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Aug 02, 2012
Vehicle sales surge 18%, but where are South Africans finding money to buy cars?Back
Johannesburg|Africa|Ford Motor Company|MMI Holdings|Trucks|Africa|Europe|South Africa|United States|Automotive|Service|Dean Stoneley|Sheshi Kaniki|Records
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Despite this good news for the local automotive industry, there were some concerns about the pace of growth, and how South Africans may be financing their new purchases.
Ford Motor Company of Southern Africa (FMCSA) marketing, sales and service VP Dean Stoneley said on Thursday that the local arm of the US manufacturer was “a little bit confounded by this growth”.
He said it was possible the local market could see surprising double-digit growth for the year, compared with most early 2012 forecasts pitched at around 5% to 7.5% growth, in light of a continuing global economic crisis, especially prevalent in Europe.
MMI Holdings senior economist Sheshi Kaniki said he had also been surprised by the strength in vehicles sales in 2012, especially considering factors such as lower consumer confidence, the moderation of wage growth, and the continued increase in the number of credit-active consumers with impaired records.
“Maybe it speaks to the cultural values in the South African society,” he postulated at a media breakfast in Johannesburg.
Cars are important to South Africans as a status symbol, to “say we have arrived”. Kaniki said he was often surprised by the financial decisions households would take to ensure they had the car they wanted.
He also questioned whether conflicting economic data would not perhaps indicate that consumers were securing their finance for new vehicles through unsecured lending once banks refused them finance.
FMCSA indicated that around 25% of customers made cash purchases in 2011, but that this had grown to 30% in 2012. Although there were a variety of mechanisms available to fuel this, it could be indicative of people borrowing on their bonds or securing personal loans to purchase new vehicles.
The National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (Naamsa) said on Thursday that new vehicle sales reached 54 067 units in July.
New passenger car sales improved 18.2%, to 37 844 units, in July compared with the same month last year.
Sales of new light commercial vehicles, bakkies and minibuses were up 20.8%, with medium trucks up 7.9% and heavy trucks up 9%.
Exports of South African-produced motor vehicles, at 27 625 units, were up 11.6% on July last year.
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One mistake led to a huge commotion. That is the current situation of Irish airline Ryanair after it addressed its 400,000 passengers via email about the cancellation of their flights following a mishap in the planning of its pilots’ holidays.
Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary apologized in a press conference this Monday as the airline deals with the backlash from its passenger and the decline in its stock price, per The Guardian. He also stated that the reason for the cancellation is the scheduling of pilot holidays.
According to BBC, the adjustment in the airline’s organization of its holiday year caused the company to have a huge build-up of employee leaves. The changes have created an insufficiency in the number of available pilots for flights over the next six weeks. However, O’Leary said that the airline was not experiencing a shortage of pilots. They simply made a mistake in the September-October pilot rosters. After the start of November, Ryanair would not need to cancel flights.
Costs of a mistake
The mistake will cause Ryanair to lose €25 million of its profits in compensation claims and other expenses such as operational costs. The company’s shares have plunged by three percent, losing over £500 million from its stock market valuation equating to £18 billion. According to Goodbody Stockbrokers analysts, this disaster would cost around €34.5 million. They have also deducted 2.3 percent from its full-year profit forecast.
The airline will call off 40 to 50 flights daily until Oct. 31, especially on those routes where alternate flights are easily available. The re-routing of flights would not cost anything for the passengers. Ryanair will also pay for €240 to €400 worth of compensation, with the amount depending on how long the trip would take. Although, it will delay at around 100,000 ticket holders. However, if passengers cancel their car rentals and accommodations in hotels, the airline will not pay for them.
A family’s struggle
Amid the flight cancellations, Stephen and Helen Smith, together with Helen’s parents, said that Ryanair told them that they have to wait for a week to get a return flight. The airline also allegedly refused to help them in terms of accommodation or other expenses.
The Daily Mail reported this family of four paid nearly £1,000 to purchase seats on an alternative flight to Edinburgh, hire a car for the trip back to the North West, and get a room at a hotel. Their return flight cost them £120 each.
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Despite the whole debacle, O’Leary believes that passengers who said that they will never fly Ryanair again will almost surely come back after learning that the airfares have dropped.
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When you see the word "pumpkin," your immediate word association might be "spice latte," but that's not always the case.
At least, it's not in the case of the pumpkin sushi at NYC'S Sushi Sushi, as reports Gothamist(opens in a new tab).
The roll, offered throughout the month of October at the restaurant's two outlets (starting Oct. 19), features mango and tempura pumpkin.
There's no spice latte in sight.
In fact, it's traditional for pumpkin to get the tempura treatment (opens in a new tab)and though mango isn't always featured, pumpkin sushi has made the rounds(opens in a new tab) on blogs (opens in a new tab)and Pinterest for the last few years.
So far, no polarizing beverages were harmed in the making of these rolls.
And if you decide to indulge in one (they're free the afternoon they debut), you won't be contributing to PSL madness. You'll just be continuing your sushi addiction.


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Downtown Mt. Clemens DDA has released it's 2016 calendar of events. There are some great news events, including a new run/walk and says "goodbye" to the WYCD-FMls Nashville in the neighborhoods concert series. Click on the photo to read the full story from March 7, 2016 by Mitch Hotts, The Macomb Daily.
With last week's announcment of Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc.'s purchase of Rite Aid Corp., the big question seems to be which stores will stay open and which will close. Joe Sowerby was consulted by Frank Witsil of the Detroit Free Press and Sherri Welch of Crain's Detroit Business.


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2012-01-10T08:54:00Z By George MacDonald
2023-09-20T06:25:00Z By Hugh Radojev
2023-09-19T06:55:00Z By George MacDonald
The People’s Supermarket (TPS) is targeting new locations across the UK.
The member-owned retailer is looking at four locations in Cardiff, Newcastle, Truro and Hackney, London and has been approached by people who want it to enter Bristol, Edinburgh and Glasgow.
The social enterprise will tomorrow unveil its Hackney site and launch a ‘Brick by Brick’ campaign to raise £1m to open a store and People’s Kitchen cafe on the site.
TPS Hackney will require 30 operational shop and kitchen staff and a further 700 volunteers per month. It is hoped the site will be open in time for the Olympic Games, also in East London.
This will be the first time TPS has opened a store outside its flagship Lamb’s Conduit Street in central London. The grocer is run by volunteers and members with a strong emphasis on ethical retailing.
TPS chief executive Kate Bull said: “People out there want us to come to their cities and be part of what we do. Those who are approaching us are people who do not have supermarkets locally because it does not fit with their demographic.
“TPS is a unique economic model that breaks most business norms; the People’s Supermarket has given its local community greater self determination and social empowerment and, in so doing, has created full time jobs, developed local partnerships and improved community cohesion.”
TPS revealed it approached two large supermarkets where it believed it could use its brand values to turn around underperforming stores but its requests were rejected.
It also plans to bring in an own brand food and technology range.


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WICHITA, Kan. (AP) -- A group of current Hawker Beechcraft customers have balked at a move by the Kansas plane maker to immediately sell off its inventory of discontinued Hawker 4000 jet aircraft at substantial discounts as part of the company's bankruptcy proceedings.
Hawker Beechcraft wants to sell the remaining inventory on "an expedited basis," without bankruptcy court approval of each sale, because it believes the value of the discontinued line of planes will continue to decline as competitors introduce new aircraft and further dilute the company's share in the business jet industry.
The Ad Hoc Committee of Hawker 4000 Customers, which is comprised of current customers, contended in a bankruptcy court filing Monday that the 20 aircraft in question normally retail at about $20 million apiece, amounting to $400 million in assets. The group objects to Beechcraft selling those planes for as little as a third of their retail value — little more than the cost of the engines and avionics.
Hawker Beechcraft filed for bankruptcy protection in May and talks to sell its operations to China's Superior Aviation Beijing Co collapsed last month. It has said it now plans to emerge from bankruptcy protection as a slimmed down company in the first quarter of 2013.
The latest legal dustup comes in the wake of a Thursday filing in which the company sought court permission to renege on warranty and support obligations related to the Hawker 4000 and Premier I and IA jets. On Friday Hawker Beechcraft filed a related motion for an order authorizing it to sell its remaining Hawker 4000 inventory without warranty or support commitments.
The current customers also argued that Hawker Beechcraft has insisted it intends to "act responsibly" in dealing with them and has assured them it is committed to developing a service and support solution for the planes they bought. They contend that if Hawker Beechcraft does that the confidence it would generate in prospective Hawker 4000 customers should help increase the value of the remaining inventory of aircraft.
"This process will require a reasonable amount of time, not an accelerated process," the committee argued in its filing. "Thus, there is simply no reason to race to sell the Hawker 4000 inventory before those efforts play out."