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Italian Auto Sales up 15% in the 2015 following 19th months of consecutive growth. Fiat defended the over 20% market share ahead of Volkswagen and Ford, while Jeep was the star of the year, not only thanks to Renegade.
Italy’s economy expanded 0.2% over the previous quarter in seasonally- and working-day adjusted terms in Q3. The reading, which marked the softest rise since Q4 2014, came on the back of a deterioration of the external sector’s contribution. However, latest indicators paint a positive picture of the economy at the start of Q4.
Indeed, in November, the PMI reached a four-month high and both business and consumer confidence reached all-time highs. Meanwhile, the government’s bailout of four Italian banks at the end of November resulted in significant losses for around 130,000 shareholders and 10,500 bondholders.
The resulting outrage prompted the government to set up a fund to support those who lost money in the restructuring operation. The fund is expected to be worth around EUR 100 million, which would cover about a third of the savers’ losses.
Ending the year with a new sparkling performance scored in December, the Italian car passenger’s market reported an almost positive 2015 marking a recovery well ahead of the general economic performance scored by the country, still one of the slower in the European Community.
According to data released by the UNRAE, the Italian Association of Cars Importers, in December new cars sales had been 110.582, up 20.9% posting the 19th year-on-year increase in a row.
Full Year 2015 had been 1.583.596, up 15.7% from the previous year, the best out of last four years.
In December Fiat Auto has sold 23.072 cars (+34.8%) launching the new Stilo, a C sedan version in theory a car with no demand in this country. In the full year 2015 Fiat sold 324.026 units (+16.6%) with 20.5% of market share.
Volkswagen was second with December sales at 8.121 (+9.9%) and annual sales at 119.035 (+7.3%). In third for December Renault with 8.007 (+33.3%), while the French make was fourth in the full year with 96.443 units.
Ford in December sold 7.008 (+26.0%) ending the year in third place with 110.952 units (+19.2%).
The 2015 will be memorable for Jeep able to increase sales by 163.9% not only thanks to the Renegade success.
As far as performance by group, FCA ended the year on top of the list with 28.2% of market share ahead of Volkswagen with 13.3% and Renault-Nissan with 12.6%. However, the French-Japanese alliance in the fourth quarter was ahead of the German Group. anticipating the battle for the next year.
As far as the best-selling models, in December Fiat Panda was the leader with 8.878 units, up 21.4%, followed by the Lancia Ypsilon with 4.202 (+24.0%) and the new Fiat 500X with 3.832.
In the table below, the best 50 models in the last month. To see the full best-selling models ranking, see the dedicated article
Tables with sales figures
In the tables below we report sales for all Brands, top 10 Manufacturers Group and top 10 Models


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Volvo announced that Polestar would become its own standalone brand focusing on performance-oriented electric vehicles. The upcoming models will share “technological and engineering” aspects with Volvo cars, though they will be sold under the Polestar nameplate. Those worried about Polestar stepping away from producing high-performance Volvos will be happy to hear the brand will continue to offer upgrades via the new Polestar Engineered label.
“Polestar will be a credible competitor in the emerging global market for high performance electrified cars. With Polestar, we are able to offer electrified cars to the world’s most demanding, progressive drivers in all market segments,” said Håkan Samuelsson, president and chief executive of Volvo Cars in a statement.
Polestar will talk about future plans later this fall.
As we reported last week, Polestar is planning to build out a range of electric vehicle using Volvo's SPA (Scalable Product Architecture) and CMA (Compact Modular Architecture) platforms. The first model is said to be using SPA and could be shown as early as this fall.
Pic Credit: Volvo

domain: news


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As Affordable Computers closes, A2 Computers adds sales.
From the August, 2017 issue
Affordable Computers off South Industrial closed its doors on May 31 after twenty years of offering refurbished computer equipment and repairs. We were unable to contact owner Mike Nadeau, but his former business partner Bart Uguccioni told us the closing had been planned as part of Nadeau's retirement.
Uguccioni owns a repair business called A2 Computers and was doing repairs from the Affordable space as a joint venture. When Nadeau told him he would be retiring, Uguccioni opened a freestanding A2 Computers location at Platt and Packard last October, but continued to do repairs for Affordable customers until it closed. Uguccioni says A2 will keep honoring the warranties of computers purchased from Affordable, though Nadeau will be footing the bill on the parts.
Moving into the retail niche Affordable vacated, A2 Computers is also now selling used and refurbished computers. "The parking lot's a little small," Uguccioni says of the new location, "but we're happy here!"
A2 Computers, 3096 Platt, 971-6900. Mon.-Fri. 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Sat. noon-4 p.m. Closed Sun. a2computers.com
[Originally published in August, 2017.]
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The talented crew at Aero-Marine is at it again. The Fontana, Calif., company announced in a press release that it is launching AM Hot Rod Glass, a new automotive acrylic windshield line, in conjunction with the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) Show in Las Vegas at the end of October.
Carmen Bélanger-Martin, president of Aero-Marine and AM Hot Rod Glass, has been working in the custom automotive industry since 2006 manufacturing optically clear acrylic windshields, sunroofs, head/tail lights for high-end clients such as West Coast Customs, Hollywood Hot Rods, Galpin Auto Sports and Columbia/Sony Pictures. So the decision to launch a new division of Aero-Marine made perfect sense.
“I’ve been working with West Coast Customs for a number of years on their hit shows ‘Street Customs’ and ‘Inside West Coast Customs’ and I have hands-on experience taking a vision or concept and turning it into a real functioning part that integrates into the custom car build and works while always preserving the optics and clarity,” Bélanger-Martin said. “Every time the shows air I would get a number of calls and requests from other custom builders or garage builders to help them resolve their windshield issues. I’ve seen the demand grow substantially in recent years so I decided to launch AM Hot Rod Glass.”
Bélanger-Martin said the company’s goal is to make hot rod renovation easy, accessible, simple and affordable. Whether it’s duplicating an older windshield model that is no longer available or designing a new prototype windshield, AM Hot Rod Glass can help custom builders expand their designs—just as Aero-Marine has done with custom boat builders from the likes of Skater.
If plan to visit SEMA, stop by the AM Hot Rod Glass booth (No. 23792 in Hot Rod Alley) and check out the acrylic windshields that the company says are designed to set new standards in the automotive industry.


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The Android app of the social medium Parler can again be downloaded from the Google Play Store. Parler was removed from the app store after the storming of the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Google allows Parler again after the platform demonstrates that it meets Google’s requirements a company spokesperson told Reuters. For example, it will remove content that incites violence and ban users who do not follow the rules, for example by spreading hate speech. Parler can be downloaded again from Friday in the Play Store. The Android version of the app can also be downloaded from Parlers website. It was already available there when the platform was still banned from the Play Store.
Parler has been around since 2018 and is an alternative to social media such as Facebook and Twitter. According to the creators of the service, users of those platforms cannot always express their opinions without being banned. The app experienced a revival in popularity in early 2021. This coincided with the storming of the US Capitol on Wednesday, January 6. After this, the app was removed from the Play Store and Apple’s App Store. A few months later, Parler was allowed back into the App Store after proposing plans to improve moderation of messages on the platform.


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Watch Forum 2022: Promoting a Sustainability Mindset
Watch Forum 2022 – hosted by Watches and Culture, the cultural hub of the FHH – brought together stakeholders from the watchmaking industry and beyond to showcase efforts to improve and debate strategies for one of the most complex and controversial topics of our century: Sustainability. And despite the community’s current efforts and plans for the future, the industry still seems to have a long way to go.
Let’s set the scene correctly: When speaking about sustainability, the watch industry wants to focus on three very specific areas: biodiversity, social inclusion, and strategies for offsetting the industry’s impact on climate change. Why these three issues? Because industry groups, like the Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie (FHH), believe that the only possible way for the watch industry to meet its sustainability goals is to discuss it holistically.
As such, on September 12th and 13th, the cultural arm of the FHH – Watches and Culture – took its first comprehensive steps toward an industry-wide approach to sustainability. Specifically, Watches and Culture introduced a new physical platform for discussion called Watch Forum 2022, where important questions were asked of a number of luxury groups, brands, NGOs, and experts.
“Net Zero production, traceability across supply chains, impacts on biodiversity, and the development of recycled materials and a circular economy are just some of the topics the watch industry needs to address… not forgetting the social issues of equality and inclusion. The answers to these questions will be decisive for the profession’s future,” said Pascal Ravessoud, Director of External Affairs at the FHH, in a press release about Watch Forum 2022.
Watch & Jewellery Initiative 2030
“Our consumers are changing, and they want transparency. And if you want to have some credibility, it is very important to be transparent about what your challenges are, what is your roadmap to make changes, and also to share some results, either right results or difficulties you may have,” said Marie-Claire Daveu, Chief Sustainability and Institutional Affairs Officer at Kering.
Even if the watch industry doesn’t pollute that much by itself, we still need to be in accordance with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the United Nations. The Watch & Jewellery Initiative proposes not only to build climate resistance and preserve resources, but also ensure inclusive and responsible value chains.
“Watches and jewelry are discretionary objects: we don’t need them, but we buy them. Swiss made has to become beautifully Swiss made, thus be transparent,” explained Cyrille Vigneron, CEO of Cartier, at Watch Forum 2022. He insists that supply chains should become fully “clean,” believing the customer needs to know where exactly the stone comes from and what the company has done to ensure that all the stones have been ethically and humanely sourced.
The Watch & Jewellery Initiative 2030 seems to be a great starting point to generalize the standards and make them known to the public. However, in order to be successful, it needs to eliminate any suspicions of greenwashing it may raise
Embracing Good Practices
The Watch Forum 2022 also provided attendees with a few concrete examples of sustainability strategies currently in use in the watch industry.
For instance, the CMO and chair of the sustainability committee for IWC, Franziska Gsell-Etterlin, highlighted the fact that IWC’s journey started ten years ago when the brand launched a series of assessments of its value chain, raw materials, and suppliers. Then, five years ago, the brand established its own sustainability committee to publicize that IWC’s business decisions are sustainable. Moreover, employee bonuses are also linked to sustainability, meaning each department has an extra incentive to meet its sustainability goals.
Rolf Studer, Co-CEO of Oris, also shared the independent brand’s efforts to become climate neutral. Oris’ strategy was certified by the world’s leading independent climate action experts ClimatePartner, which calculated the company’s carbon footprint, taking into account carbon emissions like heating the factory and employee commutes.
Other examples include how brands such as Panerai and Ulysse Nardin are embracing the idea of circular economies and looking to better understand how the relationship between markets, customers, and natural resources can benefit the watch industry and the climate.
“It’s a fundamental shift in mindsets from the linear economic model that we have used for the last 200 years,” Irene Martinetti, Circular Economy Manager at World Business Council for Sustainable Development, explained at Watch Forum 2022. “[The linear economic model] is ‘take – make – sell’ and, of course, ‘take – make – waste,’ which is highly resource inefficient (recovering only less than 9% of the resources we were using). A circular economic model, which is highly resource efficient, keeps materials in use as long as it makes sense.”
After listening to numerous experts and panelists at the Watch Forum 2022, these are the most important takeaways:
• While sustainability goals should be backed by a sincere intention, any strategies to improve a brand’s sustainability need to have measurable data and a clear deadline.
• Making your business sustainable is about implementing a coherent strategy and taking concrete action, not greenwashing via marketing.
• Finally, making all data and sourcing standards open, thus being 100% transparent not only with the customers, but also with the employees.
(Images © The Watch Forum)


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Tilray shares plunge, ending wild week for cannabis stock
The money-losing cannabis company Tilray is finding that there’s nothing mellow about the stock market.
Shares of Tilray plunged more than 25 percent in early trading on Friday, capping a wild week that’s sent the Canadian company’s shares into a volatile spin of ups and downs. Even with the decline, the company has a market value of $12 billion, making it more valuable than Macy’s or Harley-Davidson.
The swift fall comes after wild trading earlier this week. On Thursday, the shares surged in early trading before sliding more than 20 percent by midday, lopping roughly $4 billion off its market value in a matter of hours.
Yet since going public on Nasdaq in July, the company’s shares have jumped more than sevenfold, prompting comparisons with speculators’ interest in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
So what’s lighting up investors about Tilray? Some of the fascination was fueled by news that a private equity fund backed by PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel holds 76 percent of its equity. Others are interested in the growing market for medical and recreational marijuana, as well as many other cannabis-based products. Coca-Cola, for instance, is reportedly eyeing beverages infused with CBD, the ingredient in marijuana that treats pain but doesn’t get people high.
Still, Tilray has yet to turn a profit. Through March 2018, the company has lost more than $45 million, according to a regulatory filing. The company operates in countries where cannabis is legal, such as Canada and Germany, and sells through brands such as Goodship, an edibles company that makes CBD-infused cookies.
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Honda Motor Co., Ltd. announced that it will display the concept model of its all-new Insight dedicated hybrid vehicle at the 2008 Paris Motor Show (October 2–19; Press Days: October 2–3). Honda is introducing the advanced Insight to meet the needs of customers in a new era of widespread demand for hybrid vehicles.
The name Insight was chosen to denote Honda's "insight" into a new era in which hybrid vehicles come within reach of most car buyers.
A five-door, five-passenger compact hatchback, the new Insight will feature an innovative new platform in which the battery and control unit are located beneath the cargo space for exceptional utility and a light, pleasing driving feel. The new Insight features Honda's innovative, highly efficient compact hybrid powerplant, in which a gasoline engine serves as the main power source and the electric motor assists when extra power is needed, such as during passing or start-up and acceleration.
The new Insight also features a new driving support function that helps drivers make the most of its exceptional fuel economy to achieve more efficient, environmentally responsible driving.
Thanks to reductions in the weight and size of the Insight's key components, Honda has also achieved significant cost reductions.
Honda plans to introduce the production version of the all-new Insight to the markets in Japan, Europe and North America in spring 2009 and projects annual global sales of 200,000 units.
At the Paris Motor Show, Honda will also display the FCX Clarity, its fuel cell automobile that offers the ultimate in clean performance, producing absolutely no CO2 emissions in operation; and a design study model of the CR-Z lightweight sports hybrid vehicle, scheduled to be released in the near future.
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Guest Post by James Grieco
With nearly every waking minute of our lives linked in to the internet and information networks controlled by oligarchic companies, many of us often fail to realize just how at the mercy of big business we actually are. It seems that everyone from governments to companies big and small want your data to track your location and sell you targeted products.
Big telecommunications companies such as Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T can control the flow of their customers’ information online and on phones and are so powerful that they largely operate however they want. In the past, when revelations about selling and using private data have come to light, the balance between public anger and the government’s response has usually been disproportionately skewed. When telecom companies are caught taking advantage of their powers, they are quick to issue public apologies and promise to do better in the future.
With the rise of social media giants, many of the most powerful companies in the country — and the world — have free rein both to control your internet and telephone communications and profit from them. As the old adage goes, “If you’re not paying for the product, you are the product.”
While that’s certainly true of social media, telecom companies have become so influential in American politics that they get to charge customers and also profit off of them additionally by selling data; the telecommunications industry annually appears on lists of the biggest lobbying wings in the country. Facebook gave your data away in its quest for power, but Verizon and others sold it simply because they could.
How can they do that?
If you read the complete service agreement cell phone providers present to customers, you’ll find many force your consent to let them use information about things like your location, app usage, and web searches.
The public has become more aware of this over the years, but the outcry has never seemed to compel action beyond a general sense of unease. Due to the lack of a true and momentous push to hold these companies accountable for their behavior, most are still selling your data despite claims they’ve stopped.
The truth may be that telecom companies are simply getting smarter about how they can continue to collect and sell customers’ data without public backlash.
In 2015, the public got wind of something called “supercookies,” tracking cookies that are essentially impossible to remove, thus always broadcasting your internet searches to advertisers. The FCC ended up fining Verizon $1.35 million over supercookies and made them explicitly ask customers for consent before enabling the tracking mechanism.
Today, Verizon still uses supercookies, and considering how few people have heard of that term, it appears that asking for consent to use them deep within the typically monolithic user agreements has caught customers unaware.
Despite multiple fines the government has levied against these companies over the years, the emphasis of the punishments is all too frequently about past behavior, and not intended to influence future action — if it were, the fines would be much larger than they have been.
The current FCC chairman, Ajit Pai, has routinely acted in the interests of these telecom giants. Pai, a former Verizon employee, has an extended history with multiple telecommunications companies, yet has repeatedly refused to recuse himself from conflicts of interest.
The internet has succumbed to big business. Too many people are apathetic about their privacy being stripped in the name of other interests, and telecommunications giants are too powerful to fight. Most areas only have one viable internet provider and only a handful of phone companies dominate the industry. Changing the telecom industry’s practices will be an impossible task on an individual level.
Here is what you have to realize about data collection among phone companies: it is real, it is widespread, and despite what the companies themselves have said as damage control, there is no end in sight to this practice.
Use VPNs and encrypted apps
What can you do about it for yourself? Stay away from clearly compromised apps and services: i.e. default texting apps like iMessage and Social Media messengers. If you have Android, consider installing Tor browser (which lets you browse the internet anonymously) or at least a VPN to cloak your physical location.
For messaging and calling on your personal phone, here is a list of encrypted apps that can help you stay safe and keep your information out of corporate hands.
Use VoIP for business needs
If you use your phone for business purposes, consider using a VoIP provider. VoIP, or voice over internet protocol, is software used to modernize telephone usage — particularly business telephone usage.
VoIP uses your internet connection to make and receive phone calls, which makes it easy to use a VPN and keep your business calls private. The VoIP industry is also full of options, as it lacks true powerhouses akin to Verizon or AT&T, a fact which keeps the balance of power between provider and customer in check.
Some VoIP providers, like MightyCall, have a multitude of security measures in place to protect customer data as well. Beyond not selling your business data, the cloud storage VoIP utilizes has multiple layers to protect against security breaches and customer information is never stored permanently.
Do not hesitate to try to protect yourself from the harmful practices of the telecom industry and do not be afraid to use your devices furtively; VPNs and encrypted apps are not just for criminals and doing shady things — they are for everyone, as the tools to keep the playing field fair in this day and age.
James Grieco is the content marketing manager at MightyCall. When he isn't trying to explain VoIP and its benefits to people, he watches sports or binges detective novels. You can follow him for random and irregular thoughts: @LackingAFilter.
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Michael Buckley was on CNN discussing the YouTube Partnership program, and how it has allowed him to follow his passion full-time. I’m hoping Buckley’s recent press can remind people of two things. First, this space has grown up. I predicted people would be earning 6-figure incomes in 2007 and I was too ambitious. But now folks like KipKay on Metacafe (who earned 6-figures last year, but has slowed down significantly) and Michael Buckley (WhattheBuckShow) are proving that it’s possible. Second, Buckley reminds us to be realistic. Buckley worked like crazy, has crowd-gathering talent, and promotes himself well. Buckley is on Inside Edition tonight, and the media seems rather interested in the notion that people can quit their jobs and live independently via YouTube.
Want to make a living on YouTube? Some tips
- Remember it won’t happen overnight.
- Find a niche. Buckley is appealing to celebrity-watchers that like a regular online digest.
- Read my free eBook: How to Become Popular on YouTube Without Any Talent
- Promote yourself, and ensure you use copyright-free content.
- RSS or read this blog often- it’s dedicated to helping creators make income (and show advertisers how to enhance their brands via known YouTube creators.
- Join the YouTube Partners program once you have a decent amount of videos and views
- Create a lot of content that people want- much of Buckley’s revenue is due to his constantly topical videos, and residual income he earns from his collection. For instance, the vast majority of my income comes from continuous views to the top videos I’ve created that continue to get views.
You’ll need to be a top YouTube creator to live from its advertising sharing, but many of us are supplementing our income. I maintain that the highest earning comes from “sponsored videos.” These aren’t easy to find, but they’re nice income.
Buckley had a modest income before going full-time, and that helps. I’ve got four kids and a mortgage, so it will be a while before YouTube can match my day-job income. But it’s a fun way to make an additional income source, and my video revenue is certainly more than I made in my first job post MBA.


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“In the phase showcased on Natty Light, Black Dice collaged the impenetrable harshness of noise with the unhinged aggression of a punk show. The ugliness of these early recordings would help set the pace for the darkest sectors of the noise and extreme-music scenes as they mutated over the next decade.” – from the Pitchfork review of ‘Natty Light,’ posted May 18, 2019
to read the complete review, click HERE
Brontez Purnell & Jason Kendig’s collaborative 7″ EP, “Lay Down Your Burden Boy” ordered from the Jabs website will ship immediately. Copies will be available in stores on May 31 and beyond
Copies of “Natty Light” ordered through the Jabs website will ship immediately. The LP will be available in stores as of May 17, 2019.
$16 + shipping
For more info and ordering, click HERE
Black Dice “Natty Light” record release party at The Canby in Reseda
Black Dice DJs
Sandy Smiles (performance)
Greek Brothers (vegan food)
Wednesday, April 3, 9 PM – one million o’clock
“Natty Light” silkscreen cover edition of 50 only available tonight!
The remastered ITSOFOMO with bonus tracks is now available on Spotify
Flash Art has published an interview with Ben Neill about ITSOFOMO. Click HERE to view
Gloria McLean was the choreographer for the first performances of ITSOFOMO which took place in 1989 at the Kitchen, New York. She’s posted a full video of the performance on her vimeo page. Click HERE to view


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The list of Exhibitors and Hall plans have been revealed for Gamescom 2016 and the surprising news is that Sony is currently not on the exhibitor’s list, though they could be added later, because last year, their name was added later on as well. Hope they show up.
Here you can find the Exhibitor’s List:
Here is the Hall Plans for the event:
People are having huge expectations from Nintendo for finally revealing it’s new console NX.


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Shopko, the Green Bay, Wis.-based discount chain and 69th largest CE retailer, is going down for the count.
After filing for bankruptcy in January, and announcing plans last month to cull its store base by 70 percent, the regional retailer cancelled a planned auction this week for lack of interested buyers.
Instead, it will begin liquidation sales and close its several hundred remaining locations by June 16.
“This is not the outcome that we had hoped for when we started our restructuring efforts,” CEO Russ Steinhorst said in a statement.
Related: Retail Retrenchment In 2018
Shopko began out of single Green Bay location in 1962. It became one of the first discount chains to package a pharmacy and eye center with general merchandise, and flourished amid the growth of national discounters Walmart and Kmart by providing a higher quality assortment to its Midwest customer base. It was taken private in 2005 by investment firm Sun Capital Partners, which later merged it with another retail holding Pamida.
At its height, the combined operation had 350 locations in 22 states and more than 20,000 employees, and a CE business comprised of opening-price-point A/V, wearables, accessories and other promotional fare. At last count it sold $45 million in consumer tech in 2017, according to TWICE’s Top 100 CE Retailers Report.
Shopko joins Payless ShoeSource and Gymboree as the first retail casualties of 2019, as the brick-and-mortar landscape continues to contract.


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Now it’s “smart speaker wars” as Google and Sonos fall out over patents
- Sonos claims Google infringed five of its patents
- Google has just come back with the claim that Sonos has infringed five of its patents
- Patents being what they are, both companies are probably right
Google’s ‘Don’t be Evil’ slogan may have come back to bite it as it hunkers down for a patent slanging match with its technology partner gone sour, Sonos.
Google has just escalated an already simmering dispute by filing a lawsuit accusing the American audio company of infringing five of Google’s patents. Google says that Sonos was caught using “substantial volumes” of its patented technology without permission on its controller apps and the Sonos Radio service.
Google’s move appears to have come as a carefully calculated (and no doubt carefully researched) tit-for-tat in response to a lawsuit launched by Sonos earlier this year. In that one Sonos accused Google of infringing five of its own patents, filing complaints in a federal court in Los Angeles and before the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) in Washington.
Both sides have now gone full macho with Google accusing Sonos of false claims over the two companies’ collaborations in the hot smart speaker market, and Sonos’ Chief Executive, Patrick Spence signalling “bring it on” - saying he looks forward to winning both cases.
Google, anxious perhaps to preserve its historical image as patent victim rather than patent infringer, has pointed out that it rarely sues over patents but (draws line in sand) “must assert its intellectual property rights here.”
That’s presumably because the smart speaker market is a big deal, being one of the only growing bits in the gadget domain, something it’s been doing since at least early 2019.
In February this year Strategy Analytics said the smart speaker market had reached a new high by recording sales of 146.9 million units, an increase of 70 per cent over 2018.
By early this year (pre-pandemic) Amazon remained the leading brand with a share of 26 per cent, down from 35 per cent in 2018 while Google retained second place with a 20 per cent share, also down from 26 per cent the previous year. Chinese vendors Baidu, Alibaba and Xiaomi all increased their shares, while Apple remained in sixth place with 5 per cent.
Strategy Analytics expects 2020 to be another record year for smart speaker sales, in spite of the near-term impact of disruption to supply and demand caused by the coronavirus (Covid-19). It might have added that prolonged lockdown and staying at home, with more of the same potentially on the way in some markets, might have already created another boost.
So the rhetoric is being cranked up. “Google has chosen to use their size and breadth to try and find areas in which they can retaliate,” and has turned to strong-arm tactics the robber barons of old would have applauded,” Spence said in a statement. Sonos also accuses Google of selling infringing products at cheaper prices, to fuel its strategy of extracting more user data to expand its advertising and search services.
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Shopkeepers in a southern Indian state began removing Pepsi and Coke from their shelves Wednesday after unions called for a boycott of the softdrink giants, urging consumers to shun foreign brands.
US manufacturing activity expanded in February for the sixth consecutive month as businesses reported strong sales and demand, the Institute for Supply Management said Wednesday.
Americans’ strong appetite for light trucks and sport utility vehicles helped drive sales higher in February at some automakers, while others struggled with continued weakening demand for sedans and compact cars.
Germany’s inflation shot to a four-and-a-half year high in February, but analysts predicted Wednesday that it will not convince the European Central Bank to drop its ultra-loose monetary policy.
Canada’s central bank maintained its key lending rate at 0.5 percent on Wednesday, saying it remains worried about “significant uncertainties” going forward despite a surprise uptick in the economy.
Made-in-Europe productions from streaming video platform Netflix are a hit in the rest of the world, the US firm’s chief executive said Wednesday in Berlin, promising more series and movies from the Old Continent.
US stocks surged back to records as trading opened Wednesday, with the Dow topping 21,000 for the first time, as markets embraced a softer tone in President Donald Trump’s congressional address Tuesday night.
A closely watched measure of US inflation in January hit its fastest monthly pace in nearly four years, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday.
Chinese property magnate Cheung Chung Kiu has agreed to buy London’s distinctive “Cheesegrater” skyscraper for £1.15-billion, current owner British Land said Wednesday, as foreign buyers profit from sterling’s slump.
Phones rugged enough to survive falling from the sky or resistant to foaming hand soap — just some of the special features mobile phonemakers are offering to appeal to niche markets.
China said Wednesday it will cut 500,000 jobs in the steel and coal industries this year as it continues to trim excess capacity in the smokestack sectors amid a slowing economy.


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Posted on 26th Aug 2014 @ 6:05 PM
Here is a news for all the Ayesha Takia fans, her latest fashion cataloge of long length churidar kameez has been launched and is available at Indiabazaaronline.
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Designed and Developed By Anubha Creations Pvt. Ltd.


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News by Andrew Kameka on Thursday November 15, 2012.
|Sponsored links, if any, appear in green.|
Amazon today announced that its Kindle Fire HD 8.9 tablet is now shipping to customers who pre-ordered the device when it was first announced in September. The Kindle Fire HD 8.9, which has an 8.9-inch screen and a dual-core TI OMAP processor, is available starting at $299 for a 16GB model or $369 for 32GB. The tablet is on sale now on Amazon.com, but buyers looking to get their hands on it sooner can visit Best Buy stores tomorrow. RadioShack and Staples will begin carrying the device "in the coming weeks."
Amazon also states that the 4G LTE-capable version of the Kindle Fire HD 8.9 is on schedule to begin shipping November 20. The price for that model will be higher than the Wi-Fi only version, but the Kindle Fire HD 8.9 4G will offer more flexibility and always-on internet connectivity. The tablet will cost $499 and a one-time payment of $49.99 to get:
-12 sessions with 250MB a session of data
- A $10 Amazon Appstore for Android credit
- 20GB of Amazon CloudDrive
Andrew is based in Miami, Florida.


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Kenyan Shoppers Can Now Buy Goods on Aliexpress Using M-Pesa
Kenya’s mobile operating firm Safaricom has secured a deal with China’s largest e-commerce company, Aliexpress. The deal will enable Kenyan shoppers to buy goods on the Aliexpress.com site, run by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, using Kenya’s M-Pesa mobile payment service for online shopping.
“This obviously then opens up a lot more opportunity because today customers on this platforms are limited because you must have a credit card to be able to pay. Now you will now be actually able to pay for the product or service that you are buying using M-Pesa, and you pay for it in Kenya shillings currency,” said Sylvia Mulinge, Safaricom’s Chief Customer Officer.
According to Mulinge, the new partnership with AliExpress will not affect the telco’s e-commerce platform but seeks to address small traders needs as it continues to expand M-PESA’s capabilities.
“To be able to use the service, the normal charges that you pay for any other service that you have in the country it is what is going to apply. So we are not charging more, you are just going to pay for the normal charges that you incur when paying for any other pay bill service, and based on that, we have worked out an agreement with Ant Financial services which is the company that owns Aliexpress, to be able to figure out how we would share revenue from that,” Mulinge added.
M-Pesa was launched in 2007 to offer Kenyans without bank accounts a network to transfer cash via mobile phones. It now offers a range of payment services, loans and savings to more than 21 million people in the country.
Do you consider this is a good development?
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Everyone has seen those hardy speed-eaters cramming down dozens of wieners at Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Competition on Coney Island every Fourth of July, while millions have watched Adam Richman of the Travel Channel’s “Man vs. Food” scarf up anything that doesn’t have a pulse — and then some.
These orgies of overeating can be entertaining, for sure. But what does that kind of food challenge really accomplish for a restaurant? Do these eat-till-you-drop dares actually drive traffic and sales?
Harriett Seaver, owner and manager of Tio’s Mexican Cafe in Ann Arbor, Mich., insists the answer is “Yes,” and says that food challenges can provide lucrative national advertising for an operation.
“It does amazing things for your business, but you’d better be ready for it,” she said.
Tio’s is famous for its Mount Nacheesmo Challenge. A challenger has 45 minutes to finish five pounds of nachos loaded with beef, chicken, beans, cheddar, jack cheese, tomatoes, green peppers, black olives, lettuce, onions, sour cream and guacamole.
But publicity isn’t the only benefit for Tio’s.
“Actually, we really benefit from the people who come to share it,” Seaver said. “It’s not really our goal to challenge someone to eat a ton of food. We feel it’s a lot more fun to share it, and people have found that’s a great way to approach it. It’s a fun thing to look at, and everyone in the restaurant goes ‘Ooh’ and ‘Ahh.’”
The challenge helps Tio’s notch sales in excess of $1 million a year.
For the past two decades, Chip Bair’s Beau Jo’s Colorado Pizza in Boulder, Colo., has thrown down this challenge: Consume 14 pounds of pizza — the Mountain Pie — with a partner in one hour, and win $100 and a pair of T-shirts. To date, well over 400 diners have accepted the challenge and paid the $75 price tag, said assistant general manager Brian Grazer. However, only 18 have eaten their way to the top.
“It has been a staple of the restaurants for as many years as we’ve been open,” Grazer said. “It just brings in more crowds.”
The challenge is offered at all six Beau Jo’s locations in Colorado, as well as its outlet in Rapid City, S.D.
The 650-seat Big Texan Steak Ranch in Amarillo, Texas, is an historic restaurant, motel, horse hotel and tourist landmark. But it might be best known as “the home of the free 72-ounce steak.” Big Texan’s challenge: Finish the steak, a baked potato, shrimp cocktail, roll and pat of butter in an hour, and it’s free.
Since Big Texan’s founding in 1960, about 83,000 people have attempted the steak challenge, and only 5,800 have succeeded, according to owner Bobby Lee. The rest have had to foot the $72 tab.
Lee’s father, founder R.J. “Bob” Lee, was “kind of crazy enough to do something like that way back in 1960,” Lee explained.
“The idea came from something his dad had done when he was a restaurateur down in Kansas City when the war was over with, and all the GIs were heading back to the states.”
Half a century later, Lee added, the concept has been widely copied.
“It’s always been the mainstay and the reputation of the Big Texan as ‘the place with the big steak.’ It’s always been, ‘Everything is bigger in Texas,’ and here it’s identified the place as the place to go.”


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Organic Food Could Be Worse for the Climate Than Non-Organic
Off Grid Living Ltd
Like most people, you probably aspire to eat organic (when possible) to benefit the environment, your health, and the health of your family members. But, according to a new study published in Nature, opting to purchase certified organic produce might actually be doing more harm to the ecosystem than simply eating conventional food.
The international study was conducted by the Chalmers University of Technology, in Sweden. According to a press release, the researchers concluded that organically farmed food has a bigger climate impact than conventionally farmed food. Why is this? Because greater areas of land are required to farm pesticide-free produce.
Researchers reportedly developed a new method for assessing the climate impact of land-use called “Carbon Opportunity Cost.” This technique, along with other methods, was relied upon to compare organic and conventional food production. It was discovered that organic food has the potential to result in much higher emissions than conventionally-farmed produce. Said Stefan Wirsenius, an associate professor from Chalmers, who participated in the study:
“Our study shows that organic peas, farmed in Sweden, have around a 50 percent bigger climate impact than conventionally farmed peas. For some foodstuffs, there is an even bigger difference – for example, with organic Swedish winter wheat the difference is closer to 70 percent.”
Why Organic Has a Bigger Carbon Footprint
The study found that the yields per hectare when farming organically are much lower. This is primarily because fertilizers are not used in organic farming. To produce a similar yield to crops that use fertilizers, a much larger area of land is required. Based on this reason alone, the researchers concluded that cultivating organic food causes a much larger climate impact.
“The greater land-use in organic farming leads indirectly to higher carbon dioxide emissions, thanks to deforestation,” said Wirsenius. “The world’s food production is governed by international trade, so how we farm in Sweden influences deforestation in the tropics. If we use more land for the same amount of food, we contribute indirectly to bigger deforestation elsewhere in the world.”
Wirsenius also claims that organic meat and dairy products (from a climate point of view) are worse than conventionally produced equivalents. He explained, “Because organic meat and milk production uses organic feeds, it also requires more land than conventional production. This means that the findings on organic wheat and peas in principle also apply to meat and milk products. We have not done any specific calculations on meat and milk, however, and have no concrete examples of this in the article.”
“The fact that more land use leads to greater climate impact has not often been taken into account in earlier comparisons between organic and conventional food,” Wirsenius continued. “This is a big oversight, because, as our study shows, this effect can be many times bigger than the greenhouse gas effects, which are normally included. It is also serious because today in Sweden, we have political goals to increase production of organic food. If those goals are implemented, the climate influence from Swedish food production will probably increase a lot.”
What are your thoughts? Please comment below and share this news!


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The Lawyer Asia Pacific 150 is the only research report to provide a ranking of the top 100 independent local firms and top 50 global firms in the region. The report offers critical review of some of the fastest growing firms and their strategies, a country-by-country guide to leading legal advisers and legal services market trends, plus exclusive insight into the current business development opportunities in the Asia Pacific. Read more
This year, The Lawyer’s annual ranking of the largest UK law firms by turnover is available as an interactive, digital benchmarking tool. For the first time this will allow you to manipulate each data set against the metrics of your choice.
Eversheds has advised Apple Corps, one of its longest-standing clients, on two headline-grabbing deals relating to legendary pop group The Beatles.
Today sees the release of The Beatles’ entire digitally re-mastered back catalogue, along with the release of the computer game ‘The Beatles: Rock Band’ on Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and Wii. The launches have been timed to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the release of the group’s final studio album, Abbey Road.
The two deals, as well as another with Disney to produce a new version of the group’s animated film Yellow Submarinein 2012, has provided Eversheds with six months of work for Apple.
Partner Nick Valner, who led the Eversheds team on all of the matters, said the raft of agreements, which included name and likeness rights as well as trademark and publishing issues, were particularly complex.
“Today is the public culmination of around six months of legal work,” Valner said.
Eversheds assistant Andrew Terry worked with Valner on the deal with video game company Harmonix Music Systems for Rock Band while Neil Mohring assisted on the EMI and Disney deals.
Disney handled the deal in-house while London-based Mayer Brown partner Steve Gare advised EMI.


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The Latest State of Innovation in Africa
Technological enhancements in Africa, largely driven by improvements in wireless technology that is now an important platform for innovators, as well as its quick usage as a communications device. Nowadays, the African internet age group has immediate availability to higher level technology and is embracing its uses born of a deep desire to find answers to socio-economic difficulties. Africa is closely followed as the next great growth market, a description that has endured for some time. There are several of good reasons for a positive outcome: the African region is home to several of the world’s youngest populations, says it will be a significant consumer marketplace for the coming three decades, and it is significantly more inspired towards cellular telephony. A rising online environment is very crucial as a multiplier of this growth, as access to smart phones and many other devices improves buyer information, networks, job creation resources, and financial inclusion. Almost all of the debates in regards to the roots of the African technology movement go back to Kenya in 2007, when Kenya’s Telecommunications Safaricom established the mobile money solution M-PESA. M-PESA permits people to store money in mobile accounts by making straight forward SMS transfers; you won’t need a smartphone to work with it. MPESA (commonly referred to as mobile money) is undoubtedly an advanced technological innovation that enables consumers to send money and execute other financial operations by from their mobile devices. M-PESA evolved out of Kenya and is now reproducing in many countries such as India, Afghanistan, Egypt, Ghana, and even Eastern European countries, amongst others.
Communities that usually have restricted access to formal financial service providers usually typically have reaped good results from the lending options provided thru M-PESA. The growth of cellphone networks has altered communications in sub-Saharan Africa. In addition it permitted Africans to skip the landline phase and jump right into the digital age. In essence, Africa hopped right into the PC era and landed directly in the mobile revolution. That is why they’ve been significantly better at cell phone finances than others. Online advances have scattered throughout the African region at an astonishing rate. The generally reported information on usage numbers shows that online technologies tend to be progressing in all respects of life in African communities. Africa’s new arrival in the online economy presents several competitive advantages. It benefits from the progress in addition to blunders already, which were actually made by Silicon Valley. Its society is a lot younger compared to every other continent. Their market is similar to a brand new frontier. Its mainly untapped workforce presents a pleasant prospect for machine technology plants. See the way China and India remain competitive in the electronic products market.
The country, India, is going to come to be a global hub for the creation of electronic merchandise. And how? Having many sharp people with so little to do that they work for almost anything. What other continent can do this? Africa. Learning development in sub-Saharan Africa has brought about the development, promotion, along with the usage of information and communication technologies (ICT), media, m-learning, and many other technological tools to further improve elements of education in sub-Saharan Africa. Since the 1960s, various communications and information technologies have motivated excellent interest in sub-Saharan Africa as a way of expanding access to education and bettering its quality and equity. Sub-Saharan Africa possess areas of economic activity where digital infrastructure is very developed, in which money is readily available, and where economic calculation favors automation. Case in point, in sub-Saharan Africa’s high-earnings, internationalized manufacturing sector and its higher-income service economy, automation technology will be even more utilised. With this scenario, automation technology expansion will seriously inspire the flourishing middle-income group of sub-Saharan Africa that is employed in the formal economy. For them, trying times are going to come earlier rather than later. Sub-Saharan Africa is really at that time in which technology, including artificial intelligence (AI), can present possibilities and risks to development. Nevertheless civil society, governing bodies, as well as worldwide establishments need to ensure everyone benefits from all of these technologies, not just the elites.
Africa’s development performance remains fairly inspiring, growing at 3.3 percent in 2014 compared to 3.2 percent in 2013, driven generally by improving the territorial business environment, good governance, and solid macroeconomic handling. The increase in investment in infrastructure, and the development of commercial and investment ties with growing economies. The determinants of advancement are linked to capital formation, labor, as well as a solid managerial skills and an organizational culture also known as technology. On top of that, productivity has risen in several developed areas, including Africa, recently, suggesting enhanced productiveness in the utilization of labor and funding. Explanation for the increase in productivity is explained by top management strategies, organizational change, and science, technology, and creativity in manufacturing of services and goods. Additional investment in information and communication technologies (ICT) has resulted in a more effective quality of investment and labor when we observe the increasing capabilities of the common worker in African economies. Technological changes reached with research and development comes back and various other knowledge-based investments and the side effects of innovation also contribute significantly to progress.


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Pendo helps businesses understand and assist their customers with tools like analytics, polls and walkthroughs. Until now, however, CEO Todd Olson said the company has been focused on the web (both desktop and mobile), with just a single mobile developer on the team.
“We as a team constantly had a lot of internal debates about how much to invest in [mobile],” he said. “If you want to do it, you have to really invest in it.”
That’s why the company has made its first acquisition — it’s buying Insert, a mobile marketing startup based in Israel. Olson told me that he connected with Insert through Battery Ventures, which backed both companies, and he saw their product as doing “essentially what we do, but for mobile devices.”
There are some differences, he acknowledged, since Insert is more focused on mobile messaging and less on analytics. But in Olson’s view, the Insert team has already done “all the hard work” of creating a platform that marketers and product designers can use, and integrating that product with native mobile apps.
“The key is doing it without developers,” he said. So with Insert, Pendo can build a platform that allows teams to engage with customers and improve their product across devices, and to do so without developer assistance: “The vision is to combine the products into one simple platform.”
Pendo recently raised a $25 million Series C, partly to fund acquisitions and international expansion — it looks like the Insert deal covers both. (Insert’s Tel Aviv office will also become Pendo’s first international location.) Insert, meanwhile, raised a $10 million round from Battery last year.
The financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Olson said the combined companies have a headcount of 145 employees.
“With Insert, Pendo acquires a team that shares its passion for great product experiences,” said Insert founder and CEO Shahar Kaminitz in the acquisition announcement. “This combined platform allows product teams to better understand mobile users and deliver personalized experiences on the right mobile moments, when users are likely to get the best value.”
Published at Thu, 07 Sep 2017 14:24:59 +0000


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It is difficult to say whether all the early lobbying is delivering results for start-up companies, the New York Times reports.» Read More
Indiegogo's new service that allows users to raise money for worthy causes has already raised millions, its CEO told CNBC.
The Apple Watch will challenge the king of watchmaking, Switzerland, in just its first year of sales, according to a new report.
Apple has set the final spreads on its dual-tranche Swiss franc deal.
Oracle may have been late to the cloud, but it's determined to not get left behind. This analyst sees the software vendor gaining momentum.
Apple's free cash flow is "mind-blowing" and can propel the stock to $150, Barclays analyst Ben Reitzes tells CNBC.
Tuesday developments in both tech behemoths reaffirmed their strength for some CNBC "Fast Money" traders.
Apple's increasing market share of the smartphone market has been well-publicized. But its profitability now has some perspective.
These are the biggest themes affecting Internet stocks, analyst Colin Sebastian tells CNBC.
Given the current explosion of dangerous hacking and phishing, it's time to do some renovating to the Internet.
Former CFO of Autonomy sought for a second time to block the settlement of a lawsuit involving Hewlett-Packard. Re/code reports.
Twitter's deal with Google to help tweets show up in the search engine isn't a prelude to a tie-up, Twitter's CEO Dick Costolo tells CNBC.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife just donated $75 million to this institution.
The venture capital industry poured $86.7 billion into companies in 2014, the highest level in nearly 15 years.
CNBC's "Fast Money" traders considered how to trade the sharp extended-hours moves in big technology names.
India and its burgeoning mobile market may be Twitter's answer to reviving user growth and its acquisition of Zipdial could be key in that.
Walter Isaacson, author of the Steve Jobs biography, says the obsession over whether Apple will come out with a physical television is misplaced.
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba and California-based LendingClub are teaming up to get more U.S. businesses to buy products from Chinese suppliers.
One year ago Satya Nadella became Microsoft's CEO. How should the company's shareholders judge his performance?
Google sees an internal leadership shift as senior vice president of the Knowledge division retires, TechCrunch reports.
A monthly shared data plan with 1GB of data will now start at $30 a month, rather than $40, with other plans getting a similar cut, Recode reports.
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Matt Hunter is the senior technology editor at CNBC.com.
Ari Levy is CNBC.com's senior technology reporter in San Francisco.
Harriet Taylor is a CNBC.com technology reporter based in San Francisco. She covers Apple, Uber and the sharing economy, cyber security and emerging Silicon Valley trends.
Working from Los Angeles, Boorstin is CNBC's media and entertainment reporter and editor of CNBC.com's Media Money section.
Jon Fortt is an on-air editor. He covers the companies, start-ups, and trends that are driving innovation in the industry.
Josh Lipton is CNBC's technology correspondent, working from CNBC's Silicon Valley bureau.


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I'm glad that David M. over on Buyer Analytics found a Frontier Strategy Group study that hints at the importance of supply base localization -- not just labor-driven low cost country sourcing. According to the research David quotes, "executives are looking for new growth opportunities outside of the traditional BRIC markets of Coastal Brazil, Russia, Urban India and Coastal China. 71% of executives believed that corporate earnings growth in these markets is likely or very likely to decline over the next five years as a result of increased competition, higher wages, market saturation and a leveling off of growth rates." For me, this implies that other regions might not only realize new sales and marketing investments from global companies, but also new sourcing and supplier recruitment efforts as well.
In Europe, interestingly enough given its neighbor's instability, "Turkey was seen as the key to growth in the region. 36% of EMEA executives cited the country as the most attractive place for future investment, slightly ahead of the Ukraine (30%)." But in Central and South America, "Mexico and Inland Brazil were the clear favorites ... Over 70% of executives cited one of the two markets as the most attractive in the region. Mexico was seen as a particularly attractive opportunity given improved political stability, high levels of FDI and its proximity to the U.S. market." David notes at the end his post that "procurement will need to meet the challenges of sourcing in these markets." Amen. Let's hear it for globally-informed supply base localization decisions based on factors other than simply labor cost arbitrage. Because after all, that's a game with potentially dangerous consequences.


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Egypt’s social, economical, and political situation posed obstacles for local businesses to grow and expand, but there was still an opportunity for them to showcase their creative solutions to solve Egypt’s most pressing developmental challenges.
Even before 2011, Egypt’s economy had taken a downturn after the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, notably characterized by a hike in food prices. It took a harder hit after the 2011 revolution, when tourism, an important sector of Egyptian economy, plummeted. As a consequence, Egypt’s foreign exchange reserves fell from $36 billion in December 2010 to only $16.3 billion in January 2012.
However, all hope was not gone for local businesses.
According to the Central Bank, Egypt’s net foreign reserves reached $44.14 billion at the end of May; it also secured a $12 billion, three-year International Monetary Fund loan in 2016 as part of efforts to avert the collapse of the economy. Since then, import-dependent Egypt has been trying to woo foreign investors and revive its ailing economy.
Although global Egyptian businesses were hit hard by the Egyptian currency devaluation resulting in a 6-year absence of Egyptian businesses from Forbes list of Global 2000, as many as 13 Egyptian startups made the Forbes list of the Arab world’s top 100 startups in 2017. More recently, four Egyptian companies were listed among Forbes top 100 powerful companies in the MENA region in 2018.
Egyptian Streets celebrates the Egyptian businesses that have gone global, representing success stories for young entrepreneurs, and a glimmering hope for the Egyptian economy.
1. Food Sector: Mo’men Group
Caption: In 2015, the brand was the third highest biggest player in Egypt, with over 9.5 millions customers a year. Photo Credit: Mo’men Group.
It’s hard to imagine that one of the previous top chains in Egypt was founded with a starting capital of only EGP 12,000. In 1988, the Mo’men brothers opened their first restaurant in Heliopolis in 1988, and grew to have more than 55 branches all over Egypt and 15 branches abroad despite the fierce competition from American fast food chains. Expansion included Libya, Sudan, Dubai, Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Malaysia.
Mo’men Group soon established a food factory with a fully automated production line in 1999, Al Motaheda For Foods, chicken, beef, and seafood-based food brand that offered international standards of quality, Three Chefs, and the first themed park restaurant in Egypt, Planet Africa.
In December 2007, Momen group made its first acquisition by owning all of Pizza King restaurant chain shares, which operate around 25 stores in Cairo and Alexandria.
On July 30, 2008, Mo’men Group nailed an investment deal from Actis Capital, a leading private equity investor in emerging markets for $48.5 million to pursue its expansion throughout northern Africa and the Persian Gulf region.
Following the 2011 revolution, rumors claimed that Mo’men Group was affiliated to the Muslim Brotherhood, and mobs set a branch on fire in Egypt.
In 2015, the brand was the third highest biggest player in Egypt, with over 9.5 millions customers a year.
2. Travel: Travco Group
Travco Group was established in 1979 by Hamed El Chiaty, and is considered a key player in the country’s travel, tourism and hospitality and real estate industries. Travco has assets in excess of EGP 25 billion, employes 10,300 professionals in Egypt and over 5000 in the group’s international network which is spread from the United Arab Emirates, to Oman, and Jordan.
Travco Group owns 70 hospitality venues in Egypt and the UAE, 50 hotels & resorts in Egypt, the UAE and Jordan, 20 Nile Cruise ships and approximately 800 vehicles of deluxe coaches, limousines and SUVs in Egypt, Dubai and Oman.
Nearly one million travelers coming to Egypt use Travco’s facilities and services during their visits.
In 2017, Travco Group International ranked #1 Best Travel Company for the 21st Consecutive Year.
Travco and Sharjah-based Air Arabia operate a joint venture airline based in Egypt called Air Arabia Egypt which launched operations in June 2010. Travco Group owns 50% of the airline with Air Arabia a further 40% and the remaining 10% owned by private Egyptian investors.
3. Banks and Financial Services Sector: Commercial International Bank
Commercial International Bank S.A.E. (CIB) is a commercial bank that provides retail, corporate and investment banking services allover Egypt through approximately 170 branches and over 20 units.
It started as a joint venture between the National Bank of Egypt (51%) and the Chase Manhattan Bank (49%) in 1975. In 1987, National Bank of Egypt (NBE) increased its shareholding to 99.9%. Through a series of public offerings and open market operations, NBE’s share gradually decreased till it reached 18.7%.
The bank operates on four segments: corporate banking, investment banking, retail banking and other services. Its current market value is $5.6 billion up from $5.1 billion last year. Its assets are valued at $16.4 billion, and its 2018 profit reached $421 million up from $335 million in 2017.
This year, It was listed among Forbes top 100 powerful companies in the MENA region at 38th place after a 45th position last year.
According to Reuters, UAE’s ADIA Abu Dhabi Investment Authority sold 400,000 shares in the bank in May for a total value of EGP 30.9 million.
Their latest quarterly report announced a net profit of 1.87 billion and a net interest income of EGP 3.2 billion versus 2.95 billion a year ago. CIB’s stock performance has been relatively stable this year , despite a declining performance at the end of the past year.
4. Industrial Sector: Elsewedey Electric
Founded in 1938 by the Elsewedy family, the company has since been Egypt’s sole cable manufacturer. The company expanded horizontally and vertically by providing more products and services, and exporting products to Algeria, Angola, Bahrain, Chad, Cyprus, India, Iraq, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, KSA, Kuwait, Libya, Mauritius, Nigeria, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Spain and South Africa. Currently, the company has 30 production facilities located in 14 countries, and exports its products to more than 110 countries worldwide.
The company operates through seven divisions: wires and cables, electrical products, energy measurement covers meter and systems divisions; transformers, telecom, wind energy manufactures blades, wind towers and wind turbine, and engineering & contracting offers design, procurement and installation services.
This year, the business made it to Forbes Top 100 Powerful Companies in the MENA region at 69th place after a 92nd position last year, with a market value of $2.6 billion, assets valued at $2.4 billion and a profit of $362 million.
Ahmed El Sewedy, the CEO, expressed his optimism to Enterprise back in January of 2017 as one of the few companies that benefited from the devaluation of the Egyptian Pound, “at EGP 8, our exports were just too expensive. We couldn’t compete with China, India and Turkey, and that’s why you saw manufacturers stop manufacturing and instead import finished products from China and India.”
He added, “Imports from China are going to start to fall off at EGP 20. They’re expensive, as are other imports. Local industry is going to boom. The businesses that will thrive in the next two to three years are those that are either exporters or import substitutes. This is both the challenge and the opportunity for Egypt. Our future is in industry.”
5. Diversified: Mansour Group
This conglomerate, founded in 1952 by Loutfy Mansour, started as a cotton company. It was nationalized in 1970 under Gamal Abdel Nasser’s rule, but the Mansour family was able to continue its activities when Egypt returned to a market economy.
Mansour Group has dealerships with many international brands. In 1975, they made a deal with General Motors, who set up the first GM factory in 1985, and has since been the largest General Motors dealer in the world.
A deal with Caterpillar ensued in 1977, followed by Philip Morris International in 1992, and McDonald’s in 1994. In 2000, the company launched Metro Markets, the first Egyptian-owned supermarket chain, and launched first discount store in 2006, Kheir Zaman. In 2010, Mansour Group founded Man Capital (aka Mancap), a private investment subsidiary based in London.
In 2016, the company reported revenues of $6 billion, with 60,000 employees and operations in 120 countries. It was ranked 4th in Forbes 50 Biggest Private Companies In the Arab World 2018.
6. Real estate and Construction Sector: Orascom Construction Limited
Established in Egypt in 1950 and owned by Onsi Sawiris, Orascom Construction Industries (OCI) is involved primarily in construction and fertilizer industries. It is one of the core Orascom Group companies, and Egypt’s first multinational corporation.
The company’s operations vary from contracting to manufacturing and installation. Their projects span from residential and commercial, to infrastructural and industrial projects for private and public customers in the Middle East and Europe.
Its Fertilizer Group, and Cement Group have activities in Egypt, Algeria, northern Iraq, Pakistan, UAE, Turkey and Spain.
This year, it was listed among Forbes top 100 powerful companies in the MENA region at 82nd place, with a market value of $2.1 billion, assets valued at $2.9 billion and a profit of $85 million.
7. Automobiles: Ghabbour Group
Over the past six decades, Ghabbour Auto thrived under the leadership of one of Egypt’s visionary business families, the Ghabbour family. Brothers, Sadek and Kamal Ghabbour started the company which steadily transformed into “a leading regional automotive producer and distributor, guided by world-class executives with proven track records locally, regionally and internationally.”
Ghabbour Group is a strong industry leader in Egypt as the largest automobile manufacturer in Egypt, with two distinct business lines: GB Auto, the core automotive business, and GB Capital, which oversees the operations of the group’s five non-bank financial service providers: GB Lease, Mashroey, Drive, Haram Limousine, Tasaheel.
The company’s operations are focused on automotive assembly, manufacturing, sales & distribution, financing and after-sales services.
GB Auto’s portfolio of partners currently includes leading global brands such as Hyundai, Mazda, Geely, Volvo, Sino Truck Fuso, Mitsubishi, and Yokohama, with an annual output of 150,000 units.
According the their 2017 Company Profile report, GB Auto’s overall annual sales revenues increased by 15.5% in FY17 to EGP 17,656.6 million owing to “the company’s solid execution of its strategy to focus on high-margin divisions, incrementally increase prices, and streamline its operations.”
8. Telecommunication Sector: Global Telecom Holding (formerly Orascom Telecom Holding)
GTH, a major player in the telecommunication market in the world, is among the largest and most diversified network operators in the Middle East, Africa and Pakistan. It is currently based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
GTH operates GSM networks in in Algeria (“Djezzy”), Pakistan (“Jazz”), and Bangladesh (“banglalink”) having a number of total customers exceeding 102.6 million as of March 31, 2018.
Mobinil in Egypt was Orascom Telecom’s first operation, before it was replaced by the Orange brand in March of 2016.
This year, it was listed among Forbes top 100 powerful companies in the MENA region at 95th place down from a 52nd position last year, with a market value of $1.4 billion, assets valued at $5.3 billion and a profit of $-41.8 million.
9. Engineering Sector: Si-Ware Systems
Si-Ware Systems (SWS) manufactures and provides integrated circuit (ASIC solutions) and micro-electro-mechanical systems based solutions (Optical MEMS Technology) . The company is headquartered in Cairo, Egypt.
Optical MEMS Technology has developed the worlds’ first single-chip FT-IR spectrometer under the brand name NeoSpectra™ – Silicon integrated Micro Optical Systems Technology (SiMOST™), that allows the creation of multiple optical components on silicon. SWS also incubates new and innovative semiconductor technology to bring to market, such an all-silicon Self Compensating Oscillator (SCO™).
In 2016, they announced a European distribution network for its award-winning NeoSpectra™ spectral sensor module, which has a widespread market from agriculture and food to biomedical, pharmaceutical, oil and gas. NeoSpectra is the smallest, lowest-cost Near Infrared (NIR) module on the market.
Si-Ware Systems have already expanded its distribution network to UK, Germany, and France as demand for handheld onsite material analysis significantly increased in Europe, especially in the agriculture and feed sectors.
Distributors include Analytik Ltd for the United Kingdom and Ireland (Cambridge), Mountain Photonics GmbH for Germany (Landsberg am Lech), and Optoprim for France (Paris).
10. Engineering Sector: Giza Systems
Giza Systems, founded in 1974, is a leading systems integrator in the MEA region working for a range of industries such as the telecoms, utilities, oil & gas, transportation and other market sectors.
Their team of 1000 professionals are spread throughout the region with anchor offices in Cairo, Riyadh, Dubai, Doha, Nairobi, Dar-es-Salaam, Abuja, Kampala and New Jersey, allowing them to service an ever-increasing client base in over 40 countries.
11. Fashion Industry: Azza Fahmy
Azza Fahmy defied social norms when she worked as an apprentice in Khan El-Khalili in a male dominated workshop when she was little; she had set out to learn a craft that she loved. Later, she not only managed to launch her own business in 1969, but also expanded it to reach international grounds, with the help of her two daughters: Amina and Fatma.
Azza Fahmy Jewellery understood the importance of partnerships and collaborations early on: it stepped into London Fashion Week and New York Fashion Week with renowned designers like Julien Macdonald, Preen, and recently Matthew Williamson.
Soon enough, Azza Fahmy Jewellery became the first choice of A-listers such as Naomi Campbell, Rihanna, and Vanessa Williams, receiving acclaim from Vogue, Financial Times, Vanity Fair and CNN.
At the beginning of this year, Azza Fahmy Jewellery announced on their Facebook page that they opened their concept store in London.
Fahmy gave back to the community by starting The Design Studio by Azza Fahmy, a contemporary school of Florence in Italy in collaboration with Alchimia, to provide jewelry designers the knowledge she struggled to get when she was younger.
12. Fashion Industry: Okhtein
Our Aziza is now available for preorder on www.okhtein.com Styling: @zedified_ Art Direction: @salmaelfawalA post shared by OKHTEIN (@okhtein) onOur Aziza is now available for preorder on www.okhtein.com Styling: @zedified_ Art Direction: @salmaelfawalA post shared by OKHTEIN (@okhtein) on
As the Arabic name “Okhtein” suggests, Egyptian brand Okhtein was founded by two sisters: Aya and Mounaz Abdelraouf, in 2013. Their handbag designs are minimalistic, yet deeply inspired by the sisters’ cultural roots.
In line with the spirit of giving back as well, the sisters collaborated with local NGOs to train and hire skilled underprivileged female workers in order to manufacture their products, and empower women.
Distinguished for their quirky, feminine bags and scarves, Okhtein quickly rose to international fame, with their products sold in high-end outlets as Bloomingdales in Dubai and Harvey Nichols in Saudi Arabia.
Many celebrities rocked Okhtein’s cute clutches on Instagram, most notably, artist Beyonce.
13. Fashion Industry: Temraza
Farida Temraza’s passion for fashion design started at the early age of 7. Her talent was clear but not enough to start an international brand. She studied Integrated Marketing Communications which she later utilized to found Temraza in December 2012 at the age of 21. Temraza offers ready-to-wear and custom-made evening and bridal dresses. Temraza’s vision is to become the first high-end international brand in Egypt to offer ready-to-wear, custom-made evening and bridal dresses.
Through witty planning, and extraordinary design, Temraza managed to showcase its collections in London Fashion Week “Le Millésime Futuriste” Spring Summer 14 Collection, and won first place award in the Paris Fashion Week FW’15-16 collection.
In 2017, Farida Temraza was awarded best female couture designer at the New York Fashion Week. Furthermore, Temraza’s designs blessed the red carpets of Festival de Cannes, SAG Awards, and Oscar’s Awards, and received the fascination of many stars such as the “Don’t Let Me Down” singer, Daya, “13 Reasons Why”’s Anne Winters and Laura Bell Bundy.
This year, Temraza has been chosen as Egypt’s official representative to the 2018 New York Fashion Week.
14. Food Sector: Zooba
Zooba identifies itself as a fast food restaurant that makes fancy Egyptian street food. Zooba’s first branch opened in Zamalek in 2012 with a vision to have a Zooba in every major city in the world, according to Christopher Khalifa, the CEO and founder of Zooba.
Last month, Zooba announced that it had partnered with SADF Trading and Development, a company that operates and scales an F&B franchise, which would help them open in 20 different locations over the following seven years. The first new branches to open were in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.


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Jack M. Mintz: 'Tax the rich' won't work
Instead of raising taxes, we should focus on growth to get out of the fiscal hole we’ve dug for ourselves
New taxes are in the wind. The Liberal election platform called for $70 billion of new spending over five years, to be partly financed by $25 billion in new revenues from “the rich,” corporations and tax cheats. Outside politics, the C. D. Howe Institute has called for higher GST and capital gains tax rates while the Broadbent Institute wants a new wealth tax.
According to the IMF, consolidated federal, provincial and local government spending in Canada hit 48 per cent of GDP this year — which is actually down from 52 per cent in 2020, its highest since 1992. Meanwhile consolidated government revenues are 40.8 per cent of GDP, leaving a deficit of about 11 per cent of GDP. The question needs to be asked: given the current level of fiscal bloat, is it really necessary to raise taxes to reduce the deficit?
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If there are going to be new taxes to fund new programs, they will likely be narrow-based taxes rather than the broad tax hikes that are unpopular with voters. Taxes that typically fall on a small segment of the population will not cause much stir. As French economist Anne Robert Jacques Turgot wrote to British philosopher David Hume in 1766, the aim in taxation is “to pluck the hen without making it cry.”
A good example of a narrow-based tax is the luxury tax introduced in the last federal budget, following the example of one of Canada’s most astute hen-pluckers, the B.C. government. First introduced by the NDP in 1997 but eliminated in 2010 with the introduction of the HST, the B.C. luxury car tax was reintroduced in 2013 after the HST was canceled. At the moment, B.C.’s provincial sales tax is seven per cent on passenger vehicles costing less than $55,000, the same as for other taxable products. But the car tax then climbs through five higher rates, reaching 15 per cent of the sticker price for cars costing between $125,000 and $150,000 and 20 per cent on those over $150,000.
The federal luxury tax, which comes into force January 1, applies to passenger vehicles but also to aircraft and yachts. The tax rate is 10 per cent of the total price paid or 20 per cent of the price over $100,000 for vehicles and aircraft or $250,000 for boats, whichever is less. You also pay GST and/or HST on the retail price plus the luxury tax — that’s right: rich folk will pay goods and services taxes on their luxury taxes. (We really don’t like the rich in this country!)
Finance Canada figures the luxury tax will bring in $140 million next fiscal year and grow slowly after that. But that’s peanuts compared to $430 billion in federal spending. Is it really worth the effort?
The underlying philosophy for luxury taxation goes back to Thorstein Veblen, who argued that rich people’s “conspicuous consumption” (his term) absorbs society’s resources in unproductive ways. Workers who produce luxury goods might disagree: rich people’s consumption helps put food on their table.
Of course, Veblen was talking about all forms of conspicuous consumption, whether fancy clothing, big homes, luxurious cars or expensive vacations to far-away places. A luxury tax that only applies to some goods may simply lead to tax-exempt conspicuous consumption replacing taxable: trips to Tofino, say, instead of Lamborghinis.
Revenue realizations for luxury taxes may also disappoint. The U.S. introduced a luxury tax on vehicles, aircraft, boats, jewelry and furs in 1991 that was supposed to raise US$9 billion a year. It didn’t and it was abandoned after just two years because of tax avoidance, a deep recession and its hit to employment, especially in boat-building: many yacht-owners simply kept their old craft or purchased new ones in other countries where they could harbour them and avoid the tax altogether.
Only 13 OECD and BRIC countries have introduced luxury taxes although some others have special VAT rates on “sin” and some luxury goods. Australia taxes only cars, with a lower tax for electric vehicles. One of the broadest luxury taxes is Korea’s. It includes real estate, villas, vehicles and yachts. Turkey taxes luxury autos and aircraft but gave up taxing boats since many yacht-owners simply bought and moored theirs in nearby islands.
A luxury tax won’t finance more than a small fraction of the costly new housing, childcare, health care and green policies the Liberals and NDP have in mind. But it will add to tax complexity and in part at least it will hit workers rather than the well-to-do. Instead of raising taxes, we should focus on growth to get out of the fiscal hole we’ve dug for ourselves — and more taxes won’t help growth.


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A Paradigm Shift in the Smartphone Industry
In a groundbreaking decision, the European Union (EU) now mandates all smartphones, including iPhones, to feature user-replaceable batteries by 2027. This official move may transform the global market.
This victory empowers the right-to-repair movement. Even though this regulation only targets the EU, it sets an unprecedented global precedent. The rationale? It’s impractical to manufacture separate smartphone models for Europe and the rest of the world. Similar to the EU’s 2022 regulation requiring iPhones to adopt USB-C ports, this mandate will likely create ripples throughout the smartphone industry worldwide.
Redefining Battery Replacement
Smartphones should be “removable and replaceable by the end-user,” according to the regulation. Essentially, it should be a cinch for any user to change a smartphone battery without technical expertise. By 2027, smartphone manufacturers need to revamp their designs to comply with this EU directive. The rule covers all batteries, including those in electric vehicles (EVs) and e-bikes, fostering a “circular economy” for used batteries.
Strides Towards Eco-friendly Practices
Manufacturers are required to recover 50% of lithium from discarded batteries by 2027, escalating to 80% by 2031. Mandatory labeling with internal components, the percentage of recycled materials, and a QR code will also be introduced. Hence, in five years, changing your smartphone battery will be a breeze.


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Air India, 3rd largest airline in India, has launched a new app for its passengers. The app which is built by global technology provider SITA, facilitates passengers to book, check-in and manage every single aspect of their journey from their mobile device.
“Air India’s new app meets the growing demand for mobile services in India and supports the airline’s drive to incrAir India has launched a new app to its more than 18-million passengers. Built by global technology provider SITA, the app makes it easier for passengers to book, check-in and manage every aspect of their journey from their mobile device. It eases direct consumer booking – both domestically and internationally. Today more than one billion Indians use a mobile phone. Of these, more than 300 million regularly use them to access the Internet, a trend that is expected to grow by 56% per year,” an AI statement said.
Built on SITA’s iTravel® platform, the Air India app gives the ability to book and pay for a flight by quickly and securely scanning both your passport and credit card. Passengers can manage their booking from their mobile device, including selecting their seat, making changes to their itinerary, buying additional services, choosing their meal and checking in. The app is also integrated with Air India’s Flying Returns loyalty program where passengers can securely access details of points earned or other updates to their accounts.
“Mobile apps are becoming an important tool for making travel bookings by passengers who are tech-savvy and like to access information on the go. This mobile app provides Air India the right tool to access a growing passenger market that is connected both in India and beyond. The new app, developed by SITA, provides an elevated mobile experience where passengers can easily manage every step of their journey on their phone or tablet no matter where they are” said Ashwani Lohani, Chairman and MD of Air India.
The Air India’s new mobile service will be available on Android, iOS and Windows. That means at check-in, passengers can also choose to receive their boarding pass on their phone or smartwatch. At the airport, passengers will receive regular updates on their flights and can use the app for mobile boarding.
Checkout Latest IT news at itvoir.com
Sameeksha Bhardwaj, From ITvoir News Desk


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Nigerian music executive, Don Jazzy took to his Instagram page to share a video of himself wearing a unique face mask while he was about to get a haircut.
In the video, the Mavin Records boss stated that he wants to get a hair cut but he needs to be take precautionary measures in order not to contract the novel Coronavirus.
The barber was also geared up as he wore a face mask and hand gloves.
Sharing the video via Instagram, Don Jazzy wrote;
“Stay safe guys.”
Watch the video below:


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Standing Committee Chairman Devang Dani and other officials from the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) inspected electronic vehicle charging stations on Sunday. The city will soon have 12 EV charging stations in different locations.
The inspection was part of a collaboration between AMC and MobiLane, a local start-up that aims to provide eco-friendly transportation solutions and create a green and smart city.
“EV users can charge their vehicles for free at these stations. This will motivate more people to switch to EVs and support Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of a clean and sustainable future. We are committed to offering free charging and Plug N Charge services to make sustainable transportation accessible for the people of Ahmedabad,” said Gunjan Mehta, director of MobiLane Network. He added that the stations will be inaugurated later this month.


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Amazon is reportedly laying off hundreds of workers in yet another round of cuts this year.
The latest round of job cuts will impact employees in its cloud division, Amazon Web Services, Bloomberg reported.
Sales and marketing workers will be hit, in addition to the team working on building tech for its retail stores, the report said.
An Amazon spokesperson told Bloomberg, "We've identified a few targeted areas of the organization we need to streamline in order to continue focusing our efforts on the key strategic areas that we believe will deliver maximum impact."
The company previously cut "up to 160 roles" in its advertising unit in March.
This is a developing story. Please check back later for updates.


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Australia's best export market may be right on its doorstep: Asean
Sandra Seno-Alday says it must look beyond its mineral exports to China and diversify its trade
It is unsurprising that China has emerged in the past few years as Australia's top trading partner. As an export destination, China was at the top of the list in the last financial year, accounting for almost 70 per cent more exports in dollar terms compared to Japan, Australia's second largest export destination.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott has made recent commitments to accelerate the free-trade- agreement discussions between Australia and China. However, it doesn't appear as though Australian businesses require any additional help in recognising the importance of China in the region. It begs the question; does Australia really need to negotiate even freer trade with China?
Over the past decade, Australia's exports of goods and services to China have consistently been dominated by minerals. According to 2011 data from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, minerals accounted for 66 per cent of Australia's total exports to China, with iron ore alone representing 57 per cent.
Furthermore, government data indicates that in 2012 only around 7 per cent of Australian businesses sold their goods or services in overseas markets, up from 4 per cent in 1998. This clearly underlines the fact that only a handful of Australian businesses are driving Australia's exports to China.
This also sends a strong message that given the changes in China's economy, such as the continuing expansion of the country's middle class, there is significant scope for Australia to diversify its China trade portfolio.
There is also a challenge for Australia to diversify its trade portfolio in the rest of the region. This will prove to be tougher to do, given that the other Asia-Pacific economies are much smaller compared to the current regional giants.
Southeast Asia - made up of countries that are geographically closest to Australia - presents an interesting proposition. With the exception of Indonesia, the Southeast Asian economies are small. But if the Association of Southeast Asian Nations succeeds in its quest for greater economic integration, similar to the EU common market, then this would effectively create a single market of around 600 million people right at Australia's doorstep.
While Southeast Asia is predominantly composed of middle- to low-income countries - with the exception of Singapore - it is still difficult for Australia to ignore the fact that this region has exhibited high annual average economic growth rate (of some 11 per cent) for in recent decades.
Indeed, Australia's efforts to foster a more stable and more integrated Asean region may be its best medium- to long-term investment yet.
Dr Sandra Seno-Alday is with the Sydney Southeast Asia Centre and a lecturer on international business at the University of Sydney


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A Hurst Green shop owner has expressed concerns that a "gang of men" are deliberately targeting shops in the village.
Richard Connelly, store manager of the Select Convenience shop on Pollards Oak Road in Hurst Green, was awoken at 4am on November 23 by a phone call to tell him his shop had been broken into and that mainly cigarettes had been stolen.
It is the third break-in at the shop in the past six weeks with Mr Connelly stating that he is aware of several other shops in the area also being burgled.
Mr Connelly, 42, said: “The shop is a mess, it’s always the same, they break the doors, rip the rollers smash glass and take cigarettes.
“I’ve been up since 4am as someone called me to let me know that the alarm was going off. I called the police but they were gone in minutes.
“It’s a nightmare, it’s upsetting as not only is it all the work to fix the shop back up that costs money.
"We have got cameras but will have to invest further in security equipment as we have no choice.
"There must be a gang of guys going around targeting shops in the area since the street lights went out as it's always the same things taken."
Mr Connelly has stated that the shop was broken into just a fortnight ago and four weeks before then, always at a similar time after midnight.
He has alleged that the lack of street lights after midnight is having a direct affect.
Street lights in the Tandridge district alongside Mole Valley, Epsom & Ewell and Reigate & Banstead were turned off in February this year.
The shop is one of a row under a block of flats with a car park separating it from the suburban row of houses.
Mr Connelly, who has managed the shop for two years, said: “It’s not just our shop, I know of other shops that have been broken into and it’s always once the street lights have gone out when it's pitch black around Hurst Green.
“It’s a massive change, we had no issues before. I’m almost grateful and I suppose we are just lucky that the shop is only targeted when no one is here as I don’t want my staff going through that.
“We need some more police presence as they are only around if called and we need the street lights need to stay on overnight again, that would help stop this.”
In a statement a Surrey Police spokeswoman has confirmed an investigation into the break-in is taking place.
The spokeswoman said: "We are appealing for witnesses after someone broke into the Select Convenience store (also known as Bargain Booze) on Pollards Oak Road, Hurst Green just after 4am on Thursday, November 23 2017.
"A number of enquiries are being carried out including CCTV, forensic examination and house-to-house.
"Officers are keen to speak to anyone who might have seen anything suspicious on the night in question or who might have spotted a small silver hatchback, possibly a Seat, parked nearby which set off in the direction of Kent and which is believed to have been used by the suspect.
"Officers are keeping an open mind as to whether the incidents are linked to two earlier burglaries at the same store on August 15 and October 23, 2017."
Anyone with information should contact Surrey Police on 101 quoting 45170130251 or report online at https://www.surrey.police.uk/contact-us/report-online/
Information can also be passed anonymously to the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
Keep up to date with the latest news from around the county via the free Get Surrey app.
You can set up your app to see all the latest news and events from your area, plus receive push notifications for breaking news.