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Leading injection-moulder and med-tech supplier Boddingtons enjoyed a successful return to this year’s Compamed exhibition in Düsseldorf, November 12-15.
The annual Medica Compamed exhibition is the leading event of its kind in the med-tech supply chain world. It has been established in order to provide a visitor footfall of leading OEMs, healthcare and medical manufacturers who are seeking manufacturing suppliers and contractors to the worldwide medical and healthcare industries.
The Boddingtons reputation for Class 7 Cleanroom manufacturing services went before it on this occasion – particularly the company’s ability to handle all aspects of med-tech product introduction, including regulatory and approvals work.
CEO Andy Tibbs said that ‘we received a high number of quality enquiries throughout the four days of the show.’
After the fruits of Compamed 2018 are processed, Boddingtons will turn its exhibition focus to the Med-Tech Innovation show, NEC, Birmingham, May 15-16, where the company has booked its most ambitious exhibition space yet.
Pictured here at Compamed 2018, Chris Philpott, Boddingtons Sales Manager and Andy Tibbs, Boddingtons Managing Director.
Med-Tech Innovation 2019 will be greatly expanded in its new NEC Birmingham home: The exhibition – now long standing in the UK sector – is taking aim at a global audience; two purchasing delegations from the USA are currently confirmed and also one from Asia.
The 2019 NEC exhibition also will see Boddingtons showcase the company’s range of work in a case-study based presentation. ‘Boddingtons is relishing its present role at the forefront of UK med-tech supply,’ Tibbs says, ‘and we shall continue to communicate the full range of what we do.’


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Jaquar director Rajesh Mehra is focused to take the company to new heights
Instead, Jaquar wants to lean on its ability to mass produce high-quality products and extend that to its fledgling lighting foray. Its offerings in this space range from simple consumer products to complex industrial solutions. The company's director and promoter Rajesh Mehra is sure Jaquar can replicate its success: "We believe that the lighting market has the same set of target buyers…individuals, realtors and architects, who decide which brands and products to procure", adding, "Our engagement in bathroom fittings will help us make strong inroads into lighting too." Some analyst estimates give Mehra reason to cheer - according to a TechSci estimate, the LED lighting market is forecast to grow at a CAGR of over 30% between 2016 and 2021.
Based on these positive reports, Mehra says the company's lighting business will clock Rs 100 crore in revenue this financial year. It is expected to triple to Rs 300 crore next fiscal and hit Rs 1,000 crore in three years. The firm has also roped in Bollywood superstar Deepika Padukone as brand ambassador for lighting, with its first campaigns expected to be unveiled in the next couple of weeks. "We have to keep the legacy of Brand Jaquar intact, even as we hold our own and even stand out in this new market," says Rajesh Laikh, executive vice president, Crescent Group, an ad agency in Delhi which has handled the company's mandate for nearly two decades. "The new campaign will focus on targeting these products at young brand-conscious consumers and we will focus on design and build quality to stand out in this competitive market."
However, what his forecasts don't reveal is that the lighting market is fairly cut throat, with local and global brands all scrapping for a share of this fast-growing segment. For example, Syska is in the midst of a `500 crore two-year expansion plan to tap the booming market for LEDs, while market leader Philips demerged its lighting business in 2015 to more sharply focus on the booming opportunity here. "The market is packed with both local and multinational competition and we have spent the last couple of years ensuring the same reliability and performance that customers have come to expect from our bathroom fittings business," Mehra says. There may be other commonalities too. Just like its legacy business has recently stressed on the environment (the nature shower, for one), the lighting business too will focus on light-from the sun, moon and stars-to create a niche for itself.

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A tornado lashed its way across Windsor, Windsor Locks and East Windsor Monday afternoon, toppling trees, taking down power lines, tearing apart an inflatable sports dome and ripping tobacco netting from fields and draping it across houses and I-91.
In its annual survey to glean information from consumers, Windsor-based LIMRA asked consumers about their willingness to buy from various types of retail locations, such as Wal-Mart, Target or Costco. More than 2,000 people were surveyed and 17 percent said they would buy life insurance directly from a retail outlet.
Chris Bartocci is circling the aisles at The Gun Store in Las Vegas, a firearms mega-mart lined wall-to-wall with handguns and rifles and shotguns of every design and price range. There are cheap utilitarian pistols and delicately-engraved collectibles with four-figure price tags; classic wooden-stock deer rifles and pistol-gripped AK-47s.
Gun-control advocates, including parents of victims of mass shootings, delivered nearly 300,000 signatures to a Wal-Mart store a short drive from Sandy Hook Elementary School Tuesday morning, calling on the nation's largest firearms seller to pull military-style rifles off its shelves.
Having an emergency kit ready, and making sure the family has a communication plan are two important preparations that people can do now before Hurricane Sandy hits, an insurance risk professional said.


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Arroyo Grande Flower Shop News
Services planned for Ventura County victims of Las Vegas shooting - Ventura County StarTuesday, November 07, 2017
The shooting left 59 dead and hundreds injured.On Friday a funeral for Taylor will be held at 1 p.m. at New Life Community Church, 990 James Way, Pismo Beach. Burial will take place afterward at Arroyo Grande Cemetery in Arroyo Grande.Taylor is a 29-year veteran of the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and headed the state conservation camp near Camarillo. He was at the Las Vegas concert with his girlfriend Denise Cohen, 58, of Carpinteria, who also died.Read more:: Five dead in Las Vegas shooting had ties to Ventura CountySimi Valley school office manager among dead in Las Vegas shootingShow ThumbnailsShow CaptionsLast SlideNext SlideServices for Laura Shipp, 50, will take place in Malibu on Oct. 29.Shipp is from Thousand Oaks but moved to Las Vegas several years ago. Her mother, Joyce Shipp, said Laura will be cremated in Las Vegas and buried in Thousand Oaks. There will be a celebration of life open to anyone who knew Laura.Laura was at the concert with her son, Corey Shipp, a 23-year-old Marine, who survived the shooting.The celebration of life will take place 12:30 to 4 p.m. at the Malibu West Beach Club, 30756 Pacific Coast Highway.Family members of Chris Hazencomb of Camarillo said details of services have not been finalized. Hazencomb's mother, Maryanne Hazencomb, said because her son was such a sports enthusiast, she would like attendants to wear their favorite sports jersey to the services.Hazencomb, 44, a popular employee at the Camarillo Walmart, was with a close friend at the Route 91 Harvest festival. When the shooting started, Hazencomb used his body to block the bullets and saved his friend's life.A celebration of life for Susan Smith, 53, will be held Oct. 21 at 11 a.m. at Cornerstone Community Church, 2080 Winifred Street, Simi Valley. Those attending are encouraged to wear Smith's favorite color — purple — or their own favorite color, instead of black.Smith, an avid country music fan, was at the Route 91 Harvest festival with friends. As the office manager at Vista Fundamental School in... http://www.vcstar.com/story/news/2017/10/10/services-planned-ventura-county-victims-las-vegas-shooting/748503001/
Movement pushes local, American Grown flowers - Vancouver Business JournalMonday, May 08, 2017
Cowlitz County residents can take some pride in the nationwide effort.Benno Dobbe, Dutch immigrant and owner of Holland America Flowers in Woodland since 1982, established a second location in Arroyo Grande, California in 1986. He serves as a board member of the California Cut Flower Commission (CCFC).“Most people in the U.S. do not know where their flowers are coming from,” Dobbe said. “Statistics indicate that 80 percent of all cut flowers bought by customers in the U.S. are coming from other countries. When I came to this country in the early 80’s it was the other way around.”Armed with this information, Dobbe and his fellow board members launched the American Grown campaign. A Certified American Grown Flowers identifying logo was created to grace the protective sleeves of all cut flowers that meet the standard. It communicates to the consumer that the flowers and foliage are grown in the U.S. by American farmers and that all ingredients in mixed bouquets are 100 percent grown and assembled in the U.S.As the program gains support, more and more American Grown sleeves are being seen throughout flowers shops and even the flower departments of larger grocery chains.Another key piece in the awareness process is to bring the story of U.S. flower growers to the attention of lawmakers who can have a significant impact on promoting American Grown flowers.Also sitting on the CCFC Governmental Relations Committee, as chair, Dobbe and his fellow committee members have been lobbying Washington D.C. representatives and secured Clark County’s own Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Camas) to become one of the first four co-chairs of the Congressional Flo...
3 Startups that are Disrupting the Flower Biz — And Helping Farmers, Too - Modern FarmerTuesday, December 20, 2016
Holland America Flowers—put together the bouquets and ship them to the consumer. Holland American Flowers employs about 140 workers on two farms, one in Arroyo Grande California, the other in Woodland, Washington. Dobbe says that in the last two years of working with Bouqs, they’ve seen “exponential growth.”“I think what’s important is that both companies have benefitted. Bouqs has gotten a different customer base because of us, and we now have a different aspect of the market that we hadn’t touched on before because of them,” Dobbe explains. “We’re really helping each other out.”The traditional flower industry model involves farmers growing the flowers that they send to distributors, who sell to wholesalers, who then sell to florists, who then sell to the customer. That’s a fairly long supply chain that often means the farmer and the consumer are getting the short end of the stick—ahem, stem—since farmers don’t always get paid a decent price for their product due to reduced margins and consumers get a product with a short shelf life at an inflated price. Add to that the historically bad working conditions for many flower farm workers across the globe and you’ve got a pretty untenable situation. These three startups have come up with a variety of ways to try to fix these problems.The Bouqs CompanyBouqs was born out of a friendship between founders JP Montúfar and John Tabis, who meet at the University of Notre Dame. After college, Montúfar returned to his native Ecuador, where his father had been a flower farmer. Tabis and Montúfar kept in touch and during several phone conversations realized that there was an opportunity to do something big in the flower business since the industry’s two main stakeholders—the grower and the consumer—were losing out on “some level of value,” Montúfar tells Modern Farmer in a Skype interview. He and Tabis launched Bouqs in 2012. The company is headquartered in California, where Tabis, the CEO, lives, while Montúfar, the COO, handles his end, growing and managing the export of flowers from other Ecuadorian farms. “The farmers work so hard to produce beautiful flowers, but because of the seasonality and delicacy of the product, along with the many stops along the way from the farmer to the recipient, the farmers were getting undercut and the recipient was receiving a mediocre product that only lasts a few days before dying, which also creates more waste,” says Montúfar.The company was featured on the ABC show “Shark Tank” in 2014. Bouqs solved the supply chain problem by cutt... http://modernfarmer.com/2016/12/3-startups-disrupting-flower-biz-helping-farmers/
Flower Power: Volunteer team distributes blooms to assisted living and hospice - New Times SLOThursday, February 04, 2016
BRIGHTENING DAYSNora, Elayne, Ruth and Phyllis (left to right), residents at Oakpark Manor in Arroyo Grande, joyfully arrange the flowers delivered to them by Flower Power.PHOTO COURTESY OF STEVE BENNETTStaff members at the nursing homes and hospice care centers can attest to the flowers’ impact on their residents.“They brighten up the day of the patients,” said Steve Willey, volunteer manager for Wilshire Hospice. “We have patients who have Alzheimer’s, for example, and they’re not getting a lot of connections. They are really, really appreciative of the flowers. All the nurses who go out in the homes really look forward to them also because it is a nice gift to bring.”On the rare holiday that Flower Power is unable to deliver, Bennett always calls beforehand to let the recipients know.“We do definitely miss them on those rare occasions,” Willey said.GIVE IT AWAYJose and Luis at Koch nursery in Nipomo load up a cart with roses for Steve Bennett and his Flower Power team. Koch and three other nurseries in Nipomo donate their surplus flowers to be delivered weekly.PHOTO COURTESY OF STEVE BENNETTBennett and his colleagues feel deep fulfillment knowing the emotional connection that their service brings to people, many of whom are in the last stages of their lives.“We just get a really good feeling that somebody is thinking of these people,” Bennett said. “Many of them have very few visitors; a lot of them don’t g... http://www.newtimesslo.com/strokes-and-plugs/13387/flower-power-volunteer-team-distributes-blooms-to-assisted-living-and-hospice/
Harry and Meghan's royal wedding florist opts for white roses and peonies - CNNWednesday, April 11, 2018
London, Hampton Court Palace, and designers Alexander McQueen and Christian Dior.More wedding details revealed Last week, the royal couple revealed that pastry chef Claire Ptak, who was raised in California and now owns London-based bakery Violet Cakes, would be creating their wedding cake. According to the palace, the couple asked Ptak to make a "lemon elderflower cake that will incorporate the bright flavours of spring" rather than the more traditional fruitcake. It will also feature buttercream and fresh flowers as decoration.More than 2,600 people, many of them ordinary members of the public, will be invited into the castle grounds to watch the arrival of the bride and groom and their guests.Last month, the royal family revealed the route of the procession following the ceremony, when the newlyweds first emerge as husband and wife.They will leave Windsor Castle in a carriage and travel along High Street through the town of Windsor, before returning to the castle by the Long Walk, according to the palace. Windsor is about 40 km (25 miles) west of central London.'This crazy journey together'Prince Harry and Markle announced their engagement in November, when Harry told reporters he knew Markle, an American actress, was "the one" from "the very first time we met."In an interview with the BBC, Markle said the couple first met in July 2016 on a blind date set up by a mutual friend. After a second date, the couple took a camping trip to Botswana, where they could finally be alone."We were able to really have so much time just to connect," Markle said, "and we never went longer than two weeks without seeing each other, even though we were obviously doing a long-distance relationship. We made it work."Harry proposed on a "cozy night" in early November at Nottingham Cottage, Markle told the BBC, with an engagement ring he designed himself. It features a diamond from Botswana, flanked by two smaller diamonds from the jewelry colle...
UPDATE: Sister says missing florist has been found - Redding Record SearchlightWednesday, April 11, 2018
Facebook message to the Record Searchlight that Bax had been found Monday. Burrows Monaco said Bax was being airlifted to a hospital in stable condition. Lt. Gene Randall said a California Highway Patrol helicopter spotted Bax's RV around 4:30 p.m. Monday, and searchers then found her nearby. He said her RV had gotten stuck and she was being treated for a complaint of pain. Burrows Monaco said on Facebook that Bax had been in a Mercedes RV with a golden retriever and en route to Washington for Easter. Penelope Bax was reported missing near Redding in late March. (Photo: Shasta County Sheriff's Office)Randall said the family reported Bax, of Vista, missing about 5:15 p.m. Saturday. Randall said Bax was headed to Bellingham, Washington, and left her home March 26. He described her vehicle as a white and gray Winnebago with a silver Mercedez-Benz logo on the grill. Deputies learned that Bax had stayed overnight at the Hirz Campground, Randall said, though he didn't specify how they developed that lead. Crews searched the campground and the surrounding area but still hadn't found Bax's RV as of Monday afternoon, Randall said. This is the 2017 Mercedes RV Penelope Bax was driving when she went missing in the Redding Area in late March. (Photo: Shasta County Sheriff's Office)Burrows Monaco was asking Shasta County residents to be on the lookout near Fenders Ferry, Gilman and North Salt Creek roads. NBC San Diego reported that Bax is blonde and about 5 feet 9 inches tall. The report said ...
Embrace drought and plant a more beautiful garden - Sacramento BeeTuesday, March 27, 2018
Drought tolerant" doesn't mean dull. For California gardeners, saving water can be beautiful, not boring.The key is color – not paint, but plants and the neon-bright palette that flowers can add to a landscape, even with water restrictions."I believe flowers belong in our lives," said longtime California horticulturist and author Maureen Gilmer. "And right now, everybody needs a refresher on what 'drought-tolerant' really means."A syndicated columnist and author of 18 gardening books, Gilmer is on a crusade to return big flower color to our gardens without increasing water demand. Just released, her latest book is a handy guide for making the transition to a less-thirsty landscape: "The Colorful Dry Garden: Over 100 Flowers and Vibrant Plants for Drought, Desert and Dry Times" (Sasquatch Books, 214 pages, $22.95)."I'm hoping this book starts a little revolution in California," Gilmer said in a phone interview. "If you love flowers, grow them. They're good for humanity, good for nature. They may be the perfect panacea that we ... http://www.sacbee.com/entertainment/living/home-garden/article204769359.html
Success Story: Enchanted Florist - taosnewsTuesday, March 27, 2018
And we get to be more one-on-one with customers,” said Reyes.Valentine’s Day specialsEnchanted Florist buys its flowers from specialty providers all around the world, such as California, Holland and Colombia.“Our roses are the Rolls-Royce of roses. The quality is superior to the ones purchased at the grocery store. Also, roses have changed over the years; they now last longer, are larger, open more beautifully and some varieties can last up to 10 days,” said Perry.As a full-bucket shop, customers can walk in and pick their own single flowers. Any day of the week, wrapped bouquets and pre-made arrangements are ready to go, but especially during the Valentine’s Day season for delivery or carry out.“With a lifetime of experience with big life events, the sentiment is there and the emotions are there. We take the time to work with our customers and make their events special,” said Perry.The “one-on-one” touch with customers is a key part of Enchanted Florist’s success and that includes speedy service on last-minute occasions. Whether it is a forgotten boutonniere for prom or bouquet for a grieving family, you can be assured Enchanted Florist will be there to meet your needs. Personal wedding serviceEnchanted Florist also specializes in wedding floral design, working with local brides and “destination brides” who come to the Taos area to get married.“Brides have a hard time knowing what to expect. To alleviate the already stressful process of planning a wedding, we offer them a free consultation where we break down the details step by step,” said Graves.Potential brides are encouraged to visit www.taosflorist.com to see Enchanted Florist’s past and present wedding work and designs. Customers have also ranked the shop. One ecstatic bride named Emily said: “Cory and the entire Enchanted team created BEAUTIFUL flowers for my wedding. They went out of their way to accommodate every request I had (and believe me, I had a lot), and they were so patient and helpful through the entire planning process. I cannot recommend them enough.”Some of their weddings take the florists to the most beautiful and scenic areas in Taos. “In the past year we have done several weddings in Red River. One in particular I just finished setting up this beautiful, all-white spring wedding, when a herd of deer showed up expecting lunch. I had to patrol the area to make sure that it didn’t turn in to an ‘all-you-can-eat buffet. It was an interesting and terrifying experience,” said Reyes. http://www.taosnews.com/stories/success-story-enchanted-florist,46120


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Mayor Martin J. Walsh is urging councilors to tax legal weed to the max at every pot shop in the city as the nearly $2 billion Bay State marijuana market is set to sprout in July.
Imposing a 3 percent local option tax is also seen by the mayor’s camp as not enough to police the new industry, the Herald has learned.
“The mayor has proposed adopting a 3 percent local sales tax to contribute towards the funding the city of Boston will need to cover the annual cost of regulating, enforcing and education around recreational marijuana,” said Walsh spokeswoman Nicole Caravella.
Other cities and towns are also considering the added tax as they brace for recreational pot to be sold starting next summer.
“They’re going to look at Boston and say yes, we should get this on the books now so we’re prepared to start collecting when one of these opens up in our towns,” said Jim Borghesani, a pro-marijuana advocate who worked on the legalization campaign. “There’s going to be a great opportunity for profit.”
In a letter to the City Council, Walsh asks for councilors to allow the pot sales tax and to fix it at the “maximum-allowed 3 percent rate,” even though no shops have even applied and the state Cannabis Control Commission is still creating a framework for legalization.
“Although there are not yet any marijuana retailers in Boston, I recommend acceptance of this statute now in order to be able to tax such sales in the event that a marijuana retailer is licensed and located in Boston,” Walsh wrote in his message to councilors, who are expected to hear the measure today.
After voters legalized recreational weed last year, state officials created a system allowing for a whopping 23 percent tax on sales.
The state will take a 10.75 percent excise tax on top of the current 6.25 percent sales tax, but cities and towns can hand down their own tariffs as well — an overall sales tax of up to 3 percent on all gross sales. Communities can also create “host agreements” with individual shops that allow them to take an additional 3 percent of gross sales for up to five years.
And that could lead to millions of pot dollars pouring into city coffers.
City officials estimate collecting between $2 million and $3 million in sales tax revenue for fiscal year 2019 — the first full year of legal marijuana sales. Those dollars are earmarked for the general fund.
But those estimates are “very conservative,” Borghesani said. He said that based on Colorado’s sales, the slightly larger Bay State could see $1.7 billion in pot receipts — with a 3 percent sales tax bringing in $50 million. That would have Boston, with 10 percent of the state’s population, pulling in $5 million.
Borghesani predicted the city would be able to direct that money toward other goals instead of new pot-related costs.
“They won’t have to hire more police officers and city inspectors, that’s not going to happen,” Borghesani said. “It’s difficult to believe that these stores will impose a significant burden on a town, just the opposite — it will help generate new revenue.”


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The Indian online gaming sector is soaring exponentially being currently valued at $1.8 billion and it is expected to reach US$ 4-5 billion by 2025 according to the EY – AIGF report. Moreover, online gamers in India are estimated to grow from 360 million in 2020 to 510 million in 2022. Currently, there are over 400 gaming start-ups at present that are accelerating the growth of the sector.
As per the report by KPMG, the online casual gaming industry in FY 2021 is valued at INR 60 billion and the market is anticipated to grow more as casual gaming is penetrating the real money gaming market as well.
When COVID-19 brough traditional sports events in India to a grinding halt, the esports & gaming industry came to rescue people from the blues and offered virtual entertainment. The spike in online gaming majorly can be attributed to the rise in the young population, increased use of smartphones, easy availability and accessibility of technology and internet, rising investment by capitalists, and appropriate distribution network. Publishers like Garena, Riot, Krafton etc are actively involved in investing and growing Esports in India. Here’s how the year fared for platforms, organisations and brands and their upcoming plans for the year 2022:
With the rise of online gaming sector over the past year, the ecosystem has indeed witnessed a transformation in terms of legislation and best practices. While the KPMG report says there are 420 million casual games users, 92 million RMG card and casual based users, 60 million RMG card and fantasy sports users, ‘India Gaming Report 2021’ by Lumikai and Redseer reports that there were 80 million gamers in 2020. It also surmises that paid gamers will be driving further growth as paid gamers in India are set to approximately become 235 million in 2025.
World Cricket Championship 3 (WCC 3), recently dropped its latest update, ‘Road to Glory’ featuring multiple language commentaries voiced by former cricketers and professional commentators to cater to more diverse geographies in 2022. Three new commentators, Anjum Chopra for Hindi, Vijay Bharadwaj for Kannada and Deep Dasgupta for Bengali will be joining the roster of the already existing panel.
Esports industry is soaring high both in terms of viewership and revenue. Many esports organisations have sprung up over the past year, contributing to its upward trajectory. One such esports organisation is Cornerstone Esports that is progressively building an ecosystem to give platform to all stakeholders involved in the industry.


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The baked goods sale, which took place September 22nd (just before the first week of Fall term) was a huge success! Thank to you our volunteer bakers, sellers and all those who purchased something. Your support helps us ensure there is help for low-income workers and those living paycheck to paycheck in the event of a strike or other hardship. Thanks to the tireless efforts of the bargaining team, there was no strike this year. The proceeds from the fall bake sale will help us pad the fund, so that even more people can benefit from it in the event of a potential future strike.
Check out the photos below of the bake sale.


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NEW YORK (CBS.MW) -- Wal-Mart Stores WMT, +2.21% said it expects April same-store sales to come in at the low end of its 4-6 percent growth range. "With one less Easter week and tougher comparisons in the period, we are expecting to be at the low end of the range," the company said on its weekly recorded sales update. The strongest categories in the past week were electronics, food, office supplies, toys, pet supplies, lawn and garden and sporting goods. The East and Southeast were the strongest regions. Wal-Mart also opened 18 stores in the past week, 17 of which were Supercenters, one a discount store. Shares ended Friday up 1.1 percent at $58.44.
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Top 5 Best-Selling Desktops By Brand10:00 AM EST Tue. Jul. 09, 2013
Tablets on the rise and PCs on the decline may be the overall trend, but PCs are not dead yet. Major players are still innovating and selling, vying to put the most wanted PC out on the market. According to a March 2013 report by NPD Group, a Port Washington, N.Y.-based market research company that provides sales-out data from leading technology distributors, the desktop market has seen a few notable changes since March 2012. (The NPD Group's DistributorTrack sales database is comprised primarily of U.S. Global Technology Distribution Council members.)
Here is a "Top 5" breakdown of best-selling desktop brands as of March 2013 as determined by dollar share percentage.
Last on the top 5 best-selling desktop brands list is Acer with a 3.4 percent dollar share of the desktop market, a 1.3 percent decrease for the company since March 2012. Acer's Aspire M and T series are dually focused on enriched graphics and productivity. Retaining the ability to perform quickly and efficiently, the AXC600 series (pictured) is one-third the size of the Aspire M and T and comes in at a lower cost. Finally, the Predator G desktop line is all about the gaming.
Dell sits at No. 4 on the best-selling desktop brand list with a 7.4 dollar share percentage. The Vostro 270 (pictured), a smaller-form and budget-friendly desktop, was Dell's leading desktop seller in the month of March. Dell's Inspiron 660 line is advertised as Dell's "Everyday Desktop" while the XPS 8700 is geared toward entertainment and gaming. Overall, Dell's dollar share increased .9 percent over the course of the year.
Of all PC players on the NPD list, Apple saw the biggest share loss, dropping from 20.2 percent in 2012 to 17.5 percent in 2013, but still remains over 10 percent higher than fourth-place Dell. Though Apple sits in third place overall, the iMac Core desktop was the desktop with the highest sales of any company for the year. The iMac desktop line is known for its wide screens, super-thin monitors and Intel Core processors. It runs on Apple OS.
A drastic widening of the gap between second and third placeholders, Lenovo and Apple, occurred between March 2012 and March 2013. As Apple shares took a significant hit, Lenovo saw a dollar share increase of 4.3 percent, putting it in a strong second place. According to a Lenovo news release, the company experienced record quarterly sales of $9.4 billion and a record 14.1 million PC shipments in its third quarter of the 2012-2013 fiscal year. PC series at Lenovo include the ThinkCentre (pictured) desktop line focused on enterprise productivity and reliability, the IdeaCentre desktop line geared toward home entertainment, and the budget-friendly Essential desktop line.
Hewlett-Packard holds a solid first place with a dollar share of 43.4 percent of the desktop market, a full 17.7 percent ahead of its next-in-line desktop competitor, Lenovo. Though HP may have a strong lead, it did take a dip from its 44.8 percent dollar share in March of 2012. The most purchased desktop from HP as of March was the Pro 6305 (pictured) from HP's enterprise-focused, graphic-friendly Pro 6000 series. Following in popularity is the 8300 Elite from HP's sleek-form Elite line, targeting businesses in need of a smaller form-factor desktop. Finally, the Pro 3500 desktop solution appears to be a common budget-friendly option.


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ADVERTISING giant WPP yesterday kept up its blistering acquisition-fuelled growth pace with the purchase of French firm I&E for an undisclosed sum.
The communications consultancy business will become part of WPP’s wholly-owned subsidiary Burson-Marsteller.
Paris-based I&E – which specialises in reputation management, brand marketing and change management – employs around 110 people.
France is WPP’s seventh biggest market, with annual revenues of just under £550m, and is home to nearly 5,000 of the company’s employees.
I&E generated revenues of €13m (£10.4m) in the year to 31 December 2011 and reported gross assets of €5m.
The I&E acquisition comes just days after WPP announced its biggest deal in years with the purchase of a significant majority stake in top global marketing agency AKQA.


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Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) is to acquire Nimble Storage in a $1.2bn deal - around $1bn to buy the company, and $200m buying out the unvested share options of Nimble executives. The deal will help...
Covid-19 has put many people off the idea of public transport, especially in major cities like London. Could a new electric scooter be the answer for shorter trips?
Cambridge-1 will be among the world's top 30 most powerful supercomputers, and top three most environmentally-frien
'The overarching goal is to connect all the devices so we can have an overview from birth to trash'
The event will be streamed live on the company's website from Apple Park campus in Cupertino


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Ontario Agricultural College food economist Dr. Mike von Massow discussed the increase in food costs and tipping amounts with several media outlets.
Von Massow discussed “tip creep” with Forbes and why more people are opting out of aggressive prompts to tip.
Speaking to The Winnipeg Free Press about “tip creep,” von Massow said “it’s not surprising that people… are willing to consider the end of tipping,” given how aggressive tip prompts have become.
With CBC News, von Massow explored various approaches governments can take to control food prices, including price limits and freezes, export controls, changes to supply management systems, subsidiaries and better climate change action.
A professor in the Department of Food, Agricultural and Resource Economics, von Massow researches retail and restaurant food demand, supply chain management, and value chain structure and performance.


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LAST UPDATED : Jun 24, 2017, 02.51AM IST
LPG dealers here have started using PayTM, Jio money and other e-wallets in a bid to promote cashless transaction.Most LPG gas delivery vehicles now bear the Quick Response (QR) code of e-wallets on their windshields.
The I-T department is likely to impose severe penalties on petrol pump outlets found laundering demonetised currency by manipulating accounts besides launching prosecution against them.
A dealer of used cars was allegedly cheated by a resident of Waghodia Road of Rs 4.5 lakh. The accused bought the complainant’s car in April but cheques given by her were returned by the bank.
After eight months of cooking food with firewood due to pressing button for giving up LPG cylinder subsidy, daily wage labourer Salim Shah’s wife can now cook food on LPG cylinder stove.
Normally people plan to buy a new car during festive season as the discounts and gifts offered are lucrative.
Copyright © 2017 Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All rights reserved. For reprint rights: Times Syndication Service


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However, there was also a large increase in incidents associated with undeclared allergen contamination in spices and other foodstuffs, which are a potential risk to those suffering allergies to these ingredients.
The report, published by the European Commission’s (EC’s) Directorate General for Health and Food Safety (DG Santé), demonstrated the increased efficiency with which RASFF exchanged information on issues posing a serious health risk is being used.
The purpose of the network is to enable competent authorities in Member States – such as the Food Standards Agency in the UK – to act swiftly on many food safety risks before they become harmful to European consumers.
775 serious health risk
Last year, the EC received 3,049 notifications of food or feed risks via this EU-wide alert system, 775 of which concerned a serious health risk.
The response rate to such alerts increased by 23% to reach 4,030 follow-up notifications.
The overall figures represented a 3.4% decrease in original notifications compared with 2014 and a 5% increase in follow-up notifications, resulting in an overall increase of 2%.
RASFF’s round-the-clock information sharing service is a key tool to ensure quick cross-border reaction when risks to public health are detected in the food chain. The system – which began in 1979 – has evolved to keep pace with a growing and increasingly complex global market and changing consumer habits.
New challenges such as global trade, food fraud, e-commerce and emerging risks require further enhancing cooperation between RASFF and other systems governing food safety and public health. According to DG Sante, work on dealing with these challenges has already begun.
While the need for good allergen management is recognised by most reputable food businesses, the many notifications for the presence of undeclared allergens in 2015 showed that substantial efforts were still needed to ensure better protection of consumers suffering from food allergies, said the report.
Although a particular issue regarding almond allergen caused much concern in 2015, a sharp increase in notifications was observed for quite a number of allergens.
In January 2015, the UK sent a RASFF report that there had been a number of food recalls in the US and Canada of ground cumin and products containing ground cumin, due to contamination with peanut protein and almond protein.
The ground cumin, exported to the US, was believed to have come from Turkey. It was suspected that these nut proteins had been added to some batches as a form of adulteration of the spice.
No further details were obtained about the cases reported in the RASFF news but in February 2015 the UK sent four alerts on undeclared almond in spice mixes and in cumin. Three of the notifications were traced back to spice mixes produced by a Swedish operator. The source was discovered to be a Spanish paprika powder producer.
Curry powder in the US
Earlier this month, a massive US recall of curry powder occurred because of lead being detected within products. UK food safety expert Chris Elliot, professor of molecular biosciences at Queen’s University Belfast, took to Twitter to suggest that these recalls could be linked to contaminated turmeric in the curry powder.
For more information on RASFF, the full report follow this link.


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April the Giraffe’s Calf Gets New Companion
Just in time for Valentine's Day, a new giraffe love story is brewing at Animal Adventure Park in Harpursville.
According to WBNG, Tajirii has been introduced to a 14-year-old female giraffe and the two are now sharing fun times together. The two were introduced sometime in January
A brand new live feed of Tajirii can be found here.
Tajirii's mother, viral sensation April, is due to give birth to another calf this upcoming March.


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China’s CATL is planning to build a recycling factory for battery materials in the central Chinese province of Hubei. The group is planning a joint venture with the company Hubei Yihua Chemical Industry to recycle materials such as cobalt and lithium from used batteries of electric vehicles.
According to information from Reuters, the Chinese battery cell manufacturer estimates the investment in the planned factory at up to 32 billion yuan, the equivalent of around $5 billion USD. An engagement in the recycling sector is relatively new for CATL.
According to the news agency, among other things, new standards and guidelines formulated by the Chinese government to promote battery recycling and to save materials probably played a role in CATL’s investment decision.
The expansion of production capacity is to be accompanied by expansion to Japan, Indonesia, the USA and Europe, with Germany playing a key role in the European market. The background to this is the construction of CATL’s first production facility outside China, which started in Erfurt.
The groundbreaking ceremony took place there in October 2019, and completion is planned for 2022. The battery cells produced there will be supplied to BMW and Volkswagen, among others.
CATL recently acquired the Canadian mining company Millennial Lithium to secure raw materials for production. The takeover of the lithium producer is only the latest example of a series of investments that CATL has made in recent times to expand its supply chain vertically.
The battery maker recently bought stakes in Neo Lithium Corp, also a Canadian company, Greenland’s North American Nickel and Australia’s Pilbara Minerals, among others. Since April, a CATL subsidiary has also held a stake in China Molybdenum’s Kisanfu mine, a cobalt site in the Democratic Republic of Congo.


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Like clockwork, perennial leaker Evan Blass has released fresh information on the upcoming OnePlus 3.
According to Blass, the phone will feature a 5.5-inch 1080p screen, Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 820 processor, 64GB of internal storage and a 16 megapixel rear-facing camera.
It will be interesting to see how OnePlus decides to justify a 1080p display once again. After all, if Blass’ report is accurate — and there’s little reason to believe it isn’t since it looks like the company is leaking this information directly to him — then this will be the second year in a row that OnePlus has decided against adding a QHD display to its flagship device.
On the other hand, it’s laudable when an OEM loads their device with ample internal storage. when Blass says “One Plus 3 basics” before listing some of the OnePlus 3’s specs, he seems to suggest all OnePlus 3 models with start with 64GB of internal storage. Given the fact OnePlus currently only sells a 64GB version of the OnePlus 2, and has done so for a number of months, a 64GB base model OnePlus 3 seems like a good bet.
OnePlus 3 basics: 5.5-inch 1080p, Snapdragon 820, 64GB storage, 16MP rear camera, NFC. SS from an N preview build. pic.twitter.com/u1a0hQoEIP
— Ev (@evleaks) May 24, 2016
Blass doesn’t mention other important specs like battery capacity, but past rumours have pointed to the OnePlus 3 including 3GB of RAM and 3,000mAh battery. The leaked render Blass shared last week also suggests the phone will feature a USB-C port and a front-facing fingerprint sensor.
Lastly, the screenshot Blass included with his tweet is interesting because it shows his OnePlus 3 running Android N. Android Authority speculates this might mean the OnePlus 3 will ship with Android N. Dare to dream, certainly, but this seems unlikely. At the very least, it suggests OnePlus is already working on a Android N version of its Oxygen OS skin.
OnePlus is expected to announce the OnePlus next month. The company plans to announce during a special virtual reality event. In an interview with CNET, OnePlus founder Carl Pei said the OnePlus 3 will launch sometime at the end of Q2 2016.


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The collapse of Lehman Brothers was such a landmark moment in corporate history that a lucrative business has sprung up auctioning off company-branded memorabilia online.
Ten years after the bank’s collapse, eBay is offering a motley collection of Lehman merchandise, from baby bibs to paperweights and baseball caps, with price tags in the hundreds of dollars.
Collectors seeking a talking point for their office desk would have to fork out $500 (starting price) for a pad of sticky memo notes, printed to celebrate the bank’s 150-year anniversary in 2000.
A more modest $55 could buy a Lehman-branded “emergency evacuation kit”, apparently handed out by the company to employees including evacuation instructions, goggles, a flashlight and a whistle.
The seller, whose eBay handle is bidearlybidoften, cannot guarantee that the flashlight still works but points out that the kit is more a “historic relic” than a practical item.
“I have given these as special gifts to VIP clients and friends, many of whom are quite wealthy and they time after time are blown away by this novelty item,” runs the promotional blurb.
There are also ring binders, a coffee mug and copies of the companies’ annual reports from 2003 to 2005, all for under $130.
Most of the Lehman gear on eBay is sold by one man, calling himself Ric Cam, who told the Guardian that he spotted his opportunity when Lehman was on its last legs.
Cam said he paid thousands of dollars to a warehouse distribution manager who had access to the Lehman merchandise.
Responding to an inquiry sent via eBay, he said: “I had the opportunity to buy the leftovers after the 2008 financial collapse of the Lehman empire. Everything came directly from their promotional division before their demise.
“There was an opportunity and a hunch that just maybe these items would sell as memorabilia and my hunch payed [sic] off.”
The result was a treasure trove of Lehman Brothers items that Cam swears are the genuine article, including a laptop bag or a crystal paperweight, both on offer for $89.89.
“Everything I sell is authentic Lehman Brothers memorabilia,” said Cam, adding: “I own the last of it.”
The items may be rare but demand is slow enough that if you buy a Lehman Brothers baby bib – for the investment banker’s infant who has everything – he will throw in a black duffel bag for free.


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Shopkick drives small business traffic via Citi partnership
Shopping application shopkick is partnering with Citi Ventures to drive in-store shopping at small businesses.
The app, which works with devices located in stores, lets consumers check into stores and earn rewards, including gift cards, movie tickets, hotel vouchers and song downloads. The shopkick app is available on iPhone and Android devices.
“We see the largest traffic from mass-market retailers, however it still leaves us with stores that consumers interact with on an every day basis that we need to reach out to,” said Cyriac Roeding, CEO of Shopkick, Palo Alto, CA.
“People are not always aware of smaller stores in their cities, so if someone gives you a reward, consumers might be more willing to try a new place,” he said.
Shopkick is a location-based app that focuses on driving foot traffic into stores.
Small businesses in nine cities, including Dallas, Los Angeles, New Orleans and Seattle can apply to be part of the shopkick program.
The first one thousand small businesses to sign up for the program will get free installation of the shopkick box, which emits an audio signal that verifies users are in the store to earn points called kicks.
The program was slowly rolled out in a pilot program involving one hundred small and medium-sized companies across the country over the past few months.
Mr. Roeding said so far the company has seen a substantial demand from local merchants.
Grow on mobile
This news from shopkick shows the growing significance of small and local businesses in mobile.
By including small businesses into shopkick’s in-store rewards programs, companies can target the niche, repeat customers that small businesses are known for.
Shopkick is best known for its partnerships with mass-market retailers, including Best Buy, Hewlett-Packard Co. and Crate and Barrel.
In particular, this partnership signals how a mobile company that has experienced success with targeting consumers at larger retailers via mobile sees the potential for local merchants in the space as well.
“Without a local aspect, something is missing from the shopping experience, and because we want to be the number one shopping app for consumers, we saw a need to draw in small merchants,” Mr. Roeding said.
“Mobile will be the most important marketing platform for retailers with physical stores because phones are the only interactive medium that you carry with you into or around a store,” he said.
Lauren Johnson is editorial assistant on Mobile Commerce Daily, New York


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There’s ongoing debate about whether or not the U.S. economy is officially in a recession, but there is more agreement regarding the notion that the world’s largest economy could be nearing a period of slower growth.
Whether a traditional recession sets in or the economy merely slows, either scenario could be conducive to embracing gold and the related exchange traded funds, including the newly minted Franklin Responsibly Sourced Gold ETF (FGLD ).
“A rolling recession occurs when different segments of the economy slump at different times, resulting in very low overall growth in gross domestic product output. By maintaining the barest minimum of growth and avoiding a sharp and prolonged economic contraction, rolling recessions sidestep being labeled as official recessions noted Morningstar analyst Sandy Ward.
FGLD is just two months old, meaning that it debuted at a trying time for gold. The Federal Reserve’s accelerated interest rate hiking plans in the U.S. are strengthening the dollar, pressuring the yellow metal in the process.
However, some investors are exhibiting patience with gold ETFs, betting on the yellow metal’s reputation for beating inflation and rallying after markets price in rate hikes. For example, FGLD is just two months old, and it already has north of $32 million in assets under management, according to issuer data. Additionally, the economic environment could be nearing a point where FGLD is worth evaluating regardless of its youth.
“We’ve moved from a mollycoddling Fed to a tough-love Fed,” Adrian Helfert, chief investment officer for multi-asset strategies at Dallas-based Westwood Holdings Group, told Morningstar. “We’re headed for an extended lower-growth environment that allows for a greater possibility of a rolling recession within industries. That should reduce the longer-term real growth rate of the economy, but a sharp contraction is unlikely because consumers are in good shape with less debt and higher savings.”
Adding to the near-term case for FGLD is the point that some analysts see limited downside for gold in the months ahead.
“Although the yellow metal faces significant downside risks, it also benefits from tailwinds including recession risk, a price-responsive physical market, already scaled-back positioning and elevated inflation," wrote Suki Cooper, Standard Chartered precious metals analyst, in a report out last week. “The prospect of further rate hikes has quelled investor appetite. While we expect gold to trend lower towards USD 1,700/oz in Q4-2022, these factors are likely to limit the downside.”
For more news, information, and strategy, visit the Volatility Resource Channel.


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The new iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini 3 are overshadowed by continued demand for the new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.
Ben Fox Rubin/CNET
With two new iPad tablets going on sale this week, hundreds of customers braved the rain and wind Thursday morning, patiently lining up outside Apple’s flagship Fifth Avenue store in Manhattan.
Here’s the thing: those folks were buying iPhones.
The new iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini 3 became available in some Apple stores Wednesday. But, for the first time since its tablet line launched in 2010, Apple opted to forgo a specific launch date, vaguely referencing its launch this week before it quietly made its debut in select cities.
Apple reveals the “unbelievably gorgeous” iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini 3 – find out what new functions and features are in store
Apple has launched the “world’s thinnest tablet”: the iPad Air 2.
Unveiled on Thursday at Apple’s Town Hall Auditorium in California along with the iPad Mini 3, chief executive Tim Cook said the 6.1mm thick iPad Air 2 is “unbelievably gorgeous”.
A short time ago, we highlighted a new benchmark appearing to show an iPad Air 2 device carrying an A8X chip with a triple-core 1.5 GHz processor and 2 GB of RAM.
While we mentioned that the enhanced specs have led to huge performance gains compared to the A8 chip found in the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, Primate Labs has now published a nice pair of charts showing just how dramatic this improvement really is, making the iPad Air 2 far and away the fastest iOS device ever.


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Google-owned Waze released a new iOS app update giving its traffic and navigation service a more modern look. With the update, users get help for better navigation and can report accidents and road issues while also sharing travel or commute tips.
A much-awaited update
The update has been made with a focus on drivers and improving their “social driving experience,” as Waze calls it. Waze version 4.0 acknowledges that its users aren’t necessarily passengers, but they are drivers themselves at times, and therefore, it will automatically send alerts instead of drivers having to tap on each alert.
Chris Hohn the founder and manager of TCI Fund Management was the star speaker at this year's London Value Investor Conference, which took place on May 19th. The investor has earned himself a reputation for being one of the world's most successful hedge fund managers over the past few decades. TCI, which stands for The Read More
Other updates include faster ways to send a notification to the community about road issues like accidents, objects in the way, road closures, etc. The update also allows users to send their ETA to friends in a faster manner. Using the smart reminder feature, users will also get reminders regarding when they have to leave for events and parties based on the current traffic conditions and drive times.
Waze aims to make its app simpler, for which it has been making updates for the past several years. Though the service is useful, some are concerned that it wasn’t conducive to use while driving. Waze last updated the app almost three years ago when it came with an improved guidance interface and text-to-speech capabilities.
More integrated with Google
The new app requires fewer taps to start a drive, send locations and get directions, thus making it much cleaner. Now drivers just need a tap for anything they want with the app. A facelift has also been given to the map interface so that users are able to find similar design qualities as they find with the maps product from Google. It seems that the update further integrates Waze into Google’s core. Waze’s real-time incident reports have already been incorporated into Google Maps, but with the new version, drivers get a much better experience when trying to get around town.
In April, users inquired about why the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus weren’t supported yet, and in reply, the company teased that a redesign was forthcoming. Now the update has only been made available to iPhone users, but soon it will be available for Android as well, said the Google-owned firm.


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Shareholder meeting shows Costco bounty
Costco Wholesale, the second-largest global retailer after Wal-Mart, remains a land of great bounty — but being big has its challenges.
Seattle Times business reporter
Costco Wholesale, the second- largest global retailer after Wal-Mart, is more than ever a land of nearly incomparable bounty: last year it sold 120 million hot dogs, 76 million $4.99 chickens and $5.5 billion worth of produce sourced from 44 different countries.
But there are challenges that come with that status. “It’s a very difficult business to do this kind of volume,” CEO Craig Jelinek said in discussing produce in a room packed with investors at the company’s annual shareholder meeting Thursday. “It’s a major undertaking for our company, but it’s paid big dividends for us.”
Costco’s worldly cornucopia was highlighted at the Bellevue gathering, where hundreds of stockholders lined up for freebies — from maple-leaf-shaped bottles of Canadian maple syrup to Spanish extra virgin olive oil, Kirkland Signature roasted seaweed and an instant coffee popular in Taiwan.
There was also a mammoth-sized Toblerone chocolate bar and vats of vegemite, a spread popular in Australia.
The display highlighted Costco’s growing international presence. Over the next few years, the company hopes to open half of its new stores overseas.
It recently entered new markets, including in Seville, Spain, last year, its first in continental Europe. Two more will open in Madrid in 2016, Jelinek said.
Bartley Felder, a retired flight attendant and longtime Costco fan, says that during her career she enjoyed shopping in Europe and Asia, so hearing Costco talk about setting up shop in other countries makes her happy. “I’m just so excited,” she said.
Costco also aims to keep growing in the U.S. Co-founder and Chairman Jeff Brotman said there may be 400 or 500 more warehouses in the U.S. over the next couple of decades.
But keeping up with consumer wants can be a challenge when operating at such a huge scale. Take organic products, which are increasingly in demand in the U.S.; items such as ground organic beef and organic eggs have been a success, but it’s difficult to get “enough to take care of our needs,” Jelinek said.
Costco also faces a generational challenge: Younger people, who tend to live in apartments in cities and drive smaller cars or not drive at all, buy less than Costco’s strong baby-boomer base.
Jelinek said about a third of new Costco members are millennials and generation X-ers, but “they don’t spend at the same level that the boomers do.”
Many new customers have been lured by Costco’s booming gas business, which grows at the tune of 15 percent per year in an industry where growth is in the low single digits.
Last year the company sold $11.5 billion worth of gas. “We’re clearly getting market share,” Jelinek said, adding that gasoline “is becoming a big, big business for us.”
Travel is also taking off: In 2014 the company’s travel unit raked in $387 million in revenues, a 37 percent jump.
But not all of Costco’s businesses are huge. Take its fledgling carwash venture. It has only nine locations vs. 445 locations for gas, although the company is getting ready to open up one more. “This is a very tough business unless you’re in a very warm-weather climate,” Jelinek said.
Ed Cole, a retired phone-company manager, said he has been a Costco shareholder since 1983 and he considers it a “marvelous company” because of its healthy shareholder returns and the way it treats its workers.
“I’ve never seen a frowning employee,” he said.


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OSU’s design and fashion school gains new stature
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It’s already paying off.
Burns said the design school’s newfound status within the business program has opened up new opportunities to commercialize the department’s research and has made it easier to link students to real-world opportunities.
More than anything, though, the move has helped lift a stigma.
“What I see as the biggest change is legitimacy,” Burns said.
That’s not a statement made to diminish the College of Public Health. The department of Design and Human Environment thrived within its confines, earning a degree of critical acclaim.
The highly regarded fashion blog Fashionista.com last year ranked the OSU program as No. 15 on its list of the nation’s top 20 fashion schools. It was just one of two from the West Coast, and one of just three public universities.
All of its degree programs – including doctorate and master’s programs in apparel design and other disciplines – stretched far beyond design to the business elements of the industry, including supply chain management, where designers are taught how even the smallest of design tweaks can impact cost all the way from the factory to the retail floor.
Still, Burns believes the program suffered from the notion that it was merely a design program.
“Although the curriculum had the full supply chain, there was still that perception that with an apparel degree you just made pretty clothes,” she said.
In making the move, Design and Human Environment – with 800 undergrads and 40 graduate students – has been elevated from a department within the College of Health and Human Services to a school within the College of Business.
Erik Siemers is managing editor of the Portland Business Journal.
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Last month Apple officially revealed the iPad Pro, the largest tablet so far from the giant manufacturer. The company announced that it would be available in November but did not give a specific release date. The latest iPad Pro release news is that the tablet beast will reach the first buyers in early November. We […]
If you’re a fan of Windows Mobile, today is the day you’ve been waiting for. The company has unveiled several new products including the Microsoft Surface Pro 4. The device had been churning about in the rumor mill for months, but today we now the Microsoft Surface Pro 4 price and can tell you when you’ll be able to pick one up.


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The Cronut was only born a few weeks ago, but it's growing up so fast. Dominique Ansel created the half doughnut-half croissant in his pastry laboratory, and sells them for $5 each at his SoHo bakery (not a bad deal considering how labor intensive it is to make these). The city has gone so mental for the treat, that Ansel has put a limit on how many one person can buy (6), and has even trademarked the name.... you can't even say "Cronut-inspired." It's smart, but a bit ridiculous... especially considering there have been croissant-doughnut hybrids out there for decades.
— Dominique Ansel (@DominiqueAnsel) May 30, 2013
And now, your cronut update:
THE NEW CRONUT FLAVOR
It's.... lemon! The new cronut will be "very light," and rolled in coarse maple sugar with a lemon glaze. It debuts this weekend, on Saturday. (The original will still be available, which features a rose glaze and sugar, and Tahitian vanilla cream filling.)
The line has been starting around 6 a.m. now, and the bakery doesn't even open until 8 a.m. But after the doors swing open, word on the street is that things move fairly fast. And there's no special treatment, even Hugh Jackman was spotted waiting on line.
THE CRONUT BLACK MARKET
Now things get real ugly. People are offering cronut pick-up and delivery services on Craigslist (while others are even selling them right outside the bakery for people who don't want to wait on line—sometimes for as much as $30 each). One Craigslist poster says they'll deliver a minimum of 3 and maximum of 5 cronuts to your door in Manhattan for $20 per Cronut, in Queens for $40 per Cronut, and in Brooklyn for $30 a cronut. That is $200 for 5 cronuts if you live in Queens. This person should be arrested and sent to cronut jail.
Is cronut crime next? Everyone, be safe and keep your cronuts out of view.


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Windows Phone 8 by Microsoft
For clear viewing click any of the above pictures of Windows Phone 8
that opens in theater mode. Now here’s news post regarding ‘Microsoft’s
new Windows Phone 8′ (June 21, San Francisco / Agence France Presse).
Microsoft on Wednesady ramped up its push to regain ground in the
precious mobile computing market by giving developers a ‘sneak-peek’ at
new Windows software for smartphones. A key feature of "Windows Phone 8"
is that it will be keenly in tune with the similarly named
next-generation operating system for personal computers as the
technology titan creates a stage on which popular devices can play
"It’s the most advanced mobile OS Microsoft has ever made and will
arrive on new phones later this year," said Windows Phone manager Joe
Belfiore. "Windows Phone 8 is based on the same core technologies that
power Windows; the most successful and powerful operating system on the
planet, and one used by more than a billion people".
The early glimpse at Windows Phone 8 came at a gathering of software
developers and press in San Francisco a day after Microsoft set the
technology world abuzz by unveilling its own tablet computer to
challenge Apple’s iPad. "If you’ve seen Windows 8, Microsoft’s
groundbreaking new release for PCs and tablets, you’ve probably noticed
it bears more than a passing resemblance to the look of Windows Phone",
Belfiore said. "Windows Phone and its bigger sibling will share common
networking, security, media and web browser technology, and a common
file system". Microsoft introduced its first tablet computer, the
Surface, on Monday, in a major hardware launch clearly designed to take
on long-term rival Apple’s market-ruling iPad.
Chief executive Steve Ballmer described the iPad challenger – complete
with a built-in stand and ultra thin covers-cum-keyboards in a range of
colors – as a tablet that ‘works and plays’. "The Surface is a PC, the
Surface is a tablet, and the Surface is something new that we think
people will absolutely love", he said at an hour-long presentation in a
Hollywood design studio.
No prices or release dates were given, but the Surface is expected to go
on sale in the fall, with retail prices ‘competitive with a comparable
ARM tablet or Intel Ultrabook-class’ computers, Microsoft said.
This concludes the end of Windows Phone 8 by Microsoft on Rabins’ XP


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The 2015 Top 50 Electronics Distributors
The largest electronic components distributors reported a solid 2014, and many are optimistic that 2015 will bring much of the same, according to Global Purchasing’s newest Top 50 Electronics Distributors report. The optimism is driven by improving global markets and the proliferation of electronics in all aspects of daily life.
Although the traditional rapid pace of electronics industry growth has slowed considerably in recent years, many distributors are heartened by customers’ demand for more—and better—ways to connect, sense, and automate everything from cars and medical equipment to factories and home security systems. Helping design engineers access the latest components and information to achieve that goal remains distributors’ most important task—and one they say is increasingly driven by the need for better information technology systems, faster access to information, and the ability to “touch” customers in more and more locations around the world.s


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David Beckham scores Elle's first solo male cover
Hearst's Elle UK is celebrating the London 2012 Olympics with a double cover issue featuring David Beckham on sale today, the first time in 26 years the monthly glossy has had a solo male cover model.
Elle believe the Beckham July issue will become a collector's item for Beckham fans.
A special newsstand issue cover is also available alongside the main issue.
The second cover is only available in select retailers but all monthly subscribers will receive the additional Beckham cover, illustrated by artist Frank Stanley.
The former Manchester United and England footballer is set to be among the stars of London 2012 when he represents Team GB in football this summer.
Lorraine Candy, editor-in-chief of Elle, said: "We are delighted to be able to offer fans and Elle readers a double cover for this ground-breaking issue. What better way to celebrate the Olympics at Elle than with David Beckham on the cover?
"He's a global fashion icon, one of the most talented sports stars of our time and is loved by men and women alike.
"We’re confident this particular issue of Elle will quickly become a collector’s item."
Beckham has been photographed by Doug Inglish across 11 pages and also stars in a 10 minute video of the behind-the-scenes of the LA shoot on www.elleuk.com.
The latest issue of Elle has also attracted interest from the wider magazine fraternity after a strategic foray into social media.
This article was first published on mediaweek.co.uk
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As someone who hears almost constantly about opening dates being pushed back for restaurants, bars, hotels and other buildings around Washington D.C., I have to give the Marriott Marquis credit.
They got it done. On time.
Employees, contractors, delivery people and security were rushing from place to place Wednesday putting on the finishing touches: rearranging furniture, installing light fixtures, checking out how the glass canopy over the main entrance was handling the week's deluge. But the May 1 opening date was holding firm.
The $520 million hotel includes all the bells and whistles hotels have to offer. Mobile check-in and other services through designated apps, free wi-fi in the lobby, a 24-hour business center. There's an 8,000-square-foot fitness center overlooking Ninth Street and Massachusetts Avenue NW.
Click through the gallery at right for a look inside.
There are a few elements still to come. Eventually, though not on opening day, guests will have in-room DVR and bedside wireless cell phone charging stations. One of the hotel's five restaurants, a specialty restaurant from an outside restaurant group, won't be announced until later this year and won't open until the end of the year, most likely.
In the dining arena, the hotel is following the industry trend of paring down room service. The hotel will have Dining Your Way, an in-room dining experience that allows for delivery or pickup of meal items, and for delivery via tray without the cart and lengthy setup process.
The Marriott Marquis is Marriott International Inc.'s 4,000th hotel. At 1,175 rooms, it's now D.C.'s largest hotel in terms of guest rooms, topping the Marriott Wardman Park, which went down to 1,169 rooms when the rooms in the Wardman Tower went offline to be turned into condominiums. Coming in third is the Washington Hilton north of Dupont Circle, which has 1,070 rooms. The region's largest hotel remains the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center at National Harbor, with 2,000.
And, as we told you last week, the Marquis is the hotel that everyone in the city's hospitality and tourism industry is pinning their hopes for the future on.
The hotel has hired about 500 permanent employees thus far, with 63 percent of those people coming from the District, according to Marriott. Most of them were hustling around the building Wednesday, trying to get everything done before the Thursday opening.
The official dedication will come June 10.


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HENDERSONVILLE, Tenn. — Even with improving performance already underway, U.S. hotel demand will not return completely to pre-pandemic levels until 2023, according to the latest forecast revision from STR and Tourism Economics.
“Compared with our last forecast, we actually improved our demand projection for 2020 from -45 percent to -36.2 percent, but we expect it to take 11 quarters for the number of room nights sold to rise to the corresponding levels of 2019,” said Jan Freitag, STR’s senior vice president of lodging insights. “Similarly, it will take until 2023 for occupancy to reach the 20-year historical average. With lower occupancy levels, and the influence of discounting as hoteliers compete for market share, ADR could show a slower recovery timeline even with more normalization each quarter—we improved our 2021 ADR projection from +1.7 percent to +5.2 percent. Despite this better growth rate next year, we do not see ADR recovering to pre-2020 levels in the next five years.”
“The good news is that demand and occupancy continue to rise slowly each week, and while slow, recovery should continue provided the country avoids significant setbacks in its progress against the coronavirus,” Freitag added.
“The worst is behind us,” said Adam Sacks, president of Tourism Economics. “Recent performance has shown travel activity is picking up tentatively. Though COVID-19 will remain a defining factor through the first quarter of 2021, the outlook anticipates further gains in travel as confidence is gradually restored and restrictions are eased.”


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Oppo is about a new breakthrough in consumer technology. It recently showed a retractable camera, which is the first such technology in the world. But much of Oppo’s technology is not the first in its kind but in imitation.
One such example could be Oppo’s concept machines with rear-view mirrors. Oppo patents at least three devices and they all have a background display with different designs.
Photos acquired by LetsGoDigital show three Oppo phones with the same background image. Although they come in different sizes and shapes.
For example, while one phone has a circular rear display inside a circular camera, the other has a rectangular display with cameras focused on it. The third has a rectangular display inside a round camera tube.
I used the word to mimic some of Oppo’s technology. That is because the company intends to immerse itself in technology by overcoming the problems that arose in the first versions. Background displays are not new. Xiaomi has it in its Mi 11 Ultra phone.
So is Meizu in Meizu Pro 7. Vivo also has it in Nex Dual Display. And now it is possible that Oppo is planning at least three phones with rear displays.
Copyrights do not reveal much about the use of these display designs. It is not yet clear whether these displays are touch screen or not.
But from what I understand, considering the front smartphones with backlinks and folding phones, Oppo will use the backlinks to get notifications, photos you take, and the display is always open. These displays can double as the previews of photos you have taken.
Copyright in this section does not imply that they will translate into real-world devices. And while Oppo is likely to present at least one of them, the company may have received a certificate that these projects prevent its competitors from using their designs.
That is a must if Oppo wants to stay on top of the world of unique and unique smartphone designs. But whether a phone like this will become a reality is only a matter of time.


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To encourage the purchase of small-displacement vehicles, to encourage independent brands, such as tax relief for the purchase of a number of motor vehicles to the rescue package forthcoming. 2 reporter was informed that a "revitalization of the auto industry planning" has taken and will be completed progressively the full implementation; the specific details of the planning included to encourage consumers to buy small-displacement vehicles, to encourage enterprises to develop their own brand car, car purchase tax relief , And the fuel tax reform, support for new energy vehicles, a year ahead of schedule on the mandatory end-of-life vehicles, such as subsidies given to a number of preferential policies. "
In the same industry for a number of preferential policies introduced at the same time, which is also the home of rare. "In this regard, China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, said experts. At the same time, these policies promulgated and implemented, both for vehicle manufacturers, dealers or consumers, will bring real benefits.
"It is clear that the Government rescue package is not an expedient measure to stimulate consumption, but to save the market by improving the auto industry policy, encouraging energy saving and environmental protection of the car and Manufacturing can be recycled, and guide sustainable development in the automotive industry." The expert said .


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Salesforce on Tuesday is launching an expanded version of AppExchange, adding new tools and partnerships that customers can find on the enterprise marketplace. They're also adding intelligent search results and personalized recommendations to the platform.
The launch represents AppExchange's evolution from a simple app directory to a "full blown ecosystem," Leyla Seka, the executive VP of AppExchange, told ZDNet. Today, 87 percent of Salesforce customers are using apps from the 11-year-old marketplace. The latest updates, particularly the personalization features, were designed to expand its reach further, Seka said, by "helping [customers] find the right solution and potentially solutions they didn't know were available."
With the update, AppExchange will make recommendations to customers based on factors like their location, install history, site activity, profile data and the activity of other, similar customers. Search results will also be more customized.
Meanwhile, continuing its evolution from a simple app directory, AppExchange will now offer up content from Trailhead, Salesforce's online learning platform. Trailhead "trails" will be embedded within Product Collection pages, so customers can find educational material relevant to the apps they're looking for.
The new AppExchange will also now include Lightning Data, giving customers access to specialized data sets they can buy. The marketplace also includes Lightning Bolts, which out-of-the-box offerings from Salesforce partners that include Lightning "Components," customer data and business logic.
Ultimately, AppExchange will be a hub where customers can get anything Salesforce related, Seka said, "whether you're buying an app, a component, data set, or eventually maybe even a bot or algorithm."
The updates to AppExchange coincide with new data from IDC illustrating Salesforce's economic impact. The new research, sponsored by Salesforce, estimates that Salesforce and its ecosystem of customers and partners will drive 3.3 million new jobs and more than $859 billion in new business revenues worldwide by 2022.
For every dollar Salesforce will make by 2022, IDC estimates, the Salesforce "ecosystem" will make $5.18. The research firm reached this conclusion since spending on cloud computing subscriptions typically increases spending on ancillary products and services, like additional cloud subscription and professional services or supporting software or hardware.


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REGINA — Saskatchewan manufacturing sales jumped 11.4 per cent to a record $1.35 billion in October from $1.2 billion in October 2012, the third-largest, year-over-year increase among the provinces, Statistics Canada said Tuesday.
“The manufacturing sector is thriving in our province, and the record numbers for October will definitely give the economy a boost as we head into 2014,” Economy Minister Bill Boyd said in a press release.
On a month-to-month basis, however, Saskatchewan manufacturers posted a more modest 0.5 per cent increase in sales from $1.34 billion in September, half the national increase and well below the 2.7 per cent increase in Alberta and B.C.’s 2.2 per cent increase, but ahead of Manitoba’s 1.9 per cent decrease.
Doug Elliott, publisher of Sask Trends Monitor, said the biggest factor behind the double-digit increase in October was the completion of the $2.7-billion expansion project at the Co-op Refinery Complex in October 2012. The megaproject — the largest in dollar terms in nearly 80-year-old refinery’s history — increased production capacity at the Regina refinery by 30 per cent to 130,000 barrels per day.
“I think that this substantial increase in the value of manufacturing sales is (due to) the increased production capacity at the refinery,’’ Elliott said.
“We know (the increase) is not happening in chemical products. We know it’s not happening in metal-bashing — machinery and equipment manufacturing.’’
Elliott noted Saskatchewan also appears to be overtaking Manitoba in terms of the value of manufacturing sales. Saskatchewan’s manufacturing sector, which produces nearly twice the value of non-durable goods as durable goods, has increased sales 6.4 per cent to $12.8 billion for the year to date. Manitoba manufacturers, which produce primarily durable goods, such as clothing and textiles, have seen sales decrease 0.7 per cent to $13 billion in the first 10 months. “It might be next year before we get ahead of them,’’ Elliott added.
Canadian manufacturing sales increased one per cent in October to $50.1 billion, hitting their highest level since May 2012 and beating economists’s expectations for a drop of 0.3 per cent. The loonie, which has fallen about four cents against the U.S. dollar in the last few months, is credited with much of the increase.
The October increase in manufacturing sales was mostly due to higher sales in the food industry, which rose 6.9 per cent to $7.7 billion, while chemical sales increased 2.8 per cent to $4.1 billion in October. Sales in the transportation equipment industry sales fell 1.7 per cent to $8.8 billion, partly offsetting the overall gain in total manufacturing sales.
Sales were up in 13 of 21 industries, representing 49 per cent of the manufacturing sector. Non-durable goods sales advanced 2.6 per cent while durable goods sales declined 0.5 per cent. Sales were up in seven provinces in October, with Quebec leading the way.
With files from The Canadian Press


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Card fee settlement opposed by retail group
NEW YORK — The National Retail Federation is opposing a proposed $7.25 billion settlement that Visa Inc., MasterCard Inc. and major banks have agreed to pay retailers for alleged fee fixing.
The retail trade association said Tuesday that its board has given approval for it to go to court to try to block the settlement. The NRF, which is not a party to the lawsuit that led to the settlement, says it is unsure whether outside groups will be allowed to intervene or if the case qualifies as a class action.
The NRF says it thinks the proposed settlement will not stop swipe fees from continuing to rise, which will hurt both retailers and shoppers, and that it will prevent any future legal challenges.
The NRF represents more than 9,000 retailers of various sizes, including chain restaurants and industry partners, from the U.S. and 45 other countries.
Fewer open jobs are posted in July
U.S. employers posted fewer jobs in July than in June, further evidence that hiring may stay weak in the coming months.
Job openings fell to a seasonally adjusted 3.67 million, the Labor Department said Tuesday. That's down from June's 3.72 million job openings, which was revised lower.
The data follow Friday's disappointing employment report, which said the economy added just 96,000 jobs in August. That's below July's total of 141,000 and the average 226,000 a month added in the first three months of the year. The unemployment rate fell to 8.1 percent from 8.3 percent, but only because the number of people looking for work fell.
Morgan Stanley to buy Citi's Smith Barney stake
NEW YORK — Morgan Stanley and Citigroup settled a dispute Tuesday over the value of the brokerage firm Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, which they own jointly.
The deal clears the way for Morgan Stanley to buy Citigroup's 49 percent interest in the broker, giving Morgan Stanley full ownership. It also will result in a $2.9 billion after-tax charge for Citi.
Morgan Stanley will purchase Citi's interest in Smith Barney in stages, starting with a 14 percent stake for $1.89 billion. It will buy the rest by June 1, 2015.
The deal values Smith Barney at $13.5 billion.
McDonald's sales bounce back on value deals
NEW YORK — McDonald's said a key sales figure climbed 3.7 percent in August as the fast-food chain emphasized the value of its menu offerings amid the challenging global economy.
The world's biggest hamburger chain said Tuesday that its breakfast menu and value items pushed up sales by 3 percent in the U.S. Last month, the figure had dipped 0.1 percent in the region after the company said its promotions had failed to drive growth.
McDonald's has been intensifying its "messaging around value," noted Andrew M. Barish, a Jefferies Group Inc. analyst. For example, he noted that the company ran promotions for its breakfast Dollar Menu in mid-August.
New iPhone app offered to fill looming void
SAN FRANCISCO — YouTube is being reprogrammed for the iPhone and iPad amid the latest fallout from the growing hostility between Apple and the video service's owner, Google.
The new format debuted Tuesday with the release of a new YouTube application that will introduce more advertising and more videos on Apple's trend-setting devices.
The changes are being made because Google Inc. and Apple Inc. didn't renew a five-year licensing agreement that established YouTube as one of the built-in applications in the operating system that runs the iPhone and iPad.
From wire dispatches and staff reports
© Copyright 2016 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.


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Carper Hears from Delaware Manufacturers on Tariff Impacts
NEWARK, Del. – Today, U.S. Senator Tom Carper (D-Del.) met with representatives from four small and mid-sized manufacturing businesses in Delaware to discuss the impacts of the Trump Administration’s trade policy decisions and tariffs. Joining him for the roundtable discussion at Delaware Technical Community College’s Stanton Campus were representatives from Solvay Specialty Polymers, B&W Tek, United Cocoa Processors, and Eagle Group.
Senator Carper discussed his recent work on legislation that works to support consumers, business owners, retailers, manufacturers and farmers in Delaware and across the country: the Kaine-Carper Reclaiming Congressional Authority Act and the Carper-Toomey Trade Certainty Act.
“It has been 19 months since the White House and China first began trading tariff threats, and businesses across the U.S. – including right here at home in Delaware – are feeling the effects,” said Senator Carper. “Tariffs should only be imposed as a part of sound and strategic trade policy, not levied on a whim. This isn’t a partisan issue. Tariffs impact every corner of our country, red states and blue states alike. That is why I have introduced two bills this year that will help us put American consumers and our economy ahead of politics – no matter who is in the White House. It’s so important, as we continue pushing for bipartisan solutions in Washington, that the voices of business owners are heard because they are the ones on the front lines. We cannot allow those who drive our economy to be collateral damage in the ongoing trade wars.”
The Kaine-Carper Reclaiming Congressional Trade Authorities Act of 2019 would:
- Restore the Constitutional Article I authority provided to Congress to oversee international trade matters;
- Involve Congress more directly in ongoing negotiations over trade actions brought by the Administration;
- Require the Administration to assess the economic impact of potential tariffs before they can take effect to better inform trade decisions.
The Carper-Toomey Trade Certainty Act of 2019, which was introduced following President Trump’s threat in May 2019 to impose tariffs on all goods from Mexico for issues unrelated to trade, would:
- Clarify Congress’ intent by specifying that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) does not grant the President the power to impose tariffs or quotas on imported goods.
Since the President started his trade war, retaliation from trading partners has made exports from Delaware $14.8 million more expensive for foreign buyers, which reduces our country’s competitiveness compared to more affordable exports from other countries. In Delaware alone, trade with Mexico supports 15,000 jobs. In 2017, the First State imported $183 million of goods from Mexico and exported $327 million of goods.


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Tesco Personal Finance reports pre-tax profits more than doubled in the first half to £112.2 million on soaring consumer credit and booking no repeat on prior year PPI and restructuring charges.
The Edinburgh headquartered group, which trades as Tesco Bank, had booked a further £45 million charge for PPI in the first half of last year along with £21.8 million in restructuring charges, but booked no further charges on either this year.
On an underlying basis, pre-tax profits were down four per cent at £110.7 million (H1 2016: £115.3 million) despite customer lending rising 16.2 per cent year-on-year to £10.8 billion as bad debt provisions rose 72 per cent to just under £70 million.
Loans and advances to customers rose 8.0 per cent since the February year end while mortgage balances rose almost 18 per cent to £2.5 billion, up from £2.2 billion.
On a reported basis, pre-tax profits rose to £112.2 million, up from £46 million last year.
Total income attributable to the parent company was down 2.1 per cent to £86.5 million.
Tesco Bank said it accessed £939 million from the Bank of England's (BoE) Term Funding Scheme (TFS) in the first half, up from £400 million at the year end, “in order to support future lending growth”.
The Bank of England launched the Term Funding Scheme (TFS) in August 2016 to boost the UK economy following the June 2016 Brexit vote, pledging to provide up to £100 billion in extra capital to banks to encourage lending.
The Bank of England has since warned on a number of occasions, most recently in September, “pockets of risk” are forming in consumer debt with high street banks estimated to be sitting on losses of up to £30 billion if the economy goes into downturn.
Tesco Bank said the “lower cost of funding provided by the TFS is reflected in competitive offers for the group's borrowing customers”.
The bank said credit card and personal loan balances rose 5.8 per cent and 5.2 per cent respectively in the first half.
Active accounts rose 2.6 per cent to 5.6 million at the end of the first half.
However, Tesco Bank's bad debt ratio also rose to 1.3 per cent in the first half, up from 0.9 per cent last year, reflecting a 72 per cent increase in underlying impairment charges to £69.9 million (H1 2016: £40.6 million).
On the rising impairment charges, Tesco Bank said the figure “reflects a combination of balance growth, the implementation of a number of credit initiatives in recent years, which have been targeted at supporting the borrowing needs of Tesco customers in a profitable and controlled way”.
The underlying impairment charge also includes lower gains on the sale of “non-performing debt” at £9.6 million, down from £17.3 million last year.
The bank notes underlying income in the first half rose 7.2 per cent at £428.1 million (H1 2016: £399.4 million) though underlying operating expenses rose 2.6 per cent to £255.1 million.
Net interest margin edged up to 4.0 per cent, up from 3.9 per cent last year, which the bank said reflects “improved Credit Card margin” and despite the impact of the lower margin mortgage book.
Customer deposits also rose 5.1 per cent to £8.9 billion and “continue to be the main source of the Group's funding”.
A tax gain of £26.6 million last year on resulting from group relief from losses booked by Tesco Plc, was not repeated this year, and the first half tax charge was £28 million.
Insurance policy volumes rose 14.4 per cent year on year with sales of Home and Pet insurance policies up 19.6 per cent and 22.3 per cent respectively, though income from insurance products fell 2.3 per cent as a result of “revised Renewal Transparency rules” with has hit retention rates alongside increasing competition.


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The New York Shipping Association and the International Longshoremen’s Association said “bureaucratic delays” by the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor are jeopardizing productivity at the East Coast’s busiest port.
News and updates on port productivity at terminals in the U.S., China, India and other international ports and terminals.
News & Analysis
25 Oct 2013
16 Oct 2013
SHENZHEN, China — JOC Group Inc., parent company of The Journal of Commerce and joc.com, on Wednesday recognized APM Terminals Yokohama as the world’s most productive terminal for 2012.
02 Sep 2013
Global Ports, Russia’s biggest port company, on Monday announced the acquisition of second-ranked domestic operator Natio
19 Aug 2013
Making the Port of New York and New Jersey more resilient is a tough challenge. This summer’s fiasco reinforced the port's reputation as a place where even a tiny glitch can send things haywire — and where it’s difficult to get operations back on track quickly.
19 Aug 2013
Global port activity as measured by The Journal of Commerce’s Top 50 container ports in 2012 demonstrates the importance of macroeconomic trends on container shipping. The fastest-growing ports last year were located in those regions with the most vibrant economies.
12 Aug 2013
Black Sea ports most likely will not receive vessels of 10,000 20-foot-equivalent units in the near future, as the ports are not prepared and productivity is too low, according to the latest issue of SeaIntel Sunday Spotlight.
02 Aug 2013
Spain’s Port of Bilbao reported cargo traffic in the first six months of 2013 was 15 million metric tons, increasing 11 percent compared with the same period last year.
01 Aug 2013
North Europe’s import volume is projected to fall by 8.9 percent to 12.2 million 20-foot-equivalent units in 2013, despite a 3.9 percent increase in Europe’s overall import volume...
23 Jul 2013
The Port of New York and New Jersey is battling its seventh consecutive week of cargo delays and long truck lines that began last month with computer problems at Maher Terminals and have spread to other terminals.
22 Jul 2013
U.S. container terminals have a good deal of ground to make up if they are to achieve vessel productivity numbers achieved at some terminals in Europe and Asia, the JOC Port Productivity database suggests. Automation might just be the silver bullet — or perhaps not.