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(This version of the March 3 story corrects paragraph 33 to indicate that Patrick Kaser is a portfolio manager at Brandywine Global Investment Management, not Brandywine Asset Management)
(Reuters) - Bank of America BAC.N is making a big push into auto lending just as regulators are sending warning signals, losses from auto loans are rising, and rivals are growing more cautious after years of strong returns.
The bank tapped mortgage executives Matt Vernon and John Schleck to lead the auto lending business last May, saying they would be able to sell auto loans alongside other products such as checking accounts and home equity loans.
In interviews, the executives and their boss, D. Steve Boland, who oversees a broad swath of consumer lending, said they still see room for growth from borrowers who have good credit. They have hired extensively in recent months, adding dozens of loan officers and salespeople.
But some competitors and bank analysts said hiring doesn’t make sense at this stage, because auto sales may be close to peaking, and consumer credit is showing signs of weakness.
Industry-wide, banks classified $1.1 billion worth of auto loans as uncollectible in the fourth quarter, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. That is up 15 percent from the year-ago period, and up 39 percent since the fourth quarter of 2011. Ultimately, much of that bad debt turns into losses for the banks.
For a graphic showing auto loans that are 30-89 days past due and an auto sales projection, see tmsnrt.rs/24xv9vV
“I’m not actively hiring or growing our operations across the platform. That’s for sure,” said Andrew Stuart, head of TD Auto Finance, which is slightly smaller than Bank of America’s auto business.
At a Feb. 10 conference, Capital One Financial Corp COF.N CEO Richard Fairbank said that while auto loans provided "once in a lifetime type returns" after the financial crisis, the business has begun to lose strength. In a January interview on CNBC, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon called the market "stretched."
Portales Partners analyst Charles Peabody said Bank of America is late to the auto loans party. But in its defense, he noted that the bank’s Chief Executive Brian Moynihan and his management team were too busy trying to resolve mortgage-related issues when the auto lending business seemed like a smarter bet.
“They should have been beefing this thing up two years ago, but two years ago Moynihan was still trying to stabilize the ship,” Peabody said.
All banks are struggling to boost revenue during a period of stubbornly low interest rates and tough post-crisis regulation, but Bank of America has felt the pain more acutely than most of its peers.
The second-largest U.S. bank by assets, Bank of America trades at just 50 percent of book value, compared to 90 percent for JP Morgan Chase & Co JPM.N and 130 percent for Wells Fargo & Co WFC.N. Bank of America took bigger losses than those rivals during the crisis, and still lags them by other key metrics, including return on equity and costs in relation to revenue.
While Bank of America showed some progress in 2015, it still has to prove it can generate consistent performance under Moynihan, who took the helm in 2010. During his tenure, the bank has paid tens of billions of dollars in fines and settlements related to mortgages that were issued before he became CEO.
Bank of America ranks 10th among U.S. auto lenders, with just 1.84 percent of the market in the fourth quarter of last year, according to data released Thursday by Experian Automotive. Ally Financial Inc ALLY.N, the largest U.S. auto lender, accounts for 5.75 percent, followed by Wells Fargo, which ranked second with 5.66 percent. JPMorgan was third with 4.97 percent.
Auto sales remain very robust. Figures carmakers released on Tuesday showed that sales climbed to a 15-year high for the month of February, driven by low gasoline prices, wage growth, and because loans are both available and cheap. But most forecasters expect sales to peak in 2016 and trend down over the next few years.
“We remain in the ‘plateau’ camp,” RBC Capital Markets analyst Joseph Spak wrote on Tuesday, sticking to his flat sales forecast.
Stocks have broadly declined in recent months over concerns about the global economy, and some companies that make money selling or financing vehicles have gotten hit even harder. They recovered some of those losses after the latest sales figures.
Ford Motor Co F.N and General Motors Co GM.N are down roughly 6 and 11 percent, respectively, since the beginning of the year, while publicly-traded auto lenders Santander Consumer SC.N and Ally are down 35.7 percent and 2.8 percent, respectively. The S&P 500 Index .SPX has dropped 2.8 percent so far this year.
Delinquencies on bonds comprised of subprime auto loans hit their highest level in six years, Fitch Ratings said last week. According to the FDIC, 1.82 percent of all auto loans were 30 to 89 days past due during the fourth quarter – the highest rate on record since the FDIC began keeping track in 2011.
As weakness in the auto sector has become evident, regulators have begun to sound alarm bells.
In a speech in October, U.S. Comptroller of the Currency Thomas Curry warned of risks from subprime auto loans, as well as loans that mature in six years or more, which tend to be issued to customers who can’t afford monthly payments on loans with shorter durations. In November, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York issued a report on auto lending that showed a growing portion of loans being issued to consumers with poor credit.
FOCUSED ON PRIME
Bank of America says it is focused strictly on prime and “superprime” customers. The “majority by far” of its auto borrowers have credit scores higher than 700, Vernon said. Borrowers with credit scores above 660 are generally considered to have good credit.
Still, a decline in used car values would lower recoveries on loans that go bad, and the longer the life of the loan the greater the exposure to such a risk. Bank of America will lend up to 75 months — slightly longer than the six years Comptroller Curry cited as a concern — though Vernon said the average maturity is far lower.
The bank does not release granular data on its auto loan book, so it is hard to know how its borrowers’ credit quality has held up over time. In data provided to Reuters, Bank of America said it made $23.7 billion in auto and recreational vehicle loans in 2015, up 41 percent from 2014.
Most of that growth came through auto dealers, the area Vernon oversees, and much of it happened in the fourth quarter after he hired seven “relationship managers” whose job is to drum up business with dealerships around the country. Vernon is targeting 5-10 percent growth for his operation in 2016.
Schleck, who oversees the business that works directly with retail customers, has also been staffing up — nearly doubling the number of loan officers to 110 from 60 since last May. Although Schleck said he is unlikely to continue growing staff at that pace, he may hire more this year if demand warrants. Likewise, if demand cools, Schleck said he is prepared to reduce staff.
“I needed to get to a certain level to be able to provide a certain level of service and I needed to get there very quickly—and did,” he said. “Prior to May there was probably a lot of lost opportunity, whereas after May, I’m capturing what maybe we could have captured earlier.”
Boland, their boss, said it’s true that Bank of America was “in a different place in 2012,” but disputed the idea that the bank is too late to build up its auto loans business.
“I don’t feel like I’m late at all,” he said. “There’s not a timing issue to it. I’m going to continue to focus on growing across our consumer lending.”
As long as the bank is cautious about borrowers and keeps staffing in line with demand, it can grow just by selling to more of its existing customers, Boland added.
Patrick Kaser, portfolio manager at Brandywine Global Investment Management, which owns about 26 million Bank of America shares, said the bank’s strategy is sensible even if it comes at a less-than-optimal time. The bank pulled back “far too much” from certain businesses after the shock of its mortgage losses and fines, and re-entering the market with a focus on healthy consumers makes sense, he said.
“Only time will tell if they’re entering at the peak and whether or not they’ll be too aggressive,” said Kaser, “but the banks have a lot of incentive to show discipline.”
Reporting by Dan Freed; Editing by Lauren Tara LaCapra and Martin Howell
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.


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Urban Outfitters beats sales records in third quarter
Philadelphia-based lifestyle retail group Urban Outfitters, Inc. (URBN) announced on Monday strong progress across all brands, segments and categories in Q3 2018, reporting record-breaking sales and earnings per share (EPS).
The company’s net sales for the third quarter ended October 31, 2018, increased 9% to $974 million, compared to $893 million in the prior-year period. Wholesale segment net sales rose 12%, while comparable retail sales increased 8%, pushed by solid double-digit growth in the company’s digital channel.
By brand, comps were up 12% at Free People, 8% at the Anthropologie Group and 7% at Urban Outfitters.
The company’s net income for the quarter totaled $78 million, or $0.70 per diluted share, up from $45 million in Q3 2017.
“I’m pleased to announce our teams produced record Q3 sales and earnings,” said Urban Outfitters, Inc. CEO Richard A. Hayne in a release. “All brands, all channels, all product categories and all geographies delivered positive ‘comp’ sales”.
In the course of the quarter, the company’s Urban Outfitters chain launched in-house cosmetics brand Ohii, following in the footsteps of other youth-focused apparel retailers such as Asos and Boohoo, which also diversified into private-label beauty last year.
The cruelty-free brand’s launch offering received largely favourable reviews, which commended the line’s budget-friendly pricing and minimalist packaging.
Year to date, the company’s net sales came to $2.8 billion, compared to $2.5 billion in the same period in the previous year. Net income for the nine-month period totaled $212 million, up from $107 million.
Having opened 14 stores since the beginning of the year, URBN currently operates 623 locations around the world under its different banners, as well as brand-specific e-commerce websites, across the US, Canada and Europe.
This year has also seen the opening of the first three franchisee-owned Urban Outfitters locations.
At the end of last month, the company announced that its eponymous flagship brand will be expanding into the Middle East through a franchise deal with Azadea Group, the first location in the region being slated to open in Dubai in 2019.
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Tom Neltner, J.D., is Chemicals Policy Director.
Senator Markey (D-MA) asked FDA if it can require a label to tell consumers when the food they are eating contains chemicals it has not reviewed for safety. In his April 26 letter, he asked the agency to respond by May 17.
In May 2015, 36% of consumers said that chemicals in food was their most important food safety issue and 23% of consumer said they changed their purchase habits out of concern with chemicals in their food. Leading food manufacturers responded by reformulating their products to remove artificial flavors and colors.
What if these same consumers knew that chemicals added to their food had not been reviewed for safety by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)? As the Natural Resources Defense Council made clear two years ago, 56 food additive makers chose to avoid FDA’s scrutiny by taking advantage of a loophole in the law for “Generally Recognized as Safe” (GRAS) substances. They purposely chose not to be transparent by keeping secret the safety evaluation conducted by their employees or consultants. These companies appear to make only a few of the estimated 1000 chemicals that FDA has not checked for safety or is aware they exist.
In February, we learned that 51% of consumers think that safety means not only that a product is free of harmful ingredients but that its labeling is clear and accurate. Forty-seven percent want clear information on ingredients and sourcing. With this in mind, it’s fair to assume that consumers also expect that all food chemicals are safe and known to the FDA. Many consumers would likely not buy products where the labeling failed to disclose that the food they serve their families contained ingredients the FDA has admitted it “cannot vouch for their safety".
On April 26, Senator Edward Markey (D-MA) put the issue front and center when he asked FDA whether it has “sufficient authority to require a special label on any foods or beverages containing ingredients that have been self-determined to be GRAS without an FDA review?” If FDA had sufficient authority, then “what would the label look like?” Read More
Boma Brown-West is a Manager, Consumer Health Corporate Partnerships Program and Jennifer McPartland, Ph.D., is a Senior Scientist with the Health Program
It’s been two and a half years since Walmart first committed to adopting a sustainable chemistry policy. Since then, consumers, companies and advocates have been watching the retailer with interest. Today, Walmart released its ninth annual Global Responsibility Report (GRR), which outlines its environmental and social activities for the past year. For the first time, this report includes information about the progress it has made against its Sustainable Chemistry Policy adopted in 2013, which aimed for more transparency of product ingredients and safer formulations of products.
According to Walmart, it has reduced the usage (by weight) of its designated high priority chemicals by 95 percent, a pretty sizeable number. Walmart has said that it will post more specifics in the coming weeks on its Sustainability Hub, including quantitative results on all aspects of the policy’s implementation guide and details about how they achieved the substantial reduction
Lindsay McCormick is a Research Analyst.
I find purchasing shampoo and other common personal care products to be a surprisingly stressful experience – I pace the aisles at the drugstore for a good 10-15 minutes, read every product ingredient list, contemplate the legitimacy of claims like “paraben-free” or “no artificial colors or fragrances,” and weigh the impact on my wallet. In the end, I usually choose a moderately priced product with some sort of ingredient safety claim brightly printed on the front label, and hope the extra $2 I spent will actually reduce my exposure to hazardous chemicals.
Many consumers are hungry for information and solutions that help reduce their exposure to toxic chemicals. As more research links exposures to common ingredients in personal care products and health impacts – like certain parabens to reduced fertility; certain phthalates to asthma, reproductive disorders, and neurological effects; and triclosan to obesity – many consumers want to feel empowered to take action. That’s why the results of a recent intervention study are so intriguing: researchers found that exposures to certain chemicals fell in a population of low-income Latina girls after using personal care products labeled as being free of such chemicals for three days.
The implications of this study raise several interesting questions that I’ll explore in this post. Specifically, are personal shopping choices an effective way to avoid chemical exposures? And, is this strategy equally available to everyone in our society? Read More
Tom Neltner, J.D., is Chemicals Policy Director.
EDF strives to make safer food available by partnering with companies to reduce and eliminate potentially unsafe chemical food additives and supporting efforts to fix a broken regulatory system.
For many years this blog has focused on the safety of chemicals and nanomaterials used in industrial and consumer products. Most of these substances are regulated federally by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). But we also encounter chemicals in other ways, including those present in or added to food. Such chemicals are regulated under a different law, the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetics Act (FFDCA), administered by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This blog introduces EDF’s “Safer Food Additives” initiative to get unsafe and questionable chemicals out of our food by using dual levers of change—corporate leadership and public policy. Making our food trustworthy demands leadership in both the private sector and the FDA.
The food market is changing rapidly as manufacturers work to keep up with consumer concerns about what’s in our food. And it’s not just about added sugar, salt and trans fats, or whether the food was grown locally or with or without pesticides. Public campaigns increasingly put the spotlight on many chemicals commonly used in food and food packaging—food additives—with growing scientific evidence questioning the safety of their use.
A respected industry survey released in May 2015 showed that 36% of consumers rated chemicals in food as their most important food safety concern – greater than pathogens, pesticides, animal antibiotics and allergens, and up from 23% in 2014 and 9% in 2011. These concerns translated into action; 23% of consumers reported changing their buying habits (corrected from 45% on May 16, 2016). Read More
Jennifer McPartland, Ph.D., is a Health Scientist, Alissa Sasso is a Research Consultant.
Imagine you’re standing in the shopping aisle looking for a new brand of lotion that won’t irritate your baby’s skin. You find yourself surveying at least a dozen different lotion labels trying to understand and compare product ingredients. The process is frustrating and slow, not to mention confusing—what are some of these things even used for? You’re ready to pull your hair out!
You are not alone. Inadequate access to ingredient information has long been a systemic problem. Fortunately, the situation is improving. In the past few years, more and more companies have taken action to make product information more transparent to consumers, including, importantly, the sharing of ingredients online. Walmart has recently joined the ranks of these companies. Read more to learn what action the retailer has taken. Read More
Also posted in Health Policy Tagged Walmart
Boma Brown-West is a manager on EDF’s Supply Chain Team within the Corporate Partnerships Program.
If you’re in the business of using chemicals to make consumer products – things like shampoo or baby lotions, spray cleaners or laundry soap – the last few years have likely been anything but dull. State legislatures have been passing laws restricting certain chemicals from products; consumers are demanding more transparency about product ingredients; and some of the nation’s biggest retailers, including Walmart and Target, have issued chemical policies of their own.


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CHICAGO â€” February 14, 2020 â€” MAX Digital, a leading data-driven software provider for automotive dealers, released its fourth annual dealer research study on digital retailing challenges and what opportunities exist for success. In conjunction with Erickson Research, MAX Digital surveyed more than 540 dealers across the United States in late 2019.
Key findings from the research include:
- Dealers predict online sales to double by 2025. Respondents expect online sales to increase from 15 percent today to 34 percent by 2025. Today, 85 percent of transactions are still happening inside the physical dealership.
- Ninety percent of dealers said their sales process needs to change to be more seamless with their digital retailing strategy. Seventy-six percent of dealers reported having a process for transitioning online customers to in store.
- Digital merchandising has errors and inefficient. Respondents said 21 percent of their digital listings have errors, and they are spending an average of an hour and 15 minutes to list a single vehicle.
- Millennials want more tech. More than 50 percent of millennial survey respondents would like to see more technology in the sales process, compared to only 32 percent of Gen X and Boomers.
- Trade-ins overlooked profit source. Less than five percent of dealers view trade-ins as a top profit source, a decline from 15 percent in the MAX Digital 2019 survey. Fewer than two in five dealers said they are under allowing on the trade-in.
- Turnover linked to training. Inadequatetraining was found to be the top reason for turnover, especially for millennial respondents (under age 35).
- Acquiring profits at acquisition. When asked how to increase profitability, the majority, 62 percent, cited vehicle acquisition.
- Dealers expect sales process change. Sixty percent of respondents expect a change in their sales process â€“ a big jump from 2019, up 15 percent. Top two types of change dealers anticipate are a more consultative sales process and new technology.
“Our survey uncovered that dealers are looking to make changes to improve digital retailing and close the gap from online to offline,” said MAX Digital’s Executive Vice President Mike Cavanaugh. “Whether customers have started their engagement online or not, once they’ve made contact with your dealership, it’s time to shine. Your teams must have the training, support and technology to meet customers wherever they are in the buying process.”
More than 540 U.S. dealers completed the survey online in November 2019. Respondents included General Managers, Dealer Principals, Used Car Managers and Internet Managers.
Access the full report findings here: https://maxdigital.com/research/digital-retailing/
About MAX Digital
MAX Digital creates experiences that drive success. Guided by a deep understanding of the car buyer and the opportunities in retail environment, MAX delivers people-friendly digital retail solutions that work. With unmatched vehicle merchandising data, advanced analytics and extensive consumer testing, MAX helps dealerships thrive by exceeding the rising expectations of today’s car shoppers. For more information visit maxdigital.com.
Amanda Pollard | firstname.lastname@example.org | 312-914-4417


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Record Revenue and Earnings: Zeiss Continues Growth Trajectory
Investments and innovations lead to best results in the company's more than 170-year history
In the past 2016/17 fiscal year (ended 30 September 2017), Zeiss increased both its revenue and earnings to a record level: revenue rose by 10 percent to EUR 5.348 billion (prior year: EUR 4.881 billion). At EUR 770 million, earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) were significantly above the already high level of the previous year (615 million). The EBIT margin has increased to over 14 percent. Order intake grew by a healthy 12 percent and is now at EUR 5.625 billion, underscoring the growth ambitions of the technology company.
"All four segments – Research & Quality Technology, Medical Technology, Vision Care/Consumer Products and Semiconductor Manufacturing Technology – are either at or above their target returns and have made a positive contribution to the most successful fiscal year in the history of Zeiss," said Prof. Dr. Michael Kaschke, President & CEO of Carl Zeiss AG, at the annual press conference in Stuttgart. "This development was not and is not just a matter of course. Rather, it is the result of the tremendous efforts made by all employees and partners over a long period of time. The consistent implementation of the strategic Agenda has now made a real impact and significantly increased competitiveness. Thanks to investments in cutting-edge Innovation and Customer Centers, global partnerships and strategic expansions, we have focused entirely on the needs of our customers," said Kaschke, explaining the company's strategy.
In the Research & Quality Technology segment, the automotive market continues to drive growth at the Industrial Metrology business group. The demand for Smart Production solutions is increasing, and Zeiss is expanding its business and key networking capabilities for the Industrial Internet of Things through innovative approaches, such as its stake in the joint venture ADAMOS. Thanks to the good overall position of industry, the Microscopy business group is continuing its growth trajectory. In spite of the enormous competition on the market, the Medical Technology segment is growing with innovations such as the Zeiss KINEVO 900 robotic visualization system and has made particularly significant gains in Asia. With Zeiss brand eyeglass lenses, the Vision Care/Consumer Products segment is growing slightly faster than the market. There has been sustained positive growth, including in Brazil and China.
The Semiconductor Manufacturing Technology (SMT) segment is benefitting from high demand for Deep Ultra Violet (DUV) lithography systems. After a trend toward stagnation in an extremely volatile market in recent years, SMT successfully increased its revenue by 25 percent, a new all-time record. The determination and perseverance of the investors in the cutting-edge technology Extreme Ultra Violet (EUV) lithography is also paying off, as is the strengthened partnership with the Dutch company ASML. ASML's 24.9 percent minority stake in the subsidiary Carl Zeiss SMT and the accompanying investments totaling around EUR 760 million for research and development will be instrumental in driving the comprehensive preparation of EUV technology.
Zeiss generates just under 90 percent of its business outside Germany. Asia/Pacific (APAC) remains the largest growth region with a revenue of EUR 1.270 billion. This corresponds to an increase of 15 percent over the previous year after currency adjustments (1.123 billion). Revenue amounted to EUR 598 million in China alone (prior year: 504 million). The revenue in emerging economies after currency adjustments has exceeded the billion euro mark, reaching EUR 1.181 billion (prior year: 995 million). The company's German sites have also benefited from the enormous growth in these markets. The largest single market for Zeiss remains the US with approximately EUR 1 billion.
In fiscal year 2016/17, Zeiss increased its investments in research and development by around 27 percent to 552 million (prior year: 436 million). Investments in property, plant and equipment were increased to 183 million (prior year: 154 million). This compared to depreciations totaling EUR 160 million (prior year: 155 million). "Zeiss’s bold, global investment strategy is a key pillar of our long-term growth trajectory. Since 2010, we have spent around EUR 1.45 million on this," says Thomas Spitzenpfeil, CFO of Carl Zeiss AG.
Net liquidity has increased significantly and was at EUR 1.986 billion as of the reporting date (30 September 2016: 568 million). In particular ASML's stake in Carl Zeiss SMT and a capital increase at Carl Zeiss Meditec AG have played a major role in strengthening liquidity. The company's equity is at EUR 3.429 billion, equaling an almost doubled equity ratio of 47 percent. Thanks to a greater inventories and increased receivables, free cash flow is at EUR 658 million (prior year: 709 million) in spite of the increased EBIT.
The number of employees increased by six percent. As of the reporting date, Zeiss had 26,945 employees worldwide (prior year: 25,433). With 569 new employees, Germany saw the strongest headcount increase. Here the total headcount rose to 11,339 (prior year: 10,770).
Even though a slight slowdown in the growth dynamic is evident in several emerging economies, the forecast for the global economy is good to very good, with only a few risk factors on the horizon. "Of course we have benefited from tailwinds from the positive economic climate, but ultimately you only win if you also take responsibility and make bold decisions for the road ahead," says Kaschke. "In order to ensure success over the long term, we need to stand our ground in the face of ever stiffer competition. With its focus on innovations, targeted investments and business expansion in future-oriented fields of activity, the corporate strategy, the Zeiss Agenda 2020, serves as a compass, while the solid financial foundation provides the necessary flexibility. With our innovative products and solutions, we see transformations in technology and society such as digitalization and demographic change as a significant growth opportunity," says Kaschke, looking ahead to the new fiscal year. In 2017/18, Zeiss anticipates a slight organic increase in revenue and a similar EBIT margin.


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Brian Sullivan put in 34 decades at California Pizza Kitchen area. / Picture courtesy of Purple Robin
Pink Robin Gourmand Burgers has employed a new leading chef as it seems to revamp its menu.
Brian Sullivan joins the chain as VP of culinary and beverage innovation right after a 34-yr run at California Pizza Kitchen, where he commenced as a kitchen supervisor and rose to SVP of culinary innovation. He was permit go in a C-suite shakeup late past yr.
He joins Purple Robin amid a turnaround hard work below new CEO G.J. Hart. The two labored alongside one another at the pizza chain when Hart was CEO.
“I loved working with Brian all through my time at California Pizza Kitchen and take into account him a single of the very best culinary minds in the business,” Hart reported in a statement. “Menu excellent and innovation is a important part of our comeback prepare and Brian and his staff are creating good development on menu enhancements we will roll out later this yr.”
Particularly, Crimson Robin programs to boost its burgers by installing flat-prime grills. Hart has also talked about refreshing the milkshakes and increasing the entree range at the 510-device sit-down chain.
At California Pizza Kitchen area, Sullivan assisted condition the chain’s innovative method to pizza, often incorporating global flavors. He lately aided launch CPK’s 1st burger, an encounter that could provide him very well in his new gig.
“I am energized to join an legendary brand like Purple Robin, regarded for their vast range of connoisseur burgers, bottomless fries, and creative drinks,” Sullivan explained in a statement. “We are going to develop an awesome menu and have a good deal of pleasurable!”
Sullivan is part of a practically model-new leadership group at Crimson Robin under Hart, who has employed a new CFO and main legal officer given that getting in excess of in September. The chain’s COO, CIO and chief idea officer have remaining.
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OSAKA — The Osaka Municipal Government ordered Snow Brand Milk Products Co. to halt operations at its Osaka factory, where processed low-fat milk has been found responsible for sickening nearly 7,000 people.
The decision followed the Osaka Prefectural Government’s announcement earlier in the day that its researchers have detected staphylococcus aureus bacteria in low-fat milk produced at the factory, confirming the source of a mass food-poisoning case in the Kansai area.
The municipal government said that operations at the factory in Miyakojima Ward will be suspended for unspecified period of time until its safety is ensured.
Prefectural officials are inspecting 30 cartons of milk taken from victims’ homes. Of the five tested so far, all have been found to contain enterotoxin A, a poison produced by the bacteria, Osaka prefectural officials said.
Meanwhile, police began on-the-spot inspections the same day at Snow Brand’s factory here to check allegations that the firm’s slipshod production process is responsible for the tainted product.
Speaking at a news conference Saturday, Snow Brand President Tetsuro Ishikawa said that staphylococcus aureus bacteria has been discovered in a valve on the production line at the suspended Osaka factory but did not know its cause.
“We do not know where the staphylococcus aureus originated from. Maybe the cleaning (of the production line) was insufficient. I would have to say it was an oversight on our part,” Ishikawa told reporters at the company’s West Japan branch in Osaka.
As of 5:00 p.m. Sunday, a total of 6,921 people have fallen ill in Osaka, Kyoto, Hyogo, Wakayama, Nara and three other prefectures, with 41 remaining in hospitals.
The police inspection is centering on a valve that allows low-fat milk left over in the production process to flow into a spare tank, where the bacteria was found.
According to Snow Brand, the valve was supposed to be washed once a week but company records show it was last washed June 2.
Also, when the company staff disassembled the valve on Thursday to check for contamination, they discovered a mass of solidified milk the size of 10 yen coin inside it, company officials said.
With the firm admitting to the contamination, police decided early on to initiate an inspection, given the number of victims and the social impact the incident will have, police said.
They also decided an early inspection was necessary because the company might change the production line in preparation for resuming operations, they added.
Investigators were questioning the factory manager and those in charge of production.
to determine the link between the bacteria and people’s health, on suspicion that the Food Sanitation Law has been violated.
The dairy company came under light after thousands of people in western Japan complained about diarrhea, abdominal pains and vomiting after drinking Snow Brand low-fat milk on Tuesday and Wednesday. All were found to have drunk milk processed at the firm’s factory in Osaka’s Miyakojima Ward.
The bacteria was found during the firm’s inspection of the production line as its staff swabbed the inner parts of pipes and valves in 95 places to check for possible contamination.
Staphylococcus, or staph, is a common bacteria that can cause diarrhea and vomiting in people with weakened immune systems.


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The United States Department of Labor announced a $325,000 fine against Sears, Roebuck & Company yesterday after investigators uncovered child-labor violations at more than 60 percent of the Sears stores they visited.
Federal inspectors found 227 teen-agers working in violation of child-labor laws at Sears, the nation's second-largest retailer. The most common violation found was that 16-year-olds and 17-year-olds were operating power-driven equipment. Federal law bars children from running such hazardous equipment.
Secretary of Labor Alexis M. Herman said department investigators found child-labor violations at 44 of the 71 Sears stores they visited in 23 states. They found that more than 200 Sears employees under 18 were illegally operating power-driven paper balers, freight elevators and forklifts -- all machines the Labor Department has declared hazardous.
''I quite frankly hope this case will send a signal to other employers so that we don't have more cases like this,'' Ms. Herman said at a news conference.
In announcing the violations, Ms. Herman also said Sears had agreed to put into effect a corporate-wide program to assure compliance with child-labor laws at its 850 department stores, where nearly 11,000 of its 200,000 workers are under 18.
Sears agreed to pay the fine, but it did not admit liability.
Noting that retailers employ 60 percent of teen-agers under 18 who are working, Ms. Herman promised rigorous monitoring of retailers around the nation to check whether they are obeying child-labor laws.Continue reading the main story
In the agreement it signed with the department, Sears said it would appoint a manager to oversee child-labor compliance and said it would audit all its stores to ferret out child-labor violations. Sears officials also pledged to provide more information to the parents of employees under 18 and to improve its training of managers and teen-age workers to increase compliance.
Jan Drummond, a Sears spokeswoman, said, ''When Sears was made aware of the Department of Labor's audit, we saw it as an opportunity to create a unique program that is designed to insure a safe work environment for teens.''
Secretary Herman said, ''We believe Sears's commitment to corporate-wide compliance and its new child-labor program can be a model for other corporations to build upon.''Continue reading the main story


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The Porsche certainly has been coming up frequently in racing game news lately. We learned recently that the Porsche brand is exclusive to EA and that, generally, they'll sub-license the use of the brand to other companies for inclusion in their racing titles. Unfortunately, however, it was revealed
that there will be no Porsches in Forza Motorsport 4
as an acceptable licensing deal could not be reached between Forza
developer Turn 10 Studios and EA.
It seems the reasoning for the lack of a deal has become a little more clear today, as EA has released a video showing off the 2012 Porsche 911 Carrera S, which will be available to people who purchase the Limited Edition
of their upcoming racer, Need For Speed The Run
Here's the description of the video provided by EA, just in case you can't give it a look:
Who wouldn't want to drive this year's most highly anticipated car? The 2012 Porsche 911 Carrera S has been officially unveiled and Need for Speed The Run is giving you exclusive access. Experience the raw power and pinpoint handling that 500 horsepower and 800 lbs of torque have to offer as you fly past rivals and slip past obstacles on your way to New York.Need For Speed The Run
, which is being developed by Black Box Studio, is scheduled for release on November 15th in North America and November 18th in Europe.


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Like a lot of foundation contractors, Van Wyks, Inc. is finding the competition a little tougher lately as the residential market has slowed.
"The last few years, there's been enough business for everyone," says company president Arie Van Wyk. "Now, we're bidding against 10 other people on every job."
Standing their ground
Van Wyk estimates that the company's residential business is down 40 percent this year, but the company as a whole will actually see an increase in revenues because of its focus on other parts of the business.
Besides an increased emphasis on commercial work, in the last few years the company has added services such as excavation, waterproofing and concrete repair.
"We want to do everything for our clients, become more of a turnkey company," Van Wyk says.
The company's size and diversity has allowed it to continue to hold the line on prices despite pressure from its residential builder clients.
"All the builders are asking us to take a pay cut," he says. "We're standing our ground, because we're booked up and things are going well."
So far, that stance hasn't cost the company, as its reputation for service and quality has kept its customers loyal. Still, pricing is the biggest concern Van Wyk has right now.
"Even holding prices steady is really a loss for us, because normally we'd be raising prices for next year," he says.
While none of his competitors in the residential market have gone out of business yet, it may only be a matter of time, he says.
"We're hearing more and more rumors about this company or that company having problems," he says.
With a large yard, a warehouse, repair garage and offices, Van Wyks has more overhead than a lot of its competitors. In an industry that is increasingly price sensitive, that means the company needs to always be looking at ways to lower its costs.
"I'm constantly on the watch for equipment and materials that will lower our costs and help us be more efficient," Van Wyk says.
In 1998, the company added waterproofing services. The company now installs waterproofing systems on all of its foundations. There wasn't a demand from the customers for the service. In fact, it was a hard sell at first because of the higher cost, but it has saved the company money by eliminating many complaints.
"I was sick of answering the phone calls from customers telling me their basement was leaking," he says. "I was actually scared to answer the phone when it was raining."
Now, his employees can be out making money doing new work instead of going back to fix old problems.
"It sure made our lives a lot better," he says. "The phone calls are a thing of the past."
Another labor saver has been the CertainTeed Form-A-Drain, which the company uses for all of its footings.
"It's faster and more efficient, which means savings in labor costs," Van Wyk says. "We've also had zero callbacks with Form-A-Drain."
The company has also reduced its labor costs by switching to aluminum forms from B.E.P., which are lighter and therefore can be moved more quickly and easily by the crews.
"You have to get efficient or die," Van Wyk says. "We just try to stay one notch ahead."
As the builders and general contractors get bigger, price is becoming increasingly more important than relationships.
"We have been able to command a higher price than the other contractors, but the line is thinning," he says "Quality just isn't the sales tool it used to be. They all expect good, quality work, but price is what really matters."
Van Wyk is quick to say that most of the credit for his success belongs to lot of people besides himself.
To be successful, a contractor can't be afraid to learn from others in the industry, he says. Since the time he started his company in 1979, Van Wyk has been a member of the Concrete Foundation Association. This year he was selected as their Contractor of the Year. One of the biggest reasons was his willingness to share the secrets of his success with other CFA members, says CFA executive director Ed Sauter.
Van Wyk says he is merely repaying what he has received over his time in the association.
"We're just good copycats," he says. "We've learned a lot from other contractors by talking to them and visiting their companies."
The company would not be where it is today without what he's learned from other members of the CFA, Van Wyk says.
"I can't stress enough the importance of networking," he says. "I always hear guys starting out say they can't afford to go to association meetings, that they don't have the time. I don't see how they can afford not to."
Within the company, a big part of the company's success is due to a group of loyal, talented employees. The company has done pretty well at retaining its employees. Although the company is "constantly hiring" for its 100-person workforce, most of that is to fill a small number of entry-level jobs that frequently turn over, Van Wyk says.
"We try to treat them right," he says. "We pay them a competitive wage, but that's really not the most important thing. We've had other companies offer more money, but our guys have stayed."
Offering good benefits and letting employees share in the success of the company has been important. Recently, Van Wyks started using open book management with key employees, where they can see the financials, which gives them a better understanding of how the business works.
"I think in the past, they all had this idea we were making a lot of money," he says. "Now they understand everything that goes into running the company."
Finding good employees is always a challenge, but its easier now than it was a few years ago because of an increase in the Latino population in the area.
"We've gone from basically none to 30-plus working for us in the last five or six years," he says. "We'd be lost without them. That's why when I hear people talking about closing the borders, it scares the hell out of me."
There have been some communication problems caused by the language barrier, but most now speak at least some English. The company offers to send its employees to English classes so they can improve their skills and move up in the company, an offer many have taken the company up on. When the company conducts any training on safety or a new piece of equipment, Van Wyk assigns an interpreter to make sure the employees understand everything that is being said.
"They always want to please me, so sometimes they'll say they understand when they really don't," he says. "That's why it's important to have a good group of bilingual workers."
The biggest problem they've had with Spanish-speaking employees hasn't actually been language — it's been teaching them English measurements, as they are used to the metric system used in the rest of the world when they read tape measures.
The company spends a lot of time and money training all of its employees. In its headquarters building, Van Wyks has invested in a large training room. Anytime a new product, material or piece of equipment is introduced, the employees are brought in for training. Safety is also a frequent topic of training sessions.
"We are constantly training," Van Wyk says. "Employees who know what they are doing are more efficient and produce higher quality work."
Developing and educating the employees about the business has made it possible for Van Wyk and wife Sue, the company vice president, to be less involved in the day-to-day operations and prepare for the eventual succession of the company to their children and other key employees. Their daughter is the company controller and their son is manager of the excavation department. Arie used to manage the field operations and Sue ran the business side. Now, that falls to others.
"I'm the least important person in the day-to-day operations of the company," Van Wyk says. "It's not unusual now to go out on a jobsite only one or two days a week."


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Investors are still attracted to bricks and mortar shopping malls, with the most sought-after features convenience and neighbourhood assets that are anchored by a supermarket and home to supplementary specialty food retailers.
While online retailing is now an entrenched part of shopping habits – 10.3 per cent of all retail sales are made online – food represents just 5.6 per cent of that amount.
One of the latest sales is the Bathurst Chase shopping centre in regional NSW, which is a convenience and service-focused neighbourhood mall anchored by Coles and Liquorland. The 11,710 square metre freehold site within the heart of the Bathurst CBD is also home to a range of food and non-discretionary retailers.
CBRE’s James Douglas, Joe Tynan and Michael Hedger together with Stonebridge’s Philip Gartland and Alex James-Elliott have been appointed to steer the on-market sale campaign with price expectations at about $20 million.
“The centre’s established loyal customer base and extensive trade area population of 43,850, coupled with its strongly trading Coles offering and income upside, will appeal to a wide range of investors, including institutional buyers, syndications and private groups,” Douglas said.
Stonebridge’s Gartland added that in the current changing market, the ability to secure a neighbourhood shopping centre with tangible competitive advantages and genuine value add opportunities will prove highly attractive.
“Of particular appeal is the relative capital value of assets on a dollar per square metre basis in comparison to current high construction costs, with many assets sitting below replacement cost,” Gartland said.
Ray White head of research Vanessa Rader said the ongoing need for bricks and mortar retailers, particularly in the food sector, will ensure the continued need for shopping centres anchored by supermarkets.
Over the last year, non-food online retailing accounts for 16.5 per cent of all retail sales, while food represents just 5.6 per cent after peaking at 7.4 per cent during the pandemic.
“Shopping centres are not dead, however, the tenant types which occupy brick and mortar retail are certainly changing, with a greater weighting to food and service type industries,” Rader said.
Last year there were more than $14.56 billion in retail assets which transacted across Australia, highlighting a strong confidence in this asset class by a range of private and institutional investors.
Another large deal is by the Lendlease-managed Australian Prime Property Fund Retail and its listed manager, which is selling its Craigieburn Central in Melbourne for a reported $300 million to funds investment group IP Generation.
It is owned 75 per cent by the fund and 25 per cent by Lendlease, and has the potential to develop the surrounding land. The sale is part of the Lendlease-run trust’s asset divestment program.
Rader said convenience and neighbourhood assets remain in high demand given this attraction to food, often anchored by a supermarket and home to supplementary specialty food retailers.
“Returns data from MSCI also suggests that subregional and neighbourhood centres have outperformed across both capital and income returns over the last year compared to larger major and super regional centres,” she said.
Demand for mall was also evident in the recent strong financial results for the country’s two largest retail landlords, Scentre Group and Vicinity.
The Business Briefing newsletter delivers major stories, exclusive coverage and expert opinion. Sign up to get it every weekday morning.
Source: Thanks smh.com


text:
So, we've seen the announcement from Sony of two new 4K cameras, new codecs, new recording media and a new 30" 4K LCD monitor. Just how significant is this, and is this the 4K Tipping Point, at least for production, if not all the way to the home?
After two weeks of teasing, the NewF is here. And the big surprise is that the NewF is not just a camera but rather an entire ecosystem. Ned Soltz, our NY reporter, brings us the details.
With Sony's F55 shaping up to be such a good device, it's reasonable to wonder about the future role of Sony's flagship camera, the F65. We spoke to Richard Lewis, Product Specialist for Cimenatography at Sony Europe, to get some definitive answers
"One Sony" has been the buzzword at the Electronic Giant's headquarters around the world for some time now. It means that if all the disparate arms of the organisation pull in the same direction, helping each other where possible, then it will make it a much more efficient and competitive entity
DaVinci Resolve 10 is one of the applications that has been optimised to run on the new Mac Pro and now, thanks to Dado Valentic from Mytherapy, we can see just how fast it runs. You may be surprised at some of the results!
Since 2009 the National Theatre in London has been broadcasting selected productions to Digital Cinemas around the world. On the 27th of February they will set a new standard when they broadcast "War Horse" live via satellite in 4K


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British retailers and hospitality groups are warning of staffing shortages in the run-up to Christmas as they seek tens of thousands of temporary workers in preparation for the “golden quarter”.
Companies across retail, hospitality and manufacturing have warned they may struggle to meet demand even as the government considers relaxing immigration rules to allow more workers from overseas for key industries.
More than 250,000 seasonal workers are needed in the hospitality industry alone, according to estimates by trade body UKHospitality.
Pizza chain Domino’s said it planned to recruit 10,000 staff for the period, including delivery drivers and pizza makers. The chain is extolling its “flexible shifts to fit around existing schedules” in an appeal to people who may be seeking a second job to help with the cost of living crisis.
Retailers say the annual battle has begun to fill their warehouses ahead of Christmas peak sales but executives warn that the impact of Brexit on the UK’s ability to hire overseas workers is still being felt.
Many fear it will be difficult to meet the demand by hiring locally. “The reality is that not all jobs in the UK are attractive to people who live in the UK,” said one.
John Lewis is seeking to recruit 10,000 temporary workers for the Christmas period across its warehouses, supply chain and retail outlets.
“We start [hiring] in August every year, which seems nuts as no one wants to talk about Christmas,” said Andrew Murphy, chief operating officer at John Lewis.
He added: “In the temporary market, money talks. When supply is tight, pay goes up. We can set the rate of pay on a Tuesday morning but find it’s gone up again on Wednesday.”
The strength of its brand meant John Lewis had fewer problems than some to attract staff, said Murphy, with the added incentive of free lunches at its sites for those working the 14 weeks covering the peak season.
Even so, the retailer faces competition from numerous rivals, which has caused spiralling wage inflation. One competitor is known for parking signs outside John Lewis warehouses offering staff higher wages at its own site across the road.
Murphy said wage inflation would be about 6 per cent on average this year — last year it was 4 per cent — but added that retail margins would not support much more. Within this, wages for delivery drivers across the sector were rising between 17 and 25 per cent. Staff in warehouses in the Milton Keynes area, where the retailer operates one of its distribution sites, were typically seeing wages rise by about 11 per cent.
Amazon is one of the largest seasonal employers in the UK, typically recruiting up to 20,000 extra workers in warehouse and delivery as it meets demand for Christmas, according to those familiar with its operations.
Some retailers said the situation this year was at least less acute than in 2021, when the so-called pingdemic over the summer followed by the emergence of the Omicron variant in the autumn wreaked havoc with hiring plans.
David Gates, chief executive of wine merchant Direct Wines, said recruitment in its warehouses had been “slightly better than last year”. There is a shortage of local labour, he said, but a steady supply of EU workers who worked for the company over the Christmas period in 2021 and are looking to return.
However, at the company’s call centre, recruitment has been about the same as last year, or possibly worse, he said. Unlike in the warehouses, “the centre requires good English and hence the work is less attractive for most EU workers”.
Tesco’s chief executive Ken Murphy said the period last year in the run-up to Christmas was “very challenging, particularly in distribution and logistics”, when the supermarket group faced the threat of strike action by warehouse staff.
“We don’t have any of those issues this year and I haven’t had any reports of issues in hiring temporary people for Christmas. I think we’re in pretty good shape,” said Murphy.
Like several other supermarket chains, Tesco has announced an in-year pay increase for shop floor staff that will take effect in mid-November, just in time for the run-up to Christmas.


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A Hong Kong-raised parcel delivery man has unseated Li Ka-shing to become the world’s third ranked Chinese billionaire, behind property-to-media mogul Wang Jianlin and Alibaba Group Holding’s chairman Jack Ma Yun, a new survey showed.
Wang Wei, chairman and founder of SF Express – the country’s equivalent to DHL – saw his wealth skyrocket five-fold to US$27 billion within the last few weeks. His current fortune has already outstripped the US$25 billion net worth of Hong Kong’s “superman Li” whose wealth remained unchanged last year, according to the latest Hurun Global Rich List, which tracks the world’s wealthiest people.
The phenomenal rise of Wang in the super-rich rankings was propelled by a US$30 billion public listing of his courier company in Shanghai in late February. Within the first few days of trading SF Express shares had surged as much as 40 per cent and so had the fortunes of the 46-year-old who holds 66 per cent of the company.
Wang also swapped spots with Tencent founder Pony Ma Huateng to become the third richest man on the Chinese mainland.
Wang Wei, chairman and founder of SF Express, saw his wealth skyrocket five-fold to US$27 billion within the last few weeks. Photo: Imaginechina
In a typical rags to riches story in China, the son of an interpreter and a university teacher migrated to Hong Kong from Shanghai at the age of seven. A high-school dropout, Wang started out as a textile factory worker in Guangdong before setting up his courier service SF Express in 1993 with a 100,000 yuan loan from his father.
SF is a fast delivery giant, but more strings likely to be added to its bow
Wang jumped into the mainland’s parcel delivery business at a time when it was dominated by state-owned China Post. Ever since the founding of the People’s Republic in 1949 citizens would have to visit their nearest post office to ship packages and wait a few weeks before they arrived at the recipient’s house.
When Wang set up his business in the early 1990s, the thought of shopping online was beyond anybody’s imagination. But China’s e-commerce boom over the past several years, pioneered by online marketplaces controlled by Alibaba and JD.com, saw privately-run courier services such as SF Express prosper. Besides pricing, speed of delivery played a key role in online shipping vendors’ winning the fierce competition for orders.
Over the last 25 years the little-known startup has grown to become a logistics empire with 37 cargo aircraft and 400,000 employees, with 2015 revenues of 48.1 billion yuan (US$7 billion), quadruple that of rival YTO Express, the second largest player in the sector.
Despite his company’s growing prominence Wang himself maintains a low profile. He has only talked to the media once since founding his company – a 2011 interview with the People’s Daily.
In 2010, he shelled out HK$350 million for land on Hong Kong’s affluent La Salle Road in Kowloon Tong, where he built a lavish four-storey villa.
From six men and a van to 400,000 staff and a fleet of 35 aircraft: the making of SF Express
While Wang emerged as the “dark horse” among China’s super-rich, the Hurun report indicated that Alibaba’s Ma is on track to catch up with Dalian Wanda Group chairman Wang Jianlin in the wealth race. The net worth of the Hangzhou entrepreneur, who oversees the world’s largest online retail empire, jumped 38 per cent to US$29 billion, narrowing the gap with Wanda’s Wang at US$30 billion.
Separately, the Hurun report showed that Beijing, despite its notorious air pollution, was the “Billionaire Capital of the World” for the second year in a row, ahead of New York. The Chinese capital is home to Baidu’s Robin Li Yanhong and Wang Jianlin, who owns global cinema chain AMC Entertainment and Hollywood studio Legendary Pictures.
Shenzhen, a fishing village-turned tech hub that is home to Huawei and Tencent, is home to 16 new billionaires created last year. The Chinese equivalent of Silicon Valley ranked fourth in terms of concentration of ultra wealthy population.
“Shenzhen and Hong Kong now have the highest concentration of wealth in the world, ahead even of California,” Hurun’s chief researcher Rupert Hoogewerf said.
Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.


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|By Marketwired .||
|December 21, 2012 01:11 PM EST||
NEW YORK, NY -- (Marketwire) -- 12/21/12 -- Seamless, the leading mobile and online service for ordering delivery and takeout food from more than 11,000 top restaurants in the U.S. and UK, today announced a fully redesigned iPhone application. The updated interface allows users to discover new restaurants and dishes through improved ratings and review functionalities. Users now have the ability to read thousands of existing reviews as well as rate and post reviews for every restaurant. The restyled app also provides an enhanced user experience that is more user-friendly and engaging with updated navigation, a new design and thousands of full-color photos of restaurants and dishes.
With mobile driving more than 40 percent of all Seamless orders, the new application offers a more intuitive and smarter way for people to find and order exactly the food they want. Combined, Seamless' mobile app suite and company website allow Seamless' more than two million members the ability to access local restaurant information and place orders anytime, anywhere.
"Our mobile apps are becoming the go-to source for consumer ordering and we make it our priority to deliver the most premium experience possible," said Jonathan Zabusky, CEO of Seamless. "We've taken the unique and differentiating features from our top-rated iPad app and integrated them into our iPhone app, which is now more immersive and engaging. The iPhone app has evolved into a social utility, where consumers can contribute content to the Seamless community. We expect our newly redesigned iPhone app will further accelerate growth in mobile ordering and extend our market leadership position as the nation's largest and most innovative food ordering company."
Showcasing an enhanced feature set, Seamless' iPhone app makes it easy for people to find and order exactly what they want, when they want it. New features include:
- A sleek new design: Easy to use, even easier on the eyes, the app has a consumer friendly interface, incorporating an updated navigation and whole new design.
- Access to full reviews: In addition to the restaurant ratings available in previous versions, users can now read the user generated restaurant reviews in the app.
- In-app ratings and reviews posting: Allowing users to help one another and give a shout out to their favorite restaurants, Seamless customers can now write reviews and post ratings in the app.
- Restaurant and dish photos: A food photo can be worth a million dish descriptions, so the new app features full-color photos of restaurants and dishes to help in the decision making process.
- Saving multiple credit cards for effortless ordering: Tiny keyboards can be tough with big thumbs, so the new app gives users the option to access any of their saved cards and use it for checkout.
- Easier navigation: The new application features an industry standard sliding menu feature to give customers quick access to place an order, review order history, contact Seamless, and more.
The Seamless iPhone App is available as a free download from the App Store. Seamless' mobile suite also includes apps for iPad, Android and Blackberry. For more information on Seamless, please visit www.seamless.com or @Seamless on Twitter.
Seamless is the most trusted and comprehensive source for local restaurant information and online ordering. The company has made finding and ordering food from local restaurants fun and easy for more than 2 million members and many of the world's largest companies. Through Seamless.com, MenuPages.com, and mobile applications for iPad®, iPhone®, Android, and BlackBerry®, the company offers access to over 40,000 menus, 280,000 user-generated ratings and reviews, and exclusive discounts from restaurants in San Francisco, New York, Washington DC, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Houston, Austin, Seattle, Portland, Miami, London, and other US cities. Seamless facilitated more than $400 million in food orders from its 11,000+ partner restaurants in 2011. Seamless is an independent, privately held company.
Atomic PR for Seamless
SYS-CON Events announced today that Pythian, a global IT services company specializing in helping companies adopt disruptive technologies to optimize revenue-generating systems, has been named “Bronze Sponsor” of SYS-CON's 18th Cloud Expo, which will take place on June 7-9, 2015 at the Javits Center in New York, New York. Founded in 1997, Pythian is a global IT services company that helps companies compete by adopting disruptive technologies such as cloud, Big Data, advanced analytics, and DevO...
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With microservices, SOA and distributed architectures becoming more popular, it is becoming increasingly harder to keep track of where time is spent in a distributed application when trying to diagnose performance problems. Distributed tracing systems attempt to address this problem by following application requests across service boundaries, persisting metadata along the way that provide context for fine-grained performance monitoring.
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With an estimated 50 billion devices connected to the Internet by 2020, several industries will begin to expand their capabilities for retaining end point data at the edge to better utilize the range of data types and sheer volume of M2M data generated by the Internet of Things. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Don DeLoach, CEO and President of Infobright, will discuss the infrastructures businesses will need to implement to handle this explosion of data by providing specific use cases for filte...
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SYS-CON Events announced today that Men & Mice, the leading global provider of DNS, DHCP and IP address management overlay solutions, will exhibit at SYS-CON's 18th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on June 7-9, 2016, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY. The Men & Mice Suite overlay solution is already known for its powerful application in heterogeneous operating environments, enabling enterprises to scale without fuss. Building on a solid range of diverse platform support,...
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SYS-CON Events announced today that Fusion, a leading provider of cloud services, will exhibit at SYS-CON's 18th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on June 7-9, 2016, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY. Fusion, a leading provider of integrated cloud solutions to small, medium and large businesses, is the industry's single source for the cloud. Fusion's advanced, proprietary cloud service platform enables the integration of leading edge solutions in the cloud, including clou...
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[session] From Build to Scale: Lifecycle of Microservices By @fortyfivan | @CloudExpo #Microservices
More and more companies are looking to microservices as an architectural pattern for breaking apart applications into more manageable pieces so that agile teams can deliver new features quicker and more effectively. What this pattern has done more than anything to date is spark organizational transformations, setting the foundation for future application development. In practice, however, there are a number of considerations to make that go beyond simply “build, ship, and run,” which changes ho...
Feb. 5, 2016 02:00 PM EST Reads: 110
SYS-CON Events announced today that Commvault, a global leader in enterprise data protection and information management, has been named “Bronze Sponsor” of SYS-CON's 18th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on June 7–9, 2016, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY, and the 19th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on November 1–3, 2016, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA. Commvault is a leading provider of data protection and information management...
Feb. 5, 2016 01:30 PM EST Reads: 320
SYS-CON Events announced today that AppNeta, the leader in performance insight for business-critical web applications, will exhibit and present at SYS-CON's @DevOpsSummit at Cloud Expo New York, which will take place on June 7-9, 2016, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY. AppNeta is the only application performance monitoring (APM) company to provide solutions for all applications – applications you develop internally, business-critical SaaS applications you use and the networks that deli...
Feb. 5, 2016 01:30 PM EST Reads: 299
The maker of automated server migration software reports sales bookings increased 460 percent year-over-year and last week IDC forecast spending on public cloud services will grow to more than $141 billion in 2019. Seems (at last) we are at the tipping point where enterprises are adopting cloud in a big way opening opportunities for those who can help with the transition.
Feb. 5, 2016 01:27 PM EST
SYS-CON Events announced today that Alert Logic, Inc., the leading provider of Security-as-a-Service solutions for the cloud, will exhibit at SYS-CON's 18th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on June 7-9, 2016, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY. Alert Logic, Inc., provides Security-as-a-Service for on-premises, cloud, and hybrid infrastructures, delivering deep security insight and continuous protection for customers at a lower cost than traditional security solutions. Ful...
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@DevOpsSummit taking place June 7-9, 2016 at Javits Center, New York City, and Nov 1-3, 2016, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA, is co-located with the 18th International @CloudExpo and will feature technical sessions from a rock star conference faculty and the leading industry players in the world. @DevOpsSummit at Cloud Expo New York Call for Papers is now open.
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Your business relies on your applications and your employees to stay in business. Whether you develop apps or manage business critical apps that help fuel your business, what happens when users experience sluggish performance? You and all technical teams across the organization – application, network, operations, among others, as well as, those outside the organization, like ISPs and third-party providers – are called in to solve the problem.
Feb. 5, 2016 12:00 PM EST Reads: 657
The cloud promises new levels of agility and cost-savings for Big Data, data warehousing and analytics. But it’s challenging to understand all the options – from IaaS and PaaS to newer services like HaaS (Hadoop as a Service) and BDaaS (Big Data as a Service). In her session at @BigDataExpo at @ThingsExpo, Hannah Smalltree, a director at Cazena, will provide an educational overview of emerging “as-a-service” options for Big Data in the cloud. This is critical background for IT and data profes...
Feb. 5, 2016 12:00 PM EST
SYS-CON Events announced today that VAI, a leading ERP software provider, will exhibit at SYS-CON's 18th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on June 7-9, 2016, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY. VAI (Vormittag Associates, Inc.) is a leading independent mid-market ERP software developer renowned for its flexible solutions and ability to automate critical business functions for the distribution, manufacturing, specialty retail and service sectors. An IBM Premier Business Part...
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Father business cycles and digital consumers are forcing enterprises to respond faster to customer needs and competitive demands. Successful integration of DevOps and Agile development will be key for business success in today’s digital economy. In his session at DevOps Summit, Pradeep Prabhu, Co-Founder & CEO of Cloudmunch, covered the critical practices that enterprises should consider to seamlessly integrate Agile and DevOps processes, barriers to implementing this in the enterprise, and pr...
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SYS-CON Events announced today that Catchpoint Systems, Inc., a provider of innovative web and infrastructure monitoring solutions, has been named “Silver Sponsor” of SYS-CON's DevOps Summit at 18th Cloud Expo New York, which will take place June 7-9, 2016, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY. Catchpoint is a leading Digital Performance Analytics company that provides unparalleled insight into customer-critical services to help consistently deliver an amazing customer experience. Designed...
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It's easy to assume that your app will run on a fast and reliable network. The reality for your app's users, though, is often a slow, unreliable network with spotty coverage. What happens when the network doesn't work, or when the device is in airplane mode? You get unhappy, frustrated users. An offline-first app is an app that works, without error, when there is no network connection.
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How Best to Integrate Cloud Foundry into Your Existing Ecosystem By @Gidrontxt | @DevOpsSummit #DevOps
As someone who has been dedicated to automation and Application Release Automation (ARA) technology for almost six years now, one of the most common questions I get asked regards Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS). Specifically, people want to know whether release automation is still needed when a PaaS is in place, and why. Isn't that what a PaaS provides? A solution to the deployment and runtime challenges of an application? Why would anyone using a PaaS then need an automation engine with workflow ...
Feb. 5, 2016 10:00 AM EST
[session] Focusing on Time-to-Value in Big Data Deployments By @AndyWarfield | @BigDataExpo #BigData
As enterprises work to take advantage of Big Data technologies, they frequently become distracted by product-level decisions. In most new Big Data builds this approach is completely counter-productive: it presupposes tools that may not be a fit for development teams, forces IT to take on the burden of evaluating and maintaining unfamiliar technology, and represents a major up-front expense. In his session at @BigDataExpo at @ThingsExpo, Andrew Warfield, CTO and Co-Founder of Coho Data, will dis...
Feb. 5, 2016 10:00 AM EST
In most cases, it is convenient to have some human interaction with a web (micro-)service, no matter how small it is. A traditional approach would be to create an HTTP interface, where user requests will be dispatched and HTML/CSS pages must be served. This approach is indeed very traditional for a web site, but not really convenient for a web service, which is not intended to be good looking, 24x7 up and running and UX-optimized. Instead, talking to a web service in a chat-bot mode would be muc...
Feb. 5, 2016 09:15 AM EST Reads: 140


text: Top News SingapoRediscovers Vouchers scheme extended till end-March By TTG Asia / Posted on 23 November, 2021 16:56 The deadline for Singaporeans to use their SingapoRediscovers Vouchers (SRVs) for eligible attractions, hotels and tours has been extended until March 31, 2022, but bookings must still be made by December 31. The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) said on Monday (November 22) that it had announced in April this year that the SRV scheme would end on December 31. “However, we understand that some Singaporeans may not have been able to use their SRVs due to reduced group sizes and capacity limits at tourism establishments,” it said. “This extension allows Singaporeans more time to enjoy their SRV experiences.” Experiences booked using SingapoRediscover Vouchers can be enjoyed up till March 31 next year This is the second time that the SRV scheme has been extended, following an earlier extension from end-June to December 31. The voucher scheme was launched last July to boost the tourism sector amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Under the scheme, every Singaporean aged 18 and above was given S$100 (US$74) worth of tourism vouchers, which can be used on hotel staycations, attraction tickets and tours. In line with the latest extension, the five authorised booking partners – Changi Recommends, GlobalTix, Klook, Traveloka and Trip.com – will add more booking slots. Singaporeans can also bring their original identification documents to book their experiences at the physical SRV booking counters across Singapore before December 31. From January 1, the authorised booking partners will no longer accept tourism bookings made using SRVs, and all physical SRV counters will be closed. Those who wish to donate their vouchers can do so via the five authorised booking partners which offers donation options or through the physical booking counters. STB reminded Singaporeans that reselling or exchanging the SRVs for cash is strictly not allowed. “STB conducts regular checks to ensure the SRVs are used for their intended purposes and will not hesitate to take action against businesses or individuals that abuse the SRV scheme,” it said. As of November 1, close to 1.3 million Singaporeans have used their SRVs at least once, making over 1.6 million transactions. Collectively, about S$256 million in vouchers and additional expenditure have been spent under the scheme.


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Introducing a price cap for energy bills has ‘destroyed’ the UK’s competitive market for gas and electricity, researchers have said.
Academics at the University of Exeter and the University of Warwick studied the effects of Ofgem’s maximum price for energy, which was brought in after 2016 when the Competition and Markets Authority’s found consumers on standard variable tariffs were overpaying by £1.6bn per year.
However, the academics say a consequence of this is an end to healthy competition between companies with consumers now left worse off, especially vulnerable people who are less likely to switch tariffs.
This is because all energy suppliers are all sticking to the maximum level.
Instead, the academics say Ofgem should regulate the way consumers renew their contracts with gas or electricity firms.
A total of 17% of consumers switched energy supplier between June 2016 and June 2017, a significant increase in comparison to previous years.
Dr Timothy Dodsworth, from the University of Exeter Law School, who led the study, said: ‘Ofgem had good intentions, but their actions have destroyed the healthy consumer market which existed for energy.
‘By introducing a price cap they have removed much competition. Providers are all moving to offer prices at the level of the cap, so the potential benefits Ofgem envisioned don’t exist.
‘It is right that the regulator should protect the most vulnerable. But it would have been better to regulate the way people renew their contracts with their energy supplier, so the regulator or another body could step in and help them when it’s clear they are paying too much money. This could involve moving them to pre-payment meters, which would have a price cap.’
Responding to the report, an Ofgen spokesperson said: ‘The price cap legislation has set Ofgem two objectives for the price cap – first to protect customers who don’t switch. And we’re doing that.
‘The second is to enable competition in the energy market to continue. That means setting the price cap at a level which allows efficient suppliers to offer cheaper deals below the level of the cap for the more than 10 million customers who have switched to fixed deals.
‘We’ve done this, which is why we are still seeing even better value deals on the market and record switching rates.
‘Because ultimately, we believe a fully competitive market is the best way for all consumers to get a better deal.
‘We encourage those who remain on default deals who want to save even more money to shop around for one of these deals.
‘But if they don’t, they will always have a basic level of protection and pay a fair price for their energy.’


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Marks and Spencer appoints Multi-channel director
Marks and Spencer has announced the appointment to its Board of Laura Wade-Gery as Executive Director, Multi-channel E-commerce.
Laura joins from Tesco where she is currently Chief Executive Officer of Tesco.com and Tesco Direct. She has served as a Non-Executive Director of Trinity Mirror plc since 2006. Laura will take up her appointment at a time and on terms to be confirmed.
Marc Bolland, M&S Chief Executive said, "I am delighted that Laura is joining the Executive Team. Her appointment is in line with the plans we announced last November to grow our multi-channel e-commerce business both in the UK and internationally. Laura brings a wealth of relevant experience to M&S and we are all very much looking forward to working with her."
Laura Wade-Gery said, "I am really looking forward to joining the team. M&S is an iconic brand, and has huge potential to develop a multi-channel offering for its customers"
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FundThrough places No. 54 on The Globe and Mail’s third-annual ranking of Canada’s Top Growing Companies
Toronto, ON-FundThrough is pleased to announce it placed No. 54 on the 2021 Report on Business ranking of Canada’s Top Growing Companies.
Canada’s Top Growing Companies ranks Canadian companies on three-year revenue growth. FundThrough earned its spot with three-year growth of 1,071%.
Propelling the rapid expansion are client relationships with other fast-growing companies; by enabling them to quickly receive cash for their outstanding invoices they skip waiting 30, 60, or 90 days for customers to pay. With FundThrough’s technology-backed invoice funding platform, companies control when they get paid without impacting customer payment terms so that their money is readily available to invest in their business.
“We’re excited and honoured to be included for the third year in a row,” said Steven Uster, FundThrough CEO. “What’s even more exciting is seeing clients on the list who worked with us to fund projects that they wouldn’t have had the cash to take on otherwise, and their growth as a result.”
Launched in 2019, the Canada’s Top Growing Companies editorial ranking aims to celebrate entrepreneurial achievement in Canada by identifying and amplifying the success of growth-minded, independent businesses in Canada. It is a voluntary program; companies had to complete an in-depth application process in order to qualify. In total, 448 companies earned a spot on this year’s ranking.
The full list of 2021 winners, and accompanying editorial coverage, is published in the October issue of Report on Business magazine—out now—and online.
“As we look toward the future, Canada’s Top Growing Companies offer both inspiration and practical insights for other firms facing similar challenges,” says James Cowan, Editor of Report on Business magazine. “The entrepreneurs behind these companies are smart, tenacious and unwavering in their commitment to their goals.”
“Any business leader seeking inspiration should look no further than the 448 businesses on this year’s Report on Business ranking of Canada’s Top Growing Companies,” says Phillip Crawley, Publisher and CEO of The Globe and Mail. “Their growth helps to make Canada a better place, and we are proud to bring their stories to our readers.”
About The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail is Canada’s foremost news media company, leading the national discussion and causing policy change through brave and independent journalism since 1844. With award-winning coverage of business, politics and national affairs, The Globe and Mail newspaper reaches 6.4 million readers every week in print or digital formats, and Report on Business magazine reaches 2 million readers in print and digital every issue. The Globe and Mail’s investment in innovative data science means that as the world continues to change, so does The Globe. The Globe and Mail is owned by Woodbridge, the investment arm of the Thomson family.
About The Globe and Mail
FundThrough is a leading player in the fintech small business working capital space. Based in Toronto, the company accelerates cash flow and enables growth. Its invoice funding platform re-imagines invoicing so that small- and medium-sized businesses can get paid instantly and eliminate “the wait” associated with customer payment terms. For more information, go to http://www.fundthrough.com.
See the Globe and Mail article here: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/adv/article-fundthroughs-cash-flow-solution-powers-many-of-canadas-top-growing/


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A federal appeals court nullified key provisions of the FCC’s net neutrality rules, opening the door today to a Wild West-style of internet delivery and allowing online-access providers to block content or applications as they see fit.
Archive for the ‘BitTorrent’ Category
- 1:01 PM
- 2:21 PM
Hollywood studios are urging theater operators to crack down on in-theater camcording with the deployment of night-vision goggles, low-light binoculars and security cameras. What’s more, the latest version of the Motion Picture Association of America’s “Best Practices to Prevent Film …
- 3:43 PM
The Motion Picture Association of America is always quick to swipe at Google for pointing to a plethora of pirate sites and torrent files via its popular search engine. Yet a month after the Hollywood studios released a study criticizing …
- 1:58 PM
The operator of the popular file-sharing service isoHunt, which the courts have declared a massive copyright scofflaw, is shutting down to settle a long-running lawsuit from the Motion Picture Association of America, according to court records.
- 8:26 PM
Using terms like “brazen conduct and relentless fraud,” a federal judge on Monday sanctioned attorneys running a BitTorrent copyright lawsuit factory, and recommended federal prosecutors investigate for potential criminal charges.


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Bira 91, India’s Largest Craft Beer Brand Has Raised $10 Billion from Japan’s MUFG Bank
Bira 91 is the fourth-largest beer company in India and holds a market share of 5 percent across key markets in India. MUFG bank has constantly invested in India’s businesses.
Bira 91, an Indian craft beer brand, stated on Friday that it has raised 10 billion USD from Japan’s largest bank, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Bank. The company will use the investments to improve its production, ramp up the supply, and enhance its innovative capabilities.
Executive officer Yasuhide Hayashi, MUFG Bank, has addressed the matter stating that the MUFG bank has constantly invested in India’s businesses. The Indian beer market is growing. The change has been owed to many factors, including the changing lifestyles of individuals, growing preference for alcoholic beverages, and rising awareness of consumers about premium and imported beer brands.
The investment was announced after the company recently acquired 70 million USD in a Series-D funding round, which has been organized by the company named Kirin Holdings Co.
Bira 91 is the fourth-largest beer company in India and holds a market share of 5 percent across key markets in India. The value has tripled to the pre-covid numbers.
The CEO of Bira 91, Ankur Jain, has talked about the investment sharing that they are excited to collaborate with MUFG bank. The bank is considered one of Japan’s largest banks and has a strong footprint. They believe that the collaboration could help Bira 91 acquire capital globally as the company continues with its growth journey.
Bira 91 comprises a manufacturing footprint of 2.5 million hectares with five manufacturing facilities.
Furthermore, the beer company has a strong presence across 550 towns and 19 countries globally.
Craft beer has been termed as a beer that is processed from high-quality ingredients and is not brewed by a major brewery corporation. The craft beer industry is still new in India and has 2 to 3 percent in the Indian beer industry. Analysis from the All India Brewers Association has stated that the craft beer industry is expected to attain a 20 percent year-on-year growth, which is comparatively higher than 5 to 7 percent in the overall beer market.
Last year, Bira 91 made a new acquisition of a UP-registered brewery company named Kamakhya Beer and Bottling Private Limited. The latter is a subsidiary company of Chattisgarh distilleries Private Limited. The acquisition was made in a share swap negotiation.
CDL is the largest liquor manufacturing company that owns prominent alcohol brands like India’s No. 1 Magnum, Whiskey, Red Indian Rum, and Palm Beach Whisky among others.
The startup has acquired CDL by convertible preference shares in exchange for 10,000 shares of Kamakhya Beer.
Bira 91 has stated that the acquisition will allow the New-Delhi based startup to increase its production and meet the increasing demands of consumers. However, they declined to share any further details about the acquisition.
Despite the pandemic, Bira 91 managed to reduce its loss in the fiscal year 2020-21 (FY21). Its loss fell 30% to INR 211 Cr in FY20, from INR 304.8 Cr last year. Revenue from operations fell 6.3% to INR 428.2 Cr in FY20, from INR 457 Cr. The drop in revenue could be attributed to the pandemic, as pubs, restaurants, and liquor stores were closed for the majority of the year due to lockdowns and other government measures to prevent the spread of Covid-19 infections.
Bira 91 is reportedly in talks with its existing investor, Japanese beverage firm Kirin Holdings, to raise $70 million in new funding.
Last year, the Japanese beverage company invested $30 million in Bira 91 for a 10% stake. According to valid news sources, Bira 91 plans to use the new funds to acquire breweries and launch new products. The acquisition of Kamakhya Beer from CDL appears to be the first of its kind.
Japan’s MUFG Bank is Open To Invest in Startups. Why Has Bira 91 made the Cut amidst Other Competitors?
MUFG has shared that the bank is open to investing in startups across different startups in any sector, industry, or stages from its MUFG Innovation Partners Garuda No. 1 Limited Investment Partnership Fund.
The Garuda Group introduced the 100 million USD funda to look out for prospective startups.
Bira 91 has emerged to be a successful brand in India. Surveys state that more than seven pints of the beers are enjoyed every single mark, and they have predicted the sales to double. The beer brand has emerged to become the most prominent brand amidst covid-19. The brand has tripled its market share since covid-19 and has become the largest FMCG brand in India. Given the data, Bira can prove to be a successful beer brand in the upcoming years.
Bira 91 has raised $210 million to date, with investors including Sequoia, Sixth Sense Partners, and Kirin Holdings. It competes in the country’s $5 billion beer market with Kingfisher, Tuborg, SABMiller India, Som Distilleries and Breweries Ltd, and Anheuser-Busch InBev, among others.
edited and proofread by nikita sharma


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Electric and hybrid vehicles combined accounted for more than half of all new cars sold in Norway last year (52 percent), confirming the country's pioneering role in low-carbon transport.
Zero-emission vehicles, i.e. mainly all-electric as well as a few hydrogen-powered cars, made up 20.9 percent of total sales in 2017, the Norwegian Road Federation (OFV) reported Wednesday.
Norway, the biggest oil producer in Western Europe, has set itself the ambitious goal of selling only zero-emission cars starting from 2025.
Sales of diesel vehicles fell rapidly in 2017 to 23 percent, from 31 percent in the previous year, OFV statistics showed. Some regions in Norway have started to charge higher road tolls for diesel cars than for petrol-driven vehicles.
Unlike diesel and gasoline cars, which are heavily taxed, owners of electric cars benefit from generous tax breaks, making EV purchase prices relatively competitive. Drivers enjoy a number of privileges such as free city tolls, ferries, parking, and recharging in public car parks, as well as having the right to use bus lanes.
Discussing Norway's long-term target, the secretary general of the Norwegian Electric Vehicle Association, Christina Bu, said "the 2025 goal is ambitious... we need to go from a 21-percent market share to 100 percent in seven years, which means we still have a way to go even though the increase compared with 2016 is satisfactory."
Demand for e-cars and hybrid vehicles in Norway so strong that manufacturers have been slow struggling with lengthy delivery times and a lack of models. That should change dramatically by 2025, with Volkswagen having promised that it will have dozens of new all-electric vehicle models on the market by then.
hg/nz (AFP, Reuters)


text: The pre-owned business jet market continues to be "very active" and there is renewed optimism for 2015, business aviation research firm JetNet noted in its full-year 2014 report. Though JetNet's data shows pre-owned business jet inventories deflating to 11 percent at the end of last year, down from 12.5 percent in December 2013, it continues to be a buyer's market. Notably, a new record of 2,569 pre-owned business jet retail transactions was set last year, besting the previous peak of 2,181 in 2007. Year-over-year retail transactions for used business jets surged by 8.1 percent in December, yet average asking prices for pre-owned business jets continued to slide, falling 10.4 percent from a year ago. Business turboprop and turbine helicopter inventories were unchanged from 2013 at 7.7 percent and 6.4 percent, respectively. However, JetNet said retail transactions for used turboprops slipped by 11.6 percent, and those for turbine helicopters dropped by 7.3 percent. Average asking prices for turboprops softened by 1.7 percent, while pricing for turbine helicopters firmed up by 0.7 percent.


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Liz Newman points out a cluster of totem poles along the Columbia River, adjacent to Marine Park at the Port of Kalama.
“The tallest in the U.S.,” she says of an eagle-topped pole. Then Newman checks herself. It might not be the tallest; someone told her one in California may be a tad taller. But the single-log totem pole, some 140 feet tall and crafted in the 1960s by Don Lelooska, an American Indian, is an impressive sight nonetheless. The poles were recently freshened up and treated to extend their longevity as a port monument. Newman likes to tell the story of the volunteers who braved a wind storm and the poles heights to reattach the eagle’s wings at the project’s completion, cringing as she thinks of dangling that high in the air.
As marketing manager for the seven-mile long Port of Kalama, Newman has been pointing out the totem pole and telling its story to a number of prospective port tenants since January.
According to Newman, most of the uptick in interest at the port has come on the heels of the 20-year Columbia River dredging project, which finished in December at a cost of some $200 million. The port now has four deep-draft marine terminals that can dock 43-foot draft ships, explained Newman, adding that the deepening has increased vessel capacity by about 10 percent.
Already expanding on the heels of the dredging is Kalama Export Company, which is investing $36 million in its grain export operation at the port. Kalama Export Company, a partnership with Archer Daniels Midland Company, Gavilon Grain and Agrex, declined an interview request. But a recent press release states that the expansion will add 25 percent to the company’s throughput. Most of the grains – corn, soybeans, wheat and milo – are destined for Asian markets.
Kalama Export Company’s expansion, and the expansion of several other grain companies along the river, is good news for the port of Kalama and for Washington’s economy, according to Eric Johnson, executive director of the Washington Public Ports Association.
“The United States has a lot bulk agricultural commodities and bulk minerals, and the world’s hungry for it,” Johnson said.
Also at the Port of Kalama, Cenex Harvest States operates a grain elevator that’s port-owned. Between the two companies, more than 11 million tons of grain is exported annually.
While Kalama Export Company owns the site it operates from, the port typically leases building and land space, and hopes to develop a 70-acre parcel adjacent to Kalama Export that also has wharf permitting and access to railroad. Bare land leases for $10,000 an acre.
In addition, the port has new office and warehouse space. Stopping at a brand new, three-year-old building in an industrial park with views of The Columbia River and access to a walking trail, Newman explained that the 33,000 square-foot warehouse space could be leased as-is or divided into three spaces. Fronting the building is 2,000 feet of office space with tile floors and an executive office with a river view. The warehouses are heated and insulated; warehouse space leases for 35 cents per square foot; office space leases for $1 per square foot.
“Our mission is to create jobs, capital investment and create recreational opportunities,” Newman said.
To that end, the port is buzzing. Some 900 people are employed at the Port of Kalama. And with an economic uptick, the river dredging project complete and the absence of property tax at the port – the port is able to collect property tax, but chooses not to in an effort to attract industry and tenants. Knowing this, Newman feels certain that more businesses will open shop soon.
While the port’s export companies vary, shipping grain, steel, lumber, chemicals and more, there’s also a sprinkling of retail establishments and Mountain Homes, a log home manufacturer.
On the recreation front, the port is finishing a playground project at five-acre Marine Park, with the addition of more play equipment to go along with volleyball pits, horseshoe pits and covered pavilions. A 1.8 mile walking trail links the area together and fishermen can be seen along the shoreline or in boats.
The port will also have a new administration building soon. Its recent building design request for proposal netted 25 responses. Newman said construction should begin next year.
On the retail end of things there’s Cabin Fever, a cabin décor store where Tucker, a Labrador, greets visitors with a tail wag. Donna Bergeron, who’s owned and operated Cabin Fever for seven years, said business is still in flux after the economic downturn.
Inside Cabin Fever you’ll find a number of rustic items, including deer antler lights and tables (which fetch between $1,000 and $3,000), agate lampshades and salvaged pier tables. Bergeron said she’s hopeful that sales numbers, which are still fluctuating, will even out soon.
Even with unsteady retail numbers, Bergeron said her location at the port and just off of Interstate Five, spurs her business. Most of her customers hail from Seattle, she said. And all enjoy the tail wags of Tucker, a cup of coffee (she sells it at the register, but usually offers it to shoppers for free) and the artist-crafted works in her store.
“Every last piece is a work of art,” Bergeron added.


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The founder of Xiaomi lei Jun (Lei Jun) presented the top favorite smartphones. This publication reports MyDrivers, citing the social network of the entrepreneur.
My favorite apparatus is the CEO of the company called Xiaomi Mi MIX 2. According to him, the device is the first on the market, which has received a ceramic body. To create the material subjected to roasting in a furnace at a temperature of 1400 degrees Celsius for seven days. The second phone in the top of the head Xiaomi was the flagship of 2017 Xiaomi Mi 6, which he praised for the coating of glass, are integrated in a stainless steel frame.
A third device Jun called released in early 2020 Xiaomi Mi Pro 10. According to him, the company has sought to produce high-quality flagship at an affordable price.
Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro is an improved version of the flagship Mi 10 submitted in mid-February. The device has at 6.67-inch Super AMOLED display, Snapdragon 865, built-in memory format UFS 3.0, a camera with four sensors resolution 108, 13, 2 and 2 megapixels. Cost Mi 10 in Russia is 70 thousand rubles.