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WILKES-BARRE - State Sen. John Yudichak says he thinks Gov. Tom Corbett's proposal for liquor privatization could put small family-owned beer distributors out of business.
Yudichak, D-Plymouth Township, joined David Shipula, owner of Beer Super in Wilkes-Barre - whose family has been in the beer distribution business for 63 years - Friday to discuss the consequences for private sector businesses and jobs from the governor's plan. Their press conference was held shortly after Corbett was in Scranton pushing for his proposal to privatize the state-run wine and spirit stores.
Under the governor's proposal, the state's 600 state-owned liquor stores would shut down, with about 1,200 wine and spirit licenses auctioned off and additional licenses available for supermarkets, convenience stores and big-box retailers.
Corbett's plan would allow supermarkets and big-box retailers such as Walmart to sell beer and wine and convenience stores to sell beer. The governor proposes using the projected $1 billion raised from auctioning off the state's wine and liquor licenses to help public schools.
But Yudichak said Corbett's proposal will negatively impact more than 1,200 beer distributors in Pennsylvania that employ more than 3,600 people, generate more than $1 billion in taxes and create $3 billion in economic activity.
"They're going to be forced to compete with the big-box retailers, the big chains, the Walmarts of the world, in selling alcohol," Yudichak said. "In every state that has gone and privatized over the last few decades, big corporations, the Walmarts of the world, have come to dominate the alcohol business, forcing out the small mom-and-pops."
Shipula, former Hanover Area school board member and past president of the Malt Beverage Distributors Association of Pennsylvania, said the majority of beer distributors in the state are small family-owned businesses that have been following the liquor board's rules for decades. The state's strict rules include not being allowed to have more than one store or sell six-packs, Shipula said.
Yudichak said the rules are "archaic" and the current private liquor system in Pennsylvania should be modernized. Small distributors will not be able to compete with the "big guys," he said.
"The distributors have worked in Pennsylvania and have generated a tremendous amount of economic impact and tax revenue," Yudichak said. "To throw that system away on the promise of a one-time $1 billion windfall does not add up. I'm very concerned about what that's going to mean to the small businesses in Pennsylvania. They've done it right for 70 years and we've handcuffed their businesses with archaic rules. Let's take the handcuffs off."
Yudichak and Shipula also said increasing the number of outlets that sell alcohol will lead to more crime.
"Where you have a proliferation of small spirit stores that are really one-man shops, there's an increase in crime," Yudichak said. "There's an increase in problems."


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They are already available within Overwatch summer games, a way to pay tribute to the Olympic games that start is night in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro.
With this event we can meet to get over one hundred new cosmetic items that will be available until 22 August, all what you get will be part of our inventory forever, but those objects that we have not succeeded in the date limit will disappear and there will be no way to get it.
But this is not the only change since with the summer games becomes Overwatch Luciobol, a sport similar to soccer where you will face three against three, and the stadium will be packed with jump platforms and walls that amplify the speed of the characters, with all this the team that scores more goals wins.
Here is the video presentation of the summer games so you know what you can find already in Overwatch:
The summer games are now available on all platforms, i.e., Playstation 4, Xbox One and PC and will last until August 22, so don’t miss the time and head on over to get all of the new items.

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Founded: 1998, Warren
For years, Kuhnhenn has been the small Warren brewery with the big awards. This year, that’s about to change. The winners of two gold medals from the World Beer Cup, and a gold, silver, and bronze from the Great American Beer Festival are scheduled to open a new facility in Clinton Township this month, complete with a new tasting room, an outdoor beer garden, and (hopefully!) more Kuhnhenn in stores.
Key Beers: Bourbon Barrel Barley Wine, Bourbon Barrel Fourth Dementia, Double Rice IPA (DRIPA), Michigan Mud, Raspberry Eisbock, Simcoe Silly


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This excerpt taken from the LPL 6-K filed Dec 11, 2006.
LG.Philips LCD Issues Statement
Seoul, Korea (December 11, 2006) - LG.Philips LCD [NYSE: LPL, KRX: 034220], today made the following statement:
Last Friday, as part of an investigation of possible anticompetitive conduct in the LCD industry, officials from the Korean Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) visited the offices of LG.Philips LCD in Seoul, Korea. In addition, the Japanese Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) issued a notice to our offices in Tokyo, Japan and the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a subpoena to our offices in San Jose, California.
LG.Philips LCD takes this matter very seriously and will cooperate fully with regulatory authorities. While these investigations continue, LG.Philips LCD is committed to running its business as usual, supplying its global customer base with the highest quality products.


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In a beverage purchasing landscape that has transformed over the past two years, how are alcoholic beverage providers, large and small, emerging and established, faring? This was a focal point of this year Bar Convent Brooklyn (BCB), held June 14-15 at Industry City, which hosted over 3,800 attendees and 163 exhibitors over the two-day event.
Prioritizing sustainable practices, creating a more diverse, fair, and inclusive beverage industry, and understanding and investing in e-commerce were already part of the alcohol beverage conversation before the pandemic, however, these issues have accelerated in recent years. years – and brand owners and operators can no longer ignore them. BCB’s educational seminars and panels offered new insights and real-world lessons for alcohol supplier success in an ever-changing landscape.
Make the most of digital channels
Unsurprisingly, many Bar Convent Brooklyn discussions focused on the growing importance of e-commerce and how to best leverage digital tools and transactions. “The age of transition is here,” said Tim Angelillo, CEO of cocktail kit delivery company Sourced Craft Cocktails, during a seminar titled “Rethinking Channel Strategy Post-Pandemic.”
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The added value of “non-premise,” as Angelillo calls it, is the amount of consumer data brands can capture with their digital transactions. “We’re not trying to replace the bar,” he added. “We try to make the bar a better experience for the consumer because [the brands] know what she drinks when she goes to the bar. Here’s how to use data to your advantage.
But to put that data to good use, brands must first understand how to capture that data. Digitizing bar and restaurant menus, for example, makes it possible to analyze not only the types of cocktails offered by a given establishment, but also who owns and distributes the spirits on the menu; this can tell an emerging brand if they are likely to be successful in securing placement in that bar.
During a seminar entitled “Unleashing the value of virtual”, Andrew Levy, senior vice president of strategic partnerships at B2B ecommerce marketplace Provided (the parent company of SevenFifty Daily), noted that the proliferation of digital alcohol markets has made advertising data more accessible. Unlike traditional advertising platforms, digital advertising offers data that can provide insight into the impact of campaigns. “With the old media campaigns, there was no measure of return on investment,” said Sara Harmelin, vice president of digital innovation at Group of allied beverages. “[Suppliers] can get accurate feedback through online marketing.
But this shift to non-premise also means brands need to fully invest in digital channels. “Walk down the digital aisle, own your product image, and make sure your branded content is available in the format you want,” Levy said.
Focus on sustainability, from start to finish
Sustainability was a priority from the start; BCB collaborated with Barr’s Hill to offset the 73,000 square foot physical footprint of the event by planting the equivalent images of new pollinator habitat. But several seminars have also been held on sustainability initiatives in the industry, with a focus on how brands can adapt to the escalating climate crisis and become proactive in bringing about much-needed change. Like Steph Jordan, the founder of the bee Spirits of Avallensaid: “It’s important that we understand as an industry that we have to be part of the solution.”
The “Sustainable Future of Beverage” seminar detailed how panelists like good vodka co-founder Mark Byrne and dairy distillery founder Omar Mcdonald has built sustainable spirits brands by reusing sugar-based waste from other industries for distillation. Byrne described the company’s seven-year journey to source and redirect sugar-rich waste from a coffee farm in Colombia to their distillery in New York. “The benefit is that each bottle eliminates such a volume of waste that it compensates for a 40-mile car journey,” he said.
“People often think that using waste has no economic value, but it does,” added Mcdonald, whose Vodkow is made with unused milk permeate from a dairy in Italy. Ontario. “We get our dairy product for free. We don’t have to pay for our sugar. This is how you can have both economic and environmental benefits.
Another general objective of the panels was to rethink packaging and transport. For example, a simple solution to reducing a brand’s carbon footprint is to bottle as close to the point of sale as possible, which may involve bulk shipping, using services such as EcoSPIRITS, which also exhibited at the BCB – then to find satellite bottling plants, to avoid shipping a heavy product consisting mainly of water. Jordan pointed out that it can also be economically advantageous in terms of taxation. Panelists on “A Farm To Glass Model—Putting Growers and Products at the Center of the Customer Experience” added to this, suggesting that restaurateurs adopt a model of sourcing from local suppliers to both drive local economy and reduce carbon emissions.
Foster diversity and put people first
With social justice now at the heart of the national conversation, how to implement an agenda that promotes human sustainability was also widely discussed. Speaking at the “Lost in Transformation—How to Create a Business Model for the Future of the Industry” conference, Andrew and Brianna Volk described their bar’s fair business model, The Portland Hunt + Alpine Club, which provides employees with insurance and welfare benefits, a for-profit training program and regular training. How do they do?
“The honest answer is that we raised our prices,” Andrew Volk said. However, as several panels remind us, transparency is paramount. In their case, they are open about their pricing, compensation structure, and policies to let customers know what the extra dollars pay. The Volks were joined by Mika Ammunet, who opened the same week bar mate in Helsinki, Finland, where he is testing a form ofconscious hospitalitycharacterized by collective leadership. “When you take away the hierarchy, the usual design is that you get anarchy,” he said, “but really you need different kinds of structures.”
In recent years, the beverage industry has strived to become more diverse, fair and inclusive, but how far have these initiatives really changed the industry as a whole? “We are at such an early stage,” said Kamuti Kiteme, managing director of inclusive investment programs at Distill the companies, during the event “Is Our Focus on Diversity in Drinks Working?” ” sign. “It’s about trying [to be more diverse and inclusive], and on this journey there will be failures and uncomfortable conversations. It’s part of the process.
Panelists argued that a lack of transparency is holding back collective industry efforts, urging companies to be open about the status of their diversity journey, even if they are not as advanced as they think they are. would like. “When people see other people making mistakes, they say, ‘Okay, I can build on this,'” said Jomaree Pinkard, CEO and co-founder of Hella Cocktail Co. “There are so few [in terms of results] we can indicate, and it is not representative of what is happening. People aren’t transparent because they’re too scared.
Tuan Lee, CEO and co-founder of the canned craft cocktail brand Vervet, recommended that companies create and publish a diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) dashboard to “know where you are” in the journey; Vervet’s dashboard (which Lee hopes to release soon) tracks the diversity of its full-time employees and freelancers, as well as supplier ownership and sustainability practices.
But it’s up to the beverage industry as a whole to ensure companies are held accountable for their promises. “Companies won’t be transparent if we don’t ask for transparency,” said Lia Jones, executive director of Diversity in food and beverages, noting that many companies are willing to publicly pledge money to DEI programs, announce internal DEI initiatives, or create scholarships, but few track the results of those pledges. “As a community, we need to act [to hold the industry accountable].”


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16 Nov 2017 - Sales of Anchor UHT milk were particularly strong and the brand was the leading imported UHT product across all online sales platforms during the sales window. Double 11 is characterised by deep-discounting and wide-ranging promotions, generating a level of hype similar to a holiday festival in China. According to data from Syntun, China’s 16 largest e-commerce merchants achieved a combined RMB 254 billion (NZD $55.1 billion) in sales this year during the period, up 43 per cent on last year’s total.
President of Fonterra Greater China Christina Zhu said Fonterra’s strong growth on last year reflects the strategic partnerships that the Co-operative has been building with China’s e-commerce giants.
“Forming win-win relationships with the major platforms has been a point of focus for us over the past 12 months,” said Ms Zhu. “We’ve gotten closer to Alibaba and its Tmall platform, demonstrated by how we secured a feature spot on the platform’s homepage in the lead up to November 11. We’ve also developed a good relationship with JD.com, having been identified as one of the platform’s strategic growth partners in the dairy category.”
Fonterra’s Vice President of Brands in Greater China, Chester Cao, said that the Co-operative took a different approach to this year’s sales period, which was the fifth time Fonterra had taken part.
“We were pleased to offer a much broader portfolio of product to consumers this year,” said Mr Cao. “In addition to our strong-selling Anchor UHT and powder products, Anlene and Anmum, we were also able to push our new premium and organic Anchor range and our Anchor Dairy Foods range of cream, cheese and butter.
“For us, it’s much more than just a window to sell more product than usual,” said Mr Cao. “With high levels of online traffic, it’s a real chance for us to reach a greater number of consumers with our brand and educate them about the goodness of our dairy. Given this, we had a strong focus on investing in the right media channels by using a data-driven approach, and creating engaging content for a range of different online and social channels. This approach paid off, as we had more than 30 million consumers visiting our online stores.”
Fonterra has flagship stores for Anchor, Anmum, Anlene products and has partnerships with eight major e-commerce platforms, including front-runners Tmall and JD.com as well as other companies such as Suning and Yihaodian.
China’s e-commerce market is far-and-away the world’s largest and an estimated USD $800 billion is set to be spent this calendar year according to figures from McKinsey & Company. This matches the market size of the next six largest countries combined: the United States, United Kingdom, Japan, Germany, Korea, and France. Growth is set to continue, with a compound annual growth rate of 18 per cent expected between 2016 and 2018.
“We are excited by the future of e-commerce,” said Mr Cao. “While some categories like electronics or apparel are starting to show signs of maturity, the fresh and packaged food categories have very low online penetration rates by comparison, so there is a lot of room for growth and we’re positioning ourselves well to capture it.”
16 Nov 2017 - Foreign Minister’s APEC and EAS visit. Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister the Rt Hon Winston Peters returns to New Zealand overnight following a visit to Viet Nam and the Philippines where he attended the APEC Meetings in Da Nang, and the East Asia Summit in Manila. “My first visit to these two major regional summits as Foreign Minister provided a valuable opportunity to be reacquainted with counterparts who I have previously met, and to have introductory meetings with Foreign Ministers from a significant number of countries where New Zealand has strong economic and strategic interests”, Mr Peters said.
Across both summits, Mr Peters had formal meetings with the Foreign Ministers of eleven countries, including Australia, China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Lao Peoples’ Democratic Republic, Papua New Guinea, Russia, Singapore, Thailand, Viet Nam, and the United States.
Additionally, Mr Peters met informally with Foreign Ministers from a range of other countries, including Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Indonesia and Malaysia. Mr Peters also accompanied the Prime Minister the Rt Hon Jacinda Ardern to meetings with her counterparts.
“The visit allowed me to participate in discussions on the big issues facing the Asia‑Pacific region, including the threat posed by North Korea’s actions, the territorial disputes in the South China Sea, the challenge of countering terrorism in South East Asia, and the conflict and resulting humanitarian crisis in Myanmar’s Rakhine State”, Mr Peters said.
Mr Peters also launched a new phase of New Zealand Official Development Assistance supporting the development of Viet Nam’s dragon fruit industry. In the Philippines, the Minister also announced a new phase of New Zealand assistance to support agriculture‑based livelihoods and agribusiness in Mindanao.
Mr Peters also confirmed the appointment of New Zealand Honorary‑Consuls to Davao and Cebu, further strengthening New Zealand’s relationship with the Philippines.
16 Nov 2017 - The NZ deer industry has agreed to support one of South Korea’s largest pharmaceutical companies in its plans to develop and market a product with proven health benefits based on NZ deer velvet. The Chief Executive of Yuhan Corporation Mr Jung Hee Lee, and the Chief Executive of Deer Industry New Zealand (DINZ), Mr Dan Coup, this morning signed a memorandum of understanding in Wellington, witnessed by the Minister of Agriculture Damien O’Connor and the Ambassador for the Republic of Korea, Mr Seung-bae Yeo.
Mr Lee said Yuhan’s objective is to successfully develop, register and market a health food product containing scientifically validated components of New Zealand deer velvet.
“This will be a world-first. In recent years a number of Korean companies have developed easy-to-consume formulations of traditional herbal products based on deer velvet, but none have commissioned supporting research in New Zealand to the same level of detail that Yuhan will do,” he said.
“AgResearch and Yuhan scientists will be working together to build on existing scientific knowledge. AgResearch is recognised internationally for its knowledge of velvet processing techniques, the composition of deer velvet and the potential health benefits.”
Mr Coup says DINZ and Yuhan have a shared interest in the registration of NZ deer velvet as a health food.
“If this is achieved it will further strengthen the reputation of NZ deer velvet as a natural, safe and quality food ingredient in Korea.”
He says DINZ will work with Yuhan to help promote the “New Zealand velvet story” and support the successful launch of its velvet products where appropriate.
“The two parties may also co-fund some specific areas of research and marketing activities, but these will be subject to separate agreements.”
Ms Ashley Kyung-in Chung, head of Yuhan’s food and health marketing team, said the company would be investing a minimum of $1.5 million on research with AgResearch and had budgeted for the substantial costs involved in registering a functional food claim and taking a product to market.
She said Yuhan had chosen New Zealand as the source of velvet because of the country’s transparency on three fronts – the farming environment, animal welfare and the traceable and hygienic supply chain.
“Yuhan is one of the most respected companies in Korea – consumers trust us and trust our partners. We travel the world looking for ingredients that are produced in systems as close to nature as possible and where animals are treated with care – that’s why we have come to New Zealand. Velvet from other countries does not have the same standards as New Zealand.”
As part of its market positioning, Yuhan has also signed an agreement with Alpine Deer Group.
“In our marketing we will be using images and videos of one of Alpine’s iconic high-country deer stations that will be one of our main sources of velvet. Our marketing materials will strongly reflect our connection with New Zealand as both the source of our velvet as well as the technology we are using to bring innovative velvet-based products to the market,” Ms Chung said.
Yuhan Corporation was established as a health company in 1926 by Dr Ilhan New. Today it is one of South Korea’s largest pharmaceutical companies, formulating and marketing high quality and innovative health products.
Yuhan’s 2016 sales turnover was approximately US$1.18 billion. Approximately 9% of its revenue was reinvested into research and development.
Yuhan’s mission is to create a balanced portfolio of health food products and supplements from the most natural sources for every life stage. Yuhan has been awarded the most respected company title in South Korea for the last 14 consecutive years (2017).
Yuhan has 220 highly trained scientists involved in product development and commercialisation.
For more information on Yuhan Corporation, refer to www.yuhan.co.kr
Deer Industry New Zealand (DINZ) is a marketing authority established by the Deer Industry New Zealand Regulations 2004 pursuant to the Primary Products Marketing Act 1953. Functions of DINZ relevant to the MOU with Yuhan are:
a. to promote and assist the development of the deer industry in New Zealand b. to assist in the organisation and development of the marketing of products derived from deer c. to assist in the development of existing and new markets for products derived from deer.
DINZ works closely with New Zealand’s leading Crown Research Institute, AgResearch, and has a joint venture partnership with AgResearch called Velvet Antler Research New Zealand (VARNZ).
15 Nov 2017 - Paints supplier DuluxGroup is reviewing the future of its underperforming business in China but is set to launch into the Indonesian market. Paint supplier DuluxGroup may consider pulling out of its joint-venture business in China as its paints brand struggles but has flagged higher hopes for Indonesia, with plans to start selling some its Selleys products into the growing market there.
DuluxGroup lifted profit by 9.6 per cent to $142.9 million for the year to September 30, and said on Wednesday it expects to deliver an even better result in the year ahead.
Strong growth in the group's Dulux Australia-New Zealand business contributed the bulk of earnings, driven by positive markets and good margin management, and Selleys Australia and New Zealand also lifted.
But earnings from DuluxGroup's "other businesses" segment, which includes the Yates garden care range, PNG, south-east Asia, and China's DGL Camel paints business fell because of a weaker Camel result.
DuluxGroup managing director Patrick Houlihan says DuluxGroup's China business generates about $50 million in revenue, or about three per cent of group revenue.
The China business comprises Camel paints, which is the largest part, and the Selleys range.
Camel and Selleys are profitable in Hong Kong, and Selley's has prospects for success on mainland China, but the Camel paints business has struggled from lack of scale and lack of brand awareness and delivered a poor result in fiscal 2017.
The Camel paints joint-venture started in 2012.
"We just don't have the competitive ratio (with Camel)," Mr Houlihan told reporters on Wednesday
"We doing a strategic review of that business at the moment, particularly the coatings (Camel) portion of it.
"As to what that concludes, I won't pre-empt."
Mr Houlihan said Indonesia has good prospects.
DuluxGroup is partnering with Avian Paints, one of the largest paint companies in Indonesia, to sell some of the Selleys adhesives and sealants range starting in mid-2018.
Mr Houlihan said the joint-venture with Avian has the potential to ultimately access about 40,000 retail hardware outlets in a large and growing market.
"It's going to take a few years to build - this won't be transformative overnight," Mr Houlihan said.
"Over the short term, it will really be about launching in quite a considered matter, portions of the range, one at a time."
DuluxGroup expects its Australia-New Zealand business to remain resilient in the year ahead with its core markets - home renovation, housing construction and commercial markets - forecast to provide solid growth in 2018.
DuluxGroup also said its new paint factory in Merrifield in Melbourne is schedule to begin commercial production in the first half of the 218 financial year and will support the company for decades to come.
Shares in DuluxGroup were 20 cents, or 2.6 per cent, higher at $7.74 at 1117 AEDT.
DULUX LIFTS ANNUAL PROFIT, DIVIDEND
* Full-year profit up 9.6pct to $142.9m
* Revenue up 4pct to $1.8b
* Fully-franked final dividend of 13.5cps, up from 12.5 cents
14 Nov 2017 - Former Prime Minister Sir John Key spoke to a crowd of 350 at the launch party of professional services firm K3 last Thursday night. he event at Auckland’s Maritime Room celebrated the establishment of K3, a professional services firm which brings together legal, accounting and consulting services under one roof. With more than half of K3’s Legal team fluent in Mandarin and the firm’s extensive links with the Chinese community, Sir John spoke at length about New Zealand’s relationship with China.
“As PM I went to China seven times and everyone knows that I’m a massive China fan. I think the opportunities are enormous, the country is amazing, and the leadership is doing extremely well,” said Sir John, who noted he arrived at the K3 event in an Uber, not a Crown car.
Challenging convention was a subject also covered by K3 Directors Mark Kirkland and Marcus Morrison who spoke about how K3 is looking at business differently, and their desire to make a genuine difference to New Zealand businesses.
“Professional services firms have been run in the same way for generations. But the market has changed extremely rapidly so we think that traditional model needs to change too. Businesses today want a greater depth and breadth of service that is outcome oriented. Our goal is to become New Zealand’s most trusted professional service firm,” said Morrison.
Reflecting on his time as Prime Minister, Sir John said while he has no wish to be PM now, he is extremely grateful for the time he had as leader of New Zealand
“One of the things you can do when you’re Prime Minister is you can shape the country and you really can make a difference. Hopefully [during] the time I was there, we were able, as a government, to economically put New Zealand on a much stronger footing.
“Whatever you think of the world, I reckon most people get up in the morning and they don’t want to be dependent on the state and they do want to look after themselves, they do want to look after their family and they have a lot of personal pride,” said Sir John, to much applause from the audience.
He’d been doing a lot of travelling and had realised New Zealanders tended to overestimate how much other countries knew about “a country of 4.8 million at the bottom of the planet. New Zealand has an amazing reputation but, man, we have to keep fighting for our place in the world.”
The impact of technology was covered by Sir John, who recalled a recent incident at an Under Armour store in China, where he wanted to buy a pair of Jordan Speith golf shoes. At the counter he tried to pay for the shoes using AMEX, Visa, Mastercard and even cash, all of which were rejected by the salesperson.
“So I said, what do you take? And she said, WeChat or Alipay, and that’s it, that was the only thing they accepted. There’s a lot happening in the world that’s really changing. If you look at China, they have some of the most impressive leadership that you’ll find and they’re developing some of the most amazing technology.” He said China’s tech industry was out-stripping Silicon Valley and predicted it would be well ahead of the USA in a decade.
Although Sir John avoided talking specifically about the new coalition government, he did allude to it. “There’s a lot of rhetoric out there that’s anti-migration, anti-investment, anti-trade. But we have to back ourselves to succeed and not be afraid of people coming to New Zealand, don’t be afraid about foreign capital coming in to our companies, don’t be afraid about engaging in free trade deals. If we buy into the Trump rhetoric, we’re going in the wrong direction,” he said.
14 Nov 2017 - The Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand maintains its strong opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA). “The Green Party has long opposed the TPPA. The new proposed deal, which came out of the weekend’s talks, still contains key ISDS concessions to corporations that put our democracy at risk, so our position remains the same,” said Green Party trade spokesperson Golriz Ghahraman.
“We support fair trade that brings real benefit to all New Zealanders – not trade deals that put our rights and our Government’s ability to legislate to protect our people and our environment at risk.
“ISDS mechanisms are a particular threat to environmental protections, with 85% of ISDS cases being brought by corporations focused on exploiting the environment and natural resources.
“The Green Party will be seeking to introduce new measures that require all trade agreements in the future to be part of the solution to climate change, global and local inequality and the protection of human rights.
“Standing in opposition to the TPPA does not make a difference to our relationship with Labour. Indeed it is a sign of the strength of that relationship that we can respectfully disagree on an important issue like the TPPA but still get on with the business of government.
“We made it clear to Labour in negotiations that we cannot support the TPPA, and they understand our policy difference.
“We will continue to use our position in Government to fight for better trade agreements that protect the interests of people and the planet, not just corporations,” said Ms Ghahraman.
13 Nov 2017 - Recent changes to the TPP agreement, now called CPTPP, appear to be a step forward, particularly with the potential removal of some of the more controversial parts, such as Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) clauses. Yet, we need to remind ourselves that the primary target of these FTAs is the reduction of tariffs, providing benefits to our primary commodity exporters, but little relief to our high value manufacturers, who frequently encounter obstacles to free trade in the form of non-tariff barriers.
“Non-tariff barriers are the ‘dirty little secrets’ rarely written into trade agreements, but a matter of daily practice far away from glamorous trade talks. And probably, just as harmful to local manufacturers is the almost complete lack of enforcement of product standards in our domestic markets, allowing imported goods to trade on a price advantage. Not to mention government procurement practices that in most cases pay lip service only to the principle of giving local manufacturers a fair chance, says Mr Dieter Adam, CE, The Manufacturers’ Network.
“The removal of some of the contentious parts of the previous agreement is a positive move from the Government, giving the eventual agreement broader support in New Zealand. However, we know from past experience that the really hard work starts once the agreement comes into force, in working to remove the non-tariff barriers that form the biggest challenges for high-value manufacturers making the most of the markets involved, says Mr Adam.
“Quality trade agreements are a vital component of improving our export competitiveness, especially when non-tariff barriers that effect manufacturers are properly addressed. We cannot ignore the fact, however, that in spite of a string of recent FTAs, such as the China and Korean FTAs, the share of exports in GDP has been dropping over the past decade, rather than growing by 25% - the goal the previous Government had set itself not long after coming into power in 2008. As the new Government is rightly pointing out, New Zealand’s future prosperity can only be secured by significantly growing our exports of high-value products and services. And one of the key preconditions for that lies in improving our productivity, which has lagged through successive governments. Improving productivity and thus increasing our ability to create high-value goods and services is where the new Government should focus.
“The other critical enabler to a more balanced approach to growth in our economy is a more favourable and fair exchange rate, especially against the Australian Dollar, given that Australia is a key market for our manufacturing exports. And in that context comments made by the Acting Governor of the RBNZ, Grant Spencer, at the November MPS press conference that “We’re happy with this [the current] level of our currency, it’s in the vicinity of fair value” are certainly not helpful and point to a change from recent RBNZ statements under Graeme Wheeler, setting around 60 cents as a target rate. It will be interesting to see the response of the new Government to this new assessment of ‘fair value’ by the RBNZ. Addressing our exchange rate, which has remained significantly above trends in the previous decade, need to be part of the discussion in the upcoming review and appointment of a new Governor, said Mr Adam.
| A The Manufacturiers Network release || November 13, 2017 |||
13 Nov 2017 - The 2017 ExportNZ DHL Export Barometer released today shows Kiwi exporters are feeling confident and expecting orders to increase over the next 12 months, Business New Zealand says.
Optimism is very positive with 71% of New Zealand exporters expecting international orders to increase - this is a jump from 63% in 2016.
The research shows that overall 2017 has been a good year, with just over half (55%) of exporters achieving an increase in international orders.
While the survey was carried out prior to the election, ongoing political support for the export environment will be crucial to ensure Kiwi businesses achieve the perceived upcoming boost to orders.
Exporters responding to the survey cited several key ways in which assistance from the New Zealand Government could help their business. Research and development assistance came out top at 26%, closely followed by help attending trade shows with other NZ companies, and more free trade agreements (both 25%).
ExportNZ executive director Catherine Beard said: "The results show that trading with the USA has increased significantly over the past year, with more than half of Kiwi exporters sending orders to the USA and over half (55%) seeing the Trump administration as having a neutral impact on exports, while 41% thought it had a negative impact on exports,” Beard added.
"The fact that R&D has been flagged up as a key area for assistance is significant as more than half (52%) of exporters developed new products and services in a bid to boost export orders. Innovation can be a powerful tool for overcoming the ‘strength of competition in overseas markets’, which is the number one concern among exporters (42%).
Online commerce holds steady The 2017 ExportNZ DHL Export Barometer shows that while some exporters have embraced online commerce, not much has changed in the last two years.
One-fifth of exporters generate more than half of their international orders online, including 6% who generate all export orders this way. There is still plenty of room for growth as 26% said that none of their export orders are generated online.
DHL Express NZ country manager Mark Foy said: "Online commerce is a massive growth area for Kiwi exporters with huge potential to reach international audiences. Currently most businesses, 80%, are only spending one-fifth of their marketing budget online.
"Social media holds much untapped potential to reach overseas consumers looking for innovative and unique goods. However, 68% of companies say they do not use social media to generate orders or enquiries."
While Australia remains by far our number one trading partner (72%), we are shifting towards the ever-growing China (30%) and away from our traditional chief trading partner, the UK (26%), post-Brexit.
A joint initiative between ExportNZ and DHL, a total of 379 New Zealand exporters were surveyed for the ExportNZ DHL Export Barometer 2017.
13 Nov 2017 - After a few fraught days, the TPP was given new life. However, the struggles to get the deal across the line and other issues at the Apec summit raise questions about obstacles to multilateral trade and what that means for New Zealand, as Sam Sachdeva reports. The ideological battle for the future of Asia-Pacific trade played out on the big screen at Da Nang.
Of course, there was the stuttering, stumbling, but ultimately successful (or near enough) negotiations to reach agreement on the TPP (now known as the CPTPP - the Comprehensive and Progressive agreement for the Trans-Pacific Partnership).
While the New Zealand team was cautiously hailing the outcome, other events at the Apec summit may have given them cause for concern when it comes to multilateralism.
In his speech to the Apec CEO’s Summit, US President Donald Trump railled against what he saw as unfair trading arrangements, saying the US had “not been treated fairly” by the WTO and other countries had not reciprocated the favours extended by his country.
While the US was open to bilateral agreements with any Asia-Pacific country, he made no bones about its approach to multilateralism.
“What we will no longer do is enter into large agreements that tie our hands, surrender our sovereignty, and make meaningful enforcement practically impossible.”
Worryingly, there are some concerns about whether Trump wants to kill the WTO: an article in the New York Times suggested American negotiators had warned their Mexican and Canadian counterparts that they could not expect their trade to “simply snap back to WTO rules” if the US leaves NAFTA.
12 Nov 2017 - Minister for Trade and Export Growth David Parker has welcomed the 11-member Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) which incorporates the TPP. A Ministerial Statement has been issued today by all eleven Ministers in Da Nang, Viet Nam, which confirms the core elements of the deal are now agreed, with just four issues requiring further technical work and discussion.
"My Ministerial counterparts and I also agreed this week to suspend a number of the most controversial parts of the of the original TPP in the new Agreement,” says Minister Parker.
“At the same time, there will be no change to the goods market access outcomes contained in the original TPP.
“This is a now an improved deal for New Zealand.
“The overall outcome satisfies the five conditions that the Labour-led Government laid out for a revised TPP:
• It achieves meaningful gains in market access for farmers and supports the more than 620,000 New Zealanders whose jobs depend on exports. The CPTPP will also provide New Zealand for the first time with preferential market access into Japan, the world’s third-largest economy, as well as Canada, Mexico and Peru;
• It upholds the unique status of the Treaty of Waitangi;
• It preserves New Zealand’s right to regulate in the public interest. We have also retained the reciprocal agreement with Australia, which is the source of 80 per cent of our overseas investment from this new grouping, that ISDS clauses will not apply between our countries. We continue to seek similar agreements with the other countries in this new Agreement. In addition, the scope to make ISDS claims has also been narrowed;
• The Pharmac model continues to be protected. Further improvements now achieved include suspension of patent extensions which could have increased the cost of medicine to the government; and
• The ability to control the sale of New Zealand homes is being preserved by separate legislation in New Zealand.
“New Zealand will now be focused on working together with our partner countries toward signature, including on the four specific items to be finalised by the date of signature of the new Agreement.
“I expect negotiators will need to meet again in the next few months to take this forward.
“In the meantime, I want New Zealanders to have the opportunity to understand what has been agreed and what it means for them, their families and their country, before anything is signed or ratified.
“Like all free trade agreements, the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Select Committee will scrutinise the CPTPP and Parliament will consider the necessary legislative changes needed to give effect to the agreement.”
The CPTPP was negotiated between Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Singapore, Viet Nam, and New Zealand.
The four remaining specific items to be finalised by the date of signature are included at the end of the list of suspended provisions. Beehive.govt.nz


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Amazon had a troubling loss last quarter and it predicts rougher waters ahead. So why aren't investors more concerned? Because CEO Jeff Bezos is at the helm.
In an upcoming software update, Tesla owners can attach a name to their engine-less electric rides. For Musk, it's "Old Faithful," he tells Stephen Colbert.
In order to boost the electric car industry, Tesla CEO Elon Musk vowed that the company would not sue when other companies use its patents.
In attempt to prove the high-tech specs normal, the Glassholy are gathering Saturday for nationwide "Glass Night Out" events.
In a UK survey of 2,000 iPhone owners, 78 percent claimed they "couldn't imagine" having another type of phone.
The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam has been working with Fujifilm to reproduce the artist's masterpieces in 3D, right down to the finest details.
CEO Steve Ballmer made the case that Microsoft can be all things to all people, but that argument fell short when his Build 2013 keynote couldn't stick its landing.
Samsung is keeping the curved-screen faith, telling crowds at IFA 2014 that it's tripled its line-up of curved TVs.
Crave writer Amanda Kooser overcomes her distrust of unicycles by ruling the road on the Focus Designs SBU V3 self-balancing electric unicycle.


text:
2 days ago
EE will be bought out by BT, should a £12.5 billion deal be finalised.
6 days ago
No more 2-for-1 cinema tickets as EE pulls plug on Orange Wednesdays.
1 week ago
Decision on a BT takeover of EE expected in the coming weeks.
2 weeks ago
Broadband provider aiming to boost mobile coverage in the countryside.
New tablet and mobile broadband deal from EE
Ewan Taylor-Gibson - 28th November 2014
Orange and T-Mobile unlikely to retain 50/50 share in EE in the long term.
Ernest Doku - 21st November 2014
4G Wi-Fi device launched for super-fast in-car Wi-Fi connectivity.
Ernest Doku - 18th November 2014
EE currently offers greater 4G coverage than Vodafone, O2 or Three.
Ewan Taylor-Gibson - 17th November 2014
Mobile broadband outage hits EE customers in London.
Ernest Doku - 7th November 2014
UK consumers can now get their hands on an EE TV smart box.
Ewan Taylor-Gibson - 6th November 2014
Deutsche Telekom CEO Timotheus Hoettges sets a target for EE.
Ernest Doku - 5th November 2014
Super-fast mobile broadband now available in 300 urban centres.
Ewan Taylor-Gibson - 31st October 2014
I have started the conversation are you there ?
How much per month for fibre broadband, line rental, and all calls
I do struggle to see the point in such high speeds when they cap the download usage! surely one...


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In-depth information running wearable NURVV secures $9M Series A managed by Hiro Capital
Originated at CES 2020, NURVV, a biomechanics startup, has secured a $9m Series A round, managed by Hiro Capital, the sports/Esports VC, whose associates include Ian Livingstone CBE (Games Workshop co-founder) and Cherry Freeman (co-founder of LoveCrafts).
It sets out that if you can solve how to preserve a smartphone from smashing, you can likewise work out how high a basketball athlete can jump.
The Story of NURVV
Jason Roberts established Tech21, one of the world’s best smartphone case makers.
He and his co-founder Ulrica have now applied that knowledge to start new wearable tech product, which, when implanted into the sole of a shoe, can mark the strike of a foot on the ground or the jump of its wearer.
The wearable utilises 32 sensors implemented inside lightweight insoles to seize data from the feet at 1,000 times per second, per sensor.
The funds will be used to begin NURVV’s debut product, NURVV Run, to an international market and supply further R&D.
Highlighted amongst the best lists of Wired, CNET and Gear Patrol, the wearable has also been examined by the UK’s National Physical Laboratory across the past three years.
It can estimate running metrics such as flow, step length, footstrike, pronation and stability, filling the data into the NURVV Run coaching app to display a picture of the wearer’s running method, encouraging runners to improve their technique and speed.
While runners are now able to gain a huge volume of data about their run, the data is regularly after the run.
In The Words Of The Team
Jason Roberts, founder and CEO, says NURVV Run seizes a runner’s metrics “straight from the time of action at the foot, before utilising live coaching to help them develop in a simple, easy-to-understand style.”
Luke Alvarez, the managing Associate of Hiro, said in a statement that Hiro is thrilled to be funding in NURVV as their Fund’s fourth deal and first Sports tech venture.
Nurvv is based on significant licensed sensor technologies joined with deep biomechanics and data science that have the unusual potential for sports, gaming, VR/AR and wellness.
He further said that Jason and Ulrica are amazing entrepreneurs, and they are delighted to be working with them and their organisation to take NURVV to the following level.
For more updates and the latest tech news, keep reading iTMunch.


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While I was mostly unplugged on my vacation last week, with the news of Facebook’s disappointing earnings report and subsequent stock decline — the largest one-day loss by any company in U.S. stock market history — I couldn’t resist chiming in on Twitter:
42% revenue growth an “utter disaster”
I might need to extend my vacation 🙄 https://t.co/7Tyv2Y5jVU
— Ben Thompson (@benthompson) July 26, 2018
I do regret the tweet a tad, and not only because “chiming in on Twitter” is always risky. Back when Stratechery started I wrote in the very first post that one of the topics I looked forward to exploring was “Why Wall Street is not completely insane”; I was thinking at the time about Apple, a company that, especially at that time, was regularly posting eye-popping revenue and profit numbers that did not necessarily lead to corresponding increases in the stock price, much to the consternation of Apple shareholders. The underlying point should be an obvious one: a stock price is about future earnings, not already realized ones; that the iPhone maker had just had a great quarter was an important signal about the future, but not a determinant factor, and that those pointing to the past to complain about a price predicated on the future were missing the point.
Of course that is exactly what I did in that tweet.
It’s worth noting, though, that while the explicit reasoning of those Apple stockholders may have been suspect, their sentiment has proven correct: in April 2013 Apple reported quarterly revenue of $43.6 billion and profit of $9.5 billion, and the day I started Stratechery the stock price was $63.25; five years later Apple reported quarterly revenue of $61.1 billion and profit of $13.8 billion, and on Friday the stock price was $190.98.
To be clear, I agreed with the Apple-investor sentiment all along: several of my early articles — Apple the Black Swan, Two Bears, and especially What Clayton Christensen Got Wrong — were about making the case that Apple’s business was far more sustainable with much deeper moats than most people realized, and it was that sustainability and defensibility that mattered more than any one quarter’s results.
The question is if a similar case can be made for Facebook: certainly my tweet taken literally was naive for the exact reasons those Apple investor complaints missed the point five years ago; what about the sentiment, though? Just how good of a business is Facebook?
As with many such things, it all depends on what lens you use to examine the question.
Lens 1: Facebook’s Finances
As is often the case with earnings, the move in Facebook’s stock was only a bit about the results and whole lot about future expectations. On Wednesday, Facebook’s stock closed at $217, but then its earnings showed revenue of $13.2 billion, slightly below Wall Street’s expectations; unsurprisingly, the stock slid about 8% in after-hours trading to around $200. The real drop was spurred by two comments on the earnings call from Facebook CFO Dave Wehner about Facebook’s expectations going forward.
First, with regards to revenue:
Turning now to the revenue outlook; our total revenue growth rate decelerated approximately 7 percentage points in Q2 compared to Q1. Our total revenue growth rates will continue to decelerate in the second half of 2018, and we expect our revenue growth rates to decline by high-single digit percentages from prior quarters sequentially in both Q3 and Q4.
Second, with regards to operating margin:
Turning now to expenses; we continue to expect that full-year 2018 total expenses will grow in the range of 50% to 60% compared to last year…Looking beyond 2018, we anticipate that total expense growth will exceed revenue growth in 2019. Over the next several years, we would anticipate that our operating margins will trend towards the mid-30s on a percentage basis.
From a purely financial perspective, both pieces of news are are less than ideal but at least understandable. In terms of revenue, Facebook’s growth is from a very large base, which means that this quarter’s 42% year-over-year revenue growth to $13.2 billion from $9.3 billion is, in absolute terms, 36% greater than the year ago’s 45% revenue growth (from $6.4 billion). To put it in simpler terms, massive growth rates inevitably decline even as massive absolute growth remains; as a point of comparison, Google in the same relative timeframe (14 years after incorporation) grew 35 percent to $12.21 billion (i.e. Facebook is better on both metrics).
As far as the operating margin decline, in a normal company — i.e. one with marginal costs — a revenue decrease would not necessarily lead to a meaningful decline in margin since selling fewer products would mean lower costs of goods sold. Facebook, of course, is not a normal company: the only marginal costs for the ads they sell are credit card fees; like most tech companies the vast majority of costs are “below the line” (mostly in Research & Development, but also Sales & Marketing and General & Administrative); it follows, then, that a decrease in revenue growth would, absent an explicit effort to decrease unrelated (to revenue) expense growth, lead to lower operating margins.
In fact, Facebook is not only not decreasing expenses, they are going in the opposite direction; expenses are growing faster than ever, even as revenue growth clearly fell off:
I suspect it is this chart, more than anything else, that explains the drop in Facebook’s stock price: it’s not one thing or the other; it is both revenue growth slowing and expenses accelerating at the same time, with all indications from management are that the trends will continue.
Again, relatively speaking Facebook is in great shape financially — I already noted the company had better revenue and growth numbers than Google at a similar point, and their operating margins are substantially better as well — but there’s no question this is a pretty substantial shift in the company’s longterm outlook. The financial lens still provides a pretty positive view, but it is indeed less positive than before.
Lens 2: Facebook’s Products
It is always a bit confusing to write about Facebook, because there is both Facebook the company and Facebook the product, and there is no question the greatest amount of negativity has, for several years now, been centered around the latter. To that end, it is tempting to conflate the two; for example, the New York Times wrote in an article headlined Facebook Starts Paying a Price for Scandals:
For nearly two years, Facebook has appeared bulletproof despite a series of scandals about the misuse of its giant social network. But the Silicon Valley company’s streak ended on Wednesday when it said that the accumulation of issues was starting to hurt its multibillion-dollar business — and that the costs are set to continue playing out for months.
This is true as far as it goes, particular when it comes to expenses: Facebook is on pace to increase its security and content review teams to 20,000 people, a three-fold increase in 18 months; that is why CEO Mark Zuckerberg warned on an earnings call last year:
I’ve directed our teams to invest so much in security on top of the other investments we’re making that it will significantly impact our profitability going forward, and I wanted our investors to hear that directly from me. I believe this will make our society stronger, and in doing so will be good for all of us over the long term. But I want to be clear about what our priority is. Protecting our community is more important than maximizing our profits.
What is much less clear is what effect, if any, Facebook’s controversies have had on the top line. There were three factors that for many years made Facebook a monster when it came to revenue growth:
- The number of users was increasing
- Ad load (the number of ads shown in the News Feed) was increasing
- The price-per-ad was increasing
A year ago, though, Facebook stopped increasing ad load; as I have documented, this did result in an even sharper increase in the price paid per-ad, but it was still a retardant on growth.
Then, over the last year, Facebook’s user growth started to slow, and in the most-profitable North American region, has effectively plateaued. That, though, isn’t because of Facebook’s controversies: it is because the app has run out of people! The company has 241 million monthly active users in the US & Canada, 65% of the total population of 372 million (including children who aren’t supposed to have accounts before the age of 13).
Given that degree of nearly total penetration, what is more important when it comes to evaluating Facebook’s health is that there is no indication the company is losing users. Sure, the numbers in North America decreased by a million in Q4 2017, but now that million is back; I expect something similar when it comes to the million users the company lost in Europe when it required affirmative consent from users to continue using the app because of GDPR.
The fact of the matter is that nothing has happened to diminish Facebook’s moat when it comes to attracting and retaining users: the number one feature of a social network is how many people are on it, and for all intents and purposes everyone is on Facebook — whether they like it or not.
Interestingly, Facebook is working to deepen that moat even further with its focus on Groups. Zuckerberg said on the earnings call:
There are more than 200 million people that are members of meaningful groups on Facebook, and these are communities that, upon joining, they become the most important part of your Facebook experience and a big part of your real world social infrastructure. These are groups for new parents, for people with rare diseases, for volunteering, for military families deployed to a new base and more.
We believe there is a community for every one on Facebook. And these meaningful communities often spend online and offline and bring people together in person. We found that every great community has an engaged leader. But running a group can take a lot of time. So we have a road map to make this easier. That will enable more meaningful groups to get formed, which will help us to find relevant ones to recommend to you, and eventually achieve our five-year goal of helping 1 billion people be a part of meaningful communities.
Zuckerberg is referring to his 2017 manifesto Building a Global Community; it is a particularly attractive goal from Facebook’s perspective because it makes the product stickier than ever.
All that noted, the most important reason to view Facebook through the lens of the company’s products is that the sheer scale of Facebook the app makes it easy to lose site of the still substantial growth potential of those other products. Instagram in particular recently passed 1 billion users, which is an incredible number that is still less than half of Facebook the app’s total users; by definition Instagram has reached less than half of its addressable market.
Moreover, Instagram has not only been untouched by Facebook’s controversies, it is such a compelling product that, anecdotally speaking, most “Facebook-nevers” or “Facebook-quitters” readily admit to using the service daily. The app also hasn’t come close to reaching its monetization potential: while the feed carries the same ad load as Facebook, the SnapChat-inspired Stories format that has exploded in usage has barely been monetized; in fact, Facebook’s executives attributed some of the company’s slowing revenue growth to increased Stories usage (instead of the feed). From a purely financial perspective this is certainly a cause for concern, but from a strategic perspective it means that Instagram is in an even stronger position that it was previously. Remember, revenue and profit are lagging indicators, and the explosion in Instagram Stories is an extreme example of why that is such an important fact to keep in mind.
WhatsApp is increasingly compelling as well: not only does the app remain the dominant communications medium in much of the world, but the addition of WhatsApp Status updates and Stories dramatically increases the monetization potential of the service — a potential that Facebook hasn’t even started to realize.1
There is some degree of long-term risk when it comes to products: Facebook acquired both Instagram and WhatsApp, but the company should not be allowed to acquire another social network of similar size and velocity to those two, and I doubt they would be. That concern, though, is very far in the future: for now the product lens suggests that Facebook is as strong as ever.
Lens 3: Facebook’s Advertising Infrastructure
This lens takes the exact opposite perspective of Lens 2; looking at the company from a product perspective shows four different apps, but looking at the company from an advertising perspective shows a single integrated machine.
This was a point Facebook executives touched on repeatedly in last week’s earnings call. Here is Wehner (emphasis mine):
In terms of Facebook versus Instagram, they’re obviously both contributing to revenue growth. Instagram is growing more quickly and making an increasing contribution to growth. And we’ve been pleased with how Instagram is growing. Facebook and Instagram are really one ads ecosystem.
We’re also making progress developing Stories into a great format for ads. We’ve made the most progress here on Instagram, but this quarter, we started testing Stories ads on Facebook too…
COO Sheryl Sandberg added:
Since we have so many different places where you have Stories formats in Instagram and WhatsApp and Facebook, as volume increases of the opportunity, advertisers get more interested.
Zuckerberg and Sandberg were obviously talking about the potential for advertising in Stories, but that potential is simply a repeat of what has already happened with Feed ads: Facebook spent years building out News Feed advertising — not simply the display and targeting technology but also the entire back-end apparatus for advertisers, connections with non-Facebook data sources and points-of-sale, relationships with ad buyers, etc. — and then simply plugged Instagram into that infrastructure.
The payoff of this integrated approach cannot be overstated. Instagram got to scale in terms of monetization years faster than they would have on their own, even as the initial product team had the freedom to stay focused on the user experience. Facebook the app benefited as well, because Instagram both increased the surface area for Facebook ad campaigns even as it increased Facebook’s targeting capabilities.
The biggest impact, though is on potential competition. It is tempting to focus on the “R” in “ROI” — the return on investment — and as I just noted Instagram + Facebook makes that even more attractive. Just as important, though, is the “I”; there is tremendous benefit to being a one-stop shop for advertisers, who can save time and money by focusing their spend on Facebook. The tools are familiar, the buys are made across platforms, and as Zuckerberg and Sandberg alluded to with regard to Stories, the ads themselves only need to be made once to be used across multiple platforms. Why even go to the trouble to advertise anywhere else?
This is why the advertising lens is perhaps the most useful when it comes to understanding just how strong Facebook’s business remains, and why the Instagram acquisition in particular was such a big deal. For all the discussion of Facebook the app’s lock-in, it is very reasonable to wonder if engagement is decreasing over time, particularly amongst young people, or if controversies may drive down usage — or worse. Were Instagram a separate company, advertisers might find themselves with no choice but to spread out their advertising to multiple companies, and once their advertising was diversified, it would be a much smaller step to target users on other networks like SnapChat or Twitter. As it stands there is no reason to leave Facebook the advertising platform, no matter what happens with Facebook the app.
Lens 4: Facebook’s Multiplying Moats
Facebook’s advertising moat may be its most important, and its network moat its strongest, but the company has actually added moats, particularly in the last year.
The first is GDPR; this may seem counter-intuitive, given that Facebook said last week the regulation cost them a million users, and that one of the factors that would hurt revenue growth was the increased controls the company was giving users when it comes to controlling their personal information. Keep in mind, though, that GDPR applies to everyone, not just Facebook, and as Sandberg noted on the call (emphasis mine):
Advertisers are still adapting to the changes, so it’s early to know the longer-term impact. And things like GDPR and other privacy changes that may happen from us or may happen with regulation could make ads more relevant. One thing that we know that’s not going to change is that advertisers are always looking for the highest ROI opportunity. And what’s most important in winning budget is our relative performance in the industry, and we believe we’ll continue to do very well on that.
I made this exact point previously:
While GDPR advocates have pointed to the lobbying Google and Facebook have done against the law as evidence that it will be effective, that is to completely miss the point: of course neither company wants to incur the costs entailed in such significant regulation, which will absolutely restrict the amount of information they can collect. What is missed is that the increase in digital advertising is a secular trend driven first-and-foremost by eyeballs: more-and-more time is spent on phones, and the ad dollars will inevitably follow. The calculation that matters, then, is not how much Google or Facebook are hurt in isolation, but how much they are hurt relatively to their competitors, and the obvious answer is “a lot less”, which, in the context of that secular increase, means growth.
Secondly, all of those costs that Facebook are incurring for security and content review that are reducing operating margin? Perhaps the stock market would feel better if they were characterized as moat expansion, because that’s exactly what they are: any would-be Facebook competitor is going to have to make a similar investment, and do it from a dramatically lower revenue base.
Moreover, just as Facebook benefits from scaling its ad infrastructure to all of its products, it can do the same with its security efforts. Zuckerberg stated:
More broadly, our strategy is to use Facebook’s computing infrastructure, business platforms and security systems to serve people across all of our apps…We’re using AI systems in our global community operations team to fight spam, harassment, hate speech, and terrorism across all of our apps to keep people safe. And this is incredibly useful for apps like WhatsApp and Instagram as it helps us manage the challenges of hyper-growth there more effectively.
This is why the lens with which you view Facebook matters so much: the exact same set of facts viewed from a financial perspective are a clear negative; from a moat perspective they are a clear positive.
Lens 5: Facebook’s Raison D’être
Needless to say, once you view Facebook through anything but a financial lens the health of the business is hard to argue with (and frankly, the finances went from phenomenal to fantastic, but it’s all relative). That’s why I can’t help but wonder if there is something more fundamental about both the collapse in Facebook’s stock and the general celebration that followed.
To return to the early years of Stratechery, it was striking how widespread Facebook skepticism was; I first tried to argue otherwise five years ago today, and in 2015 felt compelled to write The Facebook Epoch that begins like this:
I’m fond of saying that few companies are as underrated as Facebook is, especially in Silicon Valley. Admittedly, it seems strange to say such a thing about a $245 billion company with a trailing 12-month P/E ratio of 88, but that is Wall Street sentiment; in the tech bubble many seem to simply assume the company is ever on the brink of teetering “just like MySpace”, never mind the fact that the social network pioneer barely broke 100 million registered users, less than 10% of the number of active users Facebook attracted in a single day late last month. Or, as more sober minds may argue, sure, Facebook looks unstoppable today, but then again, Google looked unstoppable ten years ago when social seemingly came out of nowhere: surely the Facebook killer is imminent!
That sentiment sure seems to be back in full force!
At the risk of veering into broad-based psychoanalysis, I think a lot of the Facebook skepticism is because so much of the content seems so shallow and petty, or in the case of the last few years, actively malicious. How can such a product survive?
In fact, it survives for the very reason it exists: Facebook began in Zuckerberg’s Harvard dorm room by quite literally digitizing offline relationships that already existed, both in real life and in actual physical “facebooks”. Facebook is so powerful because of this direct connection to the real world: it is shallow and petty and sometimes malicious — and yes, often good — because we humans are shallow and petty and sometimes malicious — and yes, often good.
By extension, to insist that Facebook will die any day now is in some respects to suggest that humanity will cease to exist any day now; granted, it is a company and companies fail, but even if Facebook failed it would only be a matter of time before another Facebook rose to replace it.
That seems unlikely: for all of the company’s travails and controversies over the past few years, its moats are deeper than ever, its money-making potential not only huge but growing both internally and secularly; to that end, what is perhaps most distressing of all to would-be competitors is in fact this quarter’s results: at the end of the day Facebook took a massive hit by choice; the company is not maximizing the short-term, it is spending the money and suppressing its revenue potential in favor of becoming more impenetrable than ever.
“Utter disaster” indeed.
There is Messenger as well; I am more dubious of its long-term monetization potential because its natural advertising space — status updates and stories — are basically what Facebook is ↩


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Gig workers in India often face rude and dismissive behaviour and their schedules or financial constraints leave them with little opportunity to upskill. A survey by Borzo, a global same-day delivery company, gives them their place in the sun.
India’s gig economy has been growing daily. According to data by NITI Aayog, India has 7.7 million gig workers, and the numbers are expected to swell to 23.5 million by 2029-30.
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But do you know who these gig workers are? Borzo, has released a report, ‘Understanding the Life of Gig Delivery Partners,’ to present in-depth insights into the lives of gig delivery partners.
The data suggests that 84 percent of gig workers prefer to use the local language while delivering orders and a staggering 82 percent prefer the local language for online interaction on the delivery app. This further highlights the need to upgrade apps with local language preferences to build comfort, trust and loyalty among customers and gig workers.
The survey also pointed out that 34 percent of the gig workers enjoy working out at the gym, 19 percent like social service or helping in social causes, 15 percent prefer music and 13 percent like playing and watching sports.
“India is known for its multiculturalism and rich diversity. India’s gig economy in the delivery profession has drastically changed with the entry and scale of multiple players. There is a need for a deeper understanding of this profession that can help solve various pain points,” said Eugene Panfilov, General Manager, Borzo, India.
Also read: Urban Company tops Fairwork ranking for gig workers, Ola and Dunzo score zero highlighting need for better policies
Additionally, 38 percent of gig workers in India have studied up to Class 12, and 29 percent are graduates with a degree in B.Com, B.A. or B.Sc. Some of the workers are currently pursuing M.Sc, MCA or have left the course mid-way. The Industrial Training Institute (ITI) has also seen participation in its courses from the gig partners. Fifty-seven percent of gig delivery workers hold a second job while 43 percent perform deliveries full-time.
Little respect and few upskilling opportunities
Gig workers in India often face disrespectful behaviour and their schedules leave them with little opportunity to upskill.
“You people don’t know how to do anything else, that’s why you are in this job, so at least do this work properly, '' said a man as he drove his car away from 20-year-old Rajesh Yadav’s bike, which had hit his car at a junction.
"Humari kaun hi izzzat karega hum to ye aap logon ki tarah bade offices mai kaam thodi karte hai (people usually don't respect us as we don't do corporate jobs)," said Yadav, who is a bike rider with a taxi app.
Kumar, who migrated from Begusarai, Bihar, to Delhi in 2021 to prepare for his engineering exams, took up a gig job to manage his finances, now it’s almost been a year, and he has not been able to switch because of financial problems and workload and no way to upskill.
As per another survey by CIIE.CO, a startup platform built at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad, from the 4,070 individuals surveyed, over 2,000 were 30 years of age or younger. It also pointed out that most of the respondents surveyed had worked in a gig economy platform as their first job. This is representative of young India finding the gig economy and its platforms as crucial sources of financial support and work opportunities.
“Gig working jobs offer flexibility, this helps them (people from the younger generation who are just starting) consider several career options before having to settle down on one by spending time acquiring the education and skills necessary for the job that interests them the most,” said Ujani Ghosh, Manager, Thought Leadership and Policy, IET India.
BetterPlace, a full-stack tech platform for frontline workforce management, recently released its index report for 2022, which showed that in FY22, eight million frontline jobs were created in the country. The report further mentioned that, even though there is huge demand and an adequate supply of employable frontline and gig workers in the ecosystem, their growth is stunted after a point due to a lack of digital and industry-specific skills.
The government and companies have been working towards making upskilling possible for gig workers. Policies like Skill India Mission & India’s National Policy for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) have focused on that, and online food delivery platform Swiggy announced a skilling initiative to offer free learning opportunities to thousands of delivery executives and their children.
Experts suggest that knowing the gig worker and understanding their needs and skills is important for companies at a time when the gig economy is reaching new heights.
Also read: Survey shows 52% of gig workers find it difficult to upskill — here's why the skill is the need of the hour


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Colangelo Synergy Marketing has come a long way since its humble beginnings in a Connecticut farmhouse. The 11-year-old shop, headquartered in Darien, CT, has grown from a mere 10 employees five years ago to a team of 110 today.
It consistently ranks near the top of the PROMO 100 as it continues to develop strategic and creative campaigns for its client roster. Net revenues for the No. 13 shop rose almost 21% to $20.2 million in 2003 up from $16.7 million in 2001. Current clients contributed to 24% of additional business and 76% of U.S. revenue growth came from new clients won in the past year.
According to CEO Robert Colangelo, “We take a three-tiered approach — business managers team with strategy and creative to go after a problem, so that we have a solution that hits all components.” The Colangelo team works with client to strategically define program objectives before jumping into a project. This strategy lends itself to campaign measurability and defining ROI.
“ROI begins with properly defining the problem to be solved,” says Susan Cocco, VP-strategic planning. “We’re intimately involved in creating the objectives first and then the measurements for success — when we turn to the end of a program we should have both quantitative and qualitative results that are measured against what we set out to do.”
The shop builds promos from consumer insight and brand equity. “The ideas don’t come from outside the box, they come from inside the box; they come from brands,” Cocco says.
As AOR for Kraft since 1993, Colangelo has revamped Post’s kids’ cereals by driving awareness and integration through Post’s Web site, Postopia.com. “Because it’s Internet and because it’s 24/7, there is ample opportunity over the course of a day to engage with kids,” says Bob Terry, executive creative director. Over 3.4 million unique visitors hit the site in March alone; Postopia.com holds its own against kids’ sites like Nickelodeon.com.
“Colangelo is incredibly strong on the strategy side of things — they are able to develop, understand and apply consumer insights for our work,” says Thano Chaltas, senior category business director for Kraft. “They redefined the role of a promotion agency within Kraft.”
Using its knowledge of kids, Colangelo tapped into the minds of tweens in order to help Dannon launch its drinkable snack, Danimals XL. This was the first time Dannon segmented its audience to target older kids. Colangelo identified strategies to reach an older target. For the launch, Colangelo partnered Danimals XL with Disney Channel, the leading primetime cable network for tweens.
“The brand team loved this idea since it was very aspirational, gave tweens a really unique opportunity and reinforced the ‘chill’ positioning,” says Heidi Dvorkin-Krauss, marketing director, Dannon. “We liked the Disney Channel promotion so much that the brand team actually decided to broaden the relationship with Disney Channel in order to create a year-long sponsorship, making Danimals XL the exclusive yogurt sponsor of Disney Channel.”


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Wesco announced the formation of an Innovation Partner Ecosystem, which the distributor says “will work together to develop solutions to help customers achieve aggressive goals around electrification, automation and IoT, grid modernization, security, supply chain consolidation and digitalization.”
The consortium’s current members include APC, Arcules, Axis Communications, Belden, Bosch, Cisco Meraki, Commscope, Corning, Crestron, DMI, Eaton, Leviton Manufacturing and Panduit.
Wesco also announced the expansion of its global IoT advisory services and the opening of a new solutions innovation centre in Glenview, Ill.
“Wesco’s innovative digital solutions are another synergy resulting from the transformational combination of Wesco and Anixter and represent a key milestone in achieving our vision of being the best tech-enabled supply chain solutions provider in the world,” said John Engel, chairman, president and CEO of Wesco in a statement.
“Our expanded set of services will enable new markets and business opportunities for our suppliers and strategic partners. Our customers will benefit from our scale and global technical resources to deliver dynamic solutions that drive innovation and together, we will unlock value across our entire ecosystem.”
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September means one thing in the tech world: new gadgets. While last week’s IFA conference was a physical event, all eyes are on Apple as to whether it will be holding its famous new product launch event digitally, or resorting to the press release route.
One product which may not get a big launch announcement is the new Apple Watch Series 6. According to serious tech leaker John Prosser, Apple could resort to announcing the new Apple Watch this week via a press release.
Prosser believes Apple is set to reveal the new Watch tomorrow (September 8) at 2pm BST or 9am EST, though this could be set to change.
Here’s everything we know so far about the next Apple Watch, from features, to design, and that all-important sales date.
Apple Watch Series 6: design rumours
Not too much has changed with the Apple Watch between Series 4 and Series 5 and that’s likely to stay the same with the 6. Apple does like to introduce new finishes and colours so we could see some revamped colour options for this year.
One rumour points to Apple switching from an OLED screen to a microLED screen for the Apple Watch Series 6. MicroLED is more power-efficient than OLED, so this could improve the watch’s battery life, essential for those new sleep-tracking features.
Another thing that is changing with the Apple Watch 6 form factor is Force Touch. Apple revealed it is removing the need for Force Touch, which allowed people to press firmly on the display to change the watch face or reveal a hidden menu. Instead, the next watchOS 7 software means that a feature like Force Touch is unnecessary now.
9to5Mac thinks the removal of this hardware feature could allow the new Watch Series 6 to be thinner, feature different sensors inside, or even lead to a bigger battery which is certainly something we hope the watch will rock.
Apple Watch Series 6: features rumours
We know a lot of the new features the Watch Series 6 will sport this year thanks to the announcement of the new watchOS 7 beta in June.
Sleep tracking will come to the new Apple Watch finally, and an updated Sleep section in the health app will include all the information you want to see on your nighttime activities. The activity app is being renamed Fitness and Apple is improving the tracking of some of the fitness options including dance.
There’s also a new option for cooldown stretches which will count as workouts for after a run or a HIIT workout.
WatchOS 7 will also see the introduction of a new Hand Washing feature. The watch will be able to automatically detect when you’re washing your hands, whilst a cute bubble countdown feature will make sure you’re doing it for a long enough time, along with haptics and sounds.
There will be new Watch faces, including the ability to create your own faces using complications, whilst you will even be able to get cycling directions delivered via your Watch.
Other potential new features include a blood oxygen level detection and an improved electrocardiogram (ECG) capability.
Apple Watch Series 6: two watches?
A new Apple Watch 6 might not be the only wearable Apple announces this year.
According to a report by Bloomberg, Apple could be looking to offer a new version of its popular Watch Series 3 model featuring things like a faster chip and fall detection, but at a cheaper price to compete with Fitbit.
Apple Watch Series 6: price and release date
Prices for last year’s Apple Watch 5 started from £399, so we’re hoping the Apple Watch Series 6 fits a similar price structure.
In terms of release date, Apple could be set to announce the watch tomorrow (September 8).
Usually, Apple announces the Watch at its big annual product event but the current global situation has put a stop to that. It’s likely the new Watch could be on sale 10 days later, which could be September 18. However, if the supply chain issues have hit the Watch as well as the next iPhone, you may have to wait until October to get your hands on the new wearable.


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There’s food that tastes good and there’s food that inspires obsession. Welcome to Cult Following, a new Eater video series that follows Eater New York news editor Serena Dai as she explores all the restaurants and people that spawn the food world’s ultimate fans.
First up: Filipino fast food chain Jollibee. The restaurant serves a seemingly unconventional menu of items like fried chicken, sweet spaghetti with hot dogs, and mung bean noodle soup, and they’re as ubiquitous in the Philippines as McDonald’s is here. Some fans consider it a national treasure of the Philippines, saying it’s a true taste of home. But locations are still rare in the U.S., which means when one opens, people go nuts. When the first one in the Midwest opened in Chicago, some people drove as long as seven hours to get a taste — only to be met by an insanely long line.
New York City is home to one location of the chain, in Woodside, Queens, so Serena went to the outpost with Jollibee fan and celebrity chef Dale Talde to check out all the hype. Watch the video to see why Jollibee connects to so many Filipino immigrants in the States.


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The U.S. and EU Are Getting Ready to Create the Biggest Free-Trade Zone Ever
Just over a week ago, I wrote about ongoing negotiations between the United States and Asian countries regarding the Trans-Pacific Partnership. This was billed as a massive deal with wide-reaching implications, and was even called “the biggest trade deal since the creation of the WTO.”
Now less than two weeks later, there is a new contender for the biggest trade agreement of all time. The United States and the European Union are about to start official negotiations for the creation of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. This agreement would join together the United States and the European Union’s 27 member countries in a trade agreement whose magnitude has almost certainly not been seen before.
Estimated impacts of the agreement could result in billions of dollars being injected into the U.S. and EU economies, as well as hundreds of thousands to perhaps millions of jobs. Cheaper and more efficient European cars can come to the United States thanks to uniform standards for products between the two economies, and drugs could become cheaper thanks to changes in market entry for new products from the U.S. and the EU. These and other benefits would be the result of traditional tariffs and barriers to entry being taking down by the new agreement, allow for U.S.-made products to be cheaper in the EU, and vice versa.
The Obama administration and many EU leaders seem quite excited about the potential for the deal to get completed, but it has a long and bumpy road ahead with plenty of places along the way that could see the whole thing derailed.
Already the EU contingent is running into problems coming up with a consistent approach to handling the carve-outs and caveats that often play into free-trade agreements. The EU delegation has already had exhaustive talks with France over their concerns for their own domestic movie and television production industry. The French are insistent on audio-visual “culture” products being exempt from the agreement. Ultimately it was decided that this would be brought up at a later time for further discussion.
This will only be the beginning, as further exemption requests could come up from either side as negotiations continue. Other issues that could arise include privacy concerns and agriculture considerations. American industries with subsidies (like agriculture) could prove to be a point of contention, as well as the financial industry in the United States, which has been considered a possible target for exemption.
This agreement will also be watched with unease by China and other countries that are outside the auspices of the U.S. and EU. Beijing must be concerned as the large European and American economies are suddenly open for business with each other. The lower prices of goods traded between those economies could lead to China’s market advantage being harmed, perhaps significantly.
Other countries in places like Latin America and Asia (including Australia) could see their trade with Europe and America decline. These other countries could be put into a position where they need to align with each other in their own trade agreements to make up for losses that may come about from the U.S.-EU agreement, which some have called “trade-NATO.”
While the potential U.S.-EU trade agreement has a very long way to go, with plenty of opportunities for the whole process to derail, the potential impact of this massive free trade agreement is certainly impressive and warrants close attention for everyone from individuals to countries.


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Allan Clowers recently entered a draw at Save-On Foods for two tickets to the show “An Evening with Oprah Winfrey.” After the Squamish man’s name was drawn, Clowers was more pleased for his mother and sister than he was for himself.
“I entered because I thought it sounded good for my mother,” Clowers said on Friday (Jan. 18). “She likes that kind of thing, and I’m giving it to her.”
Tonight (Thursday, Jan. 24), Clowers’ mother June Ingram and his sister Valerie, both Squamish residents, will attend the show at Rogers Arena. What’s more, winners of the contest — which was run at all stores operated by the Jim Pattison Food Group, including the local Save-On and Nesters — will have a chance to meet the well-known talk-show host and actress backstage.
The name of the winner of the draw at the Nesters Squamish store was unavailable at press time.


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You may have heard of drone racing, but people keep coming up with new ways to enjoy these flying machines.
One of the latest twists on drone sports comes from Latvia.
A company called Aerones has developed a drone to use for droneboarding, a new sport that’s just what it sounds like — a snowboarder being pulled through the snow by a powerful drone.
When the company first tried droneboarding last year, as a way to test the strength of its drones, the sport didn’t even have its name. “We didn’t call it like that in the beginning, but somebody, somewhere said droneboarding, and that’s how it took off,” Aerones CEO Janis Putrams says.


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Hillrom has moved to pick up former Fierce 15 winner Breathe Technologies, maker of a wearable ventilator for people with lung conditions such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
The $130 million cash deal would see Breathe’s Life2000 non-invasive air system added to Hillrom’s respiratory care portfolio, broadening the company’s reach in COPD as well as interstitial lung disease, restrictive thoracic disorder and rehabilitation following a lung transplant.
The ventilator unit, which weighs about a pound, can be worn on a belt or waistband and has a four-hour battery life. It can be connected to a separate, stationary compressor for use inside the home, with tubing up to 50 feet long, or used alone outside the home while connected to an alternate pressure source.
"The acquisition of a highly differentiated, wearable non-invasive ventilation technology provides an exciting growth platform that utilizes our direct Respiratory Care commercial channel and business model," Hillrom President and CEO John Groetelaars said in a statement.
"This transaction represents another example of our plan to strategically deploy capital with a disciplined approach toward higher-growth and higher-margin businesses by expanding into the disruptive new category of non-invasive ventilation," Groetelaars added.
Hillrom expects to close the deal during the fourth quarter of its 2019 fiscal year. The other products in its respiratory portfolio include a variety of airway clearance systems, including wearable and acute care versions, as well as nebulizer support.


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Adobe, one of our Enterprise Partners, was recently recognized as a Leader in Gartner’s 2016 Magic Quadrant for Mobile App Development Platforms. 2016 marks the fourth year that Adobe has been honored with this recognition.
Gartner evaluated 17 vendors on a wide range of criteria, including cross-platform development, ability to deploy and manage apps across the lifecycle, ability to support multiple architectures and standards, and proof of a solid understanding of IT requirements.
Additionally, Gartner reviewed vendors’ overall viability, innovation, execution, and track record across customer experiences.
Expanding Mobile App Landscape
There’s no question that the demand for mobile apps continues to grow exponentially. Approximately 95 billion apps were downloaded in the last year across iOS and Google Play, according to Apple and Google. And consider the 7.2 million people who downloaded Pokémon Go within the first week of its launch.
Aside from the gaming and virtual reality use cases, more organizations are developing mobile apps, and yet they’re challenged by the fragmented and complicated development environment.
Mobile app development is undergoing a similar evolution that website developers experienced 15 to 20 years ago. Instead of everything going through a webmaster when updates are needed, content and app updates now often fall on the dev team. This is a perfect case for when Adobe Experience Manager Mobile can help.
AEM Mobile + Perficient Digital
Inspired Digital Experiences for Manufacturing & Automotive
Whether you’re just beginning your digital transformation journey or are well on your way, we invite you to explore our partnership with Adobe and our diverse capabilities in manufacturing and automotive.
One of the key benefits of AEM Mobile is that you can produce, manage, and maintain mobile apps from one place without placing any burdens on your development team.
We recently got a first-hand look at AEM Mobile and put it to the test when Adobe hand-picked us to create a proof of concept that highlighted the solution’s capabilities for an industry vertical. Because of our expertise in healthcare, we used it to create a patient engagement app.
From start to finish, our team developed the app in five weeks – including the design, creative, front-end and back-end development. This is truly a testament of how AEM Mobile can reduce your time to market. Watch the video below to hear more about our story:
Congratulations to Adobe on this recognition from Gartner! We’re excited to continue working with them to build differentiating mobile experiences for our clients.
To learn more about our development expertise with AEM Mobile, download our latest insight.


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Cattle directive is manure, struggling farmers fume.
The flood-ravaged Midland farming industry will suffer another "nail in the coffin" as new EU regulations threaten the future of some cattle farmers, it was claimed yesterday.
The beef business alone is worth pounds 130 million a year in the region and the Midlands is home to one-in-seven of the dairy cows which make up Britain's pounds 7.6 billion milk industry.
Government proposals to comply with EU regulations on nitrate pollution could cost local livestock farmers tens of thousands of pounds if they are forced to build facilities to store slurry from their animals.
The EU Nitrates Directive could see 70 per cent of farms across Britain designated as "nitrate vulnerable zones", which would mean they had to control the amount of waste produced by their cattle.
After a summer of floods, poor weather and foot and mouth restrictions, Midland farmers said this could be the final straw for the livestock industry.
David Morgan, a cattle farmer in Herefordshire, said: "We already have nitrogen sensitive zones in the area at present.
"Any tightening of nitrate restrictions for the livestock industry would be a problem. We have closed windows of time for the application of manures, but obviously manure will still be produced so we have to store it somewhere.
"The biggest problem is that the industry can't afford the capital cost of installing storage for the slurry. Nobody minds investing in an industry that is thriving, but at the moment we are in for a rough ride so people are reluctant to invest. Cereal prices are high and we are still dealing with the aftermath and cost of the floods.
"As they bring the nitrogen level down, crop outputs will fall and prices will go up.
"Basically it will be another nail in the coffin for Midland farmers. Producers will leave the industry and dairy and beef farmers will be leaving their farms.
"It is just like any other business, it is another overhead for us and the business is going to suffer."
Mr Morgan said most farms in the Midlands would fit the directive's criteria of having one cow per acre. Those farms which meet the criteria could face extensions to restrictions on manure use, limits on nitrogen application to crops and the prohibition of high-pressure manure spreading techniques.
The National Farmers' Union has called for a review of the "disproportionate" proposals for implementing the new directive.
NFU President Peter Kendall said: "I am concerned that for some this may be the final straw. I am all for farmers reducing their impact on the environment, but we must ensure that affected farms are given time to adapt and remain viable businesses.
"We will be seeking substantial changes to the action programme and a package of assistance that will help farmers meet the demanding requirements of the directive."
By Ben Goldby email@example.com
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|Publication:||The Birmingham Post (England)|
|Date:||Aug 24, 2007|
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