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On Sunday, one of only 130-ish Porsche Taycans in the U.S. burst flames in a Florida garage, EV-focused car website Electrek reports. We don’t know much about the context surrounding the fire, but what is clear from a short YouTube video is that it caused serious damage to both the garage and the car, which is now little more than a pile of molten metal and plastic.
Electric cars are becoming more and more common, so it only makes sense that people are curious to learn about the vehicles’ failure modes. That’s why there’s been a tremendous amount of interest in Tesla fires like the ones in Shanghai and Hong Kong last year, and that’s why a number of media outlets are covering a recent Porsche Taycan immolation and not the many gasoline vehicle fires that happen all the time (let the record state that we’ve also covered gasoline supercar fires over the years). The cars are interesting and the technology is still relatively new, hence the coverage. Makes sense.
With that out of the way, I’ll just say that I know almost nothing about this Taycan fire. Electrek says it happened in Florida on Sunday. Porsche’s spokesperson wouldn’t confirm the location, but did say that the company first heard about the incident on Sunday.
“At this point, it’s too early to speculate on the cause of this incident. There have been no other reported incidents like this before, and we are willing to assist further investigation in any way we can,” the spokesperson said before declining to say where it went down. “Unfortunately, we’re not divulging the exact location of the incident out of respect for the investigation and the owner,” he told me over email.
A YouTuber named Cop Block posted a video (shown above) of the apparent aftermath along with a caption that reads simply “Porsche Taycan Explodes in a Florida Garage.” I asked the Porsche rep if this is indeed a Taycan in the footage, to which he responded: “We are confirming a Taycan was in the garage at the time of the incident.”
That’s it. That’s pretty much all we know at this point.
What I find interesting is that you can see that the full-length glass roof has disappeared, and much of the aluminum has melted away while the steel—with its higher melting point—has maintained its shape:
Dewalt 20V Max Cordless Drill & Driver Kit
Comes equipped with an LED which goes on when the trigger is pulled. You’ll a clear view of whatever you are drilling or screwing with minimal shadows.
Here’s a look at the car’s material composition, in case you’re curious. This image shows the sheetmetal, which is aluminum:
And this image shows what’s under the sheetmetal—mostly steel, but a bit of aluminum (like the hood, and the rear roof crossmember center section that I point out two images above).
While Porsche won’t speculate on the cause of the fire, I’ll just say what everyone’s thinking: It might have been in some way related to the batteries, as is often the case with EV fires resulting in catastrophic damage.
Per Porsche, the company delivered 130 Taycans before the end of 2019. That’s not a lot, so the fact that one of them has already gone up in flames while sitting in what is now a ridiculously-destroyed garage isn’t a good look. But it’s important to reiterate that we don’t know what caused this. The fire may not have been the result of any sort of defect with the Porsche; We’ll just have to wait for the results of the investigation.
The good news is that, according to Porsche’s spokesperson, no injuries have been reported.


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Sanya International Yacht Show kicks off at Serenity Marina
With the aim of promoting oceanic culture and harmonious development in ocean areas, the Sanya Ocean Culture Festival, together with the Sanya International Yacht Show, opened at Sanya Serenity Marina on Nov.15, 2012.
The day began with an opening ceremony at 9:30am, which was attended by more than 100 local media representatives and hundreds of residents and tourists.
This year, the Yachting Models 2012 Contest made its debut at the Sanya Serenity Marina, with beautiful contestants from 60 countries gathering at the opening ceremony in the hope of winning the championship on November 16.
This is a 2-year process that has made it one of the Sanya’s many festival brands to invite the world to this blue feast. Several related activities will also be on offer to visitors, such as the top private products exposition, yacht test drives and the world yacht forum to promote the marine industry’s development in Sanya.
Sponsored by Sanya Municipal Government and Zhongbo Exhibition Co., Ltd, the festival will last for one month and be concluded with the Sanya International Yacht Show from Dec. 14-17.
SOURCE: WOS Team

domain: news


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by Louisette "Everybody talks about the weather, but no one ever does anything about it," wrote Mark Twain This collection SS22 accomplished this in a breathtaking slant. First time in 20 years, creative director Sarah Burton has brought back Alexander McQueen to London. With her perspective on the ever-changing weather and skyline views from
“I used to love the sound of flashbulbs going off at the shows in the ’80s,” designer Virginie Viard recalled in today’s Chanel show notes. “I wanted to recapture that emotion.” So this season Viard attempted to channel that energy and joy in a collection that not only referenced the era in the clothes,
Monique Lhuillier has a lot to be happy about, like a new collection and a hot-off-the-presses coffee-table book celebrating her 25 years in fashion. “It’s a new day, and after all those hardships a year ago, it’s nice to be landing on our feet and starting to soar again,” she said on a call.


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Yahoo yesterday began streaming free video highlights of English Premier League soccer to users in the U.K., supported by initial advertisers including Sony Pictures, Heineken, and Adidas.
The launch follows Yahoo’s U.K. push around the Soccer World Cup in South Africa earlier this summer, which featured editorial content from England star David Beckham, alongside an extensive online and offline campaign featuring the player. It acquired the rights to stream the Premier League highlights in April.
Yahoo’s U.K. managing director, Mark Rabe, said the company’s intent was to make the site a “home for [soccer] online,” for both users and brands. “For the casual or serious football fan, it’s the best bits of the weekend’s action… For advertisers, it’s…a large volume of quality video inventory,” he said in a statement.
Highlights from individual weekend matches will be made available at 12 am the following Monday, with content from midweek games available the following day. In addition, “best of” packages will feature content such as “goals of the week,” and “team of the week.” Users are prompted to share links to the content via social networks, but are not offered the ability to embed it elsewhere across the Web.
Currently advertiser content is delivered in the form of standard pre-roll video, but with Yahoo preparing to introduce new ad formats proposed by ViVaki’s The Pool initiative in the next few months, that could well be set to change.
There’s a big market for online soccer highlights in the U.K. Previous rights owner Virgin Media seems to have done little to promote the content, or even to attract advertisers when they had access to it. To help attract new audiences and further raise its profile in the soccer space, however, Yahoo says it’s planning a “multi-million” marketing campaign, including rich media and display advertising across soccer-focused U.K. sites, search activity, and a radio campaign in partnership with London-based station XFM.
Marketing creative will continue to make use of the “Make Yahoo your home for football” strapline it used during its World Cup activity, and focus on the fact that fans “need never miss Premier League action” again.
Yahoo’s licensing deal with the Premier League will last three seasons, after which the rights will once again be sold to the highest bidder.
According to data gathered for the report,‘Communications Infrastructure: The Backbone of Digital,’ 88% of IT professionals and 61% of marketers ranked their company’s current communication infrastructure as 'cutting-edge' or 'good.'
President Trump's digital savvy isn't limited to social media. As it turns out, the Trump Organization owns thousands of domain names, possibly even more than 10,000.
Silicon Valley loves fancy job titles. It’s just something we do, and software and technology lend themselves to it. But it’s not always helpful.
They're arguably the most annoying video ad formats in existence, but soon they'll be a thing of the past, at least on YouTube.


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How the city of Benicia welcomed our 14th retail location with open arms, and worked collaboratively with STIIIZY to positively impact their community.
On Saturday, September 25, 2021 — STIIIZY opened the doors to its 14th retail location with a successful grand opening event of music, great deals and a ribbon cutting ceremony featuring Mayor Steve Young, and other city dignitaries.
This location is the city’s first-ever cannabis retail that has contributed over 39 jobs to the area and signals a new era of cities recognizing cannabis’ transformative potential to positively impact a community such as Benicia. As part of the company’s commitment to the city, STIIIZY Benicia will provide safe and quality access to multiple beloved cannabis brands including top-selling STIIIZY products.
The retail space is also home to a 600 square foot art gallery that features an exhibition by local art organization: Arts Benicia Presents. The featured artwork comes from local artists with studios located in the historic Arsenal District of Benicia and includes Paula Boas, Laura Garcia, Joe Garcia, Susan Marcus Sachs and Randall Sextona.
“STIIIZY Benicia is one of our most exciting new locations, not only because we know we’re serving a population where many of our customers reside, but also because of the wonderful partnership we have with Arts Benicia and the city government,” says Shryne Group CEO Jon Avidor. “We believe cannabis has the power to bring people together in very positive ways, so we’re thrilled that Benicia is allowing us to become part of an already strong local community.”
“The City of Benicia has been diligently working for many years to introduce a retail cannabis location to our community, and this week we are thrilled to celebrate the opening of STIIIZY Benicia, a retail outlet of the Shryne Group,” says Mayor of Benicia Steve Young. “STIIIZY represents the very best in the cannabis industry and on Saturday, September 25th they open their doors to the public and call Benicia their new home.”
STIIIZY Benicia is located at 160 E. N Street, in Benica and has operational hours of Monday-Sunday: 10:00 AM - 8:00 PM.
To find more information on this STIIIZY retail and others, click here.


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The firm at first launched the 400 Mbps approach in Mumbai and will now be available across all of its useful metropolitan areas.
In addition to the 400 Mbps strategy, Excitel is also offering info strategies with 200 Mbps and 300 Mbps velocity to cater to the expanding dependency on fibre broadband that supports several units at the exact time.
Right here are the facts about the new set of info programs
To activate the program, clients can achieve out to the client care by way of the Excitel application or make contact with the helpline selection to ask for for an update.
“Excitel has constantly been setting benchmarks for large speeds at reasonably priced prices. We have been pioneers to introduce 20mbps when the common speed in the state was 1mbps. We are now introducing a 400mbps prepare, for Indian consumers and people to fulfill all their wants of – enjoyment, education and learning, do the job, gaming, and all things video clip- that also uninterrupted and lag free,” said Vivek Raina, CEO and co-founder of Excitel.


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As I geared up to make dinner one evening, my 6-year-old daughter loudly voiced her displeasure about the chickpea burgers we were having. We had first tried them a couple nights earlier. Though my 2-year-old son liked them, my daughter — who loves chickpeas by themselves, in pancakes and smashed with avocado on toast — took a confident bite, then rejected the burger and ate only the bun and fixings.
But three out of four of us liked them, they were healthy and, most important on a busy evening, they were quick. I wanted her to get on board, but I needed a plan.
The perception that children are picky eaters has given rise, in the United States anyway, to an industry of foods — most of them unhealthy — marketed specifically to kids. Squeezable yogurt, colorful cereals and snack bars all have exorbitant amounts of sugar; fried and salty or processed foods dominate kids’ menus at restaurants.
This all raises the question: Why is children’s food, as its own category, even a thing? Children on a typical developmental track are perfectly capable of eating what adults eat. In most countries, that’s exactly what they do. But U.S. culture has developed to encourage families to buy, cook and order separate foods for children. A number of experts say this can have negative long-term effects.
Those kid-targeted foods are convenient for parents and appealing to children, but they may come at a cost. If current trends continue, more than 57 percent of today’s children in the United States are projected to be obese by age 35, according to research from Harvard University.
Having a separate food category for children implies that children can’t or shouldn’t eat what everyone else eats. Decades of research, as well as other cultures, show that’s not true. But when we set low expectations for what children should eat, most kids aren’t going to surpass those expectations on their own.
“I understand where the concept comes from, but I think there’s a better way to feed our kids,” said Nimali Fernando, a pediatrician and founder of the Doctor Yum Project, a nonprofit in Virginia. “Do you know what I feed the kids in my baby food class? I feed them brown rice with lentil spinach curry. That’s a first food. Babies love it.”
Early childhood is when kids are most open to new flavors and textures. That doesn’t mean they like them immediately — although they may. It means they are willing to try them — which offers an opportunity to like them. “We are born with a predisposition to accept sweet and reject bitter tastes, but children’s food preferences are malleable from there,” said Stephanie Anzman-Frasca, a pediatric and behavioral medicine specialist at the University at Buffalo.
There are encouraging signs that practices may be shifting. The booming category of children’s food increasingly includes more natural ingredients and healthier formulations. Sales of conventional baby- and kid-targeted foods and beverages declined by nearly 2 percent in the past year, according to data provided by Spins, a data company focused on wellness, while sales of kids’ products marketed as natural increased more than 9 percent. But even the healthiest-seeming products, such as fruit and vegetable pouches and organic, whole-grain granola bars, are tailored to fit what children already like, rather than challenge them to expand their palates. And in all areas, including food and emotional and mental development, children need stimulation. They need chances to push their limits.
I’ve spoken with children’s feeding and health experts about the challenges of teaching healthy eating habits, and I’ve tried applying their advice to my own children. Melanie Potock, a pediatric feeding specialist in Longmont, Colo., sat in on lunch with my family one day and shared some thoughts on how we could improve.
Below are suggestions from Potock and other experts on how to raise kids with a broader, healthier palate.
Make the healthy option the normal option, and be patient. Offering new and healthy foods regularly is the most tried-and-true way for kids to learn they like a food. Developing a palate is a gradual process. It isn’t easy, but experts say that’s the point so many parents are missing. “We don’t ask them to know how to do calculus before they can add two plus two. There’s a process with everything the child learns, so why wouldn’t there be a learning process about food?” said Kathleen Keller, director of the Metabolic Kitchen and Children’s Eating Behavior Laboratory at Pennsylvania State University.
Remember, children are drawn to what’s familiar. If they’re exposed to healthy foods regularly, eventually those foods become familiar. Exposure does not mean they need to eat it — seeing it or even playing with it can count. The idea is to build familiarity.
Talk about nutrition. Children can often handle more than they’re given credit for. “Help kids learn in an age- and developmentally-appropriate way how foods help to fuel their bodies,” said Natalie Muth, pediatrician and spokeswoman for the American Academy of Pediatrics. That can mean explaining that fruits and vegetables are full of vitamins and minerals that help them grow — so they can tackle the monkey bars sooner or faster, or boost their game in soccer or gymnastics, or whatever it is they can relate to. This can make for fewer mealtime battles and empower children to resist the many unhealthy options that will tempt them outside the home.
Make food a positive experience. The best way to ensure kids’ minds are open to trying new foods, both in the moment and in the future, is to help their brains form positive associations with those foods. Involve them in planning and cooking meals to boost their investment. In cooking classes run by Denver-based Sticky Fingers Cooking, children often begin a session unwilling to try anything new. After being engaged with the cooking and with peers who are also trying the foods, they may taste a new fruit or vegetable, or develop an association with a new food. “Even if on that day, they didn’t want to touch it, taste it, smell it, they still had a positive experience,” said Chloe Sundberg, the company’s scheduling manager.
Try the family dinner. Everyone should be eating the same meal — or at least choosing what they want to eat from the same set of options. If kids say they don’t like the meal and are provided an alternate dish, they’re learning they can hold out for something else in the future. Eating together probably boosts the health content of their meal, but it also lets them experience the positive social interactions that food can create. And don’t get hung up on having a perfect meal ready every night. “It’s as much about the sitting down and connecting as it is about the food,” Fernando said.
Avoid solutions that can backfire. Pressuring children to eat certain foods or hiding vegetables behind more enticing foods are not long-term solutions. Doing so is fine for adding a nutritional boost to something they’ll be eating anyway, but it can be problematic as an exclusive means for getting children their veggies. A recent study by researchers in Denmark found that eating vegetable-fortified snack bars increases children’s liking for the bars — but not for vegetables.
As for those chickpea burgers, I went with a tip from Potock and nonchalantly served them with sprinkles. If my daughter thought I was tricking her into eating the burger, it could cause her to reject it and develop a negative attitude. Potock also emphasized that children respond to attention. If I praise her for eating or scold her for not eating, it encourages her to focus on external cues more than the food. “Attention is their paycheck. We need to be careful what we pay them for,” Potock said.
My daughter was excited but suspicious. I said casually that I thought some of us might want sprinkles. She helped herself to every sprinkle-covered serving, and by the end of the meal, she’d cleaned her plate.
I’m trying to brainstorm other means to a similar end — to avoid serving children’s food, and instead present adult food in a kid-centric way. It feels like a sensible and realistic way to approach all of this.
“There is nothing wrong with having macaroni and cheese or pizza once in a while, but the idea that kids can only accept foods like this is not giving them enough credit,” Anzman-Frasca said.
More from On Parenting:


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In the Spotlight - PepsiCo, The Coca-Cola Co battle into H2
PepsiCo's share slid 3.39% on Thursday compared to Coca-Cola's 3.4% lift on Monday
On the face of it, the winner may have appeared clear, as PepsiCo's share slid 3.39% on Thursday compared to Coca-Cola's 3.4% lift on Monday. Yet, while the two firms continue their neverending battle for brand dominance, the pair are now facing a further battle against pressures beyond their control - that of rising commodity costs.
Coca-Cola was the first to release its figures this week, revealing an 18% increase in first-half profits, driven by strong worldwide volume growth of 6%. The results pushed shares up by 3.4% in afternoon trading.
Pepsico on the other hand, revealed flat first-half profits, resulting in a 3.39% fall in its share price on Thursday.
For Coca-Cola, its results came in ahead of analyst expectations on the group's strength in emerging markets. Morningstar analyst, Philip Gorham, told Reuters that the surprise was not that international markets grew, but the rate at which they grew.
"Coke is investing in distribution in emerging markets and gaining points of sale," he said.
But, while Coca-Cola's results may be pleasing to investors, the world's largest soft-drink maker, like PepsiCo, is continuing to face struggles in its home market, where a still shaky economy has dulled sales of soft drinks and global commodity pressures continue to bite.
Indeed, alongside flat first-half profits, PepsiCo conceded that the operating performance of its North America beverage division was "well below expectations" in the second quarter of 2011. CFO Hugh Johnston, blamed "exceptionally high" levels of commodity inflation, poor consumer category demand, and a tough pricing environment.
Indeed, both firms have confirmed price increases in North America in a bid to offset commodity pressures. Coca-Cola raised prices by 1% to 2% in the first half of the year, and has already started work on additional increases that should total 2% to 3% for the year. PepsiCo is raising its drinks prices by an average of 3% to 5% between mid-July and Labor Day on 5 September. The increase will put PepsiCo's prices 5% to 7% higher than they were a year ago by the end of the summer.
Consumer Edge Research analyst Bill Pecoriello said Coca-Cola's reiterated plan to raise prices in the rest of the year means that its net increases could be below Pepsi's. "PepsiCo will have to decide whether to settle for less pricing or meaningful share losses," Pecoriello wrote in a note to Reuters.
Morningstar analyst Philip Gorham believes that raising prices again could be difficult, given the delicate state of consumer spending following weak US jobs growth in June.
"Pricing should be led by the consumer, but the trouble is the consumer, particularly at the low end, is driven by unemployment, which is back up," Gorham told Reuters. "I just don't think the environment is right to raise prices."
Wells Fargo analyst, Bonnie Herzog was particularly unimpressed by PepsiCo's first-half performance and told the Financial Times that the "tenuous predicament" facing the beverage business could make it harder for the company to make its planned price increases.
PepsiCo's chief executive, Indra Nooyi, blamed consumer and competitive conditions that had become more difficult than the company expected. In an earnings call on Thursday, she said the pick-up in consumer spending this year had reversed in the past few months.
The question posed by Bernstein Research analysts however, is, when does North American profitability recover for PepsiCo (PEP) and Coca-Cola (KO)?
"Will KO continue its aggressive tactics after lapping CCE in Q4?," Bernstein wrote in an analyst note. "Across most investors with whom we speak, the perception (rightly or wrongly) is that PEP would like there to be more pricing increases in the marketplace, but that KO is holding prices back."
Nonetheless, the analysts added: "For PEP, we continue to believe that challenges in the company's beverages business will improve, aided additionally by strengths and yet-to-be-proven pricing power in snacks/food. We also believe that ... integration costs, input inflation, and other reinvestment needs can be largely overcome by significant cost savings opportunities."
The co-founder of Vitaminwater has made a "significant" investment in US drinks firm Bodyarmor....
PepsiCo has formed an alliance with Ocean Spray Cranberries for the manufacture and distribution of fruit-based drinks in Latin America....
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The Far Cry series is taking a jump into VR, as Ubisoft announced a partnership with Zero Latency to make a game for select locations around the world.
In a release, Ubisoft revealed Far Cry VR: Dive Into Insanity which is puts players in a free-roamable VR space armed with an assault rifle. Up to eight players are thrown back into the world of Far Cry 3, which modernized the series and cemented its first-person open world action format for years to come. Iconic villain Vaas and his legion of pirates have captured the group, until they hatch an escape plan and fight for survival across Rook Island.
The game will also run similar to Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire and Avengers Damage Control VR, which added a short narrative story with shoot-em-up mechanics. Players will also be hooked up to a VR headset and backpack for a fully-wireless 6-degrees-of-freedom experience that lets players walk around and see each other in the game world. The real VR space will also include pieces of cover and other walls that are rendered in the game as environments for Far Cry: Dive Into Insanity. Of course, going back into Far Cry 3‘s setting means players will be surrounded by tropical beaches and lush rainforest as they mow down hordes of Vaas’ pirates. They will also need to work together and concentrate their fire on tougher enemies who will be life-sized.
“Ubisoft’s entry into the multiplayer free-roaming VR space builds on the success of its experiences like Notre-Dame VR, as well as its VR escape games and rides, to offer players a new way to experience Ubisoft’s beloved worlds,” the Far Cry studio wrote, adding it will immerse viewers back into the 2012 game in a new perspective.
Far Cry VR: Dive Into Insanity will be landing in select Zero Latency VR venues worldwide starting in 2021.


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Target, Kohl's, Vendors Donate to Hurricane Sandy Relief; Retailers Continue to Recover
Posted on November 2, 2012 by
NEW YORK-Target and Kohl's have donated monetary and product support to recovery efforts for Hurricane Sandy. Meanwhile, retailers with Northeast locations are continuing to open stores damaged by the storm.
Target has given $500,000 in both monetary and product support to assist in the relief efforts. Kohl's has donated $1 million in cash to relief efforts, which was provided to the American Red Cross, which is delivering emergency supplies and services to areas affected by the hurricane.
Among vendors, Electrolux said it would contribute $100,000 to the American Red Cross Disaster Fund, specifically to support Hurricane Sandy victims. The company will also match employee contributions up to another $100,000. Alok International, a textiles resource, is partnering with two charities, Feeding America and Living Dreams Foundation, to provide 100,000 meals to residents of New York, New Jersey and the surrounding areas.
A Target spokeswoman said that as of late yesterday, all of the stores in Hurricane Sandy's path had reopened. A J.C. Penney spokesman said as of late yesterday, 15 of its locations remained closed.


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JA names five Case Awards winners
March 20, 2014
The Case Awards entries were put on display at the recent JA New York Winter Show, where a panel of judges and show attendees could check out the designs.
New York--Jewelers of America has announced the winners of its annual Case Awards, which recognizes JA retail members who exhibit creativity, artistry, style and excellence in jewelry design.
The first-place winners in each category are as follows.--Jewelry up to $2,000 (retail prices): Susan Drake of Spectrum Art and Jewelry in Wilmington, N.C.
--Jewelry from $2,001 to $5,000: Craig Underwood, Becki Lamascus and Tom Weishaar of Underwood’s Fine Jewelers in Fayetteville, Ark.
--Jewelry from $5,001 to $10,000: Chris Roussel of Roussel’s Fine Jewelry in Gramercy, La.
--Jewelry over $10,000 and Best in Show: Belinda Vartenuk of Abshire and Haylan in Stow, Ohio
--Buyer’s Choice: Sherry Shifley and Tom Organ of Perry’s at Southpark in Charlotte, N.C.
Entries were judged at the JA New York Winter show, which took place March 1 to 4 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center.
The judging panel was made up of JA in-house experts and four industry experts who evaluated the entries in a specific area of concentration: Marc Adwar of Adwar Casting, Cindy Edelstein of the Jeweler’s Resource Bureau, Malak Atut of Zaiken Jewelry and National Jeweler Editor-in-Chief Michelle Graff.
The Buyer’s Choice category was determined by JA New York show attendees, who were invited to vote with a separate ballot.
“JA’s Case Awards retail design competition is the only national platform that showcases the craft and creativity of independent jewelers,” said JA President and CEO David Bonaparte. “We congratulate all Case Awards entrants, as they exemplify the talent and fine craftsmanship found in JA member stores nationwide.”
This year’s Case Awards was sponsored by GE Capital and Jewelers Mutual Insurance Company.
The Case Awards are open to JA retail members and their employees. Additional information about the competition can be found on the JA website.


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MANCHESTER textiles firm Downtex is shutting its Bolton factory to cut costs after plunging into the red last year.
Some production will be moved to its main factory at Strangeways, Manchester.
Downtex, which makes bedding and curtains, suffered from the effects of cheap imports during 2002.
Turnover was stable at é6.12m, but pre-tax losses were é559,378 compared with profits of é10,000 in 2001 as margins were squeezed.
It also made less gross profit than expected from the acquisition of Visions Homeware.
Chairman Gerald Carey said the AIM-listed company's full-year results were "extremely disappointing."
The poor performance has prompted the board to scrap the shareholders' dividend.
Downtex is focusing on developing its chain of shops, its wholesale business and its new range of wooden, flat-pack goods available through mail-order catalogues.
The company said competition from abroad continues to hit UK manufacturing and added: "We are addressing the margin issues by rationalising the manufacturing base."
To help ease the firm's problems, finance director David Mond has loaned the company é750,000.


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More customers of Union Bank of Nigeria Plc have emerged winners at the bankâ€™s regional draw held recently in the Federal Capital Territory, (FCT) Abuja, carting away brand new cars and motorcycles amidst eulogies for the bank.
The draw which was the sixth in the series, witnessed the emergence of winners of three (3) brand new Toyota corolla cars and 20 motorcycles winners.
Specifically the winners of the Toyota corolla cars wereÂ Mrs Stella Dupe Akogun customer of theÂ of Federal Secretary branch, at FCT, Abuja; Messrs Real Gold International Limited, customer of Ilorin branch, Kwara State and Mr Francis Agbatse, customer of Jos Main Market branch, Plateau State.
The Abuja draw brought the total number of cars so far won by customers in the bonanza to 18 Toyota corolla cars, 120 motorcycles and cash prizes, amongst who were five Millionaires in five regional draws previously held in Owerri, Port Harcourt, Ibadan, Kaduna and Lagos.
The excited customers who spoke separately at the draw commended the Bank for a well organised event while reiterating their continued loyalty to the Bank, for living up to its promises.
Earlier, the Group Managing Director/Chief Executive, Mrs. Funke Osibodu, who was represented by the Executive Director, Commercial and Retail Banking, (North) and Public Sector, Ibrahim Kwargana, stated that the Savings Bonanza was packaged to leverage on the Bankâ€™s extensive branch network and strength in retail and consumer banking in order to mobilize deposits from widely dispersed savers, especially the small-scale savers ones. Such funds, she said, would be channeled towards the productive real sector investments for national economic growth.
She also disclosed that the Grand Finale of the Saving Bonanza scheduled for May 27, 2010 in Lagos would produce winners of the ultimate prizes of 3 brand new Toyota Land Cruiser Jeeps, one threeBedroom Luxury flat in Lagos, and one three-Bedroom Bungalow in Abuja, as well as more brand new Toyota Corolla cars, Motorcycles andcash prizes.


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MUNICH/CERNOBBIO: German luxury car manufacturer BMW
Group Classic organised a two- day- long beauty contest for historic cars
and motorcycles on the banks of Lake Como in Munich.
The Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este
, this year in its eleventh edition, was lined up classic machines and striking concept cars under the banner of “Seventies Style – the Jet Set is back”.
The Concorso ended on Sunday with the Trofeo BMW Group for “Best of Show” being awarded to Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Spider from 1932.
The Coppa d’Oro Villa d’Este prize was won by Ferrari 166M Barchetta from 1950, and the Bentley Exp 10 Speed Six coupé was presented with the Concorso d’Eleganza Design Award.
Münch-4 TTS-E from 1973 took the honours with victory in the Trofeo BMW Group for motorcycles.
“Our Hommage cars not only demonstrate how proud we are of our heritage, but also how important the past can be in determining our future,” says Adrian van Hooydonk
, Director of BMW Group Design.
Since the Concorso is also committed to showcasing beauty on two wheels, BMW Motorrad unveiled the Concept 101 under the motto “The Spirit of the Open Road”.


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For the past year, Microsoft's share of the U.S. smartphone market has been falling like a rock, but in the past three months, it's stabilized. That's a notable achievement, in no small part because the market itself has grown so much, rising 2 to 3 percent per month.
To understand comScore's numbers, you have to take into consideration just what they're measuring. Every month, comScore publishes three-month moving averages of smartphone market share. It surveys 30,000 smartphone owners in the United States, age 13 and over, and asks them which phone they use.
As you can see, the lagging-three-month averages for RIM and Symbian (and before that, Palm) have headed south. No surprise. The percentage of people who claimed to use an Apple phone has gone up slightly, from 24.2 percent in August of last year to 27.3 percent in August of this year. Google's gone through the roof, from 19.6 percent to 43.7 percent in August this year.
The surprising number? Microsoft's three-month-average market share plummeted from 10.8 percent in August last year to 5.8 percent in May of this year -- painfully close to falling by half -- but since May, the losses have stabilized, with Windows running at 5.7 to 5.8 percent of the market.
Though comScore doesn't publish worldwide smartphone numbers, in the five leading European markets (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom), Microsoft dropped from 11.5 percent of the market in July 2010 to 6.7 percent of the market in July 2011.
Don't jump out of your seat and start chanting, "Developers, developers, developers," just yet. The comScore numbers tell an important tale -- how many people report owning a Windows-powered phone -- but there are two other numbers that warrant attention.
Online media measuring company Net Applications measures how often mobile devices are used to access one of its 40,000 tracked sites. I've talked about their NetMarketShare reports many times, most recently in describing how Internet Explorer is rapidly falling to 50 percent of desktop browser use and how the "iPad effect" has greatly increased mobile browser usage numbers.
The sample base for comScore and Net Applications varies significantly. For starters, comScore asks U.S. smartphone owners which phone they own. Net Applications looks at all websites, all over the world, and reports on which operating systems are being used to power the browsers.
When you look at the latest Net Applications numbers, you see a completely different story from the one at comScore. According to Net Applications, of the mobile and tablet operating systems banging against their 40,000 tracked sites, only one-half of 1 percent of the hits came from mobile devices running Windows Mobile or Windows Phone. The lion's share of mobile Internet access comes from iOS at 53 percent, Java at 21 percent, and Android at 16 percent.
More than that, the Windows share of online access is still falling. In August 2010, Net Applications reports, Windows Mobile drove 1.5 percent of all Web access. By August 2011, the share fell to 0.6 percent, and in September, it was under 0.5 percent.
So is Windows on the mobile platform growing, stagnating, or still headed to Hades in a handbasket? How does one reconcile comScore's 5.6 percent self-reported U.S. handset market share with Net Applications' measured 0.5 percent international Web access? Tough questions, and I don't see any clear answers. But I have a few observations.
It's possible that iPhone and Android users just surf the Web one or two orders of magnitude more frequently than Windows Phone and Windows Mobile users. That doesn't seem likely, but it's possible. It's also possible that Web surfing on the iPad has skewed all of the numbers completely out of whack. I don't think that accounts for all of the discrepancy, though, because iOS usage is "only" at 53 percent.
While comScore doesn't break out old Windows Mobile counts from new Windows Phone counts, Net Applications does. According to Net Applications, Windows Phone -- even now -- accounts for less internet access than Windows Mobile. Surprising, but true -- it's entirely possible that comScore is seeing and counting a lot of old Windows Mobile phones that aren't being used online very frequently.
The only way I can figure to make some sense out of the numbers is to take into account how many new Windows Phone devices are being activated. It's relatively easy to estimate roughly how many iOS and Android devices are coming onstream -- Apple and Google brag about their numbers from time to time. But there hasn't been a hint from Microsoft.
Last week, Windows Phone head Andy Lees spoke with AllThingsD about Windows Phone. "We're not making specific predictions but I think that our momentum is going to build," he said. He gave us no numbers, past, present or future.
With Android activations in June running 500,000 per day and iOS activations running an estimated 350,000-plus per day (Tim Cook says Apple sold "more than 33 million iOS devices" in Q3), Microsoft has a long way to catch up. Whether Mango's up to the job is anyone's guess -- "guess" being the operative term until we get hard numbers.
This story, "Mobile Windows market share stabilizes, but it could be too late to save the patient," was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Get the first word on what the important tech news really means with the InfoWorld Tech Watch blog. For the latest developments in business technology news, follow InfoWorld.com on Twitter.


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The coronavirus pushes Disney to offer its content directly in streaming without going through cinema releases, like “Mulan”, which will be available exclusively on its platform.
Thanks to the pandemic, Disney has found the chosen one of its heart: direct streaming of content to consumers, already a priority before the health crisis, is now the subject of all its attentions.
The Disney + platform, which reached 60.5 million subscribers on Monday, will host the film “Mulan” exclusively for now, after its theatrical release has been repeatedly delayed and now postponed indefinitely.
The service reached its minimum target in terms of subscribers 4 years ahead of schedule.
In all, Disney now has 100 million paying subscribers for its platforms (Disney +, ESPN + and Hulu), thanks to its abundant catalogs and the Star Wars universe, but also to the Great Containment.
And it’s not over: the Californian group announced on Tuesday the launch for 2021 of a new streaming service, under the Star brand, which it acquired from Fox.
The new platform will feature content that Disney already owns, including ABC Studios, Fox Television, FX, 20th Century Studios and Searchlight. It will be fully integrated with Disney + in many markets.
From April to June, only Disney’s streaming services branch achieved higher revenue than the same period a year ago: nearly $ 4 billion, compared to $ 3.9 billion in 2019.
Activity in amusement parks, cruises, events and related products plunged 85% to $ 983 million.
In total, Disney made $ 11.8 billion in revenue, half as much as a year ago, and ended up with a net loss of $ 4.7 billion in the third quarter of its staggered fiscal year, up from nearly of $ 2 billion in net profit last year.
Its title however appreciated by more than 5% during electronic exchanges after the closing of the Stock Exchange.
The market takes into account the group’s good outlook on the streaming side, but also its adjusted earnings per share, which is positive at 8 cents per share, taking into account a charge of $ 3.5 billion for losses linked to the pandemic.
This load corresponds to the negative impact of the new coronavirus on physical activities (parks, cruises, etc.).
In other sectors, the loss of income is partly offset by the drop in production costs, as filming and travel are at a standstill.
“Covid has struck again”
But the pandemic will continue to weigh heavily on the group’s income.
When parks announced their reopening, especially in Shanghai, Paris, Orlando (Florida), “we had more demand than what the social distancing instructions allow us”, told Disney boss Bob Chapek at a conference telephone with analysts.
“Then, unfortunately, the Covid struck again,” he continued, referring to the resurgence of contaminations, especially in the south and west of the United States. “We had a higher than expected level of cancellations.”
Results for the current quarter are expected to suffer from “disrupted conditions in distribution”, with many stores still closed or infrequently visited, and the year-over-year comparison “with (very good) sales of Frozen and Star Wars merchandise. last year, ”said Christine McCarthy, the company’s chief financial officer.
After having saved on the production of new films, Disney will also have to deal with higher costs to ensure the safety of the filming which resumes.
Bob Chapek nevertheless declared himself “as optimistic as possible” for the rest of the year: “We have of course“ The Mandalorian 2 ”(the Star Wars series produced by Disney +, editor’s note), which we announced for October, and also a slew of Marvel content that is coming and that we look forward to ”.


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Driverless cars could signal the end of vehicle ownership
The predicted arrival of fully-autonomous cars could signal the end of traditional vehicle ownership as we know it. A new survey carried out by used car specialists HPL Motors has found that one in four Britons would sell their vehicle in favour of signing up for a driverless car subscription.
- 24% of Britons would trade in their vehicle and join a driverless car subscription scheme
- Younger people are the most likely to embrace a driverless car membership programme
- This comes 10 years before fully-autonomous cars are expected to hit our roads
- HPL Motors MD says we mustn’t underestimate people’s passion for their cars
It is thought that the growing popularity of car share initiatives - where people save money (and the environment) by sharing their journey with others - coupled with the ongoing development of driverless car technology, could revolutionise motoring.
Although the majority of respondents (76%) in the HPL Motors survey said they wouldn’t sacrifice their own car in order to join a pay-as-you-go service straight away, the point that a quarter of people would already entertain the notion - a decade before fully-driverless cars are expected to hit the roads - is noteworthy.
Experts at Thatcham Research believe that fully-autonomous cars could be available by 2025, and recent news reports have suggested that driverless vehicle subscription schemes could feasibly become a reality.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, tech-savvy 18-24-year-olds are the most receptive to the idea, with 34% of this age group stating that they would join a driverless car membership scheme. At the other end of the scale, 35-44-year-olds are the least likely to embrace this new way of getting around (only 18% would part with their own car).
Commenting on the findings, HPL Motors Managing Director Jonathan Herman said: “It’s hard to argue that driverless cars won’t be the biggest disruptor that the motoring industry has ever encountered. We’re already seeing an upturn in the popularity of convenient car share schemes and the emergence of autonomous cars could completely overhaul the way we get from A to B,” he commented.
A recent study by What Car? found that one in four people - a similar number to those who are in favour of driverless subscription schemes - would be happy to sleep inside an autonomous car as it travelled along.
There are also environmental considerations to take into account, and it stands to reason that a subscription scheme of some description will reduce the number of vehicles on the roads. With fuel economy being such a big factor for motorists - we recently found that 53% of drivers say that fuel economy is still highly important to them when buying a new car - it’ll be interesting to see how the move towards semi and fully-autonomous cars impacts fuel consumption.
A separate study undertaken by IAM RoadSmart showed that 65% of motorists believe the driver should always be in control of a self-driving vehicle.
Jonathan added that while a lot of us like the idea of being chauffeured around by a driverless car, it’s clear that the majority are still largely sceptical about giving up control of the wheel.
“We’re likely to see more semi-autonomous driving systems being introduced in the coming years, and this might help to make the migration to fully-driverless cars more seamless. However, most people will still be extremely wary of completely relinquishing control of their vehicle.
“Also, we mustn’t lose sight of the fact that many of us actually enjoy driving. We’re passionate about cars and it’s hard to imagine a world where the majority of us don’t own a vehicle. For plenty of Britons, their car is their pride and joy.”
*A driverless car subscription package would take the form of a monthly subscription or pay-as-you-go model, whereby motorists request an autonomous car as and when they need one, rather than owning a vehicle outright.


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Gold price below Tk 1 lakh again
The jewellers have cut gold prices by Tk 1,749 a bhori for the domestic market thanks to a drop in the rates of pure gold in the local market.
From tomorrow, the price of each bhori or 11.664 grams of 22-carat gold ornaments will be Tk 99,027, down from Tk 100,776 earlier.
The Bangladesh Jewellers Association (Bajus) took the decision today to adjust the prices with the international market, it said in a press release.
On July 20, each bhori of gold price in Bangladesh cross the Tk 100,000-mark for the first time.


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Coworking is booming. The industry is growing and hybridizing so fast, we're having a hard time keeping up with it.
We recently released our 2016 coworking forecast and we are projecting continued rapid growth over the next 4 years, although at a slower rate than the industry's current dizzying pace.
As the chart below shows, we expect the number of global coworking spaces will grow from a bit over 11,000 this year to just over 26,000 in 2020.
For those with a statistical bent, this is a compounded annual growth rate of 23.8%.
We expect the number of global coworking members to increase from about 976,000 in 2016 to just over 3.8 million in 2020.
This is a 41% compounded annual growth rate.
The member growth forecast is higher than the space forecast because coworking spaces are getting bigger, both in size and number of members:
- new spaces tend to be much larger than older spaces.
- existing spaces are expanding by adding more space and members.
- coworking facility operators continue to figure out how to serve more members per square foot of space.
- spaces outside of the U.S. tend to be smaller than U.S. spaces, but the gap has been closing and will likely continue to close.
According to Deskmag, the average number of members per space roughly doubled over the past two years. We see this trend continuing, but at a lower rate. We're forecasting a 77% increase in the average number of members per space over the next 4 years.
The forecast shows coworking space and member growth slowing steadily over the forecast period.
The number of spaces are forecast to grow 18% in 2020, down from a 41% growth rate in 2016. This, in part, reflects the larger space sizes. But it also reflects a maturing market and the challenges associated with rapid growth as an industry gets bigger.
Member growth also slows over the forecast period, but is still growing at a very brisk 26% pace in 2020.
So is this forecast reasonable?
In terms of share of the market, coworking will still be small to tiny in 2020 depending on your market definition.
In the U.S. alone we estimate that about 22 million people could be coworking space members. The global number is much, much bigger. So 3.8 million global members is still likely less than a 4% penetration rate.
In terms of other metrics, the real estate firm JLL points out that coworking spaces only comprise "0.7 percent of the total U.S. office market" and less than that outside of the U.S. This forecast would move this to a bit less than 2% of the U.S. office market in 2020.
Another interesting set of data is Starbucks had about 23,000 global stores at the start of 2016 and McDonald's had about 34,000. We think it's reasonable to believe coworking could be bigger than Starbucks. Interestingly enough, by 2020 some Starbucks stores might be considered coworking spaces.
So we feel pretty good about this forecast.
Having said that, our 2014 coworking forecast turned out to be way too low.
Our 2015 was also too low, but better than 2014.
Prior to 2014 our forecasts were low to on target. In the 8 years we've been doing coworking forecasts, we've yet to have one that turned out too optimistic.
But we've yet to see the coworking industry go through a recession - and one is likely over the next few years. A major recession could, of course, have a major impact on the industry - and potentially make this forecast too high.
One last point. How coworking is defined is an important attribute of any coworking industry analysis. See our 2010 article What's the Definition of a Coworking Facility in our old Coworking Labs Blog for our definition.
We'll have more on this forecast, including specific data on the U.S., in the coming weeks.


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Just outside St. Louis, a man robbed an EB Games store a gun point (pictured). The man walked into the shop, picked out a game, and pulled a small handgun on the clerk. Here's the kooky part: He told the clerk that his family was being held hostage and needed a PS3 to set them free. Then, the man told the clerk to call the police after he left the store because his family needed help. Well, that's original. And crazy. Police: Man Steals Playstation 3, Says It's to Save His Family [KSDK via PS3 Fanboy]
Submitted discussions can be approved by the author or users followed by this blog.


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Original Mini hides hi-tech interior – complete with GPS, keyless-go and USB connectivity
The classic Mini shape has been brought back to life with a stylish combination of Sixties design and 21st century gadgetry
By Dan Elsom
7th April 2017,11:44 am
Updated: 7th April 2017,12:01 pm
AS any librarian will tell you, you should never judge a book by its cover – so why should cars be any different?
A special model Mini is giving new meaning to that phrase, resurrecting the classic 1960’s body shape and adding a wealth of 21st century technology.
British coach building firm David Brown Automotive has engineered a small collection of original Minis, retro-fitted with the latest in modern car technology and re-energised with improved mechanics.
Dubbed the Mini Remastered range, the vehicles appear almost identical to the original two-door classic from the outside, but launch the British icon into the future once you step inside.
Each hand-built model will feature a completely new body, in-built infotainment and navigation system, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, a four-speaker sound system, keyless-go, USB connectivity and charging, as well as push-button start and remote central locking.
More Motors News
What's YOUR dream garage? Top 25 most wanted cars revealed including a Vauxhall!
TAKE ME HOME
Driverless cars could reach the UK sooner than you think - here's the latest
What to do if your dashcam films a stranger's crash - and why not to ignore it
STRIFE IN THE FAST LANE
The lowdown on speeding laws and tough fines of up to 175% of wages
Moment duo pose for selfie through car sunroof while driving on motorway
ROAD REPAIR CALL
One in 5 local roads could be UNUSABLE in less than 5 years, report claims
Genius installs kitchen with sink and cooker in the back of his tiny electric car
HAVING A BLAST
You can own a 'personal torpedo' that'll fire you at 50mph across the water
NOT SO SMART
M4 won't get more safety bays as it's 'too late' - despite opening in 4 YEARS
GOT YOUR NUMBER
UK's rudest number plate has been BANNED after going on sale for £6,000
HOW MUCH IS TOO MUCH
The lowdown on drink driving laws and when they were introduced
Four ways to avoid breaking the law when driving in the snow
Produced at the company’s Silverstone factory, engineers have also tweaked the original 1,275 cc engine to give it almost 90 bhp worth of power – and at just 700 kg it makes the perfect city runabout.
The only catch? Each Remastered Mini is expected to fetch around £100,000.
But for any major fan of the iconic British motor, it would be a small price to pay for the classic’s revival.
The original Mini ceased production in 2000 after selling over five million vehicles across 41 years.


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In Reply to: Flex Alert or Idiot Governor Alert? posted by Ed Gooding (VA) on September 05, 2022 at 05:57:17:
I thought that cold was going to be the big problem for electric cars in northern states. Minnesota Auto Dealers Association is saying that electric vehicles donít perform well in their typical below zero winters. New York is said to follow California.


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Google Just Shared Each State's Most Uniquely Searched Christmas Cookie—Did Your Favorite Make the Cut?
In the days leading up to the Christmas holiday, people from all over the country have been Googling various Christmas cookies, presumably as they prepare to bake some of their favorite festive treats. Given the yearly frenzy around holiday cookies, Google recently released a color-coded map that shows the most uniquely searched cookie in each state. The information was collected nationwide, from November 29 through December 6, 2021.
To clarify, the reason why you won't see some favorites on the map below, such as chocolate chip cookies or gingerbread cookies, is because the data only encompasses queries that were over-represented in a state compared to the country as a whole.
The cookies were divided into five categories—flavor, shape, substitute ingredients, internationally inspired, and other—and there were some clear winners in the bunch. The most popular uniquely searched cookie was actually something called "Christmas cookie fudge," which nabbed the top spot in six states. "Italian Christmas cookies" were close behind, reigning supreme in five states, with a similar search term—"Old Fashioned Italian Christmas Cookies"—taking the top spot in Washington, D.C.
Other yummy but seemingly less popular confections, such as "Lemon Christmas Cookies" and "Oreo Christmas Cookies," only came out on top in one state each. Similarly, even though interest in plant-based food and recipes is on the rise, "Vegan Christmas Cookies" was the most uniquely searched cookie variety in a single state—Washington. By contrast, "Keto Christmas Cookies" and "Gluten Free Christmas Cookies" came out on top in four states each, indicating that many Americans are taking diet into account as they prepare to celebrate the holidays.
While the results did vary from state to state, there were some clear trends across different regions of the country. If you take a peek at the Northeast, for example, you'll notice that many states favored internationally inspired cookies, while those who live in the Midwest tend to prefer cookies made with alternative ingredients.
The Most Uniquely Searched Christmas Cookies
Need some inspiration for your own batch of Christmas cookies? Scroll down to see some of our favorite holiday cookie recipes inspired by the recently released Google data!


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Chat app Line’s games business raises $110M for growth opportunities
Messaging app firm Line has given up majority control of its Line Games business after it raised outside financing to expand its collection of titles and go after global opportunities.
The Line Games business was formed earlier this year when Line merged its existing gaming division from NextFloor, the Korea-based game publisher that it acquired in 2017. Now the business has taken on capital from Anchor Equity Partners, which has provided 125 billion KRW ($110 million) in financing via its Lungo Entertainment entity, according to a disclosure from Line.
A Line spokesperson clarified that the deal will see Anchor acquire 144,743 newly-created shares to take a 27.55 percent stake in Line Games. That increase means Line Corp’s own shareholding is diluted from 57.6 percent to a minority 41.73 percent stake.
Korea-based Anchor is best known for a number of deals in its homeland including investments in e-commerce giant Ticket Monster, Korean chat giant Kakao’s Podotree content business and fashion retail group E-Land.
Line operates its eponymous chat app which is the most popular messaging platform in Japan, Thailand and Taiwan, and also significantly used in Indonesia, but gaming is a major source of income. This year to date, Line has made 28.5 billion JPY ($250 million) from its content division, which is primarily virtual goods and in-app purchases from its social games. That division accounts for 19 percent of Line’s total revenue, and it is a figure that is only better by its advertising unit, which has grossed 79.3 billion JPY, or $700 million, in 2018 to date.
The games business is currently focused on Japan, Korea, Thailand and Taiwan, but it said that the new capital will go towards finding new IP for future titles and identifying games with global potential. It is also open to more strategic deals to broaden its focus.
While Line has always been big on games, Line Games isn’t just building for its own service. The company said earlier this year that it plans to focus on non-mobile platforms, which will include the Nintendo Switch among others consoles.
That comes from the addition of NextFloor, which is best known for titles like Dragon Flight and Destiny Child. Dragon Flight has racked up 14 million users since its 2012 launch, at its peak it saw $1 million in daily revenue. Destiny Child, a newer release in 2016, topped the charts in Korea and has been popular in Japan, North America and beyond.
Line went public in 2016 via a dual U.S.-Japan IPO that raised over $1 billion.
Note: the original version of this article was updated to clarify that Lungo Entertainment is buying newly-issued shares.


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A huge boost for Tipperary craft brewers.
Labour TD Alan Kelly has said that he’s delighted that his bill to allow Craft Brewers sell their own produce on their premises to visitors and locals has passed all stages in the Dail and will pass the Seanad this week.
This will then become law and be a huge boost to local craft brewers.
He said he drafted this legislation because he felt it was ridiculous that Craft brewers were unable to sell their own produce from their own premises.
He cotninued – “Can you imagine visiting a vineyard in Spain, Italy or France and not been able to buy a bottle of wine afterwards. It would be ridiculous, however that is the situation here in Ireland until my legislation becomes law.
“I have been present in Breweries where visitors from all over the world did tours and yet were unable to purchase any produce afterwards.
“This bill which is supported by Failte Ireland, the National Tourism Development Authority will create a new tourism product in Ireland whereby domestic and international visitors will be able to go on guided tours across a range of breweries and distilleries across Ireland. This will attract hundreds of thousands of visitors in the years to come.
“In Tipperary this will have a huge impact for the four craft brewers in our county; White Gypsy in Templemore, Con’s Cider in Cahir, Longways Cider in Carrick on Suir and Canvas Brewery in Aglish.
“I want to thank each of them for their encouragement and support over the last number of years. They are fantastic people who are creating much needed jobs in rural parts of Ireland and deserve to be supported by everyone in Tipperary”.


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Mengniu Dairy Plans Dollar Bond as China Costs Near 10-Month LowRachel Evans
China Mengniu Dairy Co., the nation’s largest producer of milk and icecreams, is considering a sale of dollar-denominated bonds after costs fell to a 10-month low.
The company, one of 22 found to have sold products containing melamine five years ago, plans to meet investors in Hong Kong, Singapore and London from Nov. 18 to discuss the offering, a person familiar with the matter said, asking not to be identified because the details are private. Mengniu’s state-owned parent, Cofco Corp., sold $500 million each of five- and 10-year bonds earlier this month.
Borrowers from China and Hong Kong boosted sales of U.S. currency debt 47 percent this quarter from the previous three months as onshore lending conditions tighten. Issuers in the world’s second-largest economy pay an average 361.3 basis points more than Treasuries to sell dollar debt, 1.4 basis points more than a 10-month low reached on Nov. 13, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. indexes.
“Corporates are finding it more difficult to get bank loans or financing onshore so it’s natural for them to come out to issue, especially when rates are so low,” said Annisa Lee, a Hong Kong-based credit analyst at Nomura Holdings Inc. “We’ll probably see more Chinese issuers selling bonds, given onshore banks’ liquidity will continue to go tighter.”
China’s money-market rates and onshore bond yields soared this month as the nation’s Communist Party leadership met to outline economic reforms. The benchmark seven-day repurchase rate rose to 5.3 percent this week, the most since it climbed to a four-month high on Oct. 30. The yield premium on three-year corporate bonds in China surged to a more-than four-month high.
Developer Dalian Wanda Commercial Properties Co. was the last Chinese company to raise U.S. currency debt, selling $600 million of five-year bonds at a spread of 375 basis points more than Treasuries yesterday, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The company postponed an offering last week after marketing the notes at a 325 basis-point spread, a person with knowledge of the details said at the time.
China’s dairy companies are seeking to win back consumer confidence after a series of food safety scandals. Demand for milk in the world’s most populous nation has increased more than sixfold in the last 20 years, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Mengniu agreed to buy a stake in raw-milk producer China Modern Dairy Holdings Ltd. in May to increase its control of milk supplies. Moldy cattle feed led to excessive toxin levels in its milk in 2011.
Mengniu and France’s Danone SA announced a joint venture earlier this year which will help bring the Paris-based company’s brands to the world’s most-populous nation, while a tie-up with Denmark’s Arla Foods amba was arranged in 2012.
Cofco sold $500 million of bonds due November 2018 on Nov. 5 at a 175 basis-point spread above similar maturity Treasuries. An issue of notes maturing in November 2023 sold at 215 basis points more than Treasuries.
The cost of insuring corporate and sovereign bonds in Asia from non-payment decreased today, according to traders of credit default swaps.
The Markit iTraxx Asia index of 40 investment-grade borrowers outside Japan fell 2 basis points to 134 basis points as of 8:21 a.m. in Singapore, Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. prices show. The measure is poised to drop 2.2 basis points this week, the most since the five days ended Oct. 18, according to data provider CMA.
The Markit iTraxx Japan index declined 2 basis points to 85.75 as of 9.22 a.m. in Tokyo, Citigroup Inc. prices show. The benchmark is set for an 8.75 basis-point fall this week, the most since the five days ended July 12, according to CMA, which is owned by McGraw-Hill Cos. and compiles prices quoted by dealers in the private market.
The Markit iTraxx Australia index rose 0.5 of a basis point to 103.5 basis points as of 11:44 a.m. in Sydney, according to Westpac Banking Corp prices.
Credit-default swap indexes are benchmarks for insuring bonds against default and traders use them to speculate on credit quality. A drop signals improving perceptions of creditworthiness, while an increase suggests the opposite.
The swap contracts pay the buyer face value in exchange for the underlying securities if a borrower fails to meet its debt agreements.


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Article is contributed by our good friend Tomislav Simic
Living in Canada for a very brief time, in his college years, Elon migrated to the USA. Leaving Pennsylvania behind for the glory of the Silicon Valley, he showed little interest in going back to Canada. However, Canadian mining companies have been wooing over Elon ever since Tesla and SpaceX showed their astronomical future potential.
Since Elon shows little to no interest to standard wooing tactics for the commercialized world we got to know in the past, the meme lord requires innovative tactics.
One such attempt was made by Eric Desaulniers, the CEO of Nouveau Monde Graphite, in his whimsical youtube video that seems to have fallen through the cracks of the social media.
Zero-emission mining is the key to Elon's request for more raw materials needed for the EV revolution he's spearheading. Today, Canada Nickle Company announced its subsidiary NetZero Metals and with it, the new trademark names: NetZero NickelTM, NetZero CobaltTM, and NetZero IronTM.
The new trademark names are very revealing since they are raw materials used for upcoming and existing battery production. Elon has admitted over time that obvious obstacles, in mass production, are the bottlenecks, and battery production is a major one.
Coupled with Mark Selby's, Chair & CEO of Canada Nickel quote: "The electric vehicle industry and many other consumer sectors needs zero-carbon metal this decade...", it's pretty obvious who is being targeted as a potential customer since Tesla is the obvious leader in the EV world's mass production. Elon listed raw material travel, from excavation point to the end product, as being one of the largest areas of improvement in cost-cutting efforts that are needed to bring the price of Tesla vehicles even further down.
Tesla is known for its price cuts, which have been largely criticized by the company's "Master Plan Deux" disbelievers. Contrary to the disbelievers and naysayers, the company has followed and executed the Master Plan Deux exceptionally well. The sheer count of achievements this year from showing profits for a full year, for the first time ever, continuous expansion in the USA and abroad, and all that under extreme circumstances of the global pandemic, while still continuing to cut the price of the Model Y, shows Tesla's true potential. Whether Elon bites on this will depend on more than just eco-friendly mining or locale, but on the cost, since the savings will have to reflect in vehicle's price cost for the end consumer. Staying true to Tesla's customer base is the ultimate 'must' since Tesla doesn't advertise but relies on word of the mouth sales approach and product's quality that may not be compromised for the sake of much-needed margin.
Eva Fox joined Tesmanian in 2019 to cover breaking news as an automotive journalist. The main topics that she covers are clean energy and electric vehicles. As a journalist, Eva is specialized in Tesla and topics related to the work and development of the company.


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Price and yield moves on the Romanian property market will be influenced in the near future by both the availability and the cost of capital, while the overall volume of deals is likely to fall this year after reaching a 15-year high during 2022, suggest Colliers’ consultants.
The amount of property investments in Romania totaled €336 million in the first half of 2022, up around 13% year-on-year, while solid pipeline of transactions is under negotiation and could be completed by the end of the year, according to a report of real estate consultancy CBRE.
The overall European logistics yield dropped 14bps to 5.95% in Q2 2018, the first time it has fallen below 6% since Cushman & Wakefield began consistently tracking the three main property sectors in 1992, according to the firm’s DNA of Real Estate report.
European office rental growth slowed to 0.4% over the quarter, though still posted a respectable 2.4% annualised growth. Budapest led the way with growth of 9.1% across the quarter, supported by strong demand, historically-low vacancy rates and a lack of Class A space. Demand for logistics space is supporting rental growth and driving yields lower across Europe, according to Cushman & Wakefield’s latest DNA of Real Estate report.
Viking Shared Service Center Cluj has relocated its Cluj-based offices in Record Park, which is owned by AYA Properties Fund and developed by Speedwell. The lease deal was brokered by Griffes.
Asian restaurant Sagakura has signed a lease agreement in America House for a retail space with an area of 103 sqm and a terrace with an area of 130 sqm. Meanwhile, beverage operator Royal Bubble has leased 31.76 sqm and an additional terrace space of 26 sqm in the same building. FruFru, a healthy food & drink option, reopened following a location change in the office project. The lease deals were brokered by Chain Trust.
The Aura Centrum Olsztyn shopping centre saw the opening of the largest Ochnik brand store in the Warmia and Mazury region in Poland. The shop occupies an area of 433 sq m and is located in the modernised passageway of the gallery on level +2.
Axi Immo is developing its Capital Markets Department. As of November 2023, Jakub Grabara was appointed as Associate Director in the Capital Markets Department. He will be responsible for transactional services, i.e., acquiring, purchasing, and selling commercial real estate.
Romanian developer ARQA has named Alexandru Rădulescu as Chief Sales Officer. During his career, he has overseen the sale of 17 residential and mixed-use projects.
Multi Corporation appoints Ola Zajac as New Business Ventures Manager. Ola will be looking for new business expansion strategies and venture capital investment opportunities across Europe and will be based out of Lisbon.
Property Forum is a leading event hub in the CEE real estate industry with nearly 10 years of experience. We organise conferences, business breakfasts and workshops focused on real estate, in London, Vienna, Budapest, Bucharest, Bratislava and Prague, amongst other locations.


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Suzuki Motorcycle India Pvt. Ltd. (SMIPL) registers a 5.4% Y-O-Y growth in February 2021. The brand recorded total sales of 71,662 units in the month of February 2021 compared to 67,961 units sold in February 2020. In the domestic market, Suzuki registered sales of 59,530 units in February 2021 as compared to 58,644 units sold in February 2020, despite the COVID-19 pandemic. The brand also suggests that the sales are slowly riding towards pre-COVID levels and the brand expects the sales to improve more in the near future.
Suzuki retails five motorcycles in the Indian market – the Gixxer SF 250, Gixxer 250, Gixxer SF (150), Gixxer (150) and the Intruder (150). The brand also offers two scooters – the Burgman 125 Street and the Access 125 in India. Suzuki also retails superbikes from its ‘Big Bike’ portfolio which currently has only one motorcycle on offer which is the BS6 Suzuki V-Strom 650 XT. But the brand recently confirmed that it will also bring the all-new third-generation Suzuki Hayabusa into the Indian market soon.
Suzuki released a teaser of the all-new Hayabusa confirming that the iconic motorcycle will be ‘Coming Soon to India’. The all-new model recently made its debut in the international market and comes with a new body design, mild upgrades to its chassis, the same engine architecture but new innards such as the pistons, camshafts, valve springs, connecting rods, combustion chamber, intake system, throttle body, fuel injection system as well as the exhaust system. The gentle giant has also managed to shed 2 kgs of weight in the engine department and another 700gms off its chassis.
Hayabusa Powertrain Specifications
Powering the 2021 Suzuki Hayabusa is a Euro5 emission compliant 1340cc liquid-cooled in-line four-cylinder 16-valve DOHC engine with electronic fuel injection that produces 187 bhp of power at 9700rpm and 150 Nm of torque at 7000rpm. The engine comes with a 6-speed transmission unit with a bi-directional quick shifter. As of now, the brand has not revealed which route the Hayabusa will take to enter the Indian market, will it be the more expensive CBU route or the relatively affordable CKD route, remains to be seen.


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A news feed about for-profit business out to make a social/environmental change.
What We Are Trying To Do
4Benefit News wants to strengthen awareness and build a community around mission-driven businesses growth, purpose, and sharing each others success. We've built a place where people may post articles, ideas, and how-to's related to socially conscious businesses.
The Benefit Corporation Industry
Registered as Benefit Corporations and Certified B Corps these new entities are reimagining how businesses impact the world socially, and environmentally. These for-profit businesses report a standard of practices by giving back to society through a clean carbon footprint or physical and intellectual goods.
There are around 4,500 Benefit Corps and 2,000 certified B Corps competing in a world of over 200 million corporations. The public knowledge and education about the impact these companies make everyday, is far too small.


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Dana Inc (NYSE:DAN) to Post Q2 2019 Earnings of $0.86 Per Share, KeyCorp Forecasts
Dana Inc (NYSE:DAN) – Equities researchers at KeyCorp dropped their Q2 2019 earnings per share (EPS) estimates for shares of Dana in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday, July 12th. KeyCorp analyst J. Picariello now expects that the auto parts company will earn $0.86 per share for the quarter, down from their prior forecast of $0.87.
Dana (NYSE:DAN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The auto parts company reported $0.78 EPS for the quarter, beating the Zacks’ consensus estimate of $0.73 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $2.16 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.18 billion. Dana had a net margin of 5.11% and a return on equity of 31.31%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.75 earnings per share.
Shares of NYSE DAN opened at $18.56 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.63 billion, a PE ratio of 6.25, a PEG ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 2.19. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $17.50. Dana has a 52-week low of $12.65 and a 52-week high of $21.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.67, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a current ratio of 1.63.
Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Dana during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $30,517,000. Two Sigma Investments LP boosted its holdings in Dana by 150.9% in the fourth quarter. Two Sigma Investments LP now owns 1,384,880 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $18,876,000 after purchasing an additional 832,815 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its stake in shares of Dana by 373.8% during the 1st quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 922,649 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $16,368,000 after acquiring an additional 727,918 shares in the last quarter. Gotham Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Dana by 919.9% during the 4th quarter. Gotham Asset Management LLC now owns 740,189 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $10,089,000 after acquiring an additional 667,616 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its position in shares of Dana by 29.7% during the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 2,619,399 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $35,703,000 after purchasing an additional 599,876 shares during the last quarter. 94.21% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
In other news, VP James D. Kellett sold 2,825 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $16.05, for a total value of $45,341.25. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 2,704 shares in the company, valued at approximately $43,399.20. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.75% of the company’s stock.
Dana Incorporated provides drive and motion products, sealing solutions, thermal-management technologies, and fluid-power products to vehicle and engine manufacturer in North America, Europe, South America, and the Asia Pacific. The company operates in four segments: Light Vehicle Driveline Technologies, Commercial Vehicle Driveline Technologies, Off-Highway Drive and Motion Technologies, and Power Technologies.
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Last updated 12 September 2018
First look at Steve Pilling’s new Stockport restaurants
Exciting images of renowned restauranteur Steve Pilling’s two fantastic new restaurants in Stockport Market Place have been released, with both planned to open before Christmas.
With over 30 years culinary experience running award winning restaurants such as Sam’s Chop House, Damson, Roost and La Cantina, Steve is set to transform Stockport’s historic Produce Hall and Blackshaws into must-visit eateries where visitors can enjoy a wide range delicious food, drink and entertainment.
The transformation set to take place is fantastic.
The Grade II listed Produce Hall will be sensitively refurbished into a thriving food hall housing up to eight independent kitchens and bars, with seating for 150 people. A rotating selection of guest pop-ups and street food traders will mean that no two visits will be ever the same, and live entertainment will also help transform the Produce Hall into a buzzing food and drink destination.
Just round the corner from the Produce Hall is Blackshaws Café. Dating back to the 1860’s this former bakers and confectioners will be home to a new ‘deli-style’ café bar operated by Pilling.
The openings come as Stockport Market Place is quickly establishing itself as the region’s newest hotspot for food-lovers. Over the past few months there has been a flurry of lettings in the Market Place, meaning the area’s well established food and drink scene, that includes award winning restaurant Where The Light Gets In and new bar Project 53 will soon be joined by number of other bars and restaurants, as well as Steve Pilling’s eateries.
Councillor Kate Butler, Stockport Council’s Cabinet Member for Economy and Regeneration said: “I’m delighted with the plans for The Produce Hall and Blackshaws. It has taken a little time to deal with the complexities involved in converting historically significant buildings into restaurants Stockport residents can be proud of, but believe we have achieved this. At the same time, we have also successfully relocated the businesses who used to be based in the Produce Hall into new homes from where they are now trading.
“These openings will cement Stockport Market Place’s position as a thriving, exciting food destination for visitors both locally and from further afield. We've been working hard to ensure the Market Place is a key feature of our plans for town centre regeneration and that the full potential of the whole area is unlocked. It will be fantastic to see even more visitors coming back to this important and beautiful part of our town to shop, eat, relax and enjoy its unique historic charm.”
£7million is currently being invested by Stockport Council into helping revitalise Stockport’s Market Place and Underbanks. The opening of new restaurants, bars and other businesses comes at the same time as events are being launched in the area, the independent businesses are being supported, and buildings are being restored or given new uses for the future. The work, which is part of a £1 billion transformation taking place across the town, is building on Stockport’s strengths making it an even better place to live, work, play and connect for the future.
To find out more about the investment work taking place across Stockport visit our Invest pages.


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On May 5, 2014, Amazon unveiled a partnership with Twitter. Twitter users can link their accounts to an Amazon account and automatically add items to their shopping carts by responding to any tweet with an Amazon product link bearing the hashtag #AmazonCart. This allows customers to never leave their Twitter feed and the product is waiting for them when they go to the Amazon website.
Nail your timing. While it can be valuable to be one of the first in line for limited-quantity products, if you’re going to shop online on Black Friday, timing may not actually matter all that much. According to data from deal-finding browser extension Honey, online purchases spike well after sunrise. “On Black Friday, spending peaked at 11 a.m. PST in Los Angeles and at 12 p.m. EST in New York City,” says Kelly Parisi, Vice President of Communications at Honey.
Amazon hasn’t been content stopping with smart speakers and just standard old appliances under its AmazonBasics brand. In its quest to put Alexa everywhere, the company now sells a dizzying number of smart home devices that go well beyond its core speaker and set-top box beginnings. First there was the Echo Dot, to help bring Alexa to analog speaker systems and get the voice assistant into more rooms of the home. Then there was the Echo Look, for AI-assisted outfit recommendations, and the Echo Show, which contained a display and camera for video chatting and was designed to be a hands-free screen for the kitchen.
Perhaps the most prominent Prime perk, however, is access to Amazon Prime Video. The video on-demand service started in 2006 as Amazon Unboxed, but was rebranded in 2008 and integrated into the Prime service three years later, where it became a huge selling point for Amazon’s annual subscription. It now boasts thousands of free TV shows, films, and games, all accessible on pretty much every screen available.
Kevin Harrington and our award-winning independent media production company are leaders in direct response television (DRTV). Kevin is the pioneer of the As Seen On TV empire and an original Shark from the Emmy award winning show, Shark Tank. He’s the Co-Executive Producer and mastermind behind AsSeenOnTV.pro, DRTV campaigns. Kevin’s 30+ year track record of success amounting to over 5 billion dollars in global sales, coupled with the expertise of our production team, catapults products to the next level.
The infomercial industry is huge and is worth a staggering $250 billion as of 2015. It all started back in the late 40’s and early 50’s when major sponsors of serial television programs were soap manufacturers (i.e. Proctor & Gamble, Lever Brothers and Colgate-Palmolive), which is how “soap operas” got their name. There is some controversy although the first infomercial is thought to have been for a blender either made by VitaMix or Waring Blenders and aired in 1949 or 1950. Time limits for commercials were imposed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) not too long after this which halted the growth of infomercials until 1984 when those limits were removed.


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A little extra weight on dog’s can impact their quality of life. 96% of dogs lost weight with Hill’s Prescription Diet Metabolic Canine.
UC Davis launches survey on the use of cannabis products for pets
November 17, 2017The University of California, Davis School of Veterinary Medicine has launched a survey to learn more about the use of cannabis products on pets. “With the increasing use of medical cannabis and the start of recreational use [in California] in January, the interest in using it for pets has really grown,” said Jamie Peyton, DVM, chief of small animal integrative medicine at UC Davis and the primary researcher behind the study. …


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Volvo has been investing heavily in the development of self-driving trucks in recent years and has even put some of its creations to work, including a vehicle for trash collection in Sweden and another for carrying heavy loads at a mine in Norway.
Its latest autonomous truck, called Vera, is about to embark on its first assignment, transporting goods around a port terminal in Gothenburg, Sweden.
Whereas its previous autonomous vehicles look like regular trucks with the smarts contained within, Vera sports an impressively futuristic design that takes Volvo’s self-driving efforts to a whole new level.
As you can see in the video above, the creators of the electric vehicle have done away with the driver’s cab, giving the front of it the look of a low-slung sports car from some angles.
Volvo plans to deploy Vera with ferry and logistics firm DFDS.
The autonomous vehicle will navigate a pre-defined route — part of which uses public roads — carrying shipping containers a relatively short distance between a DFDS logistics center and the port terminal.


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Chinese online micro-leading company Qudian (NYSE: QD) is about to raised $900 million in its initial public offering at the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday.
Qudian’s American depositary shares were priced at $24, above the expected range of expected range of $19-$22 per share. The company is offering 37.5 million shares. Based on that, the company will have a market value of $7.9 billion, making it the biggest Chinese company that listed in the U.S. this year.
Founded in 2014, Qudian offered short-term micro loans through its mobile app to China's college students and young white-collar workers who are not able to affords things like laptops, smartphones and other consumer electronics or premium-priced apparel.
The company said it now provided about $5.6 billion credit to 7 million active borrowers.
Qudian became profitable in 2016. The company earned $85 million on total revenue of $213 million. In the first six months of this year, the company net earned $144 million on revenue of $270 million.
Qudian is backed by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s financial affiliate Ant Financial. It also partnered with Ant Financial’s online payment platform Alipay to distribute cash and collect repayments.
Qudian’s shares jumped as much as 31 percent to $31.35 per share after it was traded in NYSE.
Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, Citigroup, CICC and UBS are joint bookrunners on the IPO.


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The US beauty store chain will be the first official retailer of the Kylie Jenner-owned make-up brand
Kylie Jenner / via Getty Images
News of Kylie Cosmetics entering Ulta Beauty this holiday season has boosted the retailer’s shares to a 12-month high.
On 30 August, the 21-year-old, who has primarily sold her brand online, announced to her 25 million Twitter followers that she had made her first long-term retail partnership.
“I’m so excited to let you guys know that Kylie Cosmetics will be coming to all Ulta Beauty stores around the country this holiday!... More to come,” Jenner wrote.
via Twitter @KylieJenner
The day after the announcement, Ulta Beauty’s shares soared by 5% to hit US$268.69 – its highest price in more than a year.
Ulta Beauty reported that its Q2 2018 net sales increased by 15.4% to $1.48bn compared to Q2 2017, while e-commerce sales increased 37.9% to $132.8m versus $96.3m the year prior.
Despite the sales increase, the make-up store chain’s shares declined after profit projections were lower than analysts expected.
Prior to the Kylie Cosmetics deal, Ulta had forecast Q3 net sales of $1.55bn-$1.563bn or $2.11-$2.16 per share, while analysts had estimated earnings of $2.31 a share on $1.545bn and earnings of $2.31 a share on $1.545bn.
The disparity caused a 6% decline in stock prices.
More on Kylie Cosmetics:
“The Ulta Beauty team delivered a strong performance in the second quarter, reflecting rapid growth in prestige boutique brands, mass cosmetics, skin care and fragrance, offset by continued moderation in the growth rates of a few of our large colour cosmetics brands,” said Mary Dillon, CEO of Ulta Beauty.
“Our flexible business model continues to support healthy retail comps, excellent new store productivity, and high growth for ulta.com, resulting in significant market share gains across categories.”
Although Jenner’s make-up line is solely sold online, the brand has experimented with pop-up retail experiences in the US and earlier this year the entrepreneur filed a trademark for a cosmetics truck.
This is not the first time Jenner has influenced share prices.
In February, Snapchat felt the power of her influence after the retaily star posted a tweet that reportedly helped to wipe $1.3bn off the company’s market value.


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The company behind Kwedit, the alternative payment system with a cartoon duck for a mascot, has reinvented itself after determining that its main product didn't fit the bill.
Kwedit went live in February with two services: Kwedit Promise, which received its most publicity after it was lampooned on "The Colbert Report" for potentially encouraging kids to rack up debt; and Kwedit Direct, which let people pay in cash for online purchases at locations in their area — purchased goods would be delivered only after the money had changed hands.
Tilono Corp., Kwedit's inventor, has rebranded both the company and Kwedit Direct as PayNearMe, and has retargeted the service to focus less on e-commerce and more on in-person payments. It abandoned Kwedit Promise in March to focus its full attention on PayNearMe, which it relaunched last month.
A merchant or biller that accepts PayNearMe payments would provide the buyer with a bar code once an order has been placed; the buyer then goes into one of PayNearMe's partner retailers, such as 7-Eleven Inc., where a cashier scans the bar code and accepts the payment on behalf of the seller. Once the online merchant is notified that payment has been received, the product is shipped.
"The way to think about this is: we're prepaid, backwards," said Danny Shader, PayNearMe's chief executive.
The earlier Kwedit Promise system mimicked the credit system — users would promise to pay later for a digital good delivered immediately. It had its own scoring system based on past Kwedit payments, and urged users who could not pay to "pass the duck" to someone else, such as a parent who would pay for a teen's online purchases.
Shader said that his company's change was driven less by bad publicity — "Stephen Colbert's thing was incredibly funny," he said — but based on the actual demands of the market. "We were getting incredible pull for PayNearMe," he said. If anything, Colbert's segment provided too much publicity for the Kwedit Promise product, overshadowing PayNearMe/Kwedit Direct, he said.
PayNearMe can be broken down into two essential parts: a load network and software for payment acceptance, both developed in-house, Shader said. The network is pitched to retail locations such as 7-Eleven, and the process of accepting a PayNearMe payment is already familiar to them. "We look, to a retailer, technically like a gift-card load," Shader said.
The payments software is pitched to companies such as e-commerce merchants that want to list PayNearMe as a payment option. When integrated at the merchant's site, the checkout process ends by generating a bar code that the user is instructed to print and take to a cash-load location.
Though this system was developed for e-commerce, that "is probably going to be a minority of what we do," Shader said. Part of what drove PayNearMe away from sales of digital goods is the growing influence of Facebook Inc.'s own Facebook Credits online currency, which Facebook has been marketing heavily to developers.
Instead, billing and collections are more likely to provide most of the company's revenue, he said. One advantage PayNearMe has over conventional walk-up bill pay is that PayNearMe payments can be taken at standard cash registers at participating merchants; they do not require a dedicated customer service counter.
An advantage it has over prepaid cards, Shader said, is that it is more resistant to fraud. Shader said that by working without stored-value cards, his company avoids merchant risks such as chargebacks or cloned cards. The system is also resistant to money laundering, since there is no stored-value card to change hands after it is loaded.
This makes every player in the payments system traceable, which means "nobody's going to use us for anything illegal," Shader said. "You'd be insane."
Pricing for PayNearMe varies based on the use case, and would generally mimic the established pricing for the situations in which it is used. For e-commerce, its pricing could be similar to interchange. For bill payment and collections, there could be a per-transaction fee for consumers.
Beth Robertson, the director of payments research for Javelin Strategy and Research, said PayNearMe is entering a tough market, but there is an opportunity for it.
"From the biller's perspective, as long as they get their payments, they can be relatively neutral" about which payment provider handles those payments, she said. For that reason, billers would likely welcome PayNearMe as another payment format they can provide to consumers.
However, "walk-in bill payment, I would say, is reasonably well established," Robertson said. "There are a number of major competitors in that market."
Many billers already accept payments through the agent locations for the major wire transfer providers, though Robertson did praise PayNearMe's choice of 7-Eleven to handle its payments.
"7-Eleven certainly is a good outlet for them to be associated with," she said.