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KUALA LUMPUR, 25 Oct – The UTM Nexus Expo is the first event under the UTM Nexus brand, representing Universiti Teknologi Malaysia’s dedication to research, innovation, and collaboration. This inaugural expo aims to connect researchers, innovators, entrepreneurs, industry professionals, investors, and the public in an immersive environment. It serves as a platform to showcase the latest advancements in science, technology, and related fields, fostering interdisciplinary collaboration and knowledge exchange. With this event, UTM reaffirms its position as a leading institution committed to driving innovation and making a positive impact on society.
WCC has participated the UTM Nexus Expo 2023 (NEXPO) held at UTM KL Residensi as an exhibitor under UTM Research & Innovation Showcase.
The two-day (25th & 26th October 2023) event organised by the UTM Department of Vice-Chancellor (Research and Innovation), witnessed the participation of 460 industry players, among them Institut Jantung Negara (IJN), RHB Bank Berhad, Human Resource Development Corporation (HRDC), Fuji Electric (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, UTM Holdings Sdn Bhd as sponsors.
The UTM Nexus Expo provides an opportunity for researchers, innovators, and entrepreneurs to share their ideas, expertise, and insights with a wide audience. It serves as a launchpad for the exchange of knowledge, encouraging participants to explore emerging trends, breakthroughs, and creative solutions. By bringing together industry professionals and investors, the expo creates a vibrant ecosystem for networking and collaboration, offering potential avenues for commercialization and partnerships. Additionally, the event invites the general public to engage with groundbreaking research, raising awareness and fostering interest in science and technology.
As the first expo event under the UTM Nexus brand, this inaugural gathering sets a strong foundation for future initiatives. It represents UTM’s commitment to bridging the gap between academia and industry, driving innovation-driven entrepreneurship, and making a tangible impact on society. By showcasing cutting-edge research and breakthrough innovations, the UTM Nexus Expo establishes UTM as a center of excellence and reinforces its reputation as a leading institution in science, technology, and related fields.


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NEEMRANA (RAJASTHAN): Eyeing a big pie in the government's ambitious programme to develop 100 smart cities, leading electrical goods maker Havells is working on wireless lighting solutions.
"We are already developing technologies where the street lights could communicate. There would be chip or wireless communication in those. We already have those models," Havells India CMD Anil Rai Gupta told PTI.
He further added: "What we are doing for the smart cities, we are developing our lighting to be wirelessly wired and communicate with each other and also in home automation, they (government) are bringing in a big way."
Havells, a USD 1.4 billion company, had in April this year acquired a majority stake in Bangalore-based LED and solar light manufacturer Promptec Renewable Energy Solutions.
On being asked whether the company would go solo or form any joint venture to bid for the projects, Gupta said it would depend on the nature of tenders.
"That needs to be seen, how the requirements are coming up. Whether it will be sourced directly by the government or it would be the individual owners, who would be pioneer. It all depends on how it come up," Gupta said.
The government last month came out with a list of 98 cities to be developed under its ambitious Smart Cities mission. These cities together have a population of 13 crore, accounting for 35 per cent of India's urban population.
On the M-SIPS scheme (modified special incentive package scheme), Gupta said the programme has been extended by the government by another five years and it will help further boost manufacturing in the electronics sector.
He also added: "We would not get any immediate benefits from this, it's an overall thing for the industry. But definitely, we would take its advantage when new things would be coming."
The Modified Special Incentive Package Scheme provides subsidy for investments in capital expenditure which is 20 per cent for investments in special economic zones (SEZs) and 25 per cent in non-SEZs. It also provides for reimbursement of countervailing duty or excise for capital equipment for the non-SEZ units.
When asked, if the company was planning to open any export oriented unit in any of the SEZs, Gupta replied in the negative.
"No, presently our exports are about 8 to 10 per cent of our overall business. What we find the benefits out of SEZ, we would get more benefits from consolidated manufacturing facilities as cost advantage is much better," Gupta said.
"Following the transaction, majority Indian ownership will create the regulatory space to even convert the operations into a B2C entity. It will provide a better shopping and pricing experience. But it's a call that has to be taken," said a source familiar with the transaction.

domain: news


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A rabbi in the Israeli city of Tiberias has called for a boycott of stores that display mannequins in bathing suits, saying they "elicit sorrow" and damage the souls of passers-by.
Rabbi Rafael Cohen, chief of the northern city's kosher division, said the stores would face the wrath of the religious community and lose their kosher certification if they failed to comply, according to the Maariv daily on Wednesday.
Cohen said the mannequins and "obscene photographs" showing models in swimsuits or underwear "elicit sorrow among the passers-by on the road."
He has threatened to publish a list of stores that continue such displays, saying "residents of Tiberias should not set foot in stores of that kind, and that will cause them irreversible damage."
"Modest" mannequins, he said, are all right. "But there are mannequins that are really revolting, mannequins in bathing suits that damage our souls."
One lingerie merchant in Tiberias quoted by Maariv said "a store like this has to have a mannequin, but the religious women are excellent clients and buy lots of underwear, so I don't know what to do."


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Economic development creates opportunities to grow state, local and metro areas, which are essential for economic growth, improved quality of life and community development. Supply Chain articles below.
The COVID-19 crisis is bringing out the best in communities from coast to coast. Economic development organizations are giving small businesses financial lifelines. They’re also teaming up with local businesses to create a supply chain for critical medical supplies.
Corporate executives at this year's Business Facilities LiveXchange event gave Tim Feemster's workshop, "Mastering Logistics" rave reviews. Feemster, Managing Principal of Foremost Quality Logistics, ...
Boeing expects to refurbish the 850,000 square foot building to complement the company's current operations in Salt Lake County. Sitts & Hill will design the space inside the building's factory area. Design and construction are expected to take two years.


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A 50-year-old American man, and his British partner, 38, were arrested in Algeciras, Cadiz, for allegedly fraud and credit card forgery.
The investigation began following a complaint from an international internet payment company which had been affected by an alleged fraud.
One of their users, whose full name they provided, had used credit cards copied and stolen in the US to obtain cash which he then sent to his own accounts.
The investigation, carried out in Estepona, Manilva, Guadiaro and Algeciras, led authorities to a couple living in the province.
They were located in Algeciras and their home was searched, resulting in four laptop computers, five external hard drives, six mobile phones, 19 credit cards and 4,500 GBP in cash being seized.
The detainee had accounts with payment management sites in the USA, the UK and Spain.
He had started the fraud with the accounts he used in the US to buy and sell products, which were linked to a US company owned by his partner.
He used the stolen and forged cards to supposedly purchase items from the company, sending the money, amounting to more than 348,372USD to his accounts in the UK and Spain.
Part of the money had then been transferred to an account in Manilva. The account, with €100,000, has been frozen by court order.


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As India celebrates its 75th Republic Day, the nation stands at the threshold of remarkable achievements and ambitious aspirations. Ever since the adoption of the constitution, every child has seen how India has transformed over the years. The Green Revolution brought abundance to farms, the technological boom connected distant corners, and economic liberalisation opened doors to a global stage that people had never imagined. From the accomplishment of ISRO’s Chandrayaan mission, the seamless transactions we place through UPI to our way to possibly becoming a $5 trillion economy is a testament to this transformation. Today, that child lives in all of us, so let’s dedicate this Republic Day to that child in all of us. India’s growth story continues, and the child within, forever tied to the nation’s heartbeat, eagerly anticipates the chapters yet to unfold. This Republic Day let’s take a look back at some of India’s feats that we are proud of but also make our forefathers proud. Dive in as we move from sectors, economic triumphs, vision for the future and our diverse demographic of the youth.
Economic Triumph: The Road to a $5 Trillion GDP
Under the guidance of Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, India sets its sights on becoming the world’s third-largest economy by 2027-2028, projecting a GDP exceeding US$ 5 trillion. The nation’s resilience in attracting foreign investment might steer it towards a future of economic excellence.
Infrastructure Triumphs: A Backbone of Progress
India boasts the world’s fourth-largest rail network, moving the second-highest percentage of goods in terms of volume. The warehousing market’s predicted expansion to ₹ 2,872.10 billion by 2027 signifies the nation’s commitment to robust infrastructure development.
Youthful Demographic Dividend: A Driving Force for Growth
With 65% of the population below the age of 35, India is poised to become the third-largest consumer economy by 2030. This demographic dividend positions the nation as a key player in shaping global consumption trends.
A Developed Nation by 2047
Prime Minister Narendra Modi envisions India as a developed country by 2047, showcasing notable resilience in controlling inflation amid global challenges. As the nation navigates through uncertainties.
Agriculture Exports Target: Aiming for New Heights
According to IBEF, India’s agricultural prowess takes centre stage as the nation targets doubling its agriculture exports to an impressive US$ 100 billion by 2030. With an already substantial value exceeding US$ 50 billion, the sector’s growth is not only pivotal for economic prosperity but also a testament to the hard work of millions of farmers across the country.
Insurance Sector Dominance
India is set to lead G20 nations in insurance sector growth until 2028, projecting a robust 7.1% expansion in total insurance premiums, as per a Swiss Re report. The life insurance segment anticipates a 6.7% growth, driven by rising demand for term life coverage in the middle-class segment and increased adoption of Insurtech solutions. Non-life premiums are expected to grow at an annual average rate of 8.3% from 2024 to 2028, fueled by economic expansion, improved distribution channels, government support, and favourable regulatory conditions. While the outlook is optimistic, challenges may arise from macroeconomic factors like high interest rates and inflation.
Diamond Demand Leadership
In the coming year, India is expected to lead in global natural diamond demand, surpassing major buyers like the US and China, according to the Natural Diamond Council (NDC). The NDC, a global authority on natural diamonds, estimates the global diamond market’s substantial size at US$ 100.4 billion. India’s robust financial position and evolving demographics along with the growing economic strength of Indian women can drive the increased demand for natural diamonds. This contrasts with less favourable economic indicators in the US, suggesting a potential delay in diamond purchases’ recovery.
Record-Breaking Luxury Car Sales
With a positive economic outlook and a projected increase in millionaires, India’s luxury market is poised to grow significantly, reaching $200 billion by 2030. According to Forbes India, luxury car sales in India, particularly from brands like JLR, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Audi, have experienced significant growth, with sales of Land Rover Defender and other high-end models surging by 72% in 2023. The increasing demand is attributed to a shift in the mindset of younger, affluent buyers who are more open to spending on aspirational experiences. Also, initiatives by manufacturers to widen their presence, introduce new models, and focus on ownership experience contribute to this growth.
According to Invest India, recycling initiatives in India hold the potential to create six times more jobs and generate around ₹14 lakh crore of additional cost savings by 2030. One tonne of plastic is used to make one kilometre of road in India. India has built one lakh kilometres of roads in at least 11 states using discarded plastic. As India marks its 75th Republic Day, these insights paint a vibrant picture of a nation marching confidently towards a future defined by resilience, innovation, and unwavering patriotism. The journey is not just a celebration of achievements but also a testament to the undying spirit that propels India forward. Happy Republic Day!
Check out ‘Bullish on India’ collection of smallcases here
Disclaimer: Investments in securities market are subject to market risks. Read all the related documents carefully before investing. Registration granted by SEBI, membership of BASL (in case of IAs) and certification from NISM in no way guarantee performance of the intermediary or provide any assurance of returns to investors


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In Google Hangouts Chat, DevOps pros see ChatOps latecomer
Source – techtarget.com
Google Hangouts Chat became generally available last week, but the initial release is too little, too late for IT pros interested in ChatOps.
Google Hangouts Chat, first released in beta in 2017, is integrated into Google’s G Suite productivity and collaboration software, which has a strong following among DevOps shops. The product roadmap includes plans for unique AI features that could enhance IT collaboration.
But Google Hangouts Chat’s general availability comes a full five years after the launch of Slack, the most popular ChatOps platform, and six years after Atlassian acquired Slack competitor HipChat. Last year, Atlassian launched Stride as a HipChat successor, and Microsoft introduced a ChatOps competitor in Microsoft Teams as well.
This means Google Hangouts Chat faces an uphill slog into the hearts and minds of even G Suite loyalists, such as Favro, an IT workflow software maker in Sweden.
“G Suite is a key platform for us, including Google Sheets, Google Docs, Google Drive and Google Authenticator,” said Patric Palm, CEO, and co-founder of Favro. “Slack is still a better experience, and much more polished — it has eliminated almost all of our internal emails, helps with planning and managing the flow of work, and interacts with our build environment through GitHub and Terraform.”
Favro has used Slack for ChatOps since before Favro was spun out of a larger Swedish company, Hansoft, in March 2017. In January 2018, Favro launched an Agile planning and collaboration tool that competes with Atlassian’s Trello, and integrates with Slack although there is no sales partnership between the two companies, Palm said. Favro previously evaluated Google Hangouts for video conferencing but went with Microsoft’s Skype instead.
Still, Palm said he’ll track the Google ChatOps product to gauge its AI features. The platform’s initial GA release includes automatic conference room booking and file search based on chat conversation, but Palm hopes to see a development of an “AI bot on tap” that could be used with other ChatOps interfaces.
“Some startups are trying to do that as well, but Google has the data scale and is ahead of the rest of the world on AI innovation,” he said.
IT pros shop a crowded, noisy ChatOps market
As larger enterprises evaluate ChatOps tools, initial responses suggest that Google Hangouts Chat will take a backseat to more established alternatives on product review shortlists.
“Many teams in the company are using the free version of Slack for alerts, but concern is growing at the corporate level around privacy — the free version of Slack provides no centralized control where the company can govern its use,” said Richard Fong, senior software engineering manager at Mitchell International, an auto insurance software company in San Diego.
Slack Enterprise provides message export to governance and compliance tools, but other paid ChatOps products have drawn Mitchell International’s attention, and there is no plan to evaluate Google Hangouts Chat, Fong said.
“There’s talk right now about integration using Jabber, which we are already using for internal messaging, or moving to Microsoft Teams, since we are [an] 80% Windows shop,” he said.
Some prospective Google Hangouts Chat users, however, will appreciate Google’s opportunity to learn from earlier players’ mistakes, IDC analyst Stephen Elliot said.
“Google Hangouts Chat will make it easy to set up video conferences and appointments, and there’s something to be said for it being easier to use than some other tools,” Elliot said.
Analytics and AI features are also fertile ground for Google, as is potential integration into other Google products and development tools, such as Kubernetes for container orchestration, he added.


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Thin layer of silica allows light to pass through to cells while emitting infrared rays
Engineers at Stanford University in California have developed a new technology that aims to keep solar panels cool as they absorb the sun's rays, boosting their electrical output in the process. As...
Tech giant quadruples number of locations for US customers to hand in old iPhones as part of recycling and reuse drive
GreenBiz releases its latest update on soaring renewables demand from US corporates
Record amount of future new wind capacity will be financed from last year's investment, according to WindEurope
Nation known for its natural beauty is under pressure with extinctions, polluted rivers and blighted lakes


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Disney Takes Over—Again!
There has been a lot of media consolidation recently. Dark Horse Comics has not been doing so well. Dark Horse owns a lot of licensed publications, and they are coming to an end. Disney took over Lucasfilm back in 2012, which pulled the Star Wars franchise away from Dark Horse. Star Wars now belongs to Marvel. Marvel was also given Conan the Barbarian, another Dark Horse franchise. Then earlier this year, Disney also took over Fox—which means more licenses will be moving.
Disney decided to form a partnership with BOOM!, another comic publishing company. BOOM! was given a lot of money by Fox to make movies, so this partnership makes sense. BOOM! has announced new Serenity comics, the first of which will be released in November of this year. Dark Horse originally published the Serenity series from 2005-2017.
Buffy Gets the Boot
After all of this, Joss Whedon dropped a bomb on us in an interview. After nearly two decades, Dark Horse will no longer be publishing Buffy the Vampire Slayer comics. The current four-issue miniseries of Buffy ends in September. That is the last we will see of Buffy—at least from Dark Horse.
There is no news at this point as to whether or not the comics will continue. However, it is a strong possibility that BOOM! will likely get Buffy as well. Currently, there is a Buffy TV reboot in the works. Perhaps a relaunch of the comic series will happen in conjunction with this.
Despite all these losses for Dark Horse, it appears as though Whedon will remain faithful to the company. He mentioned in his interview that he would like to do a comic book adaptation of his Dr. Horrible musical. Whedon wishes to do more comics with Dark Horse “because Fox is taking the Buffy license and the Firefly license back.” Dark Horse has since confirmed this news and expressed their gratitude toward Whedon.
To find a comic shop near you, visit www.comicshoplocator.com or call 1-888-comicbook
Check out other comic book news, previews and reviews here!


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Scouting trends in the bathroom
Futuristic toilets and state-of-the art bathtubs are familiar trends at the Kitchen and Bath Industry Show (K/BIS), held last month in Chicago. This year, new colors and technological advances were two top highlights in the toilet and bath categories.
One of the most notable trends on the show floor was in bathtubs, particularly high-end models that played on the consumer preference toward more choice. Manufacturers including American Standard and Jacuzzi offered a host of new models with new choices in color and more varied functional controls. Others featured innovative—and sometimes novel—ways of looking at relaxation, including expanded lines of light “therapy” models from Kohler and TOTO.
At American Standard’s Porcher brand, a cast-iron tub offered an exterior that can be painted by interior designers any color to match a customer’s specifications. This tub, like many new models at the show, was a stand-alone model meant for soaking.
“Consumers tell us they would like a deeper soak,” explained Gray Uhl, director of design for American Standard. “This also gives the opportunity for a designer or decorator to paint the outside of the tub for a more dramatic effect.” In this case, the bathtub was painted black and presented in a black and white bathroom vignette.
“Black is on the rise. It’s something we see first in commercial applications that is moving into the consumer side,” Uhl said. That demand is carried through to other bathroom fixtures, including darker finishes on bath hardware and in porcelain items such as toilets.
Other companies at the annual event concentrated on introducing touch panels and other high tech features to the bathroom. Jacuzzi, which offers its line of products through Lowe’s and Fergus on stores, featured a number of new products, including a tub from the Fuzion collection that featured a combination of both air and water jets, as well as a control panel that operated in a way similar to the scroll wheel of an iPod. The trend of the circular-scroll interface was repeated in many other products at the show, from refrigerators to washers and dryers.
“It’s intuitive, and consumers are used to operating controls in this way, and they’re very familiar with the iPod. People are very used to this kind of technology, they’re comfortable with it,” explained Rose Boyd, product and strategy manager for Jacuzzi Bath Products.
The manufacturer, which is focusing on expanding its Italian-made line of bathtubs, toilets and showers in the United States, also shrunk its luxury Fuzion model to fit into a wider range of bathroom sizes. The company also introduced an ADA compatible walk-in tub, the Finestra, with a 256-color “chromatherapy” feature.
“Chromatherapy,” which integrates colored lamps into bathtubs and showers, has been a growing trend in both baths and faucet fixtures. Kohler has been no stranger to the chromatherapy trend—one high profile example has been its VTS line of fully programmable showers, which include a touch pad, chromatherapy controls, steam room and temperature controls.
Aside from the lighting features, Kohler has also carried the technology trend through to toilets as well this year—in that case, technology used to appeal to customers who are concerned with keeping the bathroom clean. Kohler introduced a hands-free toilet seat that automatically lifts up and down and includes an automatic flush feature.
On the lower-cost side of the anti-germ movement, Bemis Manufacturing introduced a new toilet seat hinge with no visible hardware or fasteners, meant to provide an easier-to-clean surface.
Easy-to-clean surfaces also were a selling point of new one-piece models from Jacuzzi, Kohler and American Standard. The streamlined look of one-piece toilets has been catching on with consumers, said Eric Moore, an interior designer with Kohler.
“The one-piece models are especially popular with people who either want a streamlined look, or who want some thing that’s much easier to keep clean and to keep looking clean,” Moore said. At the show, Kohler introduced its first one-piece dual-flush toilet, a model that is certified under the Environmental Protection Agency’s new Water Sense guidelines.
Dual-flush Water Sense toilets were featured by numerous manufacturers, at price points from high to middle to low. At TOTO, known for its high-tech bidet features and modern Asian designs, the Japanese manufacturer introduced the “Neorest” line of fully-automated bathroom products, mixing the eco-friendly and technology trends. The compact toilet includes a wireless remote that can activate one of two dual-flush choices or lift the lid up or down.
Harkening back to the emergence of black in the bathroom, several manufacturers featured black new products. Unlike many kitchen appliances and housewares products, where a colorful palette has been a years-long trend, color in toilets and baths has remained relatively staid at white or off-white. This year’s show, however, featured several toilet and bath models in more varied hues, especially black. According to research firm Synovate, unit share of colored toilet models is up slightly year-over-year to 14.3 percent of sales in 2007 from 13.4 percent the previous year.
Home Depot carries several of Kohler’s black one-piece and two-piece models, including the Serif, Wellworth and Rialto collections. American Standard’s Town Square “Right Height” and Repertoire toilets are also available in black at the retailer, and, for both brands, the black models run at a significantly higher price-point than their white counterparts.
The black trend will be a primary one to watch in the future. According to research from NPD Group, the popularity of black stretches into the washer/dryer and kitchen categories. For example, unit share of refrigerator sales are up 13 percent in black and down 7 percent in white. For washing machines, sales of black units are up 113 percent and flat for white.
These new trends will undoubtedly be highlighted as consumers look toward ways to improve their homes in the next year. Finding a market share niche will be important—according to K/BIS research, bathroom remodeling projects overall are expected to fall by 14 percent in 2008, but do-it-for me projects for bathrooms are expected to grow by 22 percent. In all, kitchen and bath do-it-for-me projects are expected to rise by 12 percent in the next year.
Home Depot to close 15 stores
Home Depot will close 15 underperforming stores, the company has announced, and remove 50 future openings from the new store pipeline. The closings will include layoffs of about 1,300 employees.
The closings, at locations in the Midwest and Northeast, will generate approximately $547 million in pre-tax charges in the company’s first quarter. The company will release first-quarter results on May 20.
The stores to be closed are as follows:
• Store no. 2015 in East Fort Wayne, Ind.
• Store no. 2032 in Marion, Ind.
• Store no. 2310 in Frankfort, Ky.
• Store no. 379 Opelousas, La.
• Store no. 2819 Cottage Grove, Minn.
• Store no. 6901 East Brunswick, N.J.
• Store no. 6904 Saddle Brook, N.J.
• Store no. 6171 Rome, N.Y.
• Store no. 3702 Bismarck, N.D.
• Store no. 3874 Findlay, Ohio
• Store no. 3865 Lima, Ohio
• Store no. 4552 Brattleboro, Vt.
• Store no. 4932 Beaver Dam, Wis.
• Store no. 4933 Fond du Lac, Wis.
• Store no. 4913 Milwaukee, Wis.
Home Depot said in a statement it still intends to build 55 new stores this fiscal year, including 36 new stores in the United States.
As for other stores in the works, the company said it has “determined that it will no longer pursue the opening of approximately 50 U.S. stores that have been in its new store pipeline, in some cases for more than 10 years. Accordingly, the company will record a charge of approximately $400 million related to capitalized development costs and ongoing obligations associated with those future store locations.”
“This is a continuation of our disciplined approach to capital allocation that we outlined last year,” said Frank Blake, Home Depot chairman and CEO, in a statement. “We will invest in our core retail business, in this case our existing stores, which drive our most profitable sales. Our capital efficiency model will also provide improved returns for our shareholders through dividends and share repurchase.”
Home Depot added that investments in existing retail stores will continue to include “maintenance, merchandising resets and other initiatives to improve all elements of the customer’s shopping experience.”
The company reiterated that its total capital spending for the current fiscal year is projected to be approximately $2.3 billion, down from $3.6 billion last year.
Sherwin-Williams earnings fall in the first quarter
Sherwin-Williams saw earnings fall in the first quarter of 2008, but the worldwide paint and coatings giant is still seeing strength in international sales.
Earnings fell 30.3 percent in the first quarter to $77.9 million from $111.8 million in the same period last year. Net sales grew just over 1 percent to $1.78 billion from $1.76 billion in the same period last year.
The stronger net sales were in large part due to strong Global Group sales, as was the case last quarter. Favorable currency rates and eight acquisitions since last year’s first quarter helped aid international sales, according to the paint company.
In the company’s retail Paint Stores Group, net sales were $1.031 billion in the quarter, 1.9 percent lower than in last year’s first quarter. Sales were weak due to “soft architectural paint sales and weak sales in non-paint categories partially offset by improved industrial maintenance product sales.”
Same-store sales decreased 6.5 percent compared with last year, and earnings decreased 31.9 percent. Earnings were weaker because of increased product and freight costs, the company noted.
The company’s Consumer Group, which includes paint products like Dutch Boy, saw sales decrease 4.8 percent in the quarter to $286.9 million. The sales decline was due primarily “to soft DIY demand at most of the segment’s retail customers.” Earnings in the Consumer Group were down 23.7 percent due to higher raw material costs, as well as a lower volume of movement at the company’s distribution centers.
The Global Group’s net sales increased 14.8 percent to $461.9 million due to market share gains, selling price increases, favorable currency translation and acquisitions. Earnings for the Global Group increased 21.7 percent to $7.7 million.
“Paint demand in the domestic new residential, residential repaint, DIY and commercial markets was weaker during the first quarter than we had anticipated at the start of the year,” said Christopher Connor, chairman and CEO of Sherwin-Williams. “We continue to be pleased with the strong sales improvements of the foreign business units in our Global Group and the continued growth they have been achieving in the architectural, industrial maintenance, OEM and automotive finishes product lines.”
Connor also noted that the Paint Stores Group opened 17 new stores in the first quarter and closed 23 “redundant stores.”


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Architect of Boris Johnson’s government’s controversial overhaul of the English planning system, Christopher Katkowski QC is representing Manchester City Council in a judicial review of the local authority’s future use of the former Central Retail Park in Ancoats.
As expected, the redevelopment of the former Central Retail Park was approved by Manchester City Council’s executive. But it was not without drama, as terse words were exchanged between Labour councillors and the opposition Liberal Democrat representative.
90% of locals in survey thought the area did not need any more luxury offices, as campaign group Trees Not Cars brand Manchester city council’s public consultation on future of site of former Central Retail Park “tick box activity”
Environmental campaign group Trees Not Cars are taking the council to court in an attempt to overturn their decision to turn the former Central Retail park into a car park. Manchester City Council announced their short- and long-term vision for the old Central Retail Park on Great Ancoats Street, on 10 February. The site has […]


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When Apple launched the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro with relatively minor enhancements to the camera array, we were OK with it. Rumors were already swirling about massive changes to the iPhone 14’s camera, including one of our most anticipated features: a periscope lens for superior zoom capabilities.
Now it looks like that might not happen. While previous rumors suggested Apple would be adding new zoom capabilities to the iPhone 14, to a new report from Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple is planning a periscope lens for the iPhone 15 in 2023, meaning we’ll go another generation taking terrible telephoto photos. Apple’s iPhone zoom falls woefully short of its competitors with a 3X optical zoom on the Pro models and 2X on the non-Pro models and a barely usable digital zoom. A periscope camera will allow Apple to push optical zoom to 10X and vastly improve the range and quality of digital zoom.
A periscope lens works much like a submarine’s periscope does, using mirrors and prisms to reflect light and magnify images. A folded design allows a much larger camera to fit inside a smartphone frame without needing to dramatically increase the thickness or the size of the camera array.
Several premium Android phones already use periscope lens for their zoom cameras, including the Samsung Galaxy S21, Vivo X70 Pro+, and Huawei P50. Samsung has shipped phones with 100X zoom for years, underscoring the capabilities of a periscope lens. Apple often ships major camera features several generations behind its competitors to ensure a top-notch experience as most recently seen with night mode.
Apple is expected to add a 48MP camera in the iPhone 14 for sharper photos and 8K videos along with a new design and cheaper Max model.


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Play’n GO Brings the Wealth Series with Triple Game Release
Play’n GO, one of the leading gaming solutions developers, rejoiced many when they announced they were releasing not one, but three new slot titles at once.
Combined in The Wealth Series, three games launched as one is most definitely a unique moment!
The Wealth Series includes three different games combined into an exciting, all-in-one unique gaming experience: Beast of Wealth, Celebration of Wealth, and Temple of Wealth.
Each of these three games features different prosperity characteristics, and each promotes a distinct symbol of wealth and well-being.
The Features of Wealth
The Wealth Series comprises three Asian-styled games that look similar and share many more extras in each one.
Beast of Wealth boasts much more classical looks, Celebration of Wealth is more in an Asian festive spirit, while the Temple of Wealth has a more traditional Asian look. However, all three games share superb graphics and a classic Chinese soundtrack that helps evoke an authentic Asian vibe!
In the center of each game is the Golden Reel feature that is crucial for triggering the jackpot. There are four jackpot icons, Mini, Minor, Major, and Grand. You need to match three symbols to claim a jackpot.
Each of the three games has its own free spins mode that enables players to decide how they want to play this feature. Interestingly, these games are not only connected by a theme they share. What is more important is that they are tied by a progressive jackpot that grows as games progress.
There are four jackpot buckets, and if you are lucky enough to hit the jackpot, one of them will bring you some luck!
Play’n GO Excited by New Type of Release
As Play’n GO is already well known for its pioneering efforts and solutions, a decision to launch three instead of one game came as no big surprise.
The Wealth Series went live simultaneously across various countries. CEO Johan Törnqvist explained this was an exciting new moment in the company’s history, as they were always striving to push the limits and provide the best entertainment ever.
He also said that the Wealth Series was a brand new type of gaming experience that unites different titles into one unforgettable gaming experience!
Peter & Sons Launches Barbarossa DoubleMax
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StockX a sneaker resale market based in Detroit, MI sent an email on August 1st to its users saying - “We recently completed system updates on the StockX platform” with a link to a password reset page.
After some outrage about how unusual it is for companies to reset users passwords and how they went about doing it, prompted StockX to announce the data breach on August 3rd on their blog. On August 5th, Techrunch’s Zack Whittacker posted on twitter saying StockX 6.0M user records were being sold on dark web for the second time.
It is not clear as to why StockX messed up the communication of this breach the first time around. It does not look good on a company to not read users with respect. To save face from this, StockX is offering users free fraud detection and identity threat protection via ID Experts. You can enroll here by November 8, 2019.
We have helped several hundreds of users delete their StockX accounts after the breach. If you are a StockX user, you should absolutely take this free monitoring service. StockX may not be out of the woods yet. Under Europe’s GDPR rules, they can be fine 10M euros or up to 4% of global annual revenue for such violations.


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Ever since 3D Printing was first introduced as a concept, there was one possibility that while not exactly confirmed, still held the imagination of the public at large; 3D Printed Food.
It doesn’t take a big stretch of imagination to think of a compact machine that would churn out your favorite food at the click of a button.
While there have been certain prototypes that proved such an application can exist, they still are quite rudimentary in their usage, and not at all practical for home use.
But that is about to change, thanks to a prototype 3D Food Printer developed by Hod Lipson and his team from Columbia University’s Creative Machines Lab.
This smart chef is a sleek looking gadget, which can not just print food, but can do it with a flair that rivals that of a trained chef.
To provide it a sense of versatility, the design incorporates various holding chambers for upto 8 ingredients, that can be used simultaneously to create beautiful dishes.
The printer’s arm is the major component of the design, as it not just takes care of the printing process, but the cooking too, thanks to an IR heating element fixed in the arm itself.
The design, flavor as well as the ingredients of the dish are still selected with the help of a special computer program. The team hopes to further simplify this process so that one day it could be distilled into an app.
Despite all these developments, it’s still important to note that the days of users 3D Printing entire meals in their homes are still some ways away. However, the execution of this prototype is still a great reminder of things to come.


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PUBG Mobile Lite payers in certain regions of the world might have noticed a few changes to the game of late. Just this weekend, Tencent dropped update 0.14.1 and a brand new map.
Based on the massively successful PUBG battle royale title that swept the globe when it launched in 2017, PUBG Mobile Lite takes the battle royale genre and squeezes it into a mobile space. The same concept applies on the small screen as you might find on PC, Xbox One, or Playstation 4 with a few twists. In PUBG Mobile Lite, 60 players parachute onto a remote island. A winner takes all battle ensues among competitors with all the same shooting, looting, and scavenging for supplies that the game’s bigger cousin has on offer, but built specifically to run on phones that have limited processing power or ram to spare.
Now players who have the new update can expect to find a new area to play chicken in. The new Golden Woods map is set to bring a fresh look to combat in PUBG Mobile Lite with the promo, material describing it as:
“a tight battleground setting that offers small towns to loot and shoot in, along with unique shrubbery for intense combat scenarios.”
A new map isn’t the only thing coming to PUBG Mobiel Lite either The latest update adds a whole host of new challenges to the achievement system. These are listed in the missions menu and will allow players to test their skills for a range of valuable prizes. In addition to extra loot, the best players will find boast-worthy combat titles unlock as they hit achievement milestones.
Other in-game additions are here too. The classic PUBG four-wheel UAZ is now available for a speedier trip across the map, while the PP-19 sub-machine gun, QBZ and QBU DMR rifle should help augment player combat capabilities.
Each of these extras is all in preparation for a brand new season, coming to PUBG Mobile Lite on 1 October. The new season will bring its own rewards so I’d get practicing before things kick off for real. PUBG Mobile lite is already out now and available via the Google Play Store platform. For more details on your dinner, check out the official website now.
Also, according to SensorTower, PUBG Mobile revenue just accomplished the major milestone of $1 Billion in global player spending!


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The Sydney skyline is set to be transformed with the development of the new $500 million Ritz-Carlton hotel, including apartments and an updated restaurant strip at Pyrmont, as part of the Star Entertainment group's renovation of the city's main casino as it prepares to take on James Packer's Crown resort at Barangaroo.
Carolyn Cummins is Commercial Property Editor for The Sydney Morning Herald.
In one of the biggest upheavals in its history, the National Australia Bank is moving its Sydney headquarters to the new $1.7 billion Wynyard Place, while also taking up a lease at Parramatta to cement its presence in the western suburbs.
Housing markets will retain their buoyancy for at least another year, but concerns of price bubbles loom large, according to the latest Australian Property Institute's Property Directions Survey.
Robots are the latest retail "disrupter" as they head to a shopping centre near you to offer advice, assistance and some entertainment.
Pub tsar Justin Hemmes has snapped up the Tennyson Hotel in Sydney's Botany Road, Mascot for $37.5 million - a record price for a hotel sale at a public auction.
Investors are scouring the inner west suburbs of Sydney to grab a piece of land for development in a market where stock levels are tightening, according to agents.
It was a frenzy of online shopping last weekend as Australian shoppers embraced the US tradition known as Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
A prominent Clovelly freehold building at 338-342 Clovelly Road, directly opposite the Clovelly Hotel, has been bought by a private investor and owner-occupier for $2.92 million.
One of the lead advisers to real estate group McGrath's float, Bell Potter, has taken the knife to its earnings forecasts and price target for the stock for the third time since its disappointing December 2015 listing.
The "will they, won't they" move on Investa Office Fund by its largest shareholder, Cromwell Corp, has thrown the spotlight on to the real estate investment trust sector, prompting speculation of a fresh round of mergers and acquisition activity in the coming year.


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From international consumers embracing the mobile wallet to world travelers planning their next trips online, platform commerce is going global.
The September edition of the PYMNTS Payments Powering Platforms Tracker™, powered by WePay, features the latest headlines on how payment platforms are powering purchases both online and with brick-and-mortar merchants worldwide.
Around the Platform World
It’s no secret mobile wallets haven’t quite caught on among American consumers, but that isn’t the case internationally. Over the past month, research and debuts from companies are proving there is an appetite for mobile wallets — just maybe not in the U.S. (yet).
In China, for instance, mobile payments are so common that Alipay, the country’s most popular mobile wallet option, is looking to spread its wings. Alipay’s parent company, Ant Financial, recently announced the payment method is now available to the more than two million Chinese tourists who visit Malaysia each year.
Meanwhile, mobile wallets are experiencing a popularity surge in England. Mobile wallet transaction volume climbed by 336 percent in just the first six months of this year compared to usage rates at the end of 2016. That’s thanks, in large part, to an increase in spending at brick-and-mortar supermarkets and grocery stores, establishments which account for 55 percent of mobile payment usage.
For a roundup of all the recent news and trends around the Payments Powering Platforms space, check out this month’s Tracker.
Expedia Explores the Payments Globe
While international travelers may be prepared to use foreign currency during their trips across borders, they’re way less likely to want to do it when making their travel reservations.
And, while having the capability to accept cross-border transactions is important for many businesses in the modern era of the online store and global shipping, Wilson Wang, director of global checkout and payment products for online travel platform Expedia, said it’s even more crucial for a company specializing in global travel. In a recent interview for this month’s Tracker feature story, Wang told PYMNTS the company has learned firsthand how important native currencies are to customers — and how critical those currencies are to the company’s business model.
“We really want to be able to offer a flexible solution, because we want to work with travelers around the globe, however they want to pay for travel,” Wang said. “We know that offering those flexible solutions and providing prices in different currencies is hugely important for our customers who are traveling from all over.”
To read this month’s Feature Story, download this month’s Tracker.
To download the September edition of the PYMNTS Payments Powering Platforms Tracker™, powered by WePay, click the button below.
The PYMNTS Payments Powering Platforms Tracker™, powered by WePay, serves as a monthly framework for providing coverage of the most recent news and trends in the space, along with a provider directory highlighting the key players — the companies contributing across the segments that comprise the payments-integrated platform ecosystem.


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Tough times for Debenhams
Debenhams today provided further evidence of the problems on the High Street, saying conditions remain tough and volatile.
The group also said that customers have barely started their Christmas shopping.
The stores chain, whose shares have fallen from 499p to just 179.75p in the past six months, intends to buy back up to 10% of its share capital to shore up the price and enhance earnings.
Chairman Peter Jarvis asked shareholders to approve the purchase at today's annual meeting, a move calculated to dent persistent rumours that the company is interested in bid-ding for troubled rival Storehouse.
Separately, Debenhams is continuing to expand over-seas, developing franchise deals in Iceland and Hungary.
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Here’s your morning roundup of the biggest marketing, advertising and media industry news and happenings. Send tips, suggestions and complaints to email@example.com.
AOL’S AD TECH PUSH CONTINUES: You can say this about AOL–while you might have doubts that a company founded on dialup and built on email and mainstream content can take on Google and the other big players in the advertising technology space–they are going for it. AOL has made a host of acquisitions in this sector, including the online ad attribution firm Convertro earlier this week. And during the company’s earnings announcement Wednesday, AOL Chief Executive Tim Armstrong continued to hammer home the AOL-is-serious-about-ad-tech message. “Our overarching strategy is to build a connected pipe between publishers and advertisers and to make advertising as easy as ecommerce.” That’s a bold message, and for some reason it didn’t take on Wall Street, as AOL’s stock dropped 23% Wednesday. That was odd, because lately AOL has enjoyed some of its strongest performance in years, and Mr. Armstrong has been praised for thinking big. The company’s revenue in first quarter did miss investor expectations, but not enough to justify such a slide. Maybe the market is tiring of ad tech, or maybe expectations are rising for AOL these days (or maybe everybody was getting ready to buy Alibaba when it starts trading).
AD-SUPPORTED PIRATES: Sites brimming with pirated movies and TV shows are being supported, inadvertently, by major marketers that buy ad space on them. Thanks to the rise of automated ad-buying technologies, more ad dollars are flowing to sites with stolen copyrighted content than ever before, ad executives say. Pirates have figured out how to exploit the complicated online advertising supply chain and are generating millions in ad revenue in the process, according to some estimates. A WSJ investigation into some popular piracy sites uncovered ads for major brands including Kraft, Toyota, Target and Honda appearing alongside unauthorized streams of popular TV shows including HBO’s “Game of Thrones” and Lions Gate Entertainment’s “Mad Men.” Nobody looks particularly good here, whether it be the advertisers not knowing where their ads are running, the content companies unable to protect their shows, or the middlemen like the ad network Tremor Media or the ad-buying software firm TubeMogul, who are letting this sort of thing happen on their watch.
BROADCAST NETWORKS: WE NEED TO GET PAID FOR 7 DAYS: Every year, after the liquor runs dry at the spring “upfront” presentations, TV networks and advertisers duke it out and cut multimillion ad deals for the upcoming season. Usually, those scuffles are about ratings predictions, price increases, and who’s got the better looking fall lineup of shows. But this year a potentially bigger fight will be over how exactly American viewers should be counted, reports WSJ. Currently, TV ad deals are structured based on “C3” ratings, which factor in commercial viewing up to three days after airdate in order to account for viewers DVRing their favorite shows. Networks want to expand the metric to seven days, a change that would mean low hundreds of millions of dollars in extra revenue for the broadcast networks. Ad buyers say they’ll want a discount in order to make the leap. Should make for some intriguing posturing this spring, though this debate could be moot in a few years if video-on-demand–which allows for new ad insertion into old broadcasts–supplants the DVR (that is, until the networks get greedy and overload VOD with ads too).
ELSEWHERE: DirecTV is working with Goldman Sachs as it evaluates a possible combination with AT&T, WSJ reports...TV Guide has a new CEO is making a profit, reports WSJ’s CMO Today…21st Century Fox’s Chief Operating Officer Chase Carey says the performance of the entertainment lineup at Fox broadcast network “remains disappointing,” WSJ reports…Tumblr ads are coming to Yahoo, reports AdExchanger…The mobile ad network Millennial Media fell short of earnings expectations, causing its stock to sink, reports Business Insider…NBC has locked up the rights to broadcast the Olympics through 2032, reports Adweek…Gannett Co. Inc, an investor in Cars.com, may seek to purchase the site outright, reports Reuters.Follow us on Twitter: @wsjCMO, @digitalshields, @mvpeers, @VranicaWSJ, @JackMarshall, @nftadena, @perlberg.


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June 30, 2015 8:52:51 pm
Chinese technology major Huawei is entering the consumer broadband networking segment is India with a range of devices aimed at homes and SOHO customers. The company aims to offer something for every use case and within a price range of Rs 1,500 and Rs 2,500.
P Sanjeev, Director Sales (Devices Business), Huawei Telecommunications told IndianExpress.com that the company had an ambitious target of 40 per cent of the market in a year. “With this we now have a total broadband offering considering that we are already leaders in the dongle market. We are sure our presence in the dongle segment will let us enter the Wi-Fi space easily,” he said, adding that the company has already sold over 30 million devices in the India, mostly through the telecom service providers.
From next week the new devices will be available online as well as offline. “We will be in the top 11 urban clusters of the country from next week. We will offer a couple of Wi-Fi extenders and two powerful WiFi routers. A fifth model, aimed at SOHO consumers and with high-end specifications will be launched later,” he added. The Huawei ‘smart’ Wi-FI routers and extenders promise simple configuration and the ease of using their RuMate app for set up and controls. They will come with 2 years warranty.


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Disney fans will be pleased to see Primark has announced another addition to its Disney homeware range.
On its Primark Home Instagram page, the retailer revealed Alice in Wonderland will be their next theme, with a trinket holder and candle on display.
This comes after the popular store announced Dumbo-themed products earlier this week.
The post states: "Satisfy your curiosity with these super cute accessories.
"Trinket Holder £5/€6, Candle £7/€8 #PrimarkHome #PrimarkXDisney #AliceInWonderland."
The items proved popular with their followers, as the post racked up 14k lives at the time of writing.
Fans shared their delight over the range in the comments section, with posters stating "OMG I need these," and "defo doing the house up with this stuff."
Primark has also revealed the Alice in Wonderland theme will include a cushion showing Alice in a variety of different poses, and a fluffy throw which depicts items from the book and film.
Priced at £5 for the cushion and £6 for the fluffy throw, the whole set will cost a total of £23, which is sure to be popular with Disney fans without breaking the bank.
Primark has not released a launch date for the set, so check its social media accounts regularly to avoid disappointment.


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New York City's status as the world's financial capital may be slipping with the turmoil on Wall Street. But its venture capital scene is blossoming.
A total of 67 New York-based start-ups received funding in the first half of this year - the highest amount since 2001 - and investment jumped to $828 million from $480 million in the first half of 2007, according to VentureSource, a research unit of Dow Jones & Co., publisher of VentureWire. This boost follows two consecutive years of growth and comes as overall U.S. investment fell 5% in the first half.
It's a revival of sorts for a city that was dubbed Silicon Alley during the dot-com boom due to its wealth of Internet and new-media companies. While venture capitalists invested $4.24 billion across 340 deals in New York in 2000, many of those start-ups flamed out quickly and the city lost its luster among venture capitalists.
Investors say a group of battle-tested entrepreneurs are coming back to form new, sturdier businesses. Madison Avenue's desire to make money online is attracting digital media start-ups, while a number of financial software and services companies are looking to help banks and brokerage firms save money. Entrepreneurs say the talent pool is rich, access to capital is strong and the city is teeming with strategic partners and potential acquirers.
"When I moved here, there was very little in the way of start-ups on the tech side," Ping Interactive Corp. Chief Executive Lorien Gabel said. "In the last year or year and a half, it has changed significantly."
Gabel, an entrepreneur with two Canadian start-ups under his belt, planted his online invitations company here last year. He found a great space in the bustling Union Square area of Manhattan - complete with hardwood floors, 20-foot ceilings, large windows and a deck for employees to get some fresh air - but it was a bit on the expensive side. So he did what a lot of entrepreneurs are doing to circumvent perpetually high office rents: He recruited a few other entrepreneurs eager to share the space and call New York their home. In moved advertising software company Clickable Inc. and self-help start-up The First Thirty Days Inc., attracted to the office's proximity to advertising agencies on Madison Avenue.
"It was easy to find three or four start-ups looking to share office space," Gabel said. "It's a little like an incubator. There are other founders to bounce things off and share each other's networks."
While Sand Hill Road may be a big draw for companies in Silicon Valley, Madison Avenue may have the same allure in New York. Many of the Internet technologies that emerged in recent years are banking on advertisers to move their budgets online. Keeping in close contact with advertising agencies and the powerful brands they represent is becoming key to an ad-supported start-up's success.
Further proof of the importance of Madison Ave. is the opening last year of Facebook Inc.'s New York office. In November, Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg chose the New York office to unveil the Beacon advertising platform for a room full of corporate executives, journalists and representatives from some of Madison Avenue's biggest advertising companies.
Facebook stumbled badly with the Beacon program, which enabled users to track their friends' activities on other Web sites. However, the need for Facebook - and companies with similar business models - to have a strong relationship with advertising buyers is as powerful as ever.
West Coast VCs are taking notice of advertising technology start-ups in New York. For example, Clickable recently closed a round of funding led by San Francisco-based investor Founders Fund - the first East Coast deal listed in the firm's portfolio.
"Having Founders Fund invest in a New York software company is significant," Clickable Chief Executive David Kidder said. "They realize that we're building adjacent to Madison Avenue, and that it's important to work closely with the users."
The increased activity in New York isn't entirely driven by media and advertising. Wall Street has inspired quite a bit of technology and venture capital dollars, especially for start-ups looking to help financial firms save money. For instance, New York-based Quadriserv Inc. has raised more than $20 million to bring price transparency and efficiency to the securities industry. Life science deals, though far less frequent, aren't foreign either. New York-based Small Bone Innovations Inc., a maker of bone and joint implants, has secured nearly $65 million.
"By and large, I would say that we are seeing a lot of activity across the spectrum," said Thatcher Bell, a principal at New York firm DFJ Gotham, which is rounding up $125 million for a second fund. "Our thesis is that there is not enough capital in and around New York relative to the number of start-ups at the early stage."
Entrepreneurs in New York are better connected and more experienced than they were during the dot-com boom days, investors say. Their hungriness for networking has turned several technology events in the city into major venues jam-packed with entrepreneurs.
During June's Internet Week New York, a weeklong festival of events saluting New York's thriving Internet industry, hundreds of hopeful entrepreneurs packed into a space in downtown Manhattan for the opportunity to network with some of New York's major venture capital funds and business angel investor groups. The networking event that followed was a mob scene of about 300 founders pushing business cards at venture capitalists.
The monthly New York Tech Meetup, which gives six people five minutes each to demo something innovative to New York's tech community, now consistently draws about 400 people and has attracted more than 7,000 registered members on its Web site.
There may also be a surge of talented information technology professionals on the market if Wall Street continues its rounds of layoffs as expected. According to a study this year by the American Electronics Association, the tri-state area around New York City held the most overall tech jobs with 316,500. The report was the first comprehensive survey by the AeA on high-tech jobs since 2000, just prior to the dot-com bust.
But even with all of its entrepreneurial spirit, New York's start-up and venture community is still too disjointed, investors say. Silicon Valley thrives because it's built on powerful connections between university researchers, entrepreneurs, corporate executives and venture capitalists. New York holds the right ingredients, but it lacks this cohesiveness, for better or worse.
"The interesting opportunities don't always pop up from a consistent stream - could be a student, someone from Wall Street or a pharma company," Brian Hirsch, Managing Director of Greenhill SAVP said. "There's not a single network to plug into like in Silicon Valley."
New York will also need to produce some gleaming technology successes before it transforms into a true venture capital hub. The great entrepreneurs often emerge from top companies, creating a breeding ground for start-ups that want to place their roots alongside the big players, as has happened in Silicon Valley.
New York has few examples that follow this scenario. Doubleclick Inc., which was acquired earlier this year by Google Inc., is perhaps the best case, spawning some 30 companies in New York, according to Hirsch.
While Doubleclick has helped seed the start-up scene, some think the next generation of entrepreneurs may come from Google's major presence in New York. Google houses its North American advertising sales headquarters and largest engineering center outside of its Mountain View, Calif., operation in New York's historic Chelsea district. The company occupies more than 300,000 square feet and employs more than 700 people in New York.
"Every major company has a headquarters or an office here," Bell said. "Now Google, one of the paragons of the technology world, develops a presence and legitimizes the wealth and vibrancy of the industry in New York."
Gabel said he thinks there's a different mindset for New York-based entrepreneurs that give them an edge over start-ups on the other side of the country.
"In my opinion, I think the companies are more realistic," Gabel said. "In the Valley there are a lot of techie ideas. It's a lot about the Internet. Here, the ideas are adopted by regular people, not just geeks. There seems to be a little bit more realism."
However, Gabel is aware that most start-ups fail. And as the leaseholder in a space occupied by several start-ups, he's hoping that New York-mindset results in success.
"Everyone has been able to pay their rent so far," he said.


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Turkey’s foreign sales to eight countries have hit their highest level to date in May, official data shows, as exporters seek to extend their range and diversify markets.
Senegal, the Dominican Republic, North Macedonia, Rwanda, Tajikistan, Cameroon, Costa Rica and Montenegro received a record amount of Turkish products in May, according to data compiled by the Turkish Exporters Assembly (TIM).
Increases in sales to the eight markets ranged from nearly 80% to over 600% on an annual level, the data from the umbrella organization of Turkey’s exporters’ associations said.
Turkey has unveiled action plans and sought to engage with new strategies to promote its brands and goods, particularly stressing its determination to focus on alternative markets and efforts to boost sales to distant geographies.
Its exporters have managed to achieve record sales from January through May this year. The 12-month rolling export figure reached $242.6 billion as of last month.
Exports had ended 2021 at $225.4 billion, a figure that government and economists expect to reach $250 billion this year. Officials have been stressing views that the goal would be reached even before year-end.
The January-May sales jumped 20.4% year-over-year to $102.5 billion, while imports were up nearly 41% to $145.74 billion, the data showed.
May foreign sales rose 15.2% year-over-year to $19 billion, the TIM data showed. Imports were up 43.8% from a year ago to $29.7 billion, driven by soaring energy costs that have been widening the country’s trade deficit.
Energy accounted for a whopping $6.9 billion of imports in May, pushing the foreign trade gap to a fresh record high of $10.7 billion, a 157% increase from a year ago.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has sent global commodity prices soaring, endangering Ankara’s new economic program that aims to tackle high inflation with a current account surplus.
In May, Turkey’s exports to Senegal jumped 190% on annual basis to $87.2 million, soared 629% to $71.2 million to the Dominican Republic and increased 87% to $66.5 million to North Macedonia.
Sales to Rwanda skyrocketed 821% year-over-year to $32 million, while they increased 76.5% to Tajikistan to reach $31.5 million, and rose 211% to Cameroon, hitting $30.8 million.
In the same month, exports to Costa Rica soared 403% on annual basis to $28.4 million, while exports to Montenegro jumped 200% to $28.2 million.
The steel industry saw the largest amount in exports to five of the eight countries.
Steel exports to Senegal amounted to $41.7 million in May, accounting for nearly half of total exports to the West African country. Steel exports to the Dominican Republic stood at $61.3 million – an 86% share of total exports.
Steel exports to North Macedonia totaled $25.8 million last month, and almost $15.4 million to Cameroon, accounting for half of the total exports to that country.
Steel exports to Costa Rica were $26.7 million in May – a 94% share of total exports to the country.
The same commodity exports to Rwanda stood at $200,000 last month, with just a 0.6% share, whereas they reached $269,000 to Tajikistan for a 0.85% share, and $291,600 to Montenegro with a 1% share.
Istanbul was the top Turkish city making the highest amount of exports to those eight countries.
Companies in Istanbul exported $74.7 million worth of goods to Senegal in May, with an 85.6% share in Turkey’s exports to the country.
Istanbul firms’ goods exports to the Dominican Republic stood at $62.3 million, with an 87.5% share, and it was $27.3 million for North Macedonia for a 41% share.
The Turkish metropolis’ exports to Rwanda last month came in at $29.1 million – a 90.9% share.
There was $13.8 million worth of goods exported to Tajikistan from Istanbul for a 43.8% share, $18.8 million to Cameroon with a 61% share, $26.2 million to Costa Rica with a massive 92.2% share and $24.4 million to Montenegro for an 86.5% share.


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Walmart is not taking much of a break between scoring a major legislative victory against a bill over which it once threatened to cancel half its planned DC stores and actually staffing up the first of those outlets. The retailer said today it will be opening hiring centers for two District stores it aims to open by the end of 2013.
Days After Beating “Living Wage” Bill, Walmart Will Start Hiring for DC Stores
Having scored a big win with the DC government, Walmart is not wasting much time in staffing up for its planned stores.
The hiring process for the stores will begin Monday, Walmart spokesman Steven Restivo says in an email. Walmart plans to eventually build six stores throughout DC, and hopes to have the first two up and running by December: one on Capitol Hill, at 1st and H Sts., NW, and one in Brightwood, on Georgia Ave., NW.
In total, Restivo says Walmart will be hiring about 300 employees at each store. News of the hiring spree comes just two days after the DC Council failed to override Mayor Vince Gray’s veto of the Large Retailer Accountability Act, a bill that would have forced big-box stores to pay a so-called “living wage” of at least $12.50 an hour, more than 50 percent above the District’s minimum wage. While the bill technically applied to all retailers of a certain size, it was proposed with Walmart in mind as a protest to the company’s average national wage of $8.81, according to the market research group IBISWorld.
Restivo tells Washingtonian that for its DC stores, Walmart intends to offer starting wages “at least $1 per hour higher than what is offered currently at Safeway and Giant.” The average hourly pay for a cashier in DC is $11.28 and $13.86 for a retail salesperson, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.


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Price really does matter when it comes to men’s tailored clothing — especially anything under $2,000.
With the country mired in the recession’s doldrums, moderate chains such as The Men’s Wearhouse and Jos. A. Bank are offering recession-buster deals for the common man. Men’s Wearhouse has extended its popular buy-one-get-one-free promotion indefinitely, while Bank is offering customers a refund if they buy a suit for $199 and then lose their job.
But even at the higher-end, it’s opening-price-point goods that are selling best for retailers so far this spring. Even so, that doesn’t mean the male consumer has turned his back on fashion. Department and specialty stores report that while the most-edgy designer suits may not be moving, shoppers are still seeking contemporary styles to update their wardrobes. Brands such as Hugo Boss, Etro and Dolce & Gabbana appear to be fitting the bill for men who want to look modern but still be considered serious and professional.
“For us, the best-selling tailored-clothing category is contemporary,” said Tom Kalenderian, executive vice president and general merchandise manager of men’s wear for Barneys New York. Among the store’s top performers are Hugo Boss, Armani Collezioni, Etro and Dolce & Gabbana. “The luxury classics have slowed more than the younger, more modern lines,” he said.
Kalenderian speculated the consumer who purchased classic collections in the past has been among the hardest hit by the meltdown in the financial markets. “But the modern customer may not be as invested in the stock market or mortgages,” he said. And the more-contemporary shopper is open to “stretching his tailored wardrobe into casual” by wearing a suit jacket with a pair of raw denim jeans on the weekends. “The luxury guy doesn’t do that,” Kalenderian said.
Whatever the reason, Barneys is seeing good results with Hugo Boss, with an opening price of $1,035, followed by Richard James at $1,675, Gucci at $1,750, Etro at $1,775, Dolce & Gabbana at $1,885 and Armani at around $2,000.
“With a few exceptions, the action is under $2,000,” Kalenderian said.
Among the more traditional vendors, opening-price suits also are selling best, he noted. Barneys opens with Canali at $1,995, followed by Zegna at $2,695. Lagging are the higher-priced offerings such as Isaia at $3,321, Brioni at $5,325 and Kiton, the top end, at $6,250. The impact is also being felt in the designer department, he said, where sportswear is outperforming tailored pieces. Thom Browne’s shirts and other “underpinnings,” for example, are outperforming his shrunken suits. And Prada, Gucci’s designer line, Jil Sander and the like are “down,” Kalenderian said.
“The perception of clothing in the designer world is more sour,” he said. “What’s selling to the designer customer today is not ‘go-to-work clothes.’ It’s more about what is unique and different.”
Kalenderian believes that while business overall remains challenging, the picture is brightening somewhat. “If you’re addicted to fashion, how long can you stay away?” he asked. “We’re not on the cusp of a cure yet, but there are some people who are shopping. We, as retailers, have to provide a balanced assortment, be creative and offer special merchandise. We cannot be boring.”
David Fisher, executive vice president and general merchandise manager of men’s for Bloomingdale’s, said although suit sales are not robust, it’s the opening-price lines — both classic and contemporary — that are doing the best. “Business up to $1,400 is OK,” he said. “But you still have to have an incentive, a deal or a suiting event to drive sales.”
Among the best performers are Z Zegna, Hugo Boss Black Label, Burberry and Theory.
“But the more expensive and classic it is, the worse it is,” he said, noting that Canali, Corneliani and Armani are not selling as well. “It really isn’t surprising considering the financial situation,” Fisher said. The men who used to buy this type of merchandise are “at the top of the unemployment list.” And those who still have jobs may refresh their wardrobes with one suit rather than three, and they’re “skittish about spending $1,800 or $2,500,” he said.
The quest for value is sweeping America right now, Fisher believes, and affecting other merchandise categories as well. “We’re seeing more and more that if people are going to spend $800 on a jacket, they’re going to pair it with a $150 jean from Levis E, which is a lot cheaper than Rock & Republic. There are definitely price-point fears out there.”
Dan Farrington, gmm of men’s for Mitchells/Richards specialty stores in Connecticut, is also seeing some price resistance, although he is experiencing sell-throughs on more-fashionable lines such as Etro and Hugo Boss. While sales overall remain sluggish, contemporary suits are “better than everything else,” he said. “Part of that might be price-point related,” he added, since Hugo Boss retails for around $1,000 and Etro at $1,200 or so. Suits that retail for $3,000 and up are being impacted more by the recession. “We all got a little drunk in the heyday, but today everyone is looking for a deal,” he said.
As a result, the company has been “rethinking” its vendor mix and “intensifying” its lower-priced lines such as Hugo Boss, Coppley and Joseph Abboud. “Business is not explosive, but it’s a bit of a bright spot,” Farrington said.
The stores are also emphasizing fit to lure customers to shop. “If you haven’t bought a suit in two years, chances are it’s out of date,” he said. “So we’re pushing that to make the stores fresh and give customers a reason to buy.”
Lou Amendola, chief merchandising officer for Brooks Brothers, said tailored clothing is doing better than the store as a whole. “We’ve noticed an uptick in very basic suits — solid navy, gray and classic pinstripes,” he said.
Across the store, “price is definitely an issue,” he added. “Younger people are getting more serious at work, and [we’re seeing more sell-throughs] on our opening-price and 1818 suit business.”
For Brooks, that translates into “anything under $1,000,” Amendola said. “What has been challenging are our higher-price suits and made-to-measure — anything geared to the chief executive-type guy.” In the past, this customer would take his bonus check and visit the store for a novelty item. “But he hasn’t been in the door this season,” Amendola said.
Turning to Black Fleece, the Thom Browne-designed collection that is among Brooks’ highest-priced offerings, with suits selling for around $1,900, Amendola reported: “We’re actually having our best season so far. The Bleecker Street store has gotten off to a strong start and is exceeding plan.”
Brooks opened its first Black Fleece stand-alone store in the West Village in January.
Amendola said sportswear, particularly knitwear, has been a surprise bestseller within the Black Fleece range. “We have a knit sport coat that is selling out,” he said, noting cardigans are also performing well. “The suit sales are comparable to last year, but we’re getting the growth from sportswear,” he said.
@tradesy is turning the concept of a showroom upside down with its new space in Santa Monica. Here, the company plans to hold events, art exhibits and a showcase rare fashion pieces like this Louis Vuitton boxing set. Get all the details on Tradesy’s first showroom on WWD.com. #wwdnews
Spotted last night at the @erdem x @hm launch event: Kate Bosworth, Rashida Jones, Kirsten Dunst and Selma Blair. The party, which took place in LA, also marked the opening of their pop-up shop. “I was interested in creating a collection that wasn’t in any way disposable. It was about pieces you’d create and keep forever, things that have a permanence to it,” designer Erdem Moralioglu said. #wwdeye (📷: Katie Jones)
Renee Zellweger in yellow in 2001 and again in 2017. Chosen as one of the 12 @pantone Leading Spring Colors (and dubbed “Meadowlark”), it only makes sense that the bright hue stands the test of time and is making a resurgence this season, seen already on stars like @blakelively and @gigihadid. (📷: Donato Sardello & @rexfeatures) #wwdfashion #tbt
Dior’s 70th anniversary celebration continues with a new exhibition at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. “Christian Dior,” which is scheduled to run through March 18, takes a look at the founders tenure from 1947 to 1057 and feature 40 designs. Pictured here is an evening gown from the Ailée, fall 1948-49 haute couture collection. #wwdfashion (📷: Brian Boyle)
As one of the most recognizable models in the world, Christy Turlington Burns has an insider’s view of the fashion industry and the allegations of sexual harassment swirling around it. “I can say that harassment and mistreatment have always been widely known and tolerated in the industry. The industry is surrounded by predators who thrive on the constant rejection and loneliness so many of us have experiences at some point in our careers,” Turlington told WWD, along with her suggestions for how the modeling world should protect younger women and men. Read more on WWD.com. Link in bio. (📷: Tony Palmieri) #wwdnews
@asics America has tapped a new brand ambassador: famed DJ/record producer @steveaoki. This initiative is intended to set the tone for the new brand identity and philosophy and will include partnerships with influencers and in-store and off-line activations that will continue into next year. This is Asics’ most significant marketing effort in two decades, and is expected to attract younger consumers to the brand. #wwdfashion
24-year-old Jean Prounis is redefining the rules of jewelry. Formerly a studio assistant to Jemima Kirke and a design apprentice at Ghuran, she focuses on handcrafted subtleties and ancient goldsmithing techniques. “There was a really sterile feel in the environment and I wanted to have jewelry with character that shapes how you wear it everyday,” Prounis said. Each piece is hand made in New York, either by Prounis or three other jewelers in the district. #wwdfashion
“These collections continue to build on that vision, empowering differently abled adults to express themselves through fashion,” said @tommyhilfiger of his line of adaptive apparel, which launches today. The line consists of 37 men’s and 34 women’s styles based upon the pieces from the spring Tommy Hilfiger sportswear collection. #wwdnews


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Yuchengco-led Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation through its financial super app RCBC DiskarTech continues to lead the financial inclusion efforts by signing the latest partnership with a taxi transport line EnviroCab last December 13.
Through a Memorandum of Agreement, the country’s leading and award-winning digital challenger bank will provide assistance to taxi drivers by helping them open a basic deposit account through RCBC DiskarTech. Each driver can use the app to receive payments through the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ interoperable QR PH. Passengers can now pay their fare with one single scan.
Moreover, each driver can also receive an incentive of PHP 60 for every successful referral, and an additional PHP 50 for every passenger paying them through the DiskarTech app, with a maximum of PHP 500 additional earnings per week. Drivers can earn incentives for a maximum of two transactions from each unique passenger.
“At RCBC, we continuously work towards a financially inclusive nation, where every community and sector is served, seen, and heard. Every partnership is not merely transactional, but rather transformational. One way we do this is by empowering medium to small enterprises and workers to reach their fullest potential through financial awareness, education, and access to a wide range of financial services. We want every Filipino to take the reins of their own financial well-being and livelihood,” said Lito Villanueva, Executive Vice President and Chief Innovation and Inclusion Officer, RCBC.
EnviroCab and RCBC’s partnership goes way back, during the inception of the taxi line. The challenger bank was one of the cited reasons by its EnviroCab president Luis Carballo why their business stayed this long in the industry. When the taxi line was starting, they loaned 15 units of cabs from RCBC, which they used as a starting point to transform and expand their business.
In the same manner, drivers can also enjoy transformational solutions through a wide range of services in DiskarTech such as microloans, bills payments, insurance, telemedicine, cashbacks, among many others. Moreover, savings of each user can be further multiplied through the 6.5 percent interest rate, one of the highest in the Philippine savings market.
Earlier this month, the challenger bank also launched its NegosyanTech program for mSMEs by incentivizing partner merchants like sari-sari stores with every transaction they make with RCBC DiskarTech. On top of transaction fees, ‘negosyante’ who will reach a specific number of transactions can receive up to PHP 1,000 capital boost monthly.
RCBC, through its dedicated arm for digital enterprise and innovations, has been an advocate of a cash-lite society for years. With innovations with empathy at its core, RCBC is pioneering digital payment adoption through its inclusion app RCBC DiskarTech, Philippine’s first kapitbahay automated teller machine ATM Go, and its latest ‘phygital’ (physical-digital) banking experience MoneyBela Barangayan Banking.
RCBC DiskarTech was hailed as one of the winners of the prestigious Gartner Eye for Innovation Awards in Asia-Pacific region. RCBC bannered the Philippine flag, beating more than 300 entries in the region. RCBC was also recognized as the Philippines’ best bank for digital for three consecutive years, 2020 to 2022, by the Asiamoney, and back-to-back wins as the country’s best financial inclusion app in the recently concluded Best Financial Technology Awards by The Asian Banker.
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Designer Grace Wales Bonner has been one to watch in fashion, having won 2016′s LVMH prize and marking the first instance the LVMH prize has been awarded to a menswear designer. The British-Jamaican’s work this year challenged preconceptions of gender and race, especially those surrounding black male sexual identity. The Wales Bonner 2017 fall/winter show at London Fashion Week this year demonstrated once again Bonner’s ability to successfully merge an eclectic variety of styles into one cohesive range. As with previous the collections, the latest from the designer showcases expert tailoring and draws upon Caribbean, African and European inspirations. Check out all of the runway looks above and stay tuned for more information regarding the collection’s release on our site.
For more London Fashion Week Men’s news, make sure to check out our comprehensive coverage here.


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Damages of infringement on an autocomplete patent remained around $120 million.
Jurors ordered Samsung to pay just a fraction of the big-money damages sought by Apple.
SAN JOSE — Closing arguments, originally set for Monday, are now scheduled for Tuesday.
SAN JOSE — Samsung on Monday finished up the defense of their case.
SAN JOSE — Apple and Samsung are back for the third week of their software patent trial.
The latest version of Samsung's flagship Galaxy smartphone went on sale Friday.
SAN JOSE — Apple presented evidence Monday related to software patents at issue.
SAN JOSE — Features like slide to unlock and autocorrect are at issue in the new trial.
Apple and rival Samsung will return to court next month after failing to agree on a settlement.
The chief executives of Apple and Samsung will attend a mediation session by mid-February.
Samsung lost a surprise legal blow to Apple in South Korea, the electronics giant's home market.
Attorneys representing Apple and Samsung gave closing arguments in a case two years in the making.
Thursday Samsung will continue to argue for $52.7 million in damages as Apple seeks $379.7 million.
A jury has been selected in the new Apple-Samsung damages trial, with opening arguments expected Wednesday morning.
Attorneys for Apple and Samsung argued Tuesday over what would be admissible at next week's jury trial.
Samsung courted "app" makers at its first developers conference at the Westin St. Francis in San Francisco.
Galaxy Gear beats competitors to the wearable tech market. But do people want to talk to their wrist?
Apple's share of the global smartphone market fell to 13.6 percent, its lowest level since 2010.
Apple and Samsung argued Thursday over the validity of this summer's blockbuster $1 billion jury verdict.
Apple scored a huge legal victory over Samsung, winning more than a billion dollars in damages against the Korean electronics giant.
The fate of the Apple-Samsung patent battle now rests with the jurors, who today began deliberations in the $2.75 billion case.
After a full week of witness testimony, Apple and Samsung rested their cases Friday in their patent infringement trial.
Apple-Samsung Judge Lucy Koh dropped the "smoking crack" card on Apple counsel Bill Lee.
Judge Lucy Koh on Wednesday called on the sparring companies' CEOs to make one last attempt at settling their case before it goes to a jury.
A tablet mockup developed by a newspaper company in the 1990s took center stage Tuesday in the Apple-Samsung case.
After Apple called its final witness in its landmark smartphone legal battle, Samsung tried in vain to get the case dismissed.
Monday morning, Apple is set to finish its case and allow Samsung to present its defense.
After Monday's detailed examination of industrial design, the Apple-Samsung trial changed focus Tuesday to user interface icons.
Monday's testimony was dominated by tedious analysis of minute design details by an Apple expert witness.
Designer Chris Stringer — who has worked on every Apple product since 1995 — testified that Samsung’s copying “is offensive.”
A jury of seven men and three women are ready to hear arguments in the $2.5 billion Apple-Samsung smartphone trial.
U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh chided attorneys for Apple and Samsung just days before their landmark trial is set to begin.
All Bay, All Day


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Spoofing, jamming, phishing, malware and ransom ware are not terms that were associated with the maritime and shipping sector until recently. But reality has changed and so has the game. Physical attacks are passé and it’s the day and age of cybercriminals who are targeting critical infrastructure sectors like maritime and shipping to cause maximum damage.
According to a 2016 survey by IHS Markit & BIMCO, 65 of 300 industry players said that they were victims of cyberattacks like malware, phishing, and theft of credentials, among others. The attacks led to financial losses, loss of corporate data and affected the functionality of shipborne systems and IT systems. BIMCO’s report points out that the vulnerabilities on board ships include outdated/unpatched software, unsegregated networks, lack of access-control to computers and networks, lack of cybersecurity and safety policies, lack of intrusion detection, obsolete operating systems and low quality hardware used to construct networks.
“We consider the cruise line industry to be at particular risk due to the number of individuals boarding these ships all requiring connectivity. The container industry is also a sector, which requires enormous levels of electronics data exchanges which could be vulnerable without network protection measures in place,” says Phil Tinsley, manager of maritime security for BIMCO.
Apart from vessels or ships, the sector is a primary target for cyberattackers because it is critical for the development of economies and global trade. The shipping industry accounts for almost 90 percent of the world’s trade by volume and contributes $360bn or five percent of the total world trade in freight rates annually. It is complex in structure and involves many players.
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How to Transition into a 39-billion-dollar niche market
You’re at the grocery store trying to decide between generic and organic potatoes. The potatoes, themselves, look identical. The generic potatoes (think Meijer, Kroger, Marsh, etc.) costs 30 cents less. The organic potatoes have a nice green organic sticker (you know the ones). The general consensus is that “organic” means “healthy.”
But the potatoes look the same—So what’s the difference, really?
According to a blog titled “Conservation and Biological Diversity in Organic Production,” found on the USDA website, “organic” is merely “a labeling term” which suggests an approved means of production meant to integrate “cultural, biological, and mechanical practices.” The importance of these regulations lies in their aim to conserve biodiversity and maintain ecological equilibrium. So in reality “organic” can be better defined as “sustainable.” There are a variety of production practices within organic farming that aim to restore earth’s natural ecosystems while simultaneously producing higher quality goods.
Some of these practices include:
- Planting native vegetation around certified organic farms in order to slow erosive processes and filter pollution
- Maintaining diverse plant species to protect waterways as well as local animals’ habitats
- Adding organic matter to soil to boost diversity
The results of incorporating small changes like the ones listed above are repercussive. On top of benefitting the environment and soil health, organic farmers also “decrease their dependence on fertility inputs purchased from off the farm, reduce pest management costs, maintain reliable sources of clean water, [and] increase drought resiliency” not to mention, return higher profits. Regardless of how one defines “organic,” consumer demands for organic products are on the rise. The USDA claims a $39-billion-dollar increase in the industry’s retail sales. And, as of February 18 of this year, as part of the USDA’s commitment to help farmers “meet the growing demand for certified organic products,” the USDA announced increased insurance coverage to “allow producers to purchase insurance…that better reflects their product’s actual value.” With the way the market is going the definition of “organic” means more than “healthy” or “sustainable.” “Organic” means “profitable.”
By: Kara Hüster


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Burberry has become the leading industry player in taking risks. Today, Burberry became the first major brand to announce changes to its current fashion-show model. The British fashion house revealed that it intends to scale back and combine its women’s wear and menswear shows as of September this year into two annual, seasonless, shows.
“The changes we are making will allow us to build a closer connection between the experience that we create with our runway shows and the moment when people can physically explore the collections for themselves,” Burberry’s chief creative and chief executive officer,Christopher Bailey, told WWD. “Our shows have been evolving to close this gap for some time. From live-streams, to ordering straight from the runway, to live social media campaigns, this is the latest step in a creative process that will continue to evolve.”
In addition Bailey revealed that Burberry will present seasonless collections, which will clear up any confusion for the Burberry customer, meaning they can buy what they want, when they want, wherever they are in the world – and in the process make it easier for his own team’s workload. They’re calling the new format “seasonless, immediate, and personal,” adding that the two shows–one in September and one in February –will be available to purchase in-store and online immediately following.
“I told the teams that we can’t expect a customer to understand our timings because, I mean, it’s silly, which is why we did runway made-to-order collections,” Bailey continued. “You can’t talk to a customer and say, ‘We’re really excited, we’re going to stimulate you and inspire you, but you can’t touch it or feel it for another six months.’ In fashion we talk about ‘a moment’, and what feels right for the moment. And I’ve always battled with that because the moment is when you’re showing it, but then you’ve got to kind of say is it the right moment five or six months down the line?”
Burberry’s announcement comes as the fashion industry is facing a major shake-up following the departure of key designers from major fashion brands, as well as the CFDA’s announcement that it has hired Boston Consulting Group to look at the different options designers have to make their fashion shows more consumer facing. The CFDA’s motivator being the multi-billion dollar knock off industry. CFDA chairman Diane von Furstenberg said the new system could prevent fast fashion knock-offs, as with the current calendar “the only people who benefit are the people who copy it.”
Burberry’s ahead of the game, perhaps it won’t be long before other brands follow suit.


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US Car Recon enters UK as IVS
US auction reconditioning specialist Cars Recon is entering the UK market with the launch of a new company, International Vehicle Services (IVS).
Launched in Pittsburgh in 2002, Cars Recon now operates in 19 states and has 700 employees working in 32 locations.
Kay Hudson, managing director of Cars Recon, is currently putting the structure for the UK company in place, recruiting local staff, partners and suppliers, using offices at the City Auction Group site in Rockingham, Northamptonshire, as a base.
She said, ‘As a business, we actually have strong links with the UK. Our president and CEO, Ron Hope, spent time as a director of British Car Auctions in the 1990s and 2000s. It was always his intention to expand the Cars Recon philosophy into the UK and we are pleased to be in a position to make that plan a reality.’
The portfolio of services to be offered by IVS will be closely based on Cars Recon in the UK, including valeting, mechanical inspections and repairs, smart repairs, condition inspections using NAMA grading, and safety consulting.
Kay continued, ‘While there are differences between the operation of UK and US auctions, the fundamentals are the same and our service proposition will be very similar.
‘Essentially, our core commitment is that we will treat every vehicle that passes through our hands with the same level of care and expertise, whether a brand new supercar or a 12-year-old hatchback.’
IVS has already joined the National Association of Motor Auctions and the Vehicle Remarketing Association in the UK.
Kay said, ‘It is our intention to become part of the fabric of the UK remarketing industry and getting involved in trade organisations in this way is important.
‘We are well-advanced in our set-up plans and will be able to announce our first UK deals very soon.’