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Gross Domestic Products (GDP) Growth
GDP in nine months of 2015 was estimated to increase by 6.50% from the same period in 2014, of which GDP in the 1st Quarter grew by 6.12%; by 6.47% in the 2nd Quarter; by 6.81% in the 3rd Quarter. The sector of agriculture, forestry and fishery rose 2.08%; the sector of industry and construction rose 9.57%; the sector of service rose 6.17%. Of the agricultural, forestry and fishery sector, the forestry achieved a highest growth of 7.89%; the fishery increased by 2.11%; the agriculture by 1.77%.
Of the industry and construction, the industry climbed by 9.69%, of which the manufacturing reached a high increase of 10.15%; the mining and quarrying rose 8.15%. The construction in nine months rose 9.00%.
Of the service sector, the wholesale and retail; repair of consumer articles grew by 8.4%; the accommodation and catering service by 3.83%; the finance, banking and insurance by 6.7%; the real estate business by 2.9%.
About the structure of economy in nine months of this year, the agriculture, forestry and fishery accounted 16.30%; the industry and construction accounted for 33.09%; the service represented 40.52%; product taxes less subsidies on production took 10.09%.
In terms of GDP to use in nine months, the final consumption rose 9.07% against the identical period in 2014; gross capital formation went up by 8.08%; trade balance (goods and services) made the general growth reduce 3.43 percentage points.
As of mid-September, the country cultivated 1721.2 thousand hectares of winter rice, equaling 96.7% from the same period last year. If the weather is favorable in ending months of the year and pestilent insect is controlled well, the productivity of winter rice this year over the country would reach an estimate of 4930kg per hectare, up 30 – 50kg per hectare; the winter rice yield would achieve 9.6 million tons, down 71.2 thousand tons compared to that in 2014’s same crop.
As of 15 September 2015, provinces in the South harvested 1736.1 thousand hectares of summer-autumn rice, equaling 96.5% against the last year’s same period and accounted for 82.6% of cultivated area. The country’s summer-autumn rice area this year was estimated to reach 2.1 million hectares, reduced by 7.5 thousand hectares from the same crop in 2014; the productivity gained 5400kg per hectare, up 80kg per hectare; the yield obtained 11.3 million tons, up 122 thousand tons. Estimated autumn-winter rice area cultivated in 2015 achieved 671.1 thousand hectares; the productivity was equivalent to that in the last year’s same crop; the yield reached nearly 3.5 million tons, rose about 248 thousand tons.
The rice production in 2015 was estimated at 45.1 million tons, an increase of 140 thousand tons compared to 2014, of which the winter-spring rice reached 20.7 million tons, decreased by 158.8 thousand tons; the autumn-winter rice and summer-autumn rice gained 14.8 million tons, raised by 370 thousand tons; the winter rice achieved 9.6 million tons, reduced by 71.2 thousand tons.
As of mid-September, the country’s flock of buffaloes went down by 1% from the same period in 2014; flock of oxen went up by 2 – 2.5%; flock of pigs rose 2.5 – 3%; flock of poultry increased by 3 – 3.5%; output of live-weight buffalo meat for slaughter reduced by 1.9%; output of live-weight beef grew by 2.4%; output of live-weight pork rose 3.7%; poultry meat production went up by 5.3%.
The area of newly concentrated planted forest over the country in nine months was estimated to reach 172 thousand hectares, rose 4.2% against the same period last year. The number of separate planted trees achieved 141 million, increased by 0.6%. Wood production gained 5834 thousand m3, a high growth of 11.8%.
In nine months, the country had 1712 hectares of damaged forest, decreased by 53.9% from the same period last year, of which the burnt area was 1055 hectares, down 65.5%; the destroyed area was 657 hectares, up 0.9%.
Fishing production in nine months was estimated to reach 4846.6 thousand tons, increased by 2.8% over the identical period last year, of which production of aquaculture achieved 2584.2 thousand tons, increased by 1.6% (1877.3 thousand tons of fish, up 2.3%; 450.6 thousand tons of shrimp, down 2.3%); production of fishing caught gained 2262.4 thousand tons, by 4.3%.
Of the aquaculture, the area of aquaculture in nine months was estimated at 1014.3 thousand hectares, fell by 0.4%. The area for raising the shark catfish in nine months was estimated to reach 11.2 thousand hectares, reduced by 2.9% against the same period last year; the production reach 889 thousand tons, went up by 1.5%. The area for raising the white leg shrimp in nine months was estimated to gain 76.3 thousand hectares, went down by 9.3% from the last year’s similar period; the yield gained 228 thousand tons, down 4%. Estimated area for raising the giant tiger prawn in nine months of this year achieved 577.3 thousand hectares, up 4.4% over the same period last year; the output reached 189 thousand tons, down 1.6%.
Industrial Production Index (IPI) in nine months of 2015 rose 9.8% from the similar period last year, of which the mining and quarrying grew by 8.2%; the manufacturing by 10.2%; the power generation and supply by 11.4%; the water supply and sewage treatment by 7.3%.
Consumption index for the whole manufacturing in eight months of this year increased by 13.2% from 2014’s same period. Stock index for the entire manufacturing as of 01 September 2015 rose 9.9% over the same period last year.
The number of laborers working in industrial enterprises as of 01 September 2015 rose 7.1% over the identical period last year, of which the State sector increased by 0.2%; the non-State sector by 4.9%, and the FDI sector by 10.6%. As of above time, the number of laborers working in the mining and quarrying fell by 1.8% from the previous year’s similar period; the manufacturing grew by 8%; the power generation and supply by 0.8%; the water supply and sewage treatment by 4.4%.
Operation of enterprises
Business registration situation
Generally, in nine months of this year, the country had 68347 enterprises registered for new establishment with a total registered capital of 420.9 trillion dongs, an increase of 28.5% in the number of businesses and an increase of 31.4% in the registered capital over the equivalent period last year. Average registered capital per newly established enterprise reached 6.2 billion dongs, increased by 2.3% from 2014’s same period. Besides, there were 608.9 trillion dongs of additionally registered capital of enterprises changed to raise the capital in the last nine months. Thus, the total of both newly and additionally registered capital in nine months of 2015 was 1029.9 trillion dongs. The expected number of laborers generated jobs in the newly established enterprises in nine months was 999.3 thousand persons, grew by 25.7% from the same period in 2014.
The number of suspended enterprises re-operated in nine months was 12848 ones, a rise of 8.2% compared to 2014’s identical period. The number of enterprises which finished the procedure for dissolving, terminating business activities in nine months was 6962 ones, decreased by 0.9% from the same period last year. The number of enterprises having difficulty forced to temporarily cease operations in nine months was 47604 ones, an increase of 15.3% over the identical period last year.
Business trends of enterprises
Results of the business trend survey from 3389 manufacturing enterprises as follows:
36.6% of enterprises assessed the situation of business and production in the third Quarter more positive than in the second Quarter; 19.9% having difficulties and 43.5% having the stable business and production situation. Expecting the fourth Quarter compared to the third Quarter, 46.8% of enterprises evaluated trends to be better; 14.4% of enterprises forecasted to be worse and 38.8% of enterprises thought that the business and production situation would be stable.
Regarding the production volume, 40% of enterprises assessed the production volume in the third Quarter of this year rose compared to the previous quarter; 20.7% evaluated the production volume went down and 39.3% thought it was stable. The trend of the fourth Quarter in comparison with the third Quarter: 49.2% of enterprises forecasted the production volume would be up; 13.8% forecasted it would be down and 37.0% forecasted it would be stable.
About orders of this year’s third Quarter compared with the second Quarter: 34.2% of enterprises had the higher number of orders; 19.8% had the number of orders reduced and 46.0% had the stable number of orders. The trend of the fourth Quarter in comparison with the third Quarter was forecasted to be better: 43.6% of enterprises expected to have the higher number of orders; 12.7% expected the number of orders would be dropped; 43.7% expected to have the stable number of orders.
Regarding export orders of the third Quarter against the previous quarter: 28.5% of enterprises confirmed to have the higher number of export orders; 19.8% had the reduced number of export orders and 51.7% had the stable number of export orders. The trend of the fourth Quarter compared with the third Quarter: 37.6% of enterprises expected to raise the number of export orders; 13.1% expected to be declined and 49.5% expected to be stable.
Regarding production costs, 26.7% of enterprises confirmed production costs per unit of product in the third quarter increased against the previous quarter; 9.7% of enterprises confirmed costs went down and 63.6% of enterprises assessed costs were stable. The trend of the fourth quarter in comparison with the third quarter as follows: 20.6% of enterprises expected production costs would increase; 11.7% said that costs would reduce and 67.7% expected production costs would be stable.
Regarding the product selling price in the third quarter compared to the previous quarter, 15% of enterprises had the increased selling price of products; 12.7% of enterprises had the selling price lower and 72.3% of enterprises had stable product selling price. Expecting the product selling price in the fourth quarter in comparison with the third quarter, 16.1% of enterprises forecasted the selling price would be higher; 8.8% forecasted the selling price would be lower; and 75.1% forecasted it would be stable.
About the stock of products: 21.7% of enterprises had inventories in the third Quarter increased from the previous quarter; 30.9% had inventories reduced and 47.4% remained stable. The trend of the fourth Quarter in comparison with the third Quarter: 16.2% of enterprises forecasted inventories would go up; 33.5% thought inventories would go down and 50.3% forecasted inventories would keep stable.
About the inventory of raw materials in the third quarter compared to the second quarter, 19.7% of enterprises had the inventory volume went up; 28.4% had the inventory volume went down and 51.9% had the inventory volume kept intact. Expecting the inventory of raw materials in the fourth quarter in comparison with the third quarter, 14.9% of enterprises forecasted the inventory of raw materials to be increased; 30.7% forecasted the inventory to be reduced and 54.4% said that it would have no changes in the inventory of raw materials.
Total retail sales of consumer goods and services in nine months increased by 9.8% against the same period last year (if the price factor were excluded, the growth rate would be 8.3%, higher than the increase of 7.3% in 2014’s identical period).
Passenger carriage in nine months of the year was estimated to raise by 7.5% in the volume of passengers and 7.3% in passengers-kilometers from the similar period last year. Cargo transport in nine months was estimated to grow by 5.8% in the volume of passengers and 2.8% in passengers-kilometers over last year’s same period.
Estimated number of international visitors to Vietnam reached 5689.5 thousand arrivals, reduced by 5.9% from the same period last year, of which visitors from Asia achieved 3842.1 thousand arrivals, fell by 5.9%; visitors from Europe gained 866.3 thousand arrivals, went down by 3.7%; visitors from America reached 446.3 thousand arrivals, rose 5%; visitors from Australia reached 252.6 thousand arrivals, decreased by 7.1%.
Investment & development
Estimated realized social investment capital in nine months of 2015 at current prices reached 909.5 trillion dongs, went up by 8.5% over the identical period last year and equaled 31.9% of GDP, of which the State sector’s capital gained 355.4 trillion dongs, increased by 7.2% (the capital under the State budget achieved 153.1 trillion dongs, equaling 72.7% of the annual plan and up 4.1%); the non-state sector’s capital obtained 345.1 trillion dongs, by 8.8%; the FDI sector’s capital attained 209 trillion dongs, by 10.1%.
From the beginning of the year to 20 September 2015, FDI attracted 1432 newly licensed projects with the registered capital of US$11.04 billion, an increase of 24.3% in the number of projects and a rise of 44.5% in the capital from the similar period in 2014. The total registered capital of both newly and additionally financed projects in nine months reached US$17.16 billion, grew by 53.4% against the last year’s same period. Estimated realized FDI capital in nine months of this year was estimated to gain US$9.7 billion, rose 8.4% from 2014’s similar period.
In nine months, the manufacturing industry attracted the largest number of FDI projects, its registered capital accounted for 66.3% of the total registered capital; the electricity, gas, warm water, steam and air conditioning supply took 15.3%; the real estate business represented 10.5%; other industries accounted for 7.9%.
Government revenues and expenditures
Total estimated government revenues from the beginning of the year to 15 September 2015 achieved 640.4 trillion dongs, equaled 70.3% of the annual estimate, of which domestic revenues reached 474.6 trillion dongs, equaled 74.3%; collecting from crude oil achieved 49.6 trillion dongs, only equaled 53.3% of the estimate; from export-import balance: 112.8 trillion dongs, equaled 64.5%.
Total government expenditures from the beginning of the year to 15 September 2015 reached an estimate of 776.4 trillion dongs, equaled 67.7% of the yearly estimate. Of which, expenditure on development investment achieved 116.6 trillion dongs, equaled 59.8% (spending for capital construction alone reached 113.2 trillion dongs, equaled 59.4%); expenditure on economic and social development, national defense and security, general public administration was estimated to gain 542.8 trillion dongs, equaled 70.8%; paying debts and aids 110.4 trillion dongs, equaling 73.6%.
Generally, in nine months, estimated export turnovers reached US$120.7 billion, increased by 9.6% from the same period last year. If the price factor were excluded, it would gain US $125.5 billion, up 14% against the last year’s similar period. Of nine months’ total export turnovers, the domestic economic sector achieved an estimate of US$35.5 billion, decreased by 2.7% from the identical period last year; the FDI sector (including crude oil) reached US$85.2 billion, grew by 15.8%. If excluding crude oil, this sector would reach US$82.1 billion, up 21.1%.
Regarding the structure of export goods, the group of minerals and manufacturing was estimated to account for 45.9% of the total export turnovers; the group of light industrial goods and handicrafts accounted for 39.6%; the group of agricultural and forestry products took 10.6%; the group of aquatic products represented 3.9%.
About the export market in nine months, the United States was still the biggest market of Vietnam with export turnover of US$24.9 billion, a rise of 19.6% compared to 2014’s same period; the EU with US$22.8 billion, a rise of 12.4%; the ASEAN with US$13.8 billion, a decrease of 1.7%; China with US$12.5 billion, 12.5% increase; Japan with US$10.5 billion, a drop of 4.9%; South Korea with US$6.3 billion, a rise of 20.5%.
Generally, in nine months, estimated import turnovers to reach US$124.5 billion, grew by 15.9% over the same period in 2014, of which the domestic economic sector gained US$51.3 billion, increased by 9.7%; the FDI sector achieved US$73.3 billion, by 20.7%. If the price factor was excluded, nine months’ import turnovers would be estimated to attain US$130.4 billion, up 21.4% against the last year’s similar period.
Regarding the structure of import goods in nine months, the group of means of production was estimated to reach US$113.5 billion, accounted for 91.1% of the total import turnovers; the group of fuels and raw materials gained US$61.8 billion, took 49.6%; the group of consumer goods achieved US$11.1 billion, held 8.9%.
About the import market in nine months, import turnover from China was estimated to reach US$36.8 billion, 18.1% increase compared to the similar period last year (importing machinery and equipment rose 21.5%; telephones of all kinds rose 18.8%; fabrics rose 12.6%). Import turnover from the South Korea was US$20.9 billion, up 32.4%; from ASEAN: US$17.6 billion, up 3.3%; from Japan: US$10.9 billion, up 19%; from EU: US$8.1 billion, up 23.3%; from the United States: US$6.1 billion, up 32.4% respectively.
Generally, in nine months, trade deficit was at US$3.9 billion, equaling 3.2% of the total export turnovers, of which the domestic economic sector had a high trade deficit of US$15.8 billion (US$4.1 billion in 2014’s same period); the FDI sector continued to have a trade surplus of US$11.9 billion (US$3.7 billion in the same period last year). Only trade deficit with China in nine months was US$24.3 billion, sharply increased by 21.3% from the similar period in 2014.
Consumer price indexes (CPI)
CPI in September 2015 reduced by 0.21% against the previous month. Of which, the group of transport decreased sharply by 3.17%. The groups of goods fell by under 1% included: housing and constructional materials; food and catering services; postal and communicational service. Other groups of goods and services with lightly increased price indexes included: education: up 1.24%; medicaments and health service: up 0.43%; garment, hats and footgear: up 0.21%; beverages and tobacco: up 0.1%; family appliances: up 0.07%; culture, entertainment and tourism: up 0.03%.
CPI in September 2015 increased by 0.4% from December 2014. Average CPI in nine months of this year grew by 0.74% compared to that in 2014’s same period.
Core inflation in September 2015 increased by 0.06 % against the previous month and by 1.87% against the same period last year. Average core inflation in nine months of 2015 grew by 2.15% from 2014’s similar period.
Gold and US dollar price indexes
Gold price indexes in September 2015 went up by 3.54% from the previous month; down by 1.58% from December 2014; and down by 5.83% against the same period last year. US dollar price indexes in September 2015 increased by 2.71% from the previous month; by 5.1% from December 2014 and by 5.9% compared to 2014’s similar period.
Producer’s price indexes; export, import price indexes
Producer’s price indexes (PPI) in nine months of this year compared to 2014’s same period as follows: Producer’s price index of agricultural, forestry and fishing products increased by 0.45%; Producer’s price index of industrial products reduced by 0.74%; Price index of materials, fuels used for production rose 1.8%; Transportation and warehouse price index decreased by 2.89%; service price index went up by 1.34%.
Merchandize export price index in nine months of 2015 dropped by 3.86% from the same period last year. Merchandize import price index in nine months of 2015 decreased by 4.5% against 2014’s similar period. Nine months’ commodity term of trade this year increased by 0.67% over the identical period last year.
Labor and employment
The country’s labour force aged 15 and above as of 01 October 2015 was estimated at 54.32 million persons, increasing by 11.7 thousand persons compared to 2014’s same period. Labour force at the working age as of above time was 47.78 million persons, going up by 9.3 thousand persons against the similar period in 2014.
Laborers aged 15 and above working in nine months of this year were estimated at 52.72 million persons, reducing by 177.3 thousand persons from the same period last year, of which employees in the sector of agriculture, forestry and fishery was 23.45 million persons, decreasing by 1523.7 thousand ones, accounting for 44.3%; in the sector of industry and construction was 11.85 million ones, increasing by 756.4 thousand ones, accounting for 22.5%; in the service sector was 17.52 million ones, going up by 590 thousand ones, accounting for 33.2% respectively.
The unemployment rate of labourers at the working age in nine months was estimated at 2.36%, of which it was 3.42% for the urban area; 1.86% for the rural area. Estimated unemployment rate of the youth aged 15-24 in nine months was 6.74%. The unemployment rate of labourers aged 25 and above in nine months was 1.25%. Estimated underemployment rate of labourers at the working age in nine months was 1.93%, of which it was 0.92% for the urban area and 2.4% for the rural area.
In the third Quarter of 2015, the country’s labour rate of the non-agricultural household sector had informal jobs accounted for 56.4% of the total employed labourers, of which it was 47.1% for the urban area; 64.5%for the rural area.
People’s life and social security
In nine months of 2015, the country had 227.8 thousand times of households suffering from food shortage, down 25% from the same period last year, corresponding with 938.7 thousand times of persons suffering from food shortage, down 27.3%. The rate of poor households in 2015 was estimated at about 7.2%, reducing 1.2 percentage points compared to 2014.
According to the preliminary report, the total budget for the operations of social security and poverty reduction in nine months of 2015 was 3443 billion dongs. Besides, there were over 7.7 million health insurance cards issued free to the social policy beneficiaries over the country.
Education and training
According to results of the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey in Viet Nam 2014 (MICS5), the ratio of children participating in the preschool program before entering the first grade was 96.8%; primary school net attendance ratio (age 6 to 10) was 97.9%, percentage of children of primary school age not attending school was 1.5%. Secondary school net attendance ratio (age 11 – 14) was 90.4%; percentage of children of secondary school age not attending school was 6.0%. The rate of children completing the secondary school level and continuing to the high school level reached 90%. High school net attendance ratio (age 15-17) achieved 70.7%; percentage of children of high school age not attending school was 24.1%.
According to the preliminary report, the rate of high school graduates of the school year 2014 – 2015 reached 93.4%, down 5.3 percentage points compared with the previous school year; the rate of graduates from the complementary education system achieved 70.1%, reducing 18.9 percentage points.
At the time of starting the school year 2015 – 2016, there were 4.5 million kindergarten children; 15.2 million students going to school, including 7.6 million primary school students; 5.2 million secondary school students and 2.4 million high school students.
Generally, in nine months, the country had 16459 cases of traffic accidents, including 7534 cases of traffic accidents and 8925 cases of traffic crashing, killing 6518 persons, injuring 4302 persons and injuring slightly 10627 others. In comparison with the same period last year, cases of the traffic accidents in nine months of this year decreased by 12% (cases of traffic accidents less serious and more reduced by 3.1%; cases of traffic collision by 18.3%); the death fell by 3.6%; the injured persons by 2.6%; slightly injured persons by 20.8%. On average, each day in nine months of 2015, the country had 60 cases of traffic accident, including 28 cases of traffic accidents and 32 cases of traffic crashing, killing 24 persons and injuring 16 persons and injuring somewhat 39 others.
 Nine months’ growth of the manufacturing in some years as follows: 2012: 8.74%; 2013: 6.58%; 2014: 7.09%.
 1st Quarter: a rise of 9.4%; 2nd Quarter: a rise of 10.2%; 3rd Quarter: a rise of 9.9%.
 Source: National Business Registration System, Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI).
 Export price index in nine months of 2015 compared to that in nine months of 2014 reduced by 3.86%.
 In nine months, exports of the FDI sector contributed 10.5 percentage points to the growth rate of the total export turnovers, while the domestic economic sector reduced 0.9 percentage points.
 Import price index in nine months of 2015 compared to nine months of 2014 fell by 4.5%.
 Trade deficit in nine months of 2014 was US$411 million.
 Export price indexes/Import price indexes.


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Microsoft Left Apple Behind For The Most Valuable US Company!
Similar to the world of technology, the financial will never be at rest it will keep on moving. So only a few people can predict what will happen when you merge the two together. For example, Last on August 2nd, Apple become the first U.S company to hit one trillion dollars, Microsoft’s market was about $825 billion. Amazon, which will soon join the trillion dollar club in a month, was 1-B to Apple’s 1-A. However, no one was talking about Microsoft.
As noted by Business Insider, earlier today, Microsoft took over the Apple to become the most valuable U.S. company. In fact, last time this happened in 2010 where trading was closed on Monday, Apple was back on top.
However, the shares of Microsoft is not raised at all. Although there is a decline in the shares of Microsoft from $109.60 to $106.47. There is a decline of 2.9%. Where there is a drop of about 19.9% shares of Apple. Over the same period, there is a drop from $217.94 to $174.62 of Apple shares. In fact, investors are in worry about the decrease in the sales of the iPhone. Which led apple to cut the orders of 2018 models.
In case you are still imagining, there is also a drop by 18% over the last three months from $1927.68 to $1,581.33 of Amazon shares. This proves that the will never be stable or at rest. However, anybody can top the table and anybody can fall from top anytime.
When Apple Launched First iPhone
While $13.22 is a closing share of Apple on January 9th, 2007. That’s the day when Apple launched its first iPhone. This means that Apple investors who bought 100 shares at that time on the basis of iPhone launching, is now the holder of shares worth $17,462. On the basis of closing on Monday’s 4 pm, $828.64 billion is the closing value of Apple, Microsoft at $817.29 billion. While Amazon at $773.222 billion.

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Hewlett Packard Business shares dipped in soon after-hrs trading Thursday soon after the computing big claimed a sixteen% fall in quarterly revenue, reflecting supply chain disruptions triggered by the coronavirus pandemic.
HPE’s revenue for the next quarter declined to $six billion from $7.one billion in the 12 months-back time period. Analysts experienced predicted product sales of $six.33 billion.
The enterprise also posted a internet reduction of $821 million, or 64 cents a share. Following changes for a single-objects, it acquired 22 cents a share, lacking estimates of 30 cents a share.
“This was a difficult quarter by each measure and


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The value of contracts executed by mLeasing in 2019 amounted to PLN 5.3 million compared with PLN 6.1 billion in 2018, which represents a decrease by 13.1% year on year. Sales deterioration in 2019 originated mainly from decline in the vehicles sector, observed on the whole leasing market. Its primary reason was the high reference base, meaning bigger value of transactions in 2018. It was partially justified by changing legal provisions in scope of leasing which took place in 2018. The value of contracts regarding movables concluded in 2019 amounted to PLN 5.0 billion compared with PLN 6.0 billion a year before (i.e. -16.1% year on year), while the value of contracts concerning real estate stood at PLN 0.3 billion compared with PLN 0.1 billion in 2018 (i.e. +127.1% year on year).
The profit before tax of mLeasing in 2019 amounted to PLN 96.1 million and was higher by 47.7% compared to the result generated in 2018, of PLN 65.1 million. In 2019 we observed continuation of increasing cost of funding expressed in higher margin on loans received by mLeasing.
On March 8, 2019, mLeasing concluded an acquisition of 100% shares in LeaseLink. The subsidiary operates in the fintech sector and specialises in funding of business owners’ purchases online and in stationary shops. Transaction enhances mLeasing’s position in funding of small and medium enterprises. It also opens the subsidiary up to new possibilities of funding smaller-value assets. mLeasing is the only owner of LeaseLink. In 2019, profit before tax of LeaseLink amounted to PLN 2.6 million.
2019 was our best year concerning new business of CFM (Car Fleet Management). New agreements worth PLN 1 billion were concluded. According to the CEPIK, central register of vehicles and drivers, mLeasing is the second market player in scope of the number of new cars acquired for CFM in 2019.
The “Leasing in Retail” project continued in 2019. The initiative is dedicated to mBank’s business clients and enables them to conclude a leasing agreement using special leasing processes. Thanks to the combined efforts of Retail Banking and mLeasing, in 2019 mLeasing financed fixed assets obtained in cooperation with Retail Banking worth PLN 395.6 million according to their purchase price.


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Hong Kong’s unemployment rate drops in 9 months trend
Hong Kong’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate edged lower from 3.5% in the period from October to December 2022 to 3.4% between December 2022 and January 2023, recording the ninth consecutive improvement from last year.
The underemployment rate dropped 0.1 percentage points to 1.4% from November 2022 to January, with the number of the underemployed persons decreasing by 3,200 to 52,100, while the number of unemployed decreased by 7,600 to 118,400.
The unemployment rate of the retail sector and the food and beverage sectors declined by 0.4 and 0.1 percentage points to 4.2% and 4.9% respectively. The unemployment rates of other sectors line lined in general.
Hong Kong's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate has kept a steady downward trend since May 2022 as the city recovers from the epidemic alongside border reopening between Hong Kong and China, said Chris Sun Yuk-han, the Secretary for Labor and Welfare.
“The unemployment and underemployment situation continued to improve,” said Sun.
Amid the fifth wave of COVID-19 pandemic in early 2022, retail, accommodation and food service was the most affected industry, with its unemployment rate hitting 10% in the period of February to April 2022, according to the Census and Statistics Department.
Vera Yuen Wing-han, an economics lecturer at the University of Hong Kong, said that Hong Kong's service industry had to shut down extensively before border opening as the consumption level was low.
Moreover, Hong Kong's local labour market has been troubled for a long time by the shortage of labour, especially in the service industry, Yuen added.
“The recruitment advertisements hang all the time but few people apply for the vacancies,” Roy Chan, the human resource manager of 616 Catering Management Limited said.
The staff shortage in the catering industry is a common phenomenon especially for the full-time staff. “We prefer the full-time staff rather than part-time ones so that the quality of service can be better guaranteed,” Chan said.
The border opening enables Hong Kong’s full-time staff living in the mainland with a low cost of accommodation. “Hong Kong's service industry will remain highly dependent on low-cost labour for a long period,” said Yuen.
“Hong Kong’s unemployment rate will keep the downward trend in the following half year,” said Yuen.
Yuen said that Hong Kong should focus more on industrial development to enhance its competitiveness rather than attracting talents through various preferential policies.
The city's financial secretary Paul Chan Mo-po said in his blog last Sunday that the retail and catering sector have improved amid the consumption recovery.
He will deliver the 2023/24 Budget on Feb. 22, expecting it would provide stable pavement for Hong Kong’s recovery.
"It is worth exploring how to help our catering sector to achieve breakthrough while it recovers and gains more business," said Chan.
《The Young Reporter》
The Young Reporter (TYR) started as a newspaper in 1969. Today, it is published across multiple media platforms and updated constantly to bring the latest news and analyses to its readers.
The 25th Standard Chartered Marathon
Vegetarian Food Asia 2023


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KILLEEN, Texas — The City of Killeen and Greater Killeen Chamber of Commerce will host two business town halls to help local business owners prepare for the upcoming 2024 solar eclipse.
They will be held on Tuesday, Feb. 28 and Wednesday, March 1 at the Killeen Civic and Conference Center at 2 p.m. Both events are free. You are asked to attend only one of the two events.
The solar eclipse is set to happen on April 6, 2024 and Killeen sits in its path of totality.
"As Killeen has a prime location in the path of the 2024 eclipse, local businesses have a unique opportunity to attract visitors and increase revenue. The business town halls will cover topics such as marketing strategies, staffing plans, predicted impact, planned events, and safety measures," the city said in a news release.
"With the right preparation, the 2024 solar eclipse can bring a significant boost to the local economy, and these town halls are the perfect place to start," the city added.
For more information, contact the Killeen Convention and Visitors Bureau at email@example.com or (254) 501-3888. The Killeen Solar Eclipse website is www.KilleenEclipse.us (and www.KilleenTexas.gov/Eclipse).


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Adire Style is here. KULTURE 2310 presents Adire Style Week! The Adire Lifestyle Exhibition, a week-long celebration of the vibrant Nigerian culture and the exquisite art of Adire textile, is set to captivate audiences from 24th July - 30th July ...
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NEW YORK - PepsiCo has quietly gotten rid of the word natural in some of its products and instead is going with simply.
NEW YORK — PepsiCo has quietly gotten rid of the word natural in some of its products and instead is going with simply.
The company changed its “Simply Natural” line of Frito-Lay chips to simply be called “Simply,” although the ingredients are the same. Similarly, its “Natural Quaker Granola” got a makeover as “ Simply Quaker Granola.”
The food and beverage giant said the name changes, which took place last year, are the result of its updating its marketing. But they come at a time when PepsiCo and other companies face legal challenges over their use of the word natural.
The Food and Drug Administration doesn’t have a definition for what constitutes natural but says it doesn’t object to the word’s use as long as the product doesn’t contain “added color, artificial flavors or synthetic substances.” Still, a number of recent lawsuits have challenged whether the ingredients in products labeled as “natural” fit that billing.
Companies are realizing the use of natural isn’t worth the headache, said Steve Gardner, director of litigation for the consumer-advocacy group Center for Science in the Public Interest.
PepsiCo Inc. isn’t alone in retreating from natural. The owners of Ben & Jerry’s and Breyers ice cream agreed to change their packaging in 2012 to settle lawsuits over the use of “all natural.” Campbell Soup Co. was sued in 2012 for describing its Pepperidge Farm Goldfish crackers as natural, with the suit noting they contain genetically modified ingredients. The company removed the word from its revamped packaging.


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Bitcoin has stayed in the data the most recent few weeks, yet a great deal of people is as yet not mindful of them. This is only one of the inquiries, frequently got some information about Bitcoin. Bitcoin is a sort of electronic cash Crypto money that is autonomous from standard banking and furthermore came into blood flow in 2009. As per a few of the top online dealers, Bitcoin is mulled over as the best perceived electronic cash that relies upon neighborhood to determine mind boggling scientific issues, so as to confirm just as copy the subtleties of every exchange made. The Bitcoin swapping scale doesn’t rely upon the national bank and furthermore there is no lone position that controls the inventory of Crypto cash. Be that as it may, the Bitcoin rate relies upon the level of self-assurance its clients have, as the additional significant business affirm Bitcoin as a system of settlement, the considerably more effective Bitcoin will become.
One of the upsides of Bitcoin is its low expansion hazard. Ordinary cash manage increasing average cost for basic items and they will in general lose their purchasing power yearly, as governments keep on using amounts assuaging to animate the monetary atmosphere. Bitcoin doesn’t manage low expansion, on the grounds that Bitcoin mining is confined to just 21 million gadgets. That infers the dispatch of shiny new Bitcoins is diminishing and furthermore the whole will be extricated out inside the following number of decades. Authorities have foreseen that the last digital currency will absolutely be mined by 2050. Bitcoin has a low risk of breakdown not at all like regular cash that depends on governments. At the point when cash breakdown, it realizes flee expansion or the crash of one’s cost investment funds in a brief instant. Bitcoin conversion scale isn’t overseen by any sort of government and furthermore is electronic cash promptly accessible all around.
Bitcoin is anything but difficult to carry. A billion dollars in the Bitcoin can be put away on a memory stick and put in one’s pocket. It is that easy to convey Bitcoins differentiated to paper cash. One downside of Bitcoin is its untraceable nature, as Governments and furthermore different associations can’t delineate wellspring of your assets and in this manner can attract some unscrupulous individuals. In contrast to different monetary standards, there are 3 strategies to profit with Bitcoin, sparing, exchanging just as mining. The value of cryptocurrency news dropped in current weeks because of the abrupt blockage of exchanging, which is the biggest Bitcoin trade around the world. Bitcoin can be exchanged on open markets, which demonstrates you can buy Bitcoin diminished just as sell them high.


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January has crawled back around, and some of us are finding it easier said than done to stay dry. With that in mind, we’ve scoured the Beauhurst database to find the most innovative, disruptive drinks startups catering to an alcohol-free taste. The reports are in: there’s never been an easy time to cut out booze.
Whilst a few of the companies we found offer mixers designed for pairing with booze, many of them focus on drinks that supersede alcohol entirely. Rocktails has this week launched its first spritz, a citrus drink with lemon zest and juniper berries, which is soon to be featured in London restaurants and retailers including Harrods.
This is a significant move from the young founders who walked away from Dragons’ Den: rejecting the dragons’ 2012 offer of £80k for a 40% stake (which would have valued the firm at £120k pre-money), Rocktails secured £40k just months later at a pre-money valuation of £360k.
Other firms seek to ease the toll of heavy boozing. Overhang’s energy drink, made with citrus, ginger, and milk thistle, is designed to revitalise the body after a heavy night. Genius Drinks goes one step further and claims to temper hangovers before they start, by delivering nutrients needed to metabolise alcohol.
Beyond hangover cures and energy products, there’s an abundance of startups producing innovative soft drinks. These range from the health-conscious such as Redemption (alcohol, sugar, animal, and wheat-free drinks) to the eccentric.
NIX&KIX spices up their drinks with cayenne pepper, Good Hemp employs – that’s right – hemp flavouring in their products, Simplee Aloe uses aloe vera, Equinox Kombucha’s range is reliant on a culture of bacteria and yeast, and Tapped (see above) is made from the sap of Finnish birch trees.
The majority of non-alcoholic drinks firms on Beauhurst are still in their early stages, and it’s interesting to note that the groups who’ve invested the most are all equity crowdfunders:
With reports abounding that milennials are ditching booze for good, these firms might yet be onto a trend.


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Windows Phone Internals will allow you to unlock any Lumia Windows Phone
Windows Phone Internals is a software which allows you to unlock and gain root access to Windows phones.
After more than 2 years without an update, Phone Internals developer finally announced on his blog that a new update is just around the corner. Some of the provided bits of the update reveal that upcoming 2.2 version of the software will include tools for bypassing SecureBoot on all modern Lumia Windows Phones.
Bypassing SecureBoot means an open door for custom ROMs, Mass Storage Mode, and Root access on many Windows Lumia phones. The app developer has also provided a Youtube video showing the future plans for Windows Phone Internals software.
It is rather interesting that this update came just after Microsoft has given up on Windows 10 mobile OS. Windows Phone customers and developers will now be able to fully unlock the hardware of Lumia phones, install other operating systems and unlock carrier locked features.


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A New Spam E-mail is Hampering the Image of Facebook
As per the security experts at Sophos, scam emails that is purporting from Facebook is working to con unwary users into visiting a dappled pharmaceutical website are presently roaming in the internet.
Sophos' is leaning Facebook customers to the latest email spam campaign that's gifting them incredibly new and shiny that's really difficult to control to fray it: a brand new outlook to the Facebook profile.
The piece of mail includes like authentic Facebook graphics and says: You now have the latest kind of profile. It is your compilation of the photos, posts, and experiences that tell your tale. To cover photo, add significant events and photos from your times of yore, and more, stopover facebook.
Graham Cluley, Senior Technology Consultant at Sophos commented on the spam email: "If you look intimately, you'll find that the spammers did an awful job of copying the 'From:' address in that electronic mail, but if you move your mouse over the links included in the email you'll notice more proof that something bizarre is occurring, "according to a statement published by nakedsecurity.sophos.com dated November 20, 2012.
Cluley says, if you get on the link, rather than clicking Facebook you'll reach a site for the "Toronto Drug Store". That shows that the location has been found in many electronic mail scams long-ago. Of course, by going to the "Toronto Drug Store", you are most probable to earn money for the spammers who are tiresome in drumming up traffic for the imprecise website.
Further Cluley warns, the link in the email could be infected due to the scam, or your browser being lead to a facebook similar website to phish your password.
In a nutshell, it's not the first time that social networking website is experiencing these spam email campaigns of exploitation by cyber thugs. Prior to this attack, in October 2012, fraudsters were turning to every trick in the book in an effort to persuade unsuspecting users to reach their rogue pharmacy websites, also called as "Canadian pharmacies". That spam campaign depends on spam messages that hamper the image and name of Twitter.
Related article: A New "Blackmailing" Variant Creeps Around…
» SPAMfighter News - 12/3/2012
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Asus appears set to formally unveil its Eee PC desktop at the upcoming Computex show in Taiwan. Leaked information to the Inquirer has revealed the name of the device as well as some specifications details. Both the name and specs conflict with those of an earlier leak though.
Formerly known as the E-DT, Asus will introduce it as the EBOX when its makes its debut on June 3rd. In terms of specifications, the Inquirer has learned that it will forego the SSD for a 160GB hard drive and will come with 2GB RAM and the same version of Linux as on the Eee PC. The Inquirer also confirms that the EBOX looks like the leaked images we saw earlier.
One detail that was not revealed was whether Asus will continue to use the Celeron processor (its original plan) or if the EBOX will come with an Atom processor instead. Originally expected in April or May, the delay may be in part to Asus having decided to offer an Atom processor instead.
When Asus first revealed plans to expand the Eee PC brand into desktop, it indicated that it was aiming for a price point of between USD$200 and USD$300. Hopefully they are on target.


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Currently Xaar owns 85 percent of the company with Stratasys having the remaining 15 percent but with an option to increase its holding up to 30 percent.
The new proposal involves Stratasys partly exercising this option to give it 25 percent of the company for $4m, followed by Xaar selling an additional 20 percent of its holding to Stratasys for $10 million, giving Stratasys 45 percent of Xaar 3D. In addition, Xaar will give Stratasys an option to acquire the remaining 55 percent for at least $33m at some point over the next three years. In this case, Stratasys will pay Xaar 2 percent annually of the revenue associated with Xaar 3D for 15 years up to a total of $10m.
On top of this, both Xaar and Stratasys will invest more money into Xaar 3D, based on their ownership percentages. This works out as $1.79m from Xaar and $1.46m from Stratasys or a total of $3.25m. It’s important to note here that by the end of December 2018 Xaar 3D had gross assets of £13.1m and made a loss of £0.4m for 2018, which is hardly surprising since its still in the process of developing its main product, the HSS 3D printer. At the same time, Xaar 3D has signed a distribution agreement for its 3D printers with Stratasys, and an agreement to buy printheads from Xaar.
Both the share transactions and the further investments require approval from Xaar’s shareholders, which will mean a general meeting to be held at some point in the next 55 days or so.
Doug Edwards, Xaar’s CEO, says that this was a mutual decision from both companies, explaining: “We are keen to accelerate this, as are Stratasys, and based on being ahead of where they expected us to be at this point they were interested in increasing their ownership.”
He adds: “They are still the go-to-market muscle behind this and they were keen to get a controlling position at some point in the future. And we felt it was better to give them full control rather than just be a minority shareholder.”
Edwards confirms that there is a working HSS machine at a customer site, installed at the end of last year, and that it has produced working parts. There are currently five running machines with the plan being to release the machine commercially at the end of next year, presumably in time for Formnext 2020.
There are two aspects to this story. On the one hand, Stratasys appears more confident that Xaar’s High Speed Sintering machine will ultimately be successful. Stratasys is working on a lot of different technologies and HSS is only one of those but has advanced far enough for Stratasys to put up a little more money though clearly Stratasys is not confident enough to just buy the joint venture outright.
The other side of this is why is Xaar is selling off its 3D business, with the obvious speculation that this is to raise money or simply to balance its books. It’s too early to say since the company won’t report its figures until the end of this week. Xaar has delayed announcing its interim figures and it is tempting to link this delay with the sale of shares in the 3D business as evidence of deeper problems at Xaar.
But I think this would be unfair and that it’s too early to make such judgements. Edwards says that the delay in announcing the figures was due to finalising the arrangements with Stratasys and completing a review of the thin film business.
He also makes a very good argument that Stratasys has a better market position in the additive manufacturing world and is able to commercialise this technology in a way that Xaar alone couldn’t. So selling the 3D business at a profit complete with a contract to continue supplying it with printheads is a reasonably good outcome, regardless of whatever else is happening at Xaar. In any case I’ll revisit this story next week when all the figures are announced.


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NEW DELHI: Microsoft
launched its first flagship smartphones on the Windows 10 operating system - Lumia 950
and Lumia 950 XL
- in India.
The company expects the premium category devices
, priced at Rs 43,699 and Rs 49,399 to aggregate the adoption of Windows 10, which is now being used in 110 million devices across the world, after launching globally in July.
"We see our phones as driver of our strategy and an integral part of growing the Windows ecosystem," Microsoft India Chairman Bhaskar Pramanik said.
The LTE enabled Lumia 950 comes with a 5.2-inch QHD display, Snapdragon 808 hexa-core processor, and 3GB of RAM, and shares other features like 20-megapixel rear camera with triple-LED flash, 4K video recording capabilities, 5-megapixel selfie camera, 3,340mAh battery with Wireless Charging and Qualcomm’s QuickCharge support, with its larger variant Lumia 950 XL.
The phones will be available for pre-ordet beginning today on Amazon.in and will be up for sale from December 11 through major retail chains including Croma, Sangeetha and Reliance.
Microsoft also launched Continuum, which allows a television or PC screen to be used like Windows 10 PC.
The company launched Helo
for Lumia, in beta stage, which unlocks phone by scanning the iris.


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The Manc partners with Deliveroo to help local restaurants deliver during lockdown
Are you #StillServingMCR? We've partnered with Deliveroo to ensure you get the help you need.
It goes without saying that 2020 has been an absolute horror show of a year.
The coronavirus pandemic has battered both the bodies and minds of millions of people across the country and stop-start lockdowns have driven thousands of businesses into the ground.
In Manchester this is no different.
Some of our most beloved bars and restaurants closed their doors for the last time during the first lockdown, and many others decided that they just couldn’t continue when restrictions eventually loosened. Then, when the government imposed a 10pm curfew on hospitality, the camel’s back was well and truly broken.
One thing, however, about Greater Manchester’s small business industry, is that it’s filled with individuals who will put up a fight no matter the opponent – and over the last six months the city has proven time and time again that it is one durable bastard.
So when Lockdown 2.0 began on Thursday 5 November, following a second wave of coronavirus infections and rising hospital admissions across the country, the city’s hospitality industry was prepared for another round of boxing clever.
And this time, Deliveroo was there early to provide bars and restaurants with more visibility than ever – bringing more Manchester vendors than ever to the platform and providing plenty of deals to tempt hungry punters into ordering from their favourite haunts.
So in order to amplify that visibility for our city’s businesses who have had to once again fall back on a delivery service, we’ve decided to partner with the online food delivery company.
Working alongside Deliveroo, The Manc will ensure all restaurants on the service will get the amplification they need across our social platforms. We’ll update our 1-million strong audience on your latest updates and deals and we’ll create conversations with the masses about our favourite scran from your menus. Basically, we will champion you, and we will go above and beyond to do it.
For the remainder of the lockdown, and slightly beyond, we will pedal your establishments as much as physically possible. We’ll write content, we’ll post stories, we’ll create grid carousels, we’ll retweet you, and more importantly, we’ll be available for a chat whenever you need one (our DMs and emails are always open).
And to those who aren’t on Deliveroo, don’t worry. Use the #StillServingMCR hashtag on your socials so ourselves, and our audience, can find you.
Let’s get through this second, and hopefully last, lockdown one step at a time. 2020 is almost behind us, and we can’t wait to see you all in the summer.


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The rooftop lounge features a heated pool, Jacuzzi, daybeds and cabanas, and a large video screen. According to a press release, an extended lineup of seasonal events at the lounge will be announced soon, including fashion shows, holiday celebrations, and college and pro football watch parties. One popular promo currently offered is $5 domestics and game-day cocktail specials for Arizona State football games on the bar's big screen.
The Skysill Rooftop Lounge is open Mondays through Thursdays from 4 to 10 p.m., Friday from 4 to 11 p.m., Saturday from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.
A Modern-American concept restaurant, Terra Tempe Kitchen & Spirits, opened on the ground floor of the Westin Tempe on August 11. The restaurant serves breakfast from 6:30 to 10 a.m., lunch from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., and dinner from 5 to 10 p.m. with extended hours on the weekends.
Both the ground-floor restaurant and the rooftop bar will be helmed by Chef Alexander Robinson, who has more than 20 years experience in the luxury hotel scene, including stints at Royal Palms and We-Ko-Pa Resorts in Scottsdale.
The Terra Tempe Kitchen & Spirits menu culls tastes from a variety of cultures, including Spanish, Native American, Mexican, and early American. The dinner menu has shared plates, soups and salads, and fish, chicken and beef dishes. Baked huarache, a Mexican dish of masa dough, pinto beans, salsa, onions, potato, cilantro and a protein like beef or chicken, and topped with queso fresco, is one of the most-requested menu items. Huaraches are like sopes and tlacoyos, but are a different shape.


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After an exceedingly busy news week, it’s beginning to feel like the pioneering streaming service and the stalwart premium cable channel are playing their own “Game of Thrones.” Both have distinct advantages and disadvantages, especially when it comes to programming, where Netflix and HBO are in more direct competition than ever before. Let’s break down this heavyweight bout category by category:
Original Programming: HBO
Netflix is coming on strong, with “The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” (March 6) and “Bloodline” (March 20) soon to join popular titles such as “House of Cards” and “Orange is the New Black.” But after the disastrous “Marco Polo,” it’s clear that the streaming service has yet to tap into the zeitgeist with a series as opulent, soapy, and surprising as HBO’s mega-hit “Game of Thrones.” Toss in provocative comedies (“Girls,” “Togetherness,” “Looking,” “Veep“), the underrated, utterly depressing “The Leftovers,” and “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver,” one of television’s best series, and you’ve got a stacked lineup—and that’s without considering a back catalogue filled such enduring classics as “Sex and the City,” “The Sopranos,” “Six Feet Under,” and “The Wire.” With a twenty-year head start, HBO has the clear advantage in this category. Oh, and did I mention a little show called “True Detective”?
Nonfiction Films: HBO
With the news that Leonardo DiCaprio is partnering with Netflix to produce a feature-length documentary as well as a nonfiction series focused on conservation and the environment—continuing a relationship that began with Oscar-nominated doc “Virunga”—the company once again seems to be gaining ground on its older competitor. But HBO Docs czar Sheila Nevins, whose keen eye “The Case Against 8” co-director Ryan White described in an interview last fall, has made the premium channel the place for filmmakers to pursue projects that might otherwise go unseen or unmade. From Andrew Jarecki’s extraordinary nonfiction mystery “The Jinx” and Laura Poitras’ Oscar-winning “Citizenfour” to Alex Gibney’s Scientology exposé “Going Clear” and Matthew Akers’ idiosyncratic portrait “Marina Abramovic: The Artist is Present,” HBO may be the foremost driver of nonfiction filmmaking in the United States, and Netflix is unlikely to change that anytime soon.
Fiction Films: Netflix
Having paid $12 million for director Cary Fukunaga’s upcoming “Beasts of No Nation,” starring Idris Elba—and having shrugged off the four major exhibitors who immediately announced plans to boycott the film—Netflix is clearly a real player in film distribution beyond the smaller, nonfiction projects noted above. As TOH!’s Anne Thompson and Ryan Lattanzio point out, this comes on the heels of the streaming service’s pick-up of “Crouching Tiger 2” and a four-movie deal with Adam Sandler, all masterminded by content chief Ted Sarandos. Add to this the company’s deep, ever-evolving catalogue of film titles, and Netflix wins this round in a walk. Sure, Netflix has blind spots when it comes to fiction films—the rarities that made cinephiles such fans of the service back in the DVD-by-mail days rarely make it to streaming. But despite the heavy-hitting slate produced by HBO Films, and the fact that movies were once the channel’s bread and butter, HBO has a much less exciting presence in this area for its subscribers than Netflix does. Unless you’re interested in seeing “The Great Gatsby” again, that is.
HBO is smart to partner with Apple for the April launch of its $15/month streaming service HBO Now, timed to coincide with the season premiere of “Game of Thrones.” The tech wizards in Cupertino may help ward off the bugs that plagued last year’s highly anticipated “True Detective” finale on HBO Go, a scenario that probably leaves HBO execs in a cold sweat considering the importance of “Game of Thrones” to the subscriber base. Despite the fact that HBO Now has been labeled “the biggest challenge yet to the so-called cable bundle,” per the International Business Times, Netflix still has the advantage here, having ironed out most of the kinks in its crisp web interface and useful proprietary algorithm (the recent “House of Cards” leak notwithstanding). At $8.99/month for unlimited streaming, and with increasing commitment to genres, such as the sitcom, that HBO traditionally avoids, Netflix may well be the better value for some viewers.
By the slightest of margins, HBO’s formidable brand gives it the edge over Netflix, though HBO will have to remain vigilant as the streaming service continues to use its cash reserves to buy up juicy content. In the end, HBO’s era-defining tagline encapsulates the dramatic changes in the model for film and television production, distribution, and exhibition, and if the debut of HBO Now goes off without a hitch, the motto will ring true once more. “It’s not TV. It’s HBO.”


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Cincinnati-based John Morrell and Co. is recalling over 210,000 pounds of ready-to-eat hot dogs because they may be contaminated with metal, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Saturday.
According to the agency, at least three consumers complained of finding metal objects in their packages, although no injuries were reported. The products have been sold in stores across the country.
The recall covers Curtis Beef Master Beef Franks, with a “Use By” date of June 15, 2017, and Nathan`s Skinless 8 Beef Franks with a “Use By” date of Aug. 19, 2017. They’re also marked with the establishment number “EST. 296” on the side of the package.
Consumers who have them are advised to throw them out or return them to the store where they were purchased.


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A hungry mum was left fuming after claiming her McChicken Sandwich came with a huge bite taken out of it.
Nadia Johnson ordered her lunch from the drive-thru of McDonald's Bulwell branch in Nottingham.
She was stunned to see someone had appeared to have already got started on her meal on Saturday - and went back to complain.
McDonald's bosses launched an investigation after she said her burger arrived with a 'bite mark' in it - but say they found no evidence of wrong-doing by a member of staff.
The 21-year-old told the NottinghamPost that she wasn't even offered a refund.
She was swiftly given a McChicken Sandwich Meal replacement and a complimentary McFlurry - but says she was not offered her money back after tracking down the manager.
She said: "The burger came obviously with the bite mark in it with lettuce and mayo.
"It wasn't even my order that I ordered.
"It made me feel sick, in the nicest way possible I could not even eat my burger that they gave me afterwards."
McDonald's officials reviewed CCTV footage and said there was no suggestion any of its staff had bitten into any of the burger.
They looked videos before the time she arrived at the branch and the chain said no team member was seen to have acted inappropriately.
A spokesman for McDonald’s said: “We place great importance on food accuracy and it’s disappointing when these standards aren’t met.
"We’d encourage any customer to raise their order concerns with our Customer Services Team who will always endeavour to try and find a satisfactory resolution.”
Her boyfriend Braden Bradford, 25, says it put him off eating at the restaurant.
"It was just a really bad experience to be honest - she couldn't eat her food, she lost her appetite," he said.


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Guwahati: BJP ruled Assam on Friday became the first state to ratify the constitutional amendment bill on goods and services tax (GST) in the Assam assembly.
Assam finance minister Himanta Biswa Sarma who tabled the bill on Friday told reporters, “Assam assembly has taken the lead in ratifying the historic GST bill.”
He said, “Assam will be benefited from the GST as it is expected to accelerate growth by one per cent besides better revenue collections.”
The new tax regime seeks to subsume all central indirect levies like excise duty, countervailing duty and service tax, as also state taxes such as value added tax, entry tax and luxury tax, to create a single, pan-India market.
Pointing out that alcohol, cigarette and petroleum products - the products that together contribute hugely to the state’s revenue has been kept out of GST, Mr Sarma said that once the GST council comes to existence, it would also be taking decision on tea.
The tea industry however was sceptical about the new tax regime. The industry has been pleading that tea is the common man’s beverage and, therefore, it should be put in the lowest slab of GST.
Sharma however said that he was not sure as to what the GST council is going to propose for the tea industry. “Let GST council be formed. We will certainly take up the issue if it is going to harm the interest of the industry,” he said that new GST regime would help in streamlining the tax structure of the country....


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Applebee’s, the restaurant chain, has filed an application with the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to protect the phrase NO TECH TUESDAYS as a trademark. The application applies to the following services (beware – trademark law involves a lot of capital letters): RESTAURANT AND BAR SERVICES, INCLUDING RESTAURANT CARRYOUT SERVICES. But has Applebee’s damaged its chances at a trademark registration with statements made about the application to the press?
The application was initially filed on March 28, but the news has only recently gotten around. Naturally, there have been some questions about how they intend to use this mark. Bloomberg Businessweek reported:
“Guests are welcome to use as much or as little tech as they want,” says Applebee’s spokesman Dan Smith. “Like many brands, we file many phrases for protection. There’s absolutely zero percent linkage between No Tech Tuesday and anything in the restaurant.”
OK, so I can still use my iPad while enjoying my Apple Chimicheesecake, what’s the big deal?
The USPTO application was filed on an Intent-to-Use basis. This means, as you might imagine, that the applicant intends to use the mark in commerce, but isn’t doing so yet. The key here is that there must be a bona fide intent to use the mark in commerce. Intent-to-use applications were not created so that companies could stake a claim on every combination of letters and numbers that they find appealing (that’s what domain names are for).
As this Law360 article notes, the USPTO’s Trademark Trial and Appeal Board has recently been giving more scrutiny to Intent-to-Use applications and the bona fide intent requirement. Citing several recent precedential decisions, the author, Judith Grubner, states:
These decisions also signal that the TTAB is becoming increasingly more sympathetic to oppositions based on a lack of bona fide intent and, for an applicant to prevail, the TTAB requires proof of some type of business or product development plan or ongoing activities existing at the time the application is filed.
Let’s review the statement from Applebee’s spokesman Dan Smith: “Like many brands, we file many phrases for protection. There’s absolutely zero percent linkage between No Tech Tuesday and anything in the restaurant.”
Does this signal a lack of bona fide intent to use the mark in commerce? This looks like a classic case of the company’s public relations department not consulting with their legal counsel before making a public statement. If I was Applebee’s trademark attorney, I’d be scrambling for a retraction or revision of that statement.


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Identity fraud victims left on the hook for big Klarna bills: Crooks exploiting buy-now, pay-later firm's 'soft checks' to steal high-priced goods
- Klarna has amassed millions of customers by allowing interest-free payments
- It asks for names, emails, addresses, phone numbers and a method of payment
- The lender also has ‘200 fraud security experts monitoring systems 24/7’
- Ministers plan to force BNPL lenders to report to credit reference agencies
Harsha Vaja was mystified when three parcels arrived at her home in November.
Her daughter, Rupal, was not expecting any orders. However, Rupal’s name and another, ‘Arron Gayle’, were printed on the labels.
Minutes later, a man in his 20s turned up introducing himself as Arron, claiming his parcels were delivered to 60-year-old Harsha’s SouthEast London home by mistake
Growing threat: Identity theft soared 22% last year with 226,000 cases recorded in total, according to fraud prevention organisation Cifas
But it’s likely he was a fraudster who used Rupal’s details to apply for credit with the world’s biggest buy-now, pay-later (BNPL)lender.
Klarna sent four threatening letters to Rupal in January, demanding £1,083 and warning a debt collection agency could be assigned.
The civil servant, 31, quickly made the link between the letters and the parcels. Klarna wrote off the debt, realising the purchases were fraudulent, and said Rupal’s credit score would not be affected.
But Rupal feels ‘violated when I think about how my details were used by criminals’, adding: ‘Klarna’s checks clearly weren’t good enough.’
Rupal is a victim of identity theft — which soared 22 pc last year with 226,000 cases recorded in total, according to fraud prevention organisation, Cifas.
Klarna has amassed millions of customers by allowing shoppers to postpone payments interest-free.
It uses ‘soft credit checks’ — asking for names, emails, addresses, phone numbers and a valid method of payment to access its ‘Pay in 3’ service.
The lender also has ‘200 fraud security experts monitoring systems 24/7’. Ministers plan to force BNPL lenders to report to credit reference agencies. Klarna has been providing customer data to these firms, voluntarily, for a month.
But experts are concerned the lender is not doing enough to confirm identities. Consumer champion Martyn James says: ‘Fraudsters will always exploit loopholes in security checks, so Klarna is potentially setting itself up for a tidal wave of fraud.’
In another case, Wil Lloyd was planning a wedding with fiance Adrian when Klarna claimed he owed it £479.41 for clothes.
The lawyer called the lender immediately after letters arrived at his London home in June.
Although the debt was cancelled, he was irritated by the ‘nonchalant tone’ of Klarna’s staff.
Wil, 37, says: ‘It just sounded as if this was something they dealt with all the time.’
A Klarna spokesman claims it receives ‘less than half’ as many fraud reports as a credit or debit card firm would. He says the lender is investigating Rupal and Wil’s cases, adding: ‘Fraud is an industry wide issue.
‘Klarna’s fraud policy ensures customers never pay for purchases they did not make and we treat every case as an opportunity to further improve our systems.’


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“Ban on combustion engines not as ambitious as it looks”
Jobs in danger
Unsupportive car makers
The traditional car makers also slow down the arrival of the electric car. The German manufacturers in particular aren’t too keen to wave the diesel goodbye. Daimler for instance confirmed only yesterday its confidence in the diesel.
Volkswagen on the other hand meanwhile developed a new platform for electric cars. But it is unclear where the Germans will get their batteries.
A recent survey of ING revealed only three per cent of the worldwide battery market is in European hands. With 86 per cent Asia is leader, followed by North America (10 per cent). And they will need their batteries for their own cars.
There are signs that the combustion engine and especially the diesel could be buried before the announced data. England shows a trend towards less diesel cars with a loss of 10 per cent in sales in the first half of the year. On the other hand, sales of hybrids went up by 30 per cent. And more cities plan to ban the diesel.
And there’s an even more important factor. In a few years electric driving will be cheaper. The battery prices are tumbling down fast and by the end of the decade the production of an electric car will be cheaper than a comparable diesel car.
The break-even point for petrol cars is expected somewhere after 2025. By then it is assumed that the consumer will chose for the electric car being it as a shared car or an autonomous car.
Supposedly the market will precede the politic decision making. Therefor the British measure seems a powerful statement, but might be redundant by that time.


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A conservative think tank called on New York State lawmakers Monday to strip $1 billion in tax and fee increases from Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s budget.
Reclaim New York’s executive director Brandon Muir said at a news conference in Hauppauge that the proposed budget would increase the cost of living by expanding sales tax collections on online purchases to raise $75 million and instituting a health insurance “windfall profit tax” to raise $140 million and a $127 million tax on opioids.
“Gov. Cuomo calls these ‘revenue enhancers.’ It sounds like a joke, but people actually have to pay these revenue enhancers to the government,” Muir said outside the H. Lee Dennison building.
The Cuomo administration defended the new taxes as targeted to specific industries — pharmaceuticals, which it said contributes to the state’s opioid epidemic, and health insurers that are seeing a windfall from federal corporate tax cuts.
And expansion of online tax collections would level the playing field between brick and mortar stores and online retailers that don’t collect sales tax, said Morris Peters, a spokesman for the state Budget Division.
“We’re protecting retailers in your neighborhood from being undercut on price by making sure taxes are applied consistently across the board,” Peters said in an email.
Muir called the proposed opioid tax, “the most disgusting tax” because it would increase the cost of painkillers, while earmarking only a portion of the revenues for drug and alcohol treatment.
The proposed surcharge — $.02 per milligram prescribed — would be imposed on opioid manufacturers if they are headquartered in New York and, if not, on distributors. Drugstores would be exempt.
Scott Reif, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan (R-East Northport), said he agreed with Reclaim New York.
“Hardworking Long Island taxpayers pay more than enough already,” Reif said.
A vote on the Senate’s budget is likely Wednesday, although the deadline for a final budget is April 1.
At the news conference, Barry Cowen, owner of a Farmingdale pump manufacturer, criticized the state’s business climate.
“It’s very difficult being in the worst state in the country,” he said.


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At first glance, the maker of Cheerios and Cocoa Puffs might not fit the image of a cutting-edge venture capital investor.
But with the food business moving to healthier offerings and online distribution, General Mills has created a venture capital unit that recently led a $3 million investment in Rhythm Superfoods, a specialty start-up that makes kale chips and broccoli crisps.
General Mills, based in Minneapolis, is part of an increasing number of old-economy companies, including the convenience chain 7-Eleven and the Campbell Soup Company, that have joined a crowd of technology companies to create venture capital funds. Through them, they scout for new products or services and promising potential business partners.
Their moves have accompanied a surge and recent crest in the valuations of many venture capital-backed start-ups. Critics say the corporate-run funds have contributed to inflated valuations for start-ups, and some funds have begun selling stakes even as they face reduced valuations on some holdings.
Reports recently surfaced that Intel’s fund, the largest of its kind, might sell up to $1 billion of its holdings as it narrows its strategy under its chief executive, Brian M. Krzanich.
With valuations of many young, private companies faltering as interest in initial public offerings of stock has waned, corporate venture investing faces a test.
“I think some of the corporate V.C. will get a little less enamored as the venture market goes from euphoria into a little more normal period,” said J. Sanford Miller, a general partner at Institutional Venture Partners in Menlo Park, Calif.
After Petition, Greg Louganis Gets His Wheaties Box APRIL 4, 2016
Since 2011, the number of companies making venture capital investments has risen 79 percent, to 801 globally, according to Global Corporate Venturing, a data provider. The ranks include Verizon Ventures, Volvo Group Venture Capital, Chevron Venture Capital, Pfizer Venture Investments and Blue Cross Blue Shield Venture Partners.
Even as total venture capital investment more than doubled from 2011 to 2015, to $58.8 billion, the amount invested by corporate venture funds quadrupled to $7.6 billion in the same period, according to the National Venture Capital Association. Corporate funds make up 12.9 percent share of the total, the highest since 2000.
As a sign of how start-up valuations have waxed and waned, the size of the median late-stage fund-raising roughly tripled from 2012 to 2015, but it has fallen by 23 percent so far this year, according to Global Corporate Venturing.
For many company funds, financial gain is less important than finding the next big idea.
Arvind Sodhani, who led Intel’s venture unit for 10 years, until mid-2015, said corporate venture investing has grown partly because of interest by chief executives. “C.E.O.s who are worried they’re going to get disrupted want to have an outpost in Silicon Valley to discern where the disruption is coming from,” he said.
Such corporate funds have “clearly been driving up valuations,” he added.
For General Mills, which has also invested in the plant-based food maker Beyond Meat and two other start-ups, the venture capital fund is a way to keep pace with the growing number of small food brands that have found consumer success, especially online.
“The traditional consumer packaged goods model of big advertising budgets, trade leverage and scale — a lot of those factors have been neutralized by these small brands,” said John Haugen, who heads the General Mills venture fund after managing brands such as Nature Valley, Yoplait and Hamburger Helper. Emerging brands, he added, “have alternative pathways to market online.”
Technology companies pioneered corporate venture funds 30 years ago, followed by media, finance and health care companies. The two giants of the field are Intel, with stakes estimated by outsiders of more than $5 billion in more than 400 companies, and Google, now Alphabet, which has a $2.4 billion venture fund called GV with more than 300 investments.
Comcast Ventures invests in companies it can later introduce to its cable and broadcast television customers. In 2009 and 2011, it took stakes in iControl Networks, a broadband home security and energy management service, and it later offered it to its customers through Xfinity Home.
Comcast’s portfolio also includes stakes in DocuSign, Birchbox and TiVo, as well as FanDuel, the fantasy sports betting site. Comcast introduced FanDuel to its NBC broadcast TV unit and its large customer base of sports fans.
Other corporate venture funds acknowledge that their growing ranks have pushed up private company valuations. “In the last few years, there has been more and more corporate V.C. money coming in, and I do think that’s had an impact on valuations,” said Rob Salvagno, head of corporate development at Cisco Investments, which has $2 billion of stakes in 100 companies and 40 venture funds.
Some funds have had bubble-style returns — as well as bubble-style losses. Qualcomm, a maker of chips for mobile phones, participated in a $25 million early-stage funding round for Waze, a crowd-sourced traffic application, in 2010. When Waze was acquired by Google for about $1 billion in 2013, Qualcomm’s return was 10 times its investment.
But some of Qualcomm’s investments have struggled, too. It invested $5 million in the fitness device maker Fitbit in 2013 and had a paper profit of about 20 times its cost after Fitbit’s initial public offering in mid-2015. However, Fitbit shares have since come back to earth, falling 67 percent from their post-I.P.O. peak in August.
Qualcomm is prepared to invest through downturns because such stakes offer a ringside seat for “the next generation of disruptive innovation around our mobile core,” said Brian Modoff, who oversees strategy, mergers and acquisitions and ventures for the company.
Microsoft is renewing a venture investing push, hiring Nagraj Kashyap, the former head of Qualcomm Ventures, in January. The software giant was a big investor in tech and telecommunications companies in 1999 and 2000, but after losing about $5 billion from such investments in the three years that ended in mid-2003, it curtailed the effort in favor of more acquisitions.
Venture investments have mushroomed recently at Salesforce, a maker of customer relations software, which began investing in 2009. Since 2011, Salesforce has increased its investments to $505 million, from $27 million. Five of its 150 companies have had I.P.O.s, and another seven or eight are waiting in the wings.
Salesforce was one of five named participants in a $350 million investment in the cloud-storage start-up Dropbox in January 2014 that valued the company at $10 billion. Recently, however, one mutual fund investor that was part of the same investor group cut its valuation of Dropbox to less than $5 billion.
John Somorjai, executive vice president of corporate development and Salesforce Ventures at Salesforce, said that he did not agree that corporate venture funds have helped inflate valuations. Prices for most investments are set by the traditional venture capital firms that lead the deals, not by the corporate participants, he said.
As for Dropbox, Mr. Somorjai called it “a very small investment.” Salesforce does try to reflect such fluctuations in valuing its holdings, but “no single investment is going to move the needle,” he added.
Sue Siegel, the chief executive General Electric’s GE Ventures, said the company got into venture investing in 2013 to identify up-and-coming entrepreneurs in the health care and energy industries. She added that G.E. planned to stick with venture investing in the current valuation downturn. “When you have these down cycles, it’s a wonderful time for us to look.”


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Mounting difficulties may lead half of Vietnam textile-garment firms to bankruptcy
Some importers from US and EU, major markets for Vietnam’s textile and garment industry, have stopped orders within three to four weeks on Covid-19 pandemic.
Vietnam textile-garment firms are facing mounting difficulties from shortage of input materials to lower demand from some export markets, which could cause half of the number of enterprises in the industry to go bankrupt.
General Director Than Duc Viet of Vietnam’s leading textile manufacturer May 10 said the US market makes up 40 – 45% of the company’s exports, followed by the EU with 33 – 40%.
However, as a number of importers from the US and EU have stopped orders of Vietnam’s textile and garment products from three to four weeks due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the company is facing severe consequences, not to mention the current issue of lacking input materials for production.
In addition to supporting policies such as lowering of interest rates and rescheduling of debt payment, Viet suggested the government subsidize parts of workers’ salaries for companies operating in labor-intensive industries such as garment and footwear.
Phi Ngoc Trinh, general director of Ho Guom Garment Company, said many orders have been canceled, while some are facing delay in delivery due to export difficulties.
Trinh said the company is still looking for solutions at the moment. “Major export markets for Vietnam’s textile and garment products are struggling with the Covid-19 pandemic, leading to a plunge in demand,” Trinh added.
Echoing Trinh’s view, Vice General Director Nguyen Dinh Lap of Truong Phuc Hung Yen Company said a sudden disruption of export to the US and EU markets put local enterprises in a difficult situation.
Lap added the company is scaling down operations until the pandemic is over, but it still pays 70% of normal salaries for employees. If the Covid-19 pandemic persists for a longer period, enterprises may have to stop operation, or even face bankruptcy.
Vice President of Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (VITAS) Truong Van Cam said enterprises are trying to keep their businesses running at the moment, but without substantial support from the government, it is hard for them to survive through this difficult period.
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This is the first photo of the Toyota CH-R concept, which will make its debut at the 2014 Paris motor show next month. According to reports, the vehicle is expected to be the concept precursor to Toyota’s Nissan Qashqai rival, poised to debut in production form sometime next year.
The Qashqai‘s been a massive sales success for Nissan. Since its debut in 2006 it almost singlehandedly redefined the family car segment in Europe. Previous wagon and SUV owners flocked to the new crossover, which promised — and delivered — a commanding driving position and inherent practicality without sacrificing fuel economy or style. Rivals were left scampering for a product to fill the niche. And that’s what we’ll see in Paris, if this dark image of the Toyota C-HR concept is anything to go by.
Toyota says the C-HR concept vehicle is the company’s “innovative vision for a compact crossover model”. We’re not sure what the name itself means, but we like the overall silhouetted shape of the concept car and what we’re able to make out of its head and taillamp designs. They look very conceptual. And that’s what we like to see on concepts…
According to Toyota, the C-HR concept “combines a powerful new design language with an engaging driving experience and a hybrid powertrain”. That sounds very good indeed. But we’ve been promised the world before and been let down. Is it even possible to have an engaging driver’s car that’s frugal and good looking in this day and age?


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On March 14th PT Telkom Indonesia (Persero) Tbk, Indonesia's largest telecoms company, posted a 12% rise in net attributable profit to Rp32.7trn (US$2.4bn) in 2017. The majority state-owned company's revenue in the year ended December 31st rose by 10% to Rp128.3trn.
Revenue was boosted by higher demand for data, as well as other internet and IT operations. Telkom Indonesia noted a sharp rise in smartphone usage and subscriptions for its IndiHome (fibre) and ICT Solutions services last year.
The Indonesian operator's operating and maintenance expenses rose by 17%, indicating heavy investment in mobile and fixed-line infrastructure. Its mobile unit, Telkomsel, benefited from the rising popularity of smartphones in the country, posting an 8% rise in revenue to Rp93.2trn. The mobile-phone penetration rate in Indonesia, estimated at 140 per 100 people in 2017, is now on par with other countries in the Asia-Pacific region.
Data consumption accounted for over 40% of Telkomsel's total revenue in 2017. The company, which now offers LTE services across 490 cities, had 196.3m customers at the end of last year. Last year, Telkomsel shared plans to invest Rp14.8trn in LTE network coverage in 2018.


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Wicklow Naturally’s October Feast is a month-long celebration of Wicklow’s food and drinks story, including farming, foraging, brewing, distilling, and much more.
October is traditionally the end of the harvest, so it is the perfect month to showcase Wicklow Naturally’s members’ unique selection of food and drink.
Wicklow Naturally’s Chairperson, Pamela Walsh, said, “We aim to build on last year’s success, with the 2021 event bursting with flavour with over 30 in-person and virtual events. We have created engaging, inclusive, and memorable events so that attendees can enjoy all that our excellent members have to offer.”
Throughout October, we’ll celebrate Wicklow’s thriving food & drink scene by showcasing our members’ range of products, diverse experiences and numerous interactive events.
Feed your appetite and fill your calendar with these delicious events… From hands-on masterclasses, learning about our farm-family sustainable stories, taking some of the country’s best distillery, beer, wine tasting tours, to cooking demonstrations, meeting the producer and heading out on guided foraging and mushroom hunts.
We’ll highlight the many hospitality and retail members’ who carry Wicklow Naturally’s products, as well as how they’ve partnered to use each other’s food in very innovative ways.
The network will also hold food waste, food poverty and environmental awareness initiatives.
Cathaoirleach of Wicklow County Council, Cllr Shay Cullen, said, “Combining the rich experience of in-person safe events and the reach and convenience of virtual events on offer, it’s the ideal format for the October Feast 2021 programme as it gives the attendees equally rewarding experiences. So why not explore, discover and get involved in the many events planned across County Wicklow this October by heading over to https://wicklownaturally.ie/events/.”
Be sure to stay up to date with the latest event news by following Wicklow Naturally on social media: https://www.facebook.com/WicklowNaturally/, https://twitter.com/WicklowNatural1, or https://www.instagram.com/wicklownaturally/.


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This should have happened more than a week ago, right?
Were people really going into Wawa and touching the screen and ordering food, paying at the register, and then walking out the door? No wonder an employee at the Aramingo location tested positive for COVID-19.
Wawa says they will be temporarily suspending their made-to-order food service in Philadelphia in an effort to limit crowds and encourage social distancing.
Officials tell Action News that the change went into effect at 42 Philadelphia Wawa stores starting Friday at 5 a.m.
“Following recent guidance from Philadelphia City officials, beginning March 27th, we are temporarily suspending built-to-order custom food service ordering in our Philadelphia stores. To help offset this temporary change, we are expanding our express offer of both hot and cold foods to include more options,” said Wawa in a statement.
The company said, although in-store ordering is suspended, Wawa hoagies are still available in all Philly stores as an express grab and go item.
This is for Philly stores only, but should be extended to every location, be it Jersey, Florida, Delaware, whatever. Why fuck around?
I just wonder how much this really helps, since they’re still going to be making hoagies and putting them in those express cases, where you find the pre-packaged salads and sandwiches and wraps. The idea is that people are spending less time in the store and keeping proper distance, but we should probably heed the advice of Negan from The Walking Dead and just shut that shit down:


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Jeffry Aronsson, the U.S. turnaround expert who took the reins as chief executive officer of Emanuel Ungaro SAS in June, is said to have left the designer firm.
The company said, “Mr. Aronsson is still the acting ceo of Ungaro.” But he has been in New York for several weeks and it is understood that he has returned for good to continue his work at Aronsson Group, his investment and consulting firm.
He had previously been shuttling back and forth between the firm’s Paris headquarters during the week and New York on the weekends, as he worked to set a new direction for the designer company.
Aronsson declined to comment Tuesday.
Consultants Marvin Traub and Mortimer Singer, as well as former Neiman Marcus Group head Burt Tansky, who joined Ungaro’s advisory committee after Aronsson took over the corner office, are also said to have ended their association with the company. Traub declined to comment and Tansky could not be reached.
The abbreviated tenure of Aronsson — who previously served as ceo at Donna Karan International, Marc Jacobs International and Oscar de la Renta — marks the end of another chapter in Ungaro’s rocky recent history.
Ungaro has been reenvisioned by a revolving door of designers since entrepreneur Asim Abdullah acquired the brand from Salvatore Ferragamo in 2005. Most famously, former president Mounir Moufarrige tapped tabloid sensation Lindsay Lohan as artistic director. But the bid for a higher profile failed to leave a positive impression and Lohan’s collection, produced in collaboration with Estrella Archs, was widely panned.
Also taking turns at the atelier in recent years were Vincent Darré, Peter Dundas, Esteban Cortazar and Giles Deacon, who left the company in September.
With all the turnover, Ungaro has failed to gain traction in the marketplace and that has shown up in its financial results. Ungaro has seen losses and declining revenues in each of the past four years, according to the French commercial court.
Losses in 2010 tallied 6.3 million euros, or $8.4 million at the average exchange rate, while revenues weighed in at 4.7 million euros, or $6.2 million — a marked decline from revenues of 13.3 million euros, or $18.3 million, in 2007 when the company had more stores.
Over the last four years, the firm has posted total losses of 37.7 million euros, or $51.4 million, on sales of 36.4 million euros, or $49.6 million. The company’s head count fell to 36 people at the end of last year from 55 at the end of 2007.
Given licenses and wholesale accounts, the total retail sales of the brand would be much higher than the company’s own revenues.
It is unclear how long Abdullah will be willing to shoulder the losses even though the brand is seen as still having potential.
Ungaro, who trained at the house of Cristóbal Balenciaga, opened his fashion house in Paris in 1965 and won acclaim, expanding his business, launching men’s wear and then a fragrance. He sold the firm to Ferragamo in 1996, showed his last ready-to-wear collection in 2001 and retired three years later.
EXCLUSIVE: @tomford is opening its first-ever beauty store. The boutique, which opens November 20 in London’s Covent Gardens, was designed with the over-the-top glam Ford is known for. Read the full story on WWD.com, link in bio. #wwdbeauty #wwdnews (📷: Simon Wagner) #TomFordBeauty
New York-based DJ @harleyvnewton threw a party to celebrate the holiday collection of her dress and pajama line @hvn at the Ladurée Beverly Hills. It Girls @katebosworth, @rashidajones and more joined in on the fun, which included cocktails, croque monsieur sandwiches and a photo booth. #wwdfashion (📷: Owen Kolasinski/BFA.com)
For the holidays, @Burberry partnered with 20-year-old artist @blondeymccoy on a series of three outdoor murals in downtown Manhattan. The murals are McCoy’s interpretation of a Christmas eve party, the idea of charity and the spirit of family. His third mural, pictured here, is the most personal. The image depicts McCoy’s grandparents and father in London’s Trafalgar Square in the Seventies. “My work often features lots of sentimental objects.” #wwdeye
For spring 2018, designers applied bold colors and cartoonish motifs on everything from sneakers and belts to key chains. See all the top men’s accessories trends on WWD.com. #wwdtrends (📷: George Chinsee; Prop Styling by @rnasti; Market Editor: @luiscampuzano)
The @dior-sponsored @guggenheim international gala pre-party has a history of drawing cool-girl musical acts to serenade the crowd –– and last night was no exception. @haimtheband performed songs both new and old, and lured a star-studded audience with the likes of Rebecca Hall, Kate Mara, Mamoudou Athie and more. #wwdeye (📷: @lexieblacklock)
In a partnership between the @metopera and the @englishnationalopera, “Marnie” was born. The opera, with costumes sponsored by @mrporterlive, is an adaptation of the 1961 thriller by Winston Graham. Arianne Phillips, who created the costumes, is no rookie: She’s styled Madonna for her tours and created costumes for a myriad of films in the past. Read WWD’s interview with Phillips, where she talks about her inspiration for the opera’s costumes on WWD.com #wwdfashion
@barneysnyc took a different approach to their holiday windows this year. Instead of Christmas decor, Barneys tapped @thehaasbrothers to tell a story of positivity, gratitude and inclusivity via heartwarming silliness and humor. “It’s about kids and it’s about coming together and being family and loving each other,” said Simon Haas. #wwdfashion (📷: @joshuascottphoto)
Beauty influencer @kandeejohnson makes her foray into hair care with a collaboration with @ogx_beauty — making it the first time that OGX has teamed up for a product creation. The collab includes shampoos and conditioners in three scents. At 39 and a mom, Johnson is a different profile than the emerging social media stars, but is considered one of the pioneers of the digital beauty influencer world. Read WWD’s interview with her on wwd.com, including the strangest beauty product she’s ever tried #wwdbeauty