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- According to Mehboob Manji of Alyassin Appliances in Nairobi, demand for freezers peaked in March and April. This was the same for refrigerators.
- The 32-inch to 40-inch smart TVs were also best-sellers as consumers connected their meeting apps and home entertainment to the internet-enabled devices, Mr Manji says.
- One of the best-selling items at Hotpoint Appliances, an electronics dealer that saw increased traffic to its stores, is washing machines.
Many Kenyans have found a new appreciation for their homes and are even more interested than ever in making them comfortable and efficient in the pandemic.
So what home appliances have they been buying since March?
According to Mehboob Manji of Alyassin Appliances in Nairobi, demand for freezers peaked in March and April. This was the same for refrigerators.
The 32-inch to 40-inch smart TVs were also best-sellers as consumers connected their meeting apps and home entertainment to the internet-enabled devices, Mr Manji says.
One of the best-selling items at Hotpoint Appliances, an electronics dealer that saw increased traffic to its stores, is washing machines.
“During the initial stages of the pandemic, customers were purchasing fridges, freezers for stocking up food and washing machines,” said a Hotpoint representative.
The pandemic has brought with it a shift in consumer spending as home appliances that were initially slow-moving pick up the pace.
Sam Odhiambo, the head of consumer electronics division Samsung Electronics East Africa says that the increase in the purchase of smart home appliances can be attributed to the adoptions of the work-from-home model brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Smart home appliances make it easier for everyone from professionals to working mothers to maintain a happier, healthier home as they attempt to balance work and family life. As a result of consumer interaction and feedback in the Kenyan market we have decided to increase the consumer electronics available to this market,” said Mr Odhiambo.
Pre-Covid, many households were enjoying the assistance of nannies, cooks, and cleaners. Then coronavirus led to a decline in domestic help as some households restricted the number of people visiting and families started using their appliances more often. Others finally made a decision to buy them.
Nyaboke Onyambu is among those who opted for a washing machine when she stopped using cleaners.
For Wanjiru Mwangi, her cleaning lady was unavailable after being locked out of Nairobi when the Covid-19 restrictions were imposed. Rather than pick another cleaner, she settled on a washing machine.
The phenomenon is global. Data from research firm GfK—which collects sales data from over 70 countries—shows that home appliances have proven to be resilient during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“At around six percent, the global decline in sales in the first half of the year was very moderate compared with other sectors,” said Kai Hillebrandt, chairman of the supervisory board of gfu Consumer & Home Electronics GmbH.
“This development can be explained by the industry’s innovative strength and the fact that the home electronics segment can offer a large number of technical products for [email protected] that are in high demand during the crisis: From devices for home-based work and homeschooling ([email protected]) to products for all areas of the home— like entertainment ([email protected]), food preparation ([email protected]), cleaning, washing— as well as health care and well-being,” he said.
GfK data showed that in the first half of the year, freezer sales and food preparation were up by 24.8 percent.
“In the panic phase when lockdowns were being initiated, consumers stockpiled frozen food, driving the immediate need for freezers and this is reflected in the sales figures,” said GfK.
According to GfK’s Consumer Life survey, more than half (53 percent) of consumers globally are always looking for ways to simplify their life, especially when everything moved home.
“We have observed a 20 percent increase in demand. We believe the overall improved performance of this segment is attributed to an increasing preference for using smart electronics and appliances, the growing of living, and a growing middle-class,” said Haewoong Im, LG marketing manager.
According to Mr Im, in the last months, the electronics dealer saw an increase in the purchase of washing machines and televisions.
“Most of our customers visiting our dealers and retail outlets say they are seeking electronics that will bring the cinema-like experience in their homes,” he added.
This is in line with the global trend where consumers adjusted to life in lockdown thus creating the need for home entertainment. With restricted movement, there was also a shift to e-commerce.
“We have had to revamp our e-commerce platforms to align with government regulations as well as keep abreast of the evolving global e-commerce sector,” said Mr Im.
He adds: “The coronavirus pandemic has made terms like “social distancing” and “stay at home” part of everyday lingo. Nevin Francis, GfK expert for the TCG industry explains “over the last few months there was a clear demand shift from “want” to “need” at the onset of the pandemic. The ‘at home’ experiences namely ‘office at home’, ‘eat at home’, ‘entertain at home’, and ‘clean at home’ kept the market going. The underlying trends that remained crucial even for these “at-home” experiences were performance, simplification, borderless shopping, and health and hygiene.”
Beyond home appliances, Kenyans have been splurging on computers, laptops, and smartphones.
The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) revealed that the value of the imports surged by more than half to Sh8.01 billion in four months of the Covid-19 lockdown.
GfK data shows that the technology and office sector grew by a steady 15 percent in value in March and 15 percent in April 2020.
This has been attributed to the fact that at the onset of the Panic phase, the most basic need was for continuity of work and education.


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Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi on Wednesday said that there is no need to panic over onion price as there is adequate stock.
“Our country has a demand of 1 million tonnes of onion till next season. In contrast, we have about 600,000 tonnes. There is shortage of 400,000 tonnes,” he said at a press briefing on onion stocks, supply and price situation at the secretariat.
Minister Munshi said there will be a bit problem as onion import has been suddenly stopped from India. The government is trying to bring onion from other markets.
“Onion will be brought from other countries including Turkey, Holland in the next 30 days. Then there will be no more problem,” he said.
Munshi said unscrupulous traders have taken advantage of the fact as India has stopped exporting onion. Consumers are also buying more onion which is creating panic.
“Don’t panic. We’ll take action against dishonest traders,” he said.
Meanwhile, the government has decided to import onion from multiple sources to ensure adequate supply in the local markets. Steps are already being taken to bring onion from Turkey and Egypt, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
The consignments are expected to reach Chittagong port early next month.
Dhaka has requested Delhi to withdraw its export ban as soon as possible. Bangladesh expects a positive outcome in this regard soon, State Minister for Foreign Affairs M Shahriar Alam said Tuesday.
India on Monday prohibited the export of all varieties of onion except in cut, sliced or powdered form.

domain: news


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OPKO Health Inc. (NASDAQ:OPK) has recently announced some of the big things, that are coming ahead in this fiscal quarter. One of which, involved details about the hiring of a new Chief Commercial Officer.
The second big news, which the company released, was regarding the trial run of its annual injections, which were manufactured for the treatment of Osteoarthritis.
More details about the treatment injections for Osteoarthritis
The injection drug itself has been called Enko by the company and serves as a once-a-year intra-articular injectable, which has been designed specifically for the prohibition of Osteoarthritis. This injection will allegedly be able to aid with various aches and pains, when it comes to joint pain, and other similar Osteoarthritis symptoms.
Enko has an extensive market opportunity, due to the drugs used in the manufacturing process, which on a global scale, is worth a market of $2 billion. According to various release notes, which have been set out by the company, Enko 1, will be released as a Class III medical device. Furthermore, it was also revealed that the primary target market for the drug, will be with nations throughout the European Union.
There are many who believe that this drug, in particular, will be successful in terms of a revenue basis on behalf of the company, this is because it is an effective treatment, which only requires one injection per year.
Who will be the next Chief Commercial Officer for OPKO Health
The next big news for OPKO Health was a little closer to the company’s core hierarchy. Effective immediately OPKO Health has announced that they are promoting Thomas Nusbickel to Chief Commercial Officer for the Renal Health division of the firm.
As part of his responsibilities, Nusbickel will still be responsible for co-ordinating the launch and sale of drugs, such as RAYALDEE. Furthermore, it was revealed that through this position, Nusbickel will be responsible for commercial activities, which extends to sales, marketing, and market access.


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What to watch for in TV advertising’s 2023 upfront market
TV advertising’s traditional upfront model withstood the pandemic, but it’s not immune to the recent economic downturn — which has TV networks eying options to update the upfront model.
The video below outlines how the TV ad market has fared since last year’s upfront cycle and how TV networks are considering changing up the upfront model in 2023. Referring to one option on the table, a TV network said, “That is a big change. That is a big change.” Watch the video to see what they’re referring to.
TelevisaUnivision’s Donna Speciale sees TV’s measurement shift shoring up underrepresentation issue
The Hispanic-centric TV network has seen its core audience undercounted by measurement panels by as much as 35%, Speciale said in the latest Digiday Podcast.
How YouTube is mixing up the TV ad market
Now that YouTube has become the streaming service people spend the most time watching on TV screens, it’s becoming hard to argue that YouTube isn’t TV.
Future of TV Briefing: Short-form video rev-share options mount but have yet to amount to much
This week’s Future of TV Briefing assesses the revenue-sharing options for short-form vertical video creators.
SponsoredHow enterprise-grade CDPs are enhancing data processes and improving customer experiences
Produced in partnership with Marketecture The following article highlights an interview between Martin Kihn, Salesforce’s senior vice president of Marketing Cloud, and Ari Paparo, founder and CEO of Marketecture Media. Register to watch more of the discussion and learn how brands are making the most of enterprise-grade CDP technologies. As brands expand across channels and […]
Future of TV Briefing: Top takeaways from Digiday’s ‘The Future of TV’ series
This week’s Future of TV Briefing recaps Digiday's five-part video series on the TV, streaming and video advertising business.
Why creator Jorge Soto prioritizes YouTube Shorts over TikTok
The connection between YouTube Shorts and YouTube’s more lucrative long-form video platform has proven valuable enough for Soto to orient his short-form video strategy around the platform.


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Did you miss GamesBeat Summit 2021? Watch on-demand here!
Some major shakeups happened in the video game industry this year.
It was a year that saw legendary game designers publicly falling out with their studios, major publishers spending billions of dollars on mobile gaming, and the industry saying goodbye to one of its own. Here are some of the headlines that made the biggest waves in the video game world in 2015.
The death of a Nintendo icon
This year, Nintendo fans around the world said goodbye to the company’s beloved president, Satoru Iwata. Iwata died in July at the age of 55 due to complications from a bile duct growth. During his 13-year tenure as president, Iwata oversaw the launch of the DS, Nintendo’s most successful handheld. He also helped launch the Wii, which has sold over 100 million units to date.
Following Iwata’s death, executive directors Shigeru Miyamoto and Genyo Takeda took over running the company until a new president was found. In September, Nintendo announced his replacement was 65-year-old Tatsumi Kimishima, a former banker and former head of Nintendo of America.
Hideo Kojima and Konami’s bad breakup
For many, the idea of Metal Gear Solid developer Hideo Kojima leaving video game publisher Konami was unthinkable. Yet, that’s exactly what happened earlier this year. Rumors of Kojima’s departure from the company began in March when references to his studio, Kojima Productions, were removed from Konami’s websites and from Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain’s box art. Then Konami decided to pull P.T. from the PlayStation Store. P.T. — which stands for “Playable Teaser” — was a demo to promote the new Silent Hills project Kojima was working on with filmmaker Guillermo del Toro and actor Norman Reedus.
Once The Phantom Pain hit store shelves, Hideo Kojima retreated from the public eye. Earlier this month, The Game Awards host Geoff Keighley revealed that Kojima was barred from attending the show by Konami’s lawyers. Then, on December 15, word came that Kojima had officially left Konami and was teaming up with Sony to create a PlayStation exclusive.
The PlayStation 4 is winning the console war — for now
Sony is maintaining a strong lead over Microsoft in the so-called console war. Despite a lack of first-party exclusives, Sony sold over 30 million PlayStation 4s this year. The PS4 has consistently topped NPD charts, outselling the Xbox One and Wii U during most of the summer months. The launch of Call of Duty: Black Ops III, however, gave both the PS4 and Xbox One a boost. According to NPD analyst Liam Callahan, November 2015 was the best month for Xbox One, PS4, and Wii U software ever, exceeding the second-best month, December 2014, by 34 percent.
But just because Sony had a great year doesn’t mean Microsoft hasn’t. The company claimed it saw record sales of the Xbox One console and Xbox Store digital games during the week of Black Friday. The Xbox Store allegedly increased sales by 57 percent across the Xbox One and Xbox 360. Xbox Live Gold subscriptions were also up over 40 percent, and Xbox One console sales at retail were up 22 percent over the same period last year. Microsoft said it was the second biggest Black Friday week in 15 years.
Activision buys Candy Crush maker King
It’s good to be the King.
Video game publisher Activision, home of Call of Duty and World of Warcraft, bought King Digital for $5.9 billion in November. King Digital is the publisher of saccharine mobile puzzler Candy Crush Saga as well as the Farm Heroes Saga series. According to Activision CEO Bobby Kotick, the combined revenues and profits from the merger has solidified the company’s position as the largest, most profitable standalone company in interactive entertainment.
The move also represents a big push into mobile gaming for Activision. With the exception of its successful collectible card game Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, the publisher has been slow to embrace that particular market. Now that it owns King, however, it has a roster of established games and a team of mobile veterans ready to create some new ones.
Composer Marty O’Donnell battles Bungie and wins
While disputes between creatives and the people who employ them are nothing new, the 18-month long legal battle between composer Marty O’Donnell and Bungie, the studio responsible for Halo and Destiny, was a notable one, offering a rare glimpse into the inner workings of one of the industry’s biggest developers.
The feud began when publisher Activision decided to replace O’Donnell’s music in a Destiny trailer. An angry O’Donnell believed the publisher was interfering in the creative process. Things went downhill from there. In April 2014, Bungie decided to fire O’Donnell and strip him of his founder’s stock. The composer sued his former employer, and in September 2015, a court-appointed arbitrator ruled that Bungie did in fact break its agreement with O’Donnell when it fired him. His stock holdings were restored and he was awarded $142,500 for work he did in 2014 before his termination. O’Donnell was also awarded $95,000 in unpaid wages in a separate case.
Nintendo goes mobile
For years, gamers, analysts, and critics all wondered when Nintendo would enter the mobile gaming field. Bringing iconic names like Mario and Zelda into the mobile space could reinvigorate the company. It seemed like a no-brainer. Apparently, Nintendo now agrees. It announced in March that it’s teaming up with mobile game publisher DeNA to create new games for phones and other smart devices using its popular intellectual properties. Nintendo will reportedly handle all of the creative work while DeNA will provide the technology needed to run the games as live services on mobile devices.
The first game, Miitomo, a free-to-play life simulator similar to Tomodachi LIfe, will launch by March 2016. Nintendo and DeNA are also working on four other unannounced games across various genres. If Miitomo catches on, it could provide a big boost for Nintendo and disrupt the mobile gaming market. The Japanese gaming giant has struggled in recent years, thanks to sluggish sales of its Wii U console.
Rare Nintendo PlayStation found
Now that the phrase “console war” is part of every gamer’s personal lexicon, it’s hard to imagine two big video game publishers teaming up. Yet, that’s exactly what Sony and Nintendo did in 1988. The two companies briefly partnered up to work on the SNES-CD, a console that would add CD support to the cartridge-cased Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Called the PlayStation, the prototype was scrapped after licensing disagreements dissolved Sony and Nintendo’s partnership.
Over twenty years later, Dan Diebold uploaded photos of the unreleased console to Imgur. According to Engadget, it was one of the items Diebold’s father won in an auction after his company, Advanta Corporation, filed for bankruptcy in 2009. One of Advanta’s board members, Olaf Olafsson, was once CEO at Sony Interactive Entertainment. Although Diebold’s father didn’t know what he had at the time, he held onto it, preserving a piece of gaming history.
Steam introduces paid mods
Operating under the belief that creatives should be compensated for their work, Valve — owner of the digital distribution service Steam — announced in April that it would let mod creators charge for add-ons, expansions, and items they put up on the Steam Workshop for games like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Modders would get a cut of the money made; the rest would go to Steam and the game’s publisher. This way, people could support well-made mods and help them grow. Some of the biggest PC games — Counter Strike, DOTA 2, Team Fortress, and Day Z — all began life as mods for existing games.
Naturally, this idea didn’t go over well.
Irate gamers stormed social media to complain about the change, calling modders “greedy” for charging for a service that is traditionally free. Valve decided to remove paid mods mere days after introducing them and has been quiet on the issue since then.
You can now get your money back for broken games on Steam
Normally in the digital world, if you buy something, it’s yours forever. No backsies. But Valve changed that this year when it began offering refunds for games purchased on its digital distribution service Steam. Back in June, Valve announced it would give refunds for any reason — but only within the first 14 days after making the purchase and only if you played for less than two hours.
The decision constituted a major change in Valve’s policy and brought Steam up to code in many European countries that required refunds by law. It’s seen as a positive, consumer-friendly move, but it wasn’t without its detractors; many believed the refund policy could hurt game developers, especially indie devs who create bite-sized experiences like Gone Home or The Stanley Parable.
China ends its 14-year ban on video game consoles
For the first time in nearly 15 years, gamers across all of China can buy a Xbox, PlayStation, or Wii. China’s Ministry of Culture announced in July that companies like Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo can now manufacture and sell consoles anywhere in the country. Previously, sales were limited to Shanghai’s economic development zone. China first banned consoles in 2000 because it feared the devices would have a negative effect on the mental and physical development of children.
China is one of the gaming industry’s biggest markets, and allowing the sale of consoles there could give the industry a significant boost. But, it’s also possible that Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo will struggle to gain a foothold in that market; left without consoles, Chinese gamers have turned to PC and mobile platforms for their entertainment over the last 15 years, generating billions of dollars in revenue.
A win for video game preservationists
This October, the Library of Congress issued new rules for exemptions to copyright DRM circumvention laws, and one of those exemptions affects how people preserve classic video games.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation said it fought for the exemption, which allows players to modify their copy of a game to eliminate the need for an authentication server after the game’s original server is shut down. The exemption also grants museums, libraries, and archives the right to “jailbreak” or otherwise modify video game consoles to get older games working again. Normally, it’s illegal to alter a console under the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). But, the Library of Congress limited the exemption to games that can’t be played at all after the server shutdown, excluding games where only the multiplayer features are lost.
Preserving gaming history is an important topic as technology improves and older media formats are phased out. The EFF said the Library of Congress’ ruling will help keep many classic games playable by future generations.
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When it comes to very high-resolution video, researchers concluded that a new video compression technology is a big step up from today's prevailing H.264 standard.
A new compression technology represents a significant improvement over today's standard, a new study found. The result could help pave the way for video with at least four times the pixels of today's 1080p standard.
The new compression technology, called HEVC or H.265, is significantly better than today's prevailing standard video codec, called AVC or H.264, researchers from the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne in Lausanne, Switzerland, concluded.
"The test results clearly exhibited a substantial improvement in compression performance, as compared to AVC," the researchers said. "As ultra-high definition television has recently been demonstrated to be the future of television, the upcoming HEVC video compression standard seems to be one of the key elements towards a wide deployment of 4K and 8K resolutions."
HEVC has been tested with mathematical measurements, but this study tested 30 actual people, an important factor since technical measurements such as signal-to-noise ratio don't necessarily match up perfectly with actual human perception of quality. The test subjects compared videos compressed with each codec to high-quality 3840x2160 video -- quad full HD, or QFHD, one of a few resolutions generally given the 4K label.
The High Efficiency Video Coding technology, now in the final stages of standardization, is expected to be twice as good as H.264, meaning that it can match its image quality using only half as many bits per second. That's a potential boon for the industry, which is struggling to improve image quality and meet video-streaming demand without taxing bandwidth too much.
The video compression improvements could help with everything from network-constrained mobile video to ordinary broadband streaming video. The study emphasized 4K video, an area where H.264 bitrates would lag those of HEVC.
In the study, people compared three videos -- one with traffic moving by, one with people on a street, and one with animation. The traffic and animation videos were easier to handle; the first had relatively little movement from one frame of video to the next, and the second had low noise. The people-on-the-street video, though, had a lot of information in each frame, and it changed rapidly from frame to frame, so it proved the most taxing for the codecs.
Comparing the codecs at various bitrates, HEVC outdid H.264 in four out of five cases for the people on the street. The fifth case, at the highest bitrate, was a tie. For the animation, HEVC swept H.264 at all bitrates. For the traffic video, it only outdid H.264 at one bitrate. In no cases did H.264 outdo HEVC; the best result it could muster was a tie.
HEVC comes at a price, though: it takes more processing power to encode and decode video than H.264.
The study, by Philippe Hanhart, Martin Rerabek, Francesca De Simone, and Touradj Ebrahimi, is detailed in a new paper for theSPIE Optics and Photonics conference in August and in an online presentation.
H.264 is very well established in the industry, used in everything from Blu-ray discs and videocameras and TV broadcasts and Web video. Cementing its position is hardware decoding support built into many processors, a feature that improves performance and cuts battery usage on mobile devices.
Not everybody is happy with H.264, though. Required patent royalty payments mean it can't be used in open-source software such as the Firefox Web browser, but H.264's popularity for streaming video has effectively imposed a tax on products that need to handle online video. Free online video services may stream H.264 video for free, but operating systems, computing devices, optical disks, and for-fee streaming video services must pay a royalty.
HEVC looks likely to follow the same payment direction. It and H.264 both stemmed from a joint effort of ITU-T Video Coding Experts Group (VCEG) and the ISO/IECE Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG), and a group called MPEG LA licenses the group of patents it deems essential to support H.264. The group has issued a request for any patents that bear on HEVC.


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Skincare CEO buys lakefront Boca Raton mansion for $5M
Sellers bought the home in 2002 for $3.4M
The CEO of a skincare company bought a lakefront mansion in Boca Raton’s Princeton Estates neighborhood for $5.2 million.
Records show Jonathan Greenhut and his wife, Cecilia, purchased the home at 3612 Northwest 52nd Street from Lawrence and Nancy Reid.
Jonathan Greenhut is the CEO of Farmingdale, New York-based Sheer Science. Greenhut joined Sheer Science in 2015. The company distributes skin care products, including the Plexaderm brand. He is also the CEO of True Earth Health Products and Power Swabs, according to his Linkedin profile.
The Reids bought the home in 2002 for $3.4 million, records show. Minor improvements were made to the property, including adding a pool and a tiki hut in 2006.
The 11,349-square-foot mansion was listed in March with an asking price of $6 million. Elliot Koolik with Compass represented the sellers.
According to Palm Beach County property records, the mansion has five bedrooms and eight bathrooms. The two-story home also features two media rooms, two offices and an outdoor living area, according to the listing. The house was built in 1997.
Among other recent sales in Boca Raton, the daughter of the late founders of Haagen-Dazs sold her mansion for $8.7 million; a spec home sold for $12.1 million; and a home in the Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club sold for $6.1 million.


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Excerpt from WhiskyCast: Sales of “private selection” barrels by distillers in Kentucky have become popular choices for retailers, bars, restaurants, and even whiskey clubs. However, it turns out that those sales actually violate state liquor regulations in Kentucky, and perhaps even at the federal level. It’s not because sales by the barrel are specifically banned, but because the process of selecting those barrels violates a number of state regulations.
Kentucky’s Alcoholic Beverage Control Board enforces the state’s regulations and has issued informal guidance to that effect, according to Kentucky Distillers Association president Eric Gregory. “Right now, the ABC has given us a grace period, if you will, to work with us while the Legislature is in session to get that fixed,” he said in a telephone interview. “That’s not a want…that’s a need, and we’ve gotta get that done,” he said, citing support from the groups representing liquor wholesalers and retailers for reforms.
The process of selecting a barrel usually involves tasting samples from multiple barrels during a customer’s visit to a distillery, and that is where the legal issues begin to build up. State regulations do not make any difference between “trade” visitors to a distillery and consumer visitors to that distillery’s visitors center, and the regulations limit the number of samples to 1.75 ounces per visitor per day. In addition, regulations also limit the amount of whiskey an individual customer can buy at a distillery to one nine-liter case per day …
Click here to read the full WhiskyCast article.
Click here for more Bourbon Flight news.
Click here to sign up for The Bourbon Flight Newsletter.


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* Among its peer, in the domestic capital market, Gajah Tunggal is the biggest with Rp 7.66 trillion in market capitalization as of March 1, 2011, while it competitor PT Multistrada Arah Sarana is Rp 1.74 trillion and PT Goodyear Indonesia Rp 414 billion.
* Believe it or not, says Catharina Widjaja, Gajah Tunggal director and spokeswoman, many Phillipinos think that GT Radial is their brand, since you can find the tire easily in the country.
* It operates five tires and inner tubes plants, and a tire cord production facility in Tangerang. It also has a production facility of styrene butadiene rubber (SBR) or synthetic rubber in Chemical Industrial Estate in Merak, Banten.
* It hired more than 11,000 employees, mostly loyal with average 15-20 years of life service. More than 90% of it is working in the production sites. The company may add another 500 people to support the expansion plan, which complete in 2012.
* Gajah Tunggal commenced its expansion program since 2005, come along with the issuance of $420 million bond.
* The company exports most of the bias and radial tire to more than 70 countries around the globe. At one time, the export destination countries even reach 90.
* Nationally, there are 13 tire producers with total production reach 49.85 million car tires and 40.49 million motorcycle tires. According to the Indonesian Tire Manufacturer Association’s data, the national car tire and motorcycle tire sales in 2010 grow 27% and 40% from the previous year. Sales of car tire for replacement is 10 million, export 35 million, and original equipment (OEM) four million units. While motorcycle tire sales for replacement is 23 million, export one million, and OEM 15 million units.
* Gajah Tunggal is already set to produce up to 105,000 motorcycle tires and 45,000 radial tires per day in 2012 as the expansion program complete. Today it produces 67,000 motorcycle tires and 30,000 radial tires per day. For bias tire, the company decided not to increase the capacity as demand is dwindling with the shift to radial tire. The production volume can be increase as the production is not running at the maximum utilization rate.
* By early 2012, Michelin has agreeing to off-take up to five million tires from the company per year. The off-take agreement with Michelin as a strategic alliance that holds 10% of the company shares is actually start from 2009, which gradually up from 1.9 million to three million and four million for the consecutive years.
* Up until today the management argues that the tire producer is no longer having connections with tycoon Sjamsul Nursalim. He ranked number 23 at $850 million on Forbes list of 40 richest Indonesians. Nursalim, the former owner of the now defunct Bank Dagang Negara Indonesia (BDNI), is one of the businessman that receive the government capital injection after being hit by the 1997-1998 monetary crisis. It is says the capital injection for BDNI is Rp 7.2 trillion. Years later, many of the banks have been shut down and the former owners must repay the debts through Indonesia Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA). Nursalim reported has already transferred his ownership in Gajah Tunggal, along with chemical firm PT GT Petrochem and shrimp producer PT Dipasena to IBRA, who later sold the assets to an investment firm called Garibaldi Venture Fund. Now Denham Pte Ltd, owned by GITI Tire Pte Ltd, is the major shareholder of Gajah Tunggal with 46% of stake.
* Giti Tire Corporation, the sister company of Gajah Tunggal, based in Shanghai and listed in the Shanghai Stock Exchange. The company ranked as one of the leading tire manufacturer in China and the 14th largest globally in terms of sales revenue. According to one official who has been working for 25 years in this company, last year Giti China book $2.5 billion revenue. It sells 17 million tires in China and exports 15 million tires to more than 100 countries. Giti is owned by the Liem family.
* GITI Tire is the owner of GT Radial brand.
* As the brand user, Gajah Tunggal facing some risk. Maria Renata, an analyst from PT Mandiri Sekuritas, in her initiating report (Dec. 22, 2010) on Gajah Tunggal said one of the risks is if there is contract cancellation from brand holders that requires the company to pay royalty fees. Gajah Tunggal enter into Trade Mark Licensing Agreement with GITI Tire and GT International (Singapore) Pte Ltd in 2004, which grant them the license to use the GT Radial trade mark for free, non-exclusive, and non-transferable licenses and are valid unless terminated by any of the parties. The company only paid $1 at the signing of the agreements.
For the bicycle and motorcycle tire, Gajah Tunggal is also grant to use IRC brand from Japan. The company agrees to pay royalty equivalent to a certain rate of the net sales of IRC brand products, where in 2010 it total Rp 9.6 billion. On the other hand, Gajah Tunggal is a house brand for bias tires.
In order to marketing GT Radial in Europe, Gajah Tunggal has made a contract with GITI Tire (Europe) BV for promotion and marketing services for a durations of 2.5 years, starting from July 1, 2008 until December 31, 2010 and it can be extended automatically, unless either party terminate the agreement before its due. The company pays annual fixed management fee 250,000 euro for 2008-2010, and variable management fee of 1% of total GT Radial yearly sales revenue in Europe for the period. The company also should allocate GITI Europe Joint Promotion Fund 1.5% from the total GT Radial sales revenue in Europe for the purpose of promoting its tire distributor in the European territory.
* In the future, Gajah Tunggal hope the government not only indulges the new investors that coming to the country with their foreign direct investment by giving incentives. “You are bringing investors, to compete with, but please don’t forget the old ones, who are already investors. To go global we have to compete with other big boys. To promote our brands it needs a lot of money. The other thing that is very important is to raise the quality and the image of Indonesian tire is by investing in research and development (R&D). It’s a big risk, you can research, you can develop, but the product may not work. So we are asking the government to please consider provide tax benefit or incentives for companies especially local companies who want to go beyond Indonesia,” says Gajah Tunggal President Director Christopher Siew Choong Chan, 55.
* Today, the company’s R&D budget allocation is still relatively small. But since last year they have surpass $1 billion in sales, the management want to add more money into the R&D. One of its inventions is Champiro Eco. It generally has a smaller carbon foot print because it uses more silica than carbon black. It has less rolling resistant which then translate to higher fuel efficiency, less noise without compromising in the performance for both wet and dry surface of roads. “Actually we design this tire for European market, to meet the European environmental standard, which are supposed to be enforce in 2012. But Gajah Tunggal has been proactive to meet that as soon as possible.”
* To boost awareness of Indonesian with the company’s tire brand, management conduct many events and market its tire to a retail chain like Carrefour and together with Michelin opens TireZone. It’s already 37 outlets in 16 cities in Indonesia by December 2010. The stores offer tire from three main brands that is GT Radial, Michelin, and BF-Goodrich. Chan says it’s more as a marketing strategy to create brand position and awareness on Indonesian consumers rather than getting sales from them, which only 1%. Even though it’s relatively small but the presence is the key. “We want to have a bigger presence in every city. We also want Indonesian know that things made in Indonesia can be world class quality.”


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At its hardware event in NY on Tuesday, Google launched its 2018 flagship Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL smartphones.
Google has confirmed previous reports, affirming its new Pixel 3 and 3XL smartphones will only feature gesture-based navigation controls. Another new feature likely coming to the Pixel 1, 2, and 3 is Motion Auto Focus. Whether you bought your Pixel 3 through Verizon or through Google, you can still pick up these cases from Verizon.
Google's largest announcement would have been that the Google Pixel 3 XL would be joining the Apple iPhone X (s) in including the controversial notch at the top of the screen. The tablet works with the Android Camera App which makes the quality of the pictures just a little better. As well as the standard Just Black and Clearly White options, the Pixel 3 is available in Not Pink. For instance, the new Pixel phones support wireless charging. Google doesn't disclose its phone shipments, unlike Apple, which has sold about 388 million iPhones since the first Pixel came out in October 2016. The feature is set to arrive on the Pixel and Pixel 2 next month.
Now the Pixel 3 promises even better photos, but apart from an ugly notch on the XL model, it will look like any other smartphone to the casual observer - yet it has a price tag which puts it at the luxury end of the market.
The Pixel 3 has a 5.5-inch OLED display, while the Pixel 3 XL has a 6.3-inch OLED screen. One of the front-firing speakers also resides on the notch.
The US major may need to offer direct and indirect discounts and promotional offers to move the needle for its latest devices which offer only a marginal upgrade over last year's Pixel 2 devices, they added. This new feature makes low-light photographs brighter and clearer using machine learning. Notable features mentioned is the lack of a camera for "privacy reasons", and Ambient EQ.
Though Google has said that Lens Suggestions will be exclusive to Pixel 3 handsets, some form of this new experience can be expected for the old Pixel phones.
The Pixel 3 starts at £739 for the 64GB model, moving up to £839 for the 128GB version.
Google uses the phones to highlight what it considers to be best features of its Android operating system, while challenging Apple and Samsung with a device tailored for affluent consumers.
"Some of the stuff they are doing with software and artificial intelligence is certainly leading edge", he said.


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Legalizing marijuana is the current roadblock that must be overcome to obtain freedom in marijuana use in the United States. Marijuana has always been a subject of a hot, public debate since the substance offers two sides of the coin. Just like in any debate, people are divided in their views about the substance as marijuana is constantly in the gray area. Those on the “pro” side argued that it is best to legalize marijuana because of its prevalence and demand.
Marijuana also offers various medical benefits. Marijuana, which is also colloquially referred to as “weed,” “pot,” “dope,” and “ganja,” is also used in various medical purposes. As a matter of fact, 18 states approved the use of marijuana for as a medicinal drug. A result of the survey stated that 70 percent of Americans are in favor of legalizing marijuana.
After legalizing marijuana, another hurdle that must be overcome is marketing the product. The cannabis currently a billion dollar business and as the market matures and all of the legal ramifications are set out, marijuana ads will be in plain view. According to marketing consultant Cheryl Shuman, the advertising and branding of the sector is already 100 percent ready and in gear. The business industry is just waiting for the go signal from the lawmakers.
However, one of the biggest questions that must be answered in order to defend the legality of marijuana us is whether it has a target market. Apparently, marijuana developed a big market and, surely, there is a demand for the product. Currently, as the substance is treated as illegal in some states, it is only available in the black market as it is not regulated and can be purchased by anyone. However, one of the advantages of legalizing the cannabis industry is it will be under government regulations, including its advertising and marketing to the general public.
The following are only some of the different facets of marketing marijuana that should be addressed by lawmakers to ensure that the entry of marijuana into the mainstream market will be a breeze.
Appropriate Taxing Regulations
Although we know that marijuana is widely circulated in the market today, the product is being sold in the black market. This means that growers, suppliers, sellers and buyers do not pay taxes during the transaction. Once the cannabis industry becomes legalized, it has to be tax regulated. There is a big chance that once legislature is approved, marijuana will be regulated similar to tobacco and alcohol administering sin taxes. However, lawmakers should learn from its mistakes in the past from the two previous products taxing it too low.
Proper Target Marketing
It is of vital importance to know the particular age group that is targeted by marijuana. Will it be similar to cigarettes and alcohol geared towards adults with ages 21 and above? This is to ensure that users are responsible in using the substance. But there is a gray area for marijuana since it is also used for various medical purposes even for young children. Therefore, it is equally important to know how properly market the substance.
Rules for Growers and Sellers and Companies
There are views that producers of marijuana should not be sellers in order to avoid politically or financially motivated interests. In Washington, a US state that permits marijuana use, growers and sellers are separated. On the other hand, Colorado initially allowed producers to sell their products directly to people in order to move the legal market quickly. However, the state is considering altering its statutes.


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Top 10 sustainability stories of March 2018
It was a month of plastic take back schemes, big Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) commitments and high-profile business innovations. Take a look back at March's biggest sustainability stories in this round-up.
In this latest instalment of a new monthly top-10 round-up, edie has highlighted some of the news and features that readers were keen to read and share during March 2018.
March is the end of the financial year for many companies, meaning a final few projects need to be pushed over the line. With sustainability reports beginning to arrive into inboxes you’d be forgiven for viewing the last 31 days as a period of reflection.
As this round-up proves, businesses and politicians are charging ahead with new ideas, frameworks and innovations. So, take a look through all of the month’s most-read news stories, and click the links in the descriptions below to read them for yourself.
In one of March’s most-read stories, Knauf Insulation and waste management specialists Veolia celebrated the opening of a new £10m high-tech recycling facility which turns glass into insulation, which was hailed as a “real boost” for the UK’s circular economy.
edie is committed to speaking to sustainability experts from some of the biggest companies driving change. In an exclusive interview, Nespresso’s chief executive discussed what it takes to become a sustainability leader. A real insightful read.
The Government finally agreed to a consultation that will likely see deposit return schemes for plastic containers placed in UK supermarkets. Despite green groups reacting positively, edie spoke to the experts to uncover that implementing the vision is far from straightforward.
One solution to the plastics problem has been successfully commercialised by sportswear giant Adidas. During March, the company revealed that it sold more than one million pairs of trainers made from 95% ocean plastic last year, which was unsurprisingly one of the most-read stories as a result.
With plastic pledges a constant in the news, more and more people are being introduced to the term “circular economy”. This ‘edie explains’ guide breaks down everything there is to now about the term and achieving a zero-waste world.
See, there’s that phrase again. Ahead of edie Live in May (click the link for details), John Lewis’ sustainability manager Ben Thomas discussed the retailers approach resource efficiency and embracing new business models that benefit consumers.
Legal air quality levels have already been breached across the country, and edie readers were keen to learn exactly how an air purifying IoT-connected smart “tree” could help the Crown Estate improve air quality in London.
edie’s Smarter Sustainability Reporting conference saw a number of industry experts discuss the evolution of the sustainability report, with some going so far as to argue that an individual annual report no longer carries the necessary impetus to drive change. So, is the age of the standalone sustainability report finally over?
In a landmark moment to make progress on delivering the United Nations’ SDGs, a group of major retailers, including Ikea, Debenhams and Sainsbury’s, signed up to a series of commitments to collaboratively tackle the goals.
Before it was announced that the Government would introduce a deposit return scheme for plastics, edie travelled to the Museum of Brands to discuss solutions to plastic waste with business representatives from Iceland, Tetra Pak and James Cropper. Listen out for Iceland’s Ian Schofield’s idea for a quick-win solution.


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With news of cell phones exploding and catching fire comes another shocker, this time involving an Apple iPhone. An Australian pregnant lady has claimed to have endured serious blazes on her right arm after falling asleep with her iPhone7.
Melanie Tan Pelaez posted a photo with her smouldered arm on Facebook and cautioned people to keep their cell phones away while dozing.
In the Facebook post, she wrote, "I recently purchased an Apple iPhone7 and accidentally fell asleep with my arm on my phone whilst it was charging. I was woken up by sudden pain, pins and needles, numbness and shortness of breath."
"This is a picture of the result of sleeping with my phone whilst charging. PLEASE be careful..."
"I have been an iPhone user since the beginning and have never had an issue or concern, so it's really scary and disappointing that something like this happened and can happen to someone else."
Doctors told her that she suffered a second-degree burn and instructed her to find the object.
She went back home and realised that her iPhone had to have caused the injury and later the markings on her hands matched the iPhone.
Apple is said to be investigating the matter.


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Wayne Hubbard is spearheading London's drive towards a circular economy. He tells Huw Morris how the capital can be a standard-bearer in the war against waste
Wayne Hubbard had worked in the waste sector for 16 years when he experienced his eureka moment.
It came during a conference in 2012, when he heard about the concept of the circular economy and how it was vital to accommodate the projected two billion consumers, predominantly in China and India, who would soon attain middle class lifestyles and demand the same material goods as people in the West. “That would be totally unsustainable, and I realised we needed to do something about it,“ the chief operating officer at the London Waste and Recycling Board (LWARB) says. “Suddenly the circular economy made absolute sense. Up to that point, most people in the sustainable development world tried to work within a contradiction. In order to reduce waste, we had to consume less – but if we consume less, we put economic growth at risk.“ It's a tough problem and one Hubbard has grappled with for years. Now he has some answers – and they are desperately needed. Just 4% of China's urban population was considered middle class in 2000, rising to around 30% last year. McKinsey and Company recently projected that this would be 76% by 2022. Elsewhere, a third of the food produced around the world is thrown away. If food waste were a country, it would be the planet's third largest emitter of greenhouse gases, behind the US and China. Another mind-boggling challenge is that 60% of the world's infrastructure needed by 2050 has not yet been built. “It's a terrifying thought and a fantastic opportunity,“ says Hubbard.
From the top down
“We want to identify opportunities for collaboration across the supply chain and different organisations“
London is grasping this opportunity, hoping to be a standard-bearer in the charge towards a sustainable future. LWARB works with the Mayor of London and the capital's boroughs to improve waste and resource management, and steer the city's transition to the low-carbon circular economy on which its economic and environmental future depends. Its mission is to ensure businesses, boroughs and communities make the “best use of resources and materials“.
From the top, Mayor Sadiq Khan has embedded the low-carbon and circular economy in his environment strategy. This influences his powers for economic development, planning, and transport, as well as waste. He is committed to increasing recycling to a 65% target by 2030, as well as to making London a zero-carbon city by 2050. Hubbard sees LWARB's work as accelerating the circular economy “from the inside out“.
First, LWARB is working to increase London boroughs' recycling rate from the current level of 30%. A major part of the board's role is “collaboration, communication and demonstration of the circular economy“, acting as “a hub, a network of networks“ of organisations active in the arena. Its Circular London initiative has a broad remit to accelerate the circular economy by working with big corporates, investors, policymakers, business model pilots and small businesses. “We don't want to control them, but we want to identify opportunities for collaboration across the supply chain and different organisations.“ LWARB's Advance London programme aims to establish an innovation centre to act as an incubator for start-ups working with big corporates. This is backed by a £14m venture capital fund. Underpinning its work is business support to start-ups and other companies seeking to transition to the circular economy.
“This is harnessing London's thriving start-up and tech community, and investing in businesses whose model is reducing waste but wouldn't necessarily know it,“ Hubbard says. “It's not like you have to wear a hair shirt to use Spotify or Apple Music. Those kinds of business models appeal because you are getting a better level of service, but you don't have to buy a material thing.“
“The smartphone enables us to take part in the circular economy by using eBay, Kindle or Spotify“
Hubbard acknowledges that 'circular economy' is a “nebulous term“. He prefers to see the concept through the lens of five business models: “Recycling, making stuff that is recyclable, the sharing economy, products and services rather than material goods, and making stuff that lasts longer by designing for durability.“ Ask the average person about the circular economy, though, and you are likely to get a blank stare. Hubbard does not see this as an issue: “Some people say there is a problem, but I don't think it matters because nobody identifies as a circular economist. People say they are a passionate recycler or repairer, but they don't say they are a circular economist.
“It doesn't bother me, because these are circular economy disciplines without knowing it. The smartphone enables us to take part in the circular economy by using eBay, Kindle, Spotify or Apple Music. Almost always, recycling is a choice you have to make. You have to ask people to put stuff in a separate bin, whereas listening to Spotify, for example, is easier.“ Hubbard describes London as a “dense, complicated city“ with multiple housing types, buffeted by massive consumption of material goods and crammed with “people who are less inclined to listen to authoritative voices telling them to recycle“. London's population is projected to hit more than 11 million by 2050. This is intensifying pressure for a sustainable approach to housing, office space, products and critical infrastructure.
He depicts a busy population that “moves around the city a lot, is difficult to pin down – so you have to make things very simple“. Part of the challenge is the high level of rented properties, occupied by people who recycle less than homeowners. However, the challenge is bursting with opportunities. LWARB predicts that by 2036, the circular economy could provide the capital with net benefits of at least £7bn a year across the built environment, food, textiles, electrical and plastics sectors, as well as 12,000 new jobs in re-use, remanufacturing and materials innovation. LWARB's route map, which will be reviewed in the coming months, identifies £2.8bn of those benefits to be delivered in the capital alone, with the remainder coming from the rest of the UK, Europe and the world.
He cites research by Arup showing that the circular economy could reduce the London's waste by 60% by 2030, a prospect he calls “significant“. A look at the figures shows the sectors in LWARB's sights. The capital produces 18m tonnes of waste a year – more than half from construction, with the bulk of the remainder from businesses and households. London creates 20m tonnes of construction material each year, with half going to waste. The construction sector employs almost one in 20 working people in the capital; Hubbard says this “is a real opportunity to create new jobs in areas like re-use, remanufacturing, repair and maintenance“.
Elsewhere, London could add £2bn-£4bn to gross domestic product by 2036 if it adopts a circular food economy. Textiles could add more than £1bn, particularly as London is a global leader in this area – from high street brands and retailers to high-end fashion houses. In 2013, its consumer clothing market was ranked third in the world after New York and Tokyo, and by 2030 is forecasted to be the largest, with a predicted value of £29.5bn.
Similarly, circular economy benefits for electrical goods – both consumer and business – suggest up to £900m could be available annually by 2036. This approach could also ensure plastics are used to their greatest potential and value, netting up to £200m a year by that date. Hubbard argues that London is among global leaders on the circular economy and sits comfortably alongside cities such as Amsterdam, Paris, Helsinki, Copenhagen and Barcelona, which gain more credit for their environmental initiatives. He is very optimistic about the future. This optimism informs how he sees his career before that eureka moment. “I didn't choose a career in waste. Like most people of my era, you happen on to it and then become fascinated and slightly obsessed when you realise waste is the end-of-pipe for everything we consume. It gives you a view about society and economy that is unique.
“When we start to think about managing this material and how to reduce it, you suddenly realise it is about everything. I fell into it and then became fascinated by how I could help transform a system to produce less waste. That simple thing has massive implications. It's about how we move from an economy that consumes stuff to an economy that uses services. The change from consumption to use is a good proxy of the circular economy.“
- 1992 BA (Hons) in history, University of Sussex
- 1996 Waste management officer, East Sussex County Council
- 2001 MSc in waste management, University of Bedfordshire
- 2002 Waste policy manager, London Borough of Haringey
- 2002 Principal policy officer, Greater London Authority
- 2007 Head of waste, Greater London Authority
- 2009 Head of business development, London Waste and Recycling Board
- 2011 Chief operating officer, LWARB
Huw Morris is a freelance journalist.


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Nothing beats wearing the color black if you want to simplify your wardrobe. By making that task easier for their stylish customers, Julian O’hayon, 28, and Thomas Johnston, 20, have grown their luxury streetwear brand Blvck Paris to $1 million in annual revenue.
The brand’s latest collection, BLVCK01, sold out when it was released recently, thanks in part to a robust Instagram following for their account @black. Blvck Paris has also collaborated on a premium accessories product line for Hugo Boss. The owners, who have no employees, are now considering raising outside funds to grow the brand further.
Blvck Paris's founders are an interesting example of how it's possible for a tiny business on an ultra-lean budget to make a mark in a competitive industry like fashion. Its founders live on different continents—O’hayon, originally from France, is now based in Belgium, while Johnston is based in Australia—and use video chat to talk with each other everyday.
In the U.S., a growing number of nonemployer firms—those with no paid employees but the owners—have hit $1 million to $2.49 million in annual revenue. Their numbers hit 36,984 in 2017, a 2% increase from 36,161 in 2016 and a 38% increase from 26,744 in 20111. Most are solo businesses but some are partnerships and family businesses. Not all countries keep similar statistics, but recently, I've heard from more entrepreneurs around the world who are hitting $1 million in non employer firms, so this could be a trend worth watching.
Here is how these two bold entrepreneurs reached the $1 million mark.
Chart your own path. One of the biggest obstacles to becoming an entrepreneur is the mindset many of us learn in school and from traditional jobs. We’re taught to wait for someone in a position of authority, like a teacher or boss, to tell us what to do.
Both O’hayon and Johnston discovered at a young age that they were perfectly capable of figuring out what to do on their own—and did just that.
After teaching himself web design and development, O’hayon—also a child piano prodigy—began offering his services to clients when he was 13. By the time he was 20, he had more than 100 clients around the world at the agency, Anckor. Along the way, he built a large community at his account @Anckor, where he shared his ideas on entrepreneurship and design.
Meanwhile, Johnston was 14 when a web design job he did for a client led to work doing social media marketing. He soon found himself doing projects for larger brands that sold products online and built a strong social media presence himself.
In sharing similar content on social media, they got to know each other and soon developed a friendship. O’hayon suggested they partner after starting his “Blvckout” project. In that initiative, he created blacked out versions of well-known products, such as iPhone cases and even M&Ms. The posts were shared widely, particularly in the U.S. and Asia.
O’hayon’s goal was to develop the Blvck brand to embody a minimalist lifestyle built around the color black. The two formed a partnership in 2017. O’hayon is the majority owner, with a 65% share, and Johnston owns the rest of the company.
One secret to their success has been establishing clear lines of responsibility. O’hayon oversees the image and design of the collection, as well as business development, social media and management of collaborative ventures. Johnston handles operations and fulfillment. “We’re a perfect match,” says O’hayon, who’d been involved in a previous partnership that didn’t work out.
Keep spending to a minimum. Although there is risk to setting up any business, being disciplined about testing ideas before you invest in them can increase your chances of eventual success. “It takes patience to get the first projects done—and then you have to be consistent and regular,” says O’hayon.
The duo started the company with an initial investment of about $80,000 to cover things like R&D and setting up an ecommerce store. They kept costs down by operating the brand from within O'hayon's existing company at first.
During the early months, the co-founders focused on creating a “minimum viable product” – black MacBook cases – and then branched out to other tech products, like cables, all available in black. They promoted these products on Instagram, getting a quick response from customers.
Six months into those experiments, they formed an LLC. “We validated the concept, then we set up the company,” says O’hayon. “We didn’t want to create a company without being sure it will work.”
Another key to keeping the business lean was finding a fulfillment partner that did drop shipping. When customers bought products through their web store on Shopify, the order would automatically go to the fulfillment partner, which, in turn, drop shipped it to the customer. “We don’t touch any of the inventory,” says Johnston. Even better, Blvck Paris paid for each order after it was shipped, which conserved cash.
Simplify the payment process. If it is too hard for customers to buy from you, they will go elsewhere. To make sure its international customers could make transactions on its site, Blvck Paris decided to accept payments via PayPal and Stripe, which are widely accepted. Using these systems made other types of transactions easier as well. For instance, Blvck Paris uses PayPal to pay its contractors.
Stay flexible. Thanks to successful Facebook and Instagram campaign, Blvck Paris was bringing $40,000 to $50,000 a month in revenue by early 2018. By the end of the year, average monthly revenue had more than doubled.
That success led to a problem: They sold out quickly. “We didn’t invest in inventory as we should,” says Johnston. Although they took inspiration from brands like Yeezy sneakers, which have an exclusivity factor because they are made in limited quantities, Blvck Paris's founders realized they were focusing too much on low-profit, high-volume orders.
They soon shifted their emphasis from items such as $40 computer cases to streetwear items such as $120 sweatshirts, which are more profitable. These products resonated with their audience, made up primarily of young adult men.
Sell more to existing customers. Once a customer bought one product, the duo focused intensively on deepening the relationship, emailing them coupons, free shipping offers, discounts and other incentives to buy more. They used the Klaviyo CRM, designed for online businesses.
Their email marketing paid off. “Now that we’re really focused on the customer experience, we see more customers returning than before,” says Johnston. “They fall in love with the brand and keep picking up more items.”
To stay focused on their “North Star”—creating an outstanding customer experience—they have brought on a couple of freelancers, trained in the customer support software Zendesk, to help with customer service.
That investment is paying off. Blvck Paris brought in the equivalent of $ 1 million U.S. dollars in the 12 months between May 2018 and May 2019 and turned a profit, according to its founders.
Know when to hand it off. Although they are committed to running a lean business, O’hayon and Johnston don’t do everything in the business themselves. In addition to customer service, they outsource tasks such as logistics.
“When you’re starting any business, you can get caught up in the day-to-day operations,” says Johnston. “You can get burned out working 14 and 16 hours a day on mundane tasks. “You have to keep the vision for the business and where you want it to go in five years. Delegate and outsource all of the uninspiring tasks so you can keep going toward that vision.”
Commit to constant learning. No matter how busy they have gotten, O’hayon and Johnston make time for educating themselves about entrepreneurship.
O’hayon, who studied business engineering in college, kept in touch with a professor, Olivier Witmeur, who led the entrepreneurs group at his college and had started companies of his own. His professor became a trusted mentor. “He gave me good advice in the beginning—like not burning all of the money in the beginning,” says O’hayon.
The founders have also participated in mastermind groups. “They teach you the best ways to stay motivated and set goals properly,” says Johnston. One group that they have gotten a lot out of is Lewis Mocker’s monthly mastermind.
"It's where like-minded people come together and share knowledge," says Thompson.
As O'hayon and Johnston have discovered, there's nothing like community when you're building an ultra-lean business.


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ND Taxable S & P's
Doug Barrett | Oct 10, 2019 AT 7:50 am
North Dakota’s taxable sales and purchases increased more than eight-percent (8.34%) during the second quarter of 2019. Tax Commissioner Ryan Rauschenberger says despite lower commodity prices the state has been able to post growth each quarter for over two years.
S-and-P’s for April…May…and June totaled $5.59 billion dollars. Rauschenberger says western cities and counties fueled by the oil and gas sector posted the biggest gains. Retail trade increased 6.5% compared to 2018 levels. A portion of that gain is attributed to the recent collection of state and local taxes from online sales.
Among the state’s largest cities Minot posted a 6.16% increase….Fargo was up 1.74%....Bismarck .76%...and Grand Forks inched up .62%.


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“New Website is a Great Hit”
The Indian Ocean Restaurant – Bar - Terrace scoop an award in a matter of days after new website going live. Adding to recent success the new website has been awarded the winner of the “eTameside awards 2008 - Most innovative use of ICT in a Local Business”
Owner, Nahim Aslam comments, “In-line with our commitment to providing our existing and future customers with the best possible service, we're proud to announce the launch of our brand new website and for recognition it has received so quickly. Re-developed from the ground up with a focus on expandability and user-friendliness.
As the award-winning 'Best Indian Restaurant in the North West', we strive to continuously enhance our customers' experiences, going all-out not just with our award-winning menus but across every aspect of our service. We don't want to just be known as 'that Indian restaurant with the amazing food', but also as 'the Indian restaurant which created its own online community and revolutionised the food industry'.


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So Sony apparently ‘won’ E3. But as I was writing at the time (until MS screwed my article by pulling a big fat one-eighty), that was a hollow victory. Sony started last gen behind, not because their console was inadequate, but because their strategy was off. Over time they responded, with PS+ and price drops and new services, whilst making great first party games, that’s what drew them level with their competitors. What Microsoft has done that Sony didn’t, is change tack before launch. Don Mattrick has left the company after a string of apologies, and a new head is leading the way toward something that is much closer to the better received PS4. Their pre-owned policy is shot to bits, and now MS have announced that not only can developers self-publish, but any Xbox One can be used for development. These two things are aimed straight at Sony’s most attractive selling points. So with the consoles beginning to look more and more similar, here’s a breakdown of all the main differences between the two new big-hitting living room hogs:
PS+ has gone the way of Xbox Live and become a necessary expense to play online with PS4, but it will still be continuing to give away a ludicrous selection of games across three consoles. So really the question is already ‘why aren’t you on PS+?’ rather than ‘Why pay?’ Xbox Live is moving over to real currency, but reports from beta testers say it’s led to huge price hikes of up to 33%. Let’s hope they fix that before launch. MS’ free game program is a mumbled answer to PS+, and it’s on a much smaller scale. The difference being that the games are yours to keep even if your subscription lapses. But why would your subscription lapse when the subscription is so integral and necessary to get the most out of your console?
Xbox One’s always online policy is at odds with most of the world’s internet. Add that to the mandatory camera and it’s a recipe for some serious paranoia that isn’t entirely unjustified. Unless it’s unplugged, it will always be in a ‘low power connected state’. I guess all those public information videos about turning your appliances off at the wall weren’t for nothing then. PS4 needs no such constant connection, which will make little odds to us in the west but in developing territories where the infrastructure is weaker or simply non-existent, the decision will be a no brainer.
The quality of the services themselves remain to be seen but the indications are that both will be advanced and fast with comparable features, like sharing videos, streaming gameplay and playing a game as you download it. Sony has made a bigger deal of their network because they know that after this generation they have to sell it harder and support it more fully, and they’ve announced more features than MS, like being able to take over a PSN friend’s game in real time to help them, but it’s likely that they’ll end up with a very similar feature set.
E3 2012 saw Microsoft make a big deal of Smartglass, a mobile app based system that added basic control of your Xbox to your phone or tablet. They boasted lots of second screen functions for games which never appeared, and, like Kinect, I’m yet to know anyone that uses it at all. Xbox One is making a bigger noise about Smartglass with some great asymmetric coop game play demoed at E3 2013. Again, it remains to be seen if it’ll catch on. Regardless of anything else, the huge amount of extra work and money it takes to build in features like that is likely put most developers off, especially having seen how successful the Wii U hasn’t been.
Sony appear to have an advantage in their newest handheld console, which, with Sony’s recent acquisition Gaikai, can stream PS4 games directly to the console, controlling them fully in much the same way you would with a Dualshock. This is a feature that Sony promised with PSP years ago and it never materialised. So no one is holding their breath, but signs are good, and the Vita’s obvious power advantage makes it seem all the more possible. There will be a mobile app that will function much like Smartglass, but it’s smarter for Sony to push their own handheld in to that space, lord knows they need to shift a few more.
From what’s been trailed so far in the jumpy-roundy-lounge stakes, it seems like both companies are sticking with a ‘more of the same but better’ approach. So much so with Sony that the existing PS Move wands are compatible with PS4, albeit with an upgraded 3D camera. You might ask why they’ve not enhanced PSMove for the next gen, the answer is interesting. Under international law, the gyroscopic technology in PSMove cannot be any more accurate because if it was it could be used in missile guidance. So whilst games and consistency may be improved by the new camera, it will essentially be the same interface. The advantage for us, and Sony, is cost. Move wands are as inexpensive as Wii Remotes now, so by lowering that financial barrier, we take less risk as consumers and are more likely to take a punt on a new idea.
The new Kinect sensor will be powerful expensive and mandatory, but unlikely to be used any more than this generation’s one, no one likes to talk to machines. Microsoft’s Kinect 2.0 is basically the same but apparently ‘ten times’ more sensitive, more intelligent and able to see much smaller gestures. It’s also coded in to Xbox One at kernel level, Xbox won’t work without it. MS have integrated its wavy talk-to-the-machine tech in to every facet of its functionality, they’re really pushing it with an almost pathological ignorance of the basic failure of Kinect as an interface. It’s true that they sold by the bucket-load at launch, at least enough to pay their titanic marketing bill. But if you want to see what happened to all those Kinects that were bought for £130 just go look in your local second-hand shop, they’ve got them all, and you can pick one up for £25. That’s not to say Move has sustained any more success, there’s plenty of those hanging around the store rooms too.
What’s clear is that motion control isn’t the lightning that Nintendo bottled back in 2006, and what it takes to guarantee success (besides a spectacularly saturative marketing campaign) is software. In 6 years Nintendo have built a library of over 1700 titles for Wii, about 17 of which have been genuinely great games. Now, just one of those 17 games is likely worth more than the console itself. Kinect and PS Move are faring much worse currently, MS have taken the choice from the consumer with this add-on and made it essential, it’s up to Sony to prove that their eccentric yet elegant light-up wands are relevant, and they can’t rely on Media Molecule alone to do that for them.


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ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan said Wednesday he believes the name of Washington’s professional football team “probably should be changed,” though he supported the team’s name when he ran for governor in 2014.
Hogan, a moderate Republican and a critic of President Donald Trump, was asked on NBC’s “Today” show whether he thought the NFL team should change its name.
“I think the time is probably right,” Hogan said. “I’m glad that they’re having that discussion. I believe the name will be changed.”
Hogan told The New York Times this week he is considering a run for president in 2024. The second-term governor remains popular in his heavily Democratic state, and his position on the Washington Redskins is another wedge between him and Trump, who said the team was considering a name change “in order to be politically correct.”
The Redskins play in Landover, Maryland. Hogan grew up in the area as a fan of the team.
“It’s got a lot of history associated with the name, but I understand it’s a hurtful name, and in today’s context it probably should be changed,” Hogan said.
Additionally, Amazon will stop selling Washington Redskins merchandise after the football team said it would undergo a review of its name, which is considered a racial slur.
The Seattle-based online shopping giant informed sellers Wednesday morning that it would be pulling Redskins merchandise from its online marketplace. Other major retailers, including Walmart, have also stopped selling the team’s merchandise.
The recent national conversation on race has renewed opposition to the name, prompting its sponsors to speak up. The name review, which the team announced last week, could lead to a name change.
On Wednesday, Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson commended Amazon for “taking this swift action to support this long overdue change.” Earlier in the day, Ferguson published a letter to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos pressing the company to drop the team’s merchandise.


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People living in East Northamptonshire could win an iPad Mini.
The council is encouraging people to sign up for eBilling for their council tax and business rates, and every eligible household or business that signs up will be entered into a prize draw to win an iPad Mini, supplied by AMC Computer Supplies of Kettering.
East Northamptonshire Council leader Steven North said: “Each year, East Northamptonshire Council sends up to 80,000 bills and notices. Every household and business that signs up to eBilling will help us to save paper and postage.”
Sign up at www.east-northamptonshire.gov.uk/alien by Friday, February 27, to be entered into the draw.


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فضاء السودان المفتوح للإستثمار والتنمية
A Delegation from the Italian Company Ocean headed by Andrea Crespi, Area Sales Manager, Africa and Caribbean and Ms. Cristina Sala, Sales Manager visited SFZ , Trading Directorate. The meeting discussed the implementation status of the 2018 program signed with SFZ as sole agent for Ocean products in Sudan.
Mr. Andrea also discussed the issue of promotion and publicity, technical support services and training facilities for SFZ. The delegation agreed to finance the Gelm Gas Cookers program of the Italian GELM GAS, to avoid the difficulty of direct transfer from Sudan. The delegation visited Sudan Hall and Diplomatic Hall and praised the way SFZ is displaying products. Mr. Bruno Sagarbi, the General Manager of Ocean Company will visit Sudan next year, January, 2019 to sign the program of the next year and attend the inaugural ceremony of the 36th Session of the International Fair of Khartoum.


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By James Wells
BRISBANE: Betta Stores Limited (BSL) chief executive officer, Guy Houghton, has re-confirmed his commitment to the company’s new franchise agreement, despite the departure of six members to Narta member, Bi-Rite Electrical.
“In addition to my comments in Monday’s Current, I reconfirm that some of our franchisees need to make a decision as their current agreements are due for renewal,” Houghton said this afternoon.
“What I will add to this comment however is that sometimes the decision is being made by the franchisee and some times by the franchisor.
“Again I do not like losing any retailer from the group, but as has been proven so many times before, nothing stays the same forever and the new BSL Group emerging from these changes will be stronger and more focused than ever before.”
Earlier this week, high profile BSL members, Murray Neck Betta Electrical and Electrical Discounters, both announced that they will be joining the Narta group on Friday 1 September.
Six BSL stores located at Fairfield, Merrylands, Liverpool in Sydney as well as Hopper’s Crossing and Broadmeadow in Victoria and Archerfield in Queensland have joined the Bi-Rite Electrical franchise which also operates stores under the HomElectrix brands.
All six stores have been added to the Narta website as active members.
The large number of stores leaving the BSL group has coincided with a new franchise agreement which some retailers have described as restrictive.
Houghton confirmed that the process of signing up members to the new agreement is progressing as expected.
“I can confirm that the majority of agreements are now either returned or in transit,” he said.


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SALEM, Ore. (AP) -- The state Senate has approved a bill that would legalize and license medical marijuana dispensaries in Oregon.
The bill passed 18-12 Wednesday. It now goes to the House, which approved an earlier version of the bill but must agree to the Senate's changes.
Under the current medical marijuana program, cardholders must grow the drug themselves or designate someone to grow it for them. If the bill passes, patients will be able to buy their medicine from a local dispensary.
The bill would establish a licensing system under the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program to regulate the medicinal pot retail industry that already exists. A legislative report estimates there will be 225 state-licensed dispensaries in next two years if the bill is approved.


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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, March 4, 2010
CONTACT OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS
President Obama Signs the Travel Promotion Act of 2009 Into Law
Secretary Locke committed to support the travel and tourism industry
President Obama signed the Travel Promotion Act of 2009 (TPA) into law today, putting into place a new public-private partnership between the U.S. government and the nation’s travel and tourism industry.
The U.S. Department of Commerce stands ready to work with the private sector to promote international travel to the United States. “When international visitors come to the United States they spend money on a wide range of goods and services that support U.S. jobs,” said Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke. “Creating a global tourism promotion program to encourage international visitors to vacation in America will help spur economic growth and create more jobs.”
Travel and tourism is the top services export for the United States totaling $142 billion and supporting more than one million American jobs.
Overseas visitors spend an average of $4,500 per person, per trip in the United States. Oxford Economics estimates the travel promotion program under the Travel Promotion Act will generate $4 billion in new visitor spending and 40,000 new jobs. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the program will reduce the federal budget deficit by $425 million in the next 10 years.
Secretary Locke will appoint an 11-person Board of Directors that will be charged with establishing the nonprofit Corporation for Travel Promotion to oversee the development and implementation of a global marketing and promotion campaign aimed at increasing the number of international visitors to the United States. The Corporation for Travel Promotion will be funded through fees collected from international travelers from Visa Waiver Program countries matched by private sector contributions.


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Regional wireless provider C Spire is using the Google Fiber playbook to deliver ultra high-speed broadband in Mississippi. The move could signal a trend in which other companies use the Google business model to bring fiber to other regions of the US.
The brand's next generation of single-serve coffeemakers won't be brewing anything other than Keurig-approved pods.
Ambitious but cautious, too, the smartphone maker puts the focus of its new online store on accessories like headphones and the Mi Band activity tracker.
Curious why the One M9 looks so similar to its predecessor? HTC's Peter Chou says it's intentional.
The inventive individual behind Keurig's wildly successful K-Cup wishes he never had a hand in bringing coffee pods to the world.
The head of marketing for Apple says Samsung beat out rivals such as Motorola and Nokia because the latter two companies didn't copy Apple as much.
A free gadget turns your Keurig 2.0 into a equal-opportunity coffee machine that sees all single-serve cups as authorized K-Cups.
The Chinese phone maker's new device features a slightly bigger screen and a lighter, thinner body than Apple's biggest phone -- at less than half the price.
Shipments of handsets from the 4-year-old smartphone maker more than tripled last year, according to the company's CEO.
The co-founder of the Chinese smartphone startup uses Facebook to confirm the financing, which gives it a valuation of $45 billion.


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Those of us hardcore geeks keep up with such things as Stan Lee’s birthday, which is coming up soon on December 28th. This year, Lee has requested that instead of gifts, that we honor his 89th birthday by donating to the Hero Initiative.
The Hero Intitiative is the first-ever federally charted not-for-profit corporation dedicated to helping comic book veteran creators in need. It creates a financial safety net for creators who may need emergency medical aid, financial support and an avenue back into paying work. It’s a chance for us comic book fans to give back something to the people who have given us worlds of enjoyment.
You can make your donation to the Hero Intiative here on the ShiftMyGift website.
“A gift to Hero is like a thank-you note to every comic book creator who ever brought you countless hours of fun, thrills and unforgettable reading enjoyment,” said Lee. “It’s a great way to celebrate any birthday – especially my own!”
Since it was conceived, the Hero Initiative has given over $500,000 to comic book veterans who have paved the way for those who are working in the industry today. For more information, visit www.heroinitiative.org or call 626-676-6354.
Source: Comic Book Resources


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Kentucky sports betting has been legal for nearly a month, but new developments continue to emerge in the Bluegrass State. That was the case on Wednesday as a Las Vegas sportsbook revealed its plans for a brick-and-mortar location in the state.
The Nevada Independent reported Circa Sports will build a retail sportsbook at Kentucky Downs, a thoroughbred track in Franklin just north of the Tennessee state line. The track is also home to the state’s second-largest historical horse racing gaming hall in terms of handle and revenue.
Circa’s plans at Kentucky Downs do not come as a surprise. While the track did not apply for a sports betting license earlier this year, Cumberland Run, an Eastern Kentucky harness track and HHR hall predominantly owned by Kentucky Downs’ owners Ron Winchell and Marc Falcone, was approved for one by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission. Cumberland Run has partnerships in place with both DraftKings and Circa. The Circa partnership is just for online wagering.
Before a Circa sportsbook Kentucky brick-and-mortar facility can open at Kentucky Downs, the track must apply for and receive a license from the KHRC.
About Circa Sports
Circa Sports is the sports betting arm of Circa Resort and Casino, the downtown Las Vegas development owned by Derek Stevens. The $1 billion resort is home to a three-story sportsbook billed as the world’s largest. There’s also Circa Swim, which features six pools surrounding a 143-foot wide diagonal screen.
Besides Nevada, Circa Sports has licenses in Colorado and Iowa. It also just launched in Illinois, where Circa has a retail sportsbook inside Full House Resorts’ The Temporary. That’s the casino Full House established in Waukegan as it builds its American Place resort in the north suburb of Chicago.
Kentucky will be Circa’s fifth state. Its online app has already been approved by the KHRC, and while it did not launch last week like the seven other Kentucky sportsbook apps authorized to operate in the state, Circa officials have said they hope to launch here by the end of the year.
Circa has sought to set itself apart from other online sportsbooks that have emerged in the post-PASPA landscape. Rather than offer sign-up bonuses or promotional odds boosts, Circa believes it can attract bettors by offering high and conspicuous limits and odds with lower hold rates.
“Our philosophy is that we are looking to provide customers with value every day they bet with us, not just the first week,” Circa Sports Director of Operations Jeffrey Benson posted as part of a thread on X Monday.
How Circa Will Impact The Kentucky Market
Like most states with brick-and-mortar sportsbooks and online betting apps, Kentucky is expected to have a dominant online market, where retail books take in a small portion of the handle and revenue. So, with that said, why is a retail sportsbook planned for a small town big news? The primary answer is geography.
While Franklin is a small town, it’s roughly a half-hour away from the heart of Nashville, and while Tennessee does have 13 licensed online sports betting apps, Circa is not on the list. Tennessee also does not have casinos or gaming venues, like Kentucky Downs – where Winchell and Falcone have invested substantially to make the track a destination facility. Having a prominent retail partner like Circa will certainly help attract bettors looking for higher limits.
Stick with BetKentucky.com for more news and information like this and visit our Kentucky sportsbook promo codes page for the latest and best deals.


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balancing family values with global ambitions
Ferrero has built its employer brand around a combination of its strong family values and the warmth generated by iconic trademarks such as Nutella, Kinder and Tic Tac. But as Ferrero’s moves into fast growth emerging markets gather pace, it faces the challenge of how to attract and retain key people in countries where the company is less well known. We asked Fabio Dioguardi, Global Employer Branding & Talent Acquisition Director, to explain how Ferrero is seeking to recreate the ‘emotional connection’ within its core markets among employees in its new and expanding markets.
“Ferrero is a business that is anything but ordinary,” says Mr Dioguardi. This is a company with an €8 billion a year turnover, which is owned and run by its founder’s grandson. This is a company that has grown into the world’s fourth largest chocolate confectioner without acquisition or outside finance.
“While we can offer the opportunities of a dynamic international business, being a family company gives us a human scale,” says Mr Dioguardi. “Our own employee surveys highlight our people’s pride in our products. In turn these products help us to create a connection with new employees.”
Being a family company also allows Ferrero to plan for the long-term rather than being bound by short-term earnings targets and this is reflected in how it seeks to nurture its people – “Ferrerians” as they call themselves. “We want recruits to embrace our values – to become part of the family if you like. This includes sending new managers on the ‘Understanding Ferrero’ courses at our Ferrero University,” says Mr Dioguardi. “Similarly, in their first year, new managers are encouraged to connect with our products, values and business model so they can create the awareness that will be crucial to their future success in the company. We believe this connection and awareness is just as important as how they perform.”
This commitment to the long-term in both corporate strategy and career development is reflected in high Randstad Award ratings for quality of management, financial strength and job security (people polled are not existing employees).
But now Ferrero faces a fresh set of recruitment and retention challenges as it seeks to extend its operations into India, China, Mexico and other emerging markets as part of its plans to accelerate growth over the next five years. Creating the employer brand values Ferrero enjoys in Italy, Germany, France and other parts of Europe is going to be difficult in markets where people haven’t grown up eating its products and there isn’t the same knowledge of what the company stands for. The challenge is heightened by the need to hire large numbers of people in a relatively short period of time.
Ferrero is therefore developing a new global employee value proposition (EVP), which builds on its heritage and values, while looking to the future. The public face of the project will be a new global website and communication strategy being rolled out from September 2014.
“We want to find people with the right skills and cultural fit, but recognize that our new operations need to be up and running quickly. So we’ve been looking at how to encapsulate what makes us distinctive and then how to articulate this in crisp and compelling ways in our target markets,” says Mr Dioguardi. The communications strategy is built around giving what he describes as a “’taste’ of Ferrero”, conveying both the opportunities the company offers and what it expects in return. “We’re building a new brand and therefore don’t just need to engage candidates, but also reach out to their families and friends, along with people who may not have considered working in the food sector before,” he says.
Mr Dioguardi recognizes the need to make the EVP and communication strategy that surrounds it relevant across different countries and cultures – “building bridges in new markets”. But he is keen to stress the importance of a single consistent message. “Global organizations cannot communicate something different in each locality. At a time when the internet and social media have made everything transparent, varying the message simply confuses the people we want to reach,” he says.
He also recognizes that pay is going to be important in helping to secure the people Ferrero needs in the short-term, but in the long-term they want to be competing on more than just salaries alone. “Retention is an issue when skilled people are in short supply and competition for them is increasing all the time. So if we want people to stay, we need to be offering the best of our values and the distinctiveness that could make them willing to develop careers with us,” he says. “Ultimately, an emotional connection has always been the essence of our employee brand and we need to be able to implant this in the countries that are crucial to our future growth.”


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News / 17 Jul 2022
Two carriages from the iconic Orient Express rail locomotive have completed another journey – but this time it was under the care of GAC Singapore’s logistics team.
The wagons dating back to the 1860s and 1930s have been on display at Singapore’s Gardens By The Bay since July 2021 as part of the “Once upon a time on the Orient Express” pop-up attraction produced by Lydie Blandeau and the Paris museum team from IMA Institut du Monde Arabe.
When the time came to return them to France, GAC Singapore was entrusted with the logistics, with the approval of the French Ministry of Culture.
Jorgen Nielsen, General Manager Logistics at GAC Singapore says it took meticulous planning to ensure that the precious cargo that weighed close to 200 tonnes were loaded onto a Ro-Ro vessel for their sea voyage back to Europe.
"Kudos to the whole team whose skills, experience and extensive planning made this move so successful and stress-free for our customer."
Data Privacy Day is part of a global campaign to raise awareness about the importance of protecting personal information online.
This year’s International Customs Day celebrates the importance of the people that keep our goods moving year-round
Considered one of the wonders of the modern world, the Panama Canal opened for business in 1914.


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A St. Louis jury awarded $70 million to a California woman in the latest verdict against Baby Powder manufacturer Johnson & Johnson for its role in causing her ovarian cancer diagnosis.
The woman was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2012, following her extended use of talcum powder, the main ingredient in Johnson & Johnson’s Baby Powder. The lawsuit stated Johnson & Johnson acted negligently in its failure to warn consumers that using its talc based products for feminine hygiene could raise ovarian cancer risks.
The October verdict is the third to be handed down by St. Louis juries in 2016. Two talcum powder cases tried earlier this year resulted in verdicts of $72 million and $55 million.
While Johnson & Johnson has expressed its sympathies for the woman’s diagnosis, they plan to appeal the verdict, and they continue to claim their products are safe and do not cause ovarian cancer.
To date, research has failed to support a direct correlation between talcum based powder use and an ovarian cancer diagnosis, however, studies dating back to the 1970s have linked talcum powder use to increased risks of ovarian cancer.
During the latest trial, attorneys cited research to support the dangers associated with talcum based powder use and women regularly applying talc to their genital area faced ovarian cancer risks 40 percent higher than those who do not use talcum powder based products.
Additionally, attorneys in this case also alleged that Johnson & Johnson specifically marketed talcum powder products to groups of women most at-risk for developing ovarian cancer.
Have you or a loved one been diagnosed with ovarian cancer after regular user of talcum powder products? You may be entitled to compensation for your medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering. Contact the class action lawyers at Brunson, Barnett & Sherrer, PC to find out if you have a case.