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Welspun India to invest Rs 495 crore in health and hygiene category in two years: Altaf Jiwani, CFO
Altaf Jiwani, CFO, Welspun India Ltd. talks about the impact of lockdown on his business in Q1FY21, expectations in Q2FY21 and new business vertical of health and hygiene during a candid chat with Swati Khandelwal, Zee Business.
Altaf Jiwani, CFO, Welspun India Ltd. talks about the impact of lockdown on his business in Q1FY21, expectations in Q2FY21 and new business vertical of health and hygiene during a candid chat with Swati Khandelwal, Zee Business. Edited Excerpts:
Q: COVID & the lockdown have impacted your numbers in the quarter. What kind of demand is expected going forward from here as we are moving towards Unlock 3.0 and do you think that there the numbers will improve in this quarter when compared with the previous quarter?
A: Actually, the US market is our largest market as it has a 70% contribution to our revenues. We have earned revenue of Rs 1,216 crore in the first quarter (Q1). The EBITDA margin of our core business stands at 22.1%, which is about Rs 265 crores. So given the current challenges, we have posted excellent numbers in Q1. We were more dependent on the essential stores as compared to the departmental stores, due to which such traction was seen at our end. On the overall basis, our margin is 19.6%, which is about Rs 238 crores. In addition to this, our core business’s net debt has declined by Rs 350 crore in this quarter and on an overall basis, the debt has reduced by Rs 300 crore. In the case of the US, we have seen that departmental stores have started opening now, along with this, many Tier-II ad Tier-III stores are also opening up. So huge traction is visible from the US market. Interestingly, our plants are working at full utilisation at present. Besides, we had also invested in another business, flooring business, where a lot of traction is coming from the US market. The traction is coming because the US market is shifting towards the hard flooring. It is a USD 3 billion market size of which 80% was being supplied by China. Therefore, many importers of the US are working on alternative sourcing strategy and that is visible in flooring.
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Q: You have forayed into a new ''health & hygiene'' business vertical that will focus on masks and disposal coverall. Your board has also approved an investment of about Rs 500 crore in advance. What timeline you are working on to launch these products?
A: Actually, we started investing in this advance textile business some 6-7 years ago. Now, the plant is working on full capacity and the board has approved Rs 495 crores of investment in advance textile, which will spread over two years. Earlier, we were supplying several application filters in the automobile industry and now we are focusing on health and hygiene. It is a pleasure to announce that Welspun is the first company in the country to get BIS certification for coveralls. This is one of the fastest vertical that we have launched. We have quite focused on health and hygiene and we will spread out the investment in two years and its foundation stone was put on Saturday in Telangana. Some portion of the business will be present in Anjar, Gujarat. In the next three years, we are looking at Rs 500 crore of revenue at 75% utilisation. At present, the export is at a restricted basis but once that is allowed, which we are expecting very soon. So, with our relationship with global retailers, we can very quickly put our products, like masks, coverall and vent pipes, which are now hygiene products, on their shelf.
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Apple Once Again Named World’s Most Valuable Brand, Dethroning Google
Apple has just been named the most valuable global brand by Millward Brown, a market research firm. The firm in its tenth annual BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands report has shown the Mac maker as the leading brand with a value of $246.9 billion.
Being the tenth report of its kind, which is released annually, the 2014 issue showed Google as the reigning champion, being the most valuable brand of that year. However, 2015 sees Apple dethrone the search engine giant as it regains the top position for the fourth time. Earlier BrandZ brand value reports had shown Apple sitting in the top spot in 2011, 2012, and 2013, three years in a row.
Apparently Apple’s rise to the top has come through a stellar 67-percent increase in its brand value from 2014, which has been amounted to $246.9 billion. “With a 67 percent rise in Brand Value to $247 billion, Apple returned to number one in the BrandZ™ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands ranking. Success of the iPhone 6 and the related excitement surrounding the Apple brand drove the increase. Apple also led in the rate of brand value growth over 10 years – 1,446 percent.”
Of course the introduction of the new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus with their larger display sizes have had a major part to play in not just improving brand value, but overall sales of Apple products following the release of the new phones. Sales of the two handsets had been far greater than when the iPhone 5s was introduced, with a massive increase in sales in new markets such as China.
If you take a look at the top ten brands in the BrandZ report for 2015, you’ll realize that majority of the companies either belong to technology or the telecom category. Companies like Microsoft, IBM, Visa, AT&T and Verizon follow in after Apple and Google. The report also includes the likes of Amazon, HP, Samsung, Facebook etc, though these companies do not fall in the top ten list.
With this year’s report out, it’s a clear indication that Apple is riding high and enjoying a good position in the consumer market. It would be interesting to see what happens next year to the Apple brand.
Besides this, Apple is also the most valuable tech company in the world.
You can check out the entire list by over to this link.
You can follow us on Twitter, add us to your circle on Google+ or like our Facebook page to keep yourself updated on all the latest from Microsoft, Google, Apple and the web.

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Here are three things you need to know in the financial markets this morning from investment writer, Tony Cross.
#1. Loungers optimistic and continues growth
Bar and restaurant operator Loungers [LON:LGRS] has published full year results today for the 12 months to April 18th. Revenues are down by slightly more than 50% but the company notes it has significantly outperformed the market since the reopening of indoor dining in mid-May. The nine week period to July 18th saw sales almost 24% up on the 2019 comparable, with flexible office working seen as being one factor in helping drive traffic to the high street. In his usual and refreshingly pragmatic tone, the CEO notes that whilst there’s uncertainty as to what happens next, the business is looking ahead with confidence and is opening new premises at a rate of 25 per year.
#2. Next Plc raises profit forecast, repays rates relief
Next Plc [LON:NXT] has issued a trading statement noting that performance over the last 11 weeks has been materially ahead of expectations, leading the company to increase profit guidance for the full year. Full price sales for the period were up by 18.6% on 2019’s figure, whereas previous guidance had put this at just 3%. There’s an interesting CSR point here, too, with the company electing to repay business rates relief for the period shops were closed, which comes in at £29m. However a cash surplus of some £240m has now been accrued, which will be returned to shareholders via a special dividend. Moves like this can only strengthen calls for a different taxation model, namely one which proportionately hits online sellers – and that’s ultimately something which wouldn’t be of net benefit to Next.
#3. Wickes Group sales leap up
Hardware store group Wickes [LON:WIX] has published a trading update for the 26 weeks to June 26th this morning. This certainly paints an interesting picture, perhaps most notably in the do-it-for-me market of bathroom and kitchen fit-outs. In line with the reopening of non-essential retail, Q2 sales jumped a staggering 187.5% percent against the number seen a year earlier, underlining that pent-up consumer demand. First half guidance of £45m pre-tax profits remains unchanged.
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The 2014 Kia Cadenza keeps on reeling in accolades as it picks up one more. The Mercedes-Benz GL350 Bluetec's not as surprising.
Read This Article
There's not much entirely new news about the 2013 Kia K9 full-size luxury sedan.
Kia Motors is having a busy year, reloading with seven all-new or refreshed vehicles this year, not the least of which is the 2014 Kia Soul that we first saw at the New York Auto Show.
The 2014 Kia Sorento aced its government crash safety test after undergoing quite an extensive refresh.


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ITT Systems Corp. (NYSE: ITT) has completed its acquisition of YSI Inc., a developer and manufacturer of sensors, instruments, software and data collection platforms for environmental water monitoring.
ITT said the move forms a water-focused analytics business approximately $300 million annual revenue.
YSI reported 2010 global revenues of $101 million. It has facilities in the U.S., Europe and Asia.
“YSI’s product offering complements our existing water portfolio and enables us to better serve our global customers and build on our commitment to solve challenges that our customers face across the water industry, ” said Gretchen McClain, president of ITT’s fluid and motion control business.
McClain is also the future CEO of Xylem, a standalone water company which will spinoff from ITT this year.
Previous acquisition coverage:


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Mumbai-based Waaree Group is looking to raise Rs 150 crore ($23.7 million) from PE investors to expand its solar energy business, a top executive told VCCircle. The group is involved in businesses ...
- Valuation and Fundraising for Tech Startups, Taj Yeshwantpur, Bengaluru, 2020-02-26
- VCCircle India Limited Partners Summit 2020, Trident, Nariman Point, 2020-02-27
- Business Transformation Summit 2020, ITC Kohenur, Hyderabad, 2020-03-14
- VCCircle Consumer Investment Summit 2020, Four Seasons Hotel, Mumbai, 2020-03-20


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Thermo Fisher (TMO), the nation’s biggest laboratory supply company, reliably churns out cash in good times and bad.
At the same time that Thermo profit were under a bit of pressure from the economy’s meltdown, the Massachusetts company used its impressive free cash flow to go on a shopping spree over the past couple years.
It paid a combined $1.25 billion to snap up about a dozen smaller companies. Then in December it announced a richly priced $2.1 billion cash deal for California instrument maker Dionex (DNEX).
Thermo also spent a billion dollars last year buying back its own shares, and has authorization to spend a bit more on Thermo buybacks again this year. Despite all the money going out the door, both major credit rating concerns recently bumped the company’s investment-grade debt a notch higher.
Special Offer: Jim Oberweis had his subscribers into Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (GMCR) at $17. Shares are soaring thanks to deals with Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts. Click for Jim’s new recommendations in the Oberweis Report.
Thermo’s PE ratio, after slumming for a while in the wake of the market’s crash, has lately been climbing back up to its historically plush levels.
Until very recently, YCharts Pro considered Thermo cheap. Now, with the stock’s recovery so well advanced, YCharts says it is correctly priced.
YCharts is probably being overly conservative. Despite its recent rebound, the stock could move significantly higher. Stable end markets and cost-cutting efforts let Thermo deliver solid profits through tough times. Now, as markets strengthen, future profit margins—helped by an offshore growth strategy and the recent acquisitions—are likely to exceed earlier peak-profit levels. Thermo recently announced plans for a new manufacturing facility in China, expanding its presence in the Asia-Pacific region.
Thermo was itself formed through a late-2006 merger that combined a company that specialized in big-ticket diagnostic and research equipment (like mass spectrometers) and a supplier focused on recession-resistant but less profitable science “consumables” (like test tubes and lab beakers).
The result was that rarest of things: a merger that actually creates the hoped-for synergies. Thermo has been gaining market share because its broad line of products allows pharmaceutical makers, university research labs, health care providers and other science clients it serves to consolidate their purchases.
Thermo's market cap became big enough to catch the attention of more investors.
Research budgets aren’t immune to the economy, of course, but they’re a lot less volatile than, say, demand for new cars or laptop computers. That explains why Thermo’s sales and margins tend to hold up so well during bad times.
The company is still streamlining: last week, Thermo agreed to sell a couple diagnostic operations—profitable but non-core businesses picked up as part of the 2006 merger—for a bigger-than-expected $740 million in cash.
The problem, of course, is that “stable” markets tend to be slow-growing. That’s certainly the case among Thermo’s client base in Europe and North America, although the company managed to record high-single-digit revenue growth last year. Future revenue gains will most likely come from the laboratory-product maker’s accelerating push into the rapidly expanding science and tech markets of China and India, however.
Along with those positives, there’s a reason for caution: Many of Thermo’s leading customers are pharmaceutical makers, where wide-open R&D spending is a tradition. Although repeated mergers have trimmed the number of major drug makers, overall research spending has held up. While the mega-players continue to spend heavily on research, however, their new size gives them more purchasing muscle when buying lab equipment: Thermo may face more price resistance.
Even with that possibility on the horizon—and even though little-known Thermo is currently sporting a multiple twice that of Intel (INTC)—it’s still a solid play for investors who favor consistent profits and upside potential.
Click here for more Forbes Investing coverage.


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NEW YORK (MarketWatch) - Mead Johnson Nutrition Co. mjn said Thursday its fourth-quarter net income rose to $64 million, or 31 cents a share, from $46.4 million, or 27 cents a share in the year-ago period. Adjusted earnings rose to 48 cents a share from 36 cents a share. Revenue increased to $714.4 million from $707.7 million. Wall Street analysts expected earnings of 51 cents a share and revenue of $717.9 million, according to a survey by FactSet Research. The company expects adjusted 2010 earnings of $2.30 a share to $2.40 a share, compared to the average analyst estimate of $2.43 a share. The baby nutrition company will mark the one year anniversary of its spin-off from Johnson & Johnson JNJ, -0.06% in February.
Mead Johnson Nutrition net income up 38%


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Today, Toyota finally delivered its delayed outlook for this fiscal year. It usually is delivered at the annual results conference, but the tsunami had muddled the waters, so to speak. Now, Toyota has a bit more visibility. Today, Toyota did forecast a 35 percent fall in profit for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2012. Toyota expects to end the fiscal with a net income of 280 billion yen ($3.5 billion).
According to Reuters, that’s “well short of the consensus for a 434 billion yen profit in a poll of 23 forecasts by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.” I am proud of the optimism of the forecasters. Personally, after looking at the disaster in Japan, I hadn’t expected any profits. Toyota also predicts an operating loss of 120 billion yen ($ 1.5 billion) for the first half of its fiscal (April through September 2011), to be followed by a big 420 billion yen ($ 5.2 billion) operating gain in the second half (October 2011 through March 2012).
Message to all competing companies: Expect the Japanese to come out with guns blazing once the supply lines are back in shape.
Where Toyota sees a loss is in vehicle sales. Toyota closed out the last fiscal with 7.308 million units sold. Toyota lowered its projection for Fiscal 2012 to 7.24 million vehicles. That’s 68,000 units less.
On a calendar year basis, this will look nastier. April through September 2011, Toyota sees 795,000 units less than last year, to be followed by 727,000 units more than in the preceding year for the October 2011 through March 2012 period.
What this means is that Toyota will end the calendar year 2011 in all likelihood in third place behind GM and Volkswagen. The party line at Toyota is “We don’t want to have the most sales, we want to have the most satisfied customers.” But dropping from top to 3 will hurt the pride, even if the face is brave.
The big caveat: The projections are based on an exchange rate of 82 yen to the dollar.
Toyota CFO Satoshi Ozawa, who presented the forecast today in Tokyo, warned again that the strong yen is the biggest obstacle facing Toyota. In the May conference, Ozawa had said that the break even point for profitable production in Japan is 85 yen to the dollar. Today, the dollar already buys 5 yen less. “We are in a situation where it is becoming impossible for Japan’s manufacturing industry to do business,” Ozawa said today.


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LTE adoption is exploding in Japan, Korea and other highly developed Asian countries; but in this “red ocean” competition is fierce – companies find themselves in a continuous arms race to deliver the most innovative solutions and keep their service offering one step ahead of the curve.
In the Emerging Markets of Asia (EMAP) development has, until now, been slower. But the opportunity for growth is huge.
One Analysys Mason report stated that EMAP is soon to dominate the global LTE market with more subscribers that anywhere else in the world; and in support of the this theory, EMAP currently has the highest number of planned and trialled LTE networks.
So what has been slowing the development of LTE in EMAP so far? Are there still limiting factors preventing substantial LTE adoption? And when can we expect the LTE data explosion?
The first thing to consider is whether consumers actually care about LTE? Is there a need for faster speeds? Or is 3G technology sufficient? Consumers often struggle with the high cost of LTE devices and the expense of 4G as a whole. This price barrier means LTE adoption is not widespread, and the economies of scale needed to make LTE investments worthwhile and therefore prices lower are not met. Additionally companies have invested heavily in 3G infrastructure which is now to be wasted as 4G is introduced?
Despite this, investment in the region is happening and all experts predict that in the next few years LTE adoption will explode. One reason for this is the immense video consumption in Asia, which is of much higher quality when streamed over LTE and provides a real reason for the consumer to upgrade.
However, mass adoption will happen with the development of low cost devices. When these are launched we can expect EMAP to dominate the LTE markets globally.
If you want to get closer to the emerging markets of Asia; hear operator case studies and investor perspectives – join us at LTE Asia 2015, where we will be launching the new emerging markets track.


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Tempe-based online used car retailer Carvana has teamed up with Hertz to be a key outlet to sell the national car rental company’s used cars.
The partnership comes on the heels of other big partnership moves from Hertz, including the announcement that it would order 100,000 Tesla (Nasdaq: TSLA) electric vehicles and the announcement that it will supply 50,000 Teslas to Uber drivers.
For Carvana, it seemed to be welcome news on Wall Street. Shares of Carvana stock got a quick jolt at the start of the trading day Wednesday, jumping more than $13 to surpass the $300 mark before settling back down to close with a modest 33-cent gain. Track the stock here.
The deal will give Hertz — which has sold its vehicles through auctions, direct-to-dealer-programs and its 68 Hertz Car Sales locations — a direct-to-consumer channel far with greater scope and efficiency than it has had before.
Carvana Founder and CEO Ernie Garcia said his company’s technology and infrastructure will help Hertz to reach more customers.


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Spotify has formally backed the Music Modernization Act, the proposed legislation in US Congress that seeks to sort out America’s mechanical rights mess.
Licensing the mechanical rights in songs in the US is a nightmare, resulting in songwriters and music publishers going unpaid and streaming services being sued for millions, now billions. The Music Modernization Act would set up a mechanical rights licensing system Stateside like those which already exist in most other countries.
The proposals are backed by many (though not all) in the music community and also the streaming sector’s trade body the Digital Media Association.
After a plethora of music industry trade bodies rallied in Washington earlier this week to formally support the act, the Digital Media Association reaffirmed its support yesterday, while Spotify and Pandora specifically stepped forward to also endorse the proposals, which have been put forward by Congressmen Doug Collins and Hakeem Jeffries
Spotify’s General Counsel and VP Business & Legal Affairs, Horacio Gutierrez, said: “Spotify appreciates Representatives Collins’s and Jeffries’s effort to fix the broken, outdated licensing system that does not serve the needs of music creators or digital music services. The Music Modernization Act increases the transparency and efficiency of licensing music, leading to faster and more accurate royalty payments to songwriters and more music available to consumers”.
Meanwhile Steve Bene, General Counsel at Pandora, added: “Pandora commends the Digital Media Association, the National Music Publishers Association, and the songwriter community for coming together and proposing a workable solution to the music industry’s licensing challenges. The Music Modernization Act is an important step towards improving the digital music services enjoyed by consumers and royalties received by songwriters”.[from http://ift.tt/2lvivLP]


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BrightSign CEO Jeff Hastings reveals the new technologies helping retailers engage more with customers.
For signage and signage player manufacturers in retail, how big of an opportunity is technology such as physical cookies?
Retailers are encouraging customers to engage directly through the digital signage screen and indirectly via their own devices. Proximity based content is on the increase. Bluetooth and beacon technology is enabling a new level of audience participation. Customers will be presented with options to interact with and control the signage from their mobile device. These technologies will allow retailers to increase sales with engaging and targeted point-of-purchase promotions.
Are there any other technologies in the retail space you’re currently involved with that you think will have a big impact?
Any technology that opens new and exciting ways to engage with signage is on the increase. Growing support for HTML5 is enabling developers to take their presentations to a new level, with functionality like swipe/pinch/zoom interactive, Web GL, live streaming social media, and HTML5 assets layered with live TV.
Are retailers happy to implement new and somewhat unproven technologies more readily than other industries?
Retailers are in an arms race not only with each other but also with the online experience accessible to their customers on PCs, tablets and smartphones. They are very open to new ideas, technologies and approaches that will create a wow factor amongst their customers. They are heavily invested in creating an experience that draws the customer into their physical stores and away from online.
Do you think retailers know the best way to utilise innovative technologies to get the best out of them?
Some very sophisticated brands have their own creative and IT departments, but most retailers rely heavily on smart systems integrators that not only advise them of the technologies that are available, but also implement them in reliable, stable installations that work effectively. Often, integrators also take responsibility for managing, hosting and even creating content to keep installations constantly refreshed.
Tell us about a recent installation project that highlights BrightSign’s expertise in the retail sector.
A testing brief for BrightSign came through UK based installer Project Audio Visual. They were asked to install a Dynascan curved LED display around a column within a store at the Westfield Shopping Centre. Curved signage gives customers a great view of advertisements and on brand content, wherever they are standing. Curved displays give the appearance of a wider screen, catching the attention of potential customers even in a large space, such as a shopping centre. However, a major challenge with curved displays is that they are a non-standard format. BrightSign players, with their fully configurable resolution, make it easy to ensure that the content fits the screen correctly whatever the size. “This screen is 820 x 580 format – we were able to set that resolution in the player so that the content wraps around the column correctly,” said Steve Hudson of Project Audio Visual. “The easy and straightforward configuration of BrightSign players in BrightAuthor is a major benefit when we’re working to a tight deadline like this. We simply didn’t have the luxury of using the trial and error approach to find the correct settings.”


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AMAZON has been slammed for selling “barbaric” DIY ear cropping kits for dogs.
The online retailer has been urged by furious animal lovers to remove the Premium Pitbull Dog Ear Cropping Clamp Guide Tools Kit from their website immediately.
The “cruel” kits come with a scalpel handle, thumb forceps, ten blades and a pair of sharp scissors.
They are currently being sold by US sellers Avon Surgical for £31 and are available to be shipped to Amazon customers worldwide.
Another Amazon seller, DDP Instruments are also selling “Ear cropping scissors” to customers all over the country.
Following the backlash, Amazon today announced they were “investigating the matter”.
Ear cropping is illegal in the UK under the Animal Welfare Act, unless it is carried out for medical reasons.
However, some heartless dog owners have been known to mutilate their pets by cropping their ear to make them appear more ferocious.
Animal campaigners, Focus on Animal Law (FOAL) hit out at Amazon on Twitter on Thursday for selling the “sickening” items.
They wrote: “That sickening feeling when you realise US Amazon are selling and shipping DIY ear cropping kits to the UK!
“It’s time to blow away the smokescreen covering up illegal cropping in the UK by banning the importation of cropped dogs.”
The RSPCA were also angered at Amazon for selling and shipping the home cropping kits – while revealing a 236% increase in reports over the process over the last five years.
An RSPCA spokeswoman said: “We’re extremely concerned at how easy it is to buy home cropping kits online and we’ll be writing to the retailers selling them to urge them to remove them.
“Ear cropping is a painful process to remove part or all of a dog’s ear for cosmetic reasons.
“It can cause serious and long-term health and behaviour issues for the dog.
“Ear cropping is illegal in the UK but is sadly still legal in other countries, such as parts of Europe and the USA.
“Even in countries where ear cropping is not illegal, we do not believe that these kits should be sold – this is not something anyone should be doing to their dogs at home.”
From 2015 to 2019, the charity has had 178 reports of ear cropping.
Student vet nurse Jill Murray from Norham, Northumberland also hit out at the organisation on Facebook saying they were “promoting animal cruelty”.
She wrote: “After seeing this on a veterinary professional social media about how easy it is to purchase these kits from Amazon and have them shipped to the UK where this is a banned practice, I am appalled that amazon would allow these barbaric products to be sold via them.
“It’s cruel and a completely unnecessary practice, it’s mutilation! Amazon should be discouraging this and not allowing sales of these ‘kits’.
“There is no justifiable reason for a dog to have their ears cropped and definitely not ever in someone’s home.
“What these dogs go through to have the right ‘look’ goes against animal welfare at all costs, the cruelty and unbelievable pain.
“It’s banned in the UK for a reason and a leading company such as Amazon shouldn’t be allowing these kits to be sold let alone have them shipped elsewhere.
“You’re essentially promoting animal cruelty.”
Social media users have also taken to Facebook and Twitter to vent after being left fuming by the discovery.
Sylvia Jackson wrote: “People who do this to a dog shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near a dog.”
Jackie Mcaleavey added: “This is barbaric.”
And Herchy Boal: “This is absolutely disgraceful.
“Having dealt with investigations into ear cropping I know how cruel and unnecessary this practice is.
“I hope Amazon does what they can to stop allowing these kits into the country.”
FOAL also shared a link to the “Ban the importation of dogs with cropped ears” petition on the UK Government and Parliament website.
The petition, which currently has over 20,000 signatures, reads: “There appears to be an alarming rise in dogs imported after undergoing the inhumane procedure of having their ears mutilated, fulfilling the desire for a certain ‘look’ and encouraging a procedure outlawed in England since 1899.
“It’s time to close this 121-year-old legal loophole.”
An Amazon spokesman today said: “We are investigating the matter.
“The items are not available in our .co.uk store.”


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The Nintendo Switch Online service for Nintendo’s hybrid console may get SNES games. According to an FCC filing from Nintendo unearthed by members of popular gaming forum ResetEra, the firm plans to release a new wireless controller for the Nintendo Switch that’s shaped like a SNES controller. When you consider that the company has said in the past that they would like to expand the offerings on the Nintendo Switch Online service to go beyond NES games and that they launched the service with NES wireless controllers that were available for pre-order, it’s safe to say we should see the SNES be the next console whose games find their way to the service.
Previously, Nintendo announced that Nintendo Switch sales have hit 36.87 million since launching back in March 2017. The latest quarter saw the Kyoto-based company sell 2.13 million Nintendo Switch consoles and has projected that the device would sell 18 million units over the course of the financial year. Game sales stand at 22.62 million units this quarter with a projected 125 million to be sold by the end of the financial year. Interestingly, digital game sales only make up 38.3 percent of the overall Nintendo Switch software pie indicating that physical media is still the choice of many Switch owners.
That said, the projection of 18 million units by the end of the financial year isn’t without merit. Reason being, the company has the Nintendo Switch Lite on the way. It’s a handheld-only version of the Nintendo Switch with a smaller screen and non-detachable Joy-Cons. A new and improved variant of the existing Nintendo Switch has begun gracing store shelves. It promises better battery life though there are no performance gains.


text: DU PAGE COUNTY — The federal government has rebuffed Gov. James Thompson`s request for disaster money for small businesses hurt by the Hinsdale telephone switching station fire, officials said. The U.S. Small Business Administration told the governor earlier this week that no requests for disaster declarations are being considered because of a year-end shortage of federal funds. The declaration would make federally subsidized loans available to Du Page County businesses affected by the May 8 fire. The businesses could get a respite from the ruling in October, when the federal fiscal year begins and budgets are replenished.


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Chelsea Hotchkiss had a lot on her plate in August 2017. She was gearing up for a new school year at River Song Waldorf School, where she worked as an early childhood teacher. River Song had just finished renovating and upgrading its facilities, and Hotchkiss worked hard to put her new classroom in perfect order for the grand re-opening. It was a busy time, very exciting but a little stressful.
As the year began, Hotchkiss says, “I started having seizures in my right arm. Right away, I assumed it was muscular, so I scheduled a massage.” When that didn’t seem to help, she tried acupuncture, but again, it didn’t reduce the frequency or intensity of her seizures. In fact, the hands-on sessions with specialists only seemed to trigger more episodes. Some seizures happened immediately, before she even left the practitioner’s office. Others struck in the car before she could make it home.
Hotchkiss had heard that cannabidiol, or CBD for short, could provide relief to people who suffered from epilepsy. She decided to try it. The effects were dramatic.
“When I began taking CBD oil, I went from having 30 seizures in my arm a day to five,” she says.
Although it wasn’t a cure, she says the CBD oil significantly improved her quality of life. She got better sleep, concentrated better at work and felt less anxious. She found that CBD bought her some time to look more deeply into the problem and find a doctor who could isolate the cause of the seizures.
Stories like Chelsea’s are increasingly common, and a growing body of preliminary research suggests that the health effects of CBD are real. Some scientific studies suggest that CBD has anti-inflammatory properties, which could help with arthritis and other painful conditions. Other investigations point toward beneficial effects on brain chemistry and possible treatments for anxiety, depression and even more serious mental disorders such as psychosis.
Although it’s derived from either marijuana or hemp, CBD contains only trace amounts of THC, the ingredient in marijuana that gets you high.
Many CBD products are 100-percent THC-free, and the Food and Drug Administration recently approved a CBD-based medicine called Epidiolex, which is prescribed for people with rare forms of epilepsy. Harvard Medical School acknowledges CBD’s potential as a treatment for sleep disorders, neuropathic pain and other maladies. But potential isn’t the same as proof. More study is needed, not only to definitively prove the benefits of CBD but also to determine proper dosages and side effects.
“Because CBD is mostly available as an unregulated supplement, it’s difficult to know exactly what you are getting,” writes Dr. Peter Grinspoon in a Harvard Medical School blog post from August 2018.
The lack of clarity hasn’t prevented the market from exploding. The Brightfield Group, a cannabis industry research firm, estimates that CBD sales – which totaled less than $1 billion last year – may exceed $20 billion by 2022.
Not surprisingly, Northern Colorado has a good share of the market. Loveland’s Mile High Labs has a global presence and describes itself as the world’s leading cannibinoid extractor. Colorado Cultivars in Eaton produces a wide range of CBD products, including a water-soluble CBD that’s touted as a highly efficient delivery system.
Cannagaea CBD of Fort Collins specializes in CBD oils made from raw ingredients that are grown and refined on the company’s hemp farm. “I wanted to help others like me,” says Cannagaea CEO John Vail, who launched his business in 2016 and was shipping nationwide within months. “I have been taking CBD daily ever since my knee started acting up. It cured the inflammation and severe pain in my knee, and I have no plan to ever stop.”
Veterinarians, too, are discovering useful applications for CBD, whose anti-inflammatory features seem to ease the suffering of animals with arthritis, anxiety, and other chronic conditions and diseases. Dr. Stephanie McGrath, a veterinary neurologist at Colorado State University, recently published a groundbreaking study of the effects of CBD on dogs experiencing seizures. In the clinical trial, 89 percent of dogs that received CBD experienced a reduction in the frequency of seizures.
While CBD’s potential for health treatment is tantalizing, more scientific studies are needed to confirm its medical benefits. Even success stories like Hotchkiss’ should be taken with caution. While CBD seemed to provide short-term relief for her arm seizures, it couldn’t provide a full cure. That’s because the root cause of the seizures was more serious than she realized.
“They did a CT scan and found a golf-ball-sized tumor in my brain,” Hotchkiss says. It was a life-threatening cancer, requiring more than a year of chemotherapy and radiation treatment. Throughout that period, she continued to take a daily dose of CBD without her oncologist’s knowledge. In January she received some fantastic news: She was cancer-free.
Did CBD play a role in defeating the cancer? Chelsea firmly believes it did. But according to the National Cancer Institute, there’s no clinical evidence at present regarding the effects of CBD on cancer in humans. Medical researchers have barely begun to investigate the issue. Evidence does exist that CBD can help mute the side effects of cancer treatment, however. Some doctors have begun prescribing CBD for cancer patients to control pain, boost appetite and reduce nausea.
If you think CBD might help you deal with any health issue, large or small,
here are some tips to ensure safe, beneficial consumption:
Check the purity. The magic number is 99.7 percent. If your product contains at least 99.7 percent CBD, it means the THC content is low enough that it won’t show up on drug tests.
Go organic. Most CBD is derived from hemp, a highly absorbent plant that can take in toxins from the air, water and soil as it grows. If the farmer uses pesticides or herbicides, the hemp can absorb high concentrations of them and taint the resulting CBD.
Watch your dosage. This is the most complicated part of CBD consumption, because CBD potency varies widely among different product categories and manufacturers. Individual responses to CBD also vary from person to person, and the recommended dosage depends on the condition you’re trying to address (e.g., pain relief vs. anxiety). The best way to find the correct dose is to consult a doctor who’s familiar with CBD applications. You can also start at a low dose and slowly increase until you’ve achieved the desired effect.
Don’t cheap out. It costs a little more to buy CBD products that are derived from organically grown plants and have low (or no) traces of THC and other impurities. The extra money is worth it. If you’re buying the cheapest CBD oil or cream on the shelf, chances are it won’t produce the results you’re hoping for.


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We’re pleased to bring you our first look at cool new products from last week’s Macworld/iWorld trade show, along with Adam Engst’s thoughts about the real problems that Apple faces, which aren’t the same as those the mainstream media seems to focus on. Adam also examines what’s behind Apple’s emphasis on the professional user with the new 128 GB iPad. Lastly, Joe Kissell looks at the ioSafe Solo G3 hard drive, which is waterproof, fireproof, and theft-resistant, and even comes with free data recovery in case of damage — the question is if it’s worthwhile. Notable software releases this week include Java for Mac OS X 10.6 Update 12; SMC Firmware Updates for MacBook, MacBook Pro, and MacBook Air; and Microsoft Office 2011 14.30.
A new 128 GB model of the fourth-generation iPad joins Apple’s product lineup, but what’s most interesting is how Apple is aiming the new model at professional users.
As always, one of the best parts of Macworld/iWorld is running across new products that set the mind racing: iPad-based telepresence robots, tiny elliptical machines for standing desks, sensors that watch your posture, and more. Read on for the first installment of products that caught our attention at the show.
In several interviews at Macworld/iWorld, Adam Engst was asked for his opinion about the waning of Apple’s fortunes, thanks to the distressingly low $54.5 billion in quarterly revenues and $13.1 billion in profit. While debunking the financials as a worry, Adam points out that there are real concerns in how Apple is running the business.
ioSafe hard drives may be the safest destination for local backups, but Joe Kissell thinks you can get equally good security for a much lower price.
Notable software releases this week include Java for Mac OS X 10.6 Update 12; SMC Firmware Updates for MacBook, MacBook Pro, and MacBook Air; and Microsoft Office 2011 14.30.
A quarter of a million Twitter users were affected by a data breach at the company, leading to password resets and no doubt a few headaches. In a better headspace, Adam and Tonya Engst appeared on Glenn Fleishman’s podcast The New Disruptors, which talks about ways creative people reach audiences. And if you’re feeling vindictive toward an app, we have a string of eight characters that will likely cause it to crash.


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SINGAPORE: Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and Singaporean counterpart, Lee Hsien Loong marked a historic milestone when they launched the Federal Agricultural Marketing Authority’s (Fama) first agrobazaar in Singapore to serve as a one-stop centre for consumers to buy halal products from Malaysia.
In his speech at the official launch, Najib said the project was also a testament to the strong and enduring relationship between Malaysia and Singapore.
He said ths project would not have succeeded without continuous support from the government and businesses of Singapore.
The prime minister said the bazaar aimed to bring the best of Malaysian produce to some of the most discerning consumers in Asia.
According to Fama, an agency under the Malaysian Ministry of Agriculture and Agro-based Industry, the Agrobazaar Malaysia in Singapore (ABMS) at Sultan Gate will provide a more permanent platform to promote and share Malaysian fruits and agro-based food products among Singaporeans and international visitors.
As a model hub for Malaysian products, the agrobazaar – a brainchild of Najib – is viable and can be further expanded to other countries.
Najib announced the setting up of ABMS when tabling the Budget 2014 in Parliament in October last year.
Also present at the event was Najib’s wife, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob, the ministry secretary-general, Datuk Mohd Arif Abdul Rahman, Malaysian High Commissioner to Singapore Datuk Husni Zai and Fama director-general Datuk Ahmad Ishak.
ABMS is based on the Fruit, Grocery, Restaurant (Fru-ce-rant) concept which focuses on premium tropical fruits and fruit-based products, sale of agro-based products and food and beverage (F&B) services, especially tropical fruit-based products.
It serves to bring more produce direct from Malaysian farms to ensure that farmers and small and medium enterprises benefit from market expansion, especially tropical fruits and fruit-based products — Bernama


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Padmaja Chunduru assumes charge as MD and CEO of Indian Bank
Padmaja Chunduru has assumed charge as Managing Director and CEO of Indian Bank. Prior to this, she was Deputy Managing Director (Global Markets), State Bank of India, Corporate center, Mumbai.
Padmaja joined SBI in 1984 as a probationary officer. In a career spanning more than three decades in India and the USA, she gained rich experience in corporate lending and credit management, retail operations and digital banking, treasury and international operations.


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The regulatory tide has turned against big tech companies with a vengeance — but will consumer interests be addressed in the rush to regulate?
Welcome to Side View — a curated guide to new and overlooked content on politics, policy, and public affairs. This week: how they really make decaf coffee, Elizabeth Warren rides into the Tech Wars, and the invention of "prediabetes".
Republicans attempt to paint her as an out of touch Harvard intellectual, but Democrat Elizabeth Warren's stocks are rising in Ted Kennedy's old seat, reports Jill Lawrence.
Simon Nasht goes on a world tour of economic carnage caused by the global financial crisis, from Wall Street's trading floor to abandoned factories in China. Where does the world go to from here?


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Kardashian spruiks product for Queensland young guns
THE effectiveness of a teeth whitening kit launched by two Gold Coast rich listers and spruiked by Kim Kardashian has been called into question by the dental industry.
HiSmile, which was started by Alex Tomic and Nik Mirkovic in 2014 and has since rocketed them into Forbes' Under 30 Rich List, promises to make your teeth two shades whiter in less than a week.
Just last week Kim Kardashian, one of five Kardashian/Jenner sisters estimated to be collectively paid in the millions to plug the product, said HiSmile "keeps my teeth white all the time".
"Because my teeth are already super white and it really is a lot because of HiSmile," Kim told her 147 million Instagram followers in a video post.
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#Ad So I’ve tried hundreds of different teeth whitening products over the years to maintain the whiteness of my teeth but am yet to find anything like @hismileteeth. I’ve been using their Teeth Whitening Kit for over 6 months now and not only is it easy to use, but it’s the most effective product for maintaining my teeth all year round #HiSmile #TeethWhitening
The HiSmile kit, which costs $80 and contains three gel-filled syringes and a mouth guard with an LED light, is imported from China.
The gel's ingredients contain sodium bicarbonate, sodium chlorite, aloe leaf juice, pomegranate seed extract and camomile flower extract.
However, the absence of an active bleaching ingredient caused serious concern for Australian Dental Association Queensland senior vice-president Norah Ayad.
"Of the key ingredients that they have listed, there is no actual bleach component, so there is no hydrogen-peroxide," Ms Ayad told The Courier-Mail.
"They have bi-carb soda and things like that aloe leaf, but none of those products have actually been shown to have any whitening effects.
"For people who want to physically change the colour of their teeth, you can't do that without some sort of bleach."
Ms Ayad said the LED light had no purpose without an active ingredient to react with.
"Some of the ingredients are abrasive, as if you are going to scrub away at stains it will have that kind of effect," she said.
"The heat and the wavelength of that light activates the bleach, to make it work faster, but looking at the key ingredients, I can't see what the light would be activating."
Tomic and Mirkovic had just $20,000 when they joined forces to launch HiSmile five years ago.
They made Forbes' Under 30 Rich List in 2018, a year after they made their debut on the Australian Financial Review's Young Rich List.
Their combined wealth was estimated to be $46 million in 2018 and the company, in a press release last year, expected turn over to reach $100 million in 2019.
Instagram photos of the pair show them living it up on the beaches of Italy and also in Dubai and the US.
HiSmile's marketing has heavily revolved around paying online influencers to flog their products and none are bigger than the Kardashian family.
Kylie and Kendall Jenner and Kourtney and Khloe Kardashian have all posted on social media and the latest, and greatest, of the influencers to talk up HiSmile has been Kim Kardashian.
Her Instagram post late last week was viewed more than 7.4 million times and received more than 1.25 million likes.
Followers criticised her post because she allegedly has veneers which cannot be artificially whitened.
It was the same criticism that was levelled at Khloe when she posted about HiSmile earlier this year.
"Any artificial material, such as porcelain which is what veneers are made of, the actually colour of them can't be changed," Ms Ayad said.
A HiSmile spokesman said the compnay has a great relationship with the Kardashian and Jenner sisters and that Kim Kardashian does not have veneers.
"Many of the Kardashian girls use the products, we have a great relationship with the family," the spokesman said.
"Kim doesn't have veneers."
He did not respond a question in relation to the active bleaching ingredient in the product.
Veteran celebrity agent Max Markson said the Kardashian sisters do not come cheap and it's highly likely the entrepreneurs paid Kim Kardashian $US1 million for her latest post.
He said in 2017, when he was engaged to find a celebrity to launch a product, he reached out to Kylie Jenner's people and came nowhere near close to sealing a deal.
"Kylie had about 70 or 80 million followers on Instagram at the time and I started at $US100,000 for one Instagram post and a one-hour appearance in Los Angeles," Mr Markson said.
"I ended up getting to $US350,000 for one post and a one-hour appearance and she still said no. They wanted $US500,000.
"I asked why was she so expensive and they said 'because she can sit on her bed at home, post on Instagram and get paid $US150,000 and that was two years ago'.
"I'd say they would have paid $US1 million. My understanding is that what she charges to post."
An ACCC spokesman said consumers should consult with their dentist before using any teeth whitening products.
"Suppliers of teeth whitening products sold online and through social media platforms are required to comply with the same product safety and consumer protection law as other Australian suppliers," the spokesman said.


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The surge of innovation in automated driving and electric vehicles has made the prospect of ubiquitous clean-car fleets closer than ever before. And now a number of major cities, states and countries are introducing measures to enhance vehicle electrification.
Which country is likely to take the next step and become the first to ban conventional vehicles? Several nations have already toyed with the idea of clamping down on internal combustion engine (ICE) car sales. Here are five of the front-runners.
Last month Spiegel reported that Germany’s Federal Council, which represents the country’s 16 states, had passed a resolution on banning ICEs from 2030 onward.
According to the report, Germany has a carbon reduction goal of 95 percent by 2050, which will likely require significant levels of vehicle electrification. However, observers have noted that a resolution is not the same as a law.
And it is unclear how moves to forbid ICE sales might be opposed by Germany’s powerful auto manufacturing industry. German-owned Volkswagen, which vies with Toyota for the title of the world’s biggest carmaker, controls 270,000 jobs and is not known for its environmental credentials.
Germany isn’t the only country eyeing a phase-out of ICEs by 2030. In March, India’s Power Minister Piyush Goyal confirmed his government was planning for India to become a 100 percent electric vehicle nation within 14 years.
With a booming renewable energy sector and no significant petroleum reserves of its own, the move makes a lot of sense for India. But there are challenges. One is that Goyal hopes the vehicle electrification program will be self-funding.
Another more serious issue is that India has a long history of falling behind with major transformation programs.
The Netherlands, which has an electric vehicle penetration level of around 10 percent, voted to ban all new petrol and diesel car sales by 2025 in a motion passed in April. The move, approved by the lower house of parliament, was due to be debated by the senate last month.
Instead, the country announced plans to become “one huge Living Lab for Smart Charging of electric vehicles,” according to a press release.
The Living Lab program is light on targets and timeframes. But with a nationwide network of charging stations already in place, the Netherlands remains a major contender to become the first country banning fossil-fuel cars altogether.
Already the world leader in terms of electric vehicle penetration, Norway stepped up measures to phase out ICEs in February with a national transport plan target of selling nothing but zero-emission vehicles after 2025.
“The politicians in parliament will decide on the national transport plan in spring 2017, and then we will know for sure,” said Christina Bu, secretary general of the Norwegian Electric Vehicle Association, “but most politicians have said that this indeed will be the goal.”
However, she noted: “Norway will not ‘ban’ fossil-fueled cars.”
Instead, the plan is to use current tax breaks and other incentives to get to a 100 percent electric-vehicle sales goal. “I definitely think this will happen,” said Bu. “Who would want to buy anything else in about 10 years' time?”
The world’s most populous country has good reasons to want to ditch gas-guzzlers.
Vehicle fumes are a major component of air pollution that killed 1 million Chinese in 2012 and put China at the head of a pollution-induced mortality league compiled by the World Health Organization.
Perhaps more importantly for its leaders, China is in the midst of a strategic move to lead the world in electric-vehicle manufacturing. But banning ICEs completely may be a challenge in such a vast market.
Even with the government’s best efforts to support electric vehicles, penetration in major cities is still only likely to be around 60 percent by 2030.
Who will be first?
Even the most aggressive ICE phase-out plans will not come into effect until halfway through the next decade. And Colin McKerracher, head of advanced transport at Bloomberg New Energy Finance, still thinks these targets may be overly optimistic.
“When you dig beyond the headlines, none of them are established policies yet, and most face very significant hurdles,” he said. “Fully eliminating ICE sales by 2025 is simply not realistic. Even 2030 looks very ambitious.”
A complete phase-out may be “potentially achievable in a small country like Norway, but very hard beyond that,” he said. “You can be sure that if any of these [measures] become law in a major car market, there will be significant objections raised by the automakers.”


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HERE and Mobileye, both leaders in providing technologies for intelligent vehicles, have announced plans for a strategic partnership that links their respective autonomous driving technologies into an enhanced industry-leading offering for automakers.
“We are building a state-of-the-art global HD map that is becoming the standard for autonomous driving and other IoT applications that need precise location-based information and services,” said Edzard Overbeek, CEO, HERE. “We are rapidly expanding this capability and I am very pleased that we can accelerate that work with Mobileye, a strategic partner which shares our view of where the automotive and other industries are going.”
The two companies said they intend to pursue the following collaborative initiatives.
Integration of Mobileye’s Roadbook with HERE HD Live Map
Mobileye's Roadbook will be integrated as a data layer in HERE HD Live Map, HERE's real-time cloud service for partially, highly and fully automated vehicles. Roadbook information will provide an additional layer of real-time contextual awareness by gathering landmark and roadway information to assist in making a vehicle more aware of its surroundings, and allow for more accurate vehicle positioning on the road.
Mobileye's utilization of the HERE Open Location Platform
Mobileye will use the HERE Open Location Platform for the ingestion and processing of raw sensor and observation data, and the creation and dynamic maintenance of its Roadbook products. The HERE Open Location Platform was developed to support the ingestion, enrichment and processing of real-time location-based data for connected transportation.
HERE to leverage raw sensor and observation data from Mobileye
HERE will use RSD and the Global Roadbook (GLRB), collected and aggregated from vehicle brands equipped with Mobileye technology, to support change detection and the maintenance of HERE HD Live Map. Detecting changes in the real world and adjusting the map accordingly is critically important for automated vehicles to plan better driving strategies.
“High-definition mapping is a key enabler for autonomous driving. Mobileye's REM technology, enabling crowd-sourced data extraction, together with the backend processing of the Roadbook combined with HERE HD Live Map is critical to ensure dynamic, near real-time updates,” said Amnon Shashua, Chairman and CTO, Mobileye. “We are pleased to work with HERE to create a "world HD-map" standard, leveraging the combined fleet size of certain vehicle brands initially, with the objective of eventually launching an industry wide initiative.”
Edited by Maurice Nagle


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The software, available for Windows(R) and Mac platforms, automatically finds music, photos and videos stored on a user's computer and enables seamless syncing of their media to their mobile devices. doubleTwist includes step-by-step instructions for connecting and transferring DRM-free content to each supported device, making the process simple and accessible.
Users can create and sync new playlists or import their existing iTunes(R) playlists to start enjoying their music on a new device. doubleTwist also enables users to transfer videos and photos to and from smartphones and automatically converts video to ensure compatibility with each device, eliminating file format problems for consumers.
"doubleTwist is dedicated to providing consumers with a seamless digital media experience," said Monique Farantzos, CEO of doubleTwist Corp. "We are proud to partner with T-Mobile to offer a customized solution to their users and create a compelling entertainment experience."
Warren McNeel, T-Mobile USA's vice president of product development, said, "We know the ability to easily transfer media and music from a computer to a mobile device is a pain point for consumers, so we are pleased to work with doubleTwist on an easy solution."
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Online classroom platform OpenLearning was selected winner by both the judges and crowd at last week’s education technology start-up pitching competition co-hosted by SydEduTech meetup and the Optus-Innov8 Seed accelerator and investment program.
Launched in October 2012, over 30,000 students have used the OpenLearning platform. The platform is able to be used by large, open access groups, universities or small businesses and corporate partners.
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SydEduTech meetup coordinator Atul Pandey told StartupSmart OpenLearning was the stand-out start-up of the night.
“They’re trying to be Facebook for education: a platform that is more interactive and social. They’re opening up the platform and targeting universities in Australia and Malaysia,” Pandey says.
The judging panel included investor Kim Heras, education investor Terry Hilsberg, educator and community coordinator Matt Easterman and Alfred Lo, principal at the Optus Innov8 Seed Fund.
OpenLearning co-founder and chief executive Adam Brimo told StartupSmart there were a lot of massive online opening learning start-ups but OpenLearning’s focus on community was their main differentiator.
“The key differentiators for us are ease of set up and the community. Small businesses often think online courses are too complicated or expensive,” Brimo says. “But anyone can use the platform to teach courses.”
Brimo says 2014 is already shaping up well, with a host of new clients locked in and even more scoping out the offering. They recently launched an institution product, similar to a white label service, which offers customer branding.
He adds the biggest challenge of getting OpenLearning up and running has been learning to work with different kinds of billing cycles.
“When dealing with universities and larger organisations it can take a really long time to get to a decision. As a start-up you’re trying to move as fast as possible, and that can be hard when the customers take a bit longer,” Brimo says.
Five other start-ups made it through to the final round, which will be judged on January 29: Literatu, ClassCover, MomentumCloud, ReadableEnglish and MyEdOnline.
The winner of the January round will be off to leading Asian tech conference Echelon.


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Over half of restaurant operators surveyed by the National Restaurant Association (NRA) say that business conditions are worse now than three months ago.
At the same time, sales are sagging. Here’s a look at the key factors at play:
The delta variant, understaffed restaurants, and higher food costs are all adding to the worsening conditions in the industry, reported CNBC (Sept. 29). Only 9% of those surveyed said business conditions improved over the last three months.
Forty-five percent of respondents said that their locations were not open at full capacity for indoor dining, although Morning Consult’s weekly dining tracker found that 64% of U.S. adults feel comfortable dining at a restaurant.
Additionally, more than 75% of operators who took part in the survey said their restaurants are short on staff. An eye-opening 83% said they’re at least 10% understaffed, while 39% are missing more than a fifth of their needed workforce.
This has led to restaurants cutting hours, removing menu items, and reducing seating capacity—all impacting their revenue.
Food Institute analysis (FI Membership Required) of Bureau of Census data found sales at foodservice and drinking places fell at an unadjusted rate of 2.8% in August when compared to July. That was compared to a 5.2% increase posted between July and June.
Although the August figures were well above the year-ago pandemic period (+31.6%), even that was slowing comparatively: July sales were 39.9% higher than July 2020, and June sales were up 40.9% compared to 2020.
BlackBox Intelligence also reported sales growth was slowing, saying same-store sales were up 6.13% in August when compared to the pre-pandemic baseline of August 2019. Comparable traffic dropped 5.44% during the period. Meanwhile, July data showed same-store sales were up 8.10% year-over-year, while comparable traffic was only down 3.69%.
NRA LOBBIES AGAINST PLAN TO RAISE CORPORATE TAX
The NRA is using the results of its survey to lobby against President Biden’s plan to raise the corporate tax rate and proposed changes to the National Labor Relations Act that would allow fines of $50,000 to $100,000 for labor violations.
The association is also asking lawmakers to replenish the Restaurant Revitalization Fund, which was created during the pandemic to keep the industry afloat.


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The Robot Revolution Is Here and Growing
If you have been following technology news, you might be wondering if robots are about to take over our lives. Google in particular has made a slew of robotics acquisitions: the company bought eight robotics companies in the second half of last year, including Boston Dynamics, a maker of legged robots that can balance well enough to climb over obstacles and run, and it recently agreed to buy drone maker Titan Aerospace, whose robotic aircraft could help bring the Internet to remote parts of the world.
What does it all mean? At the least, companies like Google are anticipating business trends. These companies know that robotics is important, maybe even revolutionary. But if a revolution is coming to the consumer market, what will it look like? And why would it happen now?
If you’re waiting for an invasion of walking, talking, anthropomorphic robots, the coming changes will surprise you. In fact, many have already occurred. Robots are already an essential part of modern civilization, but they have mainly performed static, repetitive tasks (dispensing cash as ATMs, for example). Now, thanks to trends including the plunging prices of certain technology components, robots will soon be able to tackle an array of more complex, varied tasks with greater degrees of autonomy and intelligence.


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Big chipmakers are still awaiting recovery
Updated 10:00 pm, Wednesday, June 18, 2003
Despite signs of life in other economic sectors, two of Silicon Valley's leading chipmakers said there is still no clear signal that business is improving for the embattled industry.
As Intel Corp. narrowed its second-quarter forecast, neighboring chip firm National Semiconductor, or Nat Semi, posted a loss of $4.4 million in the fourth quarter after taking restructuring charges.
Chip giant Intel said it expects second-quarter revenue to land between $6.6 billion and $6.8 billion, compared with its earlier forecast range of $6.4 billion to $7 billion.
Nat Semi's fourth-quarter red ink, which represents 2 cents per share, comes despite a slight increase in revenue. The chipmaker reported its fourth-quarter sales at $425.3 million, compared with $419.5 million in sales resulting in $17.1 million (9 cents per share) in profit in the same quarter last year.
Excluding one-time restructuring charges, the firm would have turned a profit of $22.2 million (12 cents), beating Wall Street expectations by 3 cents per share.
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Nat Semi, which makes various chips for cell phones, flat panel displays and power management components for PCs, has been shedding other pet projects such as its Information Appliance unit, which might be shut down in the first quarter if a buyer can't be found, to focus on its moneymaking divisions.
As part of the restructuring, the company laid off 340 workers last month after cutting 500 jobs in February. It now has 9,200 employees.
For the 2003 fiscal year that ended May 25, the chipmaker finished with a loss of $33.3 million (18 cents) on $1.67 billion of revenue, compared with a loss of $121.9 million (69 cents) on $1.49 billion of revenue in the previous year.
Brian Halla, chairman, president and chief executive officer, said that because of recent cost-cutting measures, Nat Semi is on track to save $30 million per quarter.
The company "is well-positioned for revenue growth from this point," he told Wall Street analysts during a conference call.
He forecast that revenue in the first fiscal quarter would be down no more than 4 percent from the fourth quarter.
"The key takeaway is that business is improving, that management is being quite pragmatic about how they're running their business and that they're very focused today in driving the bottom line," said Mark Edelstone, an analyst at Morgan Stanley. He doesn't own Nat Semi stock, and his firm doesn't have investment banking business with the company.
As for Intel, while sales of chips for server computers and for laptop and desktop PCs are at the higher end of historical patterns for this period, demand for communications semiconductors is still soft, Andy Bryant, chief financial officer, told Wall Street analysts during a midquarter update conference call.
Intel's flash memory business is still suffering from an earlier price increase (as much as 40 percent in January) that might have caused the chipmaker to lose some market share, Bryant said.
The flash memory segment "is less than we would have hoped it would have been at this time, and we are doing all we can to get more," he said.


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It’s the unofficial kickoff of summer this weekend, but it comes with some strict rules: campfire bans, liquor bans and temporary trail closures for off-road vehicles to protect spawning fish. The May long weekend will see thousands of people head outdoors for some hiking, camping and other recreational activities.
The inaugural commercial in Travel Alberta’s Remember to Breathe campaign has garnered 1.8 million YouTube views in two years and has won more than 25 marketing awards, but the Crown corporation isn’t resting on those laurels. It’s launching Remember to Breathe 3.0, with a heavy emphasis on promoting social media for travellers to share their Alberta experiences.
Anxious for the snow to melt and winter’s chill to fade, thousands of Alberta campers flooded the provincial as it opened early Tuesday for campsite reservations for the May long weekend. Online reservations began at 9 a.m., with more than 2,800 bookings within the first two hours.
Jesse Merriam and Ryan Ahlstrom had their long weekend all planned out. Returning to a favourite spot, the Calgary roommates eyed a treed lot, away from the family crowds and with space for their party of 12.


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The wait for Hogwarts Legacy has been long, but the open-world action RPG is finally nearing its long-awaited release date.
Coming out in February (at least on some platforms), the game’s release isn’t too far away now, and ahead of its next release, it’s hit a major milestone in development.
WB Games has announced that Hogwarts Legacy will launch later than expected on PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch, though its release on current-gen consoles and PC is going ahead as previously planned.
In fact, on Twitter, the developer Avalanche Software announced that the game went gold on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC, which means that major development has wrapped up, and the development team is now focused on polishing and bug fixes. , which will be delivered via pre-launch and day one updates.
Hogwarts Legacy launches for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC on February 10, 2023
Some updates on PS4, Xbox One, & Switch release dates for Hogwarts Legacy. We want to deliver the best possible experience to the entire community, no matter which platform they choose. That said, we’re excited to announce the PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC versions have gone gold! https://t.co/pForKRZl9p
— WB Games Avalanche (@AvalancheWB) December 13, 2022


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The world of fashion never ceases to draw inspiration from, and to reflect the global zeitgeist in its creations. Due to its function as a medium of expression, it is no surprise that in these trying and uncertain times; conceptual and aesthetics ideas that centre safety and protection are permeating throughout the fashion psycho-sphere amongst designers who are sensitive to and tuned into the global consciousness and social shifts. Pop Fashion, a fashion trend consulting company has predicted that protection will be a key theme that will drive micro-trends in fashion due to the current pandemic that has slowed-down and greatly affected the world in various ways. However, one could make the argument that the need for “on body and wearable” protection is a sociocultural macro-trend that has been bubbling up for some time now in the fashion industry. On the AW18 runways we were already seeing this trend present its self through the form of protective gear and high-vis work wear inspired by uniforms typically worn by fire-fighters, construction workers, pilots and police officers. Though the trend at that particular stage — according to Vogue — was driven by different factors; environmental crises, political extremism, personal data theft. These factors still evoked fear and anxiety amongst humanity’s masses and increased the circulation of a need for protection. Now in 2020, the protective fashion trend — having been accelerated by the global pandemic that is COVID-19 — has sparked a new micro-trend; fashion face masks.
The intended purpose of face masks within the current bio-global context is to reduce the spread of Coronavirus by lessening the chances of droplets being dispersed in the event that an infected person speaks, coughs, or sneezes. The beginning of May marked the commencement of a new government regulation in South Africa that declared that the wearing of face-masks in public spaces was now mandatory. As we have seen, this regulation is not something that is unique to South Africa. Countries such as Morocco, Austria, The Czech Republic and the USA amongst others, have called on their peoples to wear face masks too when stepping out in public. Due to the short supply of surgical N95 masks, individuals have been encouraged and given guidance on how they can create their own masks. Not everyone has the time nor the sewing skills to create their own protective masks, thus creating an alternative option and space for fashion business to make an income. Over the past couple of months, a wide variety of fashion masks have been created by various fashion brands and businesses with each creating an offering that will suit the different tastes, styles, and aesthetics of different individuals.
According to a New York Times article, experts and trend analyst have predicted that we will be wearing these makes for at least a year before a vaccine is developed and that they will become a normal or normalised — after some time — part of our lives. Soon, the majority of the world would have adopted the face mask culture that has long been a part of public social existence in Asian countries such as Seoul Korea, Japan, Singapore, China, Malaysia, and Thailand. According to Dazed Digital, face masks have been around in Japan for decades and have formed part of their social etiquette for one to protect their own health and the health of other from things such as flu, cedar pollen, and pollution. This culture of wearing face masks is so normal in countries such as Japan that they are worn for other various reasons that fall outside of the spectrum of health and protective concerns. In 201 News Post Seven, a Japanese news site, conducted a survey with 100 people in Tokyo and found that 30% of the individuals wore face mask for reasons that were in no way related their health. Apart from wearing a them as fashion statemenst, youngsters in Japan (particularly womxn) wear these masks for cosmetic reasons; that is to hide their faces when there are not wearing makeup or to make their faces look smaller. In addition to this, masks have been used by youngsters as to create a sense of security and social firewall, when they wish to not engage with people or show their emotions.


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While many Office 365 users know the service can boost their company’s productivity, many aren’t utilizing it to its full potential. There are several key principles and tips that can make the service even more productive. So to help you get the most out of Office 365, here are some tips to follow.
Long gone are the days where private information (like vault combinations and the name of your high school crush) are kept confined within a padlocked journal. Speculation has been circulating that Windows 10 gathers more info than it should. Whether or not you think privacy lines have been breached, here are some tips to protect […]
Most business owners don’t normally think they will be a victim of a natural disaster…not until an unforeseen crisis happens and their company ends up suffering from thousands or millions of dollars in economic and operational losses — all because of the lack of thoughtful disaster preparedness.
It’s been said so many times that many small business owners are likely to block it out, but the truth remains: cyber criminals target SMBs. Perhaps the reason for this ignorance is that when an SMB falls victim to an online attack, it’s not breaking news.
A security alert has been released for DRUPAL web sites. Drupal is one of the top 3 CMS (content management systems) for websites. These vulnerabilities have not been found in Joomla and WordPress (the other top 2 CMS’s). One of the issue vulnerabilities are found in the update process and allow hackers to upload “poisoned” content to the server or even take over the server.
Even if you’re not currently taking adequate steps to protect yourself (and your company!) when you’re using the Internet, deep down you know you should be. Or maybe you already think you have enough precautions in place – but can you ever be too careful? In these times of Internet fraud, phishing scams and high […]
It seems Google is taking the issue of online security increasingly serious as they have recently unveiled their latest attempt to stem the tide of phishing. Trialing a password-free login option, they also aim to curb the dangers caused by ineffective and over simplified passwords – something that every small and medium sized business needs […]
There are numerous strains of malware out there, but one particularly unpleasant one is ransomware. While this malicious software has been around for some time, recently a newer, nastier upgrade was discovered. Posing a threat to businesses of all sizes, the program, called Chimera, has upped the ante when it comes to scaring its victims […]
Earlier this month, social media platform Twitter alerted a number of its users to the fact that their accounts may have been hacked into by something, or someone, known as a “state-sponsored actor.” While a warning of this kind is certainly not unprecedented – for some time now, both Facebook and Google have also been […]
With the vast majority of end users turning to Google as their search engine or default browser of choice, it comes as no surprise to learn that the company takes security seriously. But in a perpetually changing landscape where anti-virus and anti-malware tools are constantly chasing their tails in order to stay up to date […]


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Under Armour founder and CEO Kevin Plank will step back from his role of president in a series of management changes announced Tuesday.
Under Armour brought in an outsider to become president of the Baltimore-based athletic brand as it strives to revive slowing sales and its deflated stock price.
The company tapped Patrik Frisk, who has deep experience in footwear as CEO at The Aldo Group and a top executive at VF Corp., the parent of Timberland and The North Face. Frisk will bring a fresh perspective and management chops to Under Armour when he starts July 10.
Under Armour founder Kevin Plank will remain chairman and CEO and Frisk will report to him.
"Patrik's global experience in brand building, including a proven and disciplined record of driving growth, while enhancing profitability and efficiency, will be instrumental as we work to transform our business model to deliver long-term value for our consumers, customers and shareholder," Plank said in the announcement.
Under Armour shares were off 6 cents in early afternoon trading at $21.50 each.
Frisk will be responsible for the company's so-called go-to-market strategy for reaching customers and for executing its long-term growth plan.
Frisk has nearly 30 years' experience in the apparel, footwear and retail industry, directing brands such as The North Face and Timberland.
Frisk was CEO of Aldo, a Montreal-based retail shoe chain, until March when he was replaced suddenly by the son of the firm's founder.
Before joining Aldo in 2014, he spent 10 years with VF Corp., where he was coalition president of outdoor Americas with responsibility for The North Face, Timberland, JanSport, lucy and SmartWool brands. He was formerly president of the Timberland brand and before that, president of outdoor and action sports and responsible for The North Face, Vans, JanSport and Reef brands.
Other roles included vice president and general manager of The North Face.
He previously ran his own retail business in Scandinavia and held senior positions with Peak Performance and W.L. Gore & Associates.
A number of Under Armour executives will begin reporting to Frisk, including Charlie Maurath, chief revenue officer; Andy Donkin, chief marketing Officer; and Kevin Haley, president of strategy.
Other executives will continue to report to Plank, including Kip Fulks, co-founder and strategic advisor; Kerry Chandler, chief human resources officer; John Stanton, senior vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary; and David Bergman, the acting chief financial officer.
The company announced several other management changes Tuesday.
Paul Fipps, chief information officer and executive vice president of global operations, has been named chief technology officer. He will oversee all aspects of engineering to support the brand's web and mobile applications and its information technology and real estate functions. Fipps will report to Plank and lead the Connected Fitness business, with Michael Lee, chief digital officer and head of Connected Fitness reporting to Fipps.
Colin Browne will become chief supply chain officer and be responsible for all global operations related to product sourcing and logistics. He joined Under Armour in 2016 as president of global sourcing. Browne will report to Frisk.
And Kevin Eskridge became chief product officer in May to oversee category management and product, merchandising, design and innovation functions. He has been with the company since 2009. Eskridge, former senior vice president of global merchandising, helped establish the company's business in China. Eskridge also will report to Frisk.
"Today's leadership appointments and the streamlining of our organizational structure are transformative steps focused on a sharper, consumer-led approach and go-to-market strategy through our category management lens," Plank said in the announcement. "This underscores our work toward evolving from a great brand with good operations — to a great brand with great operations."


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When Will Milk Prices Recover?
Growing milk production worldwide and increased competition for export sales all point to a bleak, six-month forecast for milk prices, says University of Wisconsin dairy economists Bob Cropp and Mark Stephenson.
One example of the slump is Mexico, which is now sourcing some of its milk powder ingredients from the European Union (EU) and Canada. In the recent past, Mexico imported some 90% of its milk powder from the United States.
But with the EU sitting on mountains of powder in inventory, it has aggressively priced sales to Mexico. Canada is also up 10-fold in its dairy ingredient sales to Mexico with the creation of its Class 7 program, which subsidizes exports. The result is that Mexico is now taking just 70% of its milk powder sales from the United States, says Cropp. Skim milk powder prices are down some 30%, and are now trading at 72¢/lb.
Partly as a result of this, U.S. dry whey inventories are now up more than double of what they were a year ago, with whey prices now at 30¢/lb, down from 50¢ in May. (That’s coincidentally when Canada started its Class 7 program.) This drop of 40% in whey prices has lowered the Class III price by a $1/cwt, says Cropp.
“Unfortunately, we’re looking at another price drop over the next few months,” says Stephenson. He forecasts that the all-milk price will not reach $17 until next summer.
“If prices get as low as the futures markets show, I think that we’ll speed up culling of cows and affect production per cow,” says Cropp. “USDA is looking for a 1.8% increase in milk production next year. That’s a lot of milk, and I think there’s a chance that might not materialize.”
Stephenson notes that dairy milk-feed margins, as calculated by the Dairy Margin Protection Program, are dipping down to $8/cwt in the first quarter of 2018. He’s not predicting MPP payments of any substance next year, but it illustrates how far milk prices have fallen. The only saving grace are lower feed prices and a relatively good crop year in 2017.
If there is anything to be grateful for this Thanksgiving week, it’s that Class III prices will average about $16.50/cwt in 2017. That’s up from $14.84 in 2016.
View the entire podcast from Cropp and Stephenson here.


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Retail sales in November continued to grow albeit at a slower rate, according to official figures.
Data from the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) show that the retail sales balance well from +31% in October to +27% in November, but with Christmas fast approaching, it is expected that December's sales will bounce back powerfully.
Barry Williams, CBI Distributive Trades Survey chairman and Asda's chief merchandising officer for Food, said: "This latest survey shows many have been winning some rounds in what has been one of the most challenging years for both the industry, and for customers.
Williams highlighted encouraging signs that pressure on family budgets is letting up, ahead of the crucial run up to Christmas.
"With prices under pressure and more firms adopting US-style Black Friday offers, retailers are expecting a festive boost next month and are certainly doing their best to put smiles on customers' faces and make it easy on their pockets," he said.


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Taiwanese consumer electronics giant Acer is having a global press conference in New York right now, and they just wrapped up the hardware portion of the event. In its wake are three new Android devices to lust over. Rather than forcing you to go with one size only, Acer has an attractive trio to choose from.
First up was a 10-incher, powered by a 1GHz Tegra II. The device will run Google's "Android Tablet OS" (Honeycomb?) with a custom Acer UI, but was demoed running Froyo. Read More
According to multiple sources, Acer is planning a special event tomorrow in New York to announce three tablets - one 5-inch (not much is known about it), one 7-inch (is expected to run Android 2.2), and a 10-inch (is expected to run Windows 7). Acer showed off a tablet several months back with a front-facing keyboard with a 7-inch screen; there's a good chance this is the same product but with some revisions. Read More
With the possible exception of Archos, there are no big names in the Android tablet field right now. If you have a tablet running a Google-flavoured OS, chances are it’s from Shenzen, has a resistive touchscreen, and will have been superseded by a newer model by the end of this paragraph. Enter ViewSonic. They’re a display company with some fairly well-regarded LCD monitors, which should bode well for the display of their newly announced, previously-rumored tablet. Read More
If you can’t wait any longer for a quality Android tablet, this may come as a bit of bad news. Both Acer and Motorola are planning to delay the release of their respective Android tablets until the release of Android 3.0, which is expected to feature support for higher-resolution screens.
Acer’s tablet may be pushed back until the first quarter of 2011, which could put a damper on previous rumors that Gingerbread would be released some time before the end of the year. Read More
OK, so I have some good news and bad news. First, the bad news: if, like me, you were looking forward to some hot notebook/tablet hybrid action with Lenovo’s U1, well, you might as well keep watching that YouTube video, because it doesn’t look like it’s going to hit store shelves anytime soon. And by ‘anytime soon’, I mean ever.
That’s right, Lenovo canned their Skylight operating system, which is what the notebook was to run when it was in tablet mode. Read More


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US Retail Sales will be out on October 15 at 15:30 MetaTrader time (GMT+3).
American trade deficit heads north to six-month maximum
In August, the American trade deficit rallied to a six-month maximum because exports slipped further in the face of slumping soybean shipments as well as imports reaching a record maximum, dropping a hint that trade could put pressure on economic rally in the third quarter.
On Friday, the Commerce Department revealed that the trade gap gained 6.4% reaching $53.2 billion, extending for a third straight month. July’s data was updated to disclose the trade deficit soaring to $50.0 billion versus the previously posted $50.1 billion.
The politically sensitive products trade deficit with China headed north by up to 4.7% hitting a record maximum of $38.6 billion.
Market experts interviewed by reporters had hoped the overall trade deficit would extend to about $53.5 billion in August.
The trade gap keeps widening notwithstanding the Trump administration's "America First" stance that has provoked a long-lasting trade clash between China and the United States.
The US government has also engaged in mutual import levies with the European bloc, Mexico, and Canada.
The current presidential administration told that eliminating the trade deficit will undoubtedly put the American economy on a sustainable path of faster surge.
When updated for inflation, in August, the trade gap extended to about $86.3 billion from July’s outcome of $82.4 billion, which appears to be the highest value since January 2006. The rally in the real trade deficit hints that in the first quarter trade could subtract nearly one percentage point from GDP.
As a matter of fact, trade contributed up to 1.2% percentage points to the American economy's 4.2 percent annualized surge temp in the second quarter, generally reflecting a front-loading of soybean exports to China before this country’s reciprocal duties came true early in July.
In August, exports of services and products slipped by 0.8% reaching $209.4 billion.
The US Inflation Rate (CPI) will be announced on Wednesday, October 13, at 15:30 MT (GMT+3). Traders eagerly await this event as it will impact the USD and thus the vast majority of currency pairs in the Forex market.
The US will reveal Non-farm payrolls today at 15:30 GMT+3. Here are the forecasts of 8 major banks regarding the upcoming NFP report. The common forecast (market consensus) is 500K. What’s yours?
Last week was full of surprises! Stock indices have shown significant growth…
The US dollar is heading to close the seventh day in the red as it remains under selling pressure. The US data at 15:30 GMT+3 (jobless claims and Philly Fed Manufacturing Index) may support the greenback if it's strong.
Canada will publish the Retail Sales and Core Retail Sales on October 22, at 15:30 MT time (GMT+3).


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Following up on Newegg’s official press statement yesterday, IPEX Infotech has released a statement of their own regarding details of this fiasco from their perspective:
Ipex has been supplying computer components to the technology industry for
over 10 years with the goal of providing quality products and services to
our customers. Recently we were referenced in connection with some
counterfeit Intel Core i7 920 Microprocessors sold within the US market.
While we purchased these products in good faith from a supplier we are very
disappointed to learn of the questionable status of these products and are
taking appropriate action to resolve the issue for any impacted Ipex client
as well as are fully cooperating with Intel’s investigation in to
determining the original source.
Ipex Infotech, inc.
(Received by email: Tuesday, Mar 9, 2010 – 5:08 PM EST)
While Ipex Infotech is not on the list of Intel Authorized Distributors, this statement is at least testament that Ipex is admitting to the problem. This is in contrast to the previous information Newegg shared in their press release where Ipex had stated originally these were “demo boxes”. So it appears the truth is rising to the surface but it will take some time before Ipex is ready to identify the issue and their resolution more acutely.


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Dangerously cold temps are blowing into Colorado this week, and the unhoused population can be at high risk of illness and injury.
A 14-year-old boy from Boulder is doing something to change that.
When Riley Degnan first realized he wanted to start a business, he knew he wanted to sell something that would keep people warm and comfy. He also knew he wanted to help the unhoused people he would often see around his high school.
“I see them all the time, and I always feel really bad for them,” Riley said.
With a little creativity and help from mom and dad, he created the brand Bigfoot Sox.
“I took my dad’s iPad, because it has a little pencil,” Riley said. “And I started drawing some designs.”
Riley’s colorful and cozy sock designs planted the seeds that grew into his business.
“With Shopify and all these online platforms, it’s so easy,” said Kelly Degnan, Riley’s mom. “It’s easy enough that a 14-year-old can start and run a successful business online.”
The Bigfoot Sox brand is the first brand to sell under Riley’s company, Alpine Proper.
The business accomplishes two goals: selling socks so Riley can one day buy a car, and giving one pair of socks to a homeless shelter for every pair that is sold.
“The main thing is, especially with their shoes, they… can’t really get new ones, so their socks get dirty and wet,” Riley said. “And then their feet can get infected and stuff. So they need to keep getting constantly more and more new pairs of socks.”
Kelly said her son has always taken an interest in helping people who need it the most.
“He sees this (homelessness) all the time,” she said. “And that’s really hard when you go back to your nice warm house every night in Boulder, Colorado. So the fact that he’s able to do something, it’s going to be the best thing ever.”
Riley is constantly making new designs, posting them to BigfootSox.com, and shipping them out.
“In my room, I have this little packing area, I have a little table,” Riley said. “So I take the socks, put them in these little nice bags.”
Then, he hits the books.
“Finals are next week,” he said. “So there’s a lot of studying happening.”
It’s all in a day’s work for a kid balancing big business with a big heart.