text:
Bulgari, Bulgaria, December 11, 2018—Bulgarian jewelry designer and jeweler Ettore Rambaldi and his wife, Darlene, have created a snake necklace that celebrates the country’s split from Russia, as well as the fact that, for many years, Bulgarians were able to wear their country’s traditional Russian garb.
The necklace, which is part snake, part lizard, features the words “Bulgari Snake Watch” on one side and a Russian symbol on the other, as a symbol of peace.
“The jewelry designer wanted to celebrate the split with the people and the country that has lost Russia,” Ettoren Rambadi said.
“But this necklace has the message that Bulgaria is still alive and is still a peaceful country.
This is the symbol of a country that is still united and can live in peace.”
The snake necklace is part of a series of Bulgarian jewelry designs that are designed to celebrate a country divided by a long and complex history.
The jewelry designer says the necklace, in part, reflects the fact there are still Bulgarian people who have memories of Russia, the country with whom Bulgaria was at war and that Bulgaria was not able to live in freedom, as its capital, Sofia, has a statue of Lenin.
“This necklace was created to show that Bulgaria still has a great memory of Russia,” Rambadises said.
Rambadrias wife, who was born in Bulgaria, was a soldier in the Russian army.
“I remember her being born here and she was a Russian soldier,” Eattore Ramasidov said.
The Rambads have created several Bulgarian jewelry products over the years.
The snakes necklace is one of the jewelry designs, as the jewelry designer notes, that reflect this, which was created for the first time in Bulgarian jewelry history.
“It was a gift from the designer, but also a tribute to her,” Eretre said.
Ettored Rambaria’s snakes necklace with the words: “Bulgaria is still Bulgarian” is part Snake, part Lizard.


text:
Boloro Kuwait has completed a contactless payments pilot on public transit in Kuwait City. The trial, in partnership with mobile network Zain, saw customers use contactless stickers attached to their phones to pay for journeys on buses operated by Kuwait Public Transport Company (KPTC) and CityGroup. A 16 digit code links the Boloro sticker to the customer’s prepaid mobile account, and a receipt delivered by SMS confirms each transaction. “The pilot has been a success on all counts,” says the company.
- Samsung to ease online payments with new app
- Apple Pay to expand rapidly in Asia and Europe
- A quarter of Brits will make NFC mobile payments in the next year
- MasterCard collaborates on speeding up EMV checkout
- Samsung Pay to launch in Spain next week

domain: news


text:
Sri Lanka’s icon in hair and beauty care, Ramani Fernando, in collaboration with Unilever Sri Lanka’s number one hair-care brand ‘Sunsilk,’ will be hosting the fifth Annual Awards Ceremony of the Ramani Fernando – Sunsilk Hair & Beauty Academy.
The awards ceremony will take place on a grand scale at the Hilton Colombo on 1 February.
Fernando, a pioneer beautician in the country, says that a fashion show under the theme of ‘Past – Present – Future’ will also be held in parallel with the awards ceremony which will be open for the public for the very first time.
Over 100 models will participate in this glamorous fashion show which will be choreographed and coordinated by Senaka de Silva. The costumes will be designed by Michael Wijesooriya.
The Ramani Fernando – Sunsilk Hair & Beauty Academy which offers a wide range of programmes on the study of beauty care was inaugurated in 2005 and has already achieved a high degree of success. The academy provides opportunities for students to learn and develop the fine art and skills in hairdressing and beauty care.
Fernando, the key figure behind this academy has been in partnership with Sunsilk for over 25 years and appreciates the patronage extended to this academy by Unilever Sri Lanka.
“I have been using Sunsilk products for over 25 years for hairdressing and hair-care and it is Sunsilk that I always recommend to the students of my academy. Over the years I have come to value Sunsilk for its reliability and the novelty and innovation that Sunsilk has brought to address hair care needs. Today, consumers are knowledgeable and that is why we recommend only the best products,” said Fernando.
This year’s awards ceremony will also feature a number of highly talented students from various regions who had won scholarships through the ‘Sunsilk Hedakari’ workshops held across the island.
Rukshila Dissanayake, one of the scholarship winners, stated that she sharpened her skills through the training programmes. “I am from Seeduwa and I got the scholarship by winning at the Kandy District ‘Sunsilk Hadakari’ workshop in 2009. I am indeed grateful to Unilever Sri Lanka for granting me this invaluable scholarship to train under an icon like Ramani Fernando. The academy has added immense value to my career and has guided me on how to take initiative and responsibility,” she said.
Another student, Pushpa Sri Prasad from Panadura, joined the academy as the winner of the Matara District ‘Sunsilk Hadakari’ contest. He is acknowledged by Fernando as a youth with exceptional talent.
“Such an appreciation is a great encouragement for me,” Prasad stated. He also added that it is because of Sunsilk that he was able to enter the academy.
“Training under Fernando means that we have added value to our career and the individual attention and guidance given by her was of paramount importance in bringing a new dimension to our profession. My heartfelt gratitude goes to Ramani Fernando and to Sunsilk for giving me the opportunity to join this course of study,” he said.
Gayani Surendra is a student of the academy who for the first time in history won a gold medal for Sri Lanka by winning first place in the ‘world in hairdressing’ at the City & Guilds examination. Her achievement will be recognised with a special award at the forthcoming awards ceremony.
“It is a great privilege to be a student at the academy. After the completion of my degree, I hope to earn more experience working with Fernando, after which I am planning to start my own beauty salon and become a successful professional in the field. I would like to convey my gratitude to Ramani and to Unilever Sri Lanka and Sunsilk for giving me this unique privilege,” Surendra said gratefully.


text:
Economic reports are the backbone of any trader’s playbook.
Gross domestic product (GDP) may be the most visible economic statistic, as it is the baseline of a country’s economic performance and strength. GDP measures the total output of goods and services produced within an economy. However, it is crucial to remember that GDP is a lagging indicator. That means it reports on events and trends that have already occurred.
Inflation is also a significant indicator, as it sends a signal of increasing price levels and falling purchasing power. However, inflation is a double-edged sword. Many view it as placing downward pressure on a currency due to retreating purchasing power. Inflation can also lead to currency appreciation, as it may force central bankers to increase rates to curb rising inflation levels. Inflation is a hotly-contested issue among economists, and its effects on currencies are rarely straightforward.
Employment levels, retail sales, manufacturing indexes, and capacity utilization also carry important information on the current and predicted strength of an economy and its currency. They can provide confirmation for the primary factors we’ve outlined above.
One of the most highly anticipated monthly economic news event is the nonfarm payroll (NFP) report. It is a key economic indicator for U.S. and represents the total number of paid workers in this U.S excluding those employed by farms, the government, private households, and nonprofit organizations. The NFP reports are released on the first Friday of every month.


text:
|By Business Wire||
|July 23, 2014 03:30 AM EDT||
Today, Aerospike announced that Vizury—a next-generation digital customer relationship management (CRM) company—relies on the open source Aerospike flash-optimized in-memory NoSQL database to power its big data platform. Using Aerospike, Vizury has been able to cut its server requirements by 4x, reducing operating costs while scaling to process more than 5 billion bid requests per day.
Headquartered in Bangalore, Vizury is one of the fastest growing companies in Asia, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 400% and a strong international presence across China, Japan, Korea, Latin America, and the Middle East. Some 500 companies across these regions now make Vizury their solution provider of choice for securing customers-for-life through personalized marketing solutions.
Global Growth and Mobile Solution Drive Demand for Higher Velocity Database
Since 2009, Vizury has provided personalized display and retargeting solutions for companies in the e-commerce, travel and hospitality industries across 27 countries. Originally, the company relied on a distributed memory object caching system to support its real-time bidding and recommendations. However, rapid customer adoption and the 2013 launch of a comprehensive mobile advertising retargeting product, MobiConvert, significantly increased the volume of data coming into Vizury’s platform.
With the influx of high-speed data, Vizury realized the need for a data management solution that could scale to meet growing demand, with more storage power, while also ensuring the predictable low latency required for real-time, personalized consumer interactions. The company evaluated a number of open source databases with a range of storage options, including flash-based solid-state drives (SSDs).
The results of its testing led Vizury to select the Aerospike in-memory NoSQL database, which uses a patent-pending combination of indexes in RAM and data in direct-attached SSDs for near in-memory speed at flash storage prices.
“After evaluating several of the leading database solutions on the market, it became readily apparent that Aerospike’s database was uniquely suited for delivering the reliable performance and cost-effective scaling we need to serve our digital marketing clients,” said Dr. Mansoor Alicherry, Vizury head of engineering.
Aerospike Delivers Scale at Speed for Vizury
Today, the entire product suite across mobile and desktop channels is powered by Vizury’s big data platform, which processes more than 30 terabytes of data daily, including purchase intent data of nearly 500 million users and tens of billion dollars of retail transaction data. Vizury’s proprietary bidding and recommendation algorithms derive meaningful insights from this data, which are used to process bid requests to precisely target and engage users with highly personalized 1:1 messages.
Powering Vizury’s platform are Aerospike servers running on Amazon R3 instances. With this implementation, Vizury handles 5 billion-plus bid requests per day across four data centers, responding in single digit milliseconds with user-specific bid values.
"Aerospike helps us to retrieve a larger amount of information in real time with predictable latency,” Dr. Alicherry notes. “It adds a lot of efficiency to the Vizury ecosystem, which takes care of customizing ads as well as bidding for new inventory. This in turn is making our recommendation and bidding algorithms more effective in helping our clients to acquire customers."
“Vizury has emerged as a leading digital CRM company in India and across Asia though its cross-channel, personalized solutions for retargeting and acquiring customers,” said Srini V. Srinivasan, Aerospike founder and vice president of engineering and operations. “We are excited by Vizury’s success in scaling with our flash-optimized in-memory NoSQL database to serve an increasingly global audience and meet the high data demands generated by mobile users—all while maintaining the immediate responsiveness that consumers have come to expect.”
Vizury helps marketers secure customers-for-life through personalized marketing solutions. Established in 2008, Vizury has offices in Bangalore (HQ), Beijing, Sydney, Sao Paulo, Singapore, Taiwan, Dubai, Seoul and Tokyo. The company works with over 500 clients across industries such as travel and hospitality, ecommerce, healthcare, automobile, financial services, and classifieds.
Vizury was recognized as the sixth fastest growing company in the Deloitte APAC Fast500 2013 and is among the first in Asia to be an FBX qualified partner and a Twitter Retargeting Platform Partner. Follow Vizury on LinkedIn or on Twitter @vizury1to1.
Aerospike is the open source front-edge database powering a new generation of interactive, real-time Web and mobile applications that operate at global scale. It is the first flash-optimized in-memory NoSQL database to combine transactions and "hot" analytics with strong ACID consistency and enterprise-grade reliability. Purpose-built to make scaling easy and affordable, it enables all developers to take advantage of predictable, sub-millisecond latency for distributed caching, session management, user profile, and key value store use cases. In production non-stop for nearly four years, Aerospike is deployed at real-time big data companies like AppNexus, eXelate, Chango and [x+1]. Aerospike is headquartered in Silicon Valley. Investors include New Enterprise Associates, Columbus Nova Technology Partners, Alsop Louie, and Draper Associates. Download the open source Aerospike Community Edition at www.aerospike.com, and follow @aerospikedb.
Aerospike is a registered trademark of Aerospike, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the properties of their respective owners.
SYS-CON Events announced today that Interoute, owner-operator of one of Europe's largest networks and a global cloud services platform, has been named “Bronze Sponsor” of SYS-CON's 20th Cloud Expo, which will take place on June 6-8, 2017 at the Javits Center in New York, New York. Interoute is the owner-operator of one of Europe's largest networks and a global cloud services platform which encompasses 12 data centers, 14 virtual data centers and 31 colocation centers, with connections to 195 add...
Mar. 30, 2017 10:30 AM EDT Reads: 1,872
Most companies are adopting or evaluating container technology - Docker in particular - to speed up application deployment, drive down cost, ease management and make application delivery more flexible overall. As with most new architectures, this dream takes a lot of work to become a reality. Even when you do get your application componentized enough and packaged properly, there are still challenges for DevOps teams to making the shift to continuous delivery and achieving that reduction in cost ...
Mar. 30, 2017 10:30 AM EDT Reads: 491
SYS-CON Events announced today that Cloudistics, an on-premises cloud computing company, has been named “Bronze Sponsor” of SYS-CON's 20th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on June 6-8, 2017, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY. Cloudistics delivers a complete public cloud experience with composable on-premises infrastructures to medium and large enterprises. Its software-defined technology natively converges network, storage, compute, virtualization, and management into a ...
Mar. 30, 2017 10:15 AM EDT Reads: 2,436
SYS-CON Events announced today that SD Times | BZ Media has been named “Media Sponsor” of SYS-CON's 20th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on June 6–8, 2017, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY. BZ Media LLC is a high-tech media company that produces technical conferences and expositions, and publishes a magazine, newsletters and websites in the software development, SharePoint, mobile development and commercial UAV markets.
Mar. 30, 2017 10:00 AM EDT Reads: 4,552
SYS-CON Events announced today that Juniper Networks (NYSE: JNPR), an industry leader in automated, scalable and secure networks, will exhibit at SYS-CON's 20th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on June 6-8, 2017, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY. Juniper Networks challenges the status quo with products, solutions and services that transform the economics of networking. The company co-innovates with customers and partners to deliver automated, scalable and secure network...
Mar. 30, 2017 09:15 AM EDT Reads: 1,772
In his session at Cloud Expo, Alan Winters, an entertainment executive/TV producer turned serial entrepreneur, will present a success story of an entrepreneur who has both suffered through and benefited from offshore development across multiple businesses: The smart choice, or how to select the right offshore development partner Warning signs, or how to minimize chances of making the wrong choice Collaboration, or how to establish the most effective work processes Budget control, or how to max...
Mar. 30, 2017 09:15 AM EDT Reads: 815
"I think that everyone recognizes that for IoT to really realize its full potential and value that it is about creating ecosystems and marketplaces and that no single vendor is able to support what is required," explained Esmeralda Swartz, VP, Marketing Enterprise and Cloud at Ericsson, in this SYS-CON.tv interview at @ThingsExpo, held June 7-9, 2016, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY.
Mar. 30, 2017 08:00 AM EDT Reads: 4,588
Why do your mobile transformations need to happen today? Mobile is the strategy that enterprise transformation centers on to drive customer engagement. In his general session at @ThingsExpo, Roger Woods, Director, Mobile Product & Strategy – Adobe Marketing Cloud, covered key IoT and mobile trends that are forcing mobile transformation, key components of a solid mobile strategy and explored how brands are effectively driving mobile change throughout the enterprise.
Mar. 30, 2017 06:00 AM EDT Reads: 3,174
After more than five years of DevOps, definitions are evolving, boundaries are expanding, ‘unicorns’ are no longer rare, enterprises are on board, and pundits are moving on. Can we now look at an evolution of DevOps? Should we? Is the foundation of DevOps ‘done’, or is there still too much left to do? What is mature, and what is still missing? What does the next 5 years of DevOps look like? In this Power Panel at DevOps Summit, moderated by DevOps Summit Conference Chair Andi Mann, panelists l...
Mar. 30, 2017 05:00 AM EDT Reads: 10,115
My team embarked on building a data lake for our sales and marketing data to better understand customer journeys. This required building a hybrid data pipeline to connect our cloud CRM with the new Hadoop Data Lake. One challenge is that IT was not in a position to provide support until we proved value and marketing did not have the experience, so we embarked on the journey ourselves within the product marketing team for our line of business within Progress. In his session at @BigDataExpo, Sum...
Mar. 30, 2017 04:45 AM EDT Reads: 3,394
Virtualization over the past years has become a key strategy for IT to acquire multi-tenancy, increase utilization, develop elasticity and improve security. And virtual machines (VMs) are quickly becoming a main vehicle for developing and deploying applications. The introduction of containers seems to be bringing another and perhaps overlapped solution for achieving the same above-mentioned benefits. Are a container and a virtual machine fundamentally the same or different? And how? Is one techn...
Mar. 30, 2017 04:45 AM EDT Reads: 3,363
MongoDB Atlas leverages VPC peering for AWS, a service that allows multiple VPC networks to interact. This includes VPCs that belong to other AWS account holders. By performing cross account VPC peering, users ensure networks that host and communicate their data are secure. In his session at 20th Cloud Expo, Jay Gordon, a Developer Advocate at MongoDB, will explain how to properly architect your VPC using existing AWS tools and then peer with your MongoDB Atlas cluster. He'll discuss the secur...
Mar. 30, 2017 04:15 AM EDT Reads: 1,033
Keeping pace with advancements in software delivery processes and tooling is taxing even for the most proficient organizations. Point tools, platforms, open source and the increasing adoption of private and public cloud services requires strong engineering rigor - all in the face of developer demands to use the tools of choice. As Agile has settled in as a mainstream practice, now DevOps has emerged as the next wave to improve software delivery speed and output. To make DevOps work, organization...
Mar. 30, 2017 04:15 AM EDT Reads: 2,290
Without a clear strategy for cost control and an architecture designed with cloud services in mind, costs and operational performance can quickly get out of control. To avoid multiple architectural redesigns requires extensive thought and planning. Boundary (now part of BMC) launched a new public-facing multi-tenant high resolution monitoring service on Amazon AWS two years ago, facing challenges and learning best practices in the early days of the new service.
Mar. 30, 2017 04:00 AM EDT Reads: 3,344
Niagara Networks exhibited at the 19th International Cloud Expo, which took place at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA, in November 2016. Niagara Networks offers the highest port-density systems, and the most complete Next-Generation Network Visibility systems including Network Packet Brokers, Bypass Switches, and Network TAPs.
Mar. 30, 2017 03:45 AM EDT Reads: 3,517


text:
ParexLahabra, the parent company of leading building material brands; Parex, LaHabra, El Rey Stucco, Teifs, and MerKrete Systems, announced the launch of the new Parex.com Web site.
ParexLahabra, the parent company of leading building material brands; Parex, LaHabra, El Rey Stucco, Teifs, and MerKrete Systems, announced the launch of the new
Parex.com Web site.
The new site features expanded content, incorporates colors and graphics and completely new navigational tools. The redesigned site aims to provide users with a clean uncluttered environment allowing users quicker access to the key information they are after.
“We went to our primary users for feedback on our current site. Based on this feedback we were able to develop a site that not only met the needs of our users but also exceeded their expectations,” said Quenton Roehricht, Parex brand manager.
The launch is the result of more than six months of work with partner BuildingOnline, a construction Web site designer, and key members of the ParexLahabra team.
“The new Parex.com was designed and programmed by BuildingOnline, with the latest Web 2.0 technologies to provide fast and accurate information for today's EIFS and Stucco pros,” said Alan Wickstrom, president/CEO of BuildingOnline. “From the dynamic Product Selector, and customizable Submittal Package programs, to the Automatic LEED letter generator, our goal was to provide for clean design and an easy-to-use navigation/search functions to make finding and using this information readily accessible to all pros 24/7."
“As a leading EIFS provider, we realize that users need to access the information they seek quickly,” said Roehricht. “This is especially true for audiences that are new to EIFS as an exterior cladding. With this new Web site, we have been able to accomplish this and more.”
New Web Site for ParexLahabra
December 15, 2009


text:
Pokemon Go could help you live longer
STUDY: Pokémon Go craze has a big impact on Americans' physical activity
(CNN) – Pokémon Go is turning into an unintentional fitness app – motivating sedentary players to get up and move.
A new study from Microsoft Research found that frequent users of the popular app took 26% more steps than they did before playing Pokémon Go. Researchers estimate that Pokémon Go has added 144 billion steps to U.S. physical activity. The most drastic changes in activity level were seen in sedentary users who are now often found walking around trying to catch Pokémon .
The Microsoft team also found that Pokémon Go changed the activity levels of its users more so than exercise-related apps.


text:
The company earned the competition’s $50,000 ‘Top Startup’ award with cBridge, its first crypto product targeted at international banking and financial institutions.
Epiphyte CEO and founder Edan Yago said it was “very gratifying” to win the prize at the world’s largest banking convention. He added that banks, bitcoin and other distributed ledger systems have a lot to learn from each other.
Epiphyte specialises in distributed ledger solutions for the mainstream financial system with the broader goal of connecting banking networks with cryptocurrency networks.
Following the win, Yago said:
“We have spent the last year and a half working with banks to help them integrate distributed ledger and block chain based technologies in a low-risk and compliant way. We are building the bridge between established finance and cryptofinance.”
Block chain tech for banks
Epiphyte’s cBridge beat out 280 competing FinTech startups. The criteria were simple: judges were asked to determine the likeliest startup to have the biggest impact on the future of the financial industry.
Each of the semi-finalists pitched their ideas to audiences that would decide which of the startups would be invited to the Sibos Grand Finale at Sibos for global exposure and receive the cash prize.
Kevin Johnson, SWIFT Innotribe Startup Challenge manager, suggested that while his product may have sold itself, Yago’s pitch to the attendees was equally compelling, saying:
“I feel Epiphyte’s pitch at the startup competition was voted by the audience as the winner, due to the connection he made to the audience, showing how they can benefit from this technology and the business model.”
Epiphyte technology allows banks to facilitate consumer-to-merchant payments using cryptocurrencies. Bank customers can perform the transactions in familiar fiat currencies like dollars and euros, and the banks themselves do not have to hold cryptocurrencies.
New payment rail
Jo Lang, Epiphyte’s product lead and co-founder, said as many as 500 million bank customers are now able to make purchases using this new payment rail.
“Epiphyte is helping our banking customers see additional revenue by providing a service that a growing number of customers want,” said Lang.
The solution was designed to offer a low level of risk and compliance. Banks can use Epiphyte software to integrate crptocurrencies with traditional protocols like SWIFT.
The company, founded in 2013, plans to roll out a pilot implementation of its new product sometime in the next few months.
Images via Epiphyte; Shutterstock
Epiphyte CEO and founder Edan Yago said it was “very gratifying” to win the prize at the world’s largest banking convention. He added that banks, bitcoin and other distributed ledger systems have a […]


text:
The provider signs a partnership with DAZN Bet
Pragmatic Play, a leading content provider to the iGaming industry, has entered a comprehensive partnership with DAZN BET.
DAZN BET is the newly announced betting operator which will leverage the DAZN customer base under a brand licensing agreement with the DAZN Group, one of the fastest growing media companies in the world. DAZN BET will deliver the world’s first service that combines OTT live sport viewing with betting to create a more engaging and interactive experience for sports fans.
Pragmatic Solutions, an established leading technology provider for the betting and gaming industry, will be providing the operator with its enterprise platform technologies built around a core Player Account Management (PAM) solution.
DAZN BET will benefit from Pragmatic Play’s award-wining titles such as Gates of Olympus™ and its fan-favourite Live Casino experiences, including Sweet Bonanza CandyLand™.
Mark Kemp, CEO of DAZN BET, said, “Mark Kemp, CEO of DAZN BET, said, “DAZN BET are excited to partner with Pragmatic and their excellent player management & igaming products, for supporting the international launches of the new DAZN BET brand.
“DAZN BET is committed to providing a future world class betting & gaming product for sports fans to enjoy recreationally & responsibly. High quality player management technology and access to some of the best igaming content on the market positions us for success in the new international markets we are focused on.”
Julian Jarvis, CEO of Pragmatic Play, said, “We are certain that DAZN BET will be a natural winner and fantastic new entrant into our sector, positioning sports and gaming right where the viewers are enjoying their content.”
Pragmatic Play currently produces up to six new slot titles a month, while also delivering Live Casino and Bingo games as part of its multi-product portfolio, available through one single API.
18+ | BeGambleAware.org


text:
TOKYO — Teleperformance International (TPI), the global arm of the French call center giant, last month entered the Japanese market through acquisition of a 50 percent stake in Atec, a medium-size telemarketing firm based here.
This is the first time a western corporation has actually bought into a Japanese teleservice company although several US telemarketers have subsidiaries here. Sitel, for example, launched its own call center operation several months ago.
Teleperformance is now active in 28 countries including the US where it has a sizeable business, mostly in the western states where it has been growing rapidly.
The company first entered the Asian market two years ago through acquisitions in Hong Kong and the Philippines. It then added companies in Australia and New Zealand. All are majority ownerships except the Philippines were law bars foreign control of communications companies.
“We decided to start from ground zero in Asia with local partners because we found that no serious teleservice firms were active in the region,” Daniel Julien, the company's CEO said.
TPI did not enter Japan earlier, he explained, “because two years ago it was virtually impossible to enter into a joint venture here. It was just easier to go into Southeast Asia first.
“Japan is key to our strategic growth but I wanted to be ready before I came into this market and we did not want to start by ourselves so we entered into a joint venture with a well-established company.
“When you think strategically about globalization you need local partners who are deeply involved in their markets and that is how we look on expanding our global presence.
“We see the world as a mosaic and feel strongly that we have to respect the local culture of every country we enter. That's why we picked a company like Atec with whom to build a partnership in Japan.
“Our business model respects local management and over the 12 years we've been an international company all of our partners are still with us. It's not a pyramid but a matrix that builds on local relationships. We see our company as a federation of entrepreneurs.”
Teleperformance is bent on global expansion, Julien emphasized. “We plan to continue investing in our facilities in the US and in Brazil. We have just concluded a joint venture partnership in Finland.”
Company plans call for expansion of activities into 40 countries by the year 2000 and substantial increases in foreign revenues. The current revenue base is in Europe, which accounts for 75 percent of turnover in 1998.
Some 35 percent of the anticipated 1998 sales volume of $400 million will be earned in France. The US will account for 15 percent and Latin America and Asia for 10 percent, Julien said.
Projections for next year call for French revenues to amount to only 25 percent of the total, “even if our business keeps growing in France.”
The rest of Europe will contribute 30 percent, the US 25 percent and Asia and Latin America 10 percent each. Brazil and Argentina are TPI's major markets there. Total 1999 revenues are estimated at $500 million.
Looking six years ahead, Julien said the company should become a $1.5 billion business in 2005 with Europe accounting for 45 percent, the US 30 percent, Asia 15 percent, with 10 percent coming from Japan, and Latin America at 10 percent.
Masahiro Nawata is managing editor of the Tokyo-based DM newspaper Tsuhan Sinbun.


text:
Diamond from Golconda auctioned for $21.5 mn
A huge, internally flawless diamond from India’s fabled Golconda mines was sold at auction in Geneva on Tuesday night for a record 20.355 million Swiss francs ($21.48 million), Christie’s said.world Updated: Nov 15, 2012 02:19 IST
A huge, internally flawless diamond from India’s fabled Golconda mines was sold at auction in Geneva on Tuesday night for a record 20.355 million Swiss francs ($21.48 million), Christie’s said.
The rare, colourless stone weighing 76.02 carats and roughly the size of a large strawberry, once belonged to Archduke Joseph August of Austria (1872-1962), a prince of the Hungarian line of the Habsburgs.
Its pre-sale estimate was 15-to-25 million Swiss francs and it fetched more than double the price paid for it at auction two decades ago.
“It is a world record for a Golconda diamond and a world record price per carat for a colourless diamond,” Francois Curiel, director of international jewellery at Christie’s, told reporters.
“The market is not on the best form at the moment. The sale tonight was almost flabbergasting,” Curiel said.
The price which the 76 carat jewel fetched at the Christie’s sale is a record for the auction of a clear, colourless diamond.
It is also the highest auction price per carat for such a gem and the record for a Golconda diamond, the same mines which produced the Koh-i-Noor which adorns the British Queen’s crown.
“It’s a cushion-shaped diamond, weighing 76.02 carats, of D colour,” said Christie’s jewellery expert Jean-Marc Lunel.
The diamond, which was bought by an anonymous bidder, once belonged to the Habsburgs, former rulers of the Austrian empire. It was sold in 1936 to a still-anonymous buyer and, hidden in a safe, escaped the attentions of the Nazis during the Second World War.
It reappeared on the international scene at a sale in London in 1961. In the 1990s, it was sold again, in Geneva, for $6.5 million.


text:
- Subscribe NowLimited Time Offer
Former editor to open third ice cream location
The local franchisee of Dippin' Dots, the chain that has transformed ice cream into cryogenically frozen beads, is looking to open a third mall-based location at Eastgate.
Matt Stahl, who opened the area's first mall-based Dippin' Dots last November in Florence Mall, expects the location to open in August. His second kiosk, in Tri-County Mall, opened in March but is holding a grand opening May 21.
"We're trying to grow pretty rapidly," said Stahl, a former assistant local news editor at the Cincinnati Enquirer. "I've got the franchise agreement and I've got the lease agreement so I just need to sign those."
The locations operate in 10-foot-by-10-foot kiosks. Stahl operates the locations with his wife, Katrina.
Most area Dippin' Dots locations operate from entertainment venues, such as the Cincinnati Zoo and Paramount's Kings Island. Stahl's kiosks are the first mall-based stores.
The initial franchise fee for a Dippin' Dots is $12,500, and the estimated initial investment ranges from $69,539 to $214,750, according to company information. The company, which is popular among kids, was founded in 1988 by microbiologist Curt Jones in Grand Chain, Ill.
The local stores feature more than a dozen flavors of Dippin' Dots ice cream, sherbet, yogurt and ice.
If you are commenting using a Facebook account, your profile information may be displayed with your comment depending on your privacy settings. By leaving the 'Post to Facebook' box selected, your comment will be published to your Facebook profile in addition to the space below.
- Most popular
- One of Cincinnati’s largest general contractors is closing
- Holtman’s Donuts looking to open 4th location
- EXCLUSIVE: 3CDC unveils plans for its second-largest development
- EXCLUSIVE: Miller-Valentine developing huge Liberty Township project
- Five things you need to know today, and a fantastic TV show
- KeyCorp lures ex-Fifth Third exec to lead Cincinnati market
- One of region's largest private companies plans $10M HQ expansion
- EXCLUSIVE: ‘All-star’ developers line up for prime Montgomery property
- Miami University unveils $13M indoor sports complex (PHOTOS)
- Five things you need to know today, and a threat to the All-Star Game
CEO/President Kentucky Derby Museum | Louisville, KY
Project Manager / Capital Projects / Project Manager Supervisor Global Recruiters of Victoria | Cincinnati, OH
Account Managers / Sales Central Payment | Cincinnati, OH
General Manager Advance Auto Parts | Maineville, OH
Key Account Sales Executive - Cincinnati Gannett Co., Inc. | Cincinnati, OH


text:
I have long wondered about the partnerships auto component OEMs will make with the future fleet managers of automous vehicles.
BMW, Mercedes, VW, GM, Nissan-Renault have the traditional auto manufacturing skills except in truth they subcontract manufacture to OEMs and just assemble. And as vehicles simplify to three basic components they loose that differential skill to the leaders in each field: -
- Electric motors
- Autonomous driving Software
OEMs could become tomorrow's leaders consigning traditional auto manufacturers to niche markets. The software vendors could be the king-makers partnering with OEMs.
Several companies including Uber, Tesla Inc, Alphabet Inc, BlackBerry and traditional automakers such as General Motors have all been investing heavily in self-driving cars and technology. The potential combinations are endless.
Then as vehicle ownership declines, RideShare increases the power of Lyft, Uber et al maybe the dominant force. Jaguar Land Rover invests in Lyft, say Unipart joins and brings in Apple. Or Dyson, Unipart and Uber? How will this impact insurers who face new micro-insurance channels of distribution?
Platforms, ecosystems and the value of the data these powerful groupings will generate, analyse and use to dominate more. This is an intriguing prospect
Canadian automotive parts supplier Magna International Inc said on Wednesday it will invest $200 million in Lyft Inc and work with the U.S. ride-hailing firm to manufacture self-driving cars.


text:
On October 26, the FTC will host the second in a series of FinTech forums in Washington, D.C. Industry participants, consumer groups, researchers, and government representatives will gather to discuss the potential effects of crowdfunding and peer-to-peer payment systems on the consumer finance industry. Forum participants will “look at how the FTC Act and other existing consumer protection laws might apply to companies participating in these areas.” The FTC expects to release a complete schedule and other forum details in the near future.
The DOJ, OFAC and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), as part of an effort to stop an international network of mass mailing fraud schemes that target elderly and vulnerable victims, conducted a joint enforcement action against an international payments processor and money services business based in Canada. The agencies alleged that the payment processor engaged in money laundering and mail fraud by knowingly processing payments on behalf of the perpetrators of more than 100 different mail fraud campaigns, collectively involving tens of millions of dollars. OFAC designated the payments processor as a significant transnational criminal organization (TCO) pursuant to Executive Order 13581. OFAC also designated as TCOs a global network of 12 individuals and 24 entities across 18 countries based on their association with the payment processor. As a result of today’s action, all property and interests in property of the designated persons subject to U.S. jurisdiction are blocked, and U.S. persons are prohibited from engaging in transactions with them. Additionally, USPIS obtained a warrant through the Eastern District of New York to seize the funds in a U.S. bank account that was allegedly used to process payments received through fraudulent mailings. According to OFAC, the payment processor “has a nearly 20-year history of knowingly processing payments relating to these fraudulent solicitation schemes, which result in the loss of millions of dollars to U.S. consumers.”
On July 25, a Florida judge for the Eleventh Judicial Circuit dismissed criminal charges against an individual engaged in the business of selling bitcoin. Florida v. Espinoza, No. F14-2923 (Fl. Cir. Ct. July 26, 2016). The defendant conducted various bitcoin transactions with an undercover detective. The State of Florida had charged the individual with one count of unlawfully engaging in business as a money services business in violation of § 560.125(5)(a), Fla. Stat. and two counts of money laundering, in violation of § 896.101(5)(a) and (5)(b), Fla. Stat. The State later amended its filing to include charges of unlawfully operating as a “payment instrument seller” in violation of § 560.103(29), Fla. Stat. The judge dismissed the money-transmission-related charges, reasoning that (i) under the plain meaning of § 560.125(5)(a), a “money transmitter” would operate in a similar manner as a middleman in a financial transaction; and (ii) case law “requires that a fee must be charged to meet all the elements of being a money transmitter business.” The defendant, according to the judge, was not a middleman, but rather a seller. The judge further noted that the “difference in the price he purchased the Bitcoin for and what he sold it for is the difference between cost and expenses, the widely accepted definition of profit.” The judge also found that the defendant was not a “payment instrument seller” because bitcoin is not a payment instrument. The judge stated that “[b]itcoin has a long way to go before it is the equivalent of money,” and that “attempting to fit the sale of Bitcoin into a statutory scheme regulating money services businesses is like fitting a square peg in a round hole.” The judge further dismissed the counts of money laundering, ultimately concluding that “[w]ithout legislative action geared towards a much needed updated to the particular language within [the relevant statutes], this Court finds that there is insufficient evidence as a matter of law that this Defendant committed any of the crimes as charged, and is, therefore, compelled to grant Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss as to Counts II and III.”
On June 30, North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory signed into law House Bill 289, submitted at the request of the Office of the North Carolina Commissioner of Banks (Commissioner).The Act, which enacts the newly revised North Carolina Money Transmitters Act, subjects certain virtual currency activities to licensure, as well as clarifies that the Act applies to activities that are for personal, family, or household purposes. Applicants seeking licensure must do so via the Nationwide Multistate Licensing System (NMLS) and in accordance with requirements set forth by the Commissioner. Regarding licensure, the “Commissioner has the discretion to require the applicant obtain additional insurance coverage to address related cybersecurity risks inherent in the applicant’s business model as it relates to virtual currency transmission and to the extent such risks are not within the scope of the required surety bond.” The Act purports to be effective as of October 1, 2015.
On June 13, the NYDFS announced that it approved XRP II, LLC’s application for a virtual currency license. Before approving the company’s August 2015 application, NYDFS conducted a “rigorous review” of the company’s anti-money laundering, capitalization, consumer protection, and cybersecurity standards. To date, NYDFS has received 26 BitLicense applications; two companies, including this one, have been approved for BitLicenses and two have received state trust charters. NYDFS further noted that it recently denied two applications for a virtual currency license; the companies in receipt of the denial letters were ordered to stop any New York operations.


text:
China Says Six Hours A Day Online Makes You An Internet Addict
from the seems-a-bit-extreme dept
While there are some doctors who are pushing to make internet addiction an official disorder, most folks recognize that internet addiction has been shown not to be a clinical addiction, but rather a sign of problems elsewhere (depression, family problems, etc.). However, over in China, where folks have been treating internet addiction with shock therapy for years, it appears that the government is getting set to officially recognizes internet addiction as a disorder. However, the definition is raising some eyebrows, as apparently it’s based on some “research” that says someone who spends more than six hours a day online is an addict.
Of course, it’s worth pointing out that the Chinese doctor who set the definition that the government is expected to approve just so happens to have built China’s very first internet addiction center. In other words, he stands to personally benefit quite a lot by having internet addiction made official, as it will drive “business” to his treatment center. It’s difficult to see how you can claim that an addiction is based solely on the amount of time one spends online as well, considering that plenty of people have to spend that much time (or more) online for work, and others spend much more time online but don’t have it negatively impact other areas of their life. Once again, this seems like an attempt to call something an addiction just because it helps get some doctors business, rather than a real attempt to look at the underlying issues of said “addicts.”


text:
June 9 (Bloomberg) -- South African yellow corn declined to the lowest since June 2 by the midday close in Johannesburg.
The crop for July delivery fell 0.2 percent to 1,960 rand ($185) a metric ton on the South African Futures Exchange. White corn for delivery in July rose 0.4 percent to 1,851.20 rand a ton.
South Africa is the continent’s biggest producer of corn. Meal from white corn is cooked to make one of the country’s staple foods, known as pap, and the yellow variety is mainly used as animal feed.
Wheat for delivery in July rose 0.2 percent to 3,852 rand a ton.
To contact the reporter on this story: Neo Khanyile in Johannesburg at email@example.com
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Claudia Carpenter at firstname.lastname@example.org Sharon Lindores, Nicholas Larkin


text:
China overtakes Japan to become world's second economy
China has formally overtaken Japan as the world's second largest economy.
The latest official figures from Tokyo show Japan's gross domestic product increased by just under four per cent in 2010, a far slower rate of growth than China's and not enough to keep its economy ahead.
This marks the end of an era for Japan which has been the world's second biggest economy for more than 40 years.
China's three decades of surging growth have coincided with a period of stagnation in Japan that has led to the once poor China taking the number two spot.
The BBC's Martin Patience looks at one of the main drivers of China's growth - its large low-paid migrant workforce.


text:
(From left) Ramakant Baheti, chief financial officer, Neville Noronha, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Dheeraj Kampani, Vice President, Buying and Merchandising, Uday Bhaskar, Chief Operating Officer, Retail, Narayanan Bhaskaran, Chief Operating Officer, Supply Chain Management
Image: Mexy Xavier
Neville Noronha speaks with disarming candour. His answers, delivered cogently and with precision, are indicative of someone who has done his time in the trenches—in this case, on the shop floor—as well as in the corner office where he now plots strategy and figures out how the customer of tomorrow—and by extension, his business—will evolve.
No wonder he is the man to whom ace investor, the elusive Radhakishan Damani, has entrusted the task of steering the DMart juggernaut. And it is easy to appreciate why Noronha hasn’t let Damani, who started DMart in 2002 in Powai, down.
“I’ve learnt that big ideas don’t work,” the 42-year-old chief executive and managing director of Avenue Supermarts, which runs DMart, tells Forbes India. He, in fact, points out that they can actually work against you. “Instead, the wins in retail come from relentlessly pursuing small incremental improvements,” he says. Noronha even contrasts this with the “MNC culture” which focuses on the big idea and then does an average job of execution—he’s clear that this is not something that will work in Indian retailing. “You really need to love what you do day in and day out,” he says, adding self-deprecatingly, “if you’re too smart, the profession will bore you.”
It is this philosophy that has made the retail chain more valuable than competitors Future Retail (₹25,000 crore), Aditya Birla Fashion (₹12,000 crore) and Trent Ltd (₹9,600 crore). DMart’s market cap, at ₹69,000 crore, is more than the combined market cap of these three. Since its listing on March 22, 2017, its stock price has soared by 260 percent to ₹1,110 from an offer price of ₹299.
But will the company be able to do justice to its lofty valuations? To understand that—if the DMart of tomorrow will grow and thrive —it is helpful to take a deep-dive into its past and track the story of a benevolent founder who carefully studied the business, trusted and nurtured a young management team, invested capital wisely and patiently, and finally shared the wealth he created with his employees.
It also helps that DMart spent the better part of the last decade perfecting its business model. Unlike its rivals who, for the most part, focussed on achieving scale, DMart worked on keeping costs to a minimum and getting the per unit economics right. “Keeping costs in check has been key to its success,” says Rajeev Thakkar, chief investment officer at PPFAS Mutual Fund.
Take, for instance, racking. A company pre-IPO prospectus states that to effectively utilise resources, the company has higher racks—the upper ones used to store goods and the lower ones for display. Sounds intuitive, but few retailers take the racks all the way to the ceiling like DMart does. The result: More efficient storage of goods. Couple efficient operations with rapid expansion and the result is a company whose stock the market can’t get enough of.
The context is clear: India’s retail landscape is littered with businesses which either achieved scale at the cost of profitability (Walmart in India and the Future Group) or ventures that simply underestimated the challenge of running a retail business (More, Spencer, Easyday) and shut shop (Vishal Retail, sold and is now run by TPG). “Supermarkets, especially in the early days, struggled to come up with the right approach, a winning proposition and unit economics that could yield sustainable profits and be rapidly scaled up,” wrote HSBC in a June 2017 note.
The high mortality rate is a direct consequence of the peculiarities of the Indian market.
There is the maximum retail price, or MRP, regime. Goods in South Mumbai, where shop rentals can rival those in Manhattan or central London, have to be sold at the same price as, say, on the outskirts of Lucknow or Indore where the rentals would be a fraction. This places organised retailers at a big disadvantage compared to the kirana or mom-and-pop stores that run out of owned premises bought many years ago, with no rentals to pay. They typically have a far lower cost structure (they often use child labour or don’t have to pay employment taxes like provident fund).
Also, the famed inefficiencies in India’s supply chain are often not what they are made out to be. As Kishore Biyani who set up rival Future Retail has often said publicly, India’s traditional retail industry is very efficient, there is hardly any wastage of food, and the local kirana will deliver whenever you want, in the smallest possible quantity and offer credit.
This is a tough combination for an organised retailer with its high corporate overheads to beat.
So how did DMart do it?
Since opening its first outlet in Powai in 2002, DMart now has 131 stores across seven states
Image: Mexy Xavier
Damani, 61, who typical of his media-shy reputation declined to be interviewed for this story, decided to try his hand at retailing in 1995. Ramakant Baheti, the chief financial officer of Avenue Supermarts and a Damani hand for the last two decades, says his boss entered the business “with a view to create something other than stocks to leave behind for the next generation”.
Damani, at the time, was a successful investor in consumer stocks—Gillette and VST Industries are two through which he made a small fortune. A believer in the power of brands, Damani, recalls Baheti, read up on global retailers before entering the business. While he was interested in the grocery side, he saw that, globally, value retailers like Carrefour and Walmart were the only ones to have achieved scale.
He earned his spurs over the next decade during which he ran two franchises for Apna Bazar. He’d spend time in the 7,000 square feet Nerul store and observe which items moved, how customers behaved and what level of discomfort they would put up with (unlike other retailers he eschewed air conditioning). But Damani had less flexibility than he would have liked as 60 percent of the assortment was dictated by Apna Bazar.
While those familiar with Damani were surprised at his choice of profession (retailing was looked down upon in the South Mumbai social circuit he was a part of), they were also impressed by his dedication. In 2000, Damani incorporated Avenue Supermarts and started a three-store operation named DMart two years later in Powai, and soon after in Kandivali and Malad.
Dheeraj Kampani, now vice president, buying and merchandising, at DMart, was then a sales supervisor with Hindustan Unilever and had interacted with Damani on several occasions. He recalls a man who wore only white shirts and trousers and sneakers and introduced himself as the purchase manager. “While he didn’t look like an employee, his mannerisms were not that of an owner either.” He also remembers Damani experimenting a lot while buying. The store assortment was his baby. He would say, “In retail, everything is science. Assortment is art.” Always on the lookout for a bargain, his line to Kampani was, “Price mera, quantity tumhara.” (“I state the price while you decide how much to supply.”)
Damani was actively involved in the business till 2006 and continued to mentor young merchandise buyers till 2011. Even today, he regularly talks to the team and visits suppliers in India and overseas. However, his only representation in the business is through his daughter, Mumbai-based Manjri Chandak, 32, who sits on the board as a non-executive director.
Noronha, who manages the business, had caught the investor’s eye and, in late 2003, Damani casually asked Kampani to have his boss (Noronha) call him. Noronha, who looked after modern trade accounts at Hindustan Unilever at the time, had by then moved to Delhi. In just eight years at the FMCG major, he had already made it to the management cadre—he had started as a supervisor in the market research department and then joined the sales team (also as a supervisor).
Damani wooed him over a series of conversations, but Noronha admits to being conflicted. Competition comprised players like the Future Group and RPG Retail with a larger scale of operations. But working at a smaller company was also an advantage, he thought: At the bigger retailers, he would barely get a meeting with the purchase manager, leave alone the CEO. At DMart, he would deal directly with Damani. More importantly, data revealed that DMart’s stores had the fastest throughput. Noronha’s only doubt was about the scalability of the model.
Nevertheless, Noronha signed on in January 2004 and started working at the Malad store as head of operations, where the entire DMart team operated out of “three desks”. And he started to make a difference from the get-go.
The first thing Noronha realised was that price was a differentiator in India, particularly for groceries and fast-moving consumer categories like toiletries and personal care. The whole operation had to be geared towards offering an everyday low price. But since margins in this business are wafer thin, inventory turns are the key. “The trick lies in driving footfalls through grocery and then selling higher margin items such as toys, crockery, garments, home appliances and footwear,” says Noronha. “It’s the groceries that get shoppers in, but the general merchandise that drives our profits,” adds Baheti.
DMart’s strategy is in contrast to the Future Group’s which relies more on a loyalty-driven membership strategy where frequent shoppers are offered deals not available to others. (DMart has no loyalty programme.) To get the best prices for groceries DMart follows a simple strategy. It pays suppliers faster than others (on an average, 8 days as against 60 days by its rivals) in exchange for an upfront discount which is then passed on to the customer. Other savings are extracted through operational efficiencies. For instance, in 2006, when DMart was just a seven-store operation, it implemented its first enterprise resource planning (ERP) platform. “Over the years, we’ve implemented an auto replenishment system, which allows us to track in real time how goods are moving across any store in the network,” says Narayanan Bhaskaran, chief operating officer for supply chain management at DMart. By 2011, DMart set up a distribution centre. Unlike competition, it hadn’t spread itself thin across India; instead, it had clustered its stores across Maharashtra and Gujarat. Investments in an ERP platform and distribution centre allowed the company to have a far more efficient supply chain than competition, who did the same only when they achieved scale.
Squeezing costs was not just restricted to efficient buying and supply chain efficiencies. At the store level, Noronha and team took a careful look at every cost parameter. “They’d give buyers only as much discomfort as they could tolerate,” says a fund manager who has studied their model. (He declined to be named citing company policy.) The air conditioning was turned down, the aisles were not too widely spaced. Store employees were hired by an agency—“we later hired the better ones,” says Noronha —to cut costs and deal better with peak demand. DMart employs only half the number of employees per square feet as rivals, according to a research note by Ambit Capital.
The company also discounts products according to the catchment area. Shopping at the Powai store would be 5-7 percent more expensive than at the Chandivali one, according to the fund manager. The assortment also varies. DMart’s philosophy is to only sell items that have high turns. As Kampani explains, “We’d stock different soaps and detergents depending on what the catchment area of that store can afford.” The result at ₹29,000 sales per square feet is more than twice that of rivals.
All this results in a superior days sales of inventory—a key metric by which retailers are measured. DMart’s stands at 25 days, which compares favourably with Walmart’s 32 days for its global operations; Future Retail’s is 80 days.
DMart has also chosen to own the real estate on which its stores stand. In India, all other retailers rent; this allows them to expand faster and leave a location if the store does not perform according to expectations.
However, ownership gives DMart the latitude to get space at an attractive price at a new urban cluster, and allows for greater flexibility in store layout and the percentage mix of various products. But as it grows, sticking to the ownership model could slow down expansion. This is why it has also started taking stores on long leases.
At the same time, while buying property, Baheti says, the company is always cautious. He estimates that the total investment in the business (both in property and technology) has not been more than ₹500 crore to date and says Noronha and he have a competitive streak when it comes to sourcing the best locations. “We often joke with each other that the location I spotted is doing better than the ones you spotted,” says Baheti.
As modern retail drives deeper into India, DMart finds itself well-positioned to capture a large slice of the pie. The company has spent a long time perfecting its model—the first 10 years saw DMart scale up to 55 stores. It has since ramped up to 131 stores across seven states. As modern retail in India accounts for just 9 percent of the total retail industry, according to Technopak, there is immense scope to grow. The company says that any town with a population of more than 100,000 holds the potential for a DMart store. It will have to account for regional variations in the food palette, but is confident of getting it right.
In time, DMart also plans to work harder on its private labels as those will provide an additional margin kicker. “Brick and mortar retail is hardly a winner-takes-all business and there is enough space for several players,” says Noronha.
One area where DMart could face significant competition is ecommerce.
During the IPO roadshow, while investors were excited with how DMart had kept costs low, they were concerned about the potential threat from online retail. An aggressive move towards groceries by Amazon or BigBasket could have DMart on the backfoot. RedSeer Consulting estimates that there are 45 million online grocery transactions across India, which have far less widespread adoption as compared to, say, books, mobiles or clothes. Each customer shops about 10 times a year, making the online grocery shopping population 4.5 million strong. “Even in areas where there is direct competition, the online grocers haven’t been able to challenge the offline guys effectively as people want instant fulfilment, pricing and a wider range of products. As of now, online grocers are still struggling to get the unit economics right,” says Mrigank Gutgutia, ecommerce analyst at RedSeer Consulting.
However, an increase in smartphone penetration could change that. Noronha is cognisant of the threat, but has reservations on how soon and how large a threat it could turn out to be. Groceries occupy a large volume compared to other online purchase items, but are priced lower and have lesser margins. BigBasket and Grofers both lost money in the financial year ended March 2016, the last fiscal for which numbers are available. Sales at BigBasket jumped three-fold to ₹563 crore while losses rose four-fold to ₹277 crore.
This makes delivering profitably a challenge as customers expect a discount. “The biggest advantage we have is that customers come to our stores and take the items home themselves. Home deliveries are the fastest way to the graveyard,” says Noronha.
Hedging its bets, DMart is experimenting with a hybrid model —DMart Ready. These are small shops (no more than 200 square feet). Customers who have placed their orders online—they receive the same discounts as those who buy in-store—come and collect their items. So far, 40 DMart Ready stores have been set up. Home deliveries will only be offered for a fee.
For now, the DMart juggernaut continues to roll. “One has to realise that companies which succeed over long periods of time have robust systems and processes across functions. These ensure that they don’t stumble as they scale up or evolve. DMart fits that description,” says Rakshit Ranjan, portfolio manager at Ambit Capital’s Coffee Can PMS.
In the financial year ended March 2017, its revenues rose by 38.5 percent annually to ₹11,881 crore while profits increased by over 51.8 percent a year to ₹483 crore. The market expects it to continue to post quick growth. But there is always the question of whether too much growth has been priced in. At ₹69,000 crore market cap, the stock trades at an astronomical 121 times compared to the estimated March 2018 earnings. One reason for this could be the limited supply available—only 10 percent of the outstanding shares were divested during the March 2017 IPO.
In valuing a company like DMart there are other aspects that need to be considered—those that can’t be described in numbers. First, the extensive stock ownership plan that was rolled out across the company in 2009. In a series of conversations with Damani, Noronha convinced him about the benefits of the plan. Over 90 percent of DMart employees who joined the company prior to its listing in March 2017 have stock options. Noronha owns 2.44 percent while Baheti has a 0.57 percent stake. (As an aside, Noronha mentions he is extremely uncomfortable with the rising valuation as it puts additional pressure to perform. “The business drives us and not the valuation,” he says. In fact, Damani, who holds 82.2 percent, has shot up the annual Forbes India Rich List rankings to No 12 this year, with a net worth of $9.3 billion, which of course includes wealth from other sources.)
Second, the management team that DMart has built. Loyalty and long service are prized as is the ability to work in a team. In any organisation that grows rapidly, there is always a tendency for the early team members to feel left out. Noronha has strived to maintain a balance between the old and the new, saying that “fitting in” is a key criteria as is competence. There’s a convivial office environment and a superstar culture is discouraged. For the most part, the offices are open plan with a few see-through cabins.
As he looks back at what they’ve created, there’s a tinge of wistfulness in Norohna’s voice. Recalling his initial year at the Malad store, Noronha remembers how he and Kampani would joke that this job allows you to sleep well at night as you get so tired walking around the store all day.
He also mentions the first expansion outside of Mumbai into Ahmedabad where they fell flat on their faces. The store size had to be shrunk before buyers eventually flocked to the outlet. “That was a good reality check,” says Noronha.
And finally there is the stellar listing that has made Noronha’s stake worth over ₹1,600 crore and over 400 employees (mainly store staffers) worth over a crore each.
But some things never change. Noronha still drives his 10-year-old Skoda Laura and makes sure he visits stores often enough, interacting with buyers and staff alike. How the customer and the marketplace of tomorrow will evolve constantly keep him busy. “At the end of the day, we are just a product of the opportunity we got,” he says.
(This story appears in the 27 October, 2017 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)


text:
BUSINESSES across Renfrewshire are being urged to enter the prestigious ROCCO Awards.
Run by Renfrewshire Chamber of Commerce, the annual awards are designed to celebrate the best businesses across the Paisley area.
This year, there are a record 14 award categories up for grabs at a glittering prizegiving ceremony to be staged at the Normandy Hotel, in Renfrew, on Friday, November 16.
Businesses don’t have to be a member of the Chamber of Commerce to enter but entries must be received by Friday, September 7.
The first ROCCO Awards were held in 2003 and have grown in size and stature ever since.
Previous winners include Paisley’s Kibble Education & Care Centre, Glasgow Airport, Diageo and Rolls-Royce.
As well as rewarding local businesses, the awards ceremony also raises thousands of pounds for local charities and good causes, with more than £60,000 being raised to date.
Bob Davidson, chief executive of Renfrewshire Chamber of Commerce, said: “Entering the ROCCO Awards is a fantastic way to celebrate your business success and reward staff and clients.
“Shortlisted companies receive extensive publicity in the local and national press and feature in their own professionally-shot video, which is played in front of the 500-strong audience on the night.
“I would strongly encourage any business based in Renfrewshire to enter – whether or not they are a member of the Chamber.
“This year, we have a record 14 award categories and tickets are selling fast. Entry is free and you can enter as many categories as you wish.”
The categories include Employer of the Year, sponsored by Rolls-Royce; Invest in Renfrewshire, sponsored by Renfrewshire Council; Third Sector recognition, sponsored by Engage Renfrewshire and the Royal Bank of Scotland; Most Promising New Business, sponsored by the Scottish Leather Group; International Trade, sponsored by Glasgow Airport; Family Business of the Year, sponsored by the Malcolm Group; Young Business Person of the Year, sponsored by Reid Kerr College; Excellence in Customer Service, sponsored by Braehead; Journey to Zero Waste, sponsored by the William Tracey Group; and Business Leader of the Year, sponsored by Diageo.
To enter or for more information, go to the website at www.roccoawards.com.


text:
Arla Foods said today (26 April) that it has succeeded in getting its goods returned to the shelves of between 7,000 and 8,000 stores in the Middle East.
Middle Eastern sales of the dairy cooperative plummeted when about 20 Muslim countries boycotted Danish goods due to cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed that were printed in a Danish newspaper.
Three months later, following various strategies designed to win back Middle Eastern customers, Arla is now able to report that the number of stores stocking Arla’s goods are increasing by about 350 each day.
Before the boycott, Arla sold goods to about 50,000 shops throughout the Middle East, an Arla spokesperson told just-food. The dairy company hopes to win back as much as half its former custom in 2006.


text:
The Chancellor is set to attempt to ease the pressure high street retailers by cutting business rates bills by a third for almost half a million small high street shops, as he announces the Budget today.
Philip Hammond will announce business rates relief for small business owners in a £1.5bn spending pledge to fight the threat posed by Amazon and other online retailers
The Chancellor’s rescue plan, aimed at halting the pattern of closures among shops and pubs, will include £900m of immediate business rates relief and relaxing town planning laws.
The policy will also include a £650m fund to improve infrastructure and transport and to re-develop empty shops as homes and offices, and to restore and re-use old historic properties.
Hammond’s pledge comes following a string on retailers announcing closures in 2018, including Poundworld, House of Fraser and most recently Debenhams.
According to the Treasury, the changes would mean a pub in Sheffield with a rateable value of £37,750 will save £6,178 next year and a newsagent in Moseley, Birmingham with a rateable value of £14,250 will save £1,749.
The move has brought refielf to UK business groups. Mike Cherry, national chair of the Federation of Small Business’ said: “For far too long they have come up against an outdated and unfair rates system and it’s clear that change is needed.”
However, the CBI’s chief economist Rain Newton-Smith said far more intervention was needed to reduce the current struggles of businesses on UK high streets.
“It’s no secret that the UK’s high streets are under pressure, with boarded-up shops all too frequent a sight in many parts of the country,” he said.
“The roots of the problem go far deeper though, with business rates giving larger retailers serious headaches, alongside manufacturers and logistics firms.
“There must be a wholesale review next year to deliver a system that encourages greater investment in digital, new technologies and energy efficiency.”
Veteran restauranteur David Scott is set to make a takeover bid for troubled café chain Patisserie Valerie, according to newspaper reports this weekend.
The entrepreneur, who sold the Druckers Vienna Patisserie brand to Patisserie Holdings (CAKE) in 2007, said he has the backing of a large family private equity firm.
The Sunday Times reports that Scott has engaged a boutique adviser, Transcend Corporate, which is “gently speaking to some of the shareholders, saying, ‘Would you like to get out?’”
Patisserie Valerie has been embroiled in uncertainty after it shocked the stock market last month, when it discovered “significant, and potentially fraudulent accounting irregularities”.
Finance director Chris Marsh, who was suspended and then arrested, resigned from the company last Friday.
Ahead of a crunch shareholder meeting on Friday this week a leading investor has warned that there needs to be “wholesale changes” at the top of the firm after it £40m black hole was found in its accounts.
Chairman Luke Johnson and chief executive Paul May should be replaced or governance strengthened to make sure such a disaster could not happen again, the investor told the Daily Mail.
The FTSE 100 has rebounded strongly this morning ahead of the budget, jumping up 0.6% to 6,981pts.
Early risers include Tate & Lyle (TATE), up 2% to 676p, Devro (DVO), up 1.7% to 166.8p, and payPoint (PAY), up 1.5% to 831.5p.
This week in the city
Two of the UK’s consumer health giants are leading the way this week as they report their figures for the third quarter.
Strepsil and Clearasil manufacturer Reckitt Benckiser (RB.) will be hoping for continued improvement on Tuesday after lifting its full-year profit targets in July, as it benefited from its Mead Johnson acquisition.
Struggling bakery supplier Real Good Food is also set for a trading announcement on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, Sensodyne and Aquafresh maker GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) will be posting its figures for the third quarter. In the previous reporting period, it announced a £1.7bn cost-cutting initiative.
Pakcaging giant Smurfit Kappa Group will also be releasing its results for the third quarter on Wednesday.
The following day is crunch day for Irish-Swiss bakery firm Aryzta, which is desperately trying to get a €800 million cash call over the line, after it announcing fundraising last month.
Thursday will also see a trading update from food delivery company Just Eat (JE), as it looks to rebound from a recent slump in value as rumours continue over Uber’s interest in competitor Deliveroo.
Food packaging giant Hilton Food Group (HFG) will also provide a trading update on Thursday.
Meanwhile, crisis-stricken Patisserie Holdings will be holding a GM, as it looks to rebuild after its accounting scandal in recent weeks.
Internationally, we will see a rush of result announcements, with The Coca Cola Co (KO) leading the way on Tuesday, as it announces its third-quarter figures. It will be swiftly followed by Nivea maker AG Beiersdorf.
On Wednesday, Kellogg (K) will announce its results for the period, followed by FMCG giant Kraft Heinz (KHC) on Thursday.
Thursday will also announcements from brewing giant Carlsberg and US cafe chain Starbucks.


text:
If you’ve checked out Wanderfly, the new travel planning and booking service that suggests destinations and activities based on your interests, you know they’ve come up with some unique and untouristy destinations. Now they’ve gone beyond the beaten tourist track with 25 newly-discovered travel destinations. Why just see the Great Wall of China when you could see a whole city full of kittens in China (far greater if you ask us!)?! Fan of Dolly Parton? Thousands go to Dollywood, why not relax on a man-made archipelago in the shape of Dolly and Kenny Rogers at Islands in the Stream in Dubai? Can’t get enough of that rascal Charlie Sheen? Intrepid adventurers can get inside his brain and see what all that tiger’s blood does.
The Wanderfly researchers teamed up with Whim Quarterly to unearth these new places and the best activities to do. The new destinations were chosen for their interactive experiences to give travelers the most authentic experience. “We challenge any traveler to find even a single destination that can compare to these unearthed gems,” says Wanderfly co-founder Christy Liu. “Paris? London? Cleveland? With respect to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, they all pale in comparison to such places as ObeCity, Funkytown, and Your Mom’s House.”
For more on these exciting new discoveries, visit Wanderfly.com and click the crazy kitten on the home page and then Get Going. But hurry, some of these destinations may only be available on April 1st.
How far would you go for a free hotel room? Swedish pornographer Berth Milton Jr. hopes you’d go all the way; he’s proposing a new chain of “sex-themed, five-star hotels” and would offer free stays for guests who have sex on webcams. Barbara DeLollis reports in USA Today that Milton believes subscriptions could bring in nearly $44 million a year from viewers who will pay to watch amateurs having sex.
Milton made his fortune making adult DVD versons of popular films like “Gladiator” but has since been fighting a legal battle over $10 million he allegedly borrowed (and didn’t repay) from his company Private Media as well as a creditor that could take his shares in the company’s board. The porn hotels idea is just one venture he hopes will restore his empire.
Milton did some field research at swingers clubs in Spain and concluded the hotels would have to appeal to guests other than aspiring porn stars. “It has to be a hotel for non-swingers as well — not super-explicit where everybody’s running around naked,” Milton told the New York Post. “That takes the style and class out of it.” Of course not, couldn’t have a porn hotel without style or class. Citing Charlie Sheen’s recent Plaza Hotel romp, he believes there is room for porn in mainstream. “If you take a show like ‘Two-and-a-Half Men,’ it’s all about an adult lifestyle,” Milton said.
Would you stay in a porn hotel, as a performer or otherwise? We’re still skeptical, but hey, different strokes for different folks.
[Photo by Flick user Laram 777]


text:
Barbara Frantz was a total city gal until about four years ago, when she experienced her first U-pick operation and got her hands dirty in farming.
Today, she grows nine varieties of table grapes, five types of apricots, four kinds of blackberries and a new variety of pomegranate. Her agricultural discovery made her appreciate the extreme demands of the profession.
Now, the Discovery Bay resident and Brentwood attorney wants to open up the world of agriculture to other area residents through a farm market and commercial kitchen project on her 10-acre property in the Contra Costa County agricultural core in far East County.
“The idea is to make it a gathering place for people, tied around agriculture,” Frantz said.
The proposed facility would market goods from local farmers and U-pick stands, allow visitors to help grow crops and offer classes and events tied to agricultural products. Frantz envisions parents being able to teach their teens how to grow and sell produce on-site.
She would like to set up webcams so consumers can check out the farm’s fresh offerings online, call in their orders and pick them up later that day. In the nonprofit commercial kitchen, customers could take classes on how to prepare their farm-fresh finds and area farmers could take their excess produce and make jams, jellies, pastries, pies and other items.
“It would increase our awareness of how we are connected to the land surrounding us,” Frantz said.
The Contra Costa County Community Development Department will consider issuing a land-use permit for the project at its meeting Monday. Because the project would be the first of its kind since the county began encouraging agricultural farm stands and markets through a 2007 ordinance, this phase of the approval process has already taken a year.
“There were so many issues where the county would invoke their standard development practices,” Frantz said of the process.
However, Frantz said she recognizes that a farm is not a typical commercial enterprise and the county is trying to be thoughtful in its approach to this unique project. Frantz doesn’t have a specific deadline for winning the approval and sees her role as one of working with the county to pave the way for others in making adjustments to the rules and regulations.
“There is nothing about a farm market project that is standard because it deals with agriculture,” she said.
According to county senior planner Ryan Hernandez, Frantz has been great to work with as the first to bring forward such a plan.
“The purpose and intent of the ordinance is to allow for the direct marketing of the farm products from agricultural producers to consumers,” he said. “We want to be able to encourage the farmers out there to sell their products directly to consumers and make their products more viable.”
If the county approves the plans next month, Frantz will still face scrutiny from the county’s health services department.
This is just the first phase of Frantz’s $18 million vision for the land at Balfour and Bixler roads. She also hopes to build a glass house for events, botanical gardens and a folk art museum.
Project architect and Brentwood Planning Commissioner Don Stirling said it is a one-of-a-kind idea. The first phase will also feature a parking lot, pond, landscaping and fruit-producing trees.
“This is something to help preserve and enhance the ag core,” Stirling said. “Many of the farmers can’t afford their own commercial kitchen but they can use this one.”
Frantz purchased the land in 2001. With an interest in horticulture, she wanted to create the community gardens and a tea house at first, but the county didn’t approve that use.
After that defeat, she recreated the project to accommodate a place where U-pick visitors could stop by for a quick meal and an agricultural experience. Frantz said it is special projects like this that create a community.
“This is my passion and my obsession,” she said.
Paula King covers far East County. Reach her at 925-779-7189 or email@example.com.


text:
Jun. 7, 2012
Annual fashion show flaunts Westphal seniors’ talent
Thirty-two senior and graduate students from the fashion design program showed off their own collections June 2 during two runway shows at the annual fashion show, which was put on by the fashion and design & merchandising programs at Drexel University’s Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts & Design.
Feb. 10, 2012
Academy to celebrate fossils
The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University will host Paleopalooza, its annual dinosaur-themed festival, Feb. 18 and 19, featuring a live show and separate seminar with paleontologist Scott Sampson of the popular PBS children’s show “Dinosaur Train.”


text:
Inequity and lack of diversity are significant issues affecting many U.S. sectors. Sadly, the legal cannabis industry is not an exception and has a long way to go to create better opportunities for racial minorities, women, and other protected categories. According to a recent MJBizDaily report, white men still predominantly call the shots in the majority of cannabis-related businesses. The data presented shows that only 13.1% of cannabis companies in America, including marijuana startups, have minorities holding executive positions.
Implementing better diversity and inclusion practices is essential for a healthy cannabis market. Equity and representation are pivotal elements in creating a more innovative industry that can adapt to upcoming challenges and thrive in the current world climate. Read on to learn more about how cannabis diversity can help the industry grow.
Equity in the Cannabis Industry
Nowadays, equity is an essential puzzle piece in businesses across sectors around the world. Not to be confused with equality, equity refers to the ability to identify and accept the differences between people from all backgrounds and demographics. Recognizing these distinctions helps arm all members of the cannabis business community with the best resources and opportunities. This, in turn, empowers minorities to reach the same outcome as more privileged groups.
More and more companies globally are looking to become more diverse at all levels by implementing different programs that promote equity, diversity, and inclusion. Yet, BIPOC, women, and other minority groups face numerous challenges when it comes to creating and growing marijuana startups or finding higher, better-paid positions in the industry. One of the primary obstacles minorities face when trying to dabble in the cannabis world is a lack of financing opportunities.
Current Programs, Businesses, and Work That Promote Equity in the Industry
These are some of the primary ways many businesses and organizations U.S. are taking action to help minority cannabis entrepreneurs succeed:
- Subsidizing programs
- Advocacy programs
- Free training courses
Additionally, U.S. states are passing more bills to decriminalize the production, processing, and distribution of legal medical and recreational cannabis. New York, for example, has created a program that provides cannabis licenses to people previously convicted of marijuana-related crimes. This initiative aims to help communities that have been directly affected by weed prohibition in the past.
How Bespoke Financial Can Help Marijuana Startups
Diversity and equity in the cannabis market are crucial for the industry to bloom. Providing BIPOC and other minorities with access to financial aid to create marijuana startups is a big step toward building a more robust marijuana market for all. Bespoke Financial offers a few unique financial solutions to get you on the right path. Our services include:
- Invoice financing
- Inventory financing
- Purchase money financing
- Line of credit
Moving Forward With Your Marijuana Startup
If you’re looking for a way to bypass the capital obstacles that come with opening your own marijuana business, we’re here to help. Contact our experts today for more information on how we can team up to reach your goals.


text:
Pokémon Comaster now out on iOS devices in Japan
Posted on 3 years ago by Jake in Mobile, News | 0 comments
Pokémon Comaster is now available on iOS devices in Japan. Previously, the game launched only for Android devices.
Pokemon GO field test updated, tons of details – gyms live, real-time combat
Posted on 3 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Mobile, News | 5 Comments
The Pokemon GO field test has been updated, and it has now received some new features. Most notably, gyms are now enabled in the app.
There’s one big takeaway based on leaked information from the field test. Rather than turn-based battles, Pokemon GO offers real-time combat instead.
Here’s a roundup of details from Reddit:
Nintendo just published a new video about Miitomo, which shows off the game’s features. Nothing new for anyone who’s played it already, but it is a good overview for those who aren’t familiar with the game yet:
New Miitomo rewards added to My Nintendo
Posted on 3 years ago by Matt(@OnePunchMaz) in General Nintendo, Mobile, News | 8 Comments
Three new Miitomo rewards were added to the My Nintendo rewards program today. The Super Famicom hoodie, Bee suit and Viking helmet set cost 200 Platinum Points each. These rewards are available until June 1st this year.
More Pokemon Comaster footage
Posted on 3 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Mobile, Videos | 0 comments
Additional footage of Pokemon Comaster, the new Pokemon game for mobile devices in Japan, is now available. See the opening and an hour of gameplay below.
In Japan, Pokemon Comaster came out on Android today (iOS to follow). You can take a look at some footage from the game below.
Miitomo stats: 4 million monthly active users, $280,000 per week, more
Posted on 3 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Mobile, News | 41 Comments
SurveyMonkey has an early analysis of Miitomo. Thus far, the site says the app has been “crushing it” and is “a hit”.
Miitomo saw 2.6 million downloads last week, according to SurveyMonkey’s data. It received an average of 370,000 daily downloads. About two-thirds of that amount were on iOS with the remaining third on Android.
SurveyMonkey’s report goes on to say that “Miitomo currently has 4 million monthly active users” as well as “about 1 million daily active users.” Users tend to check in for two to three sessions each day for a total of 7-8 minutes.
Finally, Survey Monkey shares the following regarding Miitomo’s revenue:
Making it rain – $280,000 per week
Monetization has also increased steadily and we estimate that the game is now making $40,000 combined per day across iOS and Android. Roughly 80% of the revenue is from iOS with Android only contributing 20%.
On a per-user basis, we estimate the app has an ARPDAU (Average Revenue Per Daily Active User) of 3-4 cents. While low compared to mid-core games like Supercell’s Clash Royale, this is actually a healthy number for a more casual game like Miitomo, especially early on.
Pokémon Comaster out in Japan for Android, iOS to follow
Posted on 3 years ago by Jake in Mobile, News | 5 Comments
Pokémon Comaster, the previously annonced mobile Pokémon board game, is now out in Japan. The object of the game is to beat your opponent’s figurines with your own, taking over the board. The game is free-to-play, although microtransactions will give you a chance at getting better figures. The game supports both online and local multiplayer. We’ll update with more important details as they arrive.
More: Pokemon Comaster
Miitomo earned 1.6 million downloads in its first 4 days in the U.S.
Posted on 3 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Mobile, News | 10 Comments
GamesBeat is reporting, via data from industry-tracking firm Sensor Tower, that Miitomo was downloaded 1.6 million times in the United States between March 31 and April 3. This figure accounts for both iOS and Android. However, it doesn’t include downloads when Miitomo was at the top of both platform’s charts through much of the past week.
Miitomo has started to dip a bit, but this was to be expected. Sensor Tower has Miitomo at the tenth spot on iOS, for example.
51 percent of Miitomo’s installs came from the United States, which is quite a large gap over other territories. While Great Britan, France, Germany, and Canada were the other top regions, they all represented less than 10 percent of total downloads each.
Pokemon GO field test expanding to Australia and New Zealand this month
Posted on 3 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Mobile, News | 0 comments
A field test for Pokemon GO kicked off in Japan a couple of weeks ago. Those in Australia and New Zealand will be able to give the game a go “later this month,” according to developer Niantic.
If you’re in either one of these territories, you can sign up for the field test here. Keep in mind that doing so doesn’t guarantee access.


text:
HTC has yet another smartphone in the works. The HTC One X9 has just made its way through TENAA.
Add another clue to the list of items suggesting Samsung is quickly approaching a release date for their next flagship device, the Samsung Galaxy S7. Actually, it will be two flagship devices as Samsung appears to be on track to produce a regular screen version and one with curved edges. Twitter tipster Evan Blass posted on Friday that U.S. wireless carrier AT&T is already testing both Galaxy S7 variants. Read more
A new leak has claimed that Xiaomi’s new flagship phone – the Mi5 – will feature a MediaTek processor instead of the Snapdragon one, which was earlier rumored to power the device. A few weeks ago, we even saw the Mi5 benchmarked on the GeekBench database with the Snapdragon 820 SoC onboard.
Having been known to manufacture processors for budget and mid-range devices, MediaTek is finally gearing up to make its presence felt among high-end segment too. Rumor has it that the company is already set to announce the successor to the world’s first deca-core chipset, the X20, which is yet to hit the market.
BlackBerry might not stop at just one Android phone. Right on the heels of the Priv, BlackBerry is seemingly preparing another Android phone. This one, codenamed Vienna, has an always-present physical keyboard that really resembles any classic device produced by the Waterloo-based company. The Priv is different in that its physical keyboard is only accessible when sliding the display upward.
As we head deeper into November, it’s customary for rumours and leaks about Samsung’s next big thing to start making the rounds. This year, it is the Galaxy S7, which some believe will launch earlier than usual, possibly in February or even January. Today’s news that Samsung has begun firmware development for the next edition in the Galaxy S series may lend some credence to the belief. Read more


text:
The CPSC has recalled lithium-ion battery packs can overheat, posing burn and fire hazards to consumers.
A new case of Ebola has been confirmed in Liberia, the World Health Organization said Friday.
Google is acknowledging that it pranked itself after an April Fool’s Day Gmail tweak angered some people.
The dog was taken to a veterinarian and is safely back with his owners.
Authorities say a police officer working undercover in southern Alabama is hospitalized after he was shot during a gun battle.
Federal officials are seeking $193,600 in penalties from Russell Stover Candies .
Tornadoes swirled through Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama as the severe storms head toward the Carolinas.
A Long Island nanny is being credited with saving the 9-month-old boy in her care.
Tesla Motors says buyers reserved more than 115,000 Model 3 sedans on Thursday, the first day orders were taken.
It was a question sure to come up at some point in the Republican primary campaign.
Your news feed may be blowing up with a post by Yahoo that Trader Joe’s will close all their stores by 2017.
Kiki decided to try his luck this year and filled out his first-ever bracket.
Police departments in the area and across the nation have reached out to show support.
Tesla unveiled the Model 3 on Thursday night at its Los Angeles design studio.
Police say a baby boy who was kidnapped from an upscale shopping mall in suburban Philadelphia has been found safe.


text:
Cannabis Spending in Canada Exceeded $2 Billion in 2020
It’s no surprise that Canada has been killing it when it comes to cannabis spending in their legal, nation-wide market. It’s also common knowledge that, despite the hit the global economy took in 2020, cannabis is one of the only markets that not only survived, but thrived. But it’s still shocking to see just how much money Canadians spent on cannabis in 2020. And yes, we are talking about flower, not the entire cannabis industry.
According to a quarterly, retail commodity survey from Statistics Canada, Canadians bought $2.01 billion worth of dried cannabis flower last year. Flower definitely appears to be the preferred consumption method for Canadians, as it made up more than three-quarters of all sales from cannabis spending last year.
This high-grossing category includes pre-rolls, and specifically, the fourth quarter saw nearly double the amount sold in 2019, indicating that cooped-up Canadians were turning to flower as a way to self-medicate and recreate during the pandemic. A total of $614.4 million in cannabis flower was sold during the first quarter.
Behind flower, the next category of cannabis consumption spending was the extracts and concentrates category, which brought in $323.9


text:
SF Airlines launches the ‘Guizhou-Hangzhou’ all-cargo route
Feb 08, 2017: SF Airlines has officially launched the ‘Guizhou-Hangzhou’ all-cargo route on December 9, 2016 and successfully accomplished the first flight of its B737-300 all-cargo aircraft to Guizhou.
With the launch of the air route, SF Express will expect significant improvement of timeliness for express delivery businesses between Guizhou and East China.
Guiyang, also known as Zhucheng, is a major economic centre and aviation hub in the Southwest. In recent years, the shipment volume has been increasing continuously and stably and the conditions for developing aviation logistics are increasingly favorable.
As a general aviation hub of SF Express in China, Hangzhou will give full play to its advantages in distribution capacity to speed up the distribution and air transportation of shipments from east (East China) to west. It will also push forward the transit of shipments from North China and South China to Guizhou and surrounding areas, which would be of positive significance to activate the cargo circulation between the east and west and consolidate the development of aviation logistics in-between.
By now, SF Airlines has a fleet of 36 self-owned all-cargo aircrafts featuring B767, B757 and B737 models, and includes 36 cities and districts nation-wide in its general aviation coverage. It has also seen development of its nation-wide air freight network year by year and constant improvement in its safety management and route operation.
Last year, in November, SF Airlines has also launched ‘Jieyang Chaoshan-Hangzhou-Changsha’ all-cargo route.


text:
The First Guy to Buy Legal Marijuana in Spokane, Washington Is Just Perfect
Recreational marijuana went on sale in Washington state Tuesday, and at least one Spokane man wanted to make it an event to remember.
Mike Boyer camped out for 19 hours in front of Spokane’s only dispensary to make sure he’d be the first in town to get legal weed. The local news station interviewed him and he — well, he’s pretty much exactly what you’re picturing. Take a look:
The tie-dye shirt! The 'stache! The chill demeanor! It’s as if the very concept of legal recreational marijuana manifested itself physically.
The bad news: There’s no way around it — Boyer lost his job thanks to the stunt. He worked as a security guard, but a client saw him on the news and tattled to his company. He took it like a champ, though.
“Yeah, it was kind of a buzzkill,” he told Vocativ. “But I wasn’t going to let it ruin an awesome day.”
Still, a job’s a job, and Boyer is hoping to turn his newfound fame into a new employment opportunity (maybe somewhere with a lenient drug policy). He put his resume up in a Craigslist post with the title “LOST MY JOB! still #1 tho!!”
As for the rest of the state: The legalization starts slow, with only a few stores around the state open for business on Tuesday. Licensed marijuana growers, who have to be in-state, have not yet had the opportunity to grow a full crop.
Whether the recreational product will succeed is still up in the air. Customers told the New York Times they were only buying for the sentimental value, since medical marijuana (and illegal marijuana) is cheaper and relatively easy to obtain. The state levies a 25% tax on every purchase.
Those high prices didn’t stop a store in Bellingham from selling more than $30,000 worth of weed in its first day, beating out the average sales in Colorado, the only other state to legalize the drug recreationally. Colorado is expecting $1 billion in sales over the next fiscal year, meaning $134 million in taxes and fees for the state.
Image Credit: Colorado budget proposal
It’s still a little early for similar predictions for Washington, meaning individual buyers like Boyer have become the story. After entertaining onlookers with chants of, "What do we want? Marijuana. When do we want it? 2 p.m.," he made his purchase. The plan from there?