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Look Around: A visit to Lowes Food in Asheboro
ASHEBORO — Our next local Look Around in Randolph County takes us to the west end of Asheboro. Look Around is a simple observational visit to local businesses around Randolph County and checking out what COVID-19 guidelines and protocols are in place and how the public is observing or discounting such measures and requirements or requests. This is done to provide a public service and information.
The Courier-Tribune will continue doing this in periodic intervals. Have a concern or a place you are curious about a specific location or just some general thoughts? Let us know at email@example.com. We have already recieved a lot of great feedback.
Date: Thursday, Aug. 20, 2020
Time: 3:10 p.m.
Store: Lowes Foods
Location: Asheboro, West Dixie Drive/U.S. Hwy 64
Duration of visit: 50 minutes
Like with most storefronts during this pandemic, there is some signage at the front of the store detailing the use of face covering required in the store. Did not notice an area of clean carts out, or any indication of carts which had been cleaned prior to being put in the store. That being said, they could very well have been separated and cleaned as a group long time before the day began or arriving at the store.
Once inside the store, it's a very busy afternoon here at this Lowes location. Well over 50 customers coming in and out of the store throughout the time observing the goings on inside. Most all of the patrons were observing social distancing and working to maintain gaps between carts and persons. Store workers were masked throughout the building. One worker entered, wandered about the front, apparently arriving for their shift and then proceeded back through the store, eventually coming to the floor gowned and masked once on the clock. The majority of the public did wear their masks with a minute number having them off their noses. Deli workers were all masked and those working behind the food counter prepping and making hot food were all gloved as well. Same for the meat workers.
While staff were disciplined, there was a vendor working the shelves with a mask, but nowhere near worn correctly. This person was on the end of an aisle as well, thus cutting down spacing as shopper negotiated around. The rest was limited to the number of shoppers who were not wearing masks at all. Again, there certainly can be those inside who are exempt from masks due to other health issues that contradict their cooperation with the mask guidelines. That lack of detail notwithstanding, there were around a third of the shoppers sans face coverings — a few of those wearing them, but having the down under their faces. A more direct accounting could possibly have pushed that ratio closer to near half. Of those not masked, several were younger (teens, 20-somethings) without but also mature/middle aged and older people as well. Of those, the ratio was just about split even between men and women. Also, children were not involved in the count either way as those under 11 were exempt at last check, but that may have since changed.


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English sparkling wine company, Chapel Down, has said this year’s harvest is its second largest ever – only beaten by last year’s bumper crop – and that this is evidence of the genesis of a new “World class wine-growing region”.
The Kent-based company, which also has a spirit and beer arm in addition to its sparkling wines, said the 2019 harvest yielded excellent quality fruit with volumes equivalent to 92% of 2018’s record harvest.
Frazer Thompson, CEO of Chapel Down Group said this year’s harvest has been “another exceptional one” that would enable the group to put sparkling base wines aside for future growth.
“With some of our new vineyards giving us their first crop and high yields in our more mature vineyards, we are delighted to report our second highest ever vintage which yielded equivalent to 92% of 2018’s record harvest,” he said. “Despite the challenging weather during harvest we have again been delighted with not only the quantity of fruit but also the quality, especially in Kent. It’s testament to the outstanding team we have developed that we have been able to maintain very high quality fruit and excellent yields. This is further evidence of the genesis of a new World class wine-growing region. These are exciting times for our young industry.”
Before the harvest, English wine producers expressed relief that the volumes would be above average although not as big as last year.
However the official figure for the number of bottles produced in Britain in 2018 was revised, falling from 15.6 million as originally announced to 13.2 million – the official figure which has been published by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), meaning that 2018 beat the previous record of 2014 of 6.3 million bottles, by 6.9 million bottles, rather than 9.3 million as originally stated.
Earlier this month, the company’s managing director of wines and spirits, Mark Harvey refuted concerns relating to a potential oversupply of English wine in the years ahead, stating that demand is at “an all time high”. It follows concern from some members of the industry about demand, with some saying that the English sparkling wine industry must adopt a coherent approach to supply as production looks set to double over the next decade.
The English sparkling wine, spirit and beer producer Chapel Down saw total sales rise 18% to £6.74 million in the first half of the year, but the company’s losses grew to £1.03 million on the back of investment and

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Equipment dealer blames farm trade wars as plans for aggressive growth stall
Farm confidence wanes due to China's ban on Canadian canola and pork, India's tariffs on lentil imports and Saudi Arabia's decision last year to stop buying Canadian wheat and barley
CALGARY – Canada’s largest agriculture equipment dealer says it is scrapping its aggressive growth strategy in part because of farmer pessimism it blames on unsolved international trade disputes.
Rocky Mountain Dealerships Inc. cited the federal government’s inability to solve trade battles with China, India and Saudi Arabia as it reported second-quarter financial results that fell well short of analyst expectations.
It is reporting net earnings of $750,000, or four cents per share, on revenue of $195 million in the three months ended June 30, versus earnings of $6.06 million or 30 cents on revenue of $303 million in the same period of 2018.
Analysts had expected net earnings of $2.6 million, or 18 cents per share, on revenue of $269 million, according to financial markets data firm Refinitiv.
The Calgary-based company says it has decided to abandon a plan announced in May 2018 to increase annual revenues to at least $1.5 billion by 2023, due to a poor North American farm business climate and a lack of availability of attractive acquisition targets.
It says farm confidence has tumbled because of factors such as China’s ban on Canadian canola and pork, India’s increased tariffs on lentil imports and Saudi Arabia’s decision last year to stop buying Canadian wheat and barley.
“While some industry fundamentals remain solid, unfortunately, political and macroeconomic issues continue to create significant uncertainty for Canadian farmers and our business,” said CEO Garrett Ganden in a news release.
“The inability of the Canadian government to make meaningful progress toward improving international trade relations with several key partners only exacerbates this uncertainty.”
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As we discussed previously, central banks in developed economies like the US (SPY), Europe (VGK) (VEU), and Japan (EWJ) have adopted a dovish approach. While developed countries’ central banks, except the US, were quite dovish in their approach, they’re even softer about any future rate hike amid the global economic slowdown.
A loose monetary policy is among the tools that support economic growth. In the 2008-2009 financial crisis, there were rate cuts pretty much across the world. Rate cuts and a massive stimulus from governments helped put the global economy back on track.
Currently, interest rates are much lower compared to the levels in 2007 before the global recession. Talking about the US, the federal funds rate is less than half the level in 2007. The Fed’s balance sheet is also bloated, which leaves less space for more measures. The picture is pretty much the same across most of the leading economies. Central banks wouldn’t have room to address any major slowdown or a recession.
The government’s fiscal deficits are much higher compared to 2007–2008. In the United States, the tax cuts have increased the fiscal deficit. While the tax cuts boosted the economy last year, the impact is fading. The growth rates are expected to taper down this year.
The optimism about a US-China trade deal and an overdone fourth-quarter sell-off lifted the markets this year. Apple (AAPL), NVIDIA (NVDA), Micron (MU), Intel (INTC), Qualcomm (QCOM), and Broadcom (AVGO) have risen 8.5%, 27.3%, 24.6%, 16.5%, 0.61%, and 14.2%, respectively, based on their closing prices on March 15.
Read Key Themes to Watch after a Dismal 2018 to learn more.
Oracle (ORCL) stock was down 0.21% on Friday even though the software company posted upbeat results for the third quarter of fiscal 2019.
Verizon Communications stock (VZ) closed down 2.09% on Tuesday after the leading US mobile carrier reported mixed results for the first quarter of 2019 before the market bell yesterday.
Several European auto companies want Nokia’s (NOK) patent business subjected to an antitrust probe.
The first-quarter semiconductor earnings season has begun, and the stock market is showing bullish sentiment as investors buy ahead of earnings releases.
Netflix (NFLX) is working its way through a series of price increases in several markets, including the United States and parts of Europe.
Netflix (NFLX) is aiming to add 14.6 million paying subscribers in the first six months of 2019.
Earlier today, the second-largest US automaker, Ford Motor Company (F), announced a plan to invest $500 million in Plymouth-based automotive company Rivian.


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Here through the Foundation’s ASEAN Young Business Leaders Initiative, the entrepreneurs kicked off their time in New Zealand where most tourists do – in Auckland. However, from there they deviated from the typical tourist itinerary.
The group's introduction to the city was by way of a tour of Bastion Point, led by a guide from local iwi Ngati Whatua, who recounted the fraught history of the site and the wider region.
The group’s week-long visit included visits to several Māori-run tourism ventures, including Te Puia in Rotorua. There the entrepreneurs got to experience not only the hot pools and geysers the region is famous for but also take in powhiri and haka and observe students at Te Puia’s Māori crafts training school learning to carve and weave.
“Seeing thriving indigenous-led tourism companies has been a real eye-opener in what we can do in my own country,” says Nella Lomotan, who runs social enterprise Eco Explorations in the Philippines.
“It may take a while and will not be an easy process, but it should definitely be something we move towards,” she says.
In Rotorua, a networking evening gave local tourism operators the opportunity to meet the visiting group and hear from three of the entrepreneurs about their business journeys.
Tan (Shu) Thi Su, Vietnam; Amornched (Taro) Jinda-Apiraksa, Thailand; and Marinella (Nella) Lomotan, the Philippines, spoke to local tour operators at a networking event in Rotorua
The speakers for the evening included Tan Thi Su, who established Sapa O’Chau Travel in 2013 —Vietnam’s first ethnic-minority-owned tour company.
Thi Su, who is Hmong (a people living mainly in an area bordering China, Vietnam and Laos), spoke of the importance for ethnic-minority groups to tell their own stories and the difficulties she had to overcome to get her business off the ground.
“It was a long process and because we are an ethnic minority and no one had done what I was doing before, people said it would be too difficult, but I had a dream and wanted to help my people, so I did it,” she says.
One of the entrepreneurs, Arthur Alipio, taking a selfie with a sheep at the Agrodome in Rotorua
As well as introducing the group to New Zealand’s Māori tourism industry, the itinerary focussed on eco and adventure tourism.
In Auckland, the group met with the Department of Conservation (DOC) and Tourism NZ. At DOC they learnt about how the government department tasked with stewardship of a third of New Zealand’s land area balances tourism activities with care for the environment.
The industry’s focus on sustainability was another area where the Southeast Asian entrepreneurs thought New Zealand excelled, at least when compared to most other countries.
Achi Tamparipattra, who is the co-founder of Thai travel company HiverSters, says she was impressed by the cohesive environmental messaging that spanned the businesses the entrepreneurs visited.
“I find it fascinating that everywhere I go, whether it’s the airline, the tours or the attractions, they embody the Tiaki Promise [an initiative to help travellers to New Zealand care for people, place and culture] and that’s something I find amazing - that you’re not only raising awareness but also teaching the tourists and the operators throughout the supply chain about sustainable tourism.”
Ammar Sharin, founder of ARBA Travel, a company that caters to Muslims tourists, says one area New Zealand might be missing a trick is with halal tourism.
He says the burgeoning middle class in Indonesia and Malaysia means the number of people looking to travel in a way that allows them to abide by the rules of Islam is growing.
“All we really need to focus on with halal tourism is the food and the prayer time,” Sharin says.
“I think the understanding of halal tourism is not actually common in New Zealand, but from what I hear 90 percent of meat in New Zealand is halal and it doesn’t take too much to accommodate a place to pray, so I think New Zealand just needs to promote this more and that will attract more Muslim tourists.”
At Te Puia, the entrepreneurs got to experience a powhiri, learn about the kiwi conservation and observe students learning to weave and carve
The entrepreneur’s week in New Zealand wrapped up in Christchurch where they met with Ngai Tahu Tourism, met local tourism operators at a networking event and attended the New Zealand Tourism Awards.
“In New Zealand, we’re proud of the experience we provide tourists but hearing first hand from such innovative group that much of what we do is world-leading is definitely encouraging,” says the Foundation’s director of leadership and entrepreneurship Adam McConnochie.
“But it’s also good for tourism operators to hear about where there is room for improvement and where they might fill a niche in the market.”
The ASEAN Young Business Leaders Initiative is a key part of the New Zealand Government’s ASEAN Strategy. The Asia New Zealand Foundation has been managing the initiative since 2012 on behalf of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, running sector-specific programmes for Southeast Asian entrepreneurs in New Zealand, and New Zealand entrepreneurs in Southeast Asia.


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The curtain hasn’t even opened on Netflix’s new DVD-by-mail spin-off company Qwikster, and many customers are already walking out.
The company recently revised its quarterly projections of net subscribers to show 1 million fewer customers than it had previously expected. Much to Netflix’s chagrin, folks are realizing that the king of mail-away media isn’t the only game in town.
We’ve taken a look at some of Netflix’s (and Qwikster’s) main competitors, and judged each service accordingly. Do the rest offer enough to stand up to the best?
Also known as Netflix: Redux. It’s the same service we know and love, only completely different. Faced with massive customer backlash in the wake of a price hike, Netflix split itself into two separate companies this week. The streaming service will retain the Netflix branding while the DVD-by-mail service will be named Qwikster. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said the split will better serve customers in the long run because each company will be able to better focus on one type of service.
Netflix pioneered the DVD-by-mail service, creating an entire industry where one did not exist previously. But after serious flux in Netflix’s new pricing system — which split the streaming and DVD mailing services into two separate plans starting at $8 a month minimum — there’s no guarantee the company’s customers will continue to stick around.
WIRED: It’s been around the longest, and is the most familiar service. Massive offering of physical mail-away media. New game rental service sounds intriguing. Streaming to all iOS devices and Android smartphones.
TIRED Can you say price increase? We don’t like paying more money for the same service, and we’re failing to see how splitting the companies in twain is going to benefit consumers. Streaming-only service still lacks selection compared to DVD catalog.
Rating: 7 out of 10
Amazon’s elite-level service launched in 2005, offering two-day shipping on any of its products to members anywhere in the continental United States and other select countries for a reasonable $80 a year. Originally meant for those who couldn’t wait more than 48 hours for their tangible goods, Prime expanded in February to offer instant, streaming movie and TV show access to existing Prime customers at no added cost.
WIRED: Fast shipping on everything Amazon! What other movie service offers that? Lower yearly rate than Netflix and Qwikster. Works with over 100 different web-connected set-top boxes, including the ever-popular Roku.
TIRED: Smaller media selection compared to other existing services. Lacks the DVD rental option that made Netflix famous.
Rating: 6 out of 10
Redbox made it possible for legions of supermarket shoppers to pick up a movie on the cheap, without having to make multiple stops. Instead of leaving the grocery store (or 7-11, Walgreens or what have you) with only a TV dinner and a Mountain Dew in tow, Redbox’s 30,000-plus DVD-rental kiosks make sure you won’t go home alone on a Friday night again.
WIRED: Cheap, cheap, cheap. DVD rentals average two bucks a pop, with anywhere from 50 to 200 recent titles to select from in each kiosk, updated weekly. Game rentals to roll out this year.
TIRED: No streaming service? Bummer.
Rating: 6 out of 10


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Europe: Shares sink, Micro Focus plummets
[LONDON] European shares fell on Monday ahead of a widely expected US interest rate hike, while earnings and M&A took centre stage with software company Micro Focus sinking and a bid for Hammerson boosting commercial real estate stocks.
Micro Focus dropped 46 percent to a three-year low after it cut its annual revenue forecast and its CEO quit. Revenue was hit by lower licence income and issues with its purchase of Hewlett Packard Enterprise assets.
The firm's shedding of nearly half its market value caused Europe's tech sector index to tumble 2.5 per cent, its worst fall since early February when global markets sank.
A scuppered cross-border commercial real estate deal also made waves on Monday, with Hammerson soaring 24 per cent to the top of the Stoxx 600 after saying it had rebuffed a takeover offer from France's Klepierre.
The offer, which strategists said would have helped Klepierre gain a foothold in the UK market, valued Hammerson's shares at a 40.7 per cent premium to Friday's closing price.
Before today's surge Hammerson's shares were down 19.8 per cent year-to-date, making them attractive to potential suitors. The rejection sent Klepierre shares down 3.9 per cent.
"Klepierre owns and operates 100 shopping centres in 16 countries across Europe and the quality has been improved over the past 5 years, with the UK the missing part of the jigsaw (the same could be said of Unibail)," said Liberum strategists, referring to Klepierre competitor Unibail Rodamco.
Europe's main benchmark, the Stoxx 600 index, fell 1.1 per cent as investors held their breath ahead of Wednesday's US Federal Reserve meeting which marks the debut for new Fed Chair Jerome Powell, and a likely interest rate hike.
Declines accelerated in the afternoon as the UK's FTSE fell to a 15-month low after Britain and the European Union agreed on a post-Brexit transition which boosted sterling but weighed on the internationally exposed share index.
Disappointing results weighed on German consumer goods firm Henkel, which fell 2.3 per cent after it said the first quarter was off to a slow start due to delivery difficulties in North America.
While Hammerson's surge drove the European real estate sector index up 1.1 per cent to the top spot, tech stocks were among the worst performers.
Even before Micro Focus' dramatic drop, European investors'sentiment had been turning more cautious on the tech sector which has led stellar gains across global markets.
Unicredit analysts on Monday said they had downgraded the tech sector to 'neutral' and upgraded utilities to overweight, arguing investors should increase their share of defensive sectors with economic indicators at elevated levels.
German food processing machinery maker GEA Group gained 2.4 per cent after the firm said its CEO Juerg Oleas was to step down in April 2019 after more than a decade in office.
Sweden's Dometic fell 2.3 per cent after the recreational vehicle products firm was downgraded to"underweight" by Morgan Stanley, whose strategists said the US RV market is overheating.


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Yodlee CEO, Anil Arora, MBA '84
Entrepalooza 2012: Passion, Persistence, and Belief
Yodlee CEO Anil Arora, MBA '84, and other innovators at Entrepalooza 2012 share what it takes to make it as an entrepreneur.
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — There are a few principles critical to any business — a clear vision, differentiation, and the ability to execute.
Take those and add a few more for the entrepreneur — passion, belief in one's self, and the guts to play a game where the odds are stacked against you.
Anil Arora, MBA '84, is in a prime position to drive that message home, which he did with his keynote address at the Ross School's Entrepalooza symposium Sept. 21. The annual event — hosted and sponsored by the school's Samuel Zell & Robert H. Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies and its Center for Venture Capital & Private Equity Finance — includes students, faculty, and the business community discussing and learning the nuances of entrepreneurship.
Arora, CEO of personal finance solutions provider Yodlee, has done the big corporate gig and the entrepreneurial one.
"In a corporation, you have a safety net," he said. "Sometimes things work, sometimes they don't. When you're an entrepreneur, there's no safety net."
Arora managed big brands at Kraft Foods and Pillsbury before joining Gateway Computers in the late 1990s. Innovation in packaged goods had run out of steam at the time, but was fast and furious in personal computers. He was intrigued by Gateway's personalization model, as opposed to the mass-production models of other PC makers.
"I'm convinced the personalization model will always trump the mass-market model," he said.
Arora joined Yodlee about 11 years ago, when the company was in the early stages with about 10 employees. It now has more than 700 employees and 40 million users. Arora said he made the leap into entrepreneurship using a "rocking chair" exercise favored by a former mentor.
"Imagine you're 85 years old, sitting in your rocking chair and looking back," he said. "I was doing well in corporate America, but if I continued doing that, would I have fulfilled everything I wanted to do by 85? I don't want to say I could have, should have, but didn't do it."
Arora soon found out how different entrepreneurs were. At Yodlee, he put together his plain, plastic office furniture himself. Even as the company grew in a year to about 50 people, he found nearly half of them used the office as their permanent address. They were living there.
"The whole startup world was crazy," he said. "It was a whole different time. It was about passion and persistence and working like crazy. To be an entrepreneur, you have to be passionate about what you're doing, or it's not going to happen. You have to be living, sleeping, and dreaming your product, your company."
It's best to focus on that because the odds of making it aren't worth dwelling on. Arora said that for every 100 companies that start, less than 30 percent return money to their investors. About 70 percent fail, and only 2 percent make it to $100 million in revenue.
"How do you win a game with 2 percent odds?" he asked. "You have to be passionate and persistent, and you have to have patience."
Yodlee, for example, has grown into one of the leading personal financial management solutions for financial institutions. It's the magic behind the scenes for many global banks and financial firms, allowing their customers to manage all of their accounts, bills, and investments.
To get there, they needed some important principles on top of the passion and persistence.
A business has to have a clear vision, both for its own sake and those of its stakeholders. That means sometimes declining opportunities for quick revenue on a project outside of vision's scope.
"This is hard," he said. "You have zero revenue and someone asks you if you can do something, and they will pay. And it's so tempting. It's a trap."
Yodlee, a business-to-business company which specializes in aggregating, was tempted to do some direct-to-consumer business, with an Internet dashboard that could help people centralize their websites and email.
"We realized we can't be all things to all people," he said.
A business, especially an entrepreneurial one, has to have a differentiator. The good thing about technology is that it allows personalization at scale. The bad thing is that it can become obsolete really fast.
"Google is kind of old news in the valley right now," he said. "And I'm amazed by that. It's one of the most impressive companies that exist, and they're old news already. The only thing that's constant in technology is change. I still have a paper on technology I wrote as an MBA, and none of the companies in it are there anymore except for Apple."
To keep moving ahead, Yodlee had to be first with its aggregation specialty, first in applying it to personal financial management, first with fully integrated money movement, and first with apps for personal financial management. It has worked to keep up with the open platform model.
The third thing a business has to have is the ability to execute.
"When I walked out of here in 1984, I thought it was all about strategy," he said. "I used to think it was about 85 percent strategy then. Well, 95 percent of business success is execution. Apple isn't doing something nobody else can do. They just do it really, really well."
Panels at Entrepalooza hit on the topics of innovating in corporations, financing deals, starting a company as a student, and successes and failures along the way.
Echoing Arora's comments on patience and persistence, several entrepreneurs said that success comes in spurts and small victories along the way.
"It definitely feels like a journey," said Eric Ersher, BBA '86, founder and CEO of Zoup!, a restaurant and franchise company. "After a really long time, I feel we're out of the woods, sustainable financially. I don't think I'll ever feel I've crossed the finish line of success, but I'll take it."
Starting a company as a student takes a special kind of persistence, said Sherman Powell, MBA '09, president of ArmyProperty.com. Committing to a business at that time means shunning some temptations and things people say are musts, such as mock interviews, the recruiting circuit, countless resume rewrites, and a social life.
"It's like escaping the force of gravity and getting to escape velocity," he said. He and Tyler Paxton, MBA '11, founder and CEO of Are You a Human, both said extracurricular activities at school — such as networking and business case and grant contests — are critical.
The fear of failure shouldn't be a deterrent, says Adrian Fortino, BSME '00/ MBA '10. Failure has lost its stigma and is now considered a badge of honor. Fortino was involved in a startup that didn't make it, and now is co-founder of Shepherd Intelligent Systems, SideCar, and FlockTag.
"The key is what you learn from those failures," he said.
— Terry Kosdrosky
For more information, contact:
Terry Kosdrosky, (734) 936-2502, email@example.com


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Tourist numbers from Britain to Turkey could increase by 30 percent next summer, one of the biggest package tour operators in the U.K. has said.
The announcement coincided with Turkey's Tourism Week, being held April 18-22.
Jet2holidays said the number of British tourists visiting Turkey was not yet back to 2016 levels but predicted it would sharply rise in 2018.
In comments shared by Travel Weekly magazine, Jet2holiday's Chief Executive Steve Heapy said the country was a "great value and was in high demand."
A controversial ban on electronic hardware in airline cabins enforced by some countries has failed to have a negative impact, Heapy said, adding that his firm has had no cancellations.
In March, the U.S. and U.K. introduced bans on electronic devices in carry ons in flights coming from certain countries, including Turkey.
It is thought the 2018 travel packages from the U.K. will include flights from airports in locations such as the East Midlands, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Newcastle and Manchester.
The Turkish destinations will include Antalya, Bodrum and Dalaman - all coastal areas popular with foreign visitors.
More than 2.5 million British tourists visited Turkey in 2014 and 2015, but these numbers fell to 1.7 million in 2016.


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Daytona Beach — After a successful Crowd Funding campaign that raised more than $15,000 and a presentation before the television cast of Shark Tank, local doll maker Shauna Altes is ready to tell the world about her endearing Maple Box Dolls.
Growing up playing with American Girl Dolls, Altes, 32, says she wants today’s little girls – as well as boys – to be able to create wonderful memories just like she did with friends and family members.
“I also want to get children off of so many electronic devices and bring them back to the basics with dolls, crafts, recipes and stories,” she says of the concept behind her two-year-old company.
Maple Box Dolls – a client company of the Volusia County–University of Central Florida Business Incubation Program – offers subscription based doll kits that neutralize gender-specific toys. The kits, which are designed for children between the ages of 4 and 9, contain one 9½-inch, non-toxic, ethically-sourced doll that promotes a healthy body image, along with the doll’s character story, a recipe, a craft to make and a charm to attach to a Maple Box Doll charm bracelet.
“The company is a great example of a needed solution to help our kids have quality and diversity when it comes to dolls and toys. Shauna is a true entrepreneur who has identified a problem that our society is facing and created an innovative company to fix it,” said Connie Bernal, site director of the Volusia County–UCF Business Incubation Program.
The mother of two young boys, Altes says she initially created Maple Box Dolls for her niece. But, after several other mothers of boys became interested she switched her focus to both girls and boys. She says her 2-½-year-old son Cruz loves the dolls; especially “Joyful Jenny,” which sells for $39.95.
Kits can be a one-time purchase or can be subscribed to on a monthly, quarterly or holiday schedule like the child’s birthday and Christmas. The company also has a budding community of Maple Box Dolls mothers who gather to offer support and information for one another.
“The company was founded on the idea of creating memorable experiences between loved ones,” Altes says. “The kits help children bond with mom and other family members through a variety of things to do.”
Coming up with a name for her company was easy, according to Altes.
“I wanted a name that evoked feelings of a magical childhood. And, what’s more magical than playing in a maple tree all day?” she asks. “We really just want to put magic back into childhood. We want them to celebrate the fun and joy of being young with experiences, dolls, toys and most of all, connections.”
For details about Maple Box Dolls, visit www.mapleboxdolls.com
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For more information about this release, please contact
Shauna Altes, Maple Box Dolls, 386-295-0911 or firstname.lastname@example.org
Connie Garzon-Bernal, Associate Director /Site Manager, Volusia County–UCF Business Incubation Program, 386-872-3100 or email@example.com.
Beth Payan or Larry Vershel, Larry Vershel Communications, 407-644-4142 or firstname.lastname@example.org.
About the UCF Business Incubation Program:
The University of Central Florida Business Incubation Program is a community resource that provides early-stage companies with the tools, training and infrastructure to become financially stable, high growth / impact enterprises. Since 1999, this award-winning program has helped hundreds of local startup companies reach their potential faster by providing vital business development resources.
With seven facilities throughout the region, the UCF Business Incubation Program is an economic development partnership between the University of Central Florida, the Corridor, Orange, Osceola, Seminole and Volusia Counties, and the cities of Apopka, Kissimmee, Orlando and Winter Springs. Participating companies sustain more than 3,600 local jobs and have had a total impact of $1.51B on regional sales and $2.48B on regional economic output. During the last fiscal year, the program has returned $7.95 for every $1.00 invested in the program. For more information, visit www.incubator.ucf.edu


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THAILAND Convention and Exhibition is pushing four “economic corridor” conferences to spearhead co-operation and investment with neighbouring countries in the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) and to strengthen Thailand’s position as an economic hub in Southeast Asia.
The projects are also aimed at bolstering links with the CLMV (Cambodia, Lao, Myanmar and Vietnam) bloc and China’s One Belt One Road initiative.
The conferences are:
- International Conference on Luang Prabang-Indochina-Mawlamyine Economic Corridor (LIMEC) – Spanning two cities in Lao, five Thai provinces in the lower northern region, and three key cities in southeast Myanmar.
- Cambodia-Vietnam-Thailand Economic Corridor Cooperation Conference (CVTEC) – This was first hosted in 2018 in Pattaya and 2019 in Rayong where an MOU has now been signed between the three countries to open oceanic transportation route along the southern coast of Vietnam, Cambodia and eastern coast of Thailand in the four Thai provinces of Trat, Chanthaburi, Rayong and Chonburi.
- GMS Logistic Forum – The GMS Logistic Forum started in Bangkok in 2018 and the second edition in Khon Kaen in 2019. Both editions attracted around 450 delegates, mostly logistics operators from the six GMS countries.
- GMS Thailand e-Commerce Economic Corridor (GTEC)– TCEB hosted this inaugural event in Chiang Rai in July to provide a platform to link Thai community entrepreneurs with Chinese e-commerce platform operator, resulting in placement order for Thai products worth 70 million baht.
Nichapa Yoswee, TCEB’s senior vice president – business, said the four GMS economic corridor projects reflect TCEB’s role as a co-creator of business opportunities, under its ‘Thailand Redefine Your Business Events’ branding and the government’s objective to promote regional cities as a destination.
“TCEB has a policy to use conference and trade show as a tool to drive economic growth and generate economic impacts,” Nichapa said.
“So far four conferences have been held in regional provinces located in the economic corridors that connect with GMS countries. Co-hosted and supported financially by TCEB, the conferences have gathered entrepreneurs from Thailand, CLMV and GMS to form networks and join table-top sessions for business exchange. The total value of business exchange between 2018 and 2019 is now standing at 307 million baht [about US$10m],” she said.


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Now that 2022 is only a few months away, it’s time to look ahead to the technological developments that will rule the software business that year. We want to ensure you’re ready to take your abilities to the next level in the new year by introducing you to emerging trends. We’ll go over Swift today….Read More
Why Vue. JS?
All across the world, billions of people rely on web and smartphone applications for practically all of their daily needs, from social networking to healthcare to e-commerce to online banking. These apps simplify our lives and come with intuitive UI that make using them a pleasure. But, exactly how do developers ensure the stability of…Read More
More than 2 million developers have used the toolkit since Flutter was released in 2018, according to Tim Sneath, product manager of Flutter, who made the announcement last year. In addition, according to the spring update, the development of both consumer and commercial apps has increased. In this article, we’ll introduce this developer-friendly app development…Read More


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But court adviser Laurent Domingo said at Wednesday’s hearing that the original fine was entirely justified because Google failed to comply with very clear obligations. He criticized Google for failing to ask google.fr users for permission to install cookies, for failing to adequately inform them, and for failing to provide an efficient mechanism to block this type of tracking.
Since the European Union’s General Data Regulation (GDPR) came into effect in May 2018, EU data protection regulators have been given unprecedented powers to fine, up to 4% of the violating company’s annual global sales. But the fine against Google is based on a different set of rules that govern how online devices are used and comes at a tougher regulatory environment for the global tech giant.
Moreover, the French administrative court is expected to rule in the Google case in a few weeks. Google’s lawyers said French regulators had no jurisdiction over the case and asked the European Court of Justice to clarify the issue. Google declined to comment on the case. Mountain View, Calif. attorney Patrice Spinosi also criticized French privacy agency CNIL for being “sloppy”.


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For all the grossly overweight and cumbersome Olympic hopefuls this year, we have some new technology. There are none, I hear you say. Exactly, so why is there such a hue and cry over the new swimsuits from Speedo?
Technology working with sports is nothing new. For years, scientists have looked for ways of enhancing the performance of sportsmen and women, with great success.
We have go faster trainers to propel the runner faster, sportswear that wicks away moisture and sports equipment that will hit balls further. All this while keeping the equilibrium between athlete's performance and legal intervention steady is a true balancing act.
However, it seems that there are concerns over whether or not Speedo may have overstepped the mark in their new invention of sportswear. Speedo are the sponsors of the British Olympic swimming team and so have a vested interest in creating the best legal sportswear possible in their field.
They have come up with a swimsuit that athletes are haling as the item of sportswear that makes them feel like they are effortlessly gliding through the water. The Speedo LZR Racer costume had already been cleared by Olympic officials but the plethora of speed records that have been broken since its launch are giving the officials cause for concern.
Scientists have used computer software to determine the parts of the swimmers body most likely to cause drag. They have then taken their findings and created a swimsuit that eliminates this drag. It acts like a corset streamlining the body to the max. A compression effect reduces skin vibration and muscle oscillation and is embedded with special low-drag panels.
The suit is coated in water-resistant Teflon and welded together in a seam free fashion. Swimmers have noticed a significant change in their performance whilst wearing this 320 pound sportswear and in the six weeks since its launch, sixteen world records have been broken.
This has made the Olympic governing bodies sit up and take notice. Why? Ok, records are being broken and this is aided by the use of a swimsuit. However, how can they be deemed illegal? It's not like they are being jet propelled through the water through means other than their own athletic force.
Speedo are not the only ones to have discovered this new way of using fabrics in sportswear. Their rivals, Arena, also are developing similar products and are anticipating a good competition.
The corset type effect of this sportswear streamlines the swimmer, reducing stress. The competitors themselves say they have noticed huge differences in how the swimming action feels. However, when did you last see a fat Olympic swimmer? When did you ever see an athlete that was in need of streamlining?
And more to the point, can this technology be incorporated into other items of clothing? If so, I'm first in the queue at Debenhams to pick up my streamlining trousers and go faster knickers. Will they produce a complete body covering underwear garment modelled on this sportswear that can suck in all extra layers of 'warmth' and if so, where does it all go?
Are we going to see a new body shape emerging with super streamlined bodies but massive great hands and feet where all the spare has been squeezed out? Maybe such a look won't catch on after all and we should just leave this technology for the sportswear.
Sports expert Catherine Harvey looks at the new swimsuit that has been added to sportswear shelves all over the country.


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Cuba’s wholesale market provides limited access.
HAVANA – Cuba has opened its first wholesale market, lending a hand to some non-state businesses in an economy dominated by government-run enterprises.
State-run newspaper Granma said the market is part of an ongoing effort to “reorganize” commerce on the communist island. The market will sell beans, beer, sugar, cigars and other goods for 20 to 30 percent less than the products cost at state-owned retail stores throughout the country.
Since 2010, the government has authorized about 500,000 people to operate private businesses, and many of them have long sought access to a legal wholesale marketplace where they can pay below retail for the materials they use for their own products or resell to the public.
For most, their wait is not over. The government says the single market known as the Mercabal is only open to 35 worker-owned cooperatives in Havana, at least for now. Other officially licensed private workers might have access later.
The state-run economy accounts for 70 to 80 percent of the Cuban economy.


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Goods imported from the European Union in 2019 were valued at €4,821.5 million, according to official data. The National Statistics Office recorded a drop of €312.8 million in the value of imports from euro area countries when compared to 2018.
The value of imports from the United Kingdom were up €840.2 million while goods purchased from Italy were down €207.9 million in value.
In the case of exports, the main increase was recorded in goods sent to Germany – up €69 million - whereas Japan registered the highest decrease at €83.8 million.
During the past year, the trade deficit widened by €868.2 million when compared to 2018, reaching €3,706.7 million. Both imports and exports were higher in terms of value, up €1,039.2 million and €171 million respectively.


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Is Chicago next to ban the sale of puppy mill pets?
Thirty-seven of the 40 Chicago aldermen who comprise the City Council have signed on as co-sponsors of the Companion Animal & Consumer Protection Ordinance that would ban the sale of mill-bred dogs and cats in Chicago pet stores. If passed, which seems likely, Chicago would follow in the footsteps of Los Angeles, San Diego, Austin, Toronto, and about 40 other U.S. and Canadian municipalities.
Headlines like this one from the Chicago Sun-Times make my heart sing: “Ban ‘puppy mill’ dogs from pet stores, city clerk urges.” I believe Best Friends was instrumental in redefining the battle ground with puppy mills from isolated farms in rural America to point-of-sale disruption of the pet trade with concerted, sustained, store-front action – in the nicest possible way, of course!
In 2007, when I was the newly installed head of Best Friends Community Programs and Services Division, I pulled together my staff to identify how we would use our finite resources to make the most impact on the issue of homeless pets. There was a lot of brainstorming and many gallons of coffee. We identified what we felt were the four streams of animals entering shelters at a disproportionately high rate and set about designing initiatives that would have an impact on each. One of those was puppy mills.
For decades, the focus of animal welfare was on the cruelty of puppy mills. Periodic undercover investigations by one or another national agency would be picked up by a major news outlet, and a shocking exposé would follow, but little was ever done to shut the mills down. Those few consumers who took note would dutifully ask the sales person if their puppies were from a puppy mill, and they would invariably be told, “Oh no, they’re from a USDA-licensed breeder.” Reassured, the buyer would take home a puppy mill dog, because any but the most rancid puppy mill operations can operate within the regulations established by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, as can most factory farms.
Puppies, in the world of the USDA and most state ag departments, are just another agricultural product. Chickens, cows, corn, soybeans, pigs, puppies, kittens – they’re all viewed as the same. No disrespect to chickens, cows and pigs – factory farming is a blight in all its forms, but we saw a chance to make progress for two species based on the public’s affection for their pets and a consumer’s reasonable expectation that a dog or cat who was an intended member of their family that they were paying top dollar for would not be bred, born, whelped and weaned in a hell hole.
Per USDA regulations, a dog the size of a beagle can spend its entire life in a cage the size of dishwasher without ever putting its feet on the ground. They are bred until they die or become barren, and then they are killed, dumped in a shelter, or in some cases tossed into fields as fertilizer for other farm crops.
It is precisely this unbelievable, behind-the-scenes cruelty that has focused animal welfare’s attention on the mills, but it was apparent that this strategy was a loser. Ag-friendly legislators were never going to open the door for activists to make inroads into factory farming, even at the puppy mill level. The best that could be accomplished was incremental improvements in the regulations, which were ultimately only as effective as shrinking state and federal budgets could enforce.
We weren’t really interested in incremental change; we wanted the entire despicable business to be gone, and we knew that the only way to do that was to eliminate demand – the good old marketplace at work.
Our strategy has involved three integrated components: organizing information-based pet store protests that let the buyer know where the puppy in the window came from, helping animal-loving pet store owners make the transition to an adoption-based humane pet store model, and working with city councils to draft municipal ordinances that ban the sale of mill-bred dogs, cats, and, in some cases, rabbits – the third highest killed shelter species.
Best Friends puppy mill initiatives national manager, Elizabeth Oreck, has been a contributor to the majority of the over 40 municipal ordinances banning the sale of mill-bred pets, either as a contributing author or as a consultant. Elizabeth is a behind-the-scenes gal, and doesn’t like accolades or the spotlight, but for puppy mill animals, she is a rock star.
For Chicago to ban puppy mill sales is a big deal, and kudos should go to the puppy mill project – Chicago, Chicago city clerk Susana Mendoza, and the Chicago City Council.
Please voice your support for the Chicago City Council’s stand on puppy mills and also sign the petition to help show just how much support this measure has.


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Amazon (NASDAQ:) is due to reveal its Q1 2020 for the fiscal quarter that ended in March on Thursday, April 30 after market close. The mammoth online retailer has accomplished what few other companies have managed — it’s seen its shares soar to all-time highs in a world shut down by the coronavirus pandemic.
While other business are laying off workers, to the tune of 22 million , a scale not seen since the Great Depression, Amazon has had to hire 175,000 workers since the start of the crisis in order to keep up with soaring demand from people stuck at home.
Indeed, the king of e-commerce has effectively administered a death blow to many brick-and-mortar retailers that have been shuttered during the lockdown, some of which will never reopen, thereby increasing Amazon’s kingdom aka market share, even further.
While we view the stock as a buy—the long-term chart supports the fundamentals—shares closed down 2.74% yesterday, at $2,328, we’d advise waiting for a better entry…


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Shanghai ranks top for coming alive when sun goes down
The street bustles during a night market in Shanghai's Songjiang district on Saturday. YIN LIQIN/CHINA NEWS SERVICE
Shanghai's nighttime economy continues to rank first among Chinese cities in terms of comprehensive strength, financial media outlet Yicai announced last Wednesday during the 24-Hour City of Vibrance Forum held at the Museum of Art Pudong.
Yicai compiled a ranking of 337 cities based on six dimensions including night outings, bars, live houses, movies, lighting and public transportation, and Shanghai performed exceptionally well in all categories last year.
According to Zhao Jia, deputy editor-in-chief of Yicai, Shanghai excels in lighting intensity at night and the number of live houses, securing the top spot in the list of cities. Additionally, Shanghai has the second-highest number of bars after Chengdu, Sichuan province, and its nighttime bus services are second only to Shenzhen, Guangdong province.
Zhao further revealed that last year an average of 1.77 million people went out at night daily in Shanghai. The city boasted around 2,300 bars, 140 live houses, and screened approximately 135,700 movies.
Continuing its remarkable performance from 2021, Shanghai maintains the top position in the comprehensive strength index of the nighttime economy, followed by Beijing and Shenzhen, according to Zhao.
In addition to Yicai's report, the conference recognized and awarded 32 best-practice cases from the 2023 Shanghai Night Festival, which began on June 3.
Liu Min, deputy director of the Shanghai Commission of Commerce, stated that nighttime expenditure had reached 42.7 billion yuan ($5.9 billion) as of June 25.Particularly during the first week of the night festival, nighttime consumption constituted 30 percent of the day's total expenditure, reaching its highest point in the past three years.
Data from on-demand service platform Meituan indicated a 75 percent increase in dine-in consumption at restaurants during the night festival compared to the same period in 2021. Nighttime bar consumption experienced a 73-percent rise, while sports and fitness consumption surged by 90 percent.
Liu highlighted that the city launched over 200 activities for the fourth Shanghai Night Festival, generating over 1 billion exposures on the short-video platform Douyin, ranking first on the city's topic list.
Liu emphasized that the night festival has become a vital platform for showcasing the vibrancy of Shanghai's nightlife.
Furthermore, Liu announced that the city now boasts 16 nighttime district governors and over 130 nightlife CEOs, who aim to promote Shanghai's nighttime economy across various fields and industries. The first Shanghai Nightlife CEO Council was formed by nearly 30 representative enterprises from business, culture, tourism, sports and other sectors, such as Bailian Group, UCCA Edge, Dark Runners and Yu Garden.
According to Liu, this council holds significant importance in fostering cross-border cooperation, enhancing collaborative governance and promoting the high-quality development of Shanghai's nighttime economy.
"Although the epidemic impacted Shanghai's nighttime economy, the city continues to show innovation vitality and development resilience during the night," Liu said. "The entrepreneurial spirit of nightlife CEOs is what has made Night Shanghai a symbol of the city."
Looking ahead, Liu added that the council will strive to attract more representatives from cross-border enterprises in various nighttime economy fields, facilitating Shanghai's evolution into a leading, inclusive, diversified, high-quality and sustainable "24-hour vibrancy demonstration city".


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Taylor Martin for CNet: Google announced its Amazon Echo competitor back at its I/O developer conference in May. Today, it made Google Home official with arelease date and price.
It also gave us a closer look at how the company plans to compete with the more established household assistant today, Alexa.
While Google has its work cut out in getting broad third-party support that includes other smart-home brands, there is already a healthy list of in-house features Google Home will be capable of out of the gate that Alexa could only hope to add in the future.
Here are nine things Google Home can do that Alexa can't. Cont'd...
Nearly 35% of U.S. broadband households watch user-generated video online more than 10 days per month
Legrand Introduces the Radiant® Collection Pairing Refined, Classic Aesthetics with Functional Technology
Mathew Ingram for Fortune: Google is famous for coming to the market late. The search-engine business was well established before it arrived, and yet the company managed to take the lead. It now dominates the category. But can it do the same thing in the smart home?
The web giant is expected to launch a standalone device called simply Google Home on Tuesday, a device that it hopes will become the centerpiece of the smart home, and provide some strong competition for the well-established Amazon Echo. But it will be an uphill battle. Cont'd...
NATHAN OLIVAREZ-GILES for The Wall Street Journal: Connected cameras and other smart-home devices promise a Jetsons-esque future. But as a recent hijacking of more than 100,000 networked cameras and DVRs demonstrates, they also provide fertile ground for hackers.
“You should make the assumption that anything that’s internet accessible is hackable. If it has a camera or a mic built in, it can be taken over,” said Kenneth White, a security researcher and director of the Open Crypto Audit Project, a nonprofit that promotes cybersecurity.
To protect yourself, you have to have the right perspective. “You need to take this seriously, but not be afraid of it either,” he said. Once you accept that hacking happens, embrace the security at your disposal. Here are some easy tips to help you step up your smart-home defenses: Cont'd...
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Daily Mail website wins design award
News: London design studio Brand42 has won an award for design effectiveness after its redesign of Mail Online made it the most popular news website in the world.
Brand42 picked up the Design Effectiveness Awards' Grand Prix for its work on the Daily Mail's website, which now attracts over 91 million unique monthly visitors and generated advertising revenue of £25 million in 2012.
Traffic to Mail Online has grown almost fivefold and advertising revenue has jumped by 455% since the site was redesigned in 2008, when Brand42 introduced a simple three-column grid layout. The right-hand column now includes a feed of celebrity news known to as the "sidebar of shame".
If printed out the homepage - which was redesigned to incorporate more, larger images to make it look more like a magazine than a newspaper - would measure 5.16 metres in length.
The Grand Prix is the top prize at the annual Design Business Association's awards ceremony and is given to the design project that delivers the greatest commercial benefit. The judging criteria for the awards "aren't related to standards of aesthetics or 'good' and 'bad' design" .
Last year we reported on the launch of the UK government's new website, which was built according to 10 principles of good design devised by Ben Terrett, head of the Government Digital Service – read the 10 principles and listen to our interview with Terrett.


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The agreement underscores the tension within the entertainment industry, which embraces and fears the digital living room. While new products such as digital video recorders and DVDs have sparked consumer demand, the digital transmission of movies raises fears of piracy and illegal dissemination of works.
In response, Sony Pictures Entertainment and AOL Time Warner's Warner Bros. movie studios Tuesday agreed to license the Digital Transmission Content Protection (DTCP) system. DTCP is a standard that prevents people from intercepting and re-broadcasting movies delivered digitally to home viewers.
"Warner Bros. and Sony are participants because we recognize the implications in protecting artists and intellectual property rights," a spokeswoman for Sony Pictures Entertainment said.
In the case of the DTCP, the standard would imbed an authentication and encryption system within devices to prevent works from being pirated. For example, a movie sent digitally though cable would be encrypted en route to a transfer onto a digital recording device.
The system would prohibit some programs from being copied, such as a pay-per-view event. Other programs, such as paid cable programming, would be limited in the number of copies.
Furthermore, the studios said the use of DTCP will offer a way for consumers to set up home networks of digital entertainment devices. One of the entertainment industry's fears has been the illegal sale and distribution of works copied digitally and then disseminated via the Internet.
When the program "is received in your home on a digital set-top or cable box, it then enters the DTCP domain," said Michael Ayers, president of the Digital Transmission Licensing Administrator, an organization created by electronics manufacturers Sony, Hitachi, Intel, Matsushita and Toshiba.
While the DTCP is a step toward protecting digital programs, there are still gaps in the overall picture. DTCP does not have a way to encrypt digital programs broadcast through airwaves for free. Meanwhile, many influential entertainment companies such as Disney and Viacom have not joined.
"There are only major producers of content, which is far from overwhelming support," Josh Bernoff, an analyst at Forrester Research, said about the DTCP. "It's a step towards taking control of content in the digital age, but not enough of a step to make much of a difference yet."


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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Wacker Chemie reports net profit for 2020 of EUR202.3 million (USD241.2 million), swinging from a net loss of EUR629.6 million, despite a 4.8% decline in sales to EUR4.69 billion due to the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on volumes and prices, reported Chemweek.
The loss in 2019, as noted in a financial update provided by the company in February, was mainly the result of an impairment charge of EUR760.0 million that Wacker recognized related to its polysilicon production facilities that year, it says. EBITDA declined 14.9% year on year to €666.3 million, while EBIT of EUR262.8 million compared with a loss of EUR536.3 million in 2019.
The company’s silicones business reported a 9% decline in sales, to EUR2.24 billion, due to lower prices for standard silicones, reduced volumes, and negative currency effects. EBITDA decreased 19%, to EUR387.8 million. In 2021, the company expects the business’ sales to climb by a mid-single-digit percentage, and EBITDA is projected to be slightly higher than 2020, with higher raw material prices slowing earnings, it says.
Wacker’s polymers division posted a slight, 1%, decline in sales to EUR1.30 billion, due to price declines and negative exchange-rate effects. EBITDA was 39% higher, at EUR270.5 million, with positive effects coming from improvements in the cost of goods sold and a decline in raw material prices, the company says. In 2021, Wacker expects the division’s sales to go up by a mid-single-digit percentage, and EBITDA to be markedly lower due to substantially higher raw material prices.
The biosolutions business recorded sales that were 1% higher at EUR246.1 million, due mainly to volume growth in biopharmaceuticals and cyclodextrins. EBITDA increased 23%, to EUR38.1 million because of volume growth and an improved cost structure, Wacker says. In 2021, the business’ sales are likely to grow by a low-double-digit percentage, and EBITDA is expected to be slightly higher than 2020, the company says.
Wacker’s polysilicon division saw sales increase 2%, to EUR792.2 million, due to volume growth and a better product mix. EBITDA, however, dropped 92% to EUR4.7 million. The fall in EBITDA is mainly because special income of EUR112.5 million in insurance compensation booked for the Charleston incident was included in 2019, the company says. In 2021, Wacker forecasts that the division’s sales will increase by a mid-single-digit percentage, driven by an improved product mix and slightly higher volumes. It also anticipates that average prices for polysilicon will not decrease in 2021. EBITDA is expected to be clearly positive and markedly above the 2020 figure, it says.
“Although we are suitably cautious about the coronavirus situation, we have entered 2021 with optimism,” says Rudolf Staudigl, CEO of Wacker. During the first two months of 2021, the company’s business “remained on a dynamic trajectory,” the company says. Demand is robust across all business divisions, with group sales and EBITDA both clearly higher than last year, it says.
For the first quarter of 2021, Wacker expects to post group sales of almost EUR1.3 billion, compared to EUR1.2 billion in the first quarter of 2020. EBITDA is likely to be substantially above last year’s level, benefiting mainly from strong demand for polysilicon and construction-sector products, and from generally lower production costs, the company says.
For the full year 2021, the company says that despite the ongoing risks and negative impacts associated with the pandemic it expects group sales to climb by a mid-single-digit percentage, primarily due to volume growth. EBITDA is likely to be 10-20% higher than in 2020, with savings in personnel and non-personnel costs achieved under the company’s ongoing efficiency programs expected to have a favorable effect on earnings, it says. Markedly higher raw material costs and negative currency effects will slow EBITDA by more than €100 million, it adds. Net earnings are expected to be substantially above the 2020 figure.
Non-personnel cost savings improved 2020 income by more than EUR50 million, but efficiency-related restructuring expenses of EUR48.9 million lowered earnings, Wacker says. In 2021, the company expects to see non-personnel cost savings of over EUR100 million, as well as a noticeable reduction in personnel costs. It intends to achieve annual savings of about EUR250 million from the end of 2022 through its ongoing efficiency program, reduction of non-personnel costs, and the cutting of around 1,200 jobs in Wacker’s administrative departments and in the divisions’ non-operational functions, according to Staudigl.
As MRC reported earlier, Wacker Chemie will cut 1,000 jobs by the end of 2022 to save costs and prepare for a “harsher competitive environment”. Munich-based chemical group Wacker Chemie AG has begun its “Shaping the Future” restructuring plan by announcing 1,000 jobs will be lost by the end of 2022 as it aims to save EUR250 million per year. The company announced around 800 posts will be culled at German sites with administrative staff and people working in indirect and non-operational roles those at risk.
We remind that Wacker Chemie operates a 90 ktpa ethylene-vinyl-acetate (EVA) compounding plant at the Ulsan site, consisting of two lines. The second line with a capacity of 40,000 tons of products per year was launched in 2013.
According to MRC's DataScope report, January EVA imports to Russia rose only by 0,07% year on year to 3,084 tonnes from 3,087 tonnes a year earlier, and overall imports of this grade of ethylene copolymer into the Russian Federation dropped in January-December 2020 by 3,41% year on year to 38,170 tonnes (39,520 tonnes in 2019).
Wacker Chemie AG is a worldwide operating company in the chemical business, founded 1914. The company is controlled by the Wacker-family holding more than 50 percent of the shares. The corporation is operating more than 25 production sites in Europe, Asia, and the Americas. The product range includes silicone rubbers, polymer products like ethylene vinyl acetate redispersible polymer powder, chemical materials, polysilicon and wafers for semiconductor industry.


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WASHINGTON (AP) - Orders to U.S. factories for big-ticket manufactured goods plunged in January by the largest amount in five months as manufacturers got caught in the weakness engulfing the rest of the economy.
The Department of Commerce reported today that new orders dropped by 5.3 percent last month, reflecting declines across a wide swath of industry, from commercial aircraft and autos to heavy machinery and computers.
The weakness was led by a 13.4 percent decrease in orders for transportation equipment, which reflected a 30.5 percent plunge in demand for commercial aircraft, and a 0.8 percent fall in demand for motor vehicles and parts.
Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.


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CHATTANOOGA — Volkswagen will take a step back from the diesel powertrains that defined its U.S. vehicle lineup for the better part of a decade amid a repositioning of the brand in the aftermath of the automaker’s emissions scandal, VW’s top U.S. official says.
Hinrich Woebcken, CEO of Volkswagen Group of America, told Automotive News this week that VW won’t relaunch “clean diesels” as a core element of its brand identity in the U.S., where VW dominated diesel passenger car sales before being consumed by its emissions cheating scandal.
Diesels are in VW’s plans for 2017 through 2019, assuming regulatory approval, Woebcken said, but the company is re-evaluating the role of the powertrain in its U.S. lineup further in the future.
“We are not stopping diesel. Wherever diesel makes sense as a package to the car, we’ll continue,” Woebcken said. “But in reality, we have to accept that the high percentage of diesels that we had before will not come back again.”
The recognition reflects a significant shift for VW, which prior to the scandal offered a diesel engine in six of the eight nameplates it sold in the U.S., accounting for more than 20 percent of its pre-scandal U.S. sales and the lion’s share of all U.S. diesel car sales.
VW halted sales of 2015 model diesels in September 2015 after the EPA announced the company’s emissions violations. In October, VW withdrew requests for EPA approvals needed to sell 2016 model diesels. It hasn’t yet asked for EPA permission to begin selling new diesels again.
VW’s thinking also reflects the challenges that it and other automakers offering diesels will face from that so-called Tier 3 tailpipe emissions regulations that take effect in 2017. The U.S. rules start to get much tougher after 2019, especially for oxides of nitrogen emissions, and are expected to require significant changes to diesel emissions systems.
“The regulations from 2019-2020 are going to be so hard that we would have had to find an alternative to a certain extent anyhow,” Woebcken said. “The diesel crisis is forcing us simply to think about this earlier.”
As Volkswagen works to rebuild from the crisis, a broad effort is under way to reposition its U.S. brand identity, placing a greater emphasis on crossovers and all-wheel-drive offerings in the near term and electrified vehicles in the future.
That will begin this fall with the arrival of the Golf Alltrack. The higher-riding Golf wagon with a more rugged appearance and awd goes on sale this fall as a competitor to vehicles such as the Subaru Outback and XV Crosstrek.
VW’s long-awaited midsize crossover, assembled at VW’s factory here, will hit showrooms in late March or early April, Woebcken said. A new, longer-wheelbase Tiguan compact crossover built at VW’s sprawling plant in Puebla, Mexico, will arrive about three months later.
Unlike the premium pricing of its current Tiguan and Touareg crossovers, Woebcken said, the new crossover duo will be priced competitively in the mainstream compact and midsize crossover segments. Both models will be built in North America with nearly all components sourced locally, though not the powertrain, Woebcken said.
In 2020, he said, VW plans to introduce the first of multiple electric vehicles in the U.S. based on VW’s new MEB modular battery-electric platform announced in late 2015. VW also is looking to deploy electrification and hybrid technologies more broadly in its lineup, Woebcken said.
Source: Automotive News


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Alibaba Group and Tencent Holdings will slash tens of thousands of jobs this year in the wake of China’s regulatory crackdown, Reuters news report said.
Alibaba is yet to specify a group-wide target for the layoffs.
Tencent, China’s biggest e-commerce company, could axe more than 15 percent of its total workforce, or about 39,000 staff.
Tencent, the owner of China’s dominant messaging app WeChat, plans to make employees redundant this year in some of its business units. Its unit overseeing businesses including video streaming and search will see a 10 percent-15 percent headcount cut this year.
Alibaba started to fire employees last month. Alibaba discussed job cuts with several business units last month and left it to them to make specific plans.
Alibaba’s local consumer services segment, which includes food delivery business Ele.me and other groceries delivery and mapping services, aims to lay off up to 25 percent of its employees.
Alibaba’s video streaming unit Youku is planning layoffs. That includes the planned dismissal of a team responsible for producing shows for kids.
Alibaba reported in February its slowest quarterly revenue growth since going public in 2014, hit by a fall in sales at its core business segment and intensifying competition.
Tencent will start layoffs at its less profitable or loss-making businesses such as Tencent Video and Tencent Cloud.
Tencent had 94,182 employees as of June last year compared with 70,756 a year earlier, according to its 2021 interim report.
China’s biggest ride-hailing firm Didi Global is also planning to reduce its overall headcount by as much as 15 percent as its domestic business has been impacted by the crackdown.


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The Department of Agriculture, Food, and the Marine are hosting a webinar on Wednesday10th January 2024, from 10.00-11.30.
The webinar is titled “Are you prepared for the UK’s New SPS Import Requirements from 31 January 2024.”
The objective of the webinar is to share the latest information available on the changes to the UK’s import regime which will apply for exports of Irish/EU agri-food goods to Great Britain (GB) and via the GB Landbridge to the EU from 31st January 2024.
The webinar will also provide updates on the Department’s preparations to support the sector in meeting these new UK requirements. It is critical that all food businesses are prepared for these significant changes to the EU/Ireland-UK trading environment. The SFPA are encouraging all seafood businesses that will be impacted by the new requirements to attend the webinar.
Registration details for the webinar can be found by clicking the following link: https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/6538079204792653656
The SFPA will be circulating further information notices over the coming weeks as preparations continue for the implementation of these controls from the 31st of January 2024.


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It is the delicate chain that moves the economy, if one link suffers the others begin to malfunction. That’s what is happening right now in Britain, the immigration restrictions brought by Brexit cause worker shortages in key sectors . There are not enough truckers to transport fuel, more than 2,000 gas stations were left with nothing to offer and that makes the rest of the activities begin to suffer.
Pigs cannot be sent to butchers and farms have to slaughter them. Supermarkets already have those dreaded gaps without products between the shelves. And pharmacies cannot replace the medicines they sell. The merchants associations are warning that if this situation continues for another ten days, there won’t be enough supplies for the end of the year parties . The British are feeling directly, for the first time, what exit from the European Union means.
The Boris Johnson government says it is all due to a run by consumers over the spread of fake news on social media . Treasury Secretary Simon Clarke told Sky News that the number of filling stations with supplies is increasing rapidly and that if people “just shop normally” the problem will correct itself.. The British group of pharmacies, the Company Chemist’s Association (CCA), sees it differently: “The entire supply chain is being impacted by the lack of fuel, from entry into department stores and warehouses to distribution to customers. retail stores ”.
Huge fuel lines are real too, particularly in London. The UK Gas Station Association (PRA), which represents 65% of the 8,400 “petrol stations” spread across the country, says that “very slowly normality is becoming.” But as of last night, 30% of the pumps were dry and another 21% could offer only low-quality diesel. Gas station deposits are at 20% when the annual average is 43%. And there is also a geographical difference of the problem. The shortage is almost total in the south of the country and in London , while the situation improves while traveling to the north of the island, Northern Ireland or Scotland.
Britain’s exit from the European Union worsened the labor shortage, but the situation of the truckers’ union is very particular. It is a very strong union, workers stay in their jobs for decades and there is very little renewal . The Road Haulage Association of road transport operators estimates that Britain faces a deficit of 100,000 drivers .
Around 20% of them are drivers who left the country after Brexit. The government took some extraordinary measures in the last hours to try to get those truckers back. It increased the number of hours they can work each day and has sped up the licensing process. It also offered 5,000 three-month work visas and suspended regulations that prevent oil companies from coordinating deliveries.
The leader of the Labor opposition, Keir Starmer, accused Premier Johnson of lack of planning in the replacement of the workers who had to leave as a result of Brexit. And he said the country was on the brink of a shortage of skilled personnel in a number of other industries. The alarms have already been raised in the hotel sector, social assistance and food production.
All of these companies hired immigrant workers from northern European countries, as well as Russians, Central Africans and those escaped from the war in Syria. It was cheap and skilled labor. With the departure of the EU, it was much more difficult for all of them to enter Britain and companies could not replace them with young British workers. “The government of the Tories (conservatives) is absolutely disoriented: it tries to end one problem and another appears elsewhere. And that is a pathetic and regrettable lack of planning, “said Labor Starmer.
Entrepreneurs and merchants start to get nervous as the peak sales season approaches. The British Retailers Association (BRC) already warned, at the outbreak of the truckers’ crisis, that “if a solution was not found in the next ten days, an increase in problems would be inevitable in the face of Christmas ”.
Economic analyst Clive Black told The Times that he anticipates a disaster for December: “ Christmas is going to be a nightmare for consumers.. There will be food on the shelves of the supermarkets, but with a shortage of options. The lack of workers has meant that the farms have not raised enough turkeys and the farms have not enough harvests. And all of this has been exacerbated by the truck driver crisis. ”
Just in case, the government at 10 Downing St. has already ordered the Army to intervene if the situation worsens. The military reserve tanker fleet will deliver fuel in the coming days to alleviate the shortage. And the Secretary of Business, Kwasi Kwarteng, said that this alternative could be extended to other industries if necessary. Meanwhile, statements by taxi drivers or restaurant owners are appearing in the British press who say they feel increasingly regretful of having voted Yes on Brexit .


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The European Union should grant China its long-standing demand to be recognised as a market economy, a status that would help Beijing avoid punitive anti-dumping measures, according to Ian Pearson, Britain's minister of state for trade.
The endorsement by the UK which this month took over the rotating presidency of the EU comes amid heightened concerns in Europe about China's manufacturing prowess and its power as an exporter of clothing and other cheap goods.
Last week Brussels opened a new front in its recent trade tensions with Beijing by announcing it would investigate whether China was dumping reinforced shoes in Europe, just weeks after calling a truce in a larger confrontation over Chinese textiles.
On a visit to China, Mr Pearson told the Financial Times: “We in Britain believe China should be granted market economy status. We are talking to our partners in the EU about this at the moment.
“The EU granted market economy status to Russia two or three years ago, and we think the rise of China should be similarly recognised.” Russia was granted market economy status in 2002.
Recognition as a market economy has long been of paramount importance for China because it is the target of most American and European anti-dumping measures the EU currently has 49 anti-dumping cases with China.
In defining China as a non-market economy the EU assesses the value of its exports against a comparable country, which Beijing deems to be unfair because costs may be higher there than in China. The award of market economy status would make it harder to impose anti-dumping penalties on Chinese exports.
Gaining market economy status would help China escape European anti-dumping duties because it would mean Brussels would no longer compare the export price of a Chinese product with that of third countries. Instead, Brussels could only impose penalties if the export price was below China's production cost.
Beijing also attaches political significance to the status and sees it as another milestone in its efforts to be considered on an equal footing with the largest western industrialised powers, after joining the World Trade Organisation in 2001.
However, the European Commission irked Beijing last summer when it concluded that China was not ready for market economy status, after an inquiry that highlighted the weak rule of law in China and state interference, as well as poor standards of corporate governance.
Since then, Brussels has treaded cautiously in the talks and last month Peter Mandelson, the British EU trade commissioner, brushed off a question over the issue at a conference on the EU's relationship with China.
Mr Pearson's positive assessment is in contrast with the UK's reluctance to proceed with lifting the European Union arms embargo on China, Beijing's other central demand of the EU.


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Fashion retailer also flags more markdowns
Swedish retailer H&M said today that its quarterly pretax profits fell 61 per cent to £108mn in the three months to the end of February.
Last month, H&M had warned markdowns due to weak demand in many of its main stores for a second straight quarter, sending shares down.
The company, whose other outlets include fashion mid-market & Other Stories and Cos, said higher levels of stock would mean greater price mark downs in the next three months.
H&M employs 171,000 people worldwide in its 4,700 stores.


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Wednesday, November 06, 2013
Chrysler is a company that has recovered dramatically since the recession brought the American auto industry to near ruin. Now the company has plans to proceed with a public offering of shares before the year’s end. And for Chrysler, IPO success could be a milestone following the company’s 2009 bankruptcy. Joining The Takeaway to explain is Michelle Krebs, a senior analyst for Edmunds.com, a car shopping website.
Friday, October 04, 2013
New Tech City host Manoush Zomorodi spoke to the New York Times technology columnist about why none of Twitter's original founders continue to work at the company and how a service built on connections ended up driving four friends apart.
Wednesday, August 08, 2012
The local Fairway grocery chain is one of the first companies to take advantage of a new program that lets smaller businesses go public through a more streamlined process. Greg David, director of the Business and Economics Reporting Program at CUNY Journalism School, Crain's New York Business contributor and author of Modern New York: The Life and Economics of a City talks about the Fairway IPO, and concerns over the level of disclosure in the process.
Friday, May 25, 2012
By going public, Facebook joined a diverse group of companies. Some, like Apple and Amazon, have had huge success selling pieces of their company to the public. Others, like Enron and Tyco, couldn't take the public scrutiny and failed as a result. Since taking a company public requires jumping through a lot of hoops, fewer companies are doing it. So why go public at all?
Thursday, May 17, 2012
How much are Facebook ads — and by extension, Facebook itself — really worth? To find out, The Takeaway speaks with Ralph Folz, CEO of Wordstream, a Boston-based software company in the search marketing space, and pitting Facebook's ad model in a cage match against the raining heavy-weight advertising champion, Google.
Monday, May 14, 2012
Questions surrounding Facebook's IPO will finally be answered on Friday, when the company begins publicly trading its stock. Doubts about CEO Mark Zuckerberg's managerial skills and concerns that the company is being overvalued have dampened the hype, but the business and technology worlds are still buzzing in anticipation of Friday's announcement. However the IPO turns out, Facebook will see some serious changes in the near future.
Thursday, May 03, 2012
Facebook, the company that turned the social Web into a cultural and business phenomenon, is worth as much as $95 billion, according to the price range for its upcoming initial public offering of stock.
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
By Tracey Samuelson : WHYY
The Senate is debating a bill this week that would make it easier for small, privately-held companies to go public, as part of a package of legislation to promote economic growth called the JOBS Act.
Wednesday, February 01, 2012
Facebook is scheduled to release its initial public offering sometime on Wednesday, and is rumored to be valued at $100 billion. If it turns out to be worth more than $100 billion, Facebook would be the fifteenth-largest IPO in world history, out-valuing Google's 2004 IPO by sixfold. This means big changes for the company itself, which could see many of its chief ideas people and programmers striking out on their own.
Monday, January 30, 2012
This week, Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich battle for votes in the Florida Primary. Republican candidates then move on to Nevada, where the state will caucus on Saturday. Both Florida and Nevada have a significant Latino population, and the candidates will likely use their campaigns to attract Latino voters across the United States. As the Republican candidates duke it out in Florida, the Senate will introduce the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act (STOCK Act), to prevent lawmakers from trading stocks based on information from Congressional briefings.
Thursday, June 23, 2011
In trading on Thursday, LinkedIn, the social networking site for career-minded individuals, gained $3.50, or five percent, to $70.32. And, Pandora, the company that lets you design your own internet radio station, added 66 cents, or five percent, closing at $14 a share.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
LinkedIn, the social networking site for professionals is scheduled to set share prices today, and then start selling Thursday. This event comes as there is great demand by investors for more companies like LinkedIn and Facebook to go public. And while investors are itching to invest in these companies, these same businesses are going to great lengths to try and woo young talent to work for them. Louise Story, Wall Street and finance reporter for The New York Times, has the latest.
Thursday, November 18, 2010
(Detroit -- Jerome Vaughn, WDET) General Motors is expanding the scope of its initial public offering of stock.
GM says it will offer 478 million shares of common stock in its IPO, a 31 percent increase.
The Detroit automaker says it’s making the change because of substantial demand. The company has also decided to raise the price per share to $33, up from a range of $26 to $29 per share proposed earlier this month.
Positive financial news from the company has pushed interest in the IPO even higher in recent weeks. The automaker posted a two billion dollar profit in the third quarter of this year and expects to show its first full-year profit since 2004.
General Motors filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in June 2009, emerging just over a month later. The U-S government currently owns about 61 percent of General Motors. Federal ownership could shrink to as low as 33 percent after the IPO.
Tuesday, November 02, 2010
(Alex Goldmark, Transportation Nation) General Motors post-bailout, post-bankruptcy IPO is expected to raise between $8-$13 billion and transform the U.S. government's role from majority owner to minority shareholder. But the federal government would still be the largest owner.
GM is expected to file a final registration for the IPO on Wednesday, the same day they release quarterly earnings (and are expected to announce they are profitable for the third straight quarter). That's when we'll officially know how much they are trying to raise, as well as the exact share price. Some hints have already leaked out, though, and early reports are that shares will likely be priced at $26 to $29--considerably higher than earlier estimates. And at that price, AP estimates the total company valuation will be around $46 billion, which is similar to Ford.
During the bailout, U.S. taxpayers ponied up $50 billion to save the company and has so far gotten about $10 billion back. GM will use the money from the IPO to pay off debt, not raise operating capital. Initially, GM will only be offering a portion of their shares. The rest will come in subsequent offerings at a higher price, GM and the U.S. Government are hoping.
According to multiple reports, GM executives will now begin meeting with major investors --like foreign-based sovereign wealth funds, including those based in Kuwait and China.


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MBA Online has produced an infographic, charting the rapid rise of Android in the mobile market. It notes that back in 2005, Google started buying up a number of start-ups, one of which was an “almost unheard of operating system producer”. Now, a quarter of a billion Android products are activated every year, and three quarters of smartphones purchased during the last three months were found to use Android.
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ScottsMiracle-Gro's Lawn Fertilizers in the U.S. to be Phosphorus-free by the End of 2012
March 25, 2011
The Scotts Miracle-Gro Co. launched new initiatives involving product changes and consumer education efforts to improve water quality and conservation in the United States.
"We want to provide consumers with the tools they need to create the lawn and garden they want while also being stewards of the environment," said Jim Hagedorn, chairman and chief executive officer, in a press release.
Two key initiatives related to the nutrient content of lawn fertilizers were announced today. First, by the end of 2012, phosphorus will be removed from ScottsMiracle-Gro's lawn fertilizers. Additionally, the company is increasing its focus on more efficient and optimized ways to use nitrogen in its lawn fertilizer products through enhanced science and technology efforts. Nitrogen is a critical nutrient for maintaining healthy grass.
Because phosphorus is essential to the initial root development of grass, the nutrient will remain in the company's starter fertilizers, which are used for new lawns. Phosphorus will also remain in ScottsMiracle-Gro's lines of organic lawn food as it naturally occurs in the organic materials contained in the products. The Company's enhanced exploration of nitrogen technology will commence immediately, anticipating that the initiative will lead to more efficient use of nitrogen in lawn fertilizers.
In Category: News In Brief
Related: Lawn And Garden, Scott’s Miracle-gro


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Sumary of D.O.T. hosts first hybrid MICE event, adventure travel in focus:
- The Department of Tourism (DOT) held the country first international MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) event on May 27 via a hybrid set-up amid the challenges of travel restrictions..
- Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat delivers welcome remarks during the Pacific Asia Travel Association virtual Adventure Travel Conference and Mart (PATA-vATCM) 2021 summit at Hilton Clark Sun Valley Resort in Clark Freeport, Pampanga..
- The PATA travel mart is a niche event that brings together tourism stakeholders from the public and the private sector to discuss the creation of new opportunities in tourism amid the pandemic..
- According to Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo Puyat during its opening, this year hosting is a big leap in the pursuit of the safe reopening of the Philippines tourism destinations..
- Through a hybrid set up, the travel mart gathered 300 participants—60 of whom were only allowed on-site as adherence to minimum health standard protocols..
- Adventure in focus This year summit is focused on reviving adventure and responsible tourism as a specified tourism product..
- Puyat said, “Being primarily an outdoor activity, and with obvious resemblance to the baseline requirement for a healthy and safe travel, it presents an opportunity for a strong reversal and onward growth.”.
- Bengzon is optimistic about PHL adventure and nature-based tourist sites as these are open-air, low-density but high-value destinations….


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ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) -- Business information and analytics firm IHS Inc. has named Scott Key as its new president and CEO and raised its full-year revenue forecast.
IHS said Wednesday that the personnel move is part of its long-term succession planning. Key is currently president and chief operating officer of the Englewood, Colo., company, which he joined in 2003. He will take on his new role June 1. Jerry Stead, the current chairman and CEO, will become executive chairman at that time.
Stead said that he did not want to move on until the company had the tools in place to continue its profitable growth. He said Key is the right person to drive long-term sustainable profitable growth for IHS.
IHS also updated its earnings guidance Wednesday to reflect its acquisition of software and services company Fekete Associates, which it announced earlier this week, and its plans to sell a small, underperforming noncore asset.
The company now expects annual revenue between $1.66 billion and $1.73 billion, versus its prior forecast of $1.64 billion to $1.71 billion. It stood by its earnings forecast of $4.23 to $4.43 per share for the year. Analysts polled by FactSet, on average, were expecting the company to earn $4.39 per share on revenue of $1.68 billion.
IHS made the announcements Wednesday as part of its annual investor meeting.
Shares of the company increased 36 cents to reach $100.13, in line with broader market trends. The stock has traded between $83.02 and $118.93 over the past 52 weeks.


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08:05AM, Sunday 24 November 2013
This year's best dressed Christmas window competition in Windsor will be judged on Friday, December 6.
Judging will take place between 10am and 2.30pm, with the presentations to the winning shops and businesses taking place on Saturday, December 7 - the same day as the town's reindeer parade.
The competition is being run by Windsor and District Chamber of Commerce.
Top Ten Articles
Hungry residents in Slough and Windsor can now have a Big Mac sent directly to their door as McDonald’s joins forces with a food delivery service in the towns.


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Tomorrow’s IT infrastructure needs to have agility at its heart. It must support the launch of new services in double-quick time, support in-life changes to existing services with zero impact, and be a flexible platform that enables businesses to scale and expand rapidly as required.
In the Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) report, “Analytics in the Cloud” a panel of over 250 business stakeholders and information technology professionals were surveyed and provided their insights on cloud-based analytics and business intelligence (BI). The majority of respondents said cloud-based analytics were either “essential” or “important” to their organizations.
Big data’s potential has been a big story for some time now, as the things in the Internet of Things multiply by the billions, and all those connected sensors stream out huge amounts of data. This is information we never thought we could capture, unleashing insights we didn’t know we could uncover.
We're offering our heartiest congratulations to our customer David Neitz, CDM Smith’s CIO, recipient of this year’s MIT Sloan CIO Leadership Award.
A new global study indicates digital marketing pros are ready to attack ad fraud now, and many are willing to move apps to neutral data centers to do it.
It's been more than 50 years, and now the end of Moore's Law is in sight. Blame the cloud.
GSA Daniel Ong talks about trends he and Equinix’s South Asia team are seeing as they bring emerging technologies to market and build customer partnerships.
Diving into the cloud isn’t as straightforward as it’s sometimes made out to be. Here we discuss things CIOs should consider when starting a cloud deployment.
In today’s service-on-demand economy, superior interconnection is needed to satisfy end users. These use case show how Equinix can help achieve that.
IDC's recent "Futurescapes" report included several predictions about the cloud and the future of IT. Here's our take on them.


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WEBB CITY, MO.--- Area firefighters are wearing pink for a good cause. The Webb City Fire Department is selling pink t-shirts to support breast cancer survivors. For the month of October, they are selling t-shirts for $15. All the proceeds will go to the Breast Cancer Foundation of the Ozarks. This is the second year of the fundraiser and they were able to raise a thousand dollars last year.
"With this organization, the money stays in the area. Helps for free mammograms, helps the family with house payments and car payments," said Jeremy Denton, Webb City Fire Department.
If you would like to buy a shirt, you can visit the Webb City Fire Department at 506 Ellis Street or you can call 417-673-2254.
Copyright 2013 Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.


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Raised & Rooted recently announced the launch of its first plant-based burger patties and they are free from soy and powered by pea protein. With 21 grams of plant-based protein per serving, the Raised & Rooted Plant-Based Burger also shares the advantage of containing 75% less saturated fat than traditional versions.
According to David Ervin, vice president of marketing for Raised & Rooted, “Our products are plants made meatier, and deliver the same delicious flavors, in a better-for-you alternative.”
In the past, the label has experimented with hybrid products that were partially plant-based and partially meat-based, or vegetarian nuggets with egg whites. This new plant-based burger is an option that can be enjoyed by all, including vegans, vegetarians and flexitarians seeking satiating alternatives to meat.
Raised & Rooted's First Plant-Based Burger Nourishes with Pea Protein
1. Pea Protein - There is an opportunity to explore and invest in pea protein as a disruptive innovation in the plant-based foods industry.
2. Hybrid Products - Experimenting with hybrids, like partially plant-based and partially meat-based products, can lead to novel and marketable innovations in the food industry.
3. Better-for-you Alternatives - Investing in better-for-you alternatives to traditional foods with high saturated fat can be a promising area of innovation in the plant-based foods industry.
1. Plant-based Foods - There is a growing and lucrative market for better-tasting and healthier plant-based meat alternatives.
2. Food Technology - Developing new, plant-based food products using innovative technologies like pea protein can disrupt the traditional food industry.
3. Healthy Eating - Promoting healthier eating habits and offering better-for-you alternatives to consumers can lead to long-term growth in the food industry.