrication engineers, they are facing an acute challenge with the automotive and transportation industry, who are their biggest customers because of these supply chain issues. But to the lubricant industry’s credit, manufacturers are sourcing multiple raw materials that perform specific functions in lubricants in order to ensure that their customers will not have to shut down their manufacturing plants.
“But the customers in the lubricant industry, the end users and the people in the automotive industry, do not always have all their raw materials at their fingertips. The JIT(Just-in-Time) philosophy is not working effectively at this point and steps need to be taken to find alternative approaches.”
With end users and some automotive customers struggling to survive, necessary monitoring and maintenance of lubricants is not being done, which may lead to unforeseen production problems, Canter said. Supply shortages of essential raw materials (such as semiconductors) means that automotive plants have reduced operations, leading to a loss of revenue.
In order to reduce costs, some end users are not reaching out to lubrication engineers to help keep their machines running properly. The problem is this can lead to more breakdowns. It’s a vicious circle and will only become more pronounced as time goes on.
This challenge is not something that can be resolved overnight, Canter said, and in the U.S., it will be dependent on private industries making changes rather than the government. Due to the supply chain’s intricacies and the many challenges and issues, it will take years.
“I think manufacturing will be dealing with supply chain issues for the balance of this decade before more regional supply chains are established and reliable sourcing of raw materials such as semiconductors is achieved,” Canter said.
Narrowing the skills gap
Manufacturers are facing another supply chain issue of sorts in the skills gap. This has been a long-standing issue and it’s only gotten worse due to the pandemic.
“The pandemic has had a huge impact on the skills gap because it has prompted or forced many senior employees in engineering in maintenance or manufacturing plants to retire,” Canter said. “Retirements have occurred because many of these individuals have enough for retirement or do not want to deal with the COVID situation every day and worry about getting sick.”
This increased exodus, Canter said, has added to the strain for maintenance departments because experienced workers are leaving. Replacements do not have the institutional knowledge about their plants and facilities. This leads to more mistakes and issues on the plant floor and increased downtime. The ripple effect has led organizations such as STLE to increase their emphasis in providing support for STEM programs with younger students (pre-high school) to enhance interest in science in general, and lubrication in particular.
“We are trying to get students excited about the building block sciences,” Canter said of STLE’s efforts in STEM education programs. “Tribology, the study of lubrication, is built on chemistry, physics, and engineering concepts. Tribology is a cross-functional discipline and STLE is promoting this concept to excite students about potentially considering a future career in this field. Our approach is to show students that with the development of new technologies, the sciences are a very attractive area and we hope they will move on from primary to secondary education and then determine whether attending a trade school or a college is the best way for them to realize the many opportunities available in the tribology field.”
Lubrication engineers and the future
In spite of the problems, Canter is optimistic that manufacturing and the supply chain will get better. He is not certain when this will happen, though, but it will remain a major priority for everyone in manufacturing. Lubrication engineers will be right there and he said they are ready to do their part.
“End users cannot run factories, machines, assemblies or any of these areas without lubricants,” he said. “If you do not have the appropriate lubricants in a manufacturing facility, everything shuts down. People do not realize or appreciate lubricants whether it be automotive or industrial until they have a problem.”
And while lubrication engineers might bear the brunt of the blame to suppliers and end users, Canter did not seem fazed by this. “We accept this challenge and we aim to resolve manufacturing problems whether the lubricant is or is not the cause.”


text:
France, like every developed country, wastes a ridiculous amount of food: 7.1 million metric tons of food a year. Now, the country is getting tough on supermarkets that are responsible for part of that figure.
Under a new law, its stores will be required–if not to conserve food–then to at least waste it more responsibly. The law requires stores either to give away food to charity (if it’s edible) or pass it on for animal feed, compost, and bioenergy.
France’s dirigiste approach is more radical than other countries that have left supermarkets alone. There are certainly lots of cases of supermarkets doing already what the law requires–like this British chain that produces biogas to run its stores. But they haven’t been mandated by government.
The law was the brainchild of Arash Derambarsh, a local councilor in the Parisian commune of Courbevoie. According to the Guardian, he was peeved that local supermarkets were wasting food that could to feeding the homeless and the poor, in some cases deliberately “bleaching” food so it couldn’t be eaten after its sell-by-dates.
“There’s an absolute urgency–charities are desperate for food. The most moving part of this law is that it opens us up to others who are suffering,” Center Right Deputy Yves Jégo told parliament. “This concerns our compatriots who suffer daily, which is intolerable in the 21st century,” said Guillaume Garon, the socialist who sponsored the bill. Under the new law, supermarkets will be required to sign contracts with charities or face fines of up to €75,000 ($82,000).
Supermarkets themselves are against the new requirements, pointing out that many work with charities anyway and that consumers waste far more food than supermarkets do. They have a point–though the law doesn’t sound so onerous that they should have a hard time following it.


text:
USA: House Auto Safety Bill More Balanced Than Senate Safety Bill
Automobile manufacturers described the House auto safety bill (H.R. 5164) passed yesterday as challenging legislation, yet acknowledged that it is more workable than the Senate version of the bill. "Automakers support the intent of safety legislation now being debated in Congress to achieve earlier detection of safety-related defects and faster correction of those defects," said Alliance President & CEO Josephine S. Cooper. "The good thing about the House bill is that it doesn't turn safety engineers wearing white lab coats into hardened criminals," she added.
Get full access to all content, just $1 for 30 days
A Message From The Editor
just-auto gives its paid members access to the very best automotive market coverage.
And now there’s just-auto plus, our premium membership that gives you exclusive component forecast data, company profiles and extended news coverage - just for premium members.
Today I can offer you 30 days access for $1 - and that includes just-auto plus.
Dave Leggett, editor of just-auto
* plus VAT if applicable


text:
Certified diamond prices were down for November. The RapNet Diamond Index for 1 carat diamonds slid 0.7 percent and was down 12.5 percent year to date. 0.3, 0.5 and 3 carat diamonds also posted losses for the month and remain well below last year’s prices.
At the beginning of last month, polished sales were reportedly slow ahead of India’s Diwali festival. However, as the festival has now ended, traders in the wholesale market are reporting improvement, though with pressure on prices.
In the US, Thanksgiving weekend, which is a major holiday shopping occasion, delivered a positive outlook for holiday purchases. Pricing is a notable issue there as well as consumers remain very price conscious. Lower price points are expected to be necessary this season as consumers seek inexpensive goods and as brick and mortar retailers aim to compete with online retailers in this price-sensitive environment.
Activity in rough trade is picking up as Indian market participants in India and Belgium are getting back to work. However, traders in diamond centers in Belgium and Israel appear to be more cautious than those in India, where activity is said to be mostly focused on rough stones that yield polished diamonds in SI and lower clarities.


text:
March 21 – March 25
Monday March 21
Japanese markets closed
(8:30 a.m. ET) U.S. Chicago Fed National Activity Index for February.
(12 p.m. ET) U.S. Fed Chair Jerome Powell speaks at the NABE Economic Policy Conference in Washington.
Earnings include: Nike Inc.; Orla Mining Ltd.
Tuesday March 22
(8:30 a.m. ET) Canada’s industrial product and raw materials price index for February. Estimates are increases of 2.0 per cent and 5.5 per cent, respectively, from January.
(8:30 a.m. ET) Canadian household and mortgage credit for January.
(10 a.m. ET) U.S. Richmond Fed Manufacturing Index for March.
Also: Quebec and New Brunswick budget.
Earnings include: Adobe Systems Inc.; Converge Technology Solutions Corp.; Filo Mining Corp.; Victoria Gold Corp.
Wednesday March 23
Japan machine tool orders
Euro zone consumer confidence
(8 a.m. ET) U.S. Fed Chair Jerome Powell speaks on a BIS panel.
(10 a.m. ET) U.S. new home sales for February. The consensus projection is an annualized rise of 1.8 per cent.
Also: Saskatchewan budget
Earnings include: Boyd Group Income Fund; Cintas Corp.; Cresco Labs Inc.; Fortuna Silver Mines Inc.; General Mills Inc.; Seabridge Gold Inc.
Thursday March 24
Japan PMI and department store sales
Euro zone PMI and ECB economic bulletin
(8:30 a.m. ET) U.S. initial jobless claims for week of March 19. Estimate is 211,000, down 3,000 from the previous week.
(8:30 a.m. ET) U.S. current account deficit for Q4. Consensus is US$218-billion, up from US$214.8-billion in Q3.
(8:30 a.m. ET) U.S. durable goods orders for February. The Street expects a decline of 1.4 per cent.
(9:45 a.m. ET) U.S. Markit PMIs for March.
(11 a.m. ET) U.S. Kansas City Manufacturing Activity for March.
Earnings include: Atalaya Mining Ltd.; SiverCrest Metals Inc.
Friday March 25
Germany business climate
(8:30 a.m. ET) Canada’s manufacturing sales for February.
(10 a.m. ET) U.S. University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment for March.
(10 a.m. ET) U.S. pending home sales for February.
Also: Ottawa’s budget balance for January.
Earnings include: BRP Inc.; Dentalcorp Holdings Ltd.; Skeena Resources Ltd.


text:
According to the news channel’s sources, the sale can fetch up to $4 billion for AT&T, which already has a number of interested buyers including Activision Blizzard, Electronic Arts, and Take-Two Interactive. CNBC’s sources said the discussions are a private affair and nothing is final. All of the aforementioned companies declined to comment when asked for a statement.
The report understandably took many by surprise but it’s unclear at present what prompted the move. Some of Warner Bros. franchises are based on properties like DC Comics that AT&T currently holds exclusive rights to so it remains to be seen if these will be transferred as part of the deal.
This is an interesting time for a sale. As CNBC points out, WarnerMedia Chief Executive Officer, John Stankey, is set to take over as AT&T’s new CEO on July 1st. During the Morgan Stanley’s Technology, Media & Telecom Conference back in March, he revealed that AT&T is focusing on “portfolio rationalization.”
AT&T’s acquisition of Time Warner began in 2016. Then CEO Jeff Bewkes said at the time that the deal “dramatically accelerates” Time Warner’s “ability to deliver our great brands and premium content to consumers on a multiplatform basis and to capitalize on the tremendous opportunities created by the growing demand for video content.” Bewkes also said that the deal was great news for Time Warner and its shareholders.
We’ll update our readers when we have more information.


text:
Technology is transforming the food and beverage industry in big ways. It’s changing how we get, make, and move food, helping to feed a growing world population now over 7.5 billion. According to an ING report, tech like robotics, data science, and new packaging methods are helping companies make food better and safer. This tech merge means a future where food is high-quality and easy to get, solving many of today’s food supply problems.
Automation and Robotics
In the food and beverage industry, automation and robotics represent a shift towards efficiency, quality, and affordability. Machinery integrations drive down costs associated with keeping food fresh and boost productivity levels.
With over 30,000 robots currently employed in the European food sector and robot density per 10,000 employees increasing from 62 in 2013 to 84 in 2017, this trend shows the industry’s evolving. Countries like Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Italy are leading in robot quantity with widespread adoption across the continent.
One of the more revolutionary applications of robotic technology in the food industry addresses worker safety and efficiency. In 2016, a tech company unveiled a robotics program for the butchery sector. The initiative could reduce workplace injuries by employing robots to handle the more challenging cuts of meat.
AI-Powered Customer Service
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing customer interactions, such as McDonald’s self-serving kiosks. AI-powered +s (IoT) technology provides real-time monitoring of production processes. Companies can optimize operations, improve traceability, and comply with food safety regulations. Whether it’s monitoring temperature during transportation or tracking inventory, IoT plays a big role.
Blockchain for Transparency and Safety
Blockchain technology is transforming food safety and transparency. By tracking the origin of ingredients throughout the supply chain, consumers gain confidence in the safety and quality of their food. From farms/factories to wholesale food distributors to store shelves, blockchain ensures secure information and untampered products.
In partnership with IBM, Walmart maintains its Food Traceability Initiative using the Hyperledger Fabric blockchain platform. This initiative allows Walmart to track the lifespan of products, ensuring food safety and reducing waste. Notably, they can trace the origin of U.S. perishables, such as mangoes, within a mere 2.2 seconds.
Augmented Reality (AR) Dining Experiences
AR isn’t just for gaming—it’s enhancing dining experiences, too. Imagine scanning a menu with your phone and seeing detailed information about each dish, including sourcing details, nutritional facts, and allergen warnings. AR bridges the gap between the physical and digital worlds, making dining more interactive and informative.
In 2018, Domino’s introduced a feature called “New Pizza Chef.” Customers can create their dream pizza using the Domino’s mobile app. They choose crust, cheese, swirls, and virtual toppings. The best part? They can preview their creation in AR before placing the order. The pizza they receive looks exactly like the one they designed.
Mobile Apps and Online Orderings
Mobile apps like Doordash, which has group order and scheduled delivery options, allow consumers to order food, track deliveries, and explore menus effortlessly. Whether it’s curbside pickup, home delivery, or shipment orders from a wholesale food service, technology simplifies the entire process.
To compare mobile apps and online, online orders placed via web platforms tend to have 58% higher average check sizes than those placed via mobile apps. However, mobile app users order 30-40% more frequently than web orders.
Integrate Food Technology with Distributors
Wholesale food distributors act as intermediaries, facilitating the adoption of cutting-edge technologies, such as predictive analytics for demand forecasting and efficient supply chain management.
By leveraging their networks, they can introduce producers to innovative packaging solutions that extend shelf life and reduce waste. Their large-scale operations allow for the testing and refining IoT systems for inventory tracking, ensuring these technologies are both scalable and effective before widespread implementation. Contact Atlantic Dominion Distributors for more information.


text:
By Kulveer Taggar
Chief executive, Auctomatic
The Auctomatic team have paid close attention to user feedback
After 56,258 lines of code, 22 air trips, one merger and four months of intense coding, Auctomatic is now ready to help you sell on eBay.
It's a great milestone to pass because now our priorities on what to do will come from our users.
Before, we'd been operating in an environment where we didn't have regular feedback, which is harder because you have to guess at what's ready and what's not.
Now our users tell us, and the most encouraging thing is that all of the responses have been incredibly positive.
I have written before about how one of our biggest challenges was making sure that the usability of the site was spot on.
A lot of the established players in our market have neglected this and put a huge burden on new users by making them spend time figuring out how everything works.
So, it's encouraging to hear from almost all of our users that this investment has paid off and that they really like our interface because it's easy to use.
Of course, what we have launched is by no means a finished product and we still have a lot more development to do.
What's interesting however, is that a lot of our early sign-ups have been from Europe and Asia, so immediately we went to work on making the site work with all of the eBay international sites.
I know that eBay is growing strongly internationally and that the software market for countries like the UK is still in its early days, so it's all very promising.
Understanding your users
We also realised that there are certain things that are best learned by jumping in and feeling your users pain. So we decided to start our own power seller business to test our software.
This was fun. We started selling anything we could find in the apartment on eBay - but we quickly moved on to selling Auctomatic t-shirts after realising this strategy was not sustainable.
So far the experiment has paid off handsomely.
Hiroki, the intern in charge of the project, communicated a lot of new ideas to the team.
For example, we quickly realised it would make sense to be able to import your existing information from eBay in to Auctomatic.
Getting this instant feedback and acting on it is our top priority. It should also give us some real credibility with our users.
Auctomatic tested its plans by selling on eBay
If our own in-house eBay business depends on Auctomatic, the chances are that we are going to make something that works reliably and helps us make money.
We've been covering the highs and lows of this for everyone to read on our company blog - and there are plenty of lows, like when the scammers frequently end up ruining our auctions.
In terms of a launch strategy, we decided to stagger our marketing efforts so that we could quickly fix the early teething problems that would inevitably crop up.
It was quite nervy around the apartment when we finally pushed things live, but thankfully everything went smoothly and we are now ready to promote ourselves aggressively.
The past few months have been challenging as we were always so eager to launch really quickly and put ourselves under a lot of pressure to do so.
We've innovated a whole lot in our infrastructure and have mastered the incredibly complex eBay API in just over four months, which is no easy task.
Our investor Paul Graham says you're not a real company until you launch and we're inclined to agree with that, so it's very exciting now that we really get to go out there and carve out a market for ourselves.
Back in the UK
In other news, I'm currently back in London and have noticed that things have visibly improved (weather excluded) since we made the decision to take investment and head out to San Francisco.
A few of my entrepreneur friends have raised money here, but it still seems to be the case that they had to work much harder and give up more than their US counterparts.
Three British start-ups have applied to Y Combinator since us - which suggests that the Valley still maintains its strong allure.
Ultimately, the real meetings happen face-to-face and for that you have to be in the heart of it to maximise your chances of success. So, I'm currently applying for a US visa.
Being back has also reminded me that the capacity to take risks is rarer over here.
It's not easy doing something different to what all of your peers are doing, and I'm still in the tiny minority of people my age who take the plunge and risk trying to build a company.
That is why entrepreneurs are so well rewarded when things do work out.
I've definitely noticed an improvement since before, but there's still not enough people starting companies.
I look forward to the Make Your Mark campaign being launched by the government next month and hope that will change things.
Kulveer Taggar moved to Silicon Valley in California after graduating from Oxford and working as an investment banker.


text:
I didn’t expect my grim outlook to become reality quite so quickly, but Tesco’s shares slid on Monday after the firm revealed that it had overstated its first-half profit guidance by an estimated £250m, and look where we are today — under 200p.
Essentially, what appears to have happened is that Tesco recognised income too soon, and costs too late, flattering its profit forecast for the first half.
How bad is it?
I’ve no idea of how deep Tesco’s accounting problems might run: frankly, I’m not sure anyone does.
Tesco’s new chief executive, Dave Lewis, said that despite nearly three decades of retail experience (at Unilever) he has never seen anything like this before. The supermarket has even had to parachute in new CFO Alan Stewart over two months early, joining today rather than 1 December.
So far, the problem appears to be restricted to the first half of this year, a period when the firm’s senior management, under newly departed CEO Philip Clarke, would have been under intense pressure to report decent trading.
However, we’ll have to wait until next month to find out whether these problems could affect previous years’ results.
Is Tesco doomed?
City analysts plunged into full-scale doom mode following Tesco’s announcement:
Analysts at Espirito Santo suggested that “Tesco could eventually generate zero profits in the UK”.
Over at HSBC, the bank’s head of European Consumer Retail Research, David McCarthy, said “we believe that Tesco’s gross margin has been falling rapidly and that this has been artificially hidden”.
Time to buy?
However, it’s important to keep a sense of perspective: Tesco is still a large, important business that’s expected to report a trading profit of around £850m for the first half of this year.
What’s more, today’s bad news gives Mr Lewis the perfect opportunity to do a ‘kitchen sink job’, and release as much bad news as possible when the firm’s delayed first-half results are published on 23 October, before unveiling his turnaround plan.
In my view, now might be the ideal time to buy Tesco shares, if you can live with the uncertainty regarding the firm’s accounting problems.
A more prudent approach would be to wait until the supermarket’s half-year figures are published on October 23.
Depending on the news that day, I expect to see the firm’s share price lurch higher — or perhaps lower — as the market digests Tesco’s first-half profits and full-year outlook.
Cybersecurity is surging, with experts predicting that the cybersecurity market will reach US$366 billion by 2028 — more than double what it is today!
And with that kind of growth, this North American company stands to be the biggest winner.
Because their patented “self-repairing” technology is changing the cybersecurity landscape as we know it…
We think it has the potential to become the next famous tech success story.
In fact, we think it could become as big… or even BIGGER than Shopify.
Roland Head owns shares in Tesco, Unilever and HSBC Holdings. The Motley Fool UK owns shares of Tesco and Unilever. We Fools don't all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors.


text:
Vera Bradley plans to double the size of its Indiana distribution center to meet increased demand for its patterned fabric purses, leather items, and other accessories.
Vera Bradley experienced a 30% sales increase in its second quarter, with sales jumping from $80.1 million a year ago to $103.8 million. It's predicted the company will enjoy sales of between $438 million and $443 million by year's end.
It will cost an estimated $22.5 million to take the current 220, 000 square foot space to almost 420, 000 square feet, but it seems the money will be well spent. The expansion will see approximately 124 new jobs created at the Roanoke plant. The development will commence this fall, with a view to completion at the same time next year.
Vera Bradley's chief executive officer Michael C. Ray says that investing in the revamped distribution center will help the company achieve its long-term goals including expansion into new channels and locations. It is currently working with the state of Indiana and city councils in Fort Wayne and Allen County to support its investment in new jobs and ongoing commitment to Northeastern Indiana.
I've been really impressed with Vera Bradley's designs in recent seasons, which seem to be adopting more of a fashion forward look, so it's impressive to see these creative risks are paying off for the homegrown label.
Vera Bradley Handbags on eBay
Sorry we couldn't find anything like this on eBay. Try our Bag Search Engine.


text:
ST. LOUIS (KTVI) – Microsoft Groups has turn into a staple for a lot of workplaces, and now folks can begin utilizing the app for private use.
The private model launched this week and permits customers to talk, video name, share calendars and extra with family and friends.
Microsoft says customers will be capable of group chat to coordinate plans with family members and do it multi function place. It’s in style as a result of it integrates with Microsoft Workplace.
The private and enterprise variations each have a brand new Collectively mode. Microsoft says this permits customers to show any video name right into a shared digital atmosphere.
Scott Schaffer, with Blade Applied sciences, says it makes use of synthetic intelligence to place an individual’s face and shoulders right into a digital area.
Microsoft Groups will also be used to host conferences with as much as 300 folks that may last as long as 24 hours. There are plans to implement new limits sooner or later.
Microsoft additionally touts that Groups will transcend chat and produce its customers plans to life, simply permitting them to create lists and assign duties with the app.
Schaffer says Groups can simply be downloaded on many working programs. He stated additionally it is on the internet, so it doesn’t should be downloaded it in any respect — customers simply want entry to the web.
Counsel a Correction
GUNTERSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) — For many years, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has al…


text:
A SUPERMARKET company is preparing to unveil its new plans to move into Monument Hill in Weybridge.
After Morrisons’ application for a 6,396-square metre store and undercroft parking for 220 cars at the former Focus DIY site was rejected last year, the company is due to reveal the new proposals next month, with hopes that it would be open by Christmas next year.
The decision by Elmbridge Borough Council’s west area sub-committee meeting to reject the plans in October was made after more than 700 objections to the scheme.
It was turned down because councillors considered it out of character with the surrounding area and that Morrisons had not satisfactorily demonstrated that the proposed parking was adequate for the store. The committee also felt the development might lead to the loss of an ‘important’ tree.
However, Morrisons has now announced it will shortly submit a new application based on this feedback.
Richard Haynes, development executive for Morrisons, said: “Weybridge continues to need more food shopping choice in the town centre and we know there is local support for this.
“We have listened to feedback on our first proposal, improved our plans and look forward to sharing our new designs as soon as they are ready next month. We have worked hard to revise the designs in line with local opinions, with guidance from Elmbridge Borough Council.
“There is no question that they are the stronger for it and that the investment will be an excellent way to support the town and deliver the regeneration the Focus site so badly needs.”
Mr Haynes said all would be revealed next month when Morrisons was due to update its website and hold a drop-in session showing the plans.
“We hope to get a decision on the new scheme in July so we can open, with around 300 jobs for local people, by Christmas 2014,” he added.
Adam Moreve, a member of the Weybridge Town Business Group, said it was not keen to see Morrisons in the town.
“Any applications that go in, we will be putting in an objection,” he said. “It can only do damage to the town. We have businesses in the town that can already do what Morrisons will do. There are a lot of supermarkets in the area already and I do not think Morrisons will be offering anything that is not already there.
“The amount of traffic is going to increase too.”