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It’s a widely known and accepted fact that tobacco is harmful to our health. However, in a country like India, crores of people get employment from this industry. Though the sale and consumption of tobacco are already subject to a number of laws, the government has decided to make the COTPA law more stringent, which has caused a ruckus in the industry recently.
The laws are completely in the favour of our health, so why the ruckus? Read on to know more!
Why the law in the first place?
- India ranks second in the tally of the number of tobacco users in the world. It is estimated that there are 26.8 Crore tobacco consumers in India which is roughly 28% of the adult population in India.
- At least 12 lacs people die every year from tobacco-related diseases out of which 10 lacs deaths are attributed to smoking alone.
- Moreover, in excess of 2 Lac people die due to secondhand smoke exposure.
- If the above numbers still don’t make sense then read this; tobacco consumption is the cause for nearly 27% of all cancers in India.
- For those who argue about the economic impact of this fairly large industry, even the economic stats don’t support tobacco consumption and therefore tobacco production. The direct and indirect economic impact of diseases linked to tobacco use is roughly Rs. 182,000 crore which means it is costing us nearly 1.8% of India’s GDP.
Citizens and anti-tobacco activists have been asking for tighter laws around the sale, promotion and consumption of tobacco products. Owing to the increasing number of deaths due to tobacco usage and mounting pressure from society and activists, COTPA was enacted in 2003.
The Covid-19 situation has made things worse for both smokers and non-smokers both with the virus attacking the lungs there is a much stronger demand to put an end to tobacco production and consumption for everyone’s good health. As the lockdowns are being imposed again around the globe, India continues to open up and in such a situation it is important to curb tobacco consumption especially smoking. Also read: Healthy Cheat Snacks For Lockdown Days And Nights!
The original law – COTPA 2003
In 2003, the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act (COTPA) was enacted, for the sale and consumption of tobacco products in India. It was through this law that actions like selling tobacco to a person under 18 years or setting tobacco shops around schools were deemed illegal.
How does the law help?
There are many sections in this law that aim at curbing the sale and usage of tobacco in one way or the other. The law applies restrictions on smoking in public places, advertising of tobacco products, selling of tobacco products to children under 18 or within a radius of 100 yards around educational institutions. The warnings and photos on tobacco products are also due to COTPA provisions.
Proposed amendments to COTPA
The government has prepared a draft to amend this law. If the amendment is made, the minimum age to buy tobacco will be increased from 18 to 21 and tobacco will not be sold within 100 meters of the schools, which is now 100 yards. According to the draft, there will also be a ban on selling loose cigarettes. It has also been proposed to remove the smoking zones made in hotels, pubs and bars and increase the amount of fine. Also read: Covid-19 – What puts you at higher risk?
Why the tobacco lobby isn’t happy?
People of the industry are worried that these amendments will affect their earnings. The Federation of Retailers Association of India (FRAI) has already appealed to the Prime Minister to reject the proposed amendments to this law. As per the FRAI, the amendments will significantly affect the earnings of the people earning a livelihood by selling tobacco, cigarettes, bidi, paan on the roadside.
Whichever way we look at this problem, there is no alternative to keep moving towards making India tobacco-free but at the same time, the government and NGOs should join hands to create alternate income opportunities for those who will lose their jobs due to tighter restrictions put on the tobacco trade.
Whether you are a smoker or a non-smoker, we’d love to know your thoughts on this topic.


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The results of Plantarium 2018 are clear: the road taken is a good one and has given us an appetite for more. Exhibitors responded positively to the recent edition and support the organisation in the good direction that has been chosen.
Plantarium 2018 is in the stating blocks. The floor plan has been finalised and the outlines of the trade fair have been laid out. With just over a week to go, preparations are on schedule. "It was a challenge to design the entrance to the new location in such a way that visitors will imagine themselves in a green oasis as they enter. I don't want to give away too much, but we believe we have succeeded in doing so," says trade fair manager Jos van Lint.
In August 2018, Plantarium will take place at a new location under one roof with GROEN-Direkt. A new location also means a new layout for the trade fair. Besides the green participants, suppliers will also be given more space to present and demonstrate their innovations.

domain: news


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Deep clean of Harrogate town centre begins ahead of shops re-opening
A deep clean of Harrogate town centre has begun as businesses and shops prepare to re-open their doors next week.
Appointed by Harrogate BID (Business Improvement District), a team from Yorkshire-based UK Nationwide Cleaning Services moved into Market Place and Cross James Street, for the first night of their operation.
The company’s four-year contract will see them power washing pavements and street furniture in the retail heart of the town, and each clean will take approximately two-weeks to complete.
Harrogate BID Interim manager Simon Kent said: “The deep clean of Harrogate town centre has been a long time coming, and I’m delighted that it has now got under way.
“In a recent survey by Harrogate BID, the majority of businesses who responded said they saw this as the number one priority.
“UK Nationwide Cleaning Services, whom we awarded the contract to, are experts in this line of cleaning, having worked successfully with BIDs across the UK, including a number in Yorkshire.”
The Government has given the go-ahead for all 'non-essential shops' to reopen from Monday, June 15.
Further information about the Harrogate BID is available from its website,
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Coinbase has joined Google, Facebook, Yahoo and many other internet companies as part of the Internet Association (IA), a nonprofit trade group.
The IA is based in DC. Its stated goals are to protect internet freedom, foster innovation and economic growth and empower internet users. Last year, it fought for stronger neutrality rules for the internet, and supported patent reform legislation making it more difficult for patent trolls to sue for patent damages.
The Full Crypto Trading in FBS TraderGo to article >>
With internet freedom, the organization believes that information should be able to flow freely across borders without being impeded by tariffs, unnecessary regulations or government censorship.
John Collins, Coinbase’s head of government affairs, said in a statement, “Our vision for bitcoin as a free and open, global payments system aligns with IA’s own commitment to online freedom and innovation, and we look forward to furthering that mission as a member.”
Internet Association head Michael Beckerman welcomed Coinbase to the association and pointed to their track record of expansion and innovation, calling them a leader in the field of digital currency.


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The first 13-week first quarter of 2022 was passed with 16,148,034 ticket sales and 439 million TL revenue, and the results of the last two first quarters before the epidemic were captured.
Markets are also normalizing as the effect of the epidemic, which has turned lives upside down around the world for two years, gradually diminishes. After the compulsory changes, the Turkish cinema market was one of those that preferred to “stay in the game” when the first-quarter data of 2022 were examined.
In the first 13-week first quarter of 2022, the results of the last two first quarters of the pre-epidemic period were captured with 16,148,034 ticket sales and 439 million TL revenue. Between 7 January 2022 and 25 March 2022, 81 new feature films were screened, 37 of which, 45%, were recorded as Turkish productions.
The performance of the new 81 films, which were released in the first quarter after the epidemic, according to the sales and revenue totals in the first 13 weeks of the last ten years, excluding the first quarter of 2021, when film distribution programs were not made and cinema businesses were closed, managed to catch the ‘normal’ indicator levels of the period.
While five of the new cinema films of 2022 exceeded the threshold of 500 thousand ticket sales, these films took sixth place with their total sales of 10 million in the last ten years. The rate of 63% captured, however, was able to leave behind the first quarter of 2020, 2019, 2016, and 2015, two weeks missing.
As expected, the first quarter slice after the epidemic is well behind the total sales between 2014-and 2018. However, the world and humanity, which came out of a heavy epidemic period, did not withdraw from cinemas globally in the first three months. While the public filled movie theaters in markets that reached three-digit million sales on an annual basis, the first 13 weeks of 2022 were passed with 16 million sales in Turkey. Although there was a 3% decrease compared to the same period of 2020, while the transition from 2019 to 2020 before the epidemic, there was a 5% decrease in the first quarter slice.
In the first quarter, mostly the sales intensity was in January, but this trend changed in favor of March in 2022, for the first time in the last ten years. In this quarter, ticket sales in March came in front of February and January with 46.34%. The highest total in March ticket sales of the last ten years (excluding 2021) belongs to 2014. By 2022, sales of 7.9 million units in 2014 were followed by 2015 with 7.3 million units. Carrying its monthly sales to 7.4 with a very positive effect after the epidemic, March of 2022 ranked second in the sales order of March in the last ten-year period.
While only one of the films released in 2022 had 72% of the total tickets sold on a weekend, this rate increased to 74% on a weekly basis. From this point of view, the week of March 11-17, 2022, has been recorded as the 20th week, the 23rd weekend with the highest dominance rate of a movie since 2006. This weekly rate had increased to 86%, which was the highest level in February 2009, and 88% for the weekend in April 2019. The highest rates of movie dominance were seen in the top three of the movies on a weekly basis, with 99% sales in one weekend in December 2008 and 93% in October 2009.
These days when digital platforms are put into operation one after another, the devoted interest of people who have just come out of the epidemic and with great damage is observed. While the proliferation of content on platforms that allow instant and on-demand viewing makes it difficult for satellite television channels, subscription pressure on the audience, time, and content traffic strengthens the hand of cinema. From the numbers and ratios that emerged in the first quarter of 2022, it is observed that the audience of quality cinema productions remains in place and is ready to watch refined works in quality cinema enterprises.


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Black Bros. Co. enjoyed an incredible 2017 and 2018 is already off to a hot start. Check out our 2018 show schedule and come visit us at the following shows and conferences.
Black Bros. is a presenting gold sponsor at the upcoming Structural Insulated Panel Association’s (SIPA) Annual Meeting and Conference February 26-28 in Jacksonville, Florida.
Sales Team members Bill Masear and Mark Thompson will be on hand to host a table top display at the Supplier Expo and explain how Black Bros. machinery can be used in the Structural Insulated Panel industry.
Bill Masear will be on hand for the Expanded Poly-Styrene (EPS) Expo March 26-28 in downtown New Orleans. Bill will be exhibiting our literature on our roll coating and laminating equipment specifically designed for the EPS foam industry.
Sales members Mark Thompson and Tim Eich will be at the Tampa Bay Convention Center April 11-14 for the National Wood Flooring Expo.
Black Bros. will be displaying information about our hot melt roll coating equipment and Multi-Roll Rotary Pneumatic Press, specifically designed for the Engineered Wood Flooring industry. Come check us out at Booth #921!
Fifth-generation Black Bros. president Matt Carroll, Sales Director Todd Phalen, sixth-generation Black Bros. member Evan Carroll and Evan Wixom with the marketing department will be attending the Woodworking Industry Conference May 1-4 in beautiful Maui, Hawaii. The Conference is jointly hosted by the Wood Machinery Manufacturers of America (WMMA), of which Black Bros. has been a member since the organization’s inception in 1949.
In addition to several networking events, we will also be hosting a contact table at the conference.
Todd Phalen is a member of the WMMA Membership Development Committee and the WMMA International Business Development Committee.
Black Bros. will have equipment on display and live demonstrations during the International Wood Fair August 22-25 at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta.
The IWF Show is the largest of its kind in North America and one of the largest in the world. We are currently planning on running a live demonstration of our Panel Express Line, featuring our Panel Express rotary press, 775 Adhesive Spreader, 495 Panel Cleaner, and our Laminate Indexing Station.
In addition, we will also be running the Rapha Turnover Device, showing how 3D customers can utilize the machine to save time and cost.
Our entire sales team will be ready to discuss all your roll coating and laminating needs during the show. Stop in to see us at Booth #5412!


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Beside the announcement of Windows 10, Microsoft also announced a new giant tablet targeted to the business consumers and mostly use in the meeting room.
Called the Surface Hub and come with two sizes of display: 55-inch or 85-inch, this giant tablet launched after Microsoft bought Perceptive Pixel, two years ago.
Microsoft Surface Hub
Microsoft hasn’t released much details on this new tablet, all we know that the Surface Hub features built-in camera, microphones and sensors, allows it to deliver a new experience and take advantage of Windows 10, Office 365 and Skype for Business.
The Surface Hub tablet can run any app which compatible with Windows 10 including Skype, OneNote, Microsoft Office and so on. However, Microsoft has done a bit of modification in this version of Windows 10 for large-screen such as a quick call button for Skype, a white board for writing or drawing, shortcut to connect to other devices.
You can also sync all notes and documents on the Microsoft Surface Hub into your smartphone, tablet or even PC run Windows 10. It looks Microsoft want to build a flexible Windows version and can work on almost devices.
Microsoft introduced Surface Hub giant tablet video:
The company also offers free upgrade to Windows 10 from Windows 7, Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone 8.1 in the first year. After that time, you need to use “pay for upgrade” service.


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The history of Bitcoin is a story of legends. The crypto currency, which has experienced a lot of up and down since the beginning of 2008, is now known as digital gold. Bitcoin grew so much that it became even more valuable than it used to be.
In spite of the extraordinary growth rate of the currency, Satoshi Nakamoto Bitcoin has been created to be a crypto currency. Satoshi hoped that the krypton would replace the official currencies and free societies from the captivity of central money systems.
Over the years, coffee shops and e-retailers have adopted Bitcoin as a means of payment. Bitcoin users have already used kripto to buy software, books, movies and food. This year, businesses that have been isolating themselves from Bitcoin for a long time have gradually started to accept the crypto. Now we provide you with a list of things you can buy with Bitcoin, and you probably did not know that you could do some of them. From 2018, travelers interested in space can pay with Bitcoin for a walk through space at any time. The space company has been doing very successful tests over the last four years. The first customer made a reservation in 2013, but at least six people have discussed so far.
If there is anyone who wants to become an astronaut, Virgin Galactic will only be paid $ 250,000 to pay with Bitcoin and three days of training.
World Tour by Ship
In February, the Royal Caribbean Mariner took hundreds of cruisers on a ferry trip between Singapore and Thailand. The trip also had a stop in Malaysia. The common point of all cruisers was that they paid with Bitcoin for the trip. And they gathered to make the biggest drive with the Bitcoin theme. After the Royal Carribbean, Ark Cruise, Blockchain Cruise and Princess Cruises, thousands of customers have also paid with Bitcoin. Roger Ver and Charlie Lee from Litecoin both gave a speech at Blockchain Cruise.
If you like cruises and have a few hundred dollars from Bitcoins, you do not have to manage. Cross-corporations from around the world accept crypto payments. If you want to travel all over the world, you can easily order your tickets using Bitcoin next time.
If the value of your crypto investments is enough to buy your holiday destination, you have a lot of choice. For example, Trump Hotel in New York accepts Bitcoin for purchases. For a while ago, you could buy a piece of Trump SoHo at $ 1.9 million or 25,500 BTC. Prices may have changed but sales continue
Apart from this, prices in Bahamas resorts to 5,000 Bitcoins. Staying in the most expensive holiday villages costs more than $ 5 million. If you have a holiday but do not have enough money to buy, you can also rent a place using Bitcoin in California, Mexico and Austria.
Many universities have followed this behavior since a university in Brazil began to accept crypto. he said. They eventually fell in love with college children, Bitcoin. Last year, hundreds of students made thousands of dollars in Bitcoin trade. Several of them left the university to continue the Bitcoin trade on a full-time basis, some of which became millionaires. Lucerne also accepted payments with BTC since September last year when the University of Applied Sciences and Art in Switzerland
Ferrari, Lambo, Benz or Rolls Royce
Do you like luxury cars? The Japanese Crypto Exchange BitFlyer and several luxury car companies have worked with Bitcoin to offer the option to pay for top-level car purchases. The company offers payments with Bitcoin for $ 1 million purchases. However, it is already enough to buy three Porsch, a few Tesla and one-two Lamborghini
. If you want to buy a luxury car again, the American car company Post Oak Motor Cars accepts kripto for the purchase of any number of vehicles. You want to buy a Bugatti Veyron? The Houston-based company accepts your payment with crypto. And you do not have to go to Houston to get your car. Post Oak in partnership with BitPay, one of the largest Bitcoin processors
Artnome was launched in December last year as a digital artworks market. The crypto money organization has arisen with the idea of legitimizing digital art. Traditional art galleries, which saw the company's recent success, participated in this trend.
Ato Gallery, a New York company, sold an artwork worth a maximum of $ 100,000 at a shocking price earlier this year. Full 150 Bitcoin! At the time of the sale, Bitcoin's price was more than $ 1.5 million. The purchase took place after an Instagram shipping and chose to keep the buyer identity secret.
Soon after Payment Processors begin to appear, Microsoft, NewEgg and Overstock.com have accepted crypto payments. The first products to be listed for BTC payments were laptops and smartphones. Today you can buy your favorite computer with Bitcoin. And like other products, you can also get coupons or gift cards for payments with Bitcoin. Do not expect to get your BTCs back in return for a refund, but you can make a change or get your BTC in cash.
Wedding organizations now accept Bitcoin. Why can not you use Bitcoin for funeral services? If you have a little BTC and lost a lover, you can find a service provider that accepts Bitcoin. At least in Minnesota, a company accepts the crypto. But many modern businesses, including funeral homes, also accept payment by crypto.
Over 100,000 suppliers worldwide now accept Bitcoin. With crypto money you can even buy your daily needs like coffee and pizza. But if you love luxury, there are many luxury items you can buy with BTC. Do not hesitate to buy your Krypton for a variety of services, from the purchase of Ferrari to celebrate voyages with celebrities.
This article should not be considered investment advice and should not be offered. Please do extensive research before investing in any of our crypto currencies.


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Apple Music will sponsor the Super Bowl halftime show, replacing Pepsi
Apple Music will take over as sponsor of the NFL’s Super Bowl halftime show, replacing Pepsi as the primary sponsor of the annual spectacle, which typically draws one of the largest television audiences of the year.
“Music and sports hold a special place in our hearts, so we’re very excited that Apple Music will be a part of music and soccer’s biggest stage,” said Oliver Schusser, vice president of Apple Music and Beats, in a prepared statement. “We look forward to even more epic performances next year and beyond with the Apple Music Super Bowl Halftime Show.”
In recent months, Apple has shown more interest in sports. Its streaming platform has struck deals with Major League Baseball and Major League Soccer to show games to subscribers. Sports rights have long been the preserve of traditional media companies like Fox, Disney, Paramount Global and NBCUniversal, but tech companies like Apple and Amazon have made a bigger play for those rights as they seek to attract consumers to their new broadband subscription video services. Amazon, for its part, is now a major partner of the NFL thanks to its control of the rights to “Thursday Night Football.”
The first Super Bowl with Apple as a halftime sponsor will take place on Sunday, February 12, 2023 in Glendale, Arizona. Apple Music expects to offer a preview of its ideas in the coming months through its social handle, @AppleMusic, on TikTok, Instagram and Twitter.
“We couldn’t think of a better partner for the world’s most-watched music performance than Apple Music, a service that entertains, inspires and motivates millions of people around the world through the intersection of music and technology,” said Nana-Yaw Asamoah, senior vice president on the partnership strategy for the NFL, in a statement.
The league said more than 120 million viewers watched the halftime show that accompanied Super Bowl LVI. The extravaganza featured Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Mary J. Blige and Kendrick Lamar, marking the first time these five artists performed together on stage. Under Pepsi, other halftime acts include The Weeknd, Jennifer Lopez, Shakira, Beyoncé, Justin Timberlake, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry and Bruno Mars.
But Pepsi said in May that it would not return as a sponsor of the halftime show in 2022, opting to withdraw from a decade-long association that shifted the event away from a roster of mostly rock musicians such as Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers in benefiting a new crop of artists who are favored by the younger generations that advertisers and the NFL seek to woo. The NFL is said to be seeking significantly higher annual payments for the sponsorship rights.
For years, each halftime show was treated as a one-off event, with a new sponsor coming in each year. Coca-Cola and Oscar Mayer were among the program’s early supporters. In 2000, online broker E-Trade began a three-year stint as a sponsor of the event. Tire manufacturer Bridgestone in 2008 joined the halftime program for five years, supporting The Who, The Black-Eyed Peas and Madonna, among others. Pepsi, which originally sponsored the Super Bowl XLI halftime show in 2007, which featured Prince, began its ten-year sponsorship of the halftime show in 2013.


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More than 1.7 million Facebook users have joined a protest against another redesign of the popular social networking site, in one of the biggest consumer revolts seen in the online world. The group is pleading with the social network to “make small changes and make the transition easier to deal with.”
Facebook has redesigned its layout (second time in a year), in order to better compete with upcoming popular real-time microblogging service Twitter. But with the transition to the new interface complete, Facebook has fallen under heavy criticism this weekend for not listening to the wishes of its users, who vehemently protested against the change to the new layout. Also making its pages more advertiser friendly.
Opponents of the new design say it clutters their home page with updates from people they don’t care about, while also limiting the number of features available to users.
Facebook has acknowledged the criticism, but so far has declined to take any action.
“The new Facebook home page is one step in the continued evolution of the site, designed to give people more ways to share and filter all types of content, such as status updates, photos, videos, notes and more,” the company said in a statement.
“We are listening carefully to what people are saying about the new home page through a variety of channels and are committed to using it to inform how we build and improve the site for everyone.”


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Canadian Vets, Plus Some Dutch Bikers, Join Fight Against ISIS
November 21 2014 9:22 PM
A group of Canadian Forces vets add to a growing list of Western fighters who have ISIS militants in their crosshairs.
FBI Personnel Pour Into Ferguson As Preventive Measure
November 21 2014 7:54 PM
President Barack Obama calls for calm, as agents prepare for possible unrest in the wake of a grand-jury decision in the Mike Brown shooting.
Ecuador Wants To Protect Assange's 'Life And Liberty'
November 21 2014 7:32 PM
WikiLeaks' founder has been living in Ecuador's London embassy to avoid being extradited to Sweden, where he faces sexual assault charges.
Adam Lanza’s Mental Problems Were Ignored: Report
November 21 2014 5:32 PM
Despite early mental health red flags, Lanza frequently joined parents for recreational shooting and never lost easy access to firearms.
Takata Exec Raked Over Coals About Those Air Bags
November 20 2014 5:08 PM
Company that made those explosive air bags warns that cars in humid climates really need to be fixed immediately.
Handling Of Air Bag Recall Lacks Clarity, Says Senator
November 20 2014 12:35 PM
Do you know the difference between a "service campaign" and a "recall"? You’re not alone.
Senator: Owners Of Recalled Autos Should Get Loaner Cars During Takata Air Bag Fix
November 20 2014 10:59 AM
Sen. Bill Nelson said consumers should get loaner cars while automakers fix those explosive Takata air bags.
A Tech Futurist's Warning To The Auto Industry
November 19 2014 3:13 PM
Business strategist Peter Schwartz says cars could wind up simply being the hardware that carries tech industry software.
Android Apps, Now For Your Car
November 19 2014 12:13 PM
Google now allows developers to make Android apps for "car-optimized" audio playback and messaging.
Elizabeth Warren vs. Walmart
November 18 2014 5:23 PM
The outspoken progressive senator meets with Walmart activists ahead of Black Friday demonstrations.
Europe Car Sales Up, Thanks To Discounting
November 18 2014 11:00 AM
E.U. consumers bought a million cars last month, led by U.K. demand. Ford sales are up; GM's are down.
Automakers Should Do More On Privacy, Critics Say
November 17 2014 3:06 PM
Top automakers have outlined consumer privacy principles for connected cars. Here’s what’s lacking, according to critics.
Cause Of Takata Air Bag Flaw ‘Murky’: Ralph Nader
November 17 2014 11:42 AM
Ralph Nader says the public knows too little about why some Takata air bags explode and spray shrapnel.
Black Friday Brings Fresh Walmart Protests
November 14 2014 3:32 PM
Advocates pushing Walmart to raise wages and improve work scheduling hope to make Black Friday 2014 their biggest action yet.
Cadillac Sales Leap In China
November 14 2014 12:07 PM
Amid sluggish U.S. demand for GM’s luxury car brand, Chinese consumers gravitate to Cadillac’s XTS sedan, SRX crossover.
GM CEO Backs Out Of Women’s Honor
November 13 2014 3:40 PM
GM’s ignition switch recall will keep CEO Mary Barra from receiving an award for being first woman to head a car company.
Why The 2015 Corvette Can’t Be Sold In South Korea
November 13 2014 12:02 PM
The upcoming Chevrolet muscle car won’t feed South Korea’s growing appetite for imported cars. Because, noise.
UAW Welcomes Volkswagen’s New Union Policy
November 12 2014 5:36 PM
With little else to lose at Volkswagen’s Chattanooga, Tennessee, auto plant, the UAW sees hope in the company’s new deal.
Taiwan Testing World’s First Fully Wireless Electric Rail Service
November 12 2014 12:01 PM
Taiwan’s first light-rail service uses Spanish electric trains that charge wirelessly instead of using overhead catenary lines.
In Europe, Automakers Cheat Fuel Economy Tests
November 10 2014 3:29 PM
Overinflating tires and disconnecting alternators are two of the methods used to cheat Europe’s stringent fuel economy and emissions goals.


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Livspace, home interiors and renovation platform, on Monday said it has formed a joint venture (JV) with Alsulaiman Group (ASG) to expand into the Middle East region.
With its maiden joint venture with ASG – Ikea’s operating partner in the region, Livspace will aim to capitalize on the vast opportunities in the home interiors and renovation segment in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA).
”We will be operating as Livspace in the region, in partnership with ASG. It’s a 50:50 partnership wherein both Livspace and ASG have invested about $50 million.
”We are launching in KSA initially and will be looking to capitalize on the massive opportunity in the home interiors and renovation segment in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region in the next 24 months,” Livspace founder and CEO Anuj Srivastava told PTI.
The JV will be fully operational by the first half of 2022, he added.
Livspace – which has raised funds from Kharis Capital, Bessemer Ventures, and others – brings homeowners, design professionals, vendors, and brands together on a single tech-led platform.
Srivastava said Saudi Arabia’s booming real estate market, especially the residential segment, presents significant opportunities.
”It is estimated to be a $15 billion market opportunity. Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 initiatives are sparking growth in homeownership and a wider array of residential formats – villas to high-rise apartment living – which underlines the need for quality home interior design and execution,” he explained.
Aligned with this, Livspace is expanding its operations in the region to bring trusted home interiors and renovation solutions to homeowners, enable thousands of small and fragmented design and home improvement professionals to grow their business and create the largest, most organized digital supply chain for the home interiors and renovation industry in the region.
”Livspace follows an omnichannel model and we will have similar operations in the Middle East. Yes, we will be setting up experience centers in the region and they will be operational in early 2022… Considering the market potential, we are looking at approximately 10 percent contribution from the region in the next 24 months,” he said.
Both Livspace and ASG have invested about $50 million to fuel regional growth, and the JV further plans on strengthening the team by investing in top talent across levels while also aiming to reach 500 design and execution partners in the region by 2022.
Alsulaiman Group CEO Saud Alsulaiman said the partnership with Livspace will allow the company to expand the scope of the customer experience from the beginning of the design of the home to the end of implementation in an innovative and unique experience.
Talking about the overall business, Srivastava said the company is headquartered out of Singapore with operations in India.
”The former currently contributes 20 percent to the overall business and early this year our India operations turned profitable. We are also looking to expand across 80 new cities globally starting with the APAC geography, including Australia, over the next 18-24 months along with the MENA region,” he added.
On the India business, he said the company has built margins through modular solutions, contracting services and significantly improved its operational efficiencies since FY20, resulting in India operations being profitable and starting to generate positive cash flows.
”We have grown over 80 percent compared to pre-COVID19 levels and in the next 12 months, we will double our business, close new orders worth over Rs 5,000 crore and achieve a gross revenue of over Rs 2,800 crore. We will also be present in 60-65 new cities in the next year,” Srivastava added.
Categories: Venture Capital


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The strength in consumer price inflation in August helps build the case for a December rate hike, economists said Thursday.
“U.S. consumer prices didn’t exactly surge in the month but the core reading was high enough to keep expectations of a year-end rate hike alive,” said Jennifer Lee, economist at BMO Capital Markets.
The consumer price index rose 0.4% last month and the core rate increased 0.2%. On a yearly basis, headline inflation is up 1.9% and the core rate remained steady at 1.7%.
Core inflation has been weak for the past five months.
Jim O’Sullivan, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics, said the August reading shows the recent weakness was exaggerated.
The Fed has penciled in three rate hikes in 2017 and has already moved twice. Economists see December is the next opportunity for a rate hike.
At its meeting next week, the Fed is going to pause from interest rate hikes and is widely expected to announce the start of a plan to shrink its massive $4.5 trillion balance sheet.
“The data help the case for following up the start of Fed balance sheet normalization next week with another rate hike in December,” O’Sullivan said.
The market is now expecting more than a 50% chance of a December rate hike, up from about a 30% chance one week ago, according to CME Group’s FedWatch Tool.
Some Fed officials have been caution about another rate hike this year, and as a result, Fed watchers are divided over the likelihood of a move.
Steve Stanley, chief economist at Amherst Pierpont, said inflation data would have to be soft over the next few months “to talk them out of a rate hike.”
But Paul Ashworth, chief North American economist for Capital Economics, changed his forecast and now says the Fed is unlikely to raise interest rates again until next year, especially given the disruptions of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma.
Analysts said there may be clues about the Fed’s plans in the economic projections released after its two-day meeting ending Sept. 20.
In June, the Fed projected core inflation, as measured by the personal consumption expenditure index, would rise at a 1.7% rate this year and hit the central bank’s 2% target in 2018.
If the Fed leaves this forecast unchanged, it may further boost expectations of a December hike, said Andrew Hollenhorst, chief U.S. economist at Citigroup Global Markets.
Economists caution there will be three more CPI reports before the Fed’s December interest-rate policy decision.


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IP telephony has crossed over from an emerging technology to the mainstream choice for business voice, reports In-Stat. User acceptance of IP telephony is high, with sales of IP lines in the first half of 2007 continuing to solidly outpace those of traditional lines as the move to IP telephony among organizations continues, the high-tech market research firm says.
"For IP telephony, the initial technical and operational challenges are behind it," says Norm Bogen, In-Stat research director. "ROIs are proving the economics to be solid, and the productivity gains associated with the technology are, and will continue to exceed, those that could be realized with traditional telephony."
Recent research by In-Stat found the following:
NEW ON THE PODCAST


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A stone courtyard leads to a painted red door that opens to the inner domain of Antico Setificio Fiorentino, where, for hundreds of years, weavers have been creating lustrous fabrics.
Lambrusco, the sparkling wine from northeastern Italy, is in the midst of a major makeover, and it’s high time to taste it again.
For Marie-Louise Sciò, creative director of the Pellicano Hotels Group, -issimo was the locus for her latest venture, ISSIMO, a lifestyle and e-commerce platform dedicated to the best of Italian design, travel, food, and style.
The hotel, on the banks of the Arno River overlooking the Chianti hills, feels like nothing else exists beyond the Tuscan countryside.
Italy is all about approaching life through food in a beautiful setting. But how to choose?
Now that Italy is starting to loosen restrictions, it is a perfect time to highlight the sense of freedom that riding a Vespa provides, a freedom that has become indelibly associated with the Eternal City.
The pontiff’s message was intended for believers and otherwise. Coronavirus knows no religion. “We find ourselves afraid,” the pope added. “And lost.”
March 25 marks the first annual celebration of #Dantedi, when Italy will celebrate Dante Alighieri in an outpouring of cultural appreciation.
On a hill in Polverigi, amidst Italy’s golden Marche farmland, a modern private residence revisits the spirit of traditional local homes while invoking the radical Italian architectural avant-garde.


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A U.S. Department of Labor watchdog estimates at least 10% of federal pandemic benefits were issued in error, much of it due to fraud.
- Stocks making the biggest moves premarket: Caterpillar, Chevron, Apple and others
- The tech sell-off has some venture capitalists worried the good times may be coming to an end
- China’s new rules on overseas IPOs will apply to Hong Kong, securities regulator says
- Dow futures rise 200 points as market set to wrap up a wild week, Apple shares pop
- Robinhood wants to make stock trading available more hours of the day with ‘hyper-extended hours’


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PrettyLittleThing, a fashion brand under the Boohoo Group umbrella, has once again tapped into the winning formula of collaborating with celebrities. In a month that saw the launch of their much-anticipated Naomi Campbell-designed collection, PrettyLittleThing is making headlines by announcing its latest celebrity ambassador—Love Island star and model, Ella Thomas.
Ella Thomas, is best-known as a finalist in the 2023, season 10 edition of the hit reality show Love Island, has been chosen as PrettyLittleThing's latest brand ambassador. Her popularity has soared since her Love Island journey, earning her the title of the UK's newest fashion "it-girl".
The company has described her as "smart, confident, ambitious," and noted her much-loved and relatable style. This partnership is set to bring fans "lots of exciting content," including an exclusive Ella Thomas edit.
The collaboration between Ella Thomas and PrettyLittleThing is expected to run for six months, during which she will create exclusive social media content for the brand. Additionally, fans can look forward to the Ella Thomas edit, which promises to be a stylish reflection of her personal taste and fashion sense. The edit is expected to be unveiled in the coming weeks, generating excitement among fashion enthusiasts.
Ella Thomas joins the ranks of other notable PrettyLittleThing ambassadors, including Molly Mae, Indiyah Polack, La La Anthony, and Jayda Cheaves.
Ella Thomas made her mark in this year's Love Island series, finishing in third place alongside her boyfriend, Tyrique Hyde. The winning couple of the 2023 season was Jess Harding and Sammy Root, who secured the coveted £50,000 prize, with Whitney Adebayo and Lochan Nowacki finishing as runners-up.


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For businesses that serve the healthcare sector, Latin America offers opportunities that have yet to emerge in the United States or may be long gone. Yet accessing those markets takes patience and skill.
That was the message from three executives who’ve worked for decades in the region: Daniel Salvadori, senior vice president, Latin America, in Abbott’s Established Pharmaceuticals Division; Alfredo Granai, formerly president at DePuy Synthes Latin America, a Johnson & Johnson company; and Alejandro Infante, founder of Procursum Medical, a supplier of medical devices, services and operational solutions focused on Latin America.
The trio made up the guest panel at WorldCity’s Third Annual Healthcare Forum held Nov. 18, 2016, as part of its Global Connections series.
Fueling expansion in Latin America’s healthcare spending is “the continuing growth of the population coming into the consumption of healthcare,” said Salvadori, whose company manufactures and sells both legacy pharmaceuticals and generics in the region.
Government mandates in many Latin American countries also are driving demand for healthcare outlays, though financial market weakness is reducing the ability of some governments to fund initiatives, added Infante.
But there is concern that rising populism may scuttle trade deals and hurt business (think Brexit and the election of Donald Trump who wants to re-negotiate NAFTA and rejects the Trans-Pacific Partnership): “We will have to see what will happen, with protectionist trends all over the world.”
How Latin American healthcare differs from China, US
To give the audience context, WorldCity CEO Ken Roberts asked Infante to compare Latin America with China.
“I think China is a frame of reference for everybody,” Infante said. As a region, Latin America accounts for about 55 percent of China’s GDP, and healthcare spending exceeds 8 percent of GDP, compared to China’s 6 percent. Per capita, Latin America’s healthcare spending is triple that of China, he said.
Yet Latin America’s market is fractured by differences in economic development, culture, language, and even in health. For example, the rate of respiratory diseases is higher in Peru due to pollution and smoking, while women’s health is a faster-growing business in Colombia, as more women enter the workforce, he said.
“People going to Latin America think it is one market,” said Salvadori. “This is a recipe for failure.”
Latin America’s market also differs from U.S. healthcare. For instance, the cost of drugs is lower, as patients typically pay out-of-pocket for medicines. That contrasts with the U.S. market, where insurance companies typically have the final word on which drugs they’ll pay for. In Latin America, “for every medication, there are different price points and different options,” said Salvadori. “That is the kind of customer choice not present in the United States.”
Raul Hernandez, a Florida International University alumni wanted to know if Latin America’s practices might transfer to the United States. “Could you talk about parallels that could impact our health care?” he asked.
“If there is one lesson to take from Latin America, it is that simplicity always wins the game,” said Infante. In the United States, rules are complex and incentives differ across providers and private insurance. “The result is that the U.S. spends over 40 percent of GDP on healthcare.”
Also under discussion: whether Latin America’s recent economic dip might reverse in 2017. The answer? It depends on the country and products.
For example, some governments in Latin America are not allowing prices for single-use medical products to rise as fast as their currencies have been devaluing, said Granai.
Healthcare and the cellphone revolution
The influence of technology was also of interest.
In Latin America, “the ability to bring innovation is much greater because there are fewer barriers,” said Rafael Palhinha Gomes, head of business development at Merck Consumer Health. What, he asked, might technology hold for the healthcare field?
That’s a tricky one, said Salvadori. Consider the old paradigm, when a pharmacy filled a prescription brought in by a patient after a doctor’s visit. Now, “before the patient ever goes to the doctor, he consults on Google, and he and Google decide.” The patient then tells the doctor: “Here is what I have, and here is what I should get.”
With more cell phones than people in Latin America, there’s a huge opportunity to reach out to patients. Yet there’s a barrier, said Salvadori: “The difference between healthcare and other tech: No one wants to be connected with sickness.”
To illustrate, he invited the audience to recall how selling autos was once about transportation: Ford’s original car was a single model in black. “Today, it is not about the car; it’s about the driver experience,” he said, and tech generally is about the digital experience. “In healthcare, we haven’t done that; we don’t talk about the healthcare experience.”
Still, in rural areas where people don’t have access to secondary or tertiary care hospitals, tech is making a difference, Infante added. “Now, people can consult with physicians using the cell phone.”
Experts expect that trend to expand in the United States as well.
Will policy changes shift manufacturing?
With potential policy changes affecting trade, “what do you see as hot-spots for manufacturing and sourcing?” asked Joe Rodriguez, vice president of sales and marketing at Seaboard Marine.
“It’s too soon to tell,” said Salvadori, adding he didn’t expect many changes when it comes to pharmaceuticals, because there’s little production for U.S. sale.
Indeed, the trend in Latin America is that Big Pharma is closing plants in order to centralize production, said Granai.
But it’s a different story with medical devices, said Infante, noting there are clusters of device makers in Mexico and Costa Rica that supply the U.S. market. “It would be very disruptive to change the supply chain in any way,” he said.
Carlos Madrid, director of business development at Haemonetics, a manufacturer of blood processing technology, asked about doing business in Cuba and Venezuela.
Abbott can’t operate in Cuba now because of the U.S. embargo on the island, and Cuba has its own pharma industry that could eventually emerge as a competitor, Salvadori said. In Venezuela, Abbott has stopped sales because of problems getting its money out, he added.
“How would you consider the role of Miami as the center of your industry when it comes to Latin America?” asked Nehama Bikovsky, president of Maritime Consulting Enterprise, a global consulting company with expertise in the Caribbean and Central America.
People undersell Miami as a gateway, Salvadori said. (According to WorldCity’s 2015 Miami Trade Numbers, medical devices ranked as the No. 5 in exports from Miami, reaching $1.7 billion). “I don’t think we as Miami-based people,” said Salvadori, “do a good enough job explaining Miami to our Latin American colleagues.”
Global Connections is one of four event series put on by WorldCity to bring together executives in greater Miami on international business topics. The Global Connections series is sponsored by the Florida International University’s College of Business and Audicom Productions.
The next Global Connections is set for Jan. 27, 2017, featuring WorldCity’s annual Global Economic Outlook.


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Beware Apple, Nokia Is Now In The Wearable Tech Game
Nokia is making a move into wearables, announcing plans to buy Withings, a French company that makes a range of health and fitness related connected gadgets. With this $191 million acquisition, the Finnish company enters into the consumer wearables market.
While many in the industry may wonder why the company is getting into wearables, the answer is pretty obvious. The Finnish major is looking to make a comeback in a big way into the smartphone game.
In a recent interview to Fortune, Ramzi Haidamus, the President of Nokia Technologies, mentioned that the company is focusing its research on the field of digital health. He said that Nokia has been developing a digital health strategy called WellCare, hinting at a similar product portfolio to that of Apple’s HealthKit.
Therefore, the acquisition of Withings, which makes not only wearables but also blood pressure monitors and other medical devices, will help in accelerating its plans.
If this turns out to be a smart bet, then tech titans like Apple and Samsung may have reasons to worry about.
Seeking a digital health pie
“We have said consistently that digital health was an area of strategic interest to Nokia, and we are now taking concrete action to tap the opportunity in this large and important market,” Nokia president chief executive Rajeev Suri said in a statement.
Health tracking devices have become increasingly popular, with Fitbit and Jawbone being the highest profile firms to emerge in the space. According to a research from IDC, more than 78 million wearable devices were sold last year, including the Apple Watch, a rise of 172 percent on last year.
Founded in 2008, Withings not only makes smartwatch activity trackers, but also makes devices such as blood pressure monitors and scales as well as several apps. As an article on MIT Technology Review said: “Withings has been consistently lauded for clever, good-looking products like its smart watches, and its upcoming $100 Thermo smart thermometer even managed to impress this jaded journalist at January’s CES gadget show.
By snagging the company’s existing range of gadgets, which are in small but growing consumer-electronic niches—smart watches, activity trackers, smart scales, a smart alarm clock, and so on—Nokia gets a wide array of options for rolling out its own wearables and connected home devices in the future (and it’s already got the networking chops to make such things work well).”
“We’ve been impressed with the plans the Nokia team has shared with us both for Preventive Health and Patient Care,” Withings CEO Cedric Hutchings mentioned in the company’s blog.
“As soon as we close the deal, we can start working together to determine our way forward as one team with a broad but focused portfolio of incredible products and innovations,” he said.
A smart move
Experts believe the acquisition could make sense for Nokia, once the biggest cell-phone maker in the world. The company completed the sale of its phone business to Microsoft in 2014 and now runs just networking-equipment and research-and-development divisions.
There are even possibilities that it may come up with smarter ways to make phones work with these gadgets in order to differentiate itself from competitors like Samsung and Apple.
Experts however cautioned that Nokia should be wise to keep in mind the fate of Cisco, the biggest maker of computer networking equipment, which tried for years to make its consumer business work until finally giving up in 2013. However, going by its earlier track record, one can say, the brand has potential to bounce back with a little help.
“Studies show us Nokia is a trusted brand,” Ramzi Haidamus, who heads the Nokia Technologies unit from San Francisco, said in an interview with Bloomberg. “So it’s very compatible with health.” Nokia said it’ll decide on re-branding Withings’ products when the transaction closes in the third quarter.
Sales of wearable consumer devices such as health and fitness bands will make up $32 billion in sales by 2019, about three times the 2013 figure, according to a report by researcher IHS.
Hutchings too is upbeat on the association. “As soon as we close the deal, we can start working together to determine our way forward as one team with a broad but focused portfolio of incredible products and innovations,” he said adding that the cash deal is expected to close in the third quarter.
- Top Tech Brands With A Strong Focus On Their Own E-Commerce Website
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- Oracle To Showcase Its SaaS Innovation With AI In India
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The auction house said the original 1967 collage for the insert to the album sold to a bidder in London on Tuesday.
The sale marked the first time the collage by Sir Peter Blake was on the market.
Sotheby's said the collage was sold from the collection of architect Colin St. John Wilson.
The auction house had estimated that the piece would sell for between 50,000 and 80,000 pounds.
— Associated Press


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East Africa Business Network appoints Akindele to board
NIGERIA’S serial entrepreneur and Courteville Business Solutions Managing Director, Bola Akindele, has been appointed to the board of Advisors of the East Africa Business Network (EABN).
EABN was established in 2010 in the United Kingdom to encourage investment, entrepreneurship and to advise multinationals on new and established markets in East Africa.
His appointment follows efforts by East Africa’s leadership from private and public sector to tap into opportunities in Nigeria.
EABN Director, Ms. Aurelia Anyika said the body is honoured to have Akindele on the Advisory board. She described him as one of the growing Pan Africa Business Leaders shaping the continent.
“The last decade has seen a new wave of Nigeria’s investment in Africa and East Africa is certainly very attractive to Nigeria’s wealth. For example, Aliko Dangote signed a deal to build $400 million cement plant in Kenya in 2013, creating thousands of jobs. Nigerians are no longer attracted to property portfolios in New York, Paris or London; they are seeing higher returns in their investment right in their doorstep.”
Akindele has extensive banking and audit experience spanning over 20 years across various banking institutions and also has strong leadership, strategic thinking and networking skills. He has led Courteville Business Solutions, an E-Business Solutions development firm since its inception in 2005. The company is focused on process re-engineering in both the private and public sector by providing cutting edge solutions to complex operational challenges through the development and delivery of unique business solution models, revenue stream improvement and cost management processes.
Through his leadership, Courteville opened its East Africa headquarters in Nairobi last year and looks to provide solutions in the region’s education and logistics sector.


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Avast absolutely free forum is mostly a website exactly where users may ask questions about Avast anti-virus software and also other related subject areas. Its content material includes a wide range of resources, which includes guides and FAQs.
The avast free forum was hacked vacationtrackingforum.com/reviews/data-rooms-that-increase-productivity/ over the weekend, and user nicknames, email addresses and hashed (one-way encrypted) security passwords were thieved, Avast CEO Vince Steckler wrote in a company blog on Wednesday. Whilst payment information was not sacrificed, Avast is working on resetting the security passwords of all users affected by the hack.
Avast is one of the best-supported antivirus software program brands out there, and it includes a reliable standard of customer support having a helpful web based knowledge bottom and a desktop or perhaps mobile iphone app that includes a useful FAQ and message boards, along with premium technology support should you have a problem. Yet , is considered worth observing that Avast does not present phone support in many countries and its paid out plans do not seem to give enough bonuses for the excess money. Also, it redirects users’ browsing history and Google searches to 3rd parties without user approval – a tiny bit of a fear for users. Avast can be described as well-designed spy ware that can secure your personal privacy and data, but its paid plans don’t provide enough extras to justify the extra cost.


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Single-use plastic bags are to be phased out, in an attempt to help New Zealand live up to its clean, green image.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Associate Environment Minister Eugenie Sage announced the move to phase out the bags over the next year, with a six month phase-out period proposed.
The move comes after a petition with 65,000 signatures called for a ban on the single-use bags.
"We use hundreds of millions of single-use plastic bags, many of which end up polluting our precious coastal and marine environments and cause serious harm to all kinds of marine life, and all of this when there are viable alternatives for consumers and business," Ms Ardern said.
She said it was "important we take the time now to get this right" so Kiwis could adjust shopping habits.
Ms Sage was confident New Zealand would embrace the change, with the Government working alongside retailers to help with the transition.
"New Zealanders are proud of our country’s clean, green reputation and we want to help ensure we live up to it. Phasing out single-use plastic bags helps do that."
The public are able to give their views on the change until September 14, which includes options when the complete phase-out date should be and retailers that should be exempt.


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(CBS DETROIT) – Sam’s club is going on a hiring spree.
The big box retailer says it wants to bring on 2,000 permanent full-time workers to prepare for the holiday rush.READ MORE: Woman Who Shot At Police Killed By Cop At Juneteenth Event
The positions would be in its fulfillment and distribution centers.READ MORE: Fourth Stimulus Check: Is Another Relief Payment Coming?
For more information, visit here.MORE NEWS: Michigan Reports 327 New COVID-19 Cases, 35 Deaths
© 2020 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.


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And a game mode to match.
Happy 31st birthday to the blue blur! We’ve seen Sonic the Hedgehog change and evolve tons over the years, and the next step in his journey — Sonic Frontiers — is bringing some of the franchise’s biggest changes yet. But before we look forward, we’re looking back today with the launch of Sonic Origins.
The compilation game dropped on consoles today, including Switch, and dataminers have already dived in to see what hidden nuggets they can find. And @ahremic on Twitter has found some leftover files in Origins, but these aren’t for any of the classic Sonic games, but rather for Frontiers (Thanks, Sonic Stadium and BlueStarEXSF on ResetEra).
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Web Source: Nintendo Life | Latest Updates


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SAN FRANCISCO — Semiconductor test and burn-in equipment supplier Aehr Test Systems Thursday (Jan. 5) reported a big jump in sequential and year-to-year revenue for the second quarter of fiscal 2006, which closed Nov. 30.
Aehr (Fremont, Calif.) reported net sales of $5.8 million, up 21 percent from the $4.8 million reported for the second quarter of fiscal 2005 and 25 percent from the $4.6 million reported in the first quarter of fiscal 2006.
The company reported a profit of $166,000, or 2 cents per diluted share for the fiscal second quarter. By contrast Aehr reported net losses of $200,000 for the previous quarter and of $599,000 for the same period of fiscal 2005.
"I am extremely pleased to report that Aehr Test returned to profitability during the quarter. Net sales were strong, driven primarily by the $5 million in MAX system follow-on orders from a major, U.S.-based IC manufacturer which we announced in September of last year," said Rhea Posedel, Aehr chairman and CEO, in a statement.
"We expect to see good demand for our MAX products throughout the remainder of fiscal 2006, and also believe that orders for our MTX-Fp+ parallel test systems will contribute to increased net sales," Posedel said.
Gary Larson, Aehr vice president and chief financial officer, said the company expects net sales and profitability to increase for the third quarter of fiscal 2006.


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Grilling caught fire amid the pandemic as stuck-at-home consumers searched for new ways to cook meals, as well as entertain and host family and friends safely outdoors.
But while there are plenty of signs that the outdoor cooking craze is here to stay, inflation, market saturation, and supply chain challenges are threatening to lower the heat.
Since July 2020, more than 21 million grills and smokers have been purchased by U.S. consumers, according to data from NPD. The outdoor cooking industry’s revenue grew to $6.1 billion in sales in 2021, a 14% year-over-year growth.
An estimated 70% of U.S. households now own at least one grill or smoker, according to consumer research from the Hearth, Patio & Barbecue Association (HPBA), the highest the industry group has ever seen, according to its CEO and president Jack Goldman.
Nearly every type of grill has seen sales jump, from traditional charcoal and gas grills from companies like Weber and Char-Griller, to pellet grills and smokers from companies like Traeger and Masterbuilt. The embrace of outdoor cooking also further elevated products like Ooni outdoor pizza ovens and Blackstone gas griddles.
“People weren’t taking vacations, they were investing more in the home and in living outdoors, and they were sort of tired of cooking indoors,” Goldman said of the trend.
That success led to a mini-grilling IPO boom, with both Traeger and Weber going public last year. Plans for several SPAC deals were also announced, ranging from griddle maker Blackstone to barbecue and outdoor living e-commerce platform BBQGuys.
But that also led to a market saturated with new grill owners less likely to look for upgrades or replacements. Roughly 38% of all grill owners purchased a new grill in the last two years, HPBA data showed.
While the popularity of grilling continues to grow, factors such as inflation, freight, raw material cost increases and supply chain disruptions are now eating into grill sales.
Weber reported that its 2022 second-quarter sales dropped 7% year-over-year to $607 million. On a May 15 earnings call with analysts, CEO Chris Scherzinger said the industry “has seen a significant drop off in year-over-year point of sale data, with sharply reduced shopper traffic” since March.
“It’s been the puzzle for a couple of years now to figure out what 2020 and 2021 meant,” Scherzinger said on the call. “We believe that the pandemic heightened consumer engagement in the category and it established a new base of operations.”
Scherzinger added that while many people who bought grills in 2020 pushed up plans to replace an old one given the surrounding circumstances, the situation in 2022 is “more around all of the macro pressures on consumers, the inflation pressure on the prices of gas and groceries, the pressure of the volatile stock market on things like 401(k) savings or just consumer confidence more broadly.”
Traeger Pellet Grills has similarly seen sluggish sales, reporting a 5% year-over-year decline in its first quarter of 2022. Both company stocks have struggled as a result, with Traeger down more than 60% and Weber down more than 40% year-to-date, compared to a roughly 20% decline for the S&P 500.
BBQ Guys called off its $963 million SPAC in November, while the SPAC that Blackstone Products was expected to merge with has pushed back plans three times since announcing the deal in December.
But Traeger CEO Jeremy Andrus said he remains bullish, though his big question is whether Americans will continue to embrace outdoor cooking as they emerge from the pandemic.
“You look across categories and it’s very different,” he said. “You look at health and fitness, and Peloton for example – that gave rise to a category that is going to survive, but it’s also clear that when consumers had the ability to go back to a gym they did.”
The desire to cook more meals at home instead of eating out at restaurants, Andrus said, seems to be sticking. He cited research that suggested 35% of Americans said they discover a passion for cooking amid the pandemic, with 75% saying they plan to cook as much if not more at home post-pandemic.
That’s also intersecting with several other trends, Andrus said, including an increased desire to gather with friends and family and for food to be something you share, whether that means a plate of pulled pork or a photo on Instagram.”
“People love food, and now that restaurants have opened up, we expect them to go out and eat,” he said. “But we think they just love to cook at home now, too.”


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You may have forgotten about The Day Before by now. It was first announced in January 2021 as "an open-world MMO survival" game, and then in April of that year we got a 10-minute gameplay video. And that's really been it—nothing of substance has been heard about the game since.
That situation will soon change, though, as developer Fntastic says that it will reveal "raw gameplay footage" from The Day Before later this month.
"We are pleased to inform you that the wait for news regarding our game release is coming to an end," Fntastic wrote in a Discord announcement. "After careful consideration and discussions with our leadership team, we have received approval to share the information you have been eagerly anticipating.
"This month, we will be releasing raw gameplay footage, as per the numerous requests received from our community. This footage will showcase a majority of the features and gameplay elements requested by our community and will provide a clear glimpse into the current state of development for The Day Before."
It's not all that terribly unusual for a studio to go quiet in the midst of game development. What makes The Day Before situation so odd is that, according to Steam, it's set to launch on March 1. That's just a month and a half from now, and yet it apparently took "careful consideration and discussions" to decide to publicly showcase the game. That seems weird, right?
The Day Before isn't Fntastic's first kick at the cat: Prior to this, it released the well-received survival adventure The Wild Game, which made Chris eat his own dead body to stay alive. It's also very highly anticipated, second only to Hogwarts Legacy on Steam's top wishlists chart. It's possible, I suppose, that the silence is strategy, and if so it seems to be paying off, at least based on the interest being shown on Steam. Still seems a little weird to me, though.
We'll definitely be keeping an eye out for that gameplay footage, and whatever comes after it. In the meantime, I've reached out to Fntastic to ask why the studio has been so quiet with the release date so close, and will update if I receive a reply.


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About two-dozen casino operators met a Wednesday deadline to submit a $1m application fee for an upstate New York casino. Pitches came from some of the world’s largest operators and local business owners, each vying for one of four licenses [READ]
Gamzio Mobile, an innovative mobile casino gaming firm, announces the launch of an upcoming real-money casino offering into the UK Apple App Store, to begin tapping into the $40bn gaming industry [READ]
Gaming Standards Association’s online committee made progress in third-party game interfaces at a committee meeting in London.
Melbourne-based Crown Resorts is set to bid $2bn for The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas as results of the three-year old Strip casino improve.
IGT announces that seasoned eCommerce veteran Will Daugherty will join the company as General Manager of DoubleDown Interactive.
Inspired Gaming Group announces the opening of a new corporate office in Rome downtown in zona Prati as it further strengthens in Italy.
Scientific Games announces it has signed an instant game contract with La Francaise des Jeux (FDJ), operator of the French National Lottery.
Caesars Entertainment today announced its plans to pursue a license to develop an integrated casino resort in Woodbury, Upstate New York.
GTECH Latin America has signed a 7-year contract extension for Trinidad and Tobago national lottery technology and marketing services.
Empire Resorts submits the $1m application fee to the New York State Gaming Commission for a gaming resort license in the Catskills region.
IGT announces that it has licensed the popular Asian lifestyle brand tokidoki to develop new, compelling casino slot machine content.


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Electronic Arts is reporting a steady growth in the second quarter of its fiscal year, owed in part to digital sales.
Total net revenue across Q2 of the 2018/19 fiscal year stands at $1.29 billion, a 34 per cent year-on-year (YoY) increase. 61 per cent of that revenue originated from digital sales – about $780 million – with $506 million made up from physical sales, amongst other sources. The Q2 gross profit is reported as $868 million, with an operating income of $258 million.
Digital net bookings – the net amount of products and services sold digitally or physically in the period – for the trailing twelve months was a record $3.608 billion, up 11 per cent year-over-year and representing 69% of total net bookings.
“It was a strong second quarter, as we entertained players with four high-quality new EA Sports games, hundreds of content updates in our live services, and esports programs that reached record viewership,” said CEO Andrew Wilson. “We’re incredibly excited to bring innovative new games like Battlefield V and Command & Conquer: Rivals to our players this holiday season, and launch our breakthrough new IP Anthem in February. We’re set to deliver some amazing new ways to play and compete through the rest of this fiscal year and beyond.”
FIFA Mobile daily active players grew 50% year-on-year, with the FIFA eWorld Cup Final breaking records, including a increase in global viewership over last year, and more than 20 million players participating through the course of the FIFA 18 Global Series.
The Sims 4 also continues to boost its monthly average players, too, selling nearly 30 million expansion packs to date.
“We’re pleased with the performance of our business through the second quarter, and particularly with the strong digital net bookings,” said COO and CFO Blake Jorgensen. “We continue to deliver strong digital revenues across multiple platforms, business models and geographic territories.”
Going forward, EA expects a strong third quarter, forecasting $1.375 billion in net revenue and $1.725 billion in net bookings when it releases Battlefield V.


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iBike Aero and QuarQ combo hits the road
Aerodynamic drag is one of the hottest buzzwords in bicycle tech at the moment yet short of spending thousands of dollars in wind tunnel time, most of us will never be able to gather any real data regarding our setups… or will we?
As it turns out, Velocomp’s unique iBike power meter design already generates these numbers as part of its reverse-calculated power measurement algorithm and that data is now available on its latest iBike Aero. By itself, the unit will display ‘snapshot’ drag coefficient (CdA) that can help optimize your position in real-world conditions (although we can’t easily verify how accurate those figures are). More to the point, that information can shed some very useful information on how significantly aerodynamics can affect your performance.
What the iBike Aero won’t do on its own, though, is measure both your CdA and power output simultaneously (CdA readings require coasting for ten seconds). However, its ANT+Sport wireless interface means it can do so when paired with a compatible directly-measured power meter such as the latest SRM and PowerTap units. Doing so also adds a continuous CdA calculation and a particularly handy ‘Time Advantage’ feature in the process.
UCI Continental team DLP Racing did just that at the recent Commerce Bank Triple Crown by pairing its iBike Aero head units with Quarq’s new CinQo power meter. While the intense racing obviously didn’t leave much time for the riders to get fully acquainted, early indications are that the combination will prove useful.
“One time of note was when I was coming back for bottles,” said team rider Owen Nielsen. “As I was bringing them back up I saw my CdA number at about .406 while I was on the hoods. As I went to the drops the number went down to around .375.”
“I think as I race with it more, it will be a useful tool to remind me where and how I can conserve energy,” he continued. “It’s kind of like figuring out how to get max MPG out of your vehicle when you have a given amount of fuel in the tank. The data is just like having a wind tunnel. Looking in the software after the fact I could see the time saved by the lower drag coefficient. That will be a cool tool once I spend some more time on it.”
Quarq begins delivery of CinQo power meters
Speaking of Quarq, the upstart company created quite the buzz at last year’s Interbike show with its impressively compact CinQo power meter. However, consumers have yet to get their hands on an actual production unit, that is, until about now. Quarq has announced that it’s in the midst of the first production run, meaning that those who had pre-ordered units should probably start checking their mailboxes.
Quarq will offer the CinQo in two configurations for the time being. The prêt a porter option will include the CinQo unit preassembled on either a SRAM S900 or FSA Team Issue crankset (with bottom bracket and 130mm BCD) chainrings for a total cost of US$1525. Potential customers who already have a Bontrager Race X Lite, Truvativ Rouleur Carbon or FSA Team Issue crankset can tick the CinQo-only box for a cost of US$1195.
It should be noted that Quarq is not quite ready to ship the accompanying Qranium display unit, although the wireless CinQo will sync with other designated ANT+Sport wireless devices such as the Garmin 705 and iBike Aero.
Quarq is being refreshingly up front about the ‘beta’ status of these units, however. “Please keep in mind that this is a first generation product,” stated the company in a recent message. “We have worked diligently for over two years in research, design and testing to bring you a rock-solid and super-reliable power meter. However, while we feel the CinQo is really great, it is NOT perfect… So if have any issues, please contact us right away.”
Velocomp release tougher iBike Pro
And speaking of the iBike, Velocomp has released a more robust second generation of its intriguing power meter. The iBike Pro Gen II is equipped with a new circuit board said to provide a fourfold increase in vibration tolerance for better accuracy on rough roads and higher speeds.
Current iBike Pro owners can upgrade their existing units for US$179. The upgrade will net the same vibration resilience as the second generation model and customers will then have their choice of a new black or white iBike case as well. The latest iBike firmware will also come pre-loaded into the iBike.
All new iBike Pro power meters will be shipped with the new Gen II circuit boards effective immediately but will carry a similarly high-value retail price of US$424.


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Rogers released their rate plans for the iPhone in Canada last week, and the public is none too thrilled. Bloggers, facebooker, and webmasters are all up in arms.
Here are the headquarters where you can sign a petition and get contact information to make your protest voice heard to Rogers.
Will it matter? Probably not, until there is relevant competition in the Canadian marketplace, Ted Rogers can do whatever he damn well wants.


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The 22nd edition of Toy Break has now been posted online. They took a look at plenty of new toys...and announce their Toy Brief feature.
We've got Coot (by Wilfrid Wood), Jimbo (by Gary Panter), Luey (by Bob
Dob), and Subcasts Ghost Rider as well as blind box fun, news, and the
introduction of Toy Brief! You're the best for taking a Toy Break with


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Some remodeling is going to start next week at the Sam’s Club at 6200 W. Kellogg, which opened in 1985. With the remodeling, which will mostly be new paint and light fixtures, there will be one addition and one subtraction at the store.
While contentious debate continues at the national level over how real the recovery is from the 2008 recession, we here in Wichita naturally care most about how the recovery is proceeding in our own city.
A new store is going to open where Pier 1 used to be at 4500 W. Kellogg, but it’s not a home decor store. It’s Skechers, a California-based chain of casual and athletic shoes that’s second only to Nike in athletic shoe sales.
If the last few days are any indication, the new Doc Green’s Gourmet Salads & Grill near Central and Hillside is going to be a hit. The restaurant doesn’t open until Monday, but potential diners have been streaming in already.


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Facebook is a mobile company and will make more money from their mobile platform than from their desktop website in the long-term, Mark Zuckerberg said Tuesday at a TechCrunch conference in San Francisco.
In his first interview since the company went public, Zuckerberg told Michael Arrington, the founder of TechCrunch, that he expects to make more money from mobile advertising than from desktop advertising because the ads are more integrated into the platform.
"What we are seeing already, even with the early mobile ads that we have, is that they are performing even better than the right hand column ads on desktop...there's a huge opportunity," Zuckerberg said.
Zuckerberg also noted that Facebook will not be making its own phone. "Clearly that is the wrong strategy for us," Zuckeberg said.
Facebook's (FB) stock has lost about half its value since its IPO, but the 28-year-old CEO has remained silent on the stock's decline until Tuesday.
[More From CNBC: Facebook Tell-All? Ex-Employee Reveals Company Culture]
"The performance of the stock has been disappointing," Zuckerberg said. "We care about our shareholders...we are going to do the things we think that add value over the long-term."
He said he thinks the biggest mistake Facebook made as a company was betting too much on HTML 5, which cost the company two years. "But we're coming out of that now," he said.
While, Zuckerberg said during his interview that he cares about his company's shareholders, he has made it clear in the past that the company mission does not revolve around them.
[More From CNBC: Do You Live in One of the Top 10 States for Technology?]
"Going public is an important milestone in our history. But here's the thing: our mission isn't to be a public company. Our mission is to make the world more open and connected," Zuckerberg said in a speech before he rang the opening bell at the NASDAQ May 18, the day the company went public.
Major Facebook investors Peter Thiel and Dustin Moskovitz have both recently sold large quantities of company stock, also stirring concern among investors.
Shares popped over 4 percent in after-hours trading
More From CNBC


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According to sources close to the situation, Yahoo has instituted a hiring freeze across the company and is considering a reduction-in-force in support units of the company.
While the details of any layoffs — which are expected to be small and selective for now — are still being worked out, sources said that the stricture not to fill hundreds of open positions is the first step toward significant cost-cutting initiatives across the Silicon Valley Internet giant, in the wake of what it expected to be another weak quarterly report next week and a looming proxy fight.
Yahoo reports its fourth quarter earnings Tuesday. While the company has managed to improve the results in the last part of the quarter, sources said they will still show continued weakness in its key businesses and consumer usage.
That’s as competitors such as Google and Facebook are expected to show significant growth, especially in the display advertising market.
Thus, new Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson appears to be zeroing in on costs and managing for margins, said multiple sources, much as his predecessor Carol Bartz did at the start of her tenure.
But many think Yahoo needs even more drastic changes, including massive cuts in staff and also product arenas, to give the company new life.
That includes shifts in leadership at the top levels too. In a major move this week, Co-founder Jerry Yang stepped down from the company’s board and all roles there. More directors are expected to leave soon too.
That will likely come after negotiations to sell part of its lucrative stakes in both the Alibaba Group and Yahoo Japan are successfully completed.
While not a certainty, Yahoo’s board hopes that will happen sometime before activist shareholder Daniel Loeb initiates a proxy battle against the company in the coming month.
At the end of its last quarter, Yahoo reported that it had 13,700 staffers, down from 14,100 in the previous year.


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Visitors are invited to Downtown Lee’s Summit’s Farmers Market Spring Celebration from 7 a.m. to noon, May 11, at the corner of Second and Douglas streets. The free celebration includes live entertainment, craft activities for children, balloon animals, face painting and more. A “pop-up art show,” called the Lexicon of Sustainability, a photography exhibit of 24 photographs taken by Douglas Gayeton, also will be featured. Each image includes handwritten notes regarding sustainable food and aims to define principles of sustainable food systems. The exhibit is made possible by Cultivate KC. For more information, visit cultivatekc.org.
Also stop by Saint Luke’s East Hospital’s tent to watch a cooking demonstration from chef Steve Duben, who will prepare heart-healthy chicken and vegetables kabobs. Kim Alexander, Saint Luke’s East Hospital’s registered dietitian, will be on hand to answer questions about healthy cooking.
The Downtown Lee’s Summit Farmers Market is open from 7 a.m. to sell-out Wednesdays and Saturdays from now until Nov. 30, at the corner of Second and Douglas streets in Downtown Lee’s Summit. The Downtown Lee’s Summit Farmers Market has been named the No. 1 Farmers Market in Missouri in the America’s Favorite Farmers Market Contest, sponsored by the American Farmland Trust, for the past two years, and also once again named among the Top 10 markets in the nation in the medium-market category.
Additionally, May 11 is National Train Day. Lee’s Summit is home to an Amtrak Station where the Missouri River Runner brings visitors right to the middle of Downtown Lee’s Summit, a Great America Main Street Award winner, one of only three in Missouri. For more information about National Train Day, visit www.nationaltrainday.
com. While in Downtown Lee’s Summit, plan to visit the Lee’s Summit Historical Society Museum, which is in the historic Train Depot and is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays. For more information, visit www.leessummithistory.
The Downtown Lee’s Summit Farmers Market is coordinated by Downtown Lee’s Summit Main Street, a 501c3 nonprofit organization dedicated to the revitalization and preservation of Downtown Lee’s Summit. The title sponsor of the Farmers Market is Saint Luke’s East Hospital. The market also is sponsored by Bank of Lee’s Summit. For more information, visit www.downtownls.org or call 816-246-6598.


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The new edition of Smart Digital Ports for the Future 2022 will bring together the largest number of global ports and the entire supply chain to debate, discuss, network and share best practices on the latest developments on automation, sustainability and connectedness.
Specifically, the event will be dedicated to the following topics:
Collaboration and data sharing
Digital platforms and continued data exchange will be essential to achieve maximum gains in efficiency and predictability in ports. SDP 2021 will showcase the leading technologies allowing the industry to align and progress.
Digitalization and emerging technology
Continued digitalization will enable the use of big data projects and the implementation of innovative technologies and tools, designed to improve productivity, sustainability, and safety, to previously unattainable benchmarks
A connected port will allow the fast flow of data between the sensors, devices, equipment, and software applications to enable the smart infrastructure driving ports into the fourth generation.
Head Image | Flyer of Conference Smart Digital Port of the Future, May 11-12, 2022


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Customers of US department store chain JCPenney in Texas are piloting the ability to add their store cards to Apple Pay for in-store use. “Cardholders nationwide will be able to add their JCPenney credit cards to their wallets and pay using Apple Pay in spring 2016,” the company says in a statement spotted by a MacRumors forum member who attempted to add a JCPenney card to the mobile payment service.
- App offers order ahead restaurant service
- Facebook given licence to launch Messenger payments in Europe
- NFC clothing range connects US Ski Team with winter sports fans
- Google’s browser connects with BLE
- Belgian bank joins mobile payment platform


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In 2014, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg spent $2 billion to purchase the virtual reality startup Oculus and its Rift headset. The deal was huge, not just from a price standpoint, but because it was proof of momentum behind the nascent VR industry.
Nearly three years later, though, it looks like that $2 billion was just a down payment for the VR company, as Facebook will likely have to shell out billions more until the social network can get the Oculus’ technology to a point where Zuckerberg and co. are satisfied.
The Facebook founder said as much while on the witness stand for a lawsuit that accuses Oculus of stealing some of its VR technology from video game company ZeniMax Media, according to The New York Times.
From $2 billion to $11 billion
That initial $2 billion payment for Oculus wasn’t even the entire amount Facebook paid for the company. The social networking giant also paid $700 million to keep certain Oculus employees and promised an additional $300 million if the company met specific milestones, according to the report.
On top of that, Zuckerberg said Facebook might have to dump an additional $3 billion into Oculus to shore up its technology.
Why commit to spending nearly $7 billion — plus an extra $2 billion if Oculus loses its lawsuit — on a technology that has yet to blow up in the consumer market? Well, because Zuckerberg is looking beyond VR in the traditional sense. See, where the Rift, HTC’s Vive and Sony’s PlayStation VR are primarily designed as gaming systems, the Facebook founder has his sights on making virtual reality a more social experience.
During the Oculus Connect 3 conference in October, Zuckerberg took the stage to show off a kind of virtual/augmented reality system the company was working on. In the demo Zuckerberg showed how he, through a digital avatar, could interact with friends and family in real time in a digital space as if they were all in the same room.
Price is still a barrier
It’s an interesting gambit, but it’s still far from complete. What’s more, the cost of VR systems like the Rift is still prohibitively high for many consumers. The company is working to bring prices down, though.
For instance, when Oculus launched the Rift in 2016, you needed to purchase a $1,000 to $1,500 PC to run the headset, plus another $600 for the device itself. Since then, the company has worked to ensure the Rift can run on systems that cost as little as $500. Still, at $1,100 for the whole setup, the Rift isn’t exactly cheap.
HTC’s Vive costs $800 and still requires a powerful PC, while Sony’s PSVR costs $400 and only works with that company’s PlayStation 4 console. Sure, gaming enthusiasts might not have a problem spending that kind of cash on a top-notch gaming experience, but none of these headsets is quite there yet. There’s no “killer app” for high-end VR systems.
The most successful headsets, so far at least, have been Samsung’s Gear VR, which costs $100 plus the price of a compatible Samsung smartphone, and Google’s Cardboard, which costs $15 in addition to the cost of a smartphone.
Zuckerberg’s big bet
Zuckerberg is obviously keenly aware of the importance of mobile platforms — the majority of Facebook’s traffic comes from mobile users and that will only continue to grow. Which is why Facebook split Oculus into two divisions, one primarily focused on PC-style VR and the other focused on mobile VR.
The hope is that Facebook and Oculus will be able to create a system impressive enough for all consumers to want to use. How long will it take for the company to get there? If Zuckerberg’s prediction on the stand holds up, it could take anywhere from 5 to 10 years.
Still, Oculus will be in an enviable position if Zuckerberg’s prognostications prove correct. That’s because the Facebook CEO sees gaming as just the tip of the VR iceberg. In its ultimate form, Zuckerberg sees virtual reality as a means to share experiences with others in real time and feel as though you’re actually there.
In a July interview with Bloomberg, Zuckerberg explained how virtual reality is the natural progression from sharing experiences via video, just as video was the natural progression of sharing experiences via photos. VR, then, will almost literally allow us to stand in another person’s shoes as they explore the world.
And with Facebook’s enormous audience — it has roughly 1.8 billion monthly active users, already sharing everything from selfies to wedding videos — the social network is just about the only company that can help push VR forward as a means to connect the masses. If that all works out, and Facebook becomes the VR company just as it is the social network, the billions Zuckerberg spent on Oculus will surely have been worth it.
More from Dan:
Email Daniel at firstname.lastname@example.org; follow him on Twitter at @DanielHowley.


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Sholten Singer/ The Herald Dispatch
Shoppers flood in for Black Friday deals during the 6am opening of J.C. Penney on Friday, Nov. 23, 2012, at the Huntington Mall.
Gallery: Black Friday at the Huntington Mall
Nov. 23, 2012 @ 11:22 PM
Shoppers come out for Black Friday deals on Friday, Nov. 23, 2012, at the Huntington Mall.


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It’s no secret that luxury brands have not had it easy in the Greater China market this year — for myriad reasons — but, surprisingly, this has not necessarily translated to a major slowdown in that crucial market. Despite a dragging U.S.-China trade war, a Hong Kong luxury market that remains effectively on ice, and this summer’s yuan devaluation, mainland Chinese consumers continue to shop for luxury both at domestic stores and online.
Of course, some brands continue to benefit more than others. Luxury stalwart Hermès recently pointed out its mainland China stores as a source of strength that drove nearly 20 percent sales growth in its Asia operations. This July, Hermès opened its 26th China location in Xiamen, and is investing in its Chinese-language e-commerce site, hermes.cn.
Kering-owned Gucci said that business it lost this year in Hong Kong was made up for in the mainland owing to more domestic Chinese spending. Tiffany & Co., a current acquisition target of French conglomerate LVMH, has also pursued a more active focus on mainland China operations, with the New York-based brand’s CEO telling Reuters that Tiffany needed to “follow customers where they shop.”
The question now for brands is whether these recent price increases will have any real impact on purchasing behavior in China.
This renewed spending in mainland China has been at least partially driven by a perception of a closing gap between international and China pricing. As one shopper told Reuters, “I don’t feel like there is such a big gap anymore between prices overseas and at home, so when I feel like making a purchase I usually just go straight to the store these days.”
However, according to Chinese press reports, these perceptions may be short-lived, as luxury brands have reportedly enacted a wave of price increases in mainland China. This week, Kuaixun Eastmoney quoted fashion blogger Mr. Bags (previously on Jing Daily) as saying that he has seen many brands, among them Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Dior, and Bottega Veneta, boost prices this month.
Eastmoney points out that Louis Vuitton’s China website has shown a price increase of 4-to-11 percent on various items since November 1, with the brand’s Dauphine handbag rising from 21,300 yuan to 23,200 yuan, its Neverfull handbag rising from 10,000 yuan to 10,900, and the Speedy 25 handbag increasing to 11,800 yuan from 10,900 yuan.
Chanel, too, has increased prices in China approximately 10-to-12 percent since the end of October, while Dior has upped its prices 6-to-14 percent, depending on the item. The price of the popular Saddle bag has increased from 22,000 yuan to 25,000 yuan, while the price of items in its Butterfly pouch collection rose 4-to-10 percent.
Major luxury brands regularly adjust pricing worldwide for a number of reasons, among them currency fluctuations or logistics and manufacturing cost increases, and China is not the only market to see recent price hikes. Brands have also increased prices in South Korea since November 1, with the Beijing Business Daily noting that Louis Vuitton raised prices for various items anywhere from 4-to-7 percent in Korea this month, following a similar (but smaller) price adjustment this past April. Chanel also raised its Korean prices anywhere from 3-to-13 percent depending on the item, while Dior, Bvlgari, and Cartier reportedly plan to soon enact price adjustments in Korea as well.
According to Chinese news reports, brands have noted that rising prices in South Korea are driven in part by an increase in production costs and depreciation of the won.
The recent price adjustments in China are also no surprise considering many brands cut prices in mainland China earlier this year following the country’s VAT reduction policy, in an effort to spur more domestic spending. Louis Vuitton dropped its prices on the official China website an estimated 3 percent at the end of March, although even with this drop, prices remained higher than in the brand’s European stores.
The question now for brands as they look to wrap up a tough 2019 is whether these recent price increases will have any real impact on purchasing behavior in China — and their nascent comeback in that market. Chinese media reports seem to think the answer is that rising prices will do little to dissuade China’s core luxury shopper, who tends to shop based on prestige or item popularity rather than price alone.
This would, of course, be welcome news for major brands as they look to invest more in the market in 2020 — whether online (e.g., Tapestry Inc’s Tmall gamble) or offline (Ralph Lauren and Tiffany’s brick-and-mortar expansion efforts).


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Weetabix has been ordered to amend its 'slow release energy' claim after it was ruled misleading by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).
The TV ad, broadcast in July, showed a family sitting down to breakfast and comparing their busy days ahead. The youngest son was eating three Weetabix biscuits with milk, then going through his daily activities.
The mum and the baby then went through each of their daily activities. The final shot showed the Weetabix packet with a large milk container and a bowl of Weetabix with milk.
Text on the packet stated 'Weetabix Slow Release Energy' and on-screen text stated 'Fuel For Big Day.'
Four viewers challenged whether the claim 'slow release energy' was misleading, because they understood that Weetabix had a high glycemic index (GI) rating.
According to the ASA, Weetabix confirmed that they thought the claim was likely to be understood as a health claim. They had based the claim on the GI of Weetabix with milk, and felt that was reasonable as that was the way the vast majority of consumers ate Weetabix.
The ASA has stated that the claim must not be broadcast again in its current form.