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A fawning PR piece by David Kamp in next month's Vanity Fair has appeared online and revealed several details about the Barneys New York store returning to part of its previous home in Chelsea. Most importantly, the store is set to open sometime in February with an inaugural event recreating the "Decorated Denim" auction, one of the first major celebrity driven AIDS benefits staged in 1986 to celebrate the opening of the new Women's store around the corner on 17th Street. It featured Levi's Denim Jackets decorated by artists and designers like Jean Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Andy Warhol, Paloma Picasso and Jean-Paul Gaultier modeled by Nell Campbell, Peter Allen, Andie MacDowell, Susan Sarandon, Iman and an up-and-coming singer named Madonna. The new version has been upgraded to motorcycle jackets decorated by artists such as Ugo Rondinone, Kim Gordon, Anicka Yi, Lisa Yuskavage, and Glenn Ligon with proceeds benefiting the non-profit art space White Columns as well as The Center, the West Village's LGBT Community Center on West 13th Street.
Possibly, the event will have celebrities descending the new spiral staircase that is being constructed to connect all five shopping levels of the re-imagined store much as they did the original one that still exists in the Rubin Museum of Art inside the former Barneys women's store. An abstract rendering by architect Steven Harris (pictured below) shows a finished version of the main floor shown in the recent photo above. Apparently, the store will have a new design scheme different from the stark marble, steel and glass that current management installed on the main floor of the Madison Avenue flagship. Beyond the rendering, fewer details are available regarding the store's look, but the article does reveal its merchandising scheme which includes Personal Shopping suites on the fourth floor, a men's department and a "younger" edition of the Fred's restaurant on three, Women's apparel on two, Accessories for both men and women on the main floor and, as on Madison Avenue, cosmetics as the staircase's final destination on the lower level including an outpost of the Blind Barber joining its locations in the East Village and Williamsburg. Chelsea nostalgists will not find too much to directly recall the previous Barneys store on the site which comprises only what was once the traditional half of the original men's store. Certainly, that store's exhaustive men's suit department which once covered multiple floors will not be found re-created there, and it's unclear whether or not there will be a tailored clothing offering in the store at all. It is likely to be skewed toward more advanced "downtown" fashion, and the opening will launch with exclusive collections by Alexander Wang, Proenza Schouler, Vêtements and Adidas Y-3 by Yohji Yamamoto created just for the store. Even the familiar canvas awnings will be replaced with what is described as a sculptural stainless steel canopy on the building's redesigned façade. Windows will not be devoted to Simon Doonan's fanciful displays. He has long since been relegated to an "Ambassador" role. Instead, they will feature portraits photographed on New York City streets by Bruce Weber. Regardless of how one feels how the store has been updated as “a modern Barneys for a modern downtown New York,” in the words of CEO Mark Lee, the anticipation for the new store has been extreme, Now, it will only be a few more weeks until we can see it for ourselves.
It's pretty easy to gauge the construction of Barneys' upcoming Chelsea store because they leave the plywood doors open all the time allowing a view inside. For a while, The Shophound has been skeptical that the store could be finished by the "Early Spring" projected date posted on the building, but after peeking in yesterday, we saw that workers had already progressed to installing what appeared to be shelves and other fixtures on the main floor. Of course, we have no idea what the upper floors look like, and they still have to replace the storefront which was demolished earlier this fall. Can they do all of this in the roughly three months before "Early Spring" arrives. A great deal has to do with whether or not merchandise has been ordered to fill the sizable store. If goods are on the way, then they will need to get the store open in a reasonable amount of time to have some full price selling before markdowns start in May and June. The picture above could give us a hint as to exactly how far along things have gotten.
A lot of veteran New York shoppers were delighted last year when it was revealed that Barneys New York would take over part of the original store on Seventh Avenue in Chelsea where it became a retailing legend. Anyone who thought that the old store (pictured below in a 1989 archival photo) would somehow be recreated, however, is in for a surprise. The new Barneys in Chelsea will be doing more extensive remodeling on the space than the intervening tenant, Loehmann's, ever did before moving in.
Were you hoping that those display windows would once again hold some whimsical Holiday displays? Those windows have been blown out along with the rest of the entire street level façade of the building, which we noted a few weeks ago. Yesterday, we spied a flat rendering of the new store's front elevation (pictured above) posted on the plywood covering the construction site which indicates that the dramatic entrance to the previous store is being completely removed in favor of a more innocuous set of glass doors. A stone wall will bear the store's signage, and it appears that most of the rest of the front will be glass. We are guessing that it will offer a view directly into the store rather than serve as display windows, more like the smaller, former Co-op stores in Brooklyn and on the Upper West Side. This will be a disappointment for anyone who had held out hope that Barneys would give a nod to the old Chelsea store by reproducing or at least restoring part of what remained there. Of course, we should know by now that the current executive team has no interest in nostalgia for classic Barneys. In fact, given the opportunity to preserve or tear down anything that would remind shoppers of the original store, they almost always go with tearing down and replacing with slabs of marble and glass. We have become accustomed to this by now, but shopping nostalgists in New York should be prepared for the likelihood that Barneys' grand return to Chelseas may not be quite as grand as they might have been hoping for.
We were all pretty excited to hear that Barneys New York will soon be re-inhabiting the location on Seventh Avenue in Chelsea where it became a world-renowned retailer during the 1980s. If you think, however that the new store will simply slide into its old home with minor renovations, then you don't know Barneys these days. While the exterior of the store has remained relatively intact while construction crews ripped out any trace of the former Lehmann's flagship that took over what was the larger part Barneys' original Men's Store, plywood scaffolding went up a few weeks ago to obscure what looks like a major redesign of the store's façade. The Shophound got a peek inside yesterday afternoon through door left carelessly ajar that shows that the entire ground floor of the store's frontage has been demolished including the grand entrance and the windows that once housed Simon Doonan's infamous Holiday displays. Rumors have the second floor exterior blown out as well, but, so far, that remains to be seen?
What will the new Barneys look like?
Chances are it will have a lot of glass, steel and slabs of marble like its Madison Avenue counterpart, so anyone hoping for a nostalgic feeling when the store finally reopens may have to adjust their expectations.
And about that opening date . . .
About a year ago we heard that the store was pushing it's projected opening forward to January of 2016, and while that was promising news at the time, it seems hard to believe that a new façade could be completed in three months, not to mention that the store's interior space still looks completely gutted.
We may have to cool our heels for just a little bit longer before Barneys once again graces Chelsea with its presence.
Does it feel like there's something missing?
Have the relatively few still fairly decent sample sales going on right now felt like not much of a satisfying offering?
That's because, as far as we can tell, this will be the first the first Labor Day Weekend that there is no Barneys Warehouse Sale somewhere in Chelsea since they started having them.
Yes, we know.
The Shophound has been bitching and moaning about how bad the Warehouse Sale has gotten over the years for quite some time now, and it had become but a shadow of the former basement full of bargains that it was in its heyday. Yet, somehow, we almost always found something there worth our journey downtown. Some shiny bargain, undiscovered by others always managed to get into our hot little hands to complete even a marginally satisfying shopping trip. We have vague memories of walking out of there just a year ago with some once pricey shirts from Michael Bastian and Brioni that ultimately totaled less than $100 —nothing to complain about.
But yes, we had complained repeatedly that the sale had gotten so pathetic that Barneys should just cancel the whole brand-sullying event once and for all and focus on its Warehouse website, and it looks like that is exactly what they have done. While the Warehouse online experience often presents merchandise that is less discounted than what you'll find on the main luxury website's own final end-of-season sales, it still offers some good deals, especially on holiday weekends, like the one that is upon us. That's when extra discounts are applied to certain categories as well as clearance items bringing them close to the best deals that one might once have found in the Chelsea store's basement. Still, online browsing can't compare to intently rummaging through the bins under the original Co-op store on 18th Street (now a Room & Board), and we can't help but miss the late summer routine of deliberately finding a reason to walk down 17th or 18th street to see if any additional markdowns had been posted. Well, things will change. It's the nature of the universe, and at times over the past few years, it has looked like Barneys was ready to cancel the Warehouse Sale, so it shouldn't be too surprising to discover that it may actually have happened.
R.I.P. Warehouse Sale.
Even though we complained all the time —and you were far from perfect— it turns out we really loved you all along. You are already missed.
Barneys Spring Campaign Stars Models Who Are About The Same Age As Their Actual Customers
Barney New York launches its Spring advertising campaign today with a spotlight in today's New York Times on the Bruce Weber lensed story "Better Than Ever" about veteran fashion models surrounded by hot young hunks. The glamorous diva surrounded by scantily clad (and sometimes not clad at all) men is a time honored editorial trope found over the years in campaigns from Valentino to St. John Knits, but the twist here is the notable age difference between the guys and the models including Brooke Shields, Christie Brinkley, Pat Cleveland, Stephanie Seymour, Kiara Kabukuru, Bethann Hardison and Kirsten Owen. At 39, Kabukuru is hardly a senior citizen, but she's probably at least 15 years older than the speedo-wearing guys swirling around her. And Brinkley, who is at the center of the article, is a remarkably well preserved 61 years old. If anything, the campaign is a tribute to good skin care and highly effective cosmetic procedures —there's no possible way that Brinkley looks like that without had some work done, even if it is very, very good work— but the most remarkable aspect of the concept may be Barneys recognizing that the vast majority of its female customers are well past the ingenue age and more likely to be over 40, 50 and often 60 years of age. After all, it is usually older women who have financial resources to seriously shop at stores like Barneys, and as much as designers and retailers like to aim for a "young" or "dynamic" customer, the reality is often far different, whether they want to accept it or not.
Which brings us to the new campaign, a poolside frolic featuring a few stylishly dressed mature ladies and a flock of young male bathing beauties. Of course, never mind that if the genders were reversed, feminists would be up in arms over the recalcitrant sexism, on a day when the newly unveiled Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue model appears to be actively removing her bikini bottom in a way that cannot be shown on morning television, this is actually fairly tame stuff. While Christie Brinkley has been a celebrity model since she was an SI cover girl in the 1980s, Pat Cleveland is an industry icon, and Brooke Shields was a teen superstar actress, but some of the other ladies like Kabukuru and Owen have been working steadily on high fashion shoots, and aren't really considered "mature" or "classic" models as agencies generally refer to their over-40 category. The Supermodels of the 90s, all now in their 40s, still do the occasional runway show as guest stars, but not novelty acts (see Amber Valetta and Eva Herzigova closing last month's Atelier Versace couture show). Though Barneys is playing up the decadent party aspect of the campaign, what is behind it, whether acknowledged or not, is a recognition that the women who end up wearing expensive clothes are more likely to be Brinkley's age than that of the 28 guys surrounding her.
Oh and those guys, well, they are there to remind you that this is a Bruce Weber shoot. In a video embedded In the Times' story (we are trying to get it on the page here for you) there is more than equal time given to their torsos, so the rejection of youthful beauty is maybe just a little disingenuous. It may just be gender reversed —for the moment.
The Fine-Wine Theory of Fashion Advertising By Matthew Schneier (NYTimes)
Here's the video:
And here's another from Style.com:
Our friends at Racked tell us that the Barneys New York in SoHo, formerly one of the first Co-op spin-off locations, has been closed permanently. Before Barneys moved in, the store was New York's Comme des Garçons boutique before it moved to its current less prominent (and therefore more appealing to designer Rei Kwakubo) West 22nd Street location. Barneys swiftly moved in and opened a Co-op store for women only, but changed little of the industrial '80s SoHo-style concrete and steel store design (pictured at right). Converting the unconventionally laid out boutique to Barneys' current glass, chrome and marble decor would have been an elaborate and costly undertaking. Then there's the inevitable rent hike that would have come with a lease renewal in a neighborhood that is more desirable than ever. It is likely that the folks at Barneys smartly decided to take their chances and redirect their SoHo customers to the new store being constructed inside the chain's original flagship in Chelsea. That opening has been pushed up to sometime next year, so for now, Barneys' only New York City locations are the Madison Avenue Flagship and the former Co-op stores on Broadway on the Upper West Side and on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn —down two doors from just a couple of years ago.
As we have mentioned before in the past few weeks, Barneys New York's experience with the Holiday Promotion season has been problematic to put it politely. This year, however, the folks in the head office seem to have gone to great lengths, and even greater expense, to reverse that unfortunate streak.
And it looks like they have succeeded by finding creative collaborators in film director Baz Luhrmann and his wife Catherine Martin whose glitzy and often loopy sensibility recalls that slogan that Barneys' management has been busy trying to erase from its customers' memories: "Taste! Luxury! Humor!"
This season's slogan "Truth · Beauty · Freedom · Love" comes straight from the Bohemians of Luhrmann's 2001 film Moulin Rouge. While the store may never revive Simon Doonan's wicked, comical caricature windows for the Holidays that brought such acclaim in the store's past, through collaborating with Luhrmann and Martin, they have revisited the sense of fun and surprise that has been lacking in the past few years. While we didn't get to catch "Elphresh" the dancing elf, who apparently appears on the hour to dance in his "Love" window, we caught a few moments of Celestia the Ice princess tentatively skating around her somewhat ironically titled "Freedom" corner display (in the gallery above). There is a mechanized owl for "Truth" and a mesmerizing kinetic sculpture called "The Spirits of the Snow" rightfully occupying the "Beauty" window. Acapella supergroup Pentatonix has recorded a special soundtrack for each window, and, of course, the dramatic decorative structure over the façade is more the sort of thing that stores will re-use for several years, although it is hard to imagine Barneys re-installing this again without the Luhrmann's cooperation.
And that, aside from the general pleasure in seeing the store finally get it right, is the other thing that sticks out about this whole promotion: the staggering expense it must have taken to pull it all together including the lavish one-time only production number the store staged on Monday for the unveiling. Inside the store, there is less decoration except for some custom-designed gold wallpaper wrapped around the a few columns on the main floor and holiday motifs at the escalator landing displays. The store has put most of its money on the outside for maximum visibility, which makes sense on a certain level. Barneys has spared no expense this Holiday season in part because the store is under great pressure not to botch the season again, especially after last year's regrettable shoplifting profiling scandal. The good news is that it looks like they succeeded. After the jump, have a look at a video featuring a behind the scenes look at the promotion as well as some footage from the opening extravaganza which was, apparently, not to be dampened by soggy weather.
THE WINDOW WATCHER:
Barneys' Baz-Dazzled Holiday Promotion To Debut On Thursday
Unveiling Dates For Lord & Taylor,
Saks & Bergdorf's
Unveiling Dates For Lord & Taylor,
Saks & Bergdorf's
Thanksgiving is kinda late-ish this year, which seems to have given New York's retailers license to unveil their Holiday windows as early as possible. Walk past Manhattan's big stores this week and see all the windows conspicuously shrouded as the visual teams furiously work to get those lights and tinsel trees in place. Barneys' highly publicized promotion with film director Baz Luhrmann is set to be unveiled tomorrow, just as the weather is finally expected to cool down to something reasonably appropriate for the Holiday season (it is currently 61˚F outside as we type this).
Barneys has a lot riding on the Luhrmann collaboration. It's Holiday promotions have hit sour notes for the past three years running which is particularly embarrassing for a store whose hilarious Holiday windows were once the talk of the town and one of the store's signature elements. This time, under Luhrmann's direction, the store will be going big and reintroducing some glitter and whimsy back into its newly super-serious minimalistic store. The Madison Avenue storefront will be covered with an elaborate façade (rendering pictured above), and, beyond just having animated displays, Luhrmann, is wife and creative partner Catherine Martin and designer Zaldy have been creating elaborate costumes for live performers who will appear in the windows and on the store's balconies throughout the season. Shoppers can look forward to ice skaters in the windows and a dancer/contortionist called Elphresh who will appear in a glittering gold romper. Weekends will bring the Queens of Night and Light appearing hourly on the store's second floor balconies in voluminous ballgowns to serenade the Madison Avenue crowds and more. We are cautiously optimistic that, after forays into celebrity, cartoons, ostentatious hip-hop-tinged special items and pretentious artsy-fartsy-ness, the folks currently running Barneys may have finally found their way back to the kind of sensibility that originally endeared New Yorkers to Barneys in the first place. If this Holiday promotion resonates with customers, maybe they will re-evaluate that "Taste! Luxury! Humor!" slogan they were so quick to dismiss.
Anyway, Barneys isn't the only store throwing itself a party tomorrow. Lord & Taylor, which is undergoing its own ongoing rejuvenation program, will be lighting up its windows on Thursday as well.
Bergdorf Goodman will be unveiling its windows, currently the city's most acclaimed, on Monday the 17th. The UNICEF Snowflake over the intersection of Fifth Avenue and 57th Street will also be lit simultaneously, and 10% of the evening's proceeds will be donated to the U.S. fund for UNICEF.
Saks Fifth Avenue is conservatively holding its Holiday window reveal back until Monday November 24. With new ownership and management, the store is also looking to make a splash, so say goodbye to those illuminated dancing snowflakes on the façade that the store has presented in the past seasons. This year, Saks is promising The Rockettes themselves at the unveiling as well as a display from Fireworks by Grucci. The windows will pay tribute to the Roaring '20s and include brand new high-tech projections and lighting schemes. The launch will be live-streamed at Saks.com.
Bloomingdale's will be celebrating its windows on Monday as well with a live performance from Broadway star Idina Menzel at 5 PM on the Beacon Court of the Bloomberg Building across 59th Street along with the cast of the Off-Broadway show Illuminate.
Plan to leave work early.
As happy as everyone was to hear that Barneys New York was reclaiming part of its original Men's Store on Seventh Avenue in Chelsea, the disappointment was having to wait until 2017 for the store to open. Now, it appears that the schedule has been accelerated. Quietly dropped into a WWD article about the chain's renovation of its Beverly Hills store is the news that the new Chelsea store is set to open in January of 2016, which is less than a year and a half away.
Why the new date?
Perhaps renovations are less extensive than was expected, or are simply going faster. At one point The Shophound came across a proposed redesign of the store's façade that was quite extensive and would have dramatically changed the look of the building. We aren't sure if it was ever fully in the plans, but perhaps scrapping it has moved up the finish date, as the building currently does not appear to be undergoing much in the way of exterior revision to accommodate the upcoming store.
At any rate, more Barneys coming faster is a good thing.
No word yet on the possibly unlikely but very exciting notion that the store would take over the rest of its original Chelsea store now that the Rubin Museum has sold the building, but they haven't said that they aren't doing that, so we will continue to maintain that probably delusional possibility.


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XPeng starts selling cars on platform that trades some items like derivatives
Chinese electric car company XPeng Motors announced Friday that it has officially begun selling its vehicles on Dewu, a local trading platform for trendy items, making it the first of the Chinese smart car brands to do so.
To encourage consumers to buy their vehicles on the platform, XPeng is also launching a campaign that gives users the chance to win a free lottery for the right to use a P7 sedan.
In addition, the company is also giving out a limited number of RMB 1,000 ($153) vouchers for the Dewu platform.
Interestingly, it's not clear if XPeng hasn't seen the latest news, or if they have but feel they can ignore it, as Dewu is in the spotlight for fueling price hype for some common items.
Dewu was previously only known to a few people in China. Recently, it has become more known not because of its massive increase in users, but because some commodities are traded on the platform as if they were derivatives.
Founded in 2015, Dewu's initial source of revenue was through commission fees from merchants and item identification fees.
Its "identify first, ship later" trading model, as well as its professional identification methods and service team, have developed a good reputation among the sneaker community.
The platform has stepped into the spotlight in the last two weeks as the prices of some items such as footwear here have seen outrageous increases.
In one case, a pair of Li Ning sneakers with an official guide price of 1,499 yuan was jacked up to 48,889 yuan, an increase of 31 times, even more than the increase of many financial derivatives.
There are other products whose price increases are not as outrageous, but they have also increased by more than 10 times.
This abnormal price change drew criticism from China's official media, CCTV , People’s Daily and Xinhua News Agency.
In one of its commentary articles, CCTV said that those sneaker traders had raised prices to monstrous levels through abnormal means, which ultimately hurt the whole industry.
"In the end, shoes are for wearing and should not be for speculation. This crazy practice and crookedness must be curbed," the article stated.
Only then can the legitimate rights and interests of ordinary consumers be ensured and the industry get a healthy development and not be harmed, CCTV said.

domain: news


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PETA cheers as Kellogg's publicly commits to no animal testing
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is celebrating a recent clarification that Kellogg Co. added to its policy against animal testing for its products and ingredients.
Kellogg Co.'s new Animal Welfare Commitment says the company "does not conduct, fund, support or condone the use of animal testing for food products or ingredients" beyond what is "explicitly require(d)" by governmental agencies for food safety or quality.
This change in policy language is meant to reflect "practices that have been in place for several years" at Kellogg Co., Kris Bahner, senior vice president of global corporate affairs for Kellogg, said in a statement.
"The overwhelming majority of the Kellogg Company portfolio is plant-based," Bahner said in the statement. "We had not included animal testing in the Animal Welfare Commitment prior as the frequency of testing is so rare, but understand reiterating our approach publicly is helpful to stakeholders."
Kellogg did not have public policy on animal testing "until December 2018 after hearing from PETA," according to PETA Vice President Shalin Gala.
PETA says the organization first contacted Kellogg about ending animal testing in 2007.
"The global food industry is recognizing that no marketing claim can possibly excuse force-feeding, poisoning, suffocating, and killing gentle rats in cruel and deadly tests," Gala said in a statement. "The Kellogg Company is no longer a cereal killer of animals in deadly tests, and PETA applauds the company's decision to embrace superior, non-animal research methods."
Kellogg's new policy also says the company does not maintain testing facilities and supports "replacing animal testing with other validated methods."
Other major food companies that have worked with PETA to adopt new policies banning animal testing include The Coca-Cola Company, General Mills and Welch's.
Contact reporter Natasha Blakely at (269) 223-0114 or email@example.com. Follow her on Twitter at @blakelynat.


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The volume of world merchandise trade is likely to fall precipitously in the first half of 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic disrupts the global economy, according to the World Trade Organization Goods Trade Barometer released on May 20.
The index currently stands at 87.6, far below the baseline value of 100, suggesting a sharp contraction in world trade extending into the second quarter. This is the lowest value on record since the indicator was launched in July 2016.
The Goods Trade Barometer provides real-time information on the trajectory of world merchandise trade relative to recent trends. The current reading captures the initial phases of the COVID-19 outbreak, and shows no sign of the trade decline bottoming out yet. This measure is consistent with the WTO’s trade forecast issued on 8 April 2020, which estimated that world merchandise trade could decline by between 13% and 32% in 2020, depending on the duration of the pandemic and the effectiveness of policy responses.
All of the barometer’s component indices are currently well below trend. The automotive products index (79.7) was weakest of all, due to collapsing car production and sales in major economies. The sharp decline in the forward-looking export orders index (83.3) suggests that trade weakness will persist in the short-run. Declines in the container shipping (88.5) and air freight (88.0) indices reflect weak demand for traded goods as well as supply-side constraints arising from efforts to suppress COVID-19. Only the indices for electronic components (94.0) and agricultural raw materials (95.7) show signs of stability, although they too remain below trend.
Trade had already been slowing in 2019 before the pandemic, weighed down by persistent trade tensions and weakening economic growth. WTO trade statistics show that the volume of world merchandise trade shrank by 0.1% in 2019, marking the first annual decline since 2009, during the global financial crisis. Trade was relatively weak in the final quarter of 2019, but this is unlikely to have been influenced by COVID-19, which was first detected very late in the year.
Like its counterpart for services, the Goods Trade Barometer aims to gauge momentum and identify turning points in global trade growth. As such, it complements trade statistics and forecasts from the WTO and other organizations. Readings of 100 indicate growth in line with medium-term trends; readings greater than 100 suggest above-trend growth, while those below 100 indicate below-trend growth. – Text and photo from the World Trade Organization


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Updated: Jun 19
Good news for organic growers - Consumer demand for organic food continuous to grow
Consumers are increasingly demanding organic food that is produced locally. The desire to eat healthy and to encourage local grown food is a great underlying trend. More and more people are turning to family farmers, urban agriculture and organic food in general.
Thanks to Canada’s hardworking organic farmers, the organic food industry is one of Canada’s fastest growing agriculture sector. The organic food market is estimated at $4.4 billion in 2017. For comparison, in 2012 it was $2.8 billion. The growth rate for the organic food market is estimated 8.4%.
Greenhouse vegetable type farms accounted for the greatest increase in the proportion of organic farms. Their proportion increased from 13.4% of farms in 2011 to 16.7%. Québec takes the lead in organic farming. With an increase in the number of organic farms by 22.3%, from 1,037 farms in 2011 to 1,268 farms in 2016, Quebec has the highest number of organic farms in Canada in 2016.
Growing opportunity through innovation in agriculture, 2017, https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/95-640-x/2016001/article/14816-eng.htm


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Banks have increased their lending for four of the last five quarters, but FDIC acting chairman Martin Gruenberg, is still in a “wait and see if the trend toward increased lending can be sustained” kind of mood. And even if the trend holds, lending is still nowhere near where it was five years ago (not that we’d necessarily want it to be):
While plenty of that decline is a (hopefully long-term) retreat from the worst kind of subprime excess, another part of it is a retreat from credit risk in its less flagrant forms – small businesses, home buyers and the like have been complaining of difficult lending conditions. Bill Cosgrove, the chief executive of Ohio-based Union National Mortgage Co., told the WJS yesterday that for prospective mortgage lenders, “standards are now more conservative than at any time since he started working as an underwriter in 1986.”
With that in mind, two stories today highlight a new breed of businesses entering the lending business after building a deep skill set in understanding the kind of people who would be borrowing from them. Over on the small business front:
Lisa Zerr urgently needed funds to upgrade the kids’ merchandise carried by her business, Yankee Toy Box, for Halloween and the holiday shopping season. A bank had turned down her request for a loan.
Then she got a pitch explaining that, based on the business’s Amazon.com selling performance, she had prequalified for a loan from Amazon Capital Services Inc.
Rather than adding to her credit-card debt, or selling her Bedford, N.H., business’s accounts receivable to a factoring firm, she borrowed $38,000 from the Internet retailing giant in July and another $13,000 last month.
Amazon’s lending business is still in its experimental phase, and can be pricey for borrowers – many who spoke to the WSJ’s Sarah Needleman and Greg Bensinger said they were paying interest rates of 13.9% on their loans – more like credit card territory. For Amazon, this can be a doubly good deal, because the more it lends to its merchants, the more they will spend on merchandise to sell on its marketplace, with each sale earning Amazon its 6-15% commissions on everything sold on its site.
And for home buyers unfortunate enough to fall into the subprime category, there is also a new lender in town. Ocwen, a specialist in “servicing” subprime mortgages – essentially, they collect payments on behalf of the owner of a home loan – has acquired a lender of its own:
The Atlanta-based company Wednesday agreed to pay $750 million in cash and stock to acquire Homeward Residential Holdings Inc., a mortgage lender and servicer assembled by investor Wilbur Ross from the financial-crisis wreckage.
The deal will make Mr. Ross one of Ocwen’s largest shareholders and give the company—known for collecting payments on loans made to borrowers with sketchy credit histories—a start at making loans.
Ocwen outperforms the industry in working with borrowers to successfully modify their problematic loans, and as a result, less of the loans it services become seriously overdue. With a lending capacity, the company can now make more loans with one hand, and service them with the other – an idea that was once the standard operating procedure for a bank but now, for technical reasons well explained in Christian Berthelsen’s piece on the deal for the WSJ, is something fewer banks want to be involved in.


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Assault and batteries
Power DesignLine Blog 10/31/2009 3 comments
The soft on/off switch functionality in many products is a real drain on their limited batteries
Surge stopper IC simplifies design for hazardous apps
Design How-To 10/31/2009 1 comment
In order to operate safely in hazardous environments, instrumentation must be made explosion proof. Linear Technology's LT4356 series of overvoltage/overcurrent protection devices offers an efficient and elegant means of creating protection barriers in electronic apparatus.
Jennic : Wireless MCU uses energy harvesting
Product News 10/30/2009 Post a comment
Jennic has demonstrated the capability of its JN5148 wireless microcontroller to perform multiple packet transmissions from 100 uJ of energy harvested from an electro-mechanical switch, thus enabling ZigBee communication with very low energy consumption.
SensorDynamics plans energy-harvesting TPMs
News & Analysis 10/30/2009 Post a comment
Austrian sensor technology vendor SensorDynamics AG (Lebring, Austria) has signed a license agreement with EnOcean GmbH (Unterhaching, Germany) on the latter ones' energy harvesting technology. SensorDynamics plans to use the technology for automotive products.
Isolation in high-voltage battery monitoring for transportation
Design How-To 10/30/2009 Post a comment
HV stacks are already used in many industries and applications outside of the transportation industry " typically in uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) to store energy from the grid in dc form; as emergency dc supplies in 48V communications equipment; as emergency supplies in crane and lift systems; and in wind turbines for feathering the blades in an emergency. Discussed here the use of battery stacks in vehicles, the underlying issues are common to all types of stacks.
Verizon to OEMs: Get the heat out
News & Analysis 10/28/2009 2 comments
Verizon Communications Inc. will require OEMs starting in July 2010 to supply thermal models for circuit boards and cabinets for any equipment they want to sell to the carrier as part of a new energy-saving strategy.
Enable low power design with FPGAs
Design How-To 10/28/2009 2 comments
Size and power considerations are now often the top priority in many system designs, but portability and long-lasting power can become conflicting design requirements. FPGAs seem like the best choice but warning: not all FPGAs are created equal, especially in portable, low-power applications.
Intellon, Whirlpool snag smart grid grants
News & Analysis 10/28/2009 Post a comment
Proposals from chip designer Intellon Corp. and white goods giant Whirlpool were among a broad group of 100 projects selected Tuesday to share $34 billion in federal funds to accelerate deployment of smart electric grids.
Speaking truth about power
Power DesignLine Blog 10/27/2009 Post a comment
Power and its management are the common denominators cutting across all electronic systems and circuit designs, analog or digital.
U.S. awards $3.4 billion in smart grid grants
News & Analysis 10/27/2009 Post a comment
Eighteen million homes—13 percent of all U.S. households--will get smart electric meters within three years as part of $3.4 billion in U.S. government grants to upgrade the country's aging electric grid announced by President Barack Obama in remarks at one of the country's largest solar farms in Arcadia, Florida.
Applied Materials to restructure in Switzerland
Product News 10/26/2009 Post a comment
Chip and solar manufacturing equipment vendor Applied Materials Inc. announced it plans to cut 130 jobs, on a total of 280, at its Applied Materials Switzerland SA Precision Wafering Systems Division in Cheseaux, Switzerland.
MEMC to acquire SunEdison for $200 million
News & Analysis 10/22/2009 Post a comment
Silicon wafer supplier MEMC Electronic Materials will acquire SunEdison, described as North America's largest solar energy services provider, for at least $200 million in cash and stock, the company said.
Updated: Australian utility deploys smart meters on WiMax
News & Analysis 10/22/2009 Post a comment
Seeking to differentiate itself in a competitive market, SP AusNet, a utility company in Australia, has agreed to install by December 2013 more than 680,000 smart meters riding a WiMax network as part of a government plan to deploy more than 2.5 million smart meters over the next four years in the state of Victoria.
Frankenstein's Fix, Teardowns, Sideshows, Design Contests, Reader Content & More


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It's been a painful year for stock investors so far. Even after a huge day on March 2 that saw stocks gain almost 5%, the S&P 500 is still down more than 4% in 2020. Moreover, there are reasons to remain concerned as the COVID-19 coronavirus runs rampant across the world, causing economic harm as governments take drastic steps to halt the spread.
Yet even in what has been a decidedly bearish start to the year, some stocks are delivering huge gains. Three of the best gainers in 2020 are Teladoc Health (TDOC -0.07%), SolarEdge Technologies (SEDG 1.92%), and Square Inc (SQ -1.57%), which have gained 48%, 35%, and 29%, respectively, so far this year.
And as much as the three have been on fire to start the year, they also have wonderful long-term prospects. I'm not willing to predict what will happen over the months to come, but investors looking for multiyear winners should put these three on their lists.
Shortening the distance between patients and care
Teladoc's stock has been on an incredible run recently, in large part because of its remarkable growth rate, but also because, as a provider of technology that allows medical professionals to connect remotely with patients and that sounds just perfect in a world where COVID-19 coronavirus is spreading rapidly.
Here's the thing: Teladoc's thesis isn't built on things like highly infectious disease. Sure, there could be some benefits for virtual care in those cases, but the big benefit for technology like Teladoc's is, simply put, making it easier and more affordable for people all over the world to get access to appropriate care more quickly.
As an early mover in virtual care that's already connected to many of the world's biggest healthcare companies, Teladoc reported $553 million in revenue in 2019, a 32% jump from 2018. Healthcare providers used Teladoc to visit a massive 57% more patients last year.
Here's the rub: The market's short-term interest in Teladoc could actually cause its shares to underperform -- or even lose value -- in the short term. The stock now trades for more than 16 times trailing sales, which is quite a premium to what investors have been willing to pay in the past:
But even with the risk we see some "reversion" to prior valuation ranges, Teladoc is a well-established leader in one of the fastest-growing segments of global healthcare. Over the long term, it is primed to be a market-beating investment, particularly when it transitions from market-building (at the cost of profits) to profit-growing in the next couple of years.
Short story: SolarEdge is crushing it
SolarEdge makes power electronics components that are used to connect solar panels to the grid, and finds itself in an enviable position right now. It, along with Enphase Energy (ENPH -5.56%), are by far the two biggest suppliers to the U.S. residential solar market, following some changes to U.S. building code that has pushed most other suppliers out of the market.
As a result of this duopoly situation, business is growing like wildfire. Revenue increased 59% in the fourth quarter, and net income shot up 308%. Moreover, it looks likely that sales will continue to grow at a high rate, as new entrants to the U.S. residential market have been slow to materialize, despite a short-seller's thesis that another U.S. company with no experience in solar electronics manufacturing was going to disrupt the market in short order. Since the short attack was launched in September, the percentage of shares sold short is up more than double, but the company has continued delivering huge growth.
That's not to say that there won't eventually be another entrant into the market. There almost certainly will be at some point because this is a high-growth market that needs multiple suppliers to thrive. But even with that likely to happen, the global growth opportunity for solar power electronics is massive, and growing.
Add in the company's ongoing efforts to expand into related fields like energy storage and electric vehicle power components, and SolarEdge should prove a market-beating stock for the long term, too.
Square expanding its reach to more people and businesses
Square may have established its reputation by disrupting the merchant systems world with its affordable and portable credit card processing technology. The company has done enormous things to make it affordable and simple for more small businesses to accept cards for payments in more and easier ways.
This has resulted in enormous growth, with shares up over 500% since the late-2015 IPO and over 300% in the past three years on the company's shift to profitability in 2019. Yet even after all this growth, Square is still a small fry in the world of financial services, with revenue of $4.7 billion.
And that bodes well for continued growth for years to come. Square's growth in merchant services is on track to continue, and from businesses of all size, not just small mom-and-pops anymore.
But that's just the tip of the iceberg. Square is also pursuing a banking charter, which would allow it to vastly expand the services that it can offer its customers (though also adding substantial new regulation as well), and its Cash app, a peer-to-peer payments tool, has exploded in popularity and generated well over $1 billion in revenue last year from 24 million active users, including this author.
Despite its enormous growth in the past five years, Square could be only just tapping its full potential. Like the other two stocks featured here, it is likely to be a volatile investment going forward, but its long-term prospects to deliver market-beating returns makes it worth buying now.


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Restaurant discovery & reviews venture Zomato expands to Chile
Gurgaon-based Zomato Media Pvt Ltd, which owns and operates restaurant, event listing & review site Zomato.com, has expanded its operations to Santiago in Chile to take its total city count to 13 across the globe. With this expansion, customers in Chile will get information on 7,000 restaurants on its city specific site.
According to the firm, Chileans can browse through restaurant information in Spanish and English, read & write restaurant reviews, and also build a personal network of trusted foodies. Zomato has also announced that it has earmarked $2 million for further expansion in the country.
"With its rich dining culture and high internet and smartphone penetration, Chile is a very promising market for us," said Deepinder Goyal, founder and CEO of Zomato.
"We already have a sizeable team in place in Santiago, and are in the process of growing it further. There are plans to expand into other markets in the continent as well," he added.
Zomato has been expanding aggressively across markets over the last year. Apart from India, the firm currently has operations in countries like South Africa, Philippines, the UAE, Indonesia, the UK, New Zealand, Portugal, Brazil, Turkey, Sri Lanka and Qatar, among others.
The startup was founded in 2008 by IIT Delhi alumni and ex-Bain employees Goyal and Pankaj Chaddah. The firm had launched its services in Auckland and Wellington in July last year, and extended its services to Hamilton in December the same year.
An online and mobile restaurant discovery service, Zomato provides information such as menus, directions, contact details, pictures and user reviews for over 232,900 restaurants. The services are available on the web, and on mobile for iOS, Android, Windows Phone and Blackberry platforms. Zomato claims that it is currently seeing over 20 million monthly visits globally across its web and mobile platforms.
The company has raised $53.5 million in funding to date, the most recent one being $37 million that it had raised from Sequoia Capital and existing investor Info Edge, which runs a slew of consumer internet portals, including Naukri.com. According to Techcircle.in estimates, Sequoia Capital picked around 17.2 per cent stake as part of the latest investment, giving Zomato a post-money valuation of around Rs 1,000 crore or around $158 million.
For the full year ended March 31, 2014, Zomato reported around 2.6x growth in its operating revenues at Rs 30.6 crore compared with Rs 11.38 crore a year ago. The operating EBITDA loss also widened to Rs 41.28 crore from Rs 10.03 crore last year.
Zomato had recently acquired New Zealand-based Menu Mania Ltd, the company behind the restaurant discovery and reviews site MenuMania.co.nz, for an undisclosed amount.


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EDF makes £801m in UK as energy bills soar as it hikes family tariffs by an inflation-busting 10%
EDF made profits of £801million from its UK operations last year as bills soared four times faster than inflation, leading to claims it was ‘recession-proof’.
The figure is the equivalent of £220 for every one of the 3.7million homes supplied by the French-owned energy giant.
It hiked family tariffs by an inflation-busting 10.8 per cent in December, taking the average annual bill to £1,251 a year and plunging millions into misery just as winter hit.
EDF's profits of £801m is the equivalent of £220 for every one of the 3.7million homes supplied by the French-owned energy giant
EDF said its UK profits were down 12 per cent on the previous year, when it made £894million.
But this was due to a £190million financial hit it took on one of its gas fired power stations at Sutton Bridge in Lincolnshire. Without this, profits would have hit £1billion, the group said.
Adam Scorer from Consumer Focus said: ‘The energy industry does seems virtually recession-proof, which is very different to the experience of most consumers who’ve seen prices rise and incomes fall over recent years.’
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Mexican startups will have a chance to accelerate their development process with some help from Chinese telecom giant Huawei.
Huawei, alongisde Mexico’s Foreign Relations Secretariat, informed that opportunities under the Huawei Spark program will be available mainly for startups oriented towards cloud computing solutions.
“The cloud is a vital connector for business transformation, especially when integrating Artificial Intelligence,” said Omar Arab, Chief Development Officer for Huawei Cloud.
Huawei is already offering similar acceleration programs in Chile, Peru and Colombia.
Nearly 50 startups in the region have received financial assistance ranging between US$2,000 and US$100,000 under Huawei Spark.
In addition to the financial and technical support provided by the Chinese firm, Mexico’s Foreign Relations Secretariat will provide participants access to its network of international contacts.
Some of the beneficiares from the program include Mexico’s We Book You and Finvero, as well as Chile’s Cryptomate.
We Book You develops mobile apps that connect users with local businesses and service providers. The app is expected to launch in early 2024. Finvero develops a financial technology platform that helps small businesses to access loans and other financial services. Cryptomate is a cryptocurrency exchange platform, which is also expected to go live in late 2024.


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Trust isn’t the only thing that has taken a hit over at Samsung. With the company officially discontinuing production of the Note 7 and with the CPSC issuing a second recall, this will no doubt affect the company financially. Last we heard, it could potentially cost Samsung a whopping $17 billion in potential revenue had the phones been sold without any incident.
However it seems that’s not all. Because of the amount of money that Samsung will have to spend recalling the phones the second time round, and the amount of money they have lost in terms of opportunity costs, a report from Business Korea (via PhoneArena) has suggested that this could end up affecting Samsung’s other R&D projects that will now have to be put on the backburner due to insufficient funds.
This isn’t to say that Samsung is broke (far from it), it’s just that the budget or money that they anticipated from Note 7 sales is no longer in the picture, meaning that money that should have been set aside for other R&D projects is now considerably less. Last year Samsung had spent a whopping $14 billion on R&D alone, so we have to wonder how badly the Note 7 recall will affect this year’s budget.
The report claims that as a result, some projects will either be delayed or even scrapped entirely. We’re sure that Samsung will eventually bounce back from this snafu, but any potential delay or setback would no doubt allow their rivals/competition to close in on them.


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Marketers Ignoring Customer Feedback from Social Media
A Social Media Survey conducted on behalf of PRWeek and MS&L by PRWeek and CA Walker found that marketers don’t make changes to their products based on customer feedback, despite monitoring feedback being one of the most common business uses of social media in the first place.
The survey found that 70% of marketers say they’ve never made a change to a product or marketing efforts based on feedback from consumers on social media sites.
"Customer feedback should be the front lines of product development," says Jim Tsokanos, MS&L’s president, North America. "Marketers need to act on information culled from social sites and are missing out on a key opportunity to improve and shape their products and programs based on what their consumers need and want."
The top three business uses of social media according to the survey are:
1. Managing and monitoring customer feedback (41%)
2. Understanding the consumer and competitive landscape (41%)
3. Reaching key influencers (33%)
There is still a significant amount of skepticism in corporate America, regarding social media. According to the survey, lack of time and resources are the biggest barriers to successfully incorporating social media into marketing campaigns. 43% said lack of knowledge and expertise, and 39% said they are not convinced of its value or ROI. 75% say their companies are not equipped to handle global social media campaigns, and 66% say the majority of their social media activities are locally equipped.
"If brands do not have a social media presence, consumers will create one for them. These results indicate that many companies are not engaging in social media in ways that truly drive business results and sustain relationships with customers," Tsokanos said. "Employees are the best brand ambassadors a company can have. By not having a specific approach regarding employee use of social media, companies miss out on leveraging their largest and most knowledgeable fan base."
49% of senior marketing executives say their companies have no specific approach regarding employee use of social media to share messages on behalf of the organization or its brands, and 39% of respondents said that their companies are not using any of the most common social media tools in their marketing efforts. Similarly, 39%, say none of their current marketing budget is dedicated to social media programs.
The survey polled 271 US chief marketing officers, VPs of marketing and marketing directors.


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New sales numbers for the first 10 months of 2012 show that demand for Toyota trucks is up significantly.
That’s good news for San Antonio, home to a huge assembly plant where the automaker manufactures its Tundra and Tacoma pickups.
According to data provided by Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. Inc., consumers purchased 198,121 Tundra and Tacoma trucks in the United States from January through October of this year. That’s a 27 percent increase in sales compared to the same period a year ago.
Tacoma sales were up 29 percent over the first 10 months of 2012, as consumers drove more than 115,000 of the smaller pickup trucks off of dealer lots.
Toyota sold more than 83,000 larger Tundra trucks over that same period, or 23 percent more than in the same 10-month span a year ago.
Overall, Toyota sold more than 1.7 million vehicles in the U.S. from January through October of 2012. That’s a 30 percent boost over the same period in 2011.
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W. Scott Bailey covers health care, tourism, sports business, economic development; he also plans and edits some special reports.


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Labor Center Staff
Director, Food Labor Research Center
Saru Jayaraman is the Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United (ROC-United) and Director of the Food Labor Research Center at University of California, Berkeley. After 9/11, together with displaced World Trade Center workers, she co-founded ROC in New York, which has organized restaurant workers to win workplace justice campaigns, conduct research and policy work, partner with responsible restaurants, and launch cooperatively-owned restaurants. ROC now has 10,000 members in 19 cities nationwide. The story of Saru and her co-founder's work founding ROC has been chronicled in the book The Accidental American. Saru is a graduate of Yale Law School and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. She was profiled in the New York Times "Public Lives" section in 2005, and was named one of Crain's "40 Under 40" in 2008, 1010 WINS's "Newsmaker of the Year," and one of New York Magazine's "Influentials" of New York City. Saru co-edited The New Urban Immigrant Workforce, (ME Sharpe, 2005) and authored Behind the Kitchen Door, forthcoming from Cornell University Press.
October 2012 by Chris Benner, Associate Professor, Center for Regional Change,
University of California, Davis
Saru Jayaraman, Director, Food Labor
Research Center, University of California, Berkeley
» Press Release
» Press Coverage
Opponents of raising the federal minimum wage often argue that, while the increase in wages may benefit low-wage workers, it will also increase the cost of food and other basic goods, thus hurting the very people the minimum wage increase is intended to help. In this report, we provide a detailed analysis of the potential increase in food prices of new legislation proposed by Congressmember George Miller (D-CA) and Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) that would increase the minimum wage to $9.80 over a three-year period, as well as increase the tipped minimum wage, which currently stands at $2.13, until it reaches 70% of the full federal minimum. We find that while the Miller/Harkin bill would provide a 33% wage increase for regular minimum wage workers and would more than double the wages of tipped workers over the same period, retail grocery store food prices would only increase by an average of less than half a percent over the three-year phase-in of the new minimum wage, and restaurant food prices would increase by less than one percent per year. This increased cost of food, both away and at home, would amount to about 10 cents more per day on average for American households over the three-year period.
Phone: (510) 643-3505


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Business travellers have no preference whether they deal with a chatbot or a human when making bookings, new research suggests.
Booking.com for Business also found that 80% of respondents to its survey favoured self-service methods of booking travel.
The firm says chatbots linked to travel and accommodation providers are an “increasingly valued tool” for business travellers who are using artificial intelligence to check the weather, research transport options in destination and receive customer support – with customers increasingly “warming to them”.
Exactly half of the respondents to the survey said they don’t mind whether they deal with a real person or a computer, as long as their questions are answered.
Booking.com has an AI-enabled Booking Assistant, which travellers can ask post-accommodation booking questions on subjects such as payment, transport, arrival and departure times, date changes and internet availability.
Booking Assistant is able to handle almost 50% of these customer stay inquiries automatically, the company said, adding that business travellers want to “ensure that unknowns are kept to a minimum” to minimise stress.
But the OTA says “there is still a place for human interaction” and pointed out that its Booking Assistant asks for assistance form human customer service staff when it can’t answer the question.
“AI is not about replacing human interaction, but is instead a vehicle to facilitate an even more personalized, instantaneously gratifying and frictionless travel experience for consumers,” the company said in a press release. “The winning combination of AI and human interaction is fuelling a more personalized, rewarding and frictionless travel experience,” it added.


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Felix Xu figured he knew enough about art to navigate the analog scene at Art Basel Miami Beach. The 29-year-old Beijing co-founder and chief executive officer of the crypto startups Arpa and Bella Protocol has been buying NFT artworks at breakneck speed since the spring, ranking as one of the top 10 buyers of art on the digital art platform HicEtNunc. He now owns more than 3,000 digital artworks including examples by artists like Urs Fischer, Lucas Samaras and Damien Hirst.
But until Miami, Mr. Xu had never stepped foot into a fair selling art in real life. He didn’t know about the power dynamics that determine where galleries show within the vast Miami Beach Convention Center. Or that Gagosian, one of the world’s biggest galleries, didn’t host a prefair party this year at Mr. Chow, historically a must-go event for celebrities and billionaires alike. On Nov. 18, Mr. Xu tweeted, “Coming to @ArtBasel later this month, what’s fun?”


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VLADIVOSTOK, RUSSIA – North Korea has been scheming to trade goods restricted by U.N. sanctions via Russia at a time when countries have strengthened measures to squeeze trade with Pyongyang to halt its missile and nuclear programs, sources close to the matter said Sunday.
Pyongyang has allegedly falsified documents and disguised its trade with Russia as that between Russia and China as a way to continue international trade of goods, including textiles and gasoline that are banned or restricted under sanctions imposed by a U.N. Security Council resolution.
A bill of landing of the North Korean cargo and passenger boat Mangyongbong that arrived at Vladivostok in the Russian Far East from Rason in northeastern North Korea in mid-October said a Russian company in Cheboksary, central Russia, imported 5 tons of North Korean-made garments via Vladivostok from a North Korean trade company.
But the president of the Russian company denied it had imported any goods from North Korea, saying its name was fraudulently used. It remains unclear where the garments went after arriving in Vladivostok.
The U.N. Security Council in September prohibited North Korea from exporting textiles, but allowed up to 90 days for trades that have already been contracted.
A document obtained by Kyodo News and a source close to the matter also revealed that North Korea has tried to illegally import gasoline, which the country is said to be desperately in need of, via Russia.
A North Korean company told a Russian broker in September that it will buy 10,000 tons of gasoline annually and requested to have it transported to Rason from Omsk in central Russia by rail, the document and the source said.
In an apparent attempt to stave off the sanctions, the North Korean company asked the Russian broker to write on a transaction document that the gasoline was exported to a Chinese company and to settle the accounts by cash rather than bank transactions.
A source close to Russia-North Korea trade said Pyongyang is trying to establish new routes to import gasoline through Russia as it has become harder through China, which has tightened its squeeze on its trade with North Korea.
In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever.
By subscribing, you can help us get the story right.


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Credit Brief on Singapore SMEs Q4 2018
This is a quarterly report jointly published by the CRI at the Risk Management Institute of National University of Singapore and Validus Capital. Read the full report here →
Overall, the NUS-CRI 1-year PD increased during Q4, from 20.35bps in September to 25.42bps in December. The weaker credit profile of Singapore SMEs is line with the slower than expected GDP growth at 2.2% in Q4 2018 based on advance estimates from the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI).
According to the survey conducted by the Singapore Business Federation and DP Information Group, Singapore SMEs show greater caution amid ongoing trade tensions and slower economic growth. The construction and engineering sector saw the biggest decline in sentiment and are among the sectors that anticipate negative profit growth.
To tackle the headwinds, the MTI has urged SMEs to develop their digital capabilities in order to compete more effectively. A new wholesale trade industry digital plan (IDP) has been launched for Singapore wholesale trade SMEs to assess their digital readiness and opportunities to go digital. This help SMEs to get ready for the digital economy and improve their competitiveness. SMEs can also obtain subsidized digital solutions provided by banks and telcos, ranging from accounting, human resource management system and cybersecurity through the Start Digital initiative which is part of the SMEs Go Digital programme.
Despite the more pessimistic outlook, SMEs in Singapore still look to expand in the near term with the signing of Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership and Asean e-commerce agreements. Singapore SMEs are also looking forward to supporting measures that may be announced in Budget 2019 to help them tackle near-term challenges.


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The company has delivered a bankable feasibility study for a proposed Active Anode Material plant at Vidalia, Louisiana, and says the numbers support a business case for the development it has been working towards since 2016 at a cost of US$56 million.
Front-end engineering and design has now begun on an initial 10,000 tonne per annum AAM facility, with the work scheduled for completion in the March quarter.
The $138 million initial plant would consume 18,000tpa of graphite to produce the AAM.
All-in operating costs are estimated at $3149/t, compared to an expected price of $5471/t.
The plant would be built on Syrah's existing industrial site along the Mississippi River, which is already capable of producing 5000tpa of unpurified spherical graphite and 200tpa of purified spherical graphite to battery specification.
Installation of a furnace in 2021 will enable the capability to produce 200tpa of natural graphite AAM, and will represent the furthest progressed project outside China, managing director Shaun Verner said.
The company can then look to scale up AAM production, as it will be able to provide sample product to potential offtake partners. The BFS also allows it to engage with financiers.
The BFS also examined a larger 40,000tpa plant that would cost $477 million to develop, which would consume 73,000tpa graphite and reduce costs to $2704/t.
In both cases, Verner said there were robust operating margins, with AAM pricing "arguably at the low point of the cycle".
The company would look to scale-up in line with market demand.
Syrah is aiming to become the first commercial vertically integrated producer of natural graphite AAM outside of China, serving the growing US and European markets.
The company believes the US alone will require 85,000tpa of natural graphite AAM in 2024 to support a forecast 145GWh battery production capacity in USA, growing to a need for 133,000tpa in 2029.
Expected European battery production is forecast to require 151,000tpa by 2024 and 250,000tpa by 2029.
The company has a graphite mine in Mozambique, potentially the largest producer in the world, and the BFS prices in producing and transporting ore from its Balama operation to the US at $400/t.
The mine was shuttered in March as COVID-19 impacted demand, but the graphite market has been tightening recently, and with demand growing, it could restart next year, ramping up to its full 350,000tpa capacity from 2024.
Syrah is also looking to toll treat purified spherical graphite to AAM for testing with interested customers.
Construction for stage one is expected in 2023, assuming the project proceeds from FEED into detailed design and sanction next year.
Syrah shares were up 3.4% today to A92c, having hit a 12-month peak of 95c earlier in the day. Its shares bottomed out near 15c in March, well below its 2016 peak of almost $6.


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THE NEXT TECH DISRUPTION IN MEDIA AND ENTERTAINMENT
On January 28, the German American Business Association, GABA SoCal, presented a fascinating panel discussion with leading industry executives from Verizon, Warner Bros. at Phase Two in Los Angeles.
When asked whether 5G will disrupt the industry, the panelists concurred the new technology will indeed transform our lives on many levels by enabling the creation of new business models and advance immersive interactive experiences across video, gaming, music, and advertising. The speakers strongly believe that 5G will shift our lives enhancing connectivity as well as mobility.
5G Network Capabilities
The digital disruption that has the media and entertainment industry turned up-side down (once again) is far from over and further technological advancements will continue towards a premium content-driven future. Access to more platforms, such as VR programs, will transform consumers’ experiences.
Moreover, 5G is expected to constitute the next-gen digital standard for wireless services which will alter the market and the way telco operators will conduct business.
In its Global Entertainment & Media Outlook 2019-2023 PwC predicts revenues from the VR market alone will catapult to US$7.2 billion. PwC attributes the growth in data consumption to consumers’ growing appetite for video content, which will account for 85.6% of total data consumption in 2022. 5G, as mentioned above, will contribute to this boost.
Plus, 5G is developing alongside continuing advances in artificial intelligence, the worldwide rollout of smart devices, the evolution of virtual and augmented reality, and location-based services will truly transform our lives. From a content perspective, the opportunities to innovate in the next five years—and beyond—are seemingly endless.
Forecast: Key Findings
- Compared with today’s 4G, the next-gen 5G standard promises faster speeds of at least 20-fold, instant response times, vastly improved network efficiencies and longer device battery life, among other benefits. Over the next five years, PwC expects data traffic levels will grow by a 22.3% CAGR, reaching 397.8 trillion megabytes in 2022.
The 5G target for latency — the time between a device’s data request and the response it receives — is 1 millisecond or less, a massive improvement over the average 4G latency of around 50 milliseconds. It’s “as fast as your brain processes reality,” claims AT&T Business chief marketing officer Mo Katibeh.
- 5G will improve mobile video consumption as ‘video buffering’ won’t be an encumbrance anymore. Thus, the new technology experts predict that content accessed via mobile will skyrocket in the coming years. In fact, annual mobile media revenues are expected to double to $420bn globally by 2028, including $124bn in the US alone.
- The intersection of the latest technology will allow for a wide range of new opportunities with regards to content creation and consumption behavior. In particular, those advancements will affect immersive interactive experiences across video, gaming, music and advertising — including augmented and virtual reality — to in-car entertainment in self-driving autos or even 3D holographics.
In-car entertainment alone is foreseen to generate 19.5 billion USD within the next decade, and surveys show that consumers are even ready to pay more for in-car entertainment as compared to mobile entertainment.


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Canada and the European Union said yesterday that they would impose duties on U.S. products to retaliate against a law that has helped American companies pocket more than $1 billion from foreign competitors.
The World Trade Organization said two years ago that the popular U.S. law, known as the Byrd amendment, is illegal.
“Retaliation is not our preferred option, but it is a necessary action. International trade rules must be respected,” said Jim Peterson, Canada’s minister of international trade. It is the first time Canada is retaliating against U.S. products under WTO rules.
The Bush administration has urged Congress to repeal the rule, but lawmakers, especially in the Senate, have resisted.
Named for Sen. Robert C. Byrd, West Virginia Democrat, the law allows U.S. companies to complain that foreign competitors are unfairly selling their products in the United States. If they convince the U.S. government that is the case, duties are slapped on the foreign goods and the revenue is handed over to the firms that brought the complaint.
The bill since 2001 has benefited makers of bearings, steel, food and other goods. For example, the Timken Co., a Canton, Ohio, manufacturer of bearings and steel, in February reported $44.4 million in annual income under the law.
Before the Byrd amendment, those duties were paid into the Treasury. President Bush in his 2006 budget called the measure an “unwarranted subsidy” and proposed eliminating the benefit, valued at $1.6 billion for the fiscal year.
The 25-nation European Union, Canada and nine other nations challenged the law at the WTO in 2003 and won.
The stakes are especially high for Canada. The country will impose retaliatory tariffs affecting $14 million in U.S. exports, a tiny fraction of total trade. But that amount could rise sharply depending on resolution of a dispute over lumber.
The United States has collected softwood lumber duties from Canada totaling about $4.3 billion and continues to collect them at a rate of more than $1 billion a year, Canada’s Trade Ministry said.
Depending on how the sides resolve the lumber fight, the United States may be able to disburse the duties to U.S. producers if the Byrd amendment remains in place.
Canada said yesterday that it would impose a 15 percent levy on U.S. live swine, cigarettes, oysters and some fish starting May 1. A Canadian official said the products were selected to punish companies represented by congressmen who support the Byrd amendment.
The European Union said yesterday that it would ask member states to slap 15 percent duties on U.S. exports of paper, agricultural goods, textiles, machinery and other products.
“We’re disappointed that this step is being taken. The United States is working to comply with the WTO decision regarding the Byrd amendment,” said Richard Mills, spokesman for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.
Other nations authorized to retaliate have not said they would do so.
A few U.S. lawmakers have tried to repeal or alter the Byrd amendment, officially called the Continued Dumping and Subsidy Offset Act.
But more than 70 senators have publicly voiced their support for the measure and called for a negotiated change in WTO rules to accommodate it.


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Last Trades on Island ECN
DELL: 48 at 5:22 p.m. EDT.
QCOM: 168 3/8 at 4:14 p.m. EDT.
ALTR: 49 1/2 at 4:00 p.m. EDT.
MarketXT, formerly Eclipse Trading, offers after-hours trading to retail clients of Morgan Stanley Dean Witter's (MWD) Discover Brokerage and Mellon Bank's (MEL) Dreyfus Brokerage Services. Clients can trade 200 of the most actively traded New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq Stock Market issues, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. EDT Monday through Thursday. Island ECN offers trading, mainly in Nasdaq-listed stocks, from 8 a.m. to 5:15 p.m. EDT.
updates the most active issues on both MarketXT and Island ECN in Got a Minute? and in the Evening Update.
also reports how MarketXT's three most active Nasdaq-listed issues finished the Island ECN session.
Day Session Report
Major U.S. stock indices ended mixed, with the
Dow Jones Industrial Average
rallying to settle up 2 to 11,036 and the tech-laden
Nasdaq Composite Index
slipping 28 to 2808.
Europe also saw a mixed session, with France's
up 0.68 at 4680, Germany's
advancing 9 to 5400 and London's
stumbling 55 to 6253.
The Asian markets continued to slump, with Japan's
dropping 66 to close at 17,641 and Hong Kong's
off 39 at 13,356.
Mergers, Acquisitions and Joint Ventures
will supply television program listings to the Internet service provider.
downgraded AOL to neutral from buy.
plans to purchase privately held
for $340 million in stock.
set a joint venture called
Asia Global Crossing
that will provide network-based telecommunications services to businesses and consumers throughout Asia. The telecom network will cost about $1.28 billion to construct. Responsibility for the management and operation of the network will fall on Global Crossing. Softbank is a minority shareholder in
, publisher of this Web site.
is acquiring privately held
for $78.3 million in stock plus the assumption of the company's stock option plan.
, a U.K. pharmaceuticals concern, said it is in talks that could lead to a recommended cash offer for the company,
won a $55.5 million contract from
to design and install telecommunication lines in Cairo, Port Said and Alexandria.
said it would buy
for $100 million in cash and stock.
said it struck a bill-payment service deal with
Yogen Fruz WorldWide
said it has plans to scoop up some of
, after the ice cream company's board accepted a plan to sell its assets. Canada's Yogen Fruz said it would bid on some Eskimo Pie assets and licenses when they go on sale.
Earnings/Revenue Reports and Previews
posted fourth-quarter earnings of 32 cents a share, beating the two-analyst estimate of 30 cents, but down from the year-ago 54 cents.
reported third-quarter earnings of 34 cents a share, missing both the two-analyst estimate of 39 cents and the year-ago 45 cents.
reported first-quarter earnings of 65 cents a share, missing the 14-analyst estimate of 66 cents but beating the year-ago 60 cents.
posted first-quarter earnings of 15 cents a share, beating both the two-analyst estimate of 11 cents and the year-ago 5 cents.
posted second-quarter earnings of 34 cents a share, beating both the two-analyst estimate of 31 cents and the year-ago 25 cents.
posted fourth-quarter earnings of 48 cents a share, beating both the two-analyst estimate of 30 cents and the year-ago 16 cents.
said it expects shipping delays and other problems to cause a loss in its third quarter. The company said the problems could put as much as a $9 million dent in pretax earnings.
analysts estimated that the company would earn 12 cents in its third quarter. Last year, Serologicals posted third-quarter earnings of 16 cents a share.
reported third-quarter earnings of 26 cents a share, beating both the 10-analyst estimate of 25 cents and the year-ago 25 cents.
warned investors to expect third-quarter earnings in the range of 52 cents a share to 58 cents, greatly missing the three-analyst estimate of 88 cents and the year-ago 59 cents.
posted second-quarter earnings of 12 cents a share, in line with the five-analyst estimate of 12 cents and beating the year-ago 9 cents.
Offerings and Stock Actions
said its board authorized a buyback of $40 million worth of common shares or convertible debt and an $85 million capital spending plan for fiscal 2000. The clothing retailer said the spending plan would subsidize a 90-store expansion.
Brookdale Living Communities
cleared the buyback of up to 2 million common shares.
filed a 2.5 million-share offering with the
Securities and Exchange Commission
Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette
initiated coverage of
with a market perform rating.
Banc of America
rolled out coverage on
with a buy rating and a price target of 90.
dropped its rating on
to hold from outperform.
Warburg Dillon Read
raised its price target on
to 90 from 75, maintaining its buy rating.
began coverage of
with a buy rating and a price target of 165.
analyst Steven Kohn rolled out coverage of
with an initial buy rating and set a price target of 65.
sliced its price target on
to 20 from 32. Yesterday the company said it expects to report third-quarter earnings of 21 cents a share, missing the consensus estimate of 26 cents.
upped its rating on
to market outperform from market perform.
U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray
sliced its 1999 earnings estimates for
Fresh Del Monte Produce
to $1.88 from $1.99 a share but maintained its buy rating on the stock.
sliced its rating on
to a long-term accumulate from a buy.
rolled out coverage of
with an outperform rating. Merrill Lynch stamped the stock with near-term accumulate, long-term buy ratings.
auto analyst Marc Corssman initiated coverage of
with a buy rating.
Lehman Brothers chopped its price target on
to 20 from 28 and its fiscal 1999 earnings estimates to 69 cents a share from 94 cents.
Warburg Dillon Read initiated coverage of
with a buy rating and a price target of 50.
started coverage of
with a strong buy rating and a price target of 28.
Salomon Smith Barney
National Service Industries
to a buy from a neutral, citing its recent acquisition of
Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette initiated coverage of
with a top pick rating.
Goldman Sachs began coverage of
, placing it on its recommended list.
J.P. Morgan started coverage of
with a long-term buy rating.
Warburg Dillon Read rolled out coverage on
with an initial buy rating and a 12-month price target of 23.
Morgan Stanley upped its rating on
to an outperform from a neutral.
joined Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown and
. Prudential hammered Promus's rating to hold from accumulate after the hotel said it would be acquired by
increased its price target on
to 110 from 85 and maintained its buy rating.
Merrill Lynch's Jessica Reif Cohen raised her rating on
to a near-term buy from accumulate. Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown also set a strong buy rating and a price target of 60, while Goldman Sachs moved the Viacom class B shares on its recommended list from trading buy.
American Xtal Technology
said it would halt germanium wafer distribution to the
for about two months. American Xtal said Spectrolab asked it to suspend the supply due to slowness in the satellite market. American Xtal said the distribution delay would trim revenue by a $1 million per month.
announced that it would post disappointing third-quarter earnings and said it was shopping for a new chief executive. Imgram said its current chairman and CEO, Jerre Stead, plans to remain chairman after a successor is found to fill his role as CEO. The company expects to report third-quarter earnings between 10 cents per diluted share to 14 cents, greatly missing the analyst estimate of 41 cents a share.
said that it's received approval from the
Food and Drug Administration
to sell a balloon catheter system used in small blood vessels. The company said the device, known as the Equinox system, will be incorporated into other Micro Therapeutics products.
said Phillip Rollhaus will retire as CEO on Sept. 30 but will remain as the company's chairman. The highway safety products maker said Leslie Jezuit will replace Rollhaus as chief executive and will continue to act as president and CEO.
Russian president Boris Yeltsin told President Clinton that reports linking him to a corruption scandal through payments from a Swiss firm were not true.
announced plans to form a new division within its systems and information technology group called
Global Enterprise Solutions
, uniting its e-commerce consulting business with its logistics and supply-chain management services. The company attributes 16% of its revenue to the systems and information technology group. TRW also said that it sold its Data Services unit to
as part of the restructuring changes.
named Steven Bornstein, president of its
unit, to head Disney's Internet group. Bornstein, who was named chairman of
Buena Vista Internet Group
after Jake Winebaum departed in June, will become president of Web portal
later this year.


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Naspers sells Flipkart stake to Walmart for R28 billion
Listed media and internet group Naspers has announced that it has sold its 11.18% stake in Indian e-commerce group, Flipkart, to US mega retailer Walmart for $2.2 billion (R27.7 billion), representing a IRR of 32%.
Launched in October 2007, Flipkart is India’s largest e-commerce marketplace. Naspers initially invested in August 2012 and its cumulative investment to the point of sale amounts to $616 million (R7.75 billion).
According to Naspers, the proceeds of the sale will be used to reinforce Naspers’ balance sheet and will be invested over time to accelerate the growth of Naspers’ classifieds, online food delivery and fintech businesses globally, and to pursue other exciting growth opportunities when they arise.
“Flipkart is one of several leading businesses that Naspers has invested in or built in India. Following the sale of its stake in Flipkart, in India, Naspers retains OLX, the leading online classifieds business, PayU, a leading provider of payment and fintech services, and its investments in Swiggy, the leading online food delivery company, and MakeMyTrip, the leading online travel business,” it said.
The transaction is subject to regulatory approval and is expected to close later in the year.
Via Business Tech


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We know Apple is releasing macOS Sierra, iOS 10, watchOS 3, tvOS 10, and new iPhones this fall, but there could be more in store, too. John Martellaro joins Jeff Gamet to discuss what announcements Apple may be planning, and how the announcements will be managed. They also talk about NASA releasing the Apollo 11 source code and how important Margaret Hamilton was to the space program.
Microsoft Office for Mac, one of the last big holdouts, is getting ready to switch to 64-bit. Here’s a quick overview of what this switch means for the typical Office user (spoiler: not much).
Nintendo fans will want to be on the lookout for the company’s new console this holiday season. No, not that one. Nintendo has unveiled the Mini NES Classic Edition console, a palm-sized replica of the groundbreaking entertainment device that includes 30 built-in NES games, support for two controllers, and HDMI output. Some of the built-in games include the Super Mario Bros. trilogy, The Legend of Zelda, Castlevania, StarTropics, and Tecmo Bowl. The Mini NES includes one new “classic controller” and will hit store shelves on November 11th for $59.99. Additional controllers can be picked up for $10 each, and are compatible with Virtual Console games on the Wii and Wii U.
T-Mobile customers will soon get one year of free unlimited data for Pokémon GO, the hit new augmented reality mobile game. While exciting for fans of the game, net neutrality advocates should be wary of this latest move from “the un-carrier.”
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter (THR), Apple senior vice president Eddy Cue added some color to Apple’s television aspirations. Key takeaways from the interview include Apple not planning to buy a studio (for now, at least); Apple having modest ambitions with original content; and Apple’s belief that voice is the killer feature for navigating television content.
There may be times when you don’t want the OS X login screen saver to kick in. This might apply when, for example, the screensaver engine is acting up, and you don’t want it to activate, ever. John shows how.
We have a deal for you today on a pair of magnetic wireless sports headphones.These are Bluetooth headphones with magnets on the back of each ear piece so that they stick to each other. That means fewer tangles and fewer opportunities to get lost. The price through our deal is $24.99, some 37% off retail. Check out the details in the deal listing
Apple’s Eddy Cue recently shared some insight into the company’s plans for original TV content. Bryan Chaffin joins Jeff Gamet to look at what he had to say and how Apple fits into the entertainment market, plus they have some thoughts on the scheduled Supreme Court hearing in the Apple and Samsung patent infringement fight.
Samsung’s appeal in its ongoing patent infringement fight with Apple over smartphone designs goes before the U.S. Supreme Court on October 11th. This doesn’t, however, signal the end of a battle that started in 2011 and is only the latest round in a dispute that’s drug on for years.
Safari’s got a hidden way to help you open a page in another browser you’ve got installed, and this feature’s really helpful for troubleshooting problems with websites. Melissa Holt’s gonna give us the rundown in today’s Quick Tip.
In this episode of The Apple Context Machine, Bryan and Jeff talk about HomeKit, sparked by Jeff’s triumph over something that shouldn’t have been hard to begin with. They also talk about Jeff’s initial foray into Pokémon GO, and look at the Post-PC Era (or lack thereof) in light of Scrivener coming to iOS.
The computers NASA used in the Apollo missions to the moon were very slow and primitive by today’s standards. It was necessary to write all the flight code and lunar module landing code in assembly language. Even then, code modules (flight phases) were paged in and out of memory. The software was written by IBM and worked, as we know, beautifully. What’s almost as amazing is the complete printout of the assembly code on paper which stands, in this article, about as tall as Director of Apollo Flight Computer Programming Margaret Hamilton. You can now see it all on GitHub.
ZOMGZOMGZOMG!!! I am all a tither! Literature & Latte announced Wednesday that Scrivener is coming to iOS on July 20th! Scrivener is the best writing environment I’ve found, but heretofore it’s worked only on Mac and Windows. I’m not personally interested in writing on my iPad, but I am mega-interested in editing on my iPad. In fact, I do my serious read-throughs when editing fiction in iBooks. That’s great, but being able to get into that reading mode with Scrivener directly in hand is going to be a big deal for me. There’s no link yet, but L&L said it will be released July 20th at $19.99.
Apple’s overall Macintosh sales are in decline, for how long we don’t know. The MacBook Pro is long over due for a refresh. Apple’s Mac Pro has languished. The Mac mini, last updated in 2014, was less than intoxicating. What’s happening? John takes a look.
Mac sales are showing a decline and that has some pundits saying Apple has a big problem on its hands. John Martellaro joins Jeff Gamet to look at the state of Mac sales, the long gap between product refreshes, and the reaction we can expect when new models ship. They also look at the ramifications of the latest Tesla autopilot crash.
Apple public betas of macOS Sierra and iOS 10 came out last week. If you’re not totally clear on what it means to install a beta operating system on your Mac or iOS devices, here’s what you need to know:
Apple’s original TV series Planet of the Apps is on the hunt for developers willing to share their app design process on the small screen. There’s an open casting call on the show’s website and they’re looking for coders in Austin, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York to participate. Only 100 slots are available, and you’ll need a beta of your app ready by October 21, so get coding. You can apply for the show at the Planet of the Apps website.
Nintendo and Niantic’s wildly popular Pokémon GO came under fire only days after it launched when users found out the game had permission to access everything in their Google accounts. Niantic said the game checked only basic account information and wasn’t supposed to get unfettered access to everything. There’s an patch out that fixes the permissions issue, but you’ll need to do more than simply install the update. Read on to learn how to limit Pokémon GO’s access to your Google account.
Apple donated $1 million to benefit flood relief efforts in China. It’s the right thing to do, and it’s also smart business as Apple works on being a Chinese company.
Talk about having your finger on the zeitgeist, Funny or Die pushed a video Tuesday called “‘Pokémon GO’ Personal Injury Lawyer.” The name says it all, but note there is mild profanity. Enjoy.


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Home sales and prices in Iowa on whole eked out modest gains in 2005 compared to one year earlier, the Iowa Association of Realtors reported, although some larger markets posted double-digit price growth. Realtors reported 39,380 single-family homes sold statewide in 2005, up 6 percent from 37,251 homes sold in 2004. The median price of a home in Iowa in 2005 totaled $129,560, up 1 percent from the 2004 median value of $128,350. The median is a typical market price where half of the homes sold for more and half sold for less. Among the cities reporting the strongest growth, Des Moines saw 11,265 sales last year, up 4 percent from 10,811 in 2004, while the median home price jumped 13 percent during the same period, from $149,400 to $168,300. Sales in Dubuque totaled 1,245 in 2005, up 6 per...
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Unreal, an "unjunked" food company, is relaunching its line of unjunked candy, with new packaging and new flavors like crispy quinoa, coconut and almond butter.
Founded in 2012, Unreal's candy is made from 100 percent real, non-GMO ingredients with less sugar and no gluten, corn, soy, artificial coloring or preservatives. It's a better-for-you candy option, complete with dark chocolate vegan products and sustainably sourced cacao to offer more protein and fiber from real foods.
“It’s great to be back on store shelves and to introduce some new, really unique flavors to consumers,” says Steve Konczal, ceo. “But above all, we believe in being a business that does the right thing. From our sustainable sourcing practices to using Fair Trade and organic ingredients, we’re always striving to do what’s better for people, and what’s better for the planet.”
The company has also marked its relaunch with new packaging, moving away from its previous signature black and creating a lighter, more colorful look for the brand.
“We recognized that we needed to better align our products and messaging with the values of our core, health-conscious consumer target,” says Amanda Reiss, cmo. “The packaging and merchandising strategies have been re-designed to bring Unreal's fun and quirky brand personality to life.”
Unreal last rebranded in 2013, changing its logo to a clean-cut typeface instead of one inspired by a QR code and getting rid of its old candy numbering system.
Now with a focus on special occasions like Easter and Halloween, Unreal's candy is available in 1,000 stores across the country, including select Super Target stores, Kroger and select Whole Foods Markets. The candy comes in twin packs, 4 oz. bags and one gal. party cans filled with a mix of 50 snack size peanut butter cups.
Unreal's new flavors include:
- Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups
- Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups
- Milk Chocolate Crispy Quinoa Peanut Butter Cups
- Dark Chocolate Coconut Peanut Butter Cups
- Candy Coated Milk Chocolates
- Candy Coated Milk Chocolate Peanuts


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It's the festive season and the fraudsters are out in force. Councils across the country are launching crackdowns on counterfeit goods and huge hauls worth millions have been seized already.
As figures suggest that around one in five of us bought a fake last year, consumer queen Alice Beer is here to advise on how to avoid a counterfeit Christmas and she'll put Holly and Phillip to the test to see if they can spot the genuine present in our game Find the Fake.
Plus it's almost time for the big festive mail-out, but it turns out that some charity christmas cards only donate a percentage of the cost to the cause. We list the organisations that ensure 100% goes to charity, below.


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Apple Music has just announced the launch of a new “Apple Music Live” concert series featuring the best musicians and artists in the industry. The event kicks off with Harry Styles live in New York on May 20.
Since this week, Apple Music will live stream concerts great artists as part of his Apple Music Live Project. This new feature kicks off with a Harry Styles concert to be held on Saturday May 21, alongside the release of his third album, Harry’s House. Harry Styles’ “One Night Only in New York” concert, which will take place at the UBS Arena in Belmont Park, will be available to stream exclusively to Apple Music subscribers in 167 countries around the world, the the company announced.
This will therefore be an opportunity for the singer’s fans to discover for the first time the new songs from his third album. It’s a safe bet that it will be a success, knowing that CD sales have started again, a first in 20 years.
Apple Music app launched in live concerts
According to Apple, the new concert series aims to give musicians the opportunity to perform on stage and connect with their audience. The Harry Styles concert starts on Saturday evening at 2am GMT. It is important to note that if you subscribe to Apple Music, the concert is completely free and directly accessible via the app.
Replays of the performance will be available May 22 at 6 p.m. French time and May 26 at 11 a.m. Apple has not yet announced whether the “Apple Music Live” concerts will be available for replay on demand, nor the next artists who will take the stage in the coming weeks. If you are still not subscribed to Apple Music, we remind you that Apple recently limited the trial period to three months. You can still enjoy the gig with the 30-day trial period, and your subscription will then be billed at 9.99 euros per month if you decide to follow it. If you opt for a family subscription, you pay 14.99 euros per month for 5 profiles.
Media coordinator and junior editor at Research Snipers RS-NEWS, I studied mass communication and am interested in technology affairs, I have 3 years of experience in the media industry.


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Last week the fintech world gathered in San Francisco for the 7th annual LendIt Fintech USA conference; Lend Academy shares highlights from the keynote stage as well as the many other programs: Women in Fintech, LendIt Fintech Industry Awards, 1 to 1 networking, PitchIt @ LendIt, Innovation Zone and more, that made the event such a success. Source.
Peter Renton is the chairman and co-founder of Fintech Nexus, the world’s first and largest digital media and events company focused on fintech. Peter has been writing about fintech since 2010 and he is the author and creator of the Fintech One-on-One Podcast, the first and longest-running fintech interview series. Peter has been interviewed by the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, The New York Times, CNBC, CNN, Fortune, NPR, Fox Business News, the Financial Times, and dozens of other publications.