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...19, at the Colony Theatre, 1040 Lincoln Rd., Miami Beach. The Best Man Holiday panel: Starring Terrence Howard, Morris Chestnut, Harold Perrineau, Sanaa Lathan, Taye Diggs, Nia Long, and Regina Hall. Directed by Malcolm D. Lee. Panel discussion moderated by...
...found in his London home after he didn't show up to a recording session. L-R: Peter Banks, Tony Kaye, Chris Squire, Bill Bruford, Jon Anderson - posed, group shot (Photo by Gilles Petard/Redferns) Bonnie Franklin, the pert, redheaded actress who won fame as...
...self-aggrandizing tears that are uninterrupted by a clique of yeasayers that includes Mike Barnicle, Donny Deutsch and Harold Ford Jr. Ms. Brzezinski acts as the foil, but she too often preens for the camera as if it were a mirror. CNN can’t compete with “Fox...
...race at Iowa Speedway. The win was Ford’s 200th series win and second overall for Bayne. In addition to 1,000 race wins, Ford has celebrated 20 manufacturer’s titles and 13 driver’s championships in NASCAR’s top three series while also seeing 19 of the first...
...there to celebrate that milestone. Every time we win it reminds me of these joyous moments and the passion our fans have for Ford.” Bayne was front-and-center again last week as he recorded his second Ford Racing milestone victory in three years by winning...
Men’s fashion at the Oscars has witnessed a few quirky twists and novel touches in the past few decades.
Ford India plans to introduce a slew of cars developed on global platforms with high level of localization to double its marketshare by the end of the decade. At present, cars sold with the oval badge amounted to 3.5% of total auto sales in the country last year.
Confirming that all is not well between Jr NTR and TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu, the actor on Tuesday disclosed that he was not invited for the TDP's two-day annual Mahanadu at Gandipet here.
Hollywood actor Harrison Ford is looking forward to returning to his "Star Wars" role as Han Solo in the forthcoming extension of the franchise.
NTR Jr gifts Harish Shankar
The posters generated quite a buzz in the Jr NTR fan forums and social networking sites.
His next film Ramayya Vastavayya is a mix of class and mass elements ala Brindavanam.
The Indian unit of Ford Motor Co. has apologized for an advertisement depicting Italy's former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi with a trio of bound women in the trunk of a car.
Ford India sold more than 7,200 vehicles in combined domestic wholesales and exports in April 2013. Domestic wholesales totaled 4,003 units in April, compared with 7,201 units during the same period last year, while exports rose 38% to 3,267 units from 2,368 units a year earlier.
The Sanand plant will produce 2.4 lakh vehicles and 2.70 lakh engines annually adding to Ford India&rsquos present capacity at Chennai - 2 lakh vehicles and 3.4 lakh engines. --
The Sanand plant which is being set up with an investment of Rs 5,000 crore &ndash will be commissioned in 2014. Anurag Mehrotra, vice president, marketing of Ford India said this here on Monday. --
Despite slowdown, the Sanand plant of US car maker &ndash Ford India &ndash in Gujarat is on track. --
Ford India president and managing director, Michael Boneham to retire effective December 1, 2012; Joginder Singh appointed as successor. --
The new Figo builds on sporty and sophisticated personality of the original, featuring several key changes including 10 new styling elements.
Ford has launched the new Ford Figo with enhanced kinetic design to Mangalore market. It is priced Rs 3.92-lakh ex-showroom here.
Ford India considering a price rise of up to 1.5% starting September. --
Ford says no injuries related to the issue have been reported
The steering unit recall will cover 17,655 units of the Figo and Classic petrol-engined vehicles manufactured from September 2010 till February 2011
With respect to the rear suspension of the car, a total of 1.11 lakh vehicles will be inspected
Ford India says rolled out a voluntary and pre-emptive field service action starting July 23 to inspect certain batches of its Figo and Ford Classic models
The recall will cover different batches of cars made between January 2008 and December 2010, and from September 2010 till February 2011
The problem could lead to breakdown and even fire, says Ford India
Ford India is calling back over 1.2 lakh units of the Figo hatchback and Classic sedan (earlier known as Fiesta) to fix a potential problem related to the rear suspension and the steering unit
To be frank, not many cities can offer what Miami does in terms of infrastructure. We need a venue that holds 1,000 people, and the Gusman is gorgeous — and the Colony ... We attract between 4,000 and 5,000 people from around the world. People ask, 'How can you get so many people to come?' Well, Miami doesn't hurt.
Universal is bringing the entire cast: Nia Long, Morris Chestnut, Taye Diggs, the director Malcolm Lee. They're all coming down. The film isn't done yet, but they're going to discuss the making of it, take questions.


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Technology Industry Analyst Jeff Kagan is available to speak with reporters, or may be quoted through this release.
Atlanta, GA (PRWEB) July 19, 2014
Twitter is one of the top social sites in the United States and around the world, but they don’t have as many users as others. This is putting pressure on the company to better explain why they are important, says Reuters weighing in on a Wall Street Journal piece on the topic, July 17.
Industry analyst Jeff Kagan offers comment.
“As a technology industry analyst I have followed many aspects of this social site growth wave. It is a brand new sector. Sites start out private and they attract the attention of the world for how important they are at what they do… helping people connect with others and exchange information.” Says Technology analyst Jeff Kagan.
“Then after the become public companies we suddenly look at them through different lenses. Suddenly the story we follow also includes their growth and industry leadership and ability to be a good investment.” Says Tech analyst Kagan.
“The problem is what makes a company interesting and valuable to a customer is often very different from what makes the same company interesting and valuable to an investor. Interacting with the investment community including the financial media is very different. That’s why companies typically have a tougher battle keeping a positive outlook to the world after going public.” Says wireless analyst Kagan.
“I am both an objective industry analyst and a user of services like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn and can honestly say that I think Twitter is incredibly important to help me spread my thoughts to the outside world.” Says Principal analyst Kagan.
Think about all of the tweets on Twitter the media covers from famous or important people. They don’t do the same with LinkedIn or FaceBook, do they? Why not?
Facebook is a social site that let’s users connect with their friends and others on their list.
LinkedIn is a site that let’s business users do much of the same.
“Twitter is different. It’s actually different for every user. It’s not for business or consumer. Rather Twitter is a place where you can share information in tiny bursts. That makes it extremely valuable to both the business world and consumers.” Says Telecom analyst Kagan.
There are many who use Twitter to reach out to the market. There are also many who use Twitter to capture the thoughts, real time, as they are sent out from people they follow.
“So I would say Twitter does not have to grow to be as large as other companies to remain one of the most important communications tools we have at our disposal today. For users Twitter is as important as ever. For investors, Twitter now needs to do a better job explaining why they are a good investment. Two different stories, but equally important.” Says Kagan.
About Jeff Kagan
Jeff Kagan is an industry analyst, consultant, columnist, author, speaker and futurist. He shares his opinion in many ways over 25 years. Helping to understand our changing world, technology, industry and competition.
He is regularly quoted by the media. He offers comment to reporters and journalists on wireless, telecom, Internet, cable television, IPTV and other tech news stories.
Kagan is known as a Technology Analyst, Tech Analyst, Wireless Analyst, Smartphone Analyst, Telecom Analyst, Telecom Industry Analyst and Principal Analyst.
Reporters: Jeff Kagan sends comments by email to reporters and the media. If you would like to be added to this email list please send request by email.
Companies and Clients: Contact Jeff Kagan to discuss briefing him or becoming a consulting client.
Contact: Jeff Kagan by email at jeff(at)jeffKAGAN(dot)com or by phone at 770-579-5810.
Visit his website: at jeffKAGAN.com to learn more.
Full Disclosure: Jeff Kagan is an independent industry analyst. He offers comment to the media on breaking news, announcements, technologies and the changing marketplace. He also writes columns and press releases offering comment, and is an author and speaker. He also works on a consulting basis sharing his opinion.
Twitter: Follow him at @jeffkagan

domain: news


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Iran’s petrochemical exports have plunged nearly 90 percent in the last two weeks, according to traders and shipping data.
That is because most shipping firms cannot get insurance to transport cargoes due to EU sanctions.
The sanctions banning European insurers and reinsurers from covering tankers carrying Iranian petrochemicals came into effect at the start of May.
Similar EU measures aimed at crude and oil products will start in July.
“Petrochemicals are definitely an indication of what could happen to crude, but I doubt the impact will be as strong,” said Erik Nikolai Stavseth, a shipping analyst with Arctic Securities.
Shipping data confirmed a sharp drop in Iranian petrochemical exports, which includes methanol, xylene and caustic soda, to around 60,000 tonnes a week in May from a weekly average of 350,000 tonnes last year.
However, Iran’s deputy oil minister, Abdolhossein Bayat, told local media earlier this month that the country’s petrochemical exports had not declined despite EU sanctions.
OPEC’s second-largest oil producer could be exporting more petrochemicals than what is evident from shipping data, as captains on some of Iran’s ships have turned off the black box transponders that monitor vessel movements.
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What can we say about the near future of programmatic TV buying? Technology and tradition will be the best frenemies ever.
Insights & Updates
R2C Group announced today that former Managing Partner Chris Peterson has re-joined the agency.
Have you been following the debate around giving consumers more choices for their set-top cable boxes?
Creativity can lead to innovation. And innovation can lead to creativity. But they are not the same–and neither is dependent on the other.


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GRAND RAPIDS, MI – Next month’s International Wine, Beer and Food Festival at DeVos Place will be more user-friendly to wine novices, according to the show’s producers.
“We changed how we list the wines,” said Show Manager Dawn Baker of the three-day show that is expected to draw more than 15,000 visitors who will sample wine, beers and food in the convention center's ballrooms.
This year’s program will list the wines by variety, allowing consumers to find a new favorite by starting with varieties they already know, Baker said.
“A lot of our attendees are not connoisseurs,” said Baker in a presentation to the Grand Rapids-Kent County Convention Arena and Authority Friday. “It will be a lot easier for them to find a place to start."
Scheduled for Nov. 8-10, the show’s 144 booths will feature more than 1,200 wines, beers and spirits along with sample dishes and desserts from Grand Rapids area restaurants.
Henri Boucher, vice president of ShowSpan Inc, said the five-year-old event continues to grow as vintners, brewers and restaurateurs learn how to develop the show’s unique format.
Boucher said the wine, beer and food festival attracts a young crowd than their other auto and boat shows.
“The average age is 40, it’s definitely a higher level of college graduates and higher incomes,” Boucher said. Accordingly, they have luxury car and boat manufacturers on board as co-sponsors, he said.
“I’m pleased with how this show is coming together,” he said. “It’s a very unique event.”


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Posts: 914 +0
If you needed any more proof of just how large and important social networking has become, the following bit of news should convince you. When you think of online video, sites like YouTube and Hulu probably come to mind, but you should add Facebook to that list. The social networking giant is ranked number three for video streams worldwide, according to research by Nielsen.
The firm looked at statistics for various video sites in October, and YouTube came out as the top provider. They had a monumental 6.6 billion streams delivered, which put their closest competitor to shame -- Hulu netted around 632 million streams. Surprisingly, however, the number three spot went to Facebook, who served 217 million videos. Further, Nielsen found that the amount of time actually spent on Facebook for the purpose of viewing videos increased a massive 1,840% over the past year. That surpassed the growth in online video viewing as a whole, which roughly doubled.
The speculation is that Facebook has evolved beyond social networking, and is instead morphing into a media hub. Nielsen may be right, and with hundreds of millions of subscribers already, Facebook has the userbase to try nearly any service they want.


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The Japanese automotive brand has unveiled a brand new European music initiative as an extension of its recent UK-based music activity promoting the Nissan Juke.
The campaign will see a number of burgeoning European music acts - such as France’s Pony Pony Run Run (pictured), Spain's The Pinker Tones, German group Bakkushan, and Italian DJ duo The Visitors Attak, battling it out for public votes as they take on a series of challenges.
Each act has been given a shiny new Nissan Juke and will be required to complete a series of tasks, including performing live at fan’s houses, staging flash mobs and making a music video.
Fans will vote for the ultimate winning act based on a series of online profiles, interviews and a number of especially created 10-minute video episodes, which will broadcast on the Nissan Juke Rocks YouTube channel. The overall winning act will play a unique live gig in their hometown.
The campaign, which is designed to activate the Juke in various European territories, kicks off on 8th March. It comes hot on the heels of the recent collaborative music creation project ‘Behind The Hit,’ in conjunction with electro act La Roux, (who also performed live during the Gig In a Box’ event staged by the brand in 2010).
The prospect of flash mobs makes us slightly nervous, but we're intrigued to see how the Juke will be interwoven into the various music tasks. Will it be massively unsubtle - along the lines of Ford's infomercial style 'art meets music' promotion in American Idol last year - or will the Nissan take a back seat and let the band and their fans take centre stage?


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Indian Banks To Spend Rs. 422 Bn On IT In 2013: Gartner By Biztech2.com Staff | in BFSI
This forecast includes spending by financial institutions on internal IT (largely personnel), hardware, software, external IT services and telecommunications.
72% CIOs Say They Are Not Alerted On Issues With Web Services By Biztech2.com Staff | in Web
Research has shown that even minor delays to website response times can have a sizable impact on customer satisfaction, page views, conversion rates and site abandonment.
India's GDP Could Increase By $739 Mn By Use Of Licensed Software By Biztech2.com Staff | in Software
Licensed software delivers over twice the economic benefit of pirated software to the country, finds BSA and INSEAD study.
Park Hyatt, Hyderabad
Sun N Sand, Pune
The Lalit, Mumbai
MakeMyTrip increases customer loyalty and business efficiencies through unified approach in the cloud.
News from the Web
In the coming days Apple products might feature a change in the credentials written on it. It would be Designed by Apple in Cupertino, Assembled in
Being active on the social media platforms and having a strong social media presence sounded too main-stream for a 40-year-old technologist from San
Meet Dubbler! This newly launched iOS app lets you record your voice, make some tweaks and post it to to hear on Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr, and also for
The GTX 780 is the successor to the GTX 680 but can it offer a better cost to performance ratio compared to the Titan? Lets find out.
Nvidia has launched its new GPU - dubbed the GeForce GTX 780. The company claims that the GPU is ready to handle the coming generation of PC games, including
The Celkon Signature One A107 smartphone is powered by a 1GHz dual-core processor and runs on Android 4.0 OS. This dual-SIM capable smartphone sports a
3M has been working on a new display technology that allows up to 50 percent more colour than the current levels in LCD devices. Now, the news has it that the
Keeping in mind the increasing number of smartphone users in the country Jet Airways along with Nokia has come up with a mobile app for the users of the passenger carrier.
A new study points at a 92 percent increase in mobile data traffic, generated by both 2G and 3G services in India - between December 2011 and December 2012.
Amazon has announced that it will be offering its 7-inch and 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD tablets to customers in over 170 additional countries, but India still gets a cold shoulder.
HP is redesigning its line of laptops, and two that caught our notice are the HP Envy 14 TouchSmart Ultrabook, which has Retina Display, and the HP Pavilion TouchSmart 11...
Apart from having a long name, there are some other interesting features of the handset, such as the quad-core processor. However, the low-resolution on the display does seem like a letdown. Lets take a look at what makes the phone tick.
All the paperwork that goes behind availing a new mobile connection is set to take a backseat as plans to introduce a first of its kind Aadhaar authentication process for the same are being put into place.
Google has released a new and improved version of the Trends product, which has new charts updated monthly with results of the most-searched people, places and things being featured and ranked.
Kickstarter has been a home to some of the most innovative and strangest ideas weve ever seen. A new one has popped up that has a
Check your SSC, HSC and CBSE results online. While the summer vacations is the most awaited periods in a students life, it certainly isnt for the
HTC has unveiled the new HTC Desire 600 dual-SIM smartphone, the first mid-range handset to offer the companys Sense 5 experience. The Desire 600 will
New and existing customers in India on the Flexible Plan will have to pay Rs 150 per user per month, while those on the Annual Plan will have to pay Rs 1,500 per user per year.
Google's new music service offers a lot of eye candy, a great way to discover new music, but there's still work to be done to improve usability and get rid of interface quirks.
According to a report, 99.9 percent of all the new malware that were detected in the first quarter of 2013 have been designed to prey on Android phones...
Google has pushed some improvements to its Drive app for Android, and says the changes are focused
Heres a simple workshop to help you get rid of almost 170 unwanted system apps pre-installed on your SGS4, free up some space and increase battery life and performance to quite an extent.
Kim Dotcom has claimed that the two-step authentication method used by Google, Facebook and, most recently, Twitter violates a patent he owns...
Crytek has announced a new game, dubbed Ryse. The game will be exclusively available on the Xbox One. According to the official website, it will have
Alright there! The Amazon Appstore has finally arrived to our side of the world, Android Police reports. Now in version 5.0, the updated Android Appstore app
Bill Gross, CEO of UberMedia, is looking to launch a new mobile advertising platform called UberAds that will utilise social signals and location data for ad targeting...
The much-awaited and much-delayed HTC flagship is still not showing signs of being actually available, but the pre-order on Flipkart should ease the heartache for fans.
Asuss exciting dual-booting Transformer AiO P1801 touchscreen all-in-one (AIO) has officially been launched in India. The PC-tablet combo
LG has introduced its next generation of Display Technology, including a 5-inch OLED HD prototype, at the SID Display Week 2013...
Microsoft has released a new ad for its operating system Windows 8 and this new one goes directly for Apples throat. The ad shows an
After just recently having released classic stealth-horror game Manhunt on the PlayStation 3, Rockstar Games is expanding its PS2 games catalogue on the PS3
HTC has confirmed that CEO of HTC Asia, Lennard Hoornik has left the company....
Last week during Google I/O, the company had unveiled its plans for a new conversation-styled searching method for its search service. The conversation
A quad-core version of the popular Canvas 2, the A110Q runs Android 4.2 Jelly Bean and has the MediaTek MT6589 chipset ticking under the hood.
One of the most popular phone manufacturers from Asian countries is Xiaomi with its Mi series of handsets. The company has had a history of offering
Singer and actress Jennifer Lopez today (NZ time) announced she's opening a chain of 15 cellphone stores and a website under the Viva Movil brand.
The Delhi High Court Wednesday asked Facebook and other social networking sites how Indian children could be prevented from knowingly or unknowingly...
Twitter is adding an extra security measure to users' accounts in an effort to prevent unauthorised logins....
Microsofts motion controller the Kinect wont be exclusive to the Xbox One. Kinect Program Manager Scott Evans has told Shacknews
An Arizona restaurateur, fed up after years of negative online reviews and an embarrassing appearance on a reality television show, posted a social media rant....
South Korean giant and top smartphone maker in the world, Samsung Electronics has bought a 10 percent ...
At a time when all the newly launched smart phone carry a display not less than a pixel density of 440pi, Qualcomm has come up with a new display
Indian arms of television makers such as Sony, LG and Samsung plan to limit customer support and service for imported LCD and LED TVs.
Ars Technica together with independent privacy and security researcher Ashkan Soltani made this discovery
This new Google+ feature is capable of recognising subjects people, animals and objects in the users photos both on the desktop version of the service and in the Android app...
The slowdown in notebook and desktop PC sales means chip makers like Intel and AMD are losing market share to mobile processor kingpins riding the ARM wave.
Sony's CEO Kazuo Hirai says the company's board will be discussing a proposal by U.S. hedge fund manager Daniel Loeb to spin off up to 20 percent of its movie, TV and music division...
In recent times, EA has made its displeasure about developing for the Nintendo Wii U quite clear. The displeasure mostly stems from the fact that the Wii U is
Google has announced the stable channel release of Chrome 27, and it includes a whole bunch of goodies.
A video has been leaked of Samsung's upcoming phone, dubbed the S4 Active. The video basically gives us a look at the interface of the handset, and the
Posted: by Ivor Soans
We got our hands on a demo unit for a few short hours and here's our initial impression of...
Posted: by Roydon Cerejo
Apart from the software, BlackBerry has also paid close attention to the hardware that went into...
Posted: by Ivor Soans
Come January 30 and BlackBerry 10, RIM's much awaited and make-or-break OS will be launched. Here's...
Posted: by Ivor Soans
The Curve 9220, the successor to the 8520 with some incremental changes, seems to be relying on the...


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Groupon has two years of demonstrating that it can never be counted on by shareholders, public or private, to deliver on promises it makes because it never has. It's always inventing funny math to explain its business. Read the transcript of its conference call on Seeking Alpha and see if you can get the numbers bandied about to make any sense at all. I have an MBA in Financial Accounting and just as I couldn't understand their numbers when they went public, they are still trying to spin a silk purse out of a sow's ear.
Now they seem not to understand that a business generating $789 million in North American billings ought to be able to produce more than $26 million in segment operating income which you mihgt notice is a fraction of a percent of profit. Mind you that tiny number isn't real net income, just operating income. Since it doesn't generate earnings to speak of, and has more excuses than Carter has pills to explain why not, Groupon is now going to talk in the future about Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA). If you remember back before it launched its IPO, Groupon was trying to advance some new metrics by which to inflate results. At that time because when using standard measures results didn't look too good aqnd certainly not good enough to support the IPO price. Eventually, the SEC balked. Also at that time, management was making inappropriate comments during the quiet period and its IPO had to be delayed.
Groupon was pretty much out of money when the IPO finally did make it out the door. By then the founders had already extracted hundreds of millions of dollars in personal wealth with which to line their own pockets from the early round financings. That aspect hasn't changed one iota. Normally, when companies are growing rapidly and they pass through various rounds of venture financing, the money raised goes to the company to fund and accelerate its growth. Not this one. The founders including current CEO Eric Lefkofsky have long since extracted hundreds of millions of dollars from their Groupon holdings . One wonders why the venture capitalists weren't put off by that. That circumstance continues even now that the company is public. .
Julia Boorstin interviewed Lefkofsky on CNBC on 2/21/2014 about the idea of possibly selling Groupon, the company, in the context of Facebook's killer price paid for What'sApp of $19 billion. Lefkofsky's answer was: " We decided not to sell because we believe the opportunity, especially the opportunity to really build THE true local commerce platform was just too big to not go at it."
Then why do the insiders unceasingly sell hundreds of thousands of shares each month? That includes an inclusively long list from Chairman Ted Leonsis, to Lefkofsky, to COO Kal Raman, CFO Child and VP Holden? In part they are paid lots of options each year to replace the ones they sell. That was the Michael Dell trick that went on for years at Dell. Michael became a billionaire owning Dell which paid him options, more options and even more after that. Dell got richer but for a decade preceding his going private, shareholders fared very poorly. There is a lesson here for those who ignore relentless insider selling.
Founder and former CEO Andrew Mason has disgorged almost all of his holdings since he was finally left the company last spring, forced out by the Board. He's now left Chicago and moved to California just in time for the drought. If you really believed the stock was going higher and business was going to improve, you wouldn't walk away from more money by cashing out now . If you believed in this great new opportunity for mobile commerce, and if you already had extracted hundreds of millions from Groupon, why wouldn't you be holding onto your remaining shares for the big ride ahead?
There must be a reason that What'sApp commanded $19 billion this week from Facebook and Groupon sells for a net market value of $7.2 billion, less $2.8 billion in debt for an enterprise value of $4.3 billion. Actually one wonders why that enterprise number is even that high.
Nobody should be surprised that Groupon dropped another bomb when it reported its earnings this quarter and the stock dropped about 22% in the aftermath of that report. What is astounding is the gullibility of the major brokerages who have even recently put out positive recommendations on this company. CEO Eric Lefkofsky has more than a decade long history of becoming a billionaire by saying whatever is necessary to win fans who he then leaves holding the bag. That history goes all the way back more than a decade to the tech bubble and was well documented in an article in Fortune in 2011 (The Checkered Past of Groupon's Chairman). Only the names of the companies have changed.
It is now 2.5 years since Groupon went public. The investing public learned quickly that the "daily deal" business had serious flaws. For one, others from Amazon to the local newspaper company could emulate the product with improvements and they did. It was known early on that Groupon needed an expensive sales force to peddle the Groupon coupon idea to new merchants because customers had to be constantly replaced on an ongoing basis. That's because they do not build much of a new customer base for the merchant. People looking for cheap massages and facials usually go to whomever is offering the cheapest deal this week. And, the merchant usually loses money on the offer which is why they don't repeat to offer Groupons very often, if ever.
To deal with the high cost of salesmen to generate Groupon offers, the company has recently announced a product called Deal Builder which allows merchants to create their own deals online in a self serve manner. However they billed it, it is probably intended to lower the acquisition costs for that business by taking the expensive sales staff out of the mix.
The current quarter demonstrates that any company can generate sales at just about any time by offering things at a cheap enough price point ( except maybe Sears). However, delivering the goods and making a profit are distinctly different considerations. Julia Boorstin went after Mr. Lefkofsky later in her CNBC interview on February 21 when he bragged about how much sales were up. Her question was about the challenge of making money from those sales, not the gross sales number which seems to have little meaning.
Nothing much has changed in this story since the company came public at $20. It wasn't a viable story then and it doesn't appear to be a viable story now. It was forced higher that first morning to a price above $30 for only moments before it came crashing to earth. Years later the stock cannot regain its legs and is selling for well less than half that offering price. I suppose if you bought the stock at the bottom in low single digits you think it is a good thing to have owned. Now management admits the original business model doesn't work and can't support the price of the stock. It is flailing around to find another model. It continues to try to obfuscate with statistics that aren't meaningful hoping that you won't notice the gibberish they are speaking on their conference calls.
What baffles me most is why any self respecting Wall Street analyst has been willing to put his/her stamp of approval on this management. That goes for Legg Mason's Bill Miller, too. Of all people, with his decades of experience, he should have known better.
Joan E. Lappin CFA Gramercy Capital Mgt.
Neither Mrs. Lappin, Gramercy Capital nor its clients own any companies mentioned in this article. To follow Joan on Forbes.com click on the button at the top of this article. To follow Mrs. Lappin on Twitter: @joanlappin . If you'd like information about Gramercy Capital or for help with your investment portfolio in these confusing times, contact us at: email@example.com.


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New Shopify Fulfillment Service
When someone asks you what is the biggest and best fulfillment network, there’s a very good chance that Amazon comes to mind. Though the online ecommerce giant continues to dominate the industry, numerous companies are trying to outdo Amazon in every imaginable way. Shopify recently announced its own fulfillment network, which will directly compete with Amazon and give sellers yet another fulfillment option.
Shopify’s New Features for Merchants
Each year, Shopify hosts a developer conference called Shopify Unite. The 2019 event was one of the most exciting in the company’s history as the team announced some amazing new features coming to its merchants and partners. These include:
- Shopify Plus Improvements – Priced for bigger brands, Shopify Plus offers much more than just an ecommerce platform. With Plus, clients get staffing, management, and more.
- A Shopify POS System – The retailer announced that it would offer its own unique POS system rather than software based solely on iOS.
- Updated Online Store Design Experience – Shopify’s store designer will also be updated, providing merchants with brand-new features and a simpler user interface.
- A New Fulfillment Network for US Merchants – In the biggest announcement of them all, Shopify announced that it would provide its US merchants with an optional fulfillment network.
Merchants currently utilizing Shopify as their platform of choice have more options available to them. Those who aren’t currently utilizing Shopify will have more reasons to consider using Shopify. If they follow through on their promise to deliver outstanding customer service to their merchants.
Can Shopify Compete with Amazon?
Many news outlets claim that Shopify is attempting to compete with Amazon, by rolling out a new fulfillment network but some experts disagree. They believe that Shopify’s decision to create a US fulfillment network was made in order to allow Shopify to remain relevant in today’s world of near-instant gratification with next-day shipping.
Is Either Giant the Best Choice for Fulfillment?
Amazon, Shopify and similar platforms offer fulfillment services, in order to attract more merchants. However, there is a great deal of debate as to whether their fulfillment networks are really the best choice. Like many other industries, merchants often find that leaving fulfillment to highly specialized companies is often the best route. By choosing a company that only does fulfillment and inventory management, merchants get better and more helpful customer service. Rather than speaking with agents who know a little about many topics, they can speak with agents who are experts in their fields, and that can make the world of difference when it comes to picking, packing, shipping, kitting, assembly, and more.
Amazon will continue to dominate ecommerce while other companies like Shopify remain fierce competition. However, despite their success as ecommerce platforms, they simply cannot offer the same personalized and specialized services as a dedicated fulfillment partner.


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It's no secret that the hardware upgrade process is a lot more complicated in the age of Windows Vista. But more and more enterprise managers are finding out just how many variables need to be considered as the time to swap out aging desktop and network gear draws nigh.
Fortunately for some, the decision is being made easier by what could only be called heavy-handed tactics that some providers use to keep customers in line, but which actually breed resentment and a stronger desire to switch platforms.
Take the example of this Tacoma, Wash., firm, which was already growing tired of ever-increasing licensing and hardware costs with its Windows-based PCs and SQL Server platform, even before Microsoft started hassling it about possible license violations. Macs are looking better and better, despite a fair amount of recoding needed to keep proprietary front-end apps working properly.
It seems like a lot of firms are taking a hard look at Vista's costs and functionality, judging by the latest quarterly sales figures. While Windows-based PCs still garner the vast majority of sales, Apple showed the largest increase compared to the first quarter a year ago. A 30 percent increase has brought it a solid 5 percent of the U.S. market.
Loyalty to legacy systems is also taking a hit from the fact that virtualization allows you to run any OS, and by extension any application, that you've become dependent on. As this article at PCWorld points out, Mac users have a variety of options when it comes to running Windows, not merely the much-maligned Virtual PC of a few years ago. From Parallels and Boot Camp to VMware Fusion and CodeWeaver, there's a means to just about any end that enterprise users demand.
Of course, if you're hell-bent on running Vista on the Mac, there is that little problem of licensing. While Microsoft has loosened up a bit on its requirements for running Vista in virtual environments, you still can't put the basic or even the premium version on your Mac. For that you need the more expensive business or ultimate version. Microsoft says this is for security reasons, although both AMD and Intel stop just short of calling that so much nonsense.
Ultimately, as virtualization further separates traditional hardware and software co-dependence, hardware decisions will cease to be about which applications you expect to use and more about capabilities, engineering and support.


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Most food banks could do with more donations; many find they are deluged with baked beans while they go short of other groceries. But a new app is available that aims to help donors give just what's needed most.
The Foodbank app connects people with their nearest food bank and lists products using a 'traffic light' system. Red means that the food bank urgently needs supplies; amber means that supply is getting short and green indicates that they have plenty already.
People can also make financial donations through the app, and can volunteer to help out. They can even set an alarm for the time they usually go grocery shopping, reminding them to make a donation.
"There are now over 30 million smartphones in the UK. Smartphone apps are used to find out information, make online purchases, check the news, access social media etc," creator Dave Cates explains.
"We thought that an app would be useful for food banks as it allows them to communicate instantly with their supporters, updating them with urgent food requirements, asking for volunteers and sharing news."
The organisers are now looking for sponsors to help expand the app.
"We are also developing a desktop Facebook version of the app so supporters will be able to keep up-to-date with your food bank via Facebook."
The Canterbury food bank says it's seen a doubling of donations since it started taking part.
The Foodbank app runs on Apple's iOS and Android, and is available from Apple's App Store and on Google Play. While it's free for users, there's a charge for foodbanks wishing to take part, which covers set-up and training.
Food bank use is rocketing: there are now over 400 around the UK. A report last month in The Lancet showed that food bank use is up by 163% in the last year, in what it says is "an image reminiscent of the Great Depression in the 1930s."
According to the Trussell Trust, the largest provider of food banks in the UK, the number of people using food banks in the UK topped one million last year.
"Despite welcome signs of economic recovery, hunger continues to affect significant numbers of men, women and children in the UK today," says its foodbank director Adrian Curtis.
Read more on AOL Money:
Food bank conversion fund urged
Let's be honest about the problem with food banks
Food bank use is soaring: why do people use food banks?


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The European animal agriculture industry is in a panic about the rising popularity of vegan foods. In a bid to counter the increase they have already convinced the European government to ban the use of terms such as 'veggie burger' or 'plant-based steak' on vegan foods. They are now trying to go further and ban the use of phrases like 'yoghurt style' and 'alternative to cheese'.
Environmentalist Greta Thunberg has joined 21 organisations, including the UK Vegan Society, The Good Food Institute and other vegan and environmental organisations, in calling on European leaders to reject the legislation. With scientific consensus confirming that plant-based diets are on the whole better for the environment, governments should be encouraging a shift towards plant-based foods. Instead, the proposed ban will undermine greenhouse gas emissions targets and other environmental goals, such as reducing land and water use and reversing biodiversity decline.
There are now moves in Australia for similar laws, by animal agriculture organisations such as National Farmers Federation, Dairy Connect and Australian Dairy Farmers. These groups have pressured the National Party of Australia to push for a ban on plant-based products using the word 'milk' in labelling and marketing.
Vegan Australia has already opposed these moves, pointing out that if labels were really honest they would include details of the animal suffering involved in making animal products. With your support, Vegan Australia will continue to fight these attempts to mislead the Australian public.
- Greta Thunberg attacks EU plan to ban 'dairy'-terms from plant-based alternatives, The Independent
- Dairy industry: label your products honestly, Vegan Australia
- 'Milk' wars and truth in labelling, Vegan Australia
- ABC reports vegan call for 'suffering' label, Vegan Australia
- Youth radio reports on non-dairy milk labelling stir, Vegan Australia
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Looks like Sony is going super big with the marketing of the upcoming Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End– which makes sense, too! It is without a doubt the most important and biggest game that Sony have released this generation so far.
Take, for instance, this- Sony have prepared a brand new CG trailer for Naughty Dog’s newest game, which is slated to be the final entry in the Uncharted franchise, which will be playing in theaters in Europe this weekend. It’s an excellent play by them, too, because theaters will be jam packed this weekend, with the release of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
The trailer itself seems to be well made, and should get a whole lot of people’s attention- even those who ordinarily would not pay attention to a PS4 exclusive release. You can check out the trailer below.
Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End is slated to come out for PS4 in May.


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Brooks Brothers, Walton Brown announce JV in Greater China
America's oldest retailer Brooks Brothers Group, Inc and Walton Brown Group, a subsidiary of The Lane Crawford Joyce Group, Asia's premier fashion retail and brand management group, have announced a joint venture that will drive Brooks Brothers' market expansion throughout the region.
The 50/50 joint venture, with an initial term of 10 years commencing January 2016, will leverage the strengths and capabilities of Walton Brown in strategic retail brand management in Greater China and the global appeal of Brooks Brothers, one of America's most iconic clothing brands, augmenting its dynamic growth across the Greater China region, Walton Brown said in a press release.
The joint venture will take over the management of Brooks Brothers' existing retail network of 90 stores in the territory and will activate a strategic expansion plan to open more than 10 points of sale in the first two years across key cities in China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan. In addition to freestanding stores, the joint venture partnership will see a deep investment in a multi-channel distribution platform providing wholesale, outlets, travel retail and e-commerce channels to bolster brand presence and fuel business growth in the region.
Building on the success of Brooks Brothers' ready-to-wear menswear and accessories collections, the product offerings within its women's collection and accessories lines will be enhanced with the appointment of Zac Posen, one of America's most influential designers, as the Creative Director for women's wear. His highly anticipated first women's collection will debut in Spring/Summer 2016 and will be available worldwide.
"We are thrilled to be partnering with Walton Brown on this exciting joint venture which enables us to develop long-term growth strategies across multiple online and offline distribution channels especially in China, one of our most important growth markets for our global business. We are confident in China's growth prospects in the premium sector for the coming years and this is the optimal time for us to position Brooks Brothers for long term sustainable growth," said Claudio Del Vecchio, Chairman and CEO of Brooks Brothers.
Thomson Cheng, President of Walton Brown, said, "In the 12 years Brooks Brothers has been operating in China, the brand has built a strong following of customers who subscribe to its unique heritage and rich history of design and quality craftsmanship. With the foundation in place, we believe the brand has enormous potential with the new generation of sophisticated and prosperous consumers in China and with the launch of the online business in 2016 we will be able to significantly increase reach with this consumer segment."
Following the formation of the joint venture, Brooks Brothers and Walton Brown will establish a corporate office and showroom in Hong Kong in early 2016, the release said.
Brooks Brothers operates more than 460 stores worldwide including over 130 retail stores in the Asia Pacific region, 90 of which are in Greater China. (SH)
Fibre2Fashion News Desk – India


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As many countries feel the increased food prices caused by this global recession, people are becoming more aware of food waste and the importance of nutrition. Scientists are striving toward genetically editing foods in order to offer us the highest amount of nutrients.
That is why scientists worldwide have gathered together and managed to design a new type of tomato that offers the same amount of vitamin D that you would get from two eggs or 28 grams of tuna fish. Low vitamin D levels affect 1 billion people across the planet.
The human body usually absorbs vitamin D from sunlight. As newer generations are spending less time outside, the world is suffering from vitamin D deficiency. Over 42% of Americans are vitamin D deficient, and the numbers only keep rising.
One of the main issues that the researchers focused on was the lack of vitamin D in foods and especially plants that contain very little to no sufficient nutrients. One of the major issues when it comes to world hunger it’s not only the lack of food but also the quality of food as it does not offer the needed nutrients for a sustainable lifestyle.
Tomatoes don’t offer any vitamin D due to an enzyme that converts provitamin D3 into cholesterol. By altering this enzyme, the scientists were able to block this conversion so that tomatoes can accumulate provitamin D3.
“Gene-editing tomatoes to accumulate provitamin D3 at levels above recommended dietary guidelines could result in better health for many especially as tomatoes are a widely accessible and readily eaten food,” (Quote by Guy Poppy, a professor of ecology at the University of Southampton.)
Foods high in vitamin D such as fish or red meat are expensive compared to tomatoes which are some of the cheapest vegetables found in supermarkets around the world. As pointed out by Dr. Jie Li, the first author of the study, this offers a great opportunity for more people to adopt a vegetarian or vegan diet:
“The provitamin D enriched tomatoes we have produced offer a much-needed plant-based source of the sunshine vitamin. That is great news for people adopting a plant-rich, vegetarian or vegan diet, and for the growing number of people worldwide suffering from the problem of vitamin D insufficiency.” (Quote by Dr. Jie Li)
The researchers behind this project believe that this is the first step toward solving world hunger. By offering this alternative the world would be better equipped to solve world hunger, with cheap foods that are more nutritious.


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Every year on Dec. 7, downtown Columbia brings in thousands of locals and tourists for the Living Windows celebration. Where the various merchants on 9th Street and Broadway showcase their quirky styles by having employees and volunteers perform for spectators. The celebration drew not only families and tourists, but also University of Missouri-Columbia students, like senior Megan Infield, who has been attending the celebration for several years.
“I’m actually a Columbia native, so I’ve been coming here for quite a few years,” Infield said. “It’s definitely grown quite a bit.”
Fringe Boutique on Broadway had a display that was based on the John Hughes classic, 1989’s National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. Brady Weter, Mary Jacobi, and Matt Middendorf were selected as a part of the exhibit because of their friendship with the store owner.
“We’re just doing this cause our friends own it, so these guys got volunteered to be in the windows tonight,” Jacobi said.
Jacobi’s fellow performer, Brady Weter, was inspired by the 80s aesthetic in the film and wanted to draw upon that to form this year’s display.
Many of the elaborate scenes reflected the store’s individual local identity. Such as Yellow Dog Bookshop on 9th street, which featured a Harry Potter themed display; Columbia native Struby Struble, who now lives in Oakland, Calif., came back to Columbia for the celebration to perform a reenactment, of Harry Potter with her niece Sally Chevalier and nephew Boo Chevalier.
“I used to live here and this is part of the winter holiday I come back for,” Struble said. “This is my chance to be with them [Sally & Boo]. And it’s a really fun tradition. The first year, the family just had the living windows.”
The celebration serves as not only a manifestation of the holiday spirit but is a real-life example of how much Columbia has grown in the past several years. The festival was able to engage many attendees and get the city into the holiday spirit.
“Some stores have fake snow coming out and I was like ‘wow this is so cool! We have fake snow now,”’ Infield said. “I definitely feel like the holidays are here.”


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- This partnership is expected to boost the development of domestic industry in the field of printable electronics
- RK PrintCoat’s Versatile Converting Machine (VCM) will be installed at the National Centre of Flexible Electronics Centre (FlexE), IIT-Kanpur
RK PrintCoat Instruments, a UK-based manufacturer of sample preparation equipment/ print testing equipment, has entered into a partnership with the Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur (IIT-K) for development of printed and flexible electronics.
The company will work together with the National Centre of Flexible Electronics Centre (FlexE) at IIT-K to design, manufacture and supply a bespoke roll-to-roll pilot line for its latest R&D and prototyping projects.
The R-2-R pilot coating line will have applications such as flexo, rotary screen, slot die, inkjet and direct gravure as well as the integration of plasma treatment and flash sintering.
RK specialises in the design and manufacture of equipment used to produce repeatable samples of most surface coatings.
The company’s Reel-to-Reel (R2R) machines include the Rotary Koater, VCML Lab/Pilot Coater and Versatile Converting Machine (VCM). Since 2004, VCM equipment has been installed at many locations worldwide for development of high-tech coatings such as printed/plastic electronics.
Darren Ellis, project manager at RK Print, is managing and overseeing the design and build of the versatile converting machine for FlexE Centre.
“This long-term project is an exciting one for RK Print to be involved with, developing and adding to our knowledge of the emerging printed electronics market,” Ellis said.
First-of-its-kind in India
This R-2-R coating line will be the first in India and it will mimic industrial scale processing on R&D level.
Enabling access to a R-2-R processing facility in India will provide a boost to the development of domestic industry in the field of printable electronics, noted Professor Monica Katiyar, coordinator of FlexE Centre.
Dr Juliane Tripathi, team leader at FlexE Centre, is overseeing the project from FlexE Centre’s site. According to her, the FlexE Centre’s line has been designed to be extremely versatile and modular with state-of-the-art printing and sintering technologies that can be combined for broad range of applications in the field of printed electronics.
This R-2-R line will be the link between translational research and industrial process development, said professor Deepak Gupta, one of the initiators of FlexE Centre.
He added, “The FlexE Centre’s line will potentially be open to industrial partners to test low-volume manufacturing of new products before they put capital investment in equipment.”
About FlexE Centre
The National Centre for Flexible Electronics was set up at the Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur (IIT-K) under the Digital India programme in 2014. This centre functions as a nodal point in India to bring academia, industry and public research organizations under one umbrella for research and development of large area and flexible electronics.
The Centre was established jointly by the department of electronics and information and IT-Kanpur with a sum of Rs 133 crore, of which the institute contributed Rs 20 crore.


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Faced with plummeting demand, French tiremaker plans to cut 1,093 jobs over a three year period, starting in 2010, through voluntary departures.
Federal appeals court has ordered Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. to release hundreds of documents on the design and construction of its tires.
Canada's largest plastics producer said Friday it received more regulatory approvals for its takeover by Abu Dhabi investment firm International Petroleum Investment Co.
Tire retailers say U.S. manufacturers are not making the less-expensive tires that are popular with today's cash-strapped motorists.
United Steelworkers of America and Goodyear begin national contract talks with the recession as a backdrop and job security a key priority.
An Oklahoma congressman believes jobs in his district will continue to be threatened unless existing trade rules are used to stem Chinese tire imports into the United States.
Company will cease consumer tire production at its plant in Amiens, France, and dismiss 820 of the facility's 1,200 workers, saying it is too costly to operate.
Tire and rubber company’s plant in Union City, Tenn., plans to cut back the seven-day continuous operating schedule to an eight-hour, five-day work week beginning July 6.
Michelin North America said it will permanently shut down its BFGoodrich Tire plant Oct. 31 in east Alabama because of declining demand, a move that will cost about 1,000 jobs.
Top executive of the biggest U.S. tire company said it will consider more cost cutting this year if measures already taken aren't enough in a down economy.
PepsiCo said it will save 75 million pounds of plastic a year with its Eco-Fina bottle that uses 20 percent less plastic as part of a wider effort to be more eco-friendly.
Group of about 1,000 protesters rallied in the city of Reims in northeastern France to try to avert the shutdown of a Continental tire factory in nearby Clairoix.
Union employees of the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. plant in Topeka have approved a contract that will allow the company to cut between 200 and 225 jobs.
Connecticut's attorney general says six companies have agreed to stop manufacturing baby bottles that contain Bisphenol-A, a chemical some studies suggest may be harmful to infants.
Canada's largest plastics producer said Monday that it has agreed to be acquired by International Petroleum Investment Co. for $6 per share, or about $499.2 million.
Tire maker reported a 92 percent drop in annual profit as global demand for tires dropped sharply, and forecast even more dismal earnings for the coming year.
U.S. tire maker said Wednesday it plans to cut almost 7 percent of its work force this year after swinging to a fourth-quarter loss as sales sank 21 percent.
Fayetteville, N.C., where Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. operates a large plant that employs 3,000 people, has approved a $1 million payment to help retain jobs.
Tire and rubber company says it needs to cut costs because of slumping tire sales and plans to reduce the amount of tires available by adjusting tire production at factories.
Governor intends to sign a bill that would provide $19 million of incentives to keep a Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. manufacturing plant in northeastern Mississippi.
Maker of paper and plastic products says it will lay off about 10 percent of its work force as it accelerates cost cutting this year.
Tire maker says it will close its plant in Albany, Ga., the result of a capacity study of its four plants.
Auto parts supplier Key Plastics LLC said Tuesday it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and submitted a pre-packaged reorganization plan.
In effort to keep the plant operating, union members at Cooper Tire and Rubber Co. in Texarkana, Ark., have voted to approve a three-year contract laden with concessions.


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Polyamide (PA) - news on Plastech
LANXESS at FAKUMA, October 17 – 21, 2017, will present new high-temperature-stabilized polyamides and flame-retardant thermoplastics for electric mobility.
From October 17 to 21, 2017, the Fakuma trade fair in Friedrichshafen will once again be opening its doors. This year visitors can again look forward to seeing innovative plastic solutions from BASF for the construction and furniture industries as well as for the automotive and packaging sectors.
The French automotive supplier Valeo has now developed a top column module whose housing and levers are made of BASF’s engineering plastics Ultramid SI (PA) and Ultradur (PBT).
LANXESS now offers two new highly reinforced polyamide 6 compounds.
BASF put the expanded compounding plant at BASF’s Schwarzheide site in Germany into operation.
Excellent adhesion in two-component applications with polyamide resins.
LANXESS presents new halogen-free, flame-retardant polyesters and polyamides
Lanxess announced plans to further strengthen its integrated production complex for polyamide and precursors for plastics in Antwerp.
At MIDO 2017 in Milan Italy, Evonik will demonstrate its new application for the sport glasses' frame manufactured with Trogamid.
Premium agricultural utility vehicle manufacturers select Terblend N NG02 EF for control panel housings.
At K 2016 DSM launches new polyphthalamide (PPA) - ForTii Ace.
Solvay officially introduced at K 2016 the brand new solution Technyl® 4earth® providing breakthrough environmental benefits as compared to traditional Polyamide 6.6 (PA6.6).


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By Tom Murray
Mallory Yawnghwe is determined to help people share stories and reconnect through her brand-new business venture: Indigenous Box.
The quarterly subscription box service includes products by Indigenous artisans from across Canada. It launched quietly in March and sold out within three days. When it was restocked for a second run in April, the boxes were snapped up in 24 hours.
“It’s been incredible,” says Yawnghwe, who notes that Indigenous Box is meant for everyone who wants to support First Nations artisans. “We hear from people about how these items are helping them reconnect with their family, or how they sit with their daughter picking things from the box, talking about what the kokum scarf means to them. They’re sharing stories with their kids, and that’s powerful.”
Yawnghwe is one of a rapidly growing number of Indigenous entrepreneurs who are finding innovative ways to thrive in an uncertain economy. Substantially so, with the Royal Bank of Canada predicting that the Indigenous economy will more than triple in size over the next three years from $30 billion in 2020.
According to Marcela Mandeville, chief executive officer of Alberta Women Entrepreneurs (AWE), there’s always a mix of opportunity and challenge when it comes to starting your own business, especially for Indigenous business owners.
“One of the problems for Indigenous women entrepreneurs that we work with is location,” she says. “By the nature of where they sometimes are in rural areas there’s also a disconnect from opportunities and networks to help them build revenues and perhaps bring money into their business. That’s long been an issue for many people.”
Indigenous Box is an excellent example of entrepreneurs reaching past their home base. Among the offerings from the debut package are products from Carrie Armstrong of Mother Earth Essentials in Edmonton, Mi’gmaq artist Tracey Metallic from the Restigouche River in New Brunswick, and Michaelee Lazore who is Kanien'kehá:ka (Mohawk) from Akwesáhsne in Quebec and Northern Paiute from Nevada. According to Yawnghwe, all three entrepreneurs are doing what First Nations people were engaged in well before colonization.
“We had trade networks set up a long time ago,” says Yawnghwe, who has a background in supply chain management. “So here we are taking back that space again and supporting each other. With the pandemic there’s been such a strong emphasis on shopping locally, so this fits in quite nicely.”
Mandeville agrees, and notes that it’s still difficult for many Indigenous entrepreneurs to get a leg up because of outmoded systems.
“It’s not the easiest to navigate and get support for a small business,” she explains. “For many institutions that are lending there’s the requirement of security, and that can be difficult depending on life circumstances, especially for First Nations people who are living on a Nation and don't actually own their property.”
While Mandeville says that there are many specific challenges for Indigenous entrepreneurs, she also points to a few helpful programs. AWE offers Next Step to Success, and the Indigenous Growth Fund (IGF) recently raised $150 million to support fledgling business owners. But Mandeville says that there’s always room for more.
“It’s a missed opportunity to have an underrepresented community, whether women, Indigenous, or immigrant, be marginalized in the world of business,” she says. “Especially now that the pandemic has caused us to move so quickly into the digital world, and there are new opportunities to access markets from wherever they might be.”
Digital commerce has helped, but for Yawnghwe there’s a certain amount of tradition in what she does. She may not be able to meet her suppliers in person, but she still makes room for Zoom meetings with a cup of tea at hand. It’s also important for her to make sure that any agreement is equitable for both her and the artisan.
“It’s all about going back to the old ways, connecting with people and building relationships,” explains Yawnghwe, who says that the second box will be announced on June 13.
“That’s the foundation that makes the box work for everybody.”


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News and Events
Find out what's going on at The Arc Wayne.
Alex & Ani Fundraiser
Thursday, November 15, 2018
Alex & Ani in Victor, NY
Alex & Ani generously donates 10% of all profits to Roosevelt Children's Center. Come shop with us!
Read the latest news about what's been happening around The Arc Wayne this season!


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Transport and logistics company, Silk Logistics, is celebrating its first anniversary of being listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX).
Work is stepping up from Watsonia to Bulleen ahead of major construction on the North East Link tunnels.
The National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) has accepted an enforceable undertaking from an equipment rental hire company in response to a severe mass breach.
The new Anvil Creek Bridge on Nelson Street in Greta, New South Wales, has officially opened, now offering safer and better access for major transport routes.
Supply chain logistics provider, Qube Energy, has been working with Bao Australia to deliver more than 51 kilometres of pipes for the Western Outer Ring Main project.
The New South Wales Government has announced a new route around Maitland and Singleton, now available for heavy vehicles.
Tickets are now available for the 2022 Bulk Tanker Day.
Linfox has appointed Damain Bishop as its new President Consumer and Healthcare Group.
Nominate a suitable candidate for the 2022 Women in Industry Awards today.
Beverage distribution specialist, BevChain, has announced two new logistics facilities in Western Australia and Victoria.


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Sister Wives Spoilers: Meri and Christine Brown’s Employer LuLaRoe Sued for Deceptive Practices
Sister Wives spoilers reveal that stars, and wives to polygamist Kody Brown, Meri, 50, and Christine, 49, are employees of a multilevel marketing company called LuLaRoe and are known for holding numerous Facebook Live sales each week.
Amazon Prime recently released a docuseries entitled LuLaRich which exposes the company’s deceptive business practices which targeted work-from-home mothers with a “scam.”
Sister Wives Spoilers: ‘Unlawful, Fraudulent Pyramid Scheme’
The Sun recently revealed that the company had been hit with a class-action lawsuit, months before the four-part docuseries aired.
The lawsuit, which was brought by former retailer, Jessica Ponkey, on behalf of 30 others, was for an endless chain scheme, false advertising, unfair and deceptive practices, and more.
According to court papers obtained by The Sun, Jessica called LuLaRoe an, “unlawful, fraudulent pyramid scheme which preys on stay-at-home mothers, promising them they can generate substantial income while still being able to spend time at home with their families.”
Sister Wives Spoilers: Earning Millions ‘On the Backs of Women’
It is also stipulated that the company makes its, “primary income,” not from sales of products, but from its ability to recruit others into the scheme.
Per The Sun, the plaintiffs were “doomed from the start,” despite their hard work, because the company, “systematically rewarded recruiting consultants over retail sales of the product.”
They claimed the flawed and crooked business model allowed those few at the top, mainly Mark Stidham and Deanne Brady, to pull in millions of dollars for themselves.
The lawsuit papers went on to say that Stidham and Brady had earned, “hundreds of millions of dollars in profit for themselves on the backs of women,” who had sought a legitimate opportunity where they could earn an income while spending more time at home with their families.
Jessica who had been a consultant for the company from March 2017 to December 2018 claimed that she had, “suffered damages as a direct and proximate result of Defendants’ misconduct.”
The cost of joining the “scheme” was between $2,000 and $9,000 depending on the amount of product.
Per The Sun, the lawsuit claimed that there was a demand for inventory that the company could not accommodate.
Sister Wives Spoilers: Mykelti Defends LuLaRoe
Christine’s daughter Mykelti, 25, who also works for LuLaRoe, defended the company in an Instagram post saying that the documentary had been edited for the sake of drama.
She went on to say that she hadn’t been misinformed and that the company doesn’t lie to its retailers.
The reality TV star claimed it was bitter employees trying to blame the company for their own failures.
The Sister Wives alum concluded that those that remain with the company do so because they know it’s work and that they are willing to “put in the effort.”


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In November 2019, Tokyu Department Store, a major Japanese chain, opened “Tokyu Foodshow Edge” — a food specialty store — in a new 47- story high- rise commercial complex called Shibuya Scramble Square, just a few blocks from Tokyo’s well-known “Shibuya Scramble Crossing” intersection.
The company installed several CO2 plug-in display cases combined with a water loop system in the complex’s basement food-shopping area. The combination of CO2 plug-in equipment with a water loop system in a retail department store setting is relatively new in Japan, where CO2 outdoor condensing units in convenience stores are dominant.
The innovation represents a new opportunity for end users such as department store retailers to employ natural refrigerant systems, especially those located in densely populated Tokyo neighborhoods, where space is always limited.
Water Loops Solve Space Restrictions
In the 2nd-floor basement of the Shibuya Scramble Square high-rise tower, two food suppliers, Head Line (a rotating showcase of various food makers) and Sanwein (a vendor specializing in Taiwanese delicacies), use seven pieces of specially designed CO2 water-cooled plug-in showcases.
While Tokyu Department Store aimed to use natural refrigerant equipment, the space restrictions and the underground location of the food sales area meant that the conventional CO2 air-cooled condensing unit type system was not seen as a viable option.
So Tokyu Department Store worked with Japanese OEM Panasonic and Japanese refrigeration installer Hama Refrigeration Industries to design and install CO2 plug-in showcases that would be cooled by a water loop. The cooling tower is located outside on the 13th floor. Tokyu Department Store chose to forego using subsidies for this project due to a tight construction and delivery schedule.
Tokuo Sato, Director of Hama Refrigeration Industries, said that in addition to preventing waste heat from being released on the sales floor, water- cooled systems are a good option for commercial facilities with limited space, and help businesses transition away from synthetic refrigerants.
“Several major department stores have called for water-cooled CO2 showcases,” said Sato. “Looking ahead, it is better to transition away from fluorocarbons now rather than half-way through with low- GWP refrigerants such as mixed fluorocarbons.”


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With each passing day, we are getting more and more details about the Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S, which is undoubtedly going to be among the best phones launching in Q1 of this year. It is already out from the leaked firmware files that the phone has a dual camera setup on the rear, and the front camera is still placed on the bottom bezel, this time centered instead of on the bottom left corner. Recently, the alleged press render along with some hands-on images of the phone were also leaked that confirmed the design revealed by firmware files.
Xiaomi, on its official Weibo page, teased one of the highlighting features of its Mi Mix 2S smartphone – the Wireless charging. Previous firmware files had already hinted towards this feature, and now, Xiaomi has officially confirmed that Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S is going to be the first phone from the company to come with wireless charging support.
The launch is taking place on March 27 in Shanghai, and the phone features almost a same design as Mi Mix 2 except for a different placement for the front camera and the addition of dual rear cameras. Snapdragon 845 powers the device, making it among the most powerful phones of this year.


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Just three years ago, EMI was the only UK-based major label in existence.
In its home country, the recorded music giant was the third-biggest major, positioned between Sony at No.2 and Warner at No.4.
MBW has taken a fresh look at stats from the the BPI‘s 2015 Music Market Yearbook (pictured and which you can buy through here).
These show the changing shape of Universal, Sony and Warner’s market share for all albums (compilations plus artist albums) over the past five years.
MBW has further segmented the specific share that EMI and the indies took out of the market – and the results are pretty fascinating.
Before its sale, EMI’s market share was already in the process of being eroded: in 2010, it claimed a strong 14.1% of the market by album unit sales. Yet by 2011, this had fallen to 13%.
From there, it’s difficult to judge EMI’s share fairly: Universal completed its acquisition of most of EMI’s catalogue (including The Beatles, pictured) for £1.2bn in September 2012. But a big portion remained with Parlophone Label Group, which was held separate as an ‘indie’.
In 2013, PLG’s (‘EMI’) annual share of the UK albums market was 2.9%. That wasn’t bad going considering it was effectively half a year’s performance: PLG’s sale to Warner for £487m was completed on July 1, 2013.
(Warner also agreed to divest £100m+ in assets to the independent sector – a process that, two years on, still hasn’t been completed.)
So where did EMI’s share end up?
When you factor in the organic growth of other companies such as Sony – which benefitted from EMI’s sale by grabbing 50% of the Now! franchise in Europe for around €50m – the results may surprise you.
Let’s compare the first full year without any EMI entity in existence – 2014 – to the last full year of an unbroken standalone EMI in FY 2011.
EMI’s share in 2011 was worth 13% of the market. In a very basic comparison between both years (removing a host of other variables, of course) – here’s how that 13% ended up being distributed in 2014:
- Universal: + 3.6%
- Sony: + 5.5%
- Warner: + 4.2%
- Indies: -0.3%
However, 2011 was also an anomalous year for one very important reason: Adele. Her record-breaking 21 album munched a lot of market share on its own, giving a huge boost to the indie sector.
Despite the indies’ share falling between 2011 – 2014, therefore, it was some accomplishment to remain significantly above 20%. Pre-2011, the indies share was less than 18%.
(Remember that the indie share includes Ministry Of Sound, the UK’s fourth biggest record company thanks to its very strong compilations business.)
So in the interest of edging closer to a fair reflection of a post-EMI world, it’s also worth comparing 2012 – when EMI was a standalone major for three quarters of the year until UMG snapped it up – with 2014.
Here are the winners and losers in that timeframe:
- Universal: +1.5%
- Sony: +4.5%
- Warner: +6.0%
- Indies: +1.1%
Interesting to note that in both comparison segments (2011 vs 2014 and 2012 vs. 2014), the biggest post-EMI growth in albums has occurred at Sony and Warner, rather than Universal.
The same is true in 2013 vs. 2014, when Universal’s UK albums share actually dropped:
- Universal: -0.7%
- Sony: +1.2%
- Warner: +3.7%
- Indies: -1.3%
This has more to do with Sony and Warner’s own A&R efforts, of course – with bestselling albums from the likes of Ed Sheeran and George Ezra etc. – rather than a simple redistribution of EMI.
Also, here’s a surprising observation about the indies: their combined share beat Sony to No.2 in 2011 and 2012 – with Adele ruling the charts in both years.
But the same was also true in 2013. And in 2014, the indies were just 0.3% behind Sony.
The main takeaway, though, is this: remember all of the (understandable) fears that Universal would become an uber-dominant ‘super-major’ in the market after it swallowed EMI?
It simply hasn’t come to pass.
(That’s in market share terms, anyway: as MBW reported earlier this year, Universal Music Group posted its biggest Q1 revenue haul for nearly a decade in the first quarter of 2015.)
The prized EMI catalogue may not have really shown its teeth just yet, but in a streaming world where catalogue is king, that could all change in the future.
All the more so when – if – The Beatles ever arrive on streaming platforms.
Music Business Worldwide


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Feria del Libro en Español de Los Angeles promoted Spanish books and culture in a wildly popular celebration, drawing 67,000 visitors and 180 authors.
At the Buenos Aires Book Fair, Zona Futuro showcased alternate, interdisciplinary and experimental projects — publishing of the future.
Planeta has bought a majority share in respected mid-sized independent Spanish publisher Tusquets, further expanding the influence of the Spanish juggernaut.
As Spain’s economic crisis deepens, the launch of two series at BABF is an important milestone for Spanish-language publishing in the Americas.
The Bogotá International Book Fair was a high-energy affair, which featured Brazil as guest of honor. It attracted 415,000 visitors and generated $20m in sales.
A Buenos Aires Book Fair survey names ‘the 50 publishing professionals whose actions have had the strongest impact on their colleagues over the last years.’
The inaugural Tools of Change Latin America in Buenos Aires offered insights into metadata, e-book formats, and e-tailing, but missed participants from Spain.
Armed with an $1,100 subsidy from the National Committee for Popular Libraries, some 2,000 librarians spent $2.2 million in books at the Buenos Aires Book Fair.
The trade in rights at the Buenos Aires Book Fair is growing and is now being supported by a new web site, Books in Argentina, aimed at increasing transactions.
The 2011 stats for Spanish print publishing are down dramatically almost across the board, but Madrid is still anticipating a huge new bookstore in September.


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The International Tennis Federation (ITF) has launched its new Davis Cup web site, to coincide with the 2010 Davis Cup by BNP Paribas final, which is being held between Serbia and France this weekend in Belgrade.
The site was developed by Shoreditch-based design and web marketing agency, New Brand Vision. According to the company, it places a high emphasis on fan customisation and usability, delivering live scores, player interviews, videos, podcasts and live online commentary. It is also optimised for social media and community sharing with further features planned for introduction in the New Year.
The Davis Cup site represents the ITF’s second collaboration with the New Brand Vision Group. Earlier this year the companies teamed to launch the rebranded Fed Cup web site.
Sarah Pflanz, account director at New Brand Vision Group, said: “The Davis Cup is an extremely popular International competition, and with such a huge and diverse following spread throughout the world, the ability to segment content for audiences in a straightforward and engaging way was the real challenge with this site. In our planning and design, New Brand Vision focused on driving the ITF’s key user groups through the content of the site quickly and easily, bringing the Davis Cup brand to life and updating online identity, and creating visual devices that can be used across the site to drive user journeys.”
ITF president, Francesco Ricci Bitti, said: “The relaunch of the Davis Cup web site will help to engage a new audience with the competition as well as providing existing fans with a more comprehensive online experience. The final is poised to be one of the closest for years and it provides the perfect platform to showcase the new design.”


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Tesla (TSLA) is set to make its case to U.S. regulators this week for tougher fuel economy standards.
U.S. auto sales for July came in ahead of expectations amid cheaper financing and lower gas prices which helped drive consumers to dealers.
AT&T (T) will launch a new bundle of TV and wireless phone services nationwide from August 10th.
Barnes and Noble Education (BNED) rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange after officially spinning-off from its parent company, Barnes and Noble (BKS).
Newell Rubbermaid’s (NWL) strong Q2 results were boosted by hearty sales of innovative new Sharpie magic markers, Contigo and Bubba water bottles, and even Baby Jogger strollers and Graco carseats.
Newell Rubbermaid's Surging Stock Is Due to a Burst of Innovation
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'You'll be absolutely fine with chlorinated chicken', Jacob Rees Mogg declares
Jacob Rees-Mogg has declared his support for importing chlorinated chicken from the US after Brexit, arguing that it will be "absolutely fine" and have "no health consequences" for consumers.
The prospect of importing birds treated in a chemical bath raised alarm when it was mooted as a possible consequence of a post-Brexit trade deal with the US.
Environment Secretary Michael Gove has even said he would be willing to veto an agreement over the issue, saying the Government "cannot compromise on high environmental standards in pursuit of a trade deal".
Opponents of chlorine-washed chicken argue that US farmers treat chicken with chlorine because of lower hygiene standards earlier on in the production process.
But fellow Brexiteer Mr Rees-Mogg, a firm favourite of the Tory party membership, said he had eaten plenty of American chicken and saw no issue with importing it to the UK.
"I'm not in the least bit worried about chlorinated chicken. As a frequent visitor to the US in the past, I'm bound to have eaten quite a lot of chlorinated chicken without noticing," he told a fringe event at the Conservative party conference in Manchester.
"And I did look up the New Zealand report on chlorinated chicken when they were discussing their free trade deal with the US and they found nobody had ever had any adverse consequences from chlorinated chicken which basically just kills germs, other than the inspectors who went round seeing how the chlorine was put in on the chickens and they breathed in a bit too much and felt a bit queasy. So, unless you're an inspector of chlorination you'll be absolutely fine with chlorinated chicken.
"When you actually look at it, what it's doing is it's killing some quite nasty germs that can give you upset stomachs and so forth. It has a purpose and it has no health consequence for people who eat chlorinated chicken and therefore banning it would purely be an act of protectionism."
The North-West Somerset MP even took a straw poll of the audience at the packed fringe event, with around half raising their hand to say they would not be comfortable eating chemically treated poultry.
He responded by suggesting shoppers should be able to see which meat had been treated with chlorine to make their own minds up, saying: "What I think you should do is have chlorinated chicken with big labels on saying 'this chicken's been chlorinated', and then the free market could decide."


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One of Loveland’s newest watering holes will be celebrating its official grand opening this Saturday.
Sky Bear Brewery and Pub opened a soft launch at its downtown location last week, with Amanda Kissel, co-owner of the new brewery, saying they have seen great community interest so far and are preparing for their official launch over the weekend.
Kissel said she and her parents, Mark and Linda, decided to open the pub together after years of talking about the idea.
“It was always a running joke that we would do this,” she said.
Kissel said that after more than a decade of working with Qdoba, she reached out to her dad around a year ago and said it was time to cash in on their long-running joke. She said as a Loveland resident for the last six years she has seen the downtown business sector grow over the years and thought now would be a great time to get involved with a business of her own.
She said that the road to opening the new brewery has not been without its hiccups, as supply issues have pushed back when they wanted to open to the public; she added they even had a problem with the air conditioning unit in the last week, having to welcome in customers for their soft opening July 28 without any AC.
But since then the brewery has seen a flood of people. Summer Dewey, lead bartender, described the soft opening as more of a “medium-hard opening” because of how many customers they saw.
“There are so many people in the area waiting and excited to come in,” she said.
Some early customers were in the brewery Tuesday to enjoy a beer and some food. This included Pam Jongeling and Rob Feather. Jongeling said the two were on a road trip to Colorado from Texas and wanted to stop in Loveland because Feather’s family had lived there in the past.
She said that in looking online she found Sky Bear and thought the food and beer looked good. When she got in midday Tuesday, she said she was happy with the choice.
“The beer is awesome,” she said.
As they prepare to celebrate their grand opening, Kissel said she thinks what Sky Bear offers for drinks will help them stand out among the other breweries and pubs in the area.
She said that since they have a full liquor license, they can offer not only beer and hard seltzers, but also a list of cocktails. They also have an in-house kitchen and can make food to go with the drinks they offer.
“Our concept is no matter what group of friends or family comes in, everyone can find something they love,” she said. “We want to try and offer something for everybody.”
“I don’t feel like there’s someone who will walk in here and not find something they would want to get,” Dewey said.
But as the team prepares for Saturday, the Sky Bear crew is already feeling the love from the Loveland residents, with Kissel saying they are fortunate the community has been so supportive so far.
She added that while they are preparing for a large crowd Saturday, they are prepared.
“We are getting amped and ready for it,” she said.
Sky Bear Brewery and Pub, 272 E. Fifth St., will celebrate its official grand opening Saturday from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. From there, Kissel said, the brewery will be closed Monday, open Sunday and Tuesday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.


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Filed in August 2012
Wednesday, August 01, 2012
Our technology correspondent takes a closer look at what wireless technology is being adopted, how it’s being used, and what benefits logistics professionals are deriving from their mobile investments either inside the four walls or on the road.
While adoption remains low, savvy managers are putting engineered labor standards and related labor management systems to work to jumpstart productivity and gain a new level of operational visibility. Here’s how they’re getting it done.
Analysts agree: One of the greatest challenges facing both shippers and carriers over the next year will be rebuilding relationships on the high seas.
With pricing power back in the hands of the rejuvenated LTL sector, carriers are now laser focused on margins while concentrating on profitable freight.
It’s my honor to present the logistics and transportation community with the results of the 29th Annual Quest for Quality Survey. This is the culmination of a six-month research project conducted by Peerless Research Group (PRG) that’s become known as the most important measure of customer satisfaction and service performance excellence available in our industry.
Shippers are increasingly telling me that the number of options in the less-than-500-pound shipment market confuses them. The one thing that many can understand is that costs continue to climb despite the deregulation of rates. However, enormous savings can be achieved by knowing your shipment weight and distance, direction, and cube as well as the capabilities of your carrier.
In last month’s column, we presented some dramatic research insights about emerging markets. By 2020, 57 percent of the world’s economic growth could come from emerging markets. Emerging market household incomes are expected to increase by a total of $8.5 trillion between 2010 and 2020. And if emerging-market-to-emerging-market (E2E) exports continue to increase at their current rate, they will outpace developed-country-to-developed-country (D2D) volumes by 2013.
The average truck consumes roughly 11,000 gallons of diesel per year. Consequently, even minor shifts in fuel prices have a significant impact on operating costs. For instance, when applied to a fleet of 100 trucks, a price drop of 25 cents per gallon generates annual savings exceeding a quarter of a million dollars.
View all categories and topics
It dawned on me the other day that some of the practices we employ in the planning and management of our logistics operations are similar to how farmers plan and harvest crops and how baseball managers select their team and deal with the variety of performance issues and injuries throughout the long season.


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NORWAY – Tine, a Norwegian dairy cooperative, has announced a restructuring of six of its domestic facilities in response to declining milk consumption.
The affected sites will include its dairy plants in Sem, Kristiansand, Sola, Frya, Lom, and Skjåk.
The restructuring is expected to result in the elimination of approximately 100 full-time positions, affecting around 250 employees in total. Some of these employees will be offered roles at other plants.
As part of the restructuring plan, Tine will close its dairy facilities in Sem and Kristiansand by the end of 2025.
The milk and cream bottling lines at Sola and Frya will also be discontinued, with Sola’s closure scheduled for next year and Frya’s for 2025. Sola will still be used for storage, while Frya will prioritize its yoghurt, crème fraiche, and cottage cheese production line, which has shown “positive” development.
Operations at Tine’s plants in Lom and Skjåk, which are primarily dedicated to the manufacture of brown cheese, will continue on a smaller scale due to shrinking demand for the product in Norway.
According to the company, brown cheese consumption per person in Norway has decreased by at least 30%. over the past 15 years.
Despite the decline in consumption, Tine plans to invest in a new pot-boiled brown cheese product, developed using a traditional recipe from the Gudbrandsalen Valley, to rejuvenate interest in the product.
“If we succeed in this, and the consumer is on the journey, it can create a positive development for brown cheese,” Tine’s Executive Director of Supply Chain, Christian Granlund, stated.
Some production lines from Lom and Skjåk will be moved to Byrkjelo or Storsteinnes, resulting in job losses. The exact number of job cuts at each of these sites is yet to be determined. Product distribution is expected to continue as usual at Tine’s logistics centre.
These changes come as milk consumption in Norway continues to decline, resulting in excess capacity at Tine’s plants. Sales of the company’s unflavored milk products have decreased by 40% in the past decade.
Increased imports of dairy products in Norway and heightened market competition are contributing factors to this trend.
“Combined with significant imports and strong competition, we must be conscious of our responsibility to build Tine’s plant structure for the future,” Tine Chairman Marit Haugen highlighted.
Meanwhile, Tine estimates that these changes will result in annual savings of approximately Nkr100 million (US$9 million) starting in 2026.
Last November, Tine announced a company-wide restructuring that led to the shutdown of its Ålesund dairy plant and approximately 30 job cuts.
Tine, operating under a cooperative structure, has 8,291 owners and processes milk from around 7,000 farms.
In 2022, the company recorded revenue of US$2.241 billion, representing a 3.4% increase from 2021, with 81% of net income derived from the Norwegian market.


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More than 3 in 4 American adults engage in social media in some way, finds a report from The Harris Poll. The study indicates that of those engaged in social media, passive reacting or posts and content is the most common form of engagement, with far fewer mostly creating and posting original content. Still, users typically post about some areas more than others.
The B2B media and information industry's revenues climbed by 2.7% to $28.4 billion last year, as growth in spending on events, digital advertising and data/business information more than offset declines in print advertising, per Connective's Business Information Network.
More than 6 in 10 US consumers are aware of companies customizing product and services to individual preferences, with this awareness higher among younger than older adults, a new study has found. Based on a survey of 1,300 consumers in the US and UK, the Radius Global Market Research report indicates that while there are various ways to customize, some are more desirable than others.
Marketers in the US and Europe are having a much harder time quantifying the impact of their efforts than they are figuring out how to master today's array of marketing technologies, a report from DataXu [download page] reveals. Indeed, of 7 challenges identified, marketers were by far the most likely to say that creating the most efficient results-driven marketing mix across channels was problematic.
Consumer satisfaction with social media platforms has dipped slightly this year, and the amount of advertising on social sites is likely at least in part to blame, according to an American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) report [download page]. Despite just a modest 1-point slip to a score of 73 (on a 100-point scale), social media sites are on the lower tier of the industries measured.
Marketers often pay attention to benchmarks, which are useful to get a sense of what one might expect from a campaign (though individual results almost always vary from the average!). But as a recent study [download page] from IBM Marketing Cloud demonstrates, it might be worth shooting for the top, rather than the average.


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CARROLLTON, Texas-CellStar Corp., a wireless logistics and distribution services provider, reported July 9 a net loss of $5.91 million, or 49 cents per share, on revenues of $573.26 million for the second quarter, which ended May 31.
For the same period a year ago, the company reported net income of $3.59 million, or 30 cents per share, on revenues of $572.88 million.
Excluding charges of $10 million related to its ongoing exit of the United Kingdom, Peru and Argentina and “the extraordinary gain on early extinguishment of debt,” CellStar said that its second-quarter net income would be $4 million, or 20 cents per diluted share.
Although its operations in the United Kingdom, a heavily penetrated market, Peru, a small market, and Argentina, a troubled economy, provided revenues of $32.6 million during the second quarter, they lowered operating income by $900,000, excluding exit charges, company executives said.
During the latest complete quarter, the Asia-Pacific region contributed $292.48 million in revenues, or 51 percent of CellStar’s total, down from $308.98 million, or 54 percent, a year ago. North America accounted for $138.22 million, or 24 percent of the total last quarter, up from $104.98 million, or 18 percent, during the second quarter of 2001.
Latin America constituted $91.23 million, or 16 percent of total revenues during the second quarter of this year, down from $99.13 million, or 17 percent a year earlier. Europe accounted for $51.33 million, or 9 percent of total revenues last quarter, down from $59.78 million, or 11 percent, during the year-ago quarter.


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TrueCar Inc., an online auto- shopping service, is considering selling shares in an initial public offering in the first half of 2014, two people with knowledge of the matter said.
Mark Fields will take the keys to a Ford Motor Co. that is lean, profitable and a far cry from the near-bankrupt carmaker taken over in 2006 by his predecessor, Alan Mulally.
TrueCar Inc., the online auto-buying service that’s planning an initial public offering, said board member John Krafcik, the former head of Hyundai Motor Co.’s U.S. operations, is now its president.
AutoNation Inc., the largest U.S. retailer of new cars and trucks, reported quarterly profit that topped estimates even as horrible winter weather kept many car buyers home for much of January and February.
TrueCar Inc., an online auto- shopping service that may be considering an initial public offering, said Microsoft Corp. co-founder Paul Allen’s Vulcan Capital fund has invested in the company.
Taking Stock: Millennials Represent 25% of New Car Market
Taking Stock: Krafcik Says U.S. Spends $520 Billion New Cars