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Despite higher tax expenses and super tax, PSMC announces profits of Rs 488m in April-June 2016
KARACHI: Pak Suzuki Motor Company (PSMC) Thursday announced its profits of Rs 488 million declining by 5 per cent in April-June 2016 because of higher tax expenses and super tax.
The company shows its earnings per share of Rs 5.9.
PSMC reported tax expense of Rs 600 million, which resulted in effective tax rate of 55 per cent. This was higher than expectations and includes the impact of super tax. This higher than anticipated effective tax rate resulted in lower earnings in the outgoing quarter.
PSMC’s sales fell 7 per cent year-on-year to Rs19 billion in 2nd quarter 2016. This decline was mainly due to drop in volumetric sales post culmination of Apna Rozgar Taxi Scheme of Punjab government, which ended on March 2016.
Company’s sales in the outgoing quarter were 26,011 units, a decline of 19 per cent YoY (down 11 per cent YoY to 56,192 units in first half 2016). Excluding Taxi units (Ravi and Bolan), sales were robust as they increased 23 per cent YoY to 16,911 units in 2nd quarter 2016 (17 per cent YoY to 34,864 units in first half 2016).
Gross profit fell 39 per cent YoY to Rs1.8 billion in the outgoing quarter while gross margins contracted by 5ppts to 9.4 per cent. This can be attributed to 9 per cent appreciation of Japanese Yen (JPY) against the local currency.
To point out, sudden appreciation of Yen was due to Brexit, fears of which have eased out. Moreover, Shinzo Abe’s announcement of $265 billion stimulus package for Japanese economy is expected to keep Yen appreciation in check, the analyst believed.
On QoQ basis, revenue fell 5 per cent due to 13.8 per cent decline in volumes. Gross margins contracted 1.7ppts from 11 per cent in first quarter 2016.
Adverse exchange rate movement, implementation of international safety standards, and reduction in import duty may be key risks for PSMC, the analyst said.
On the other hand, other income increased by 38% to Rs 590 million. Though, 42 per cent effective tax rate (due to 3 per cent super tax) has restricted the bottom-line to Rs 1.4bn (EPS: Rs 17.4), down 41 per cent.
Gross margins have deflated by due to 6 per cent QoQ appreciation of JPY against US dollar and 13 per cent QoQ higher CRC steel prices. Additionally, distribution cost also jumped by 17 per cent QoQ. Further, super tax lifted effective tax rate to 55 per cent as compared to 32 per cent in previous quarter. Other income, however, provided some support, which increased by 11 per cent due to large cash deposits maintained by the company.


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Authorities in Tucson are looking for a female shoplifter who fled after assaulting a store employee with a full soda can.
The Pima County Sheriff's Department says the woman is described as being in her 20s with reddish hair.
The suspect is described as a Caucasian female in her mid to late 20s with reddish hair. Detectives say the woman was seen by employees of a TJ Maxx store putting shoes, underwear and other clothing in her purse.
A loss prevention employee of the store confronted the suspect. But she reportedly pushed him out of the way and then threw a soda can at him, striking him in the chest before running out of the store.
Copyright 2013 Associated Press. All rights reserved. CBS 5 (KPHO Broadcasting Corporation) contributed to this report.
Thursday, June 8 2017 2:45 PM EDT2017-06-08 18:45:13 GMT
There are still a few tickets left for Thursday's Muslim prayer service to honor Muhammad Ali. But there are none left for the interfaith memorial on Friday. Muslims have traveled from all over the world to pay...More >>
Two businessmen plan to redevelop an eastern Kentucky hotel in a move local officials hope will help revive the area's struggling economy. The Daily Independent reports Jim Nizzo and Andy Spiros purchased the Ashland...More >>

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Kenya’s transition to a green economy could produce major economic benefits equivalent to an estimated USD 45 billion by 2030, a new study shows.
The study launched by the Kenya government and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) shows under a green economy scenario, Kenya would achieve greater food security, a cleaner environment, stronger economic growth and increased wealth creation opportunities by 2021.
Soon tech-savvy Kenyans with passion for Google’s operation system, android, will be able to wear a wrist watch that does more than tell time and date.
LG Electronics (LG) is working together with Google on LG G Watch powered by Android Wear, which extends the Android platform to wearables. Continue reading LG, Google to unveil android watch
Contributions to the Universal Service Fund by Kenyan Operators has surpassed the targetted sh2.5billion.
Telecommunication Service Providers Association of Kenya (TESPOK) the lobby group representing telecom companies has however expressed its concern over the failure by the Communications Authority to address some of the key issues which they had raised concerning the management of the USF levy even after contributing excess funds to the kitty. Continue reading Operators USF contributions surpass sh2.5bn target
Kenyan primary and high school students will have chance to create own games, animated stories, projects, and publish their applications to the web in a bootcamp.
iLab Africa, Strathmore University is organizing a 9-day Holiday bootcamp for Primary and High School Students to take place at iLab Africa from 7th April 2015 to 17th April 2015 from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm.


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Interested in the new 2014 Subaru Forester?
Read This Article
Interested in Subaru’s latest model, the XV Crosstrek, but have been waiting to see how much it’ll run you?
The 2015 Subaru WRX is revealed before its Los Angeles Auto Show debut.
Is Subaru offering incentives on its new BRZ sports coupe to compete with the near identical Scion FR-S?


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Denzel Washington‘s latest film, The Little Things, is currently No. 1 in America. Despite it being streamed simultaneously on HBO Max, the movie made nearly $5 million at the box office. Before the pandemic, such a stat would have served as a jarring lullaby to an otherwise exceptional career. Instead, the film, directed by John Lee […]
Can you imagine being constantly unhappy at a place where you spend more than a third of your lifetime? Do you already feel this way? Sadly, this is the reality for more than 53 percent of Americans, according to recent reports.r This “place” is work. Your job. Being in a toxic work environment can affect […]
Philadelphia’s own William Warren Jr of Mt. Airy has quietly become a major influencer in local sports and fashion scenes. A 2007 graduate of Morehouse College, Warren is executing his marketing genius at Philadelphia nostalgic sports brand Mitchell and Ness. Under his global social marketing ingenuity, the brand has experienced growth never before seen. Warren has amassed an […]
Is mom struggling to make ends meet? Do you feel like you don’t belong at school and find yourself wandering the halls when you should be in class? Is dad doing his part? If this description doesn’t fit you, do you know someone it does? We’re calling on educators, parents, churches, youth service organizations, detention […]
Georgette ‘Gigi’ Dixon, Wells Fargo’s SVP and Director of National Partnerships Says Social Responsibility is Key
Dixon shares her advice for future business leaders.
“We’re always branding ourselves, whether we know it or not.”


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Francis Bacon painting auctioned for more than $142 million, breaks record
November 26, 2013 -- Updated 1313 GMT (2113 HKT)
- "Three Studies of Lucian Freud," painted in 1969, sold for $142,405,000
- Christie's says it's the most money ever paid for a piece of artwork at an auction
- The previous record for a work of art sold at an auction was Edvard Munch's "The Scream"
- The sale was part of an auction with the highest sale total in history
(CNN) -- A painting by artist Francis Bacon sold for $142,405,000 on Tuesday, breaking the record as the most expensive piece of art ever auctioned, according to a statement from the auction house.
"Three Studies of Lucian Freud" was sold after six minutes of bidding in the room and on the phone at Christie's in New York City, according to spokeswoman Elizabeth Van Bergen.
Painted in 1969, it is known as one of Bacon's most iconic works, as it features Lucian Freud at the apex of his relationship with Bacon, according to the auction house's statement.
Warhol classics go to auction
"Three Studies of Lucian Freud" was painted by Francis Bacon in 1969.
The triptych, a three-panel piece of art, features Freud sitting on a wooden chair in varied positions, the statement said.
The painting was part of a record-breaking auction that grossed $691,583,000, the highest total for an auction sale in art market history, according to Christie's.
The sale of Post-War and Contemporary Art broke 10 auction records with three pieces sold for more than $50 million, 11 for over $20 million and 16 for over $10 million.
Painting bought in $46 lot worth $390,000
Jeff Koons's "Balloon Dog" fetched $58.4 million, a record for any piece of art sold at auction by a living artist.
The previous record for a work of art sold at an auction was Edvard Munch's "The Scream," painted in 1895. It sold for more than $119 million dollars in 2012 at Sotheby's New York, according to the statement.
Bacon's previous record for his work was more than $86 million for another triptych painted in 1976 and sold in 2008 at Sotheby's New York, according to the statement.
Chinese artist's 'Last Supper' sets record for Asian contemporary art
Salvador Dali art donated to Goodwill, auctioned online
Today's five most popular stories
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December 19, 2014 -- Updated 1602 GMT (0002 HKT)
After surviving Vichy prisons and Nazi concentration camps, Brian Stonehouse became one of the most prominent fashion illustrators of his age.
December 16, 2014 -- Updated 2203 GMT (0603 HKT)
Award-winning photographer Phil Stern captured everything from the battlefield to Hollywood Boulevard. These are his most iconic images.
December 16, 2014 -- Updated 0216 GMT (1016 HKT)
The Sony World Photography Awards has released a collection of some of the competition's most beautiful entrants.
December 15, 2014 -- Updated 2242 GMT (0642 HKT)
Are sports stadiums modern-day cathedrals? Leading architects say arenas will soon become our most important social spaces.
December 9, 2014 -- Updated 1104 GMT (1904 HKT)
Whether you think stuffed animals are cool, beautiful, or downright disturbing, this is taxidermy like you've never seen it before.
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Studio 54 has become synonymous with the glamor and excess of the late Seventies. These rare images capture its debauched side.
December 3, 2014 -- Updated 1325 GMT (2125 HKT)
It's official: London's getting another landmark. This time it's a stunning plant-covered bridge partly inspired by Leonardo DiCaprio.
December 3, 2014 -- Updated 0747 GMT (1547 HKT)
For fans of Ferrari, Maserati, Lamborghini and Pagani, this corner of Europe is a petrol-powered promised land.
December 3, 2014 -- Updated 1013 GMT (1813 HKT)
Victoria Beckham and Emma Watson were among the designers, models and taste-makers recognized at this year's British Fashion Awards.
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Duncan Campbell's It For Others, which features a dance inspired by Karl Marx and examines African art, has won the prestigious art prize.
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Simon Beck decorates snow-covered lakes and mountainsides with massive geometric designs using his footsteps as his implement.
November 25, 2014 -- Updated 1524 GMT (2324 HKT)
Houses that melt, float and flip upside down? Alex Chinneck's playful architecture sparks the imagination and begs for a photo-op.


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New large corporate aircraft that can fly further and an industry push to sustainable aviation fuels are bright spots as the world’s biggest business jet makers assemble in Las Vegas to showcase offerings at the sector’s largest gathering.
The National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) annual corporate aircraft show started on Tuesday against a backdrop of slowing global economic growth, trade tensions between the United States and China and Brexit uncertainties, factors seen softening demand for corporate jets in the next two years, industry executives and analysts say.
“We’re optimistic but at the same time, in the short and medium term we have to be cautious,” said Gaetan Handfield, senior manager of marketing analysis for Honeywell Aerospace.
Honeywell’s 2019 business aviation outlook sees 7 600 new business jet deliveries worth $248 billion from 2020 to 2029, down one to two percentage points from the company’s 2018 forecast.
Deliveries were up this year almost 13% during the first half of 2019, according to data from the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA).
Deliveries, expected to rise 7% in 2020 according to Honeywell, are fuelled by the ramp-up of new models offering longer ranges and amenities such as beds and hot showers at 40 000 feet.
General Dynamics’ Gulfstream, Bombardier, Textron’s Cessna, Dassault Aviation and Embraer SA saw order backlogs grow seven percent in the first half of 2019, the first rise since the 2008 financial crisis, said aviation analyst Rolland Vincent.
An NBAA highlight this year could be the widely-expected launch of a new Gulfstream long-range jet.
Buyers eager to make non-stop trips between far-flung cities like New York and Tokyo are looking for long-range jets.
Others prioritise fuel efficiency and encourage the use of sustainable fuels and carbon-offsets at a time when the aviation industry faces “flight shame” protests by climate change activists.
Jetmakers will fly aircraft into Las Vegas using a blend of biojetfuels, although industry usage of alternatives to kerosene remains limited.
In an industry where sales are usually aligned with economic growth, analysts remains cautious given uncertainty in Europe with Brexit and in the US, the world’s largest market for business jets, where President Donald Trump faces an impeachment probe.
“New deliveries will ramp up due to new products introduced, only to begin a cyclical decline as world economic weakness further manifests itself,” said aviation analyst Brian Foley.
US economic growth is slowing in 2019, with economists forecasting growth of around 2.5%, below the Trump administration’s three percent target.
Foley expects new sales to remain roughly flat next year, but sees softer demand in 2021 which will lead to fewer planes delivered in 2022.
Brian Proctor, president of Dallas-based private jet consultancy Mente Group said sales of pre-owned planes are picking up after a slow start, with some buyers looking to purchase by year’s end to take advantage of favourable tax rules introduced by the Trump administration.
He said buyers want to purchase ahead of next year’s US presidential election under existing rules.
“Because of the uncertainty they are speeding up decisions because they want to know what the rules are,” said Proctor, also chairman of the International Aircraft Dealers Association.
Sales of pre-owned business jets are down 19% in volume for the first eight months of 2019, on an annual basis, but aircraft for sale are spending less time on the market, Vincent said.
“Buyers appear to be moving quicker when they find the asset they want,” he said.


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NATSO, representing truckstops and travel plazas, and the American Trucking Associations (ATA) have urged state and local governments to carefully consider the operational differences of essential businesses when implementing social distancing guidelines to ensure that truckstops and travel plazas can safely serve commercial drivers without delaying the delivery of critical emergency relief supplies during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Truckstop workers and commercial truck drivers are included on the list of “essential critical infrastructure workers” by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) in its “Guidance on the Essential Critical Infrastructure Workforce.” But many local officials are exceeding the Centers for Disease Control’s recommended social distancing guidelines and enforcing strict "occupancy limits" in travel centers, severely delaying commercial drivers when they stop for food or fuel.
Notably, some localities are enforcing occupancy limits of as few as 5-10 people, including employees. In certain parts of the country, this is resulting in drivers waiting in long lines to enter nearly empty truckstops in order to purchase food and use the facilities; this extends their delivery time for transporting goods in support of pandemic relief efforts.
Truck drivers have the ability to move through a truckstop while practicing safe social distancing. Truckstops and travel plazas frequently have a very large footprint and can average 28,000 square feet, giving them the ability to safely serve truck drivers within the six-feet social distancing guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control without imposing extreme caps on the number of customers in a location at one time.
“Varying interpretations of the CDC guidelines are creating exceedingly long wait times for truck drivers to buy food, use the facilities, and get back on the road, hindering their ability to deliver medical supplies or keep grocery store shelves stocked,” said NATSO President and CEO Lisa Mullings. “What should be 20 minute stops are turning into more than two hour layovers. It is imperative that local enforcement officials enforce occupancy caps in truckstops in a manner that adheres to CDC social distancing guidelines without unnecessarily disrupting the efficient movement of essential supplies throughout the country.”
NATSO and the American Trucking Associations expressed their concerns in a letter to the National Association of Counties; National Association of County and City Health Officials; the National League of Cities; and the United States Conference of Mayors.
“Each day during this pandemic, truck drivers are out on the road making critical deliveries to markets, hospitals and consumers – if local governments impede them from making those deliveries, they are putting lives at risk,” said ATA President and CEO Chris Spear. “We urge officials at all levels of government to help our industry keep those deliveries rolling by keeping facilities open and accessible for drivers to use in a safe and efficient manner.”
The travel plaza and truckstop industry is taking every precaution to protect the health and safety of its employees and customers. They continue to follow all recommended guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control and World Health Organization. As part of the supply chain, truckstops are committed to doing their part to keep truck drivers safe and on the road.
Read NATSO and ATA's Letter Here
“Truck drivers have one of the most important jobs at this unimaginable point in history, delivering critical supplies including medical equipment to hospitals and essential items to keep store shelves stocked for the everyday needs of Americans. It is crucial that they have quick and easy access to fuel, food, restrooms, showers and other services so they can get back on the road in a timely manner. The entire country is relying on the whole-hearted commitment of these drivers and we have a responsibility to help them to do their jobs as safely and efficiently as possible.” – Jon Pertchik, CEO of TravelCenters of America
“The professional driver’s ability to deliver essential products to Americans from coast to coast in a timely manner is extremely important in the fight against COVID-19. Due to some state and local mandates, we have experienced issues that have created long delays for these professionals that have put their deliveries at risk. Any relief for these men and women would be greatly appreciated.” – Frank Love, co-CEO, Love’s Travel Stops
“At Pilot Company, our top priority is protecting the safety of our team members and guests, while continuing to provide essential services and goods to keep America moving. With professional drivers moving more than 70% of the goods consumed in the U.S., it is imperative that we keep our travel centers open, while following health and social distancing guidelines, to ensure the movement of supplies throughout the country. The entire trucking industry is taking every precaution to ensure the health and safety of professional drivers on the road.”– Jimmy Haslam, CEO, Pilot Company
Tiffany Wlazlowski Neuman
Vice President, Public Affairs
Phone: (703) 739-8578
Subscribe to Updates
NATSO provides a breadth of information created to strengthen travel plazas’ ability to meet the needs of the travelling public in an age of disruption. This includes knowledge filled blog posts, articles and publications. If you would like to receive a digest of blog post and articles directly in your inbox, please provide your name, email and the frequency of the updates you want to receive the email digest.


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In recent weeks, a movement has emerged in social networks for Mexicans to stop buying products from US companies in response to Trump.
#AdiósStarbucks, #NoCompresUSA and #Mexico are just some of the hashtags that have been trending in recent weeks among Mexicans asking society to support the consumption of “Made in Mexico” products and turn away from US companies and multinational firms such as Coca-Cola, Walmart, Starbucks, Burger King, Sears, etc.
However, failing to consume Starbucks coffee, a cheddar and mozzarella cheese stuffed Domino’s pizza, Charmin toilet paper or an ice-cold Coke will not necessarily help the Mexican economy improve or hurt U.S firms.
About 90% of Mexican production has a foreign component. For example, in the case of agricultural products seeds are used from abroad, even if harvested and worked in the country. And only 40% of the materials used by automakers are made in Mexico.
Coca-Cola imports from the United States its main input, which is the concentrate of its soft drink, but then Mexican bottlers like FEMSA and Arca Continental distribute and market it. In Mexico, Coca-Cola employs more than 95,000 people directly and another million indirectly through eight Mexican bottlers. This industry represents 1.4% of national GDP.
And Walmart employs about 200,000 Mexicans, is the country’s leading private employer and has numerous national provider development programs.
What then would constitute an effective boycott that does not hurt Mexico?
At the moment, some organizations like Consumer Power and even the Secretary of Economy have supported initiatives such as “Made in Mexico“, which involves buying Mexican products that are not fully imported and that support small producers and entrepreneurs.
According to Marc Segura, CEO of the crowdfunding Play Business platform, the first thing Mexican consumers have to question is why they buy foreign products.
“What we should do is offer better products than others, no matter where they are made. The consumer will consume what works best for him and solve his problem. I think it’s a good time to turn to Mexican companies and give startups an opportunity to start seeing how their products are, “he said.
By Elliot Bullman for Mexico News Network
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Following one of its doctor's pseudoscientific ramblings last year, as well as him promoting anti-vaccine propaganda, the Cleveland Clinic now has this bombshell to deal with. USA Today discovered that a surgeon was accused of "anally raping" two patients, then covered it up.
Alas, the $37 billion dietary supplements industry likely will remain unregulated for the foreseeable future. And with it, the fight against junk science and bogus health claims must soldier on.
Open displays of bipartisanship are rare these days and, as such, should be applauded. Unfortunately, a recent example of bipartisanship promotes junk science and bogus health claims, using buzz words like "integrative" and "wellness" that are code for "alternative medicine."
Lemons can enhance the taste of tea, a cup of which that may soothe your cold or ease congestion. But lemons certainly can't prevent or cure disease, especially cancer. So let's not boil lemon water and skip the specialist – as some social media activists are advocating – if you've been diagnosed with this serious ailment.
It is easy to see why so many people believe in traditional herbal remedies. Homeopathy, on the other hand, is just plain nuts. It completely defies logic how anyone with a halfway functional brain could buy into this. This type of alternative medicine is predicated upon three truly bizarre ideas.
Surely Pfizer wouldn't mind if you took a closer look at what's listed on its label for Centrum Silver Men, which is marketed to men age 50+, right? Copper sulfate: Pesticide. Silicon dioxide. Glass. Titanium dioxide. Paint. But the biggest dirty little secret about multivitamins is that few people actually need dietary supplements.
"Natural is better." That pervasive and pernicious myth, despite being soundly refuted by things like arsenic and hemlock and rattlesnake venom, has become a mainstay in 21st Century conventional wisdom. Who needs Western medicine when the Chinese have been eating and boiling weeds for 3,000 years?
Homeopathy is the system of using extremely dilute solutions of the disease-causing entity itself to treat the disease.
Herb popular in China for knee arthritis failed to surpass placebo effect in randomized trial. Many OA patients will remain unconvinced, however, and stick with the soothing belief in its efficacy, as have generations gone by, science notwithstanding.
The insanity that is evident from examining the role (or lack thereof) of the FDA in regulating alternative remedies may be finally coming to a head. It s about time.
The latest in health news: The FDA is finally reviewing homeopathic products to decide whether they should go under same approval process as conventional drugs, a new study shows why napping in carseats and strollers could be dangerous for your infant, and Columbia faculty speak out for or against Dr. Oz; we aren't sure.
Recently, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a warning to consumers and pharmacies not to rely on over-the-counter asthma products labeled as homeopathic. In their alert, they write:


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China has scrapped trade talks with the United States days before President Trump is set to escalate the commercial battle with a new round of tariffs, according to a person familiar with the discussion.
China’s Commerce Ministry did not immediately respond Saturday.
Beijing had prepared to send Vice Premier Liu He, the country’s top-ranking economic official, to Washington next week, along with a mid-level delegation to prepare for his visit, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin had been expected to oversee the talks, which were called in hopes of easing tensions between the world’s two largest economies, U.S. officials have said.
The effort crumbled a week after Trump tweeted the White House felt “no pressure” to resolve the dispute with China. He has accused the country of stealing intellectual property from American businesses, among other trade infractions.
“We are under no pressure to make a deal with China, they are under pressure to make a deal with us,” he wrote, adding: “If we meet, we meet?”
Analysts said the news reflects the breakdown in the international relationship.
“This is brinkmanship that benefits no one and a reflection that four decades of constructive U.S.-China relations are spiraling out of control,” said James Zimmerman, partner in the Beijing office of the international firm Perkins Coie and former chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in China.
U.S. industry groups in China urged Trump on Saturday to restart negotiations, asserting that fraying ties between the countries is bad for global business.
“We encourage both sides to resume a results-oriented dialogue in earnest,” said Jake Parker, vice president of China operations at the U.S.-China Business Council, which represents about 200 firms, including PepsiCo, Apple and General Motors.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has refused to bend to the White House’s demands amid escalating threats from Trump, who pledged to place tariffs on virtually everything the United States buys from China if Beijing responds with the new duties.
Xi faces public pressure to stand undaunted by Trump’s financial swings at his country, analysts say, as he seeks to prove that China, too, is a superpower on the international stage.
Beijing’s next round of tariffs, slated to take effect Monday at noon, target more than 5,200 kinds of American imports, including industrial parts, chemicals and medical instruments.
“In order to safeguard our legitimate rights and interests and the global free trade order, China will have to take countermeasures,” the country’s Commerce Ministry said in a statement Tuesday. “We deeply regret this.”
Trump’s latest levies bring more uncertainty into the status of negotiations, Chinese officials said at the time, suggesting the economic conflict could drag on indefinitely.
By next week, the United States and China could be poised to impose tariffs on their entire exchange of goods, which surpasses $635 billion annually. An all-out trade war would trigger job losses in both countries, economists say, as well as a spike in the cost of household goods, including bedding, furniture, toys, razors and toaster ovens.
Trump’s next opportunity to meet with Xi is in November at the Group of 20 summit in Argentina. Both leaders are expected to attend the multilateral conference.


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Tag: Starting Monday
Scofflaws could be hit with penalties ranging from $200 to $2,000. Starting Monday, travellers who lie about carrying marijuana over the Canadian border could face fines. Recreational cannabis has been legal in Canada since the fall of 2018, but it’s illegal to bring it across the border without a permit or exemption. – Read the entire article at CBC News.


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RANCHO MISSION VIEJO, CA -- Westar Associates has begun development and leasing of Sendero Marketplace, a new 11.5-acre neighborhood retail center in Rancho Mission Viejo, a planned community in California.
The 98,000-square-foot Sendero Marketplace will be comprised of dozens of restaurants and retailers when it opens in 2016. Rite-Aid is the first tenant to sign a lease with Sendero. Sendero Marketplace is part of Rancho Mission Viejo’s first village called Sendero, now nearing the build-out of its 941 attached and detached homes within 11 distinctive neighborhoods and 286-unit Sendero Gateway apartment neighborhood. (see original article here)


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Kansas City, Missouri – January 4, 2019 – Petfood Forum, the pet food industry’s must-attend event, has confirmed Dr. Katy Nelson as the keynote speaker for the 2019 edition, scheduled for April 29-May 1, in Kansas City, Missouri, USA. Registration is now open with super early bird savings available for this exclusive conference and exhibition.
Manhattan, Kansas – October 29, 2018 – Petfood R&D Showcase attendees learned from keynote presenter Lynn Dornblaser, director of innovation and insight for Mintel, that the most important pet food trends closely parallel ones in human snacks, particularly with health and wellness.
Kansas City, Missouri – September 24, 2018 – Registration is now open with new Super Early Bird savings available for the first time, providing attendees the lowest rates ever offered to attend Petfood Forum 2019, the global industry’s annual meeting.
Atlanta, Georgia USA – September 19, 2018 – WATT Global Media has announced agenda and speaker details for the 2018 Poultry Tech Summit.
Tucker, Ga. – Sept. 19, 2018 – Registration for the Latin American Poultry Summit is now open.
Rockford, IL – September 4, 2018 – WATT Global Media announces new employee, Sherri Edwards.
Rockford, IL – July 30, 2018 –The 2018 International Poultry Forum China conference hosted more than 400 industry professionals and senior executives from major poultry broiler and layer companies, approximately double the number of attendees in 2017.
Rockford, IL – July 18, 2018 – Leaders in the global pig industry will gather to network, collaborate and discuss opportunities, technologies and market trends at International Pig Forum China 2018, scheduled for September 15-16, at the Nanjing International Expo Centre (NIEC) in Nanjing, China.
Rockford, IL – July 13, 2018 – WATT PoultryUSA magazine recently published the popular July directory issue: Who’s Who in the Egg and Poultry Industries in the US and Canada ®.
Rockford, IL – June 26, 2018 – WATT Global Media announces the promotion of Deven King to managing editor of Egg Industry.
Petfood Industry representatives have released the agenda details for the 2018 edition of Petfood Forum China. The exclusive conference will be held on August 21, 2018 at the Kerry Hotel in Shanghai, China.
Manhattan, Kansas – May 21, 2018 – “Treats, Toppers and Inclusions” has been announced as the theme for the interactive 2018 Petfood R&D Showcase, focusing on the fastest growing sales categories in pet food.


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Tomorrow, September 9, Apple will announce a suite of new products including a rumored new wearable device “iWatch”, and a bigger, more durable iPhone 6. Those two product introductions alone will be a big deal for retailers and Apple, but what has businesses buzzing is speculation of a new mobile payments service that comes pre-installed on the new iPhone. The new iPhone 6 will support Near Field Communications (NFC) for mobile payments. NFC allows two devices to transfer encrypted data at short ranges using radio waves. Short, as in just a few inches. NFC enables users to pay by credit card using their phone by simply tapping a beacon at the checkout stand.
NFC Essential Attributes
- Short range RFID, typically less than 2 inches, triggered by proximity
- Invented by Phillips and Sony about 10 years ago
- Three genres: Card Emulation, Reader Mode, & Peer-to-Peer
- Tags may be powered or unpowered
- Any MIME data can embedded on NFC tags
- Relatively slow speed, not suitable for transferring large amounts of data
Historically, the only major company backing NFC technology in mobile devices has been Google. Now that the iPhone will support it, however, many retailers including Apple, Disney, Walgreens, CVS, Nordstrom and many more are retrofitting point of sale systems so that they can support customer demand.
In terms of application support, many leading point of sale applications for small business such as QuickBooks POS, ShopKeep and AccuPOS have NFC capability. With the infrastructure already there, before long, millions of Android and now iPhone 6 toting consumers will demand making payment in this way, and that's good for business. It's the forward-thinking retailers focused on growth that will provided this capability.
Apple's ability to transform industries is proven. Consider the music industry and how people buy music today compared to 20 years ago. Apple, for years, has resisted supporting NFC. That will change this week,and the impact may be fast and enormous. It will definitely be interesting to see how this progresses and how quickly the industry will adopt these new capabilities.


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Two of the seven Wal-Mart stores scheduled for closure in Southern California as part of a corporate restructuring will shut their doors for the last time today.
The Wal-Mart superstore at the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza is among 269 locations being closed worldwide, the discount retailer announced Friday.
A Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market on West Cesar Chavez Avenue in Chinatown is also closing today. The Baldwin Hills store opened in 2003 and replaced a Macy’s department store, which closed in 1999.
“Wal-Mart fought so hard to get a foothold in our community, yet has so easily decided to pack up and leave without much notice … to its shoppers or its employees,” Laphonza Butler, president of SEIU Local 2015, told the Los Angeles Sentinel.
Chinatown’s Wal-Mart opened in 2013.
George Yu, executive director of the Chinatown business improvement district, said residents there waited 25 years for a full-service grocery store.
“Every community needs a grocery store,” Yu told the Los Angeles Times, “especially in a community that is so mass-transit oriented.”
Five other Southern California Wal-Marts — in downtown Long Beach, Hawaiian Gardens, Bell Gardens, Altadena and San Bernardino — will close on Jan. 28.
“Actively managing our portfolio of assets is essential to maintaining a healthy business,” Wal-Mart Stores Inc. President/CEO Doug McMillon said during Friday’s announcement. “Closing stores is never an easy decision, but it is necessary to keep the company strong and positioned for the future.
“It’s important to remember that we’ll open well more than 300 stores around the world next year. So, we are committed to growing, but we are being disciplined about it.”
About 16,000 employees are expected to be impacted by the closures. But most of the stores being closed are within 10 miles of another Wal-Mart and many of the displaced workers are expected to be relocated to jobs at those stores. Employees who have not been placed in new jobs by Feb. 10 will receive 60 days pay. If after that 60 days they still have not been placed in new jobs, they will receive a severance package equal to one week’s pay for every year they have been with the company, according to Wal-Mart spokeswoman Delia Garcia.
There are nearly 11,600 Walmart stores around the world, ranging from smaller Walmart Express stores to Neighborhood Markets, Walmarts, Walmart Supercenters and Sam’s Club warehouse outlets.


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Vegetable flavoured yoghurt now available
Local yoghurt manufacturer, Yummia, has launched a new range of yoghurts that contain both fruit and vegetables.
Described as a ‘layered yoghurt’, the range contains a milk-based yoghurt along with fresh fruit and vegetables mixed in.
Customers will initially have three choices to pick from: ‘cinnamon and sweet potato’, strawberry and beetroot and ‘apple and carrot’.
Each tub claims to contain half a serve of recommended daily vegetables and has been given five stars on the Australian government-endorsed health rating front-of-pack labelling system. The yoghurts are designed for customers to ‘grab and go’ with a spoon as part of the packaging.
Yummia’s founder is Mia McCarthy who several years ago created a ‘grab-and-go’ bircher muesli range in her parents kitchen when McCarthy was a 22 year old university student. The bircher muesli made its way into Woolworths, Caltex petrol stations and independent stores.
The fruit and vegetable yoghurt sells at a recommended retail price of $3.00 per tub and is now available from Woolworths and independent stores across Australia.
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The studio explained why the delay was necessary, saying they hope to “expand creative boundaries, set new benchmarks [and] develop the genre as a whole” with the game, however, at the cost of additional months of development time.
“We recently reexamined what we had achieved thus far, and faced a choice about the game’s final release date,” the post reads. “The decision we made was difficult, thoroughly considered, and ultimately clear and obvious. We could have released the game towards the end of this year as we had initially planned. Yet we concluded that a few additional months will let us achieve the quality that will satisfy us, the quality gamers expect from us.”
Continue Reading This Article From Review Fix Video Games Editor Manny Vivas at Examiner.com


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Company touts energy efficiency and graphics performance ahead of Haswell launch
The arrival of the next generation of Intel Core processors is drawing near and, as you would expect, the chipmaker is busy drawing the world’s attention to all that is worth highlighting about its upcoming “Haswell” (codename) chips. The company most recently talked up the 22nm chips it is widely expected to launch early next month at a media briefing it hosted last week.
Almost all the talk about Intel’s Haswell microarchitecture has, until this point, centered on its improved integrated graphics part and vastly reduced energy appetite, and this event was no different.
Per Rani Borkar, corporate vice president and general manager of the Intel Architecture Group, Haswell-based laptops will be 50 percent more power efficient as their Ivy Bridge-powered predecessors during normal operations, last up to 20 times more while in idle or standby mode, and still manage to be way more powerful than “content consumption” devices.
Improving the performance of its chips’ integrated graphics is another key area where Intel seems to have put in a lot of work. This has, according to Borkar, resulted in an integrated graphics solution that delivers double the performance of Ivy Bridge-powered laptops and thrice that of Ivy Bridge-based desktops.
If Haswell is as good as is being claimed by Intel then this is undoubtedly the best opportunity Ultrabooks have of accomplishing what they were originally supposed to do: to bring the ongoing rally in tablet sales to a screeching halt.
More From MaximumPC
Team Green captures the single-GPU crown, again. Today Nvidia pulls the wraps off its $650 GK110-based 700 series flagship card, the GeForce GTX 780. This board slides directly into the yawning chasm that exists between the $500 GK104-based GTX 680 and the $1,000 GK110-based GTX Titan, though despite its price it’s actually much closer in […]
There’s a new mobile sheriff in town. Mobile gamers rejoice, for AMD hasn’t forgotten about you. On the contrary, the Sunnyvale chip designer just unveiled its Radeon 8970M, which AMD claims is the fastest laptop GPU on the entire planet. And not only is it smoking fast, it’s also more efficient than previous designs, which means you […]
Original Post by Pulkit Chandna, Reposted Courtesy of Maximum PC – Covering everything from hi-end gaming PCs to tablets, peripherals and home theater rigs, Maximum PC’s print and Web editions stay one step ahead of the fast-changing world of everything computer and computing related. Whether its the latest on building your own desktop system, reviews of the latest laptops and accessories, or roundups of the games and software that make your machine go, Maximum PC brings it to you with news, reviews, and years of expertise. TechnoBuffalo is thrilled to bring you the best of Maximum PC right here on our own pages to keep you immersed in all things digital.


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Video: Man injured after phone explodes in pocket
- The man is seen sitting in a shop when fumes start emanating from his pocket.
- He throws away the mobile phone there, which is by now engulfed in smoke.
- The man is seen opening the shirt almost immediately, escaping sever injury.
In a viral video that has taken the Internet by storm, a man is seen escaping serious injury after a mobile phone in his pocket starts emanating smoke. At one moment, the man is sitting calmly in a shop,while in the very next moment he is seen removing a phone from his shirt pocket as smoke starts emanating from the device almost suddenly.
When he and the people around him realised what was transpiring in front of their eyes, they immediately helped the man open his shirt and controlled the fumes. The man escaped with minor injuries. It is not known why the device started emitting smoke, although few believe that it might have heated up.
The incident is said to have happened in West Bengal's West Midnapore district and was reported by ANI.


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You can't blame LG for not trying something new. This spring, the company strayed away from the beaten path of monolithic smartphones, and launched a modular phone -- the LG G5 -- with a sizable ecosystem of additional devices that extend the phone's functionality.
There's a problem, though: It's not selling.
Following The Korea Times' report(opens in a new tab) last week that LG is reshuffling key execs in its mobile division due to the G5 failing to generate sales, we've reached out to LG for clarification. And while a company rep insisted that this was a partial mistranslation, he did say that the G5 "did not meet the expectations of the market."
The mid-year management realignment, the LG spokesperson told Mashable, is "not unheard of," but it definitely is a result of LG G5's slow sales. LG's focus in mobile, he said, is "not just about one flagship smartphone but the entire lineup," meaning LG's V-series phones and other devices in the company is offering up.
The simple truth is that the LG G5 is the only mass-produced smartphone that's truly different from the pack, but that doesn't appear to have helped convince people to buy it.
What does this tell us about modular smartphones? While it's possible that the G5 hasn't been selling well for reasons other than its modularity, we've found it to be quite a capable phone -- especially in the camera department -- despite being modular.
Do we really need modular phones?
I believe the answer, at least partially, is in the concept of a modular phone itself. It sounds like a great idea -- after all, who wouldn't want to be able to upgrade their phone after a year or two? The LG G5, however, is more about expandability than modularity. You're not going to be able to replace the LG's processor or camera, ever. You can add new functionality, such as camera controls with the camera module, or a hi-fi chip with B&O's module, but those additional modules cost money(opens in a new tab), and not everyone is prepared to dish additional cash for a few extra features after purchasing a new smartphone.
It makes G5's modularity sound much more like a marketing gimmick than a feature.
The fact that only one G5 module -- the LG Cam Plus(opens in a new tab) -- is available in the U.S. doesn't help. Frankly, it makes G5's modularity sound much more like a marketing gimmick than a feature that could actually be useful in multiple situations.
As far as true modularity goes, the only part of the G5 you can actually replace is the battery, and this is where it becomes obvious that LG's idea of a modular phone is painfully incompatible with the way the smartphone market works today.
Ask any user whether they'd like to be able to replace their phone's battery, and I'm willing to bet most will say yes. But when? After a year, two or even three, when the battery life dwindles -- all reasonable answers that don't help the G5's sales today. And with carrier contracts and payment plans generally being two-year affairs, many users simply switch their phone for a new one when their contract is up.
Buying a modular phone is investing in the future. You're getting it now because you hope great things will happen down the line. You also hope you'll be able to save money by simply replacing a part instead of buying a new phone. But are smartphone users today willing to chose a phone based on its upgradeability, or will they simply go for the option they like the most? If G5's sales are any indication, upgrading their phone is the last thing on smartphone buyers' minds.
What about project Ara?
Besides the LG G5's semi-modular approach, another high-profile modular phone concept comes from Google -- Project Ara. While the concept is very different from LG's idea of modularity (Ara lets you replace nearly all of the phone's major components), Ara has an entirely different set of problems.
Namely, it's just not here yet.
Not only that -- it's been delayed for what seems like forever. Initially announced by Motorola in 2013 (Google had acquired Motorola in 2011), it was shown as a prototype in 2014. I saw another prototype at Mobile World Congress in 2015. But it was then delayed into 2016. And then into 2017.
There's hope for Project Ara, however. An official developer version should arrive this fall, and then we'll know a lot more about Google's vision of a modular smartphone.
Google will have to face a similar set of problems to LG's -- the fact that paying for extra modules at smartphone purchase might not sit well with a lot of buyers, coupled with the fact that it might take a long time before customers start thinking about upgrading their modular phones.
But Google has one key advantage over LG -- Ara is not a make-or break product for the company. Sure, Google isn't likely to bleed money on it for years, but it can afford to slowly upgrade Ara and push it forward until a portion of the market starts appreciating the benefits of a modular phone. Perhaps, by then, a G6 or a G7 will get more love from buyers as well.
Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.


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London, May 26 (ANI): Hugh Hefner is planning to sell Playboy for some 200 million pounds, it has emerged.
The 83-year-old founded the empire more than 56 years ago and gained instant popularity.
However, the rise of the internet, and with it free pornography, has taken its toll on the magazines’ sales.
According to reports, Sir Richard Branson’s firm Virgin is being tipped as a potential buyer, The Telegraph reported.
Playboy sales have dropped from seven million an issue in 1972 to around three million now.
Also, earlier this month, it was announced that the company had suffered losses of 8.6 million pounds for the first three months of the year compared to 2.6 million pounds in the same period last year.
A Playboy spokesman denied that it had received any offers.
However, he added that as a public company, Playboy would “listen to proposals that could create value for all of our shareholders”. (ANI)


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- Esha Gupta proves that there is nothing better than a sari if you want people to go weak in their knees
- Manushi Chhillar, Esha Gupta, Shilpa Shetty: B-town celebs show how to incorporate SOOTHING blue in your wardrobe
- #Airportstyle: Katrina Kaif, Karisma Kapoor, Esha Gupta add a quirky twist to their travel style
For model-actress Esha Gupta, fashion means style that is easily accessible.
The ‘Raaz 3’ actress is currently being seen in a TV ad campaign of online fashion brand Yepme.com and says she’s “excited to be endorsing their vibrant new collection of women’s wear”.
“I believe fashion in its truest sense is style that is easily available to all, and Yepme has done just this by giving people the latest styles at the click of a button.
“I personally love Yepme’s clothing line and I am glad to be a part of the fashion revolution that they are creating,” she said in a statement.
Esha has joined celebrities like Farhan Akhtar and Sonu Sood who endorse Yepme’s fashion wear.


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Aluminum Chambered Boats Inc. based in Bellingham, Wash., announced that CEO Larry Wieber stepped down, but will continue to be on the company's board of directors.
Jim Moore, president and COO, will continue to lead the company, according to a release.
Wieber founded ACB Boats in 1998. The company builds rugged high-performance vessels for government, recreational and commercial customers worldwide. ACB recently launched its latest model, the 2500 Explorer, several of which have already been bought for use by the Stratford, Conn., police department; U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service; and the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Department.
"Larry is a great visionary, created an exceptional product, and leaves ACB with many successes, which we will continue to build on," said Moore.


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JP Morgan Chase
Federal prosecutors say seven people have been charged in a North Texas identity theft ring that gained access to the personal information of 1,100 Fannie Mae customers.
As an apology to the approximately 40 million Target credit card holders whose personal information was compromised in one of the largest consumer security breaches ever, the retail giant offered a 10% discount to all customers making in store purchases on Saturday and Sunday.
It is clear that Democrats have shown a greater propensity to spend money wisely with their campaigns and allied groups. At the end of the day, that is what America needs.


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Google is hoping to preempt similar devices from rivals, according to The Wall Street Journal, and is planning to design, build and release at least one of the devices by autumn.
The original Nexus Q cost $299 and was designed from scratch by Google, piquing consumer interest with an unusual orb shape and ring of 32 LEDs. The device could be controlled via an Android handset, with music and films pulled down from the cloud rather than streamed from a smartphone or tablet.
But the device failed to take off, with initial reviews criticisng the Nexus Q's limited functionality. The company eventually halted new orders indefinitely and gave existing stock away for free, saying it wanted to add new features.
Little more has emerged on the Nexus Q's future since then, but updates to Google's Play Music and Play Movies apps have removed support for the Nexus Q entirely in recent weeks. The Register noted that Google filed papers with the US Federal Communications Commission for the mystery "H840" device which "functions as a media player", suggesting Google might be taking a different tack with its second attempt.
More wearable tech
Rumours that Google has been looking at adding to its wearable tech line-up with a connected watch have been swirling for some time. Sources told The Wall Street Journal the watch can pair with Android devices using Bluetooth, much like Google Glass.
Apple and Microsoft are also thought to be working on similar devices, while Sony and Samsung have already confirmed they'll release smart watches in the near future.
The sources also mentioned that Google is working on a gaming console powered by Android, following the efforts of Ouya, the maker of a $99 Android console, as well as Nvidia's Project Shield.


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General Electric is rethinking its plan that was first stated in 2010 to purchase 25,000 electric vehicles.
According to a Bloomberg report, GE’s corporate fleet services customers want choices beyond EVs; and with the current price of natural gas at one of the lowest points seen in the last five years, the company is looking to CNG and propane-powered vehicles as a way to maintain its stewardship of the environment.
GE’s Deb Frodl said GE’s intention two years ago of purchasing 12,000 GM electric vehicles by 2015 – among them the extended-range electric vehicle (E-REV) Chevy Volt – would now have to include other new models from GM to keep that purchase commitment on target.
“It’s the demand of our customers,” Frodl told Bloomberg as she echoed as her reasoning a refrain strikingly reminiscent of words spoken by Mitt Romney in the recent presidential debates. “There are so many technologies out there and our customers need a variety of technologies in their fleet today, not just one. We’re not picking winners and losers.”
The article also cites the comparatively higher costs of E-REVs, EVs, and plug-in hybrids, as influencing decision making at large corporations like GE.
With an MSRP of a little more than $39,000 for the Volt and $35,200 for the all-electric Nissan Leaf, CNG vehicles have become viable alternatives with natural gas at $3.24 per million British thermal units as of January 8.
“You can’t have this conversation without talking about the economics of natural gas,” Scott Sarazen, of Ernst & Young told Bloomberg. “Compared to a battery pack when the fuel is this cheap, it definitely impacts choices.”
Honda’s CNG-powered Civic has a starting MSRP of $26,305, but as Consumer Reports notes, it’s range is somewhat limited at 160-180 miles.
GE envisions its 25,000 electric and alternative-fuel vehicles flowing through two channels: 10,000 would be spread among its 65,000 fleet customers, and the rest would go to help the company replace half of its own 30,000 corporate autos.
GE is testing 300 Ford F-250 medium-duty CNG-powered vehicles, as well as buying 2,000 of the plug-in C-Max Energi according to the article.
“We’re delighted now that more automotive manufacturers come to market with new products for us to deploy,” Frodl said. “We’ve always globally multi-sourced the fleet. It was never the intention to be with just one automotive manufacturer.”
GE’s purchasing power indirectly influencing the consumer market
GE employees driving its fleet vehicles average about 100 miles a day, said Frodl. That’s well within the reach of the Volt’s electric-plus-gas range, which the EPA says is 380 miles, and Ford’s C-Max Energi is good for a total range of 620 miles. However, the Leaf is only rated for an average of 73 miles per charge according to the EPA.
These extended ranges could help boost an E-REVs image in the mind of GEs fleet users, which Alan Baum, of Baum & Associates, says could indirectly help the success of GE’s charging station business, as well as E-REV sales.
“Employees satisfied with their cars are likely to tell friends and family about their experiences, providing a marketing boost, Baum told Bloomberg.
“If it somehow affects the density of charging stations and get into the psyche of the buyer who’s kind of on the fence, but suffering from a touch of range anxiety, then it can help on a broader level,” he said.


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Report finds more shop space in Norwich city centre is standing empty
- Credit: Archant
A new report has revealed the amount of shop space standing empty in Norwich has gone up, with the closure of major stores such as Toys R Us contributing to the increase.
A new report produced by Norwich City Council details the vacancy rates and changes of shop types in the city, looking at the city centre, district areas such as Anglia Square, Riverside and St Augustine's, district centres such as Bowthorpe and Plumstead Road and local centres, such as Grove Road.
It showed that, in the city centre itself, the number of vacant units has gone down slightly, from 11.3pc in 2016 to 10.8pc for 2018.
But the actual amount of vacant floorspace in Norwich city centre is on the rise, from 5.8pc in 2016 to 7.3pc in 2018, although that remains below the 2010 high of 12.4pc.
The Retail Monitor 2018 report says that in the 'primary area' in the city centre, the majority of it is 'performing reasonably well'.
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But they say six of the seven areas they monitor has seen a reduction in the proportion of units occupied by shops and they say Castle Mall is currently experiencing a 'high level' of long-term empty shops - 26pc.
They say the city centre's 'secondary areas' have seen the 'most dramatic rise', from 2.8pc in 2016 to 17.7pc in 2018.
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Officers said: 'This can be attributed to the closure of some large scale national retailers, most notably Toys R Us in Cathedral Retail Park, which had a significant floor use for a single retailer'.
Further afield, in the large district centres, such as Anglia Square, Magdalen Street, Riverside and St Augustine's Street vacancy rates have risen slightly.
And vacancy rates in the other district centres, such as Bowthorpe, Aylsham Road and Plumstead Road, vacancy rates have gone up to 11.7pc from 9.6pc.
But, despite the empty shops, officers said: 'The 2018 monitoring figures suggest that the retail performance across the city remains relatively robust and competitive. 'However, it is apparent that vacancy levels have continued to increase marginally in all areas either in floorspace or unit number terms, except for local centres which have, overall, enjoyed a decrease in vacant units at the same time as increasing the overall number of units.'
But council officers say they will continue to closely monitor the situation.
They said: 'The retail industry has been undergoing dramatic structural changes in recent years, partially driven by technology, which may have ongoing impacts for the viability of some retail businesses.'
At a meeting of the city council's sustainable development committee today, councillors will hear how the council will continue to look at ways to 'cultivate' and support the retail offer of Norwich, working with organisations such as the Norwich Business Improvement District


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A group of dedicated Persona fans unveiled a Trading Card Game (TCG) that most did not know existed and they plan to port it on the PC.
A user from the ResetEra forum, who goes by the name of weaK_willO, showed images of a discontinued Altus card project named Digital Devil Story.
According to the ResetEra forum member, this TCG came into existence in 1997 and got scrapped at around 2004. A lot of users got curious about the card game and they can’t wait to see its progress. It also got to a point wherein VG24/7 was the first to spot this TCG revelation.
In addition, weaK_willO also mentioned that this version of the game includes characters from a lot of Atlus Games such as Shin Megami Tensei 1, Shin Megami Tensei 2, Shin Megami Tensei If…, and Devil Summoner Saturn.
The list doesn’t stop here as the TCG collection also includes Persona 1, Persona 2, Soul Hackers, and Shin Megami Tensei 3: Nocturne.
A brief history and gameplay of Digital Devil Story
Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei is a game developed by Atlus that was released in 1987 on the family computer. The second installment was released in 1990. The theme revolves around the early digital age with a mix of mythology.
Luckily, a quick YouTube search would give us a glimpse of what the gameplay looked like for a game that’s over 30 years old.
With the current technology that we have today, its entirely possible to make this happen. Just recently, a Super Smash Bros. Melee multiplayer PC port also made rounds on the Internet, which is a GameCube title that’s almost two decades old.
The ambitious project attempts to enter the digital TCG arena
A lot of game developers have recently tried exploring the digital world of TCG. Starting with the pioneers such as Magic: The Gathering and Yu-Gi-Oh, it looks like other developers are stepping up.
Around 2018, The Witcher series came up with its own digital TCG called GWENT and they recently ported their game to mobile and made the game available on Steam. Riot Games also released its own version called Legends of Runterra based on League of Legends this year.
Only time will tell if this grand Digital Devli Story TCG project will be able to live up to fans’ expectations once the PC port becomes available to the market.


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US OOH sales gain +7% in 2019 H1: Magna Fall 2019 report
By M4G Bureau - September 23, 2019
Magna now expects that total OOH advertising sales will increase by +5.2% for full year 2019 and +3.2% in 2020
According to Magna Advertising Forecast for fall 2019 report, US advertising market grows by +8% in first half as tech spend continues to fuel editorial media. The strong economic environment drove the increased spend from several key verticals (finance, retail, travel) while tech giants and “Direct-to-Consumer” (DTC) brands continued to expand their marketing budget to include editorial. Following the strong first half, MAGNA increased its full year 2019 forecast to +6.3% (excluding cyclical) from +5.1% previously.
The total Editorial Media Advertising Sales (TV, digital video, publishing, audio, OOH) were stable in the first half (+0.2% to $61 billion). It was their best performance in years, following a decline in 2018 (-1.5%) and 2017 (-2.4%). 2Q (+0.6%) was the first growth quarters in three That resilient performance from editorial media channels was driven by strong demand addressed to digital video (+25%), OOH (+7%) and audio media (+2%), and the stability of national TV (0%), offsetting the continued struggles of local TV (-5% excluding cyclical effect) and publishing (-12%).
Strong Ad Market in First Based on its analysis of US media owner’s financial reports, MAGNA finds that net advertising revenues (NAR) grew strongly in the first half of 2019 where +7.6% vs 1H18, across all media, accelerating further on an already strong market in 2018.
The main driver behind the first half advertising demand was a stronger-than-expected economic environment, with GDP growing by +2.6% and personal consumption (NPCE: the best precursor to advertising spending according to MAGNA’s historical statistical models) growing by +4%, as consumers shrugged off the threat of a trade war and continued to spend their growing This strong economic environment contributed to increased spend from several key verticals, including finance, retail, and travel.
Marketing innovation remains the other key driver to ad spend growth, with “Direct-to- Consumer” (DTC) brands (Wayfair, Peloton, Homelight, just to mention the three largest spenders year to date) growing their collective all-media spend by +30%, and their national TV spend by +50% in the first For years DTC brands were online-only start-ups in retail or services, spending 100% of their small marketing budgets on digital media, but many of them have reached the scale where national mass media (TV, radio, OOH) becomes a relevant part of the mix.
Out of home advertising sales gained nearly +7% in the first half of 2019 to $4.6bn. Growth peaked in the second quarter at +7.7%, the fastest growth in a Excluding the -4% decline in cinema ad revenues the growth of other OOH segments was in fact closer to +8% in the first half, with solid increases for the billboard and transit segments. Again, OOH benefits from the technology/entertainment verticals, driven by innovation and competition, increasing its ad budgets in editorial media. Amazon (+130% in 2Q), Disney (+25%), Apple (+22%) showed the largest growth rates year to date, while DTC brands (Bonobos, Casper, Keeps, Brooklinen, Bark Box, etc.) are increasingly using the medium too. Revenue derived from digital OOH units grew by +25% in the first half, driven by the constant growth in connected screens inventory, as exemplified by Outfront installing approx. 1,300 digital displays in New York’s subway system the first half of the year. MAGNA now expects that total OOH advertising sales will increase by +5.2% for full year 2019 and +3.2% in 2020.
According to Vincent Létang, EVP Global Market Intelligence and author of the report: “The US ad market had a great first half thanks to a strong economic environment as well as media innovation and a dynamic technology vertical. Digital media ad sales matured, as expected, but continued to grow close to +20% yoy, while editorial media performed better than expected thanks a recovery of radio, and OOH in full swing. We forecast an 11th year of growth in 2020 as record political spending will generate an all-time high of $5.5 billion in incremental ad revenue and mitigate the effect of the expected economic slowdown”.
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Sony Corp. and Panasonic Corp. will dissolve their partnership developing organic electroluminescent television displays as they have not been able to establish a cost-effective means of mass production, sources close to the two companies said Wednesday.
The electronics makers, which have jointly developed the displays for 1½ years, will end the tie-up as the contract expires at the end of this year.
But the two companies will continue development of OEL TV technology independently.
Improving the profitability of their respective TV divisions has been an urgent challenge for both Sony and Panasonic. For the time being, the companies will focus their financial and personnel resources for the development of “4K” liquid crystal display TVs, which show images at four times the resolution of high definition, the sources said.
Under the partnership, Sony and Panasonic were planning to catch up with South Korean rivals LG Electronics Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co., but they could not maintain the quality of the panel or lower production costs.
The South Korean pioneers have also been struggling with the OEL display business due to high costs.


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Whitbread plc’s (WTB) “Overweight” Rating Reiterated at Morgan Stanley
Morgan Stanley reiterated their overweight rating on shares of Whitbread plc (LON:WTB) in a report issued on Tuesday morning, Marketbeat reports. They currently have a GBX 4,700 ($60.70) price target on the stock.
A number of other research firms have also commented on WTB. Barclays PLC restated an equal weight rating and issued a GBX 3,925 ($50.69) price target on shares of Whitbread plc in a research report on Friday, June 9th. J P Morgan Chase & Co reiterated a neutral rating and set a GBX 4,000 ($51.66) target price on shares of Whitbread plc in a research report on Wednesday, June 28th. Panmure Gordon reiterated a hold rating on shares of Whitbread plc in a research report on Wednesday, June 21st. Deutsche Bank AG reiterated a buy rating on shares of Whitbread plc in a research report on Tuesday, May 23rd. Finally, Credit Suisse Group reiterated an outperform rating and set a GBX 4,870 ($62.90) target price on shares of Whitbread plc in a research report on Monday, July 3rd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. The company presently has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of GBX 4,193.18 ($54.15).
Shares of Whitbread plc (LON:WTB) opened at 3768.00 on Tuesday. The company’s market cap is GBX 6.87 billion. Whitbread plc has a 12-month low of GBX 3,365.00 and a 12-month high of GBX 4,333.00. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is GBX 3,814.84 and its 200-day moving average price is GBX 3,950.26.
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About Whitbread plc
Whitbread PLC is a hospitality company. The Company operates hotels, coffee shops and restaurants. The Company operates in two segments: Hotels & Restaurants, and Costa. The Hotels & Restaurants segment provides services in relation to accommodation and food. The Costa segment consists of operations of its branded, owned and franchised coffee outlets.
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A single mum and her kids have been conned out of more than €400 in a cruel Euros scam.
Emily O’Sullivan worked and saved for months to buy two tickets for her boys to see Ireland’s second group game against Belgium.
But the mum-of-four’s holiday to France has been ruined after an online ticket site she thought was genuine disappeared.
The Cork woman told the Irish Mirror last night: “I’m devastated, they’re devastated and as a single parent, I’ve worked so hard to put this holiday together.”
Emily, 40, handed over €415 for two golden tickets for her sons Darah, 17, and Byron, 11, to see the Boys in Green on June 18 in Bordeaux.
The dental nurse planned a 10-day holiday to France for her and her four kids – their first since her separation four years ago, and centering around the boys’ trip to our second group match.
She said: “In March I found europeanchampionships. com, I spoke to them on the phone, there was emails going back and forth and I ended up paying for the tickets over the phone with my visa debit card.
“They emailed me last week to say the tickets would be with me before June 6.
“Now it’s transpired that the website has disappeared, my emails go undelivered, when I ring them it says their message box is full and the website domain name is up for sale.
“I’m down €415. This is our first family holiday since my separation four years ago, all of us together.
“The whole holiday has been planned around letting my two sons go to the Ireland v Belgium game [being played in Bordeaux] and now we’ve no tickets.
“I’m devastated, they’re devastated and as a single parent, I’ve worked so hard to put this holiday together.
“I’ve worked more than full-time hours some weeks to make this holiday happen and now it feels like it’s falling apart.
“I’m just left not knowing what to do really.
“Byron cried and cried and cried.
"Darah is trying to hide his disappointment from me, he said ‘look mum we’ll still have fun, it’ll be OK.’
“This is all they’ve talked about since Christmas, ‘if Ireland get into the Euros, promise us you’ll bring us to one of the games.’”
And now Emily faces an agonising decision over whether to try and buy more tickets while in France or bring her two daughters Isabella, nine, and Heidi, seven, to Disneyland.
She explained: “We’re still going to go and maybe try and get tickets while we’re over there, but people have told me they could cost €1,000.
“I’m going to do my best to get tickets for the boys.
"But, I won’t hand over any money until someone at the gate of the stadium verifies the tickets are legitimate. It’s once bitten, twice shy.
“I had planned on bringing the girls to Disneyland for a day if I could afford it, but I won’t be able to get match tickets and do that as well.
“I’m hoping maybe someone in Ireland has tickets that they don’t need any more.”
Dermott Jewell, spokesman for the Consumers’ Association of Ireland, has warned fans to be wary of sites selling tickets, no matter how legitimate they may look.
He said: “The technical capacity of some of these individuals is very impressive and so it’s hard to tell the difference between the good site and the bad.
“These are very capable people who will have been planning these operations for months in advance.
“The sites that you see are A) believable and B) very well produced.
“They look like the real thing.
“I can’t help but feel there’ll be plenty of consumers who’ll say to themselves ‘this is good, I’m not taking a risk’, but you really are.
“It’s already been stated by UEFA that they firmly believe that most, if not all, the tickets are gone.
“At this stage you’re buying tickets off someone, you nearly need them to have their passport in front of you to prove it’s them.”
*There is an official athletics website, europeanchampionships. com, which is in no way connected to the scam.


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Temple Grandin, PhD, recommended that pet food companies use pictorial representations on their bags to educate consumers about what pets’ healthy weights look like, in an interview with Petfood Industry. Simple images of particular breeds could demonstrate four weight classifications. Grandin, professor of animal science at Colorado State University and best-selling author, delivered the grand finale presentation at Petfood Forum 2017.
“One of the things the pet food industry could do is make pictures showing too skinny, just right, overweight and obese for some of the popular breeds,” she said. “People know what grossly obese looks like. What most people, I think, don’t know is a-bit-overweight.”
Pet owner bear responsibility for pet obesity
Regardless of what pet food and treat manufacturers do, Grandin ultimately put the responsibility on pet owners to take control over pet obesity. Pets may be inclined to eat more when under stress, like humans, she said. Yet, even under stressful conditions, the responsibility to control a pet’s food intake still falls upon their human caretaker.
“People just shovel the treats and too much food into them,” said Grandin. “Another thing is, people get a dog too fat, and they don’t even realize it…Some people think fat is what the dog should look like.”
Although less common, she also noted that underweight pets need to be identified too, since pet owners may not know what it looks like when their cat or dog is too skinny. Being underweight may result from health conditions, not…


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Online charity is growing and becoming more competitive, leading organizations to search for a niche they can call their own, the Washington Post reported July 11.
CharityAmerica.com was founded in part to match ticket seekers with ticket donors for sporting events. Now, the site also includes a shopping service where users can buy online and choose a nonprofit to receive a commission, as well as a volunteer matching service and an information service.
Beginning this fall, the site will partner with Paul G. Schervish, director of the Social Welfare Research Institute at Boston College. Schervish will both help teach visitors about philanthropy and also study the motives of donors, site founder Timothy McCarthy told the Post.
In another attempt to survive in the competitive online nonprofit sector, eContributor and ChangingOurWorld Inc. are joining together. The two groups will offer consulting about fundraising, volunteer and board recruitment, interactive advertising, event ticket sales, database management, corporate and personal philanthropy.
For full story, go to the Washington Post.


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HONG KONG, OCTOBER 5 – Mobeep, the new and interactive application store for the Symbian and Android mobile platforms, is proud to announce that through many efforts and collaboration with app developers, it will achieve 5000 apps in the store by the end of October this year. Following the decision to expand into foreign mobile markets, Mobeep has seen the expansion of users, thus creating more apps to cater to their demand.
Fresh from debuting with 500 apps over a few months ago, with the increasing demand on apps that are specific to geography has enabled users to use the smartphone to their ease. Achieving 5000 apps for Mobeep has been another milestone for Mobeep because while the user base has been diverse and unique, all the apps featured are well-received by mobile users.
“We’ve received feedbacks that the mobile experience was better than expected because our apps are globally available, yet catered to users’ local needs at the same time. This fits well with our ‘Glocalisation’ concept and we’re happy to see the apps store grow into a well-accepted brand throughout various mobile platforms,” said Ozura World CEO Mike Pearse.
This is in accordance to the latest research released by Ovum, which mobile phone apps are expected to reach five billion downloads in the Asia Pacific by the end of this year with revenues of USD 871 million. The Asia Pacific market will be a proven fertile ground for Android reportedly with an estimate of 1.8 billion downloads compared to Apple’s 1.5 billion downloads.
“Choosing to develop Mobeep over the Android platform has proven to be the concrete and wise choice as we can see from the returns of the amount of feedback we received from the people using Mobeep. Throughout these few months we’ve been improving the interface, and now with Mobeep’s expansion strategy taking place, we’re beginning to see concrete results and we’re hopeful that by having 5000 apps with many thanks from our developers, we are bringing a different mobile experience to the mobile communities” he said.
Mike Pearse also said that the Asia Pacific mobile market is volatile and it trends differently compared to the US market, which are largely dominated by apps developed by the US Corporation because of their reliability and their familiarity with the local culture there.
“Entering the Asia Pacific market proved to the correct stepping stone as the very different demographics in the market has called for Mobeep to come up with different marketing strategy, in which helped the company gained the upper hand in targeting and strategizing with the “Glocalisation” concept. There is more diversity in behaviourial patterns that existed in the Asia Pacific, so this gives more opportunities to engage with different developers and build up a network so that the apps are useful to different target audience. The mobile market is a versatile market and we hope there is, literally, an app for everyone,” he added.
Mobeep is a Mobile Application Store that comes with a patented download accelerator, which supports resumable downloading and offers high-speed downloading rate. These features effectively help users to optimize data transmission and save money. With Mobeep, users can gain access to all types of apps and contents like games, instant messengers and ebooks by using smart phones or even low-end phones. Mobeep is a product of Ozura World, the leading digital entertainment media company with offices in California, Singapore and Hong Kong. For more information, please visit www.mobeep.com
About Ozura World
Ozura World is a leading international interactive entertainment media company specializes in mobile social network, mobile applications and wireless entertainment. The company distributes software and applications for mobile Internet devices such as cell phones, smart phones, wireless entertainment devices and tablets. The company also incubates and invests in startup technologies, as well as supporting information technology & social network companies. Ozura World has representative offices in 8 countries around the world. For more information, please visit www.ozuraworld.com.


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Here's another one! It seems like Ken and I are warning you of a new scam every week! Being aware and knowing how to handle it should you be a target will help you avoid a lot of headache and potential save you a lot of lots $$$. The latest scam is using the Microsoft name and will come over the phone.
According to some of the latest evidence and photos from Mars, there is a valve hidden in some soil in the latest picture. NASA has been sending Curiosity (the probe) to check out the red planet to see what they can put together with the images.
I remember when the only thing to worry about on Halloween was whether your bag was big enough to carry all your candy and be careful not to trip on your costume when running through the yards in your mother's high heels. Times have changed and prompted technology to get involved to keep your family safe and it's free until Halloween.
While cases of Ebola in the United States can be counted on one hand, there's a palpable fear of the deadly virus around the country. Even though the virus isn't easily transmitted, it is certainly a grim bug that is definitely worth being at least a little worried about. Groups of tasteless jokesters are taking advantage of this fear and using it to stir things up in cities around the country.
Tuesday morning, Apple CEO Tim Cook unveiled several new upcoming products, including the latest iPhone, a brand-new smart watch, a way to make payments using your phone, the latest update to the company's operating system and more.
When I first read this news I was outraged, then I saw the reason, I calmed down but is this law a bit too much? You decide. The U.S. Transportation Security Administration has announced that flights coming back to America will not allow devices that are not fully charged.
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In 1991, Mukul Anand’s Hum had Tiger (Amitabh Bachchan) swinging from chains asking Jumma (Kimi Katkar) for a kiss on a Friday. Jumma chumma de de, went the ditty. For reasons best known to the Indian public, that overt solicitation became wildly popular. In 1996, Tata Tea hit the airwaves with a tamer version — with Javed Jaffrey asking Anu Aggarwal for taazgi (freshness) which sets her off dancing through tea gardens and the factory floor, in a bouncy red dress.
That cheap imitation marked the company’s first serious attempt to create a brand in the consumer space, to hedge against the volatile commodities’ side. Since then, it has made remarkable progress. Now known as Tata Global Beverages, it is today the market leader in the country, besides being the second largest private producer in the world. Its flagship product, Tata Tea Premium, is one of the largest tea brands in India, and the company rules over the southern states with Chakra Gold, Gemini and Kanan Devan.
This May, the company stepped up its consumption play by announcing a merger with Tata Chemicals’ consumer arm that sells salt, spices, pulses, snacks and nutri-supplements. It means, Tata Global Beverages could well transform into an FMCG giant. Meanwhile, Tata Chemicals will continue life as a chemical pure play, with focus on basic and specialty chemical segments.
The group has been historically successful in this direction and analysts are already drooling over the projections of the combined entity’s financials, though the merger will take nine to 12 months to complete. Taking into account the financial results of FY19 (See: Powerful mix), the new Tata Global Beverages, which will be called Tata Consumer Products once merged, will have revenue and Ebitda of Rs.90 billion and Rs.11.5 billion respectively. Currently, the company’s topline and Ebitda stand at Rs.72.5 billion and Rs.8.3 billion respectively.
Post the announcement in May 2019, the stock hit a 52-week high of Rs.277 in July. And despite the sharp appreciation, analysts believe there is room for further upside. “We believe it deserves a market cap of more than Rs.200 billion due to strong balance sheet and brand recall. When Dabur and HUL can trade at such high valuation, a consumption name such as Tata Global deserves better,” says Sanjiv Bhasin, executive vice president, IIFL Securities.
That’s saying a lot, since muted economic growth and slowdown in consumption is making investors cautious about FMCG stocks. Investors believe that Tata Global Beverages’ existing business will benefit from the resultant synergy and enable it to tap into newer segments.
The decision to merge comes from an unease that has set into the branded tea business. Lesser known labels such as Wagh Bakri, Amar Tea and Girnar are gaining market share, though in single-digit, while top players such as Tata and HUL are seeing sluggish growth. Unbranded players, preferred among several rural consumers, have 40-45% of the Rs.230 billion tea market. In its Q3FY19 analyst meet, the management admitted that the tea market is saturated and the conversion from unbranded to branded is happening at a slow pace.
The second challenge that the industry faces is the product’s semi-commodity nature and rising labour wages. Although they own plantations, the players need to source tea to meet consumer demand and prices for the leaves have been shooting up. In fact, it rose from Rs.1,651 crore in FY18 to Rs.1,829 crore in FY19 — the highest in five years. “In FY19, North India tea (largest proportion in Tata Global Beverages’ tea buying portfolio in India) prices increased from Rs.140 per kg to Rs.147.6 per kg (annual average) i.e. ~5.4% against FY18,” according to the company. These factors have eaten into profitability and exerted pressure on margin. Over the past five years, the company’s Ebitda margin has grown at an average of 10.87%. “Margin has stagnated around 10%, which is not very high for a consumer product company,” says Sanjay Manyal, equity research analyst, ICICI Securities.
Even the company’s international businesses have been disheartening. Two of its key markets and the source of 41% revenue, the United States and United Kingdom are seeing declining growth in the tea market. Eight O’Clock Coffee, the company’s acquisition in the US, is also under pressure due to intense competition. Tata Global Beverages began exiting some of its international investments in January 2017, when it sold its stake in Chinese joint venture Zhejiang Tata Tea. It also shut shop in Russia after selling its two subsidiaries — Sunty and Teatrade — in the same year. Analysts believe that the beverage-maker will also divest its entities in the Czech Republic and Poland. In September 2018, the company’s overseas operations were merged into a single entity — International Business Division.
In the midst of all this, the humble salt could reverse fortunes. Tata Chemicals’ consumer arm has a higher Ebitda margin of 16% than Tata Global Beverages’ 10%, largely thanks to Tata Salt. It holds the lead position in the branded salt market with 65% market share, which helps it generate higher volume and better margin. “So, the blended margin will expand,” says Manyal. According to the company’s investor presentation, the combined entity would have an Ebitda margin of 12.7% in FY19 compared to Tata Global Beverages’ 11.6%.
The merger would also result in cost rationalisation in packaging and marketing, and a stronger distribution network, which should lead to margin expansion by 100-150 basis points. The combined entity will have 2.5 million retail outlets and 5,000 stockists with a reach of 200 million households. “Tata Global Beverages is strong in the southern and eastern markets, while Tata Salt is a dominant player in western India. The stronger distribution in one segment can be leveraged to enhance the positioning of the othersegment, in each of these markets,” notes an IIFL Institutional Equities report.
When Tetley was bought by Tata Tea in 2000, it was considered an audacious entry by the Indian company into the global market.(See: Changing focus). Since then, the overseas business has done well, contributing 51% to Tata Global’s revenue. But now, there is a sharp reversal in sight with this share dropping to 39% post the merger. “The overseas businesses always have additional risk factors like geopolitical and currency risks. So, the company may be focusing more on India as it helps them to avoid global volatility and the potential to grow is enormous,” says Vivek Lohumi, equity advisor, Karvy Group. The current merger will aid the management’s ambition of evolving into a broader FMCG player in India. “With tea, coffee, water, and now with salt, spices, staples and packaged food products, it gives us a very large addressable market. This will help us grow substantially,” says a company spokesperson. While tea will continue to contribute significantly to revenue, its share will come down to around 57% from 71%.
The new-and-improved FMCG player also has Tata Sampann, which is the company’s spices, pulses and ready-to-cook portfolio. With better branding, this vertical can contribute significantly to net profit. “Customers are looking for branded products even in the non-discretionary space and the company has sensed an opportunity there. People know that Tata is a big brand in salt space and this position can be leveraged in other segments,” says Bhasin of IIFL Securities. There’s merit in his comment since Tata Sampann is a rapidly growing brand with substantial reach.
The pulses market has a dismal representation of branded players, at only 1%. Only Future Consumer has a serious presence in this category with its brand Golden Harvest. Banking on this need gap, Tata Chemicals noted in its FY19 annual report, “The industry is largely unbranded and there is a need for high quality, hygienically packed products. This presents a significant business opportunity.”
The Tata Global Beverages spokesperson adds, “The Tata group pioneered the shift from unbranded to branded category successfully in tea and salt. We see similar opportunities in staples and packaged food.”
The company will also increase its presence in liquid beverages through Gluco Plus and Tata Fruski, and take a call on scaling up after analysing the growth in these pilot projects.
Following the trend prevalent in the sector, Tata Global Beverages is working to increase tea consumption through premiumisation while expanding into newer segments. The company is refining high-end offerings such as Tata Tea Gold, pricing it higher after a re-launch with new packaging. Nilesh Shetty, associate fund manager — equity, Quantum AMC, says, “The focus will remain on premium products to improve margins.”
To glamourise tea, or to lift the profile of the beverage, Tata Global has also been opening cafés. Tata Cha, serving in Bengaluru since October 2017, is expanding its presence through the current six outlets. This series of chai cafés comes on the back of a successful joint venture with Starbucks, which registered topline growth of 30% to Rs.4.5 billion in FY19 and has set up 146 stores till date.
The premiumisation strategy also helps in better penetration in overseas businesses as tea and coffee segments are much more organised in the US and Europe. “Customers there are more willing to pay a higher price for branded and healthy products. It can help to expand margins,” says Lohumi. During the Q3FY19 analyst call, Ajoy Kumar Misra, CEO and executive director of Tata Global Beverages had stated that the UK, Europe, Scandinavia and the US have matured enough to accept premium products. In FY19, the company launched two premium black tea brands in Portugal and two new signature labels in France.
Even as the tea and salt segments are saturated, the combination of Tata Tea and Tata Salt, leaders in their respective sectors, makes Tata Global Beverages a strong consumption bet for investors. Analysts believe that growing urbanisation and increasing per capita income should help the market leaders leverage their positions. They state that the acquisition of Dhunseri’s branded tea business and the decision to become a full consumer firm shows Tata Global Beverages’ hunger to grow existing businesses and add new revenue frontiers.
“The management is continuously innovating through new products like tea cafés and adding more categories into the existing tea and water portfolios. This signals the possibility of healthy growth in multiple areas which will elevate the topline revenue,” says Lohumi.
With a strong balance sheet, Manyal says, the new entity can spend more on promotions for pulses and spices while investing heavily in new categories. “Their entry into new categories such as detergent and other FMCG products holds the key to growth,” adds Manyal.
All this sounds like music to the ears of investors, as evident in the stock rally. At its current price of Rs.256, the market leader in salt and tea trades at 23x FY21 estimated earnings. With the merger likely to be completed by the last quarter of FY20, the perfect blend could change the perspective about the stock, which has given a five-year CAGR return of 9%. Truly a Jaago Re moment!


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Weetabix loses another top marketer as head of brand exits
Weetabix’s head of brand, Kevin Verbruggen, has left the cereal business, departing in the same month as its senior shopper marketing manager.
Verbruggen was behind the revival of 'Have You Had Your Weetabix'
Verbruggen departed the Northamptonshire-based company in December after five years with the cereal giant.
The marketer has since launched an independent consultancy focusing on global brand and innovation strategy.
Before taking on the head of brand role, Verbruggen worked for just over three years as Weetabix’s head of innovation and global brand development.
He leaves at the same time as senior shopper marketing manager Victoria Westwood, who joined cosmetics company Avon as global senior brand manager earlier this month.
Verbruggen confirmed Weetabix is actively hiring a permanent replacement for the head of brand job.
In a post on LinkedIn, he wrote: “I'm grateful for the opportunities I had: adding value to the Weetabix business; helping make protein cereals & drinks mainstream; visiting some fantastic places around the world; re-igniting the ‘Have You Had Your Weetabix?’ campaign; and taking an IPA Award to a kebab house.
“I'm excited about my new opportunities for 2019, and also in seeing further success for Weetabix.”