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There has been a general understanding in recent years that the retail sector has been proportionally losing sales and its share of consumers’ disposable income to the leisure sector. Whether or not this paints an accurate picture of the true state of consumer spend is the topic of the latest KPMG/Ipsos Retail Think Tank (RTT) white paper.
The impact that any change in spend has had on retailers is explored, together with the reality that many retailers find themselves in today, and whether any shift in spend towards leisure operators is a key driver holding back the sector’s current stuttering performance.
Goods v experience data sets
The RTT members acknowledge that there are a range of different data sources available in order to ascertain evidence of a shift in spend away from the retail sector.
Consumer Price Index (CPI) data from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) shows that households are spending less on goods, and more services, but the majority of this spending shift is attributed to property rentals, vehicle leasing and professional services. James Knightley, ING chief international economist delved deeper into consumer spending behaviour: “Back in 1988, goods accounted for 71% of the basket, now it is down to 52%”. James explained that this shift largely reflects the rising proportion of spending on household rentals and ‘miscellaneous services’, which include personal, legal, financial and social services. The index is based on approximately 180,000 price quotations a month for a sample of 800 goods and services, which are reviewed annually to reflect changes in consumers’ spending patterns.
Dr Tim Denison, director of retail intelligence at Ipsos Retail Performance adds weight to the argument saying that whilst there were shifts in spending habits, total retail spend as a whole hadn’t really changed in the last two decades according to official data: “Total consumer expenditure at current prices seasonally adjusted for the period 1998 to 2018 shows very little change in the amount households spend on retail (food and non-food combined). Back in 1998 I calculate it stood at 29.2% and twenty years later it is 30.0%.” This analysis on household final consumer expenditure (HHFCE) data is compiled from the ONS’s Living Costs and Food Survey, drawn from a UK sample of just under 6,000 households annually.
However, RTT members also seek counsel from alternative sources in exploring where the ‘consensus’ that a shift in spend taking place has come from. ONS data suggest the trend towards experiences appears to be marginal, but the reality we find ourselves in today tells a different story. “It’s no secret that the way money is being spent has changed, with people electing to spend increasingly on experiences, and more frequently of late, opting to forego material objects.” said James Sawley, head of retail & leisure at HSBC UK. These comments were backed up by multiple sets of spending data issued by credit card companies. Tim Denison added: “In a 2017 release, Barclaycard declare ‘spending on physical goods continued to slow, with expenditure on household items dropping 1.2% year-on-year.’ It identified that entertainment growth was running at 6.8% year-on-year and pub and restaurant spending was climbing by 13.6% and 11.4% respectively.”
The RTT concluded that there seem to be conflicts in the different data sources, and members questioned whether the conflict in narratives is exacerbated by the way that spending is classified. Paul Martin, UK head of retail at KPMG and co-chair of the RTT, said: “It is clear to say that consumer spend has evolved over the last decades and is becoming increasingly diversified. This is reflected by the plethora of data sources available, which in my opinion at times deliver increasingly conflicting messages, as ultimately the changing consumer landscape means we are not really comparing like-for-like. Retail as a service, retail experience alongside product-centric retailers and of course brands that blur the lines of a traditional offering are all commonplace today. What is pivotal though and the route to success is understanding the size and shape of each consumers wallet and how the spend is being allocated and what factors are driving this spend.”
RTT members also referenced the structural changes in the retail sector, an ever-evolving society and improving technology as key factors that are driving this apparent shift in credit card spending towards experiences and away from retailers.
Different parts of the retail sector are impacted in different ways by this apparent shift. Maureen Hinton, group research director at GlobalData, said: “It is non-food that is bearing the brunt of this shift in spending – it is markedly underperforming with just 7% growth over the decade.”
As regards specific categories, James Knightley highlights ‘food, alcohol and tobacco’; ‘audio visual’ and ‘furniture and household equipment’ as showing slight reductions as a percentage of overall spend, whilst surprisingly ‘clothing and footwear’ has seen a marginal increase.
In terms of leisure operators that are benefiting from this shift, those providing ‘transport’, ‘package holidays’ and ‘accommodation services’ are all shown to have seen increases in consumer spend. The RTT adds that there are opportunities within this shift in spend and Maureen Hinton suggests that “retailers have good reason to invest in ways to add entertainment and experience to their propositions and to exploit trends such as travel retail and duty free, just as WH Smith has done at one end of the market and luxury retailers have at the other.”
The shift to online
A number of different structural and societal factors are impacting on the sale of goods, and as such, have contributed heavily to the apparent diversion of consumer spend. Firstly, the RTT comments on the increased popularity of online shopping, which as a service is improving in line with technology at an almost constant rate. This has in no doubt impacted the size of the retailers’ share of the available spend.
“Online shopping is generally bad for existing retailers given the costs of delivery and returns frequently outstripping the benefit of the additional sales,” commented Martin Hayward, founder of Hayward Strategy and Futures.
Martin’s thoughts were echoed by Mike Watkins, head of retailer and business insight at Nielsen UK: “The reduction in spend is amplified by the channel shift to online and value retailing, which started in non-food and is now the key trend in food retail.”
James Sawley added that today’s consumer enjoys a swifter and more efficient shopping experience thanks to technology, freeing up more time to enjoy themselves – and this is largely benefiting the leisure industry more than retailers: “The phrase ‘time poor’ has been brandished about more, and with improvements in logistics/fulfilment leading people to purchase more goods online to be delivered or picked up at the customer’s convenience. Subscription models, such as the one Amazon uses, appear to be a popular mechanism to purchase non-descript monthly essentials, again saving the shopper time each month. All of these new channels and ways of shopping are ultimately freeing up time for people to enjoy themselves. This has led to a brand new leisure category being born – ‘Competitive Socialising’- which appears to be garnering more of people’s wallet.”
Much like the rising popularity of travel has opened up retail opportunities at travel hubs, the ever-growing use of the internet has meant retailers are seeing the store as having uses beyond just selling. Retailers are actively looking at ways to enhance their in-store offering, to provide consumers with the experiential shopping experience they believe this generation desires.
Jonathan De Mello, head of retail consultancy at Harper Dennis Hobbs, points out that: “Given the rise of online retailing, the high street is markedly different from what it was 10 years ago, with shoppers increasingly demanding experiences as part of their shopping trip – as a point of difference against online shopping. Not only has this exacerbated the decline of certain centres, which have lost out through retail business failures – or lack of retailer demand – it has also led to an increase in the presence of ‘experience’ stores, where the store is seen as an additional marketing channel.”
However, RTT members do question the actual benefits retailers are reaping by this switch to a more experiential offering, and if investment in this area is actually holding the retail sector back. Nick Bubb, independent retail consultant, argues that consumers might not be buying into this investment: “Department stores in particular have rushed on to the ‘experiences retailing’ bandwagon, in the belief that consumers want more than just the usual products and services, but there is little evidence of these moves having any real impact. The monthly Coffer Peach Tracker survey of pub and restaurant sales shows that this sector is not exactly booming either, notwithstanding continued new restaurant openings.”
RTT members concur that, alongside the improving technology, changes within society, and the values consumers hold, contribute to the apparent shift in spend.
Focusing on the millennial market, Martin Newman, The Customer Experience Champion, said: “Success in the millennial’s mind is not about how much money you make, more it’s about how much freedom you have and the experiences you can share. Previous generations didn’t have the opportunity or ability to travel as much as us or to start a new business the way we do today, therefore they invested in homes, cars and other things that were a reflection of the times we lived in”. It is apparent that today’s younger consumers are more environmentally aware and have more of a sharing and recycling mindset in terms of physical goods – they seem less focused, and place less value, on the ownership of possessions.
Martin Hayward adds: “It is likely that younger families will spend more on communications such as telephony and data, and are more likely to stream music, films and other content. These services are not cheap and place pressure on disposable income for shopping. This will particularly impact on fashion retailing.”
This shift in mindset, and the improvements to technology that assist it, are clear when looking at how people spend their money. The RTT highlight in particular the abundance in choice in terms of services now available to consumers, with Maureen Hinton adding: “Life is changing – a decade ago we were not paying subscriptions to Amazon Prime Video and Netflix which currently have around 20 million paying subscribers in the UK.”
Whether or not the different spending habits of the younger consumer audience is driven more by the new products available to them, or because of a wider societal change remains unclear. Dr Tim Denison points out: “Different consumer segments are found to have different spending priorities and it is here that the two conflicting stories (of shrinking versus stable spend on retailing) converge. All the evidence shows, for example, that younger people spend less on ‘things’. Whether this is a long-term change in cohort behaviour, or the consequence of other events, such as more young people staying at parental homes longer and therefore not needing to buy so many goods, is difficult to gauge.”
Whatever the reason for the change in the way young people spend their money, the RTT agree that more of ‘the pie’ is finding its way to the leisure sector, which can provide these consumers with the more experiential, and less tangible, gratification they are after.
There is little doubt that there have been changes in the way that UK shoppers spend their disposable income, moving from the purchasing of ‘things’ towards ‘experiences’ – with the younger millennial market leading the charge in this shift in spend.
Mike Watkins concludes: “So traditional retail, compared to other sectors of consumer spend, faces more headwinds. Sentiment is intrinsically rooted in changing economic circumstances, but spend is now driven by a desire for more consumer experiences. Due to changing priorities and aspirations, or as a result of external factors such as cost of living increases, shoppers are adapting their over wallet allocation for discretionary spend. This is resulting in less money being spent on goods or services which have low involvement or minimal investment.”
The magnitude of this shift however, and the actual impact it is having on retailers is trickier to dissect. The RTT accept that different data sources that track consumer spending reveal conflicting arguments on where shifts in consumer spending are moving. The issue is compounded by the traditional ‘data buckets’ in which we classify spend. Factors such as the rise in internet shopping and increasingly popular subscription services are making it harder to distinguish the actual impact that changing consumer spending habits are having on retailers.
It is clear though that any shift in spend away from retailers, has of course, impacted negatively on the sector. However, the RTT members hold that this alone is not to blame for the fragile position that many operators find themselves in today. External economic factors, political uncertainty, rising costs, a changing consumer mindset, an increased use of technology and the rise of the discounters, alongside this shift in spend towards the leisure sector are all working together to challenge the status quo of what it takes for a retailer to succeed in 2019.
Part II: In detail – individual views of the KPMG/Ipsos Retail Performance Think Tank members
James Knightley, ING Chief International Economist:
There is a hypothesis that since the global financial crisis households have moved away from buying “things” to buying “experiences” and this structural shift in behaviour explains some of the pain being felt by retailers.
As an economist my first port of call when looking at the shifts in relative spending is the consumer price inflation report. Here we can see a time series of the weights of different goods and services that a “typical” person in the UK spends their money on.
Since the late 1980s there has been a notable shift in spending behaviour from goods towards services. Back in 1988 goods accounted for 71% of the basket, but now it is down to 52%. This largely reflects the rising proportion of spending on housing rentals (owner occupied housing is not included) and an increase in the proportion of spending on “miscellaneous services” such as personal, legal, financial and social (including retirement) services.
But this shift has slowed markedly since the financial crisis. In 2007 goods accounted for 54.7% versus the 51.9% today. In terms of the big components food, alcohol and tobacco dropped from 14.6% to 14%, primarily because of tobacco. Housing and utilities has risen from 11.5% to 13% reflecting rising rents as a proportion of household spending. Transport has held steady at just over 15% (rising use, but falling prices for airfares and taxis).
In terms of the specifics of “things” versus “experiences” there are some interesting shifts. Clothing and footwear is actually up from 6.2% to 6.7%, led more by the latter than the former. However audio visual has gone from 2.9% to 2%, furniture and household equipment has edged very marginally lower to 6.5% from 6.8%. Games, toys, garden and pets have held at 3.7%.
Spending on “major durables for recreation and culture” have increased from 0.9% to 1.7%, led by spending on camper vans and boats! This looks to be part of the shift to “experiences”. Package holidays have been one of the biggest movers going from 2.9% to 4.3% of spending and accommodation services have increased from 1.9% to 2.6%. However there has been weakness in other “experiences”. For example, “catering services” dropped from 11.9% to 9.5% with restaurants, canteens and take-aways all seeing declines in relative spending
In general there does appear to have been a marginal shift towards “experiences” from “things”, but it is quite tentative and there are clearly winners and losers within both groups. Given the relatively small changes in spending behaviour and the fact the “pie” of consumer spending has got significantly bigger (consumer spending is up 14% in real terms and 46% in nominal terms since 2007) this cannot be attributed as the major factor holding back UK retail. The problem seems to lie more generally with other structural issues such as internet/rents/taxation/car parking and management.
Dr Tim Denison, Director of Retail Intelligence – Ipsos Retail Performance
It is widely reported that retail as a percentage of total household spending is on the slide at the expense of leisure/experiential activities. Official data from the ONS seems to suggest otherwise. Whilst the classification of expenditure and its breakdown is detailed, it is somewhat opaque when it comes to clustering total spend on retail.
Analysis of the data table on total domestic expenditure at current prices seasonally adjusted for the period 1998 to 2018 shows very little change in the amount household spend on retail (food and non-food combined). Back in 1998 I calculate it stood at 29.2% and twenty years later it is 30.0%. Yes, it has wobbled around a bit, for example in 2008 at the start of the financial crisis it fell to 27.4%, but the medium-term trend remains flat. Another ONS data source, the components of household expenditure 2018 table, which draws on a sample of over 5000 households and reports in sterling values corroborates the top line percentage of spend attributable to retail.
So where does the misperception that retail is losing out to experiential spending come from? I suggest that one main source is credit card companies. In a 2017 release, Barclaycard declared that “spending on physical goods continued to slow, with expenditure on household items dropping 1.2% year-on-year.” It identified that entertainment growth was running at 6.8% year-on-year and pub and restaurant spending was climbing by 13.6% and 11.4% respectively. More recent data from Visa UK reveals that spending at hotels, restaurants and bars was up 3.2% year-on-year in February 2018 and has been continually rising since 2011. Worldpay too, has published results detailing a 7.3% increase in card spending on travel and experience in the UK and a 6.8% rise in leisure and cultural activities from 2013-17, compared to just 3.9% growth in retail. Credit cards, of course, are just one source of spending. Nevertheless, other, survey-based, sources also produce similar direction and narrative. Deloitte’s consumer tracker, for example, quoted a 2% increase in spending on leisure pursuits in Q4 2018 year-on-year, suggested that the uptick was possibly “a sign of escapism”, seeking enjoyment through experiences.
While overall spending on retailing at a national level may not be shrinking, different consumer segments are found to have different spending priorities and it is here that the two conflicting stories converge. Averages can often be very misleading, masking significant variation. All the evidence shows, for example, that younger people are spend less on “things”. Whether this is a long-term change in cohort behaviour, or the consequence of other events, such as more young people staying at parental homes longer and therefore not needing to buy so many goods, is difficult to gauge.
It would be remiss of me to conclude without making reference to the rest of Europe. How does their retail spending compare to ours? The answer is quite similar. Analysis of Eurostat data divulges that the average percentage of household spending on retail across the EU member states, excluding the UK, is also 30%. As before though, the devil is in the detail. For founder members it is similar to that in the UK, but for late entrants, such as Lithuania, Romania and Estonia, retail’s proportion of household expenditure is over 40%. Make of that what you will!
Martin Hayward, Founder – Hayward Strategy and Futures:
Considering the medium-sized spending categories, spending on food and non-alcoholic drinks has remained fairly constant across time, with the average spend in FYE 2018 (£60.60) being almost identical to the starting point of the series in FYE 2002 (£60.70).
Spending on restaurants and hotels showed a steady decrease until 2013 after which there were a few years of increase, but in the year FYE 2017 to FYE 2018 there has been a £2.00 decrease in average spend, with households spending an average of £49.60 a week on restaurants and hotels in FYE 2018.
Spending on household goods and services was at a low in 2011 at £29.40 a week followed by a general rise to a high of £40.70 a week in FYE 2018, though levels are broadly unchanged from the previous year.
For the lower-level spending categories, spending on clothing and footwear showed a general rise between FYE 2002 to 2010, since then it has remained fairly stable. However, in the period FYE 2017 to FYE 2018, spending in this category fell by £1.60 to £24.30 a week in FYE 2018.
Spending in the communication category has shown a general increase over time. In the year FYE 2017 to FYE 2018, there was an increase of £0.50.
Spending on alcoholic drinks and tobacco has shown a general downward trend over time, though remaining stable over the last three years.
The above analysis, from the ONS analysis of family spending from 2002-2018, does not suggest that the major category retail businesses should be performing far from the general trends in household expenditure, which have shown an element of real growth in recent years. Add to this the growth in the number of households (the above analysis is per household) and the overall growth in spend on goods is even larger. (In 2017 there were 19.0 million families in the UK, a 15% increase from 16.6 million in 1996).
However, given the obvious challenges we are seeing on the High Street, the overall spend numbers must be hiding some more destructive trends for retailers. The money is there, but some of it is clearly being diverted to different places :
- Top of the list will be the shift to online shopping. Online shopping is generally bad for existing retailers given the costs of delivery and returns frequently outstripping the benefit of the additional sales. (Recent moves by ASOS to curb excessive returns are only the start of a rebalancing that is long-overdue). Online shopping is also bad for existing retailers because of the unfair tax and rates advantages enjoyed by ‘stateless’ yet strangely morally superior international online-only retailers. Click and collect options make much more sense for those retailers that have embraced them such as Next and John Lewis, and much more sense for consumers who are not wasting their budget on delivery charges.
- The overall household expenditure data hides differences between generations. It is likely that younger families will spend more on communications such as telephony and data, and are more likely to stream
music, films and other content. These services are not cheap and place pressure on disposable income for shopping. This will particularly impact on fashion retailing.
- The rise of the hard discounters in both food and fashion has contributed to reducing margins. Families may well be getting more food and clothes for their money, but retailers get less margin. It was hard to find a dress for less than £20 ten years ago, but today ‘fast fashion’ is churning them out by the millions.
At the highest level of resolution, retail is holding its share of consumer spending, but in reality, a growing proportion of that spend is not funding quality goods but:
- A sea of white vans tearing around the country delivering individual packages to individual homes
- International businesses with unfair tax and rates advantages
- Questionable employment practices in fast fashion factories and distribution warehouses that treat humans as robots.
Progress, or an industry in desperate need of sensible government intervention to reduce inefficient and polluting distribution, enforce employment practices and rebalance the tax and business rates playing field?
Maureen Hinton, GlobalData:
UK retail is a prime example of the shift to experience
There has been much talk about how the shift from spending on product to experiences is a major factor behind the difficulties retailers face in mature economies. The UK is a mature economy that has one of the most advanced and mature retail sectors globally. It is also one that other countries look at to understand future retail direction. And it is a great example of how indeed changing consumer behaviour is influencing retail – not just the shift to online, but the shift to experiences.
Leisure/experience on an upward trend for a decade
Taking trends in the UK over the past decade (2008 – 2018) the charts below show clearly the shift in consumer spending from retail to experience.
The bars shows how much more we spent in each sector in 2018 compared with 2008. And it is not that 2018 was a boom year, the spending in all the leisure/experience sectors has been on a consistently upward trend over the decade. The result is that we are spending £150bn more on leisure now than a decade ago – and only £50bn more in retail – 77% of which is going on food, which is a necessity.
Non-food, discretionary spending losing out
It is non-food that is bearing the brunt of this shift in spending. It is markedly underperforming with just 7% growth over the decade, and in terms of spending per head we are spending less (-1%). While low inflation is a factor here, much of that has been led by retailers forced into price discounting to encourage us to spend.
Instead we are spending more on eating out, travel, entertainment and leisure. Furthermore life is changing – a decade ago we were not paying subscriptions to Amazon Prime Video and Netflix which currently which have around 20 million paying subscribers in the UK. And despite the shift to streaming we are spending more in cinemas too – up over £0.4bn on cinema tickets in a decade.
So retailers have good reason to invest in ways to add entertainment and experience to their propositions and to exploit trends such as travel retail and duty free, just as WH Smith has done at one end of the market and luxury retailers at the other.
Martin Newman, The Customer Experience Champion
The premise used to be that buying stuff made us happier. Arguably today that mantra has changed to ‘experiencing things’ makes us happier. Let’s look at millennials as they are the largest spending cohort and the biggest indicator of how things are changing.
They are growing up in a world where the largest retail store doesn’t own most of its inventory (Amazon), where the biggest taxi firm doesn’t own any of its own cars (Uber) and the largest site for booking accommodation doesn’t own any of its own hotels or apartments (Airbnb).
Therefore, should we be surprised that millennials view towards owning things is changing? Why have the stress associated with owning your own home or car when you can book a car and a driver anytime you need one and why buy a house when you don’t know how long you’re going to be in the job or in the same area? Also, increasingly you can work from anywhere.
Previous generations considered success to revolve around prosperity and stability. Given that more than 50% of millennials would take a pay cut to work for a company that matches their values, this is no longer the case.
Success in a millennial’s mind is not about how much money you make more it’s about how much freedom you have and the experiences you can share. And is part of our quest for ‘likes’ on Facebook, Instagram and other social media platforms.
Previous generations didn’t have the opportunity or ability to travel as much as us or to start a new business the way we do today, therefore they invested in homes, cars and other things that were a reflection of the times we lived in where you were encouraged to buy a house early, take on a mortgage and stay in the same job for twenty years.
According to a McKinsey study, consumer expenditure on experience related services such as attending spectator events, visiting leisure establishments, eating out and traveling have grown more than 4 times faster than expenditures on goods.
According to Statista, the market value of the outdoor recreation market grew by 14% from 2016 to 2017 to £22.8bn. in 2017, we saw the lowest growth in retail spending since 2013.
We’re also moving into a time where sustainability is gaining heightened awareness on a daily basis. This in turn will lead to less of a desire to continue to buy stuff and look more to the sharing economy.
Finally, as we continue to become increasingly health-conscious, we will also move more towards enjoying experiences, particularly where they have a health benefit. The market value of consumer health will grow by 9% in 2019 to £5.37bn and will grow a further 9% in 2020 (Statista).
Buying stuff is not a thing of the past, but the categories that will do really well in retail include those that contribute to experiences such as Sports and outdoor, health and wellness and grocery.
Mike Watkins, Head of Retailer and Business Insight – Nielsen UK:
There is an array of economic and social factors that can be interpreted to explain why consumer spend is changing in the UK. However when looking at the `state of the nation` for retail, there are three overwhelming and structural trends which are changing the business models of retailers today, and will do so for the next 5 years.
Firstly the continued economic pressure on consumer spend means households have to make savings in retail to maintain overall standards of living. The Nielsen Changing Consumer Prosperity report (2019) reveals that one in five consumers believe they are in an inferior financial position compared with 5 year years ago; 39% indicate that the amount they spend on groceries has increased (due to inflation). A third have spent more on utilities and a quarter choose to increase spend on technology and communications. Consumers’ sentiment toward their financial situations has fundamentally changed and the impact is less spend on retail as a share of household disposable income.
Secondly, this is amplified by the channel shift to online and value retailing, which started in nonfood (general merchandise and clothing in particular) and is now the key trend in food retail. The impact is lower volumes for stores and falling sales for mass market retailers. Profits will continue to fall for retailers in the declining middle market.
Thirdly there is a move towards Premiumisation where consumer spend is increasingly delivered as a service or engaging customer experience rather than a product. The key to unlocking this potential (i.e. incremental spend) lies in assessing more accurately, consumers’ changing spending capability and when they are willing to pay a premium for a certain service or product. The result is that new, digital retailers are quickly gaining resonance; direct to consumer businesses can now by-pass retailers and platform operators are creating new markets that cut across retail, hospitality, leisure and financial services. The traditional retail pie is going to shrink further as Amazon or Alibaba style ecosystems (with subscription services the modern interpretation of gaining the lifetime value and total consumer spend of shoppers) become a dominant business model.
So traditional retail compared to other sectors of consumer spend, faces more headwinds. Sentiment is intrinsically rooted in changing economic circumstances but spend is now driven by a desire for more consumer experiences. Shoppers are proactively, due to changing priorities and aspirations or, or reactively, due to factors such as inflation, adapting their overall wallet allocation for discretionary spend (which much of retail is …).Which means less spent on goods or services that have low involvement or minimal investment.
The true state of spend in retail is no longer assessed on `location, location location` but on location, leisure and lifestyle. Retailers need to adapt in order to remain relevant when a shoppers` mind-set and intent matters more than physical presence, the comfort zone of many traditional retail brands.
Nick Bubb, Retail Consultant:
Department stores in particular have rushed on to the “experiences retailing” bandwagon, in the belief that consumers want more than just the usual products and services, but there is little evidence of these moves having any real impact.
House of Fraser picked the head of Goodwood two years ago to be their new CEO, hoping that he could transform the struggling chain into a “lifestyle-led experience”. But his fundamental lack of retailing experience proved to be a fatal handicap and he couldn’t reverse House of Fraser’s death spiral. Similarly, Debenhams made much of the new customer experiences in their new-look Watford store last autumn, but all this was much too little and much too late to offset the massive structural challenges to the business and six months later Debenhams was effectively bust. Their peer John Lewis operates on a longer-term timescale, but it is not clear that the much-vaunted customer experiences in stores like Oxford and Westfield White City have yet had much impact on the much reduced bottom-line of the John Lewis business, given the constant short-term discounting pressure from their department store rivals.
Department stores certainly have the space to offer new services to consumers, as well as attractive cafes and restaurants, but given their high fixed operating costs they are particularly vulnerable to the shift in consumer shopping behaviour and the growth in Online retailing.
But recent events have reminded us that consumers are still driven by basic wants and needs when it comes to spending their hard-earned money. At Easter the unusually hot and sunny weather drove many shoppers away from the sweltering High Street towards the beaches and parks and gardens, after a quick stop in the supermarket to pick up their barbecue and picnic fare.
And it was interesting to see in the controversial decision of the CMA (the Competition and Markets Authority) to block the planned Sainsbury/Asda merger that a particular concern was that a combined Sainsbury/Asda might be able to push up the price of petrol at their filling stations.
Whether the CMA was right or wrong to be concerned about Sainsbury’s potential petrol prices, the fact is that the cost of a tank of petrol is a material item for many consumers and that the family car is an important alternative area of “big ticket” spending.
Ironically, Asda themselves have done much to spell out the pressures on the average household budget, via the monthly Income Tracker survey that they have published since 2008. And their latest survey shows that although average household income is £800 a week, after essential spending (on items such as groceries, electricity, gas, transport costs, mortgage interest payments and rent) and taxes, the average household only has £211 a week to spend on discretionary goods and services (even if that was 5.6% higher than a year ago).
Reading the Asda Income Tracker is a salutary reminder that the average household does not have that much spare money to spend on “experiences” and that it is wise not to take too much of a middle class or London-centric perspective on these matters.
And although High Street shops clearly have to compete with other areas of spending, like eating out, the monthly Coffer Peach Tracker of pub and restaurant sales shows that this sector is not exactly booming either, notwithstanding continued new restaurant openings.
James Sawley, Head of Retail & Leisure, HSBC:
The country is in a rather unique state, macro economically speaking the data says we’re benign from a consumer perspective; wage growth, low interest rates, record employment etc. As Head of Retail and Leisure I have the privilege of speaking to customers across the spectrum of businesses vying for share of consumers wallets. It’s a fact, people are still spending discretionary income, which according to the ASDA income tracker has been in growth mode for the past 12 months. However, it’s no secret that the way this money is being spent has changed, with people electing to spend more on experiences (travelling, going out, socialising etc.) and more frequently of late opting to forego material objects or ‘stuff’, which is supported by data from Visa. The Visa figures show a continuing downward trend to negative territory for Clothing & Apparel, with only Leisure pursuits (Restaurants, pubs, hotel & travel) being in positive growth mode over the past year. Convenience is another well-known aspect effecting how consumer spending has changed in recent times. The phrase “time poor” has been brandished about more and more, and with improvements in logistics/fulfilment leading people to purchase more goods online to be delivered or picked up at the customers convenience. Subscription models such as the one Amazon uses, appear to be a popular mechanism to purchase non-descript monthly essentials, again saving the shopper time each month. All of these new channels and ways of shopping are ultimately freeing up time for people to enjoy themselves – which has led to a brand new leisure category being born which appears to be garnering more of peoples wallet, “Competitive Socialising”. Whether this is a fad or here to stay we’ll have to wait and see, but personally I’m supportive, anything that gets people out and about and spending time (and money) together can’t be a bad thing. The casual dining and the squeezed middle operators are and will continue to struggle, it’s no surprise with far too many operators vying for this same discretionary income. Pubs have arguably been through this period, with well invested, stronger operators emerging which can be seen through the Coffer Peach index. So where does this leave the true level of spend in retail versus leisure, in my opinion, less is being spent in retail but I expect this to plateau over the next 12-18 months and pick back up again as the wider economy and political backdrop stabilises. Once normalised growth returns (pending any global recession) we’ll see the freeing up of some of this pent up consumer spend, and consumers will no longer need to choose between the 2 categories – having their cake and eating it.
Jonathan De Mello, Head of Retail Consultancy – Harper Dennis Hobbs:
According to sources such as the ONS, retail spend in general has not grown significantly over the past 10 years – though this masks seismic change in the WAY we spend, with online retail growing at a phenomenal rate; at the expense of physical retail. This has led to the loss of many physical retailers on the high street, and some retail sectors have been hit harder than others – principally commodity items such as books, music, DVD’s and video games.
Physical retailers for the most part have now embraced online retailing, with many offering transactional websites, and we are starting to see signs now that things have come full circle, with online pure plays increasingly taking stores on the high street. Many people forget that the likes of White Company and Oak Furniture Land started out as online pure plays, for example.
Given the rise of online retailing, the high street is markedly different from what it was 10 years ago, with shoppers increasingly demanding experiences as part of their shopping trip – as a point of difference against online shopping. Not only has this exacerbated the decline of certain centres, which have lost out through retail business failures – or lack of retailer demand – it has also led to an increase in the presence of ‘experience’ stores, where the store is seen as an additional marketing channel. Clearly the number of locations that have the footfall to interest such operators is limited, and this has led to extreme polarisation in the high street.
Rather than look purely at spend, it is important to also examine the change in retail supply over the past 10 years. The graph below illustrates how the mix of occupiers in many centres has changed.
To a degree, this increase in supply has catalysed spend in these areas (ie: ‘if you build it they will come’) – such as in the case of restaurants and cafes – which have seen circa 12% growth in presence by floorspace. Other categories that have increased are vacant space – up by 22%, and health and beauty occupiers – up 20%. Vacant space is no surprise given the large volume of business failures we have seen over the past 10 years, and health and beauty operators have increased in presence as department stores have started to decline; seeking more control over how their brand is portrayed, particularly in light of considerable department store promotional activity.
Though recent CVA’s in the Leisure sector have hit the headlines recently, Leisure is a major force on our high streets now, and the nature of Leisure has changed – with the rise of ‘competitive socialising,’ high end food markets, and other trends. In a recent assessment HDH undertook of shopping centres that opened pre 2013 vs shopping centres that opened post 2013, we found that Leisure as a percentage of total space in new malls has risen from 15% of space to 24%. Of the most recent retail developments we have seen – which originally were planned as pure retail centres – all have come down considerably in terms of the size of the retail component. Many are now ‘mixed use’ schemes – with a mix of retail, offices and residential, and the retail is designed to typically service the convenience needs of local residents. Leisure is a huge component of this, with some recent schemes up at 50%+ leisure – when F&B, competitive socialising, gym and cinema elements are combined.
In-store also – and especially in the new breed of ‘experience’ store discussed earlier, the nature of the offer has changed, with Nike offering running clubs, Lululemon offering yoga classes, Jo Malone offering ‘Pamper Parties’ and Gymbox featuring live DJ’s. Retailers are increasingly selling a lifestyle that you can buy into, and extending brand equity into related areas to engender customer loyalty – in an increasingly competitive world – makes eminent sense. Stores can deliver this experience in a way online cannot, and the better retailers are leveraging this successfully.
Members of the RTT are:
- Nick Bubb – Retail Consultant
- Tim Denison – Ipsos Retail Performance
- Jonathan De Mello – Harper Dennis Hobbs
- Martin Hayward – Hayward Strategy and Futures
- Maureen Hinton – GlobalData Plc
- James Knightley – ING
- Paul Martin – KPMG
- Martin Newman – The Customer Experience Champion
- James Sawley – HSBC
- Mike Watkins – Nielsen UK
The intellectual property within the RTT is jointly owned by KPMG (www.kpmg.co.uk) and Ipsos Retail Performance.
First mentions of the Retail Think Tank should be as follows: the KPMG/Ipsos Retail Think Tank. The abbreviations Retail Think Tank and RTT are acceptable thereafter.
The RTT was founded by KPMG and Ipsos Retail Performance (formerly Synovate) in February 2006. It now meets quarterly to provide authoritative ‘thought leadership’ on matters affecting the retail industry. All outputs are consensual and arrived at by simple majority vote and moderated discussion. Quotes are individually credited. The Retail Think Tank has been created because it is widely accepted that there are so many mixed messages from different data sources that it is difficult to establish with any certainty the true health and status of the sector. The aim of the RTT is to provide the authoritative, credible and most trusted window on what is really happening in retail and to develop thought leadership on the key areas influencing the future of retailing in the UK. Its executive members have been rigorously selected from non-aligned disciplines to highlight issues, propose solutions, learn from the past, signpost the road ahead and put retail into its rightful context within the British social/economic matrix.
For media enquiries please contact:
Simon Wilson, KPMG Corporate Communications
Tel: 0207 311 6651
Max Bevis, Tank PR
Tel: +44 (0)1159 589 840


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Plus, more details on how big the Metroid demo will be.
There you go. Nintendo of America has included a logo for Metroid Prime Hunters: First Hunt right on the Nintendo DS's box, but the company is saying that later shipments of the system may have a cleaner look...
In addition to the built-in instant-messaging PictoChat feature, Nintendo DS units in North America will come with a free Nintendo DS Game Card featuring a playable demo of the upcoming Metroid Prime Hunters game*. The demo, called Metroid Prime Hunters: First Hunt, will feature several single-player modes of the first-person adventure game along with a unique multiplayer mode in which four DS users can compete wirelessly. Nintendo DS launches Nov. 21 in North America at an MSRP of $149.99.
(* while supplies last)
This statement confirms that PictoChat will be hardwired into the system and will not require a Game Card, but First Hunt will. It also clears up the question of whether First Hunt will include any single-player features, which was not clear after last week's announcements. And if you want the Metroid demo, you'd better pick up a DS this year, because it looks like it won't be offered forever.

domain: news


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Sep 18, 2019—
France- and U.S.-based RFID solutions provider Retail Reload has partnered with label technology company Mainetti to offer retailers an omnichannel solution that it says is intended to take radio frequency identification beyond inventory management. The company serves a worldwide audience and has had an office in Los Angeles to serve the North American market for approximately 18 months.
The solution, using Retail Reload’s cloud-based software and Mainetti’s customized price labels with RFID and QR codes, provides marketing and sourcing data based on RFID tag reads in stores, while also tracking inventory levels. Several brands are already using Retail Reload’s technology to enable full omnichannel mode sales, the company reports. Several retail companies are presently in discussions with Retail Reload about deploying the technology with Mainetti labels, to better understand how their customers (shoppers) are interacting with their products in stores, says Yves Curtat, Retail Reload’s CEO and founder.


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Buck Throckmorton has rapidly become the go-to guy for EV news, debunkings, and unpleasant realities, and there’s a very good reason for that. To wit:
Welcome to 2024! Since New Year’s Day one year ago, the “electric vehicle transition” has gone from being a foregone conclusion to being a rolling failure. Auto manufacturers who bought into the hype are looking at a catastrophic financial miscalculation, and typical car drivers have gone from being curious (at best) to being generally negative about purchasing EVs. I believe that the conservative media’s pushback against EVs has had a considerable impact.
In other words, 2023 was a very good year – a year in which we turned opinion against electric vehicles. The people who want a boutique, status-symbol EV can continue to buy Teslas. (But can we please kill off the taxpayer subsidies for Tesla?) For all the rest, let 2024 be the year when legacy automakers throw in the towel on the eco-communist EV experiment.
For today, let’s do our periodic update on the EV Follies…
“Ford cutting 2024 F-150 Lightning production plans by half, suppliers told; The news comes amid an industrywide pullback in EV investment due to slower-than-expected sales growth.” [Automotive News – 12/11/2023]
Ford Motor Co. is dialing back planned output of the electric F-150 Lightning pickup by half next year because of “changing market demand,” a steep pullback of a high-profile nameplate the automaker spent most of this year working to build in larger numbers.
Although I’ve enjoyed writing about how emphatically consumers have rejected Ford’s flagship EV, in fairness I should point out that the Ford F150 Conflagration Lightning is a spectacularly awful vehicle. Aside from its tendency to burst into flames, it performs poorly at towing, hauling for distance, and operating in the cold – the basic functionalities that are expected of a pickup truck.
The buried lede in this story isn’t that Ford is cutting weekly production of its electric pickup from 3,200 units per week to 1,600 units per week, rather it’s that Ford’s executives still think there is a market that will absorb 1,600 of these abominations per week.
It’s not just Ford that can’t sell its EVs. Half of Buick dealers would rather surrender their franchises than have to sell General Motors’ atrocious EV offerings.
“GM buys out nearly half of its Buick dealers across the country, who opt to not sell EVs” [Detroit Free Press – 12/20/2023]
GM’s awful executives, with little understanding of automobiles or their customers’ preferences, think they can simply dictate what consumers should buy. GM dealers, who actually understand automobiles and what their customers want, know better.
General Motors said nearly half its Buick dealers took buyouts this year rather than invest in selling and servicing electric vehicles as the automaker’s brands transition to all electric by 2030.
That means GM will end 2023 with about 1,000 Buick stores nationwide, down 47% from where it started the year.
General Motors is rolling out an electric version of its popular Chevrolet Blazer sport utility. Well, it’s trying to, but not very successfully.
“2024 Chevy Blazer EV sales are already halted over software issues” [Elektrek – 12/26/2023]
Dozens of potential customers will have to keep waiting.
Ah well, I guess it’s nice to know it will impinge on mere dozens of the poor, pitiful fools; could be worse, could be hundreds. Nice also to see a few major manufacturers finally pushing back against being force-fed this fascistic, auto industry-killing program of FederalGovCo’s devising, instead of just lying back and taking it without demur as they have been up till now. Lots, lots more disincentives to buy into the goobermint’s credulity-straining propaganda push for these abominable, exorbitantly overpriced boat-anchors over at the Ace Place.


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Donut Man, a Route 66 fixture in Glendora, California, opens a second location today in the Grand Central Market in downtown Los Angeles after being delayed for months by the coronavirus pandemic. Eater Los Angeles reports the market sits between Hill Street and Broadway (aka Route 66) in downtown L.A. The second Donut Man location, … Continue reading Donut Man opens satellite location in downtown Los Angeles today
The Donut Man shop -- famous for its strawberry doughnuts when the fruit is in season -- in Glendora, California, will open a second location for the first time in its nearly 50-year history, also on Route 66 in downtown Los Angeles. Donut Man has operated at 915 E. Route 66 in Glendora since 1972. … Continue reading Donut Man in Glendora opening second location on Route 66 in downtown L.A.
Easterseals of Southern California has purchased the closed Golden Spur restaurant in Glendora, California, and pledged to repurpose its vintage neon sign. As reported in October, the Golden Spur at 1223 E. Route 66 in Glendora closed after 100 years there, leaving the fate of the restaurant's neon sign in doubt. According to the Inland … Continue reading Easterseals buys Golden Spur property, to reuse neon sign
The Golden Spur restaurant, famous for its old-style neon sign, along Route 66 in Glendora, California, closed suddenly this month. The restaurant at 1223 E. Route 66 posted this message on its Facebook page on Oct. 12: Thank you for the memories! After 100 years of serving Glendora the Golden Spur will be closing its … Continue reading Golden Spur in Glendora closes abruptly
NBC News this week posted a terrific article about The Donut Man, which is marking 45 years this year on Route 66 in Glendora, California. Here's the video about the shop and its owner, Jim Nakano: The written part of the story contains a lot of interesting nuggets, too: The shop's strawberry doughnut started when … Continue reading Inside The Donut Man shop in Glendora


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– 10 Reasons Why We Don’t Need GM Foods (Waking Times, Sep 12, 2012):
Genetically modified (GM) foods are often promoted as a way to feed the world. But this is little short of a confidence trick. Far from needing more GM foods, there are urgent reasons why we need to ban them altogether.
1. GM foods won’t solve the food crisis
A 2008 World Bank report concluded that increased biofuel production is the major cause of the increase in food prices. Biofuels are crops grown for fuel rather than food. GM giant Monsanto has been at the heart of the lobbying for biofuels — while profiting enormously from the resulting food crisis and using it as a PR opportunity to promote GM foods!
“The climate crisis was used to boost biofuels, helping to create the food crisis; and now the food crisis is being used to revive the fortunes of the GM industry.” — Daniel Howden, Africa correspondent, The Independent (UK)
“The cynic in me thinks that they’re just using the current food crisis and the fuel crisis as a springboard to push GM crops back on to the public agenda. I understand why they’re doing it, but the danger is that if they’re making these claims about GM crops solving the problem of drought or feeding the world, that’s bullshit.” – Prof Denis Murphy, head of biotechnology, University of Glamorgan, Wales
2. GM crops do not increase yield potential
Despite the promises, GM has not increased the yield potential of any commercialised crops. In fact, studies show that the most widely grown GM crop, GM soya, has suffered reduced yields.
A report that analyzed nearly two decades worth of peer reviewed research on the yield of the primary GM food/feed crops, soybeans and corn (maize), reveals that despite 20 years of research and 13 years of commercialization, genetic engineering has failed to significantly increase US crop yields. The author, former US EPA and US FDA biotech specialist Dr Gurian-Sherman, concludes that when it comes to yield, “Traditional breeding outperforms genetic engineering hands down.”
“Let’s be clear. As of this year , there are no commercialized GM crops that inherently increase yield. Similarly, there are no GM crops on the market that were engineered to resist drought, reduce fertilizer pollution or save soil. Not one.” – Dr Doug Gurian-Sherman
3. GM crops increase pesticide use
US government data shows that in the US, GM crops have produced an overall increase, not decrease, in pesticide use compared to conventional crops.
“The promise was that you could use less chemicals and produce a greater yield. But let me tell you none of this is true.” – Bill Christison, President of the US National Family Farm Coalition
4. There are better ways to feed the world
A major UN/World Bank-sponsored report compiled by 400 scientists and endorsed by 58 countries concluded that GM crops have little to offer global agriculture and the challenges of poverty, hunger, and climate change, because better alternatives are available. In particular, the report championed “agroecological” farming as the sustainable way forward for developing countries.
5. Other farm technologies are more successful
Integrated Pest Management and other innovative low-input or organic methods of controlling pests and boosting yields have proven highly effective, particularly in the developing world. Other plant breeding technologies, such as Marker Assisted Selection (non-GM genetic mapping), are widely expected to boost global agricultural productivity more effectively and safely than GM.
“The quiet revolution is happening in gene mapping, helping us understand crops better. That is up and running and could have a far greater impact on agriculture [than GM].” – Prof John Snape, head of the department of crop genetics, John Innes Centre
6. GM foods have not been shown to be safe to eat
Genetic modification is a crude and imprecise way of incorporating foreign genetic material (e.g. from viruses, bacteria) into crops, with unpredictable consequences. The resulting GM foods have undergone little rigorous and no long-term safety testing. However, animal feeding tests have shown that GM foods have toxic effects, including abnormal changes in organs, immune system disturbances, accelerated ageing, and changes in gene expression. Very few studies have been published on the direct effects on humans of eating a GM food. One such study found unexpected effects on gut bacteria, but was never followed up.
It is claimed that Americans have eaten GM foods for years with no ill effects. But these foods are unlabeled in the US and no one has monitored the consequences. With other novel foods like trans fats, it has taken decades to realize that they have caused millions of premature deaths.
“We are confronted with the most powerful technology the world has ever known, and it is being rapidly deployed with almost no thought whatsoever to its consequences.” — Dr Suzanne Wuerthele, US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) toxicologist
7. People don’t want GM foods – so they’re hidden in animal feed
As a spokesperson for Asgrow, a subsidiary of Monsanto, said, “If you put a label on genetically engineered food, you might as well put a skull and crossbones on it.” The GM industry has got around the problem of consumer rejection of GM foods by hiding them in animal feed. Meat, eggs and dairy products from animals raised on the millions of tons of GM feed imported into Europe do not have to be labelled. Some studies show that contrary to GM and food industry claims, animals raised on GM feed ARE different from those raised on non-GM feed. Other studies show that if GM crops are fed to animals, GM material can appear in the resulting products and affect the animals’ health. So eating these “stealth GMOs” may affect the health of consumers.
8. GM crops are a long-term economic disaster for farmers
A 2009 report showed that GM seed prices in America have increased dramatically, compared to non-GM and organic seeds, cutting average farm incomes for US farmers growing GM crops. The report concluded, “At the present time there is a massive disconnect between the sometimes lofty rhetoric from those championing biotechnology as the proven path toward global food security and what is actually happening on farms in the US that have grown dependent on GM seeds and are now dealing with the consequences.”
9. GM and non-GM cannot co-exist
GM contamination of conventional and organic food is increasing. An unapproved GM rice that was grown for only one year in field trials was found to have extensively contaminated the US rice supply and seed stocks. In Canada, the organic oilseed rape industry has been destroyed by contamination from GM rape. In Spain, a study found that GM maize “has caused a drastic reduction in organic cultivations of this grain and is making their coexistence practically impossible”.
The time has come to choose between a GM-based, or a non-GM-based, world food supply.
“If some people are allowed to choose to grow, sell and consume GM foods, soon nobody will be able to choose food, or a biosphere, free of GM. It’s a one way choice, like the introduction of rabbits or cane toads to Australia; once it’s made, it can’t be reversed.” – Roger Levett, specialist in sustainable development
10. We can’t trust GM companies
The big biotech firms pushing their GM foods have a terrible history of toxic contamination and public deception. GM is attractive to them because it gives them patents that allow monopoly control over the world’s food supply. They have taken to harassing and intimidating farmers for the “crime” of saving patented seed or “stealing” patented genes — even if those genes got into the farmer’s fields through accidental contamination by wind or insects.
“Farmers are being sued for having GMOs on their property that they did not buy, do not want, will not use and cannot sell.” – Tom Wiley, North Dakota farmer
More information on GMOs:
GM food alters your DNA, changes your brain waves, destroys your immune system, your organs and makes you infertile.
– Report: Whole Foods Has 20-30% GMOs In Products, Has Sold Unlabeled GMOs For Over A Decade (Video)
– Russian Authorities Suspend Imports Of Monsanto GM Corn
– Meet Monsanto’s Number One Lobbyist: Barack Obama
– Cattle Now Being Fed Cookies and Candies Instead of Real Food
– Monsanto, Pesticide Companies Have Now Spent More Than $19 MILLION To Kill Proposition 37
– France Orders Probe After Rat Study Found Monsanto GM Corn To Cause Cancer (AFP)
– Dennis Kucinich Calls Out Monsanto: Americans Demand GMO Labeling (Video)
– Jeffrey Smith’s Full Presentation On Deadly GMO’s (Video)
– FIRST LONG-TERM GMO STUDY: Monsanto GMO Corn & Roundup Cause Massive Tumors In Lab Animals (Video)
– French Scientists: Monsanto GM Corn Causes Tumors And Severe Liver & Kidney Damage In Rats
– Shocking GMO Study: Rats Fed Lifetime Of GM Corn Grow Horrifying Tumors, 70% Of Females Die Early
– Genetically Modified Food
– GMO Red Alert: Scientists Warn GM Wheat May Cause Liver Failure … Children Born To Parents Who Eat GM Wheat May DIE Before The Age Of Five (Video)
– GMO Alert: Eating GM Wheat May Destroy Your Liver, Warn Scientists
– Former Managing Director Of Monsanto India: ‘Introducing Genetically Modified Seeds Is Murder!’ (Video)
– Monsanto Shells Out $4.2 Million To Sabotage California GMO Labeling Initiative
– Why Is Our Food Being Made And Modified By The World’s Largest Pesticide Manufacturer?
– Study: Roundup Herbicide 450-Fold Diluted Is Still Genotoxic
– New GMO ‘Agent Orange Soy’ Silently Backed By USDA
– Former Monsanto Scientist Exposes The Genetic Engineering Fraud:
I saw what was really the fraud associated with genetic engineering: My impression, and I think most people’s impression with genetically engineered foods and crops and other things is that it’s just like putting one gene in there and that one gene is expressed. If that was the case, well then that’s not so bad. But in reality, the process of genetic engineering changes the cell in such a way that it’s unknown what the effects are going to be.
– Monsanto, U.S. Gov., WTO Attack Europe – Industrial Food Giants Bully European Lawmakers
– ‘Monsanto Protection Act’ To Grant Biotech Industry Total Immunity Over GM Crops?
– Monsanto Rider: New Bill Could Make Biotech Companies Immune To Courts
– US Researchers Create 30 Genetically Modified HUMAN BABIES
– Chinese GMO Cows Churn Out ‘Human Breast Milk’
– Busted: Biotech Leader ‘Syngenta’ Charged Over Covering Up Animal Deaths From GM Corn
– GMO Labeling Victory! Measure Accepted Onto California Ballot … Now The Real Battle Begins
– U2, Bono? Celeb Partners With Monsanto, G8, To Biowreck African Farms With GMOs
– Letter Shows Monsanto Planted GMOs Before USDA Approval (Video)
– Human Genes Engineered Into Experimental GMO Rice Being Grown In Kansas
– GMO Alert: Top 10 Genetically Modified Foods To Avoid Eating
– Monsanto Threatens To Sue The Entire State Of Vermont … If It Requires To Label GMO Food Products!
– Farmers Sue Monsanto And US Tobacco Giants Knowingly Poisoned Argentinean Tobacco Farmers With Pesticides, Causing ‘Devastating Birth Defects’ In Their Children
– Study: EPA-Approved GMO Insecticide Responsible For Killing Off Bees, Contaminating Entire Food Chain
– USDA Green-Lights Field Trials Of Monsanto Drought-Resistant Corn After Admitting It Offers Absolutely No Improvement In Crop Yields
– France Government Asks EU To Suspend GM Crop Authorisation Based On ‘Latest Scientific Studies’ Which Show That GM Crops ‘Pose Significant Risks For The Environment’
– Obama Regime Blocks FOIA Request Attempting To Release Monsanto-Linked Lobbyist Email
– Now Deadly Glyphosate Found In People’s Urine
– New Research: GMO Food Far More Deadly Than We Think
– French Court Finds Monsanto Guilty Of Chemical Poisoning In France
– Genetically Modified Mosquitoes May Soon Be Released In Florida
– Farmer Feeds GMO Corn To His Pigs – All Become Sterile (Video)
– Washington State Senator Maralyn Chase Pushes For GMO Labeling
– The Billion-Dollar Pest: Rootworm Beetle Develops Resistance To Monsanto GM Corn
– America’s Farmlands To Be Carpet-Bombed With Vietnam-Era Agent Orange Chemical If Dow Petition Approved
– The Beautiful Truth (Video – Full Documentary – The Many Reasons For Chronic Diseases And The Cure)
– DHA Used In Organic Infant Formula Products Comes From Genetically Modified Algae
– EU High Court Confirms France’s GM Crop Ban Is Illegal
– Monsanto Partners With USAID To Push GM Corn In Nepal
– Meet The GMO Mighty Mouse
– AND NOW: Genetically Modified Rice Created To Produce Human Blood
– GMO Mosquitos Engineered To Kill – Their Own Children – RELEASED In Brazil, Cayman, Islands And Malaysia
– The Gates Foundation Uses Genetic Modification For Good!
– Monsanto Secretly Poisoning Population With Roundup – Scientist And Friends Attacked For Exposing Roundup Link To Birth Defects
– Infographic: All The Genetically Modified Food You’re Eating – GMO Ingredients Found In 80% Of Packaged Food
– India Files ‘Biopiracy’ Lawsuit Against Monsanto, Says Biotech Giant Is Stealing Nature For Corporate Gain
– GMO Gardasil DNA Contamination: EMA Steps Up To The Plate, FDA Drops The Ball
– Outrage: 100% Human Papillomavirus (HPV) DNA Contamination In GMO Gardasil Vaccine Reported To FDA
– Monsanto Corn Creating New Super Bugs – Corn Crops In Iowa Attacked By Destructive Pests: Researcher
– The Attack Of The Monsanto Superinsects And Superweeds
– Monsanto And The Mortal Danger To Traditional Agriculture
– Monsanto To Sell GM Sweet Corn In The U.S.
– GE Alfalfa Planting Brought To You By Incompetence
– Food, Inc. (Full Documentary)
– Farmer To Farmer: The Truth About GMO Crops (Documentary)
– Coming In 2012: Genetically Modified Front Lawns And The Mass Spraying Of Neighborhoods And Playgrounds With RoundUp
– The Worlds Largest Human Experiment: GMO’s In Europe – Why Europeans (And Everyone Else) Should Be Worried (Part 2)
– The Worlds Largest Human Experiment: GMOs, Roundup And The Monsanto Monstrosity (Part 1)
– Hungary Destroys All GMO Maize Fields (Around 400 Hectares) – GMO Seeds Are Banned In Hungary BUT Controllers Found Pioneer And Monsanto Products
– BASF Considers Genetically Modified Crop Exit in Germany And Possible Move To The US
– Bayer Pays $750 Million To Settle GM Rice Lawsuit
– ROUNDUP: Birth Defects Caused By World’s Top-Selling Weedkiller, Scientists Say
– Australia: Secret GM Wheat Experiment Begins
– Peru Approves 10 Year BAN on GM Crops
– Roundup Birth Defects: Regulators Knew World’s Best-Selling Herbicide Causes Problems, New Report Finds
– Indian Scientists: GMO Gene Severly Damages The Plants, Causing Developmental Defects, Growth Retardation And Sterility
– A Scary Side Effect of Eating GMO Foods
– Study: GMO Bt Toxin Found In Human Blood (= A Threat To Human Health)
– Genetically Modified Cows Produce ‘Human’ Milk
– Farmers and Seed Producers Launch Preemptive Strike against Monsanto
– Next Stop Monsanto Zone: Agribusiness Fascism You Can Take A Bath In!
– MSNBC Poll: 96% Want GMOs Labeled
– Hidden Dangers: Genetically Engineered Foods
– USDA National Organics Program: Testing for GMOs NOT Required!!!
– GMO Nightmare: There Is No Escape From GM Foods
– GMOs: No Seeds, No Independent Research!
– Scientists Warn Of Dangerous New Pathogen From Roundup Ready Treated Monsanto GM Crops Causing Infertility And Spontaneous Abortions
– Roundup, GMOs linked to emergence of deadly new pathogen causing spontaneous abortions among animals
– USDA Deregulates GMO Corn Engineered to Produce Fuel, Not Food, Unleashing Another Mass Contamination of Crops
– Despite a Court Ban USDA Allows Commercial Planting of Monsanto’s Genetically Modified Sugar Beets
– US: Organic Consumers Association Funded by Big Pharma and Rockefeller! Food Freedom Betrayal!
– Change: USDA Recommends ‘Coexistence’ with Monsanto
– Monsanto’s Roundup Triggers Over 40 Plant Diseases and Endangers Human and Animal Health
– Max Keiser: Monsanto And The Seeds Of Evil
– WikiLeaks Cables: US Targets EU Over GM Crops
– Australia: Monsanto GM Strain Blows Organic Status Away
– US Conspired to Retaliate Against European Nations If They Resisted GMOs: Wikileaks Cable Reveals
– USDA GMO Policy
– US House of Representatives Passes Unconstitutional S.510/HR 2751, The Food Safety Modernization Act (TREASON!!!)
– The GMO Orange Scandal
– And Now: GMO Oranges As Solution To Insect-Borne Bacterial Disease
– Judge Orders Destruction Of Monsanto GMO sugarbeets
– Monsanto, Syngenta, BASF And Others Working On GM Wheat
– Scientists working to create genetically modified chocolate – to make you healthy (Sure!)
– MIT Scientists Develop GMO Plant That Produces Pharmaceutical Drugs
– USDA Plans To Allow GM Sugar Beet Planting During Lawsuit
– 10 Freakiest Things About Frankenfish
– GM Flax Contamination Detected in 35 Countries
– Study: GM Corn ‘Has Polluted Rivers Across The United States’
– FDA Refuses to Require Labeling of GM Salmon
– GM Salmon Nears US Approval
– RED ALERT: Dr. Rima E. Laibow On The Food Safety Bill (S 510): This Bill Eliminates All Local Farming, Organic Farmers and Garden Farmers
– US: GM Salmon May Go On Sale
– GMO Sugar Beets – Monsanto Wins Again
– US: Rice Farmer Awarded $500,000 In GM Rice Trial
– Scientist Leading Taxpayer-Funded GM Crop Test Defends Links To US Biotech Giant Monsanto
– US Supreme Court Lifts Ban On Monsanto’s GM Alfalfa
– UK Academics Quit Rigged FSA Frankenfood Propaganda
– Study: Monsanto’s Roundup Kills Human Cells (Flashback)
– GMO Alert: US Attempting Global Censorship of GMO Food Labeling
– California Files Legal Brief Opposing Monsanto in US Supreme Court
– Russian Scientists Prove Genetically Modified Foods are Harmful, Suggest Ban on GM Foods
– Bayer AG admits GMO contamination out of control
– Monsanto: GM-Corn Harvest of 82,000 Hectares in South Africa Fails (!)
– Multiple Ways Monsanto is Putting Normal Seeds Out of Reach
– Monsanto’s Genetically Modified Seed Patents May Trump Antitrust Claims
– Former Managing Director of Monsanto India: Monsanto ‘Faked’ Data for Approvals
– Monsanto GM Corn Causing Organ Failure In Rats: Study (Everything You Need To Know)
– Scientist: Monsanto’s herbicide could cause brain, intestinal and heart defects in foetuses
– Hawaii: GMO taro ban proposal goes to full council
– Monsanto to Charge as Much as 42 % More for New Seeds!
– US Association of Physicians calls for Moratorium on GMO Foods
– Monsanto sues Germany over GM corn ban
– Germany bans Monsanto’s GM maize
– Greenpeace: No need for condoms – GE corn can do the job
– Austrian Government Study Confirms Genetically Modified (GM) Crops Threaten Human Fertility and Health Safety
– BIODIVERSITY: Privatisation Making Seeds Themselves Infertile
– At stake is no less than control of the world’s food supply.
– Exposed: the great GM crops myth:
“Genetic modification actually cuts the productivity of crops, an authoritative new study shows, undermining repeated claims that a switch to the controversial technology is needed to solve the growing world food crisis.”
Highly recommended videos:
– Life running out of control – Genetically Modified Organisms (!)
– The World According to Monsanto – A documentary that Americans won’t ever see. (!)
Obama and Monsanto:
– Obama Gives Key Agriculture Post to Lobbyist of CropLife America Whose Members Include Monsanto, Syngenta, DuPont and Dow Chemical
– Obama Gives ‘Pesticide Lobbyist’ Post as Chief Agricultural Negotiator
– Monsanto lobbyists to be placed in charge of food safety by Obama
– Obama appoints Monsanto shill Tom Vilsack to USDA chief
On CODEX and the agenda of the elite:
– Food Safety Bill Invokes Codex Harmonization And Grants FDA Authority To Police Food Safety Of Foreign Nations
– Dr. Rima E. Laibow: The Globalist Depopulation Agenda
– Dr. Rima E. Laibow on Codex Alimentarius and Food Nazification (!)
– Dr. Rima E. Laibow on the Contamination of the Food Supply & Deadly Antibiotics
– Codex Alimentarius: Population Control Under the Guise of Consumer Protection
– One Nation Under Siege – Full Theatrical Release
– Nutricide – Criminalizing Natural Health, Vitamins, and Herbs


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Summer Lesson: Hikari Miyamoto Seven Days Room has received a new DLC titled, “Extra Scene: Fireworks Show Chapter” in Japan.
The content, which contains a new “Yukata” outfit, two events called “Fireworks Show” and “Playing with Fireworks”. Additional “Lucky Items” can be found to immediately get into the DLC.
Summer Lesson is currently available for the PlayStation VR in Japan, and an Asian release featuring English subtitles is to be released sometime during early 2017.
Check out the latest trailer here:


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According to the Hollywood Reporter, the new mafia drama will star De Niro and fellow Oscar winner Julianne Moore. It will be directed by David O'Russell, whose previous work includes "Silver Lining Playbook" and "American Hustle."
But De Niro's new show won't come cheap for Amazon. It's reportedly paying $160 million for the 16-episode show, while De Niro is getting paid $850,000 per episode.
That would make De Niro one of the highest paid actors on TV, right behind the three lead costars of "The Big Bang Theory," who are each getting paid $1 million a pop, based on Variety's estimates. "Gilmore Girls" Lauren Graham gets $750,000 per show, while Kevin Spacey gets $500,000 for each "House of Cards" episode, Variety says. The highest paid actor among Amazon shows is Jeffrey Tambor from "Transparent" at $275,000 per show.
Amazon has been stepping up its investment in its Prime Video service lately. In a clear sign that it's going after Netflix, Amazon made its video service available to non-Prime members in April, launching a standalone video service that can be purchased month by month. Prior to that, Prime Video was only available through the $99 annual Prime membership, which gives access to two-day free shipping and a bunch of video and music content.
It's also doubling its spend on video content in the second half of this year, compared to last year, CFO Brian Olsavsky said in the most recent earnings call. Amazon last disclosed its investment amount on video content back in 2014, when it spent a total of $1.3 billion.
De Niro is the latest high-profile movie star to make the transition to TV. Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson are part of HBO's "True Detective," while Netflix recently landed Jonah Hill and Emma Stone for its new series "Maniac."
Disclosure: Mathias Döpfner, CEO of Business Insider's parent company, Axel Springer, is a Netflix board member.


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On Monday, 5 July 2010, the winners of the red dot award: product design 2010 will be honoured at a festive ceremony in the Essen Aalto Theater by eminent representatives from design, business, and politics. Following the awards ceremony, the winners will be celebrated until the early morning hours at the legendary Designers’ Night. Design lovers from all over the world have already announced their attendance at this impressive gala.
This year’s competition issued some 830 red dot awards, 45 were furthermore prized with the red dot: best of the best. At the ceremony, these special awards for outstanding design performance will be conferred to each of the recipients on stage.
The event will start at 4 pm in the red dot design museum with a preview of the special exhibition “A Day by Design – winners red dot award: product design 2010”, featuring all award-winning products. The red dot: design team of the year 2010, the Hilti Design Team, will present itself in the special exhibition “Hilti. Designed for Use.”. At 6 pm, the actual ceremony will then begin in Essen’s Aalto Theater. This year as well, the ceremony can boast an impressive cultural program: the star pianist Nikolai Tokarev enchant the listeners with his virtuoso performance. As well, the Aalto Ballett Theater Essen will dance parts of the ballet “La Vie en Rose”.
Following the awards ceremony, the traditional “Winners’ Dinner” by star chef Frank Rosin will allow winners and guests of honour to eat, drink, and socialize in a convivial atmosphere. Starting at 8.30 pm, the red dot design museum will then open its doors for the “Designers’ Night” with DJ Fishi which will include the vernissage of the two special exhibitions and where all winners will be celebrated until the early morning hours.
DORO Design will be there!!!


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A nationwide truckers’ strike that started last week, is badly affecting trade in the country. In its eighth day today, the strike has had far-reaching impact already, and is adversely affecting various sectors of the country’s economy, including agriculture, automotive and white goods industries. The agitation is also restricting the transport of grains and vegetables, raising the prospect of a steep price-rise in their prices going forward.
Now, Reuters says that the shutdown is also wreaking havoc for online retailers by disrupting their delivery schedules. According to the report, companies like Amazon and Snapdeal are having to re-allocate shipments, with the strike starting to affect large parts across western and northern India.
In a press statement, Amazon said that it is working with its sellers and customers to make sure that the disruption stays to a minimum. “The delivery of products in a few cities has been impacted and we are working closely with these customers to get their orders to them quickly”, the report quoted an Amazon spokeswoman as saying.
Meanwhile, Snapdeal is also in the same boat, with the slowdown of long-haul transportation creating a major headache for the company. According to a company spokesperson, “We have partially mitigated delays by re-allocating shipments as per operational capacities of our logistics partners”. He also said that the company had informed buyers and sellers about the delays.
The strike, which started on the 20th of this month, has been organized by the All India Motor Transport Congress (AIMTC), which claims support of 93 lakh truckers most of whom are from the North and the West. The union is lobbying for diesel prices to be reduced by bringing it under the purview of the nationwide Goods and Service Tax (GST).
The government, thus far, has refused to give in to the demands of the organization, and at least publicly, is putting up a brave front, with an unnamed joint secretary with the ministry of road transport and highways reportedly telling Business Today that the government won’t respond to “blackmail”.
According to the bureaucrat, “the government also wants to bring fuel prices under GST but … going on an indefinite strike knowing it will affect supply of essential goods is blackmail. Some of their demands are not even genuine. They cannot be allowed to hold the country to ransom”.


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Sonos is set to release a smaller, more affordable self-contained system to complement the ZonePlayer S5 later this year.
The news comes courtesy of a new FCC filing over in the US, with no official word on the matter as yet from Sonos UK.
The Sonos ZonePlayer S5 has proved popular with critics and consumers alike, although at a shade under £350 it is still outside of many casual users' budgets.
Hence it's no surprise really that Sonos is releasing the (tentatively titled) Play:3 soon, which looks like it should be the ideal system for a kitchen or bedside table.
The new Sonos box will support ethernet alongside wireless pairing to a ZoneBridge, should you have one of those in the lounge already.
We will of course bring you official word on release plans and pricing from Sonos as soon as we have them.
For now, feast your eyes on the FCC test configuration photo that you can see top right just here, which gives you a good idea of the size of the new Sonos kit.


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We are now an official TEDxGöteborg partner
We proudly announcing Global Business Gate as an official TEDxGöteborg partner.
Global Business Gate have chosen to become a partner with TEDxGöteborg, known for their fostering inspiring ideas, as we see significant benefits in aligning ourselves with them to attract creative and innovative businesses, while building a networking and relationship-building platform. We also see the opportunity to reach potential members and gain valuable ambassadors for Global Business Gate.
– With their bold, community-building vision, emphasizing technology, design, and connectivity, we are thrilled to have Global Business Gate as a partner. Through their support and collaboration, TEDxGöteborg can further discover, coach, and amplify ideas from our next generation of regional thought leaders, says Daniel Machacek, Licensee, TEDxGöteborg.
We really look forward to a rewarding collaboration with TEDxGöteborg.


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On Friday, Apple opened pre-orders for the Apple Watch, its first wholly new product since the iPad was released in April 2010. According to analysts, 1 million pre-orders were placed the first day — a solid number, if less impressive than the 4 million pre-orders placed for Apple's latest iPhone model. Consumers, clearly, are interested in the device.
But what about fashion consumers, and the people who influence them? As the first Apple device to be worn on the body — and the first that would put it in competition, not just with other PC or mobile phone manufactures, but watchmakers ranging from Swatch to Tag Heuer — Apple actively sought to align itself with fashion and luxury tastemakers. The company invited an "unprecedented" number of fashion editors to the announcement event in Cupertino. The device — which comes in three versions, ranging from a $350 "Sport" model to a $17,000 "Edition" in 18-karat gold, all with interchangeable straps — made its first store appearance weeks later not at an Apple location, but at French boutique Colette during Paris Fashion Week alongside vocal Apple enthusiast Karl Lagerfeld and Vogue Editor in Chief Anna Wintour. It made its debut editorial appearance on the cover of Vogue China; in the months since, it's popped up in half a dozen fashion editorials, plus a 12-page ad spread in Vogue. And this time, Style.com was among the outlets that released an early hands-on review of the watch.
These moves were coupled with all of the traditional Apple tactics that whip gadget aficionados into a frenzy: The daily torrent of rumors and reports about who got the contract to manufacture the chip and when the device would be unveiled; the live-streamed announcement event in Cupertino that suspended the web for an hour; the wait between the device's unveiling and when that device went on pre-order, then on sale; and the careful issuing of devices to various gadget reporters, all of whom, in agreement with Apple, simultaneously released their reviews two days before pre-orders went live.
No doubt about it, these tactics have driven a huge amount of awareness among tech and fashion enthusiasts alike. But besides myself, I only know of one other person in the fashion industry — our Editor at Large Lauren Sherman — who is committed to buying one, mostly because we're both curious, and because we're likely to write about it.
That's not to say the product won't be successful, or that Apple's efforts to align itself with fashion weren't smart. No one is betting Apple won't move a lot of units initially — some analysts have forecasted that Apple will sell between 20 and 22 million units in its first year — but whether the watch's appeal will extend beyond existing Apple fans and through multiple iterations depends, ultimately, on how good the product is. (The same can't always be said for pure fashion accessories, where marketing alone can make the difference between a successful $1,000 shoe and an average-selling $100 one.)
"Right out the gate it's going to sell like hotcakes, because it's a new Apple product, and people are practically evangelical in their support of Apple," says Adam Wray, editor of popular industry newsletter FashionRedef. "I don't see that their aggressive fashion-heavy marketing alone is going to encourage the fashion set to buy in right away. Whether is sticks around and penetrates beyond the tech to the fashion world depends on how functional it is, whether it improves people's lives in a measurable way."
Eric Wilson, fashion news director at InStyle, echoes his sentiments. "Positioning it as a fashion item is a clever marketing tool that adds an element of desirability to it… But that's not what's going to cause people to buy it," he says. "It is a really expensive product, in a category that people don't have very much need for. But I think fashion people are very excited about it, and interesting in checking it out and [perhaps] buying one."
No one I interviewed for this story is planning on buying an Apple Watch, though everyone I spoke to has either already tried one out, or plans to. Generally, people just don't know whether the device will be useful. No one was thrilled by its appearance, either, though that wasn't as important of a concern.
Wray, who doesn't wear a watch and has no particular desire to, doesn't find the device appealing from an aesthetic or functional point of view. "I find the whole concept of the smartwatch weirdly conservative," says Wray. "To me, one of the amazing things about smartphones and cell phones is that I don't need to wear a watch anymore." The iPhone, he argues, became popular with the fashion crowd because it's a beautiful, useful product. (That said, it's worth pointing out that it didn't catch on until the third version or so — fashion, for all its obsessiveness with newness, isn't always an early adopter when it comes to tech.) The Apple Watch has yet to prove it's up to the same standard. "If I were to buy a watch, I'd buy a 'fuck you, I'm rich' statement watch," he says, naming Supreme's Rolex Submariner in particular.
Wilson says he had been seduced by Apple's marketing leading into the launch, but after trying one on over the weekend, he decided he didn't want to buy one. While he says he likes the concept of a device that frees people from their phone screens, he was unimpressed by the watch's appearance and did not find it intuitive to use. The watches he tried on felt too heavy or tight — the magnetic strap felt "like wearing a handcuff," and the Sport version looked cheap and out of step with what's happening in the sport market right now, particularly for women. "Personally, I'd rather spend my money on a cool pair of shoes or a suit," he says.
Rachel Arthur, global senior editor of digital at trend forecaster WGSN and a frequent early adopter of wearable tech, says she's planning to wait for a later, more developed version. "Overall, it's just clunky," she says. "If I was really sporty, I might be more inclined. It's certainly the best version of what's out there."
Fashion tastemakers may not be convinced yet, but that doesn't mean they won't be — or that Apple's collaborations with the fashion press and high-end retailers like Dover Street Market and Selfridges, both of which will be carrying the watch, won't help sell devices. For one, it's generated a lot of press. It's also helped position the watch as a fashion and a luxury product — and gotten the attention of traditional luxury watch makers who, by designing smartwatches of their own, have formally acknowledged Apple as a competitor, something that's ultimately beneficial to Apple.
"I thought it was a bit cliché to gather up all the fashion editors and get them into one room," says Arthur. "But in terms of marketing, it did work, if you look at the amount of press coverage it got, that it was on the cover of Vogue, that it's appeared in all these editorials." Wray points out that the editorials have been important part of Apple's strategy to persuade consumers that the watch can work with their outfits.
Apple has done a good job of getting the fashion crowd's attention ahead of the launch of the Apple Watch — certainly more than any other product in the space to date (cases in point: the Samsung smartwatches and Google Glass). Now it has to sell.


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Business News›jubilant foodworks ltd q1 results
JUBILANT FOODWORKS LTD Q1 RESULTS
Turnaround stocks: These 4 multibagger companies returned to profits in Q1; worth a look?
Among index majors, Axis Bank, UPL, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, and Sun Pharmaceutical Industries witnessed a rebound in earnings in the June quarter.
Ahead of Market: 10 things that will decide D-Street action on Thursday
A small positive candle formed on the daily chart with minor upper and lower shadows. Technically, this indicates a side-by-side bull candle type pattern
Restaurant Brands Asia Q1 Results: Burger King's India operator posts wider loss on higher costs
Rising costs have pressured bottom lines at its rivals as well, including KFC franchisees Sapphire Foods India and Devyani International as well as Domino's Pizza operator Jubilant FoodWorks.
Sapphire Foods Q1 Results: Rising costs eat away KFC operator's profit
India is reeling under rising prices of essentials as monsoon rains have disrupted supplies, with companies including Domino's flagship inflation-buster 49-rupee pizza being "re-engineered" by cutting price - and tomatoes - from its earlier cheapest offering of 59 rupees.
Westlife FoodWorld Q1 Results: McDonald's India franchisee misses profit estimates as costs mount
Westlife Foodworld, the operator of McDonald's restaurants in West and South India, reported a smaller-than-expected rise in Q1 net profit due to a 14% increase in expenses, which outstripped the 7% rise in same-store sales. The company's net income rose to INR288.3m ($3.5m) in the quarter ending June
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Jubilant FoodWorks Q1 Results: Profit drops 26% YoY to Rs 75 croreJubilant FoodWorks' Q1 profit after tax (PAT) margin improved by 195 bps sequentially to 5.7% while EBITDA margin came in at 21.1%, higher by 97 bps sequentially. The growth was driven by Domino’s Delivery channel sales which increased by 8.4%. The average daily sales of mature stores, came in at Rs 81,049, up by 2.7% sequentially. The Domino’s LFL (like for like) growth came in at -1.3%.
Q1 results this week: Tata Steel, L&T, Axis Bank, Bajaj Finance, Tech Mahindra, Tata Motors, and othersLarsen & Toubro (L&T), Asian Paints, Tata Motors, Bajaj Auto, SBI Life Insurance Company, Jubilant FoodWorks, KPIT Technologies, Dixon Technologies, Suzlon Energy, among others will report Q1 results on July 25
Adani Enterprises, Jubilant FoodWorks among 9 firms where promoter pledge decline in Q1Pledging of shares is one of the options that the promoters of companies use to secure loans to meet working capital requirements, personal needs and fund other ventures or acquisitions. A promoter shareholding in a company is used as collateral to avail of a loan. Here's a list of 9 firms where promoter pledge declined in Q1 FY24, according to StockEdge data:
Jubilant Pharmova Q1 Results: Net profit dips 87% YoY to Rs 6 croreTotal expenses in the first quarter were at Rs 1,568.9 crore, as compared to Rs 1,393.8 crore in the corresponding period a year ago.
Q1 results this week: HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, HUL, Kotak Bank, Infosys, LTIMindtree and othersPrivate banking giants HDFC Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, YES Bank, and ICICI Bank are scheduled to release their earnings for the first quarter. Other companies such as Infosys, HUL, Ultratech Cement and JSW Steel will also announce their quarterly earnings. TCS, HCL Tech and Wipro have already released their earnings
Online sales likely outpaced offline in food, fashion in Q1: ICICI SecuritiesDespite the continuing slowdown in most consumption categories, online commerce — particularly in the food and fashion segments — is estimated to fare better than offline during the June quarter, says a report by ICICI Securities.
Jubilant Pharmova shares tumble over 11% as Q4 net loss widens sequentially to Rs 98 croreJubilant Pharmova's quarterly net loss widened to INR 98 crore in the March quarter of FY23 from a loss of INR 15.67 crore in the previous quarter. The firm posted a loss compared to a profit of INR 59.55 crore the previous year. The decline in profitability was due to a significant increase in total expenses in the quarter, which reached INR 1,785.57 crore. Despite the net loss, the board of directors declared a dividend of INR 5 per share for the fiscal year FY23. At 10.55 am, the stock was trading 7.4% lower at INR 332.1 on BSE.
Not worried about short term pressures; we expect to bounce back soon: Sameer Khetrapal, Jubilant FoodWorksI genuinely believe there is enough opportunity. I have driven programmes which are multi-year programmes, efficiency programmes. So, I do see that kind of opportunity having spent now more than six months in the company, I am very confident that these initiatives or a culture that I want to build of continuous process improvement, be it starting from discounts to food cost, logistics cost, manpower cost, store operations cost and G&A will carry us through irrespective of how the market pans out.
Jubilant Foodworks shares plunge 5% after Q4 results. Should you buy, sell or hold?Jubilant Foodworks shares recovered after plunging over 5% in Thursday's opening trade. The company reported a lackluster Q4FY23 earnings on Wednesday. The quick service restaurant chain operator reported a 59% year-on-year decline in its standalone net profit at Rs 47.5 crore for the quarter ended March. It was Rs 116 crore in the same quarter last year. The company, which owns the master franchise of Domino's Pizza in India and a few other countries, posted
Jubilant FoodWorks Q4 Results: Profit more than halves to Rs 47 crore; revenue rises 8% YoYThe company, which owns the master franchise of Domino's Pizza in India and a few other countries, posted an 8% jump in revenue from operations to Rs 1,252 crore during the fourth quarter against Rs 1,158 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year.
Q4 results today: What's in store for Jubilant Foodworks & Devyani InternationalJubilant Foodworks is expected to report a more than 50% decline in net profit at INR54.7 crore for Q4 2022, with sales rising by a meagre INR1,175 crore. Reports forecast a 9-10% like-for-like decline across QSR brands, while Kotak Institutional Equities predicts a 12-13% decline in average revenue per store due to store splits and subdued demand. Meanwhile, Devyani International’s net profit is expected to halve to INR37.8 crore in March Q4, with sales rising around 26% to INR746 crore, with KFC expected to report low single-digit sames-store sales growth while Pizza Hut experiences a mid-single digit decline.
Stocks in news: Airtel, Jindal Stainless, Jubilant Foodworks, Devyani, PaytmBharti Airtel reported a 50% YoY rise in the consolidated net profit for the quarter ended March to Rs 3,006 crore. Consolidated revenue grew 14.3% YoY to Rs 36,009 crore
Hot Stocks: Brokerages on Tata Motors, Shriram Finance, Ashok Leyland, NYKAA, and Jubilant FoodWorksMotilal Oswal maintained its buy rating on Tata Motors with a target price of Rs 540. JLR's luxury premium positioning was largely achieved, and the supplies are also improving gradually. The demand environment remains robust.
Off the menu card? QSR stocks down up to 31% from 52-wk highs, should you buy?Despite the sharp correction that stocks have seen recently, most of them are trading way above industry average price-to-earnings multiples. Given the risks to earnings growth, stocks are likely to remain out of favour, feel analysts.
Festive boost for consumer spend fizzles out in Q3 as inflation bitesAsian Paints, a leading paints company, reported no volume growth for the third quarter compared with over 20% growth in the first half of FY23. “The business was impacted due to extended monsoons, price increases and higher base of the previous year,” said Amit Syngle, MD and CEO in the earnings call
Jubilant FoodWorks stock plunges 7% to hit 52-week low. What should investors do?The company's EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) stood at Rs 290 crore, while margins declined 457 basis points to 22%. The performance during the quarter was mainly impacted due to high inflation.
Jubilant FoodWorks Q3 Results: PAT falls 36% YoY, margins shrink on high inflationJubilant has been expanding aggressively over the last few quarters to smaller towns and cities in the country, which further weighed on its profit margins. The company, which also has franchise rights for Popeyes outlets in the subcontinent, opened 64 stores in India during the quarter, entering 16 new cities.
Barbeque-Nation Q2 Results: Net profit jumps 143% to Rs 709 lakhThe growth was supported by improvement in the dine-in business, coupled with the robust performance of both Toscano and BARQ's international businesses, Chief Executive Officer Rahul Agrawal said in a statement.
Jubilant FoodWorks plummets over 6% after Q2 results disappoint D-StreetDuring the quarter, Jubilant opened 76 new Domino’s stores taking the network strength for Domino’s in India to 1,701 stores. It entered 22 new cities during the quarter to expand its reach to 371 cities across India. The company also opened two new stores for Popeyes and one store for Dunkin’.
Hot Stocks: Global brokerages on Cummins India, Paytm, and Jubilant FoodWorks post Q2 resultsThe global investment bank estimates that a 20% probability is being built at the current stock price. “Our FY24-25 EPS is 11-17% below consensus. The stock trades at FY24 EV/EBITDA of 17x,” the note added.
Jubilant FoodWorks Q2 results: Net profit jumps 9.8% to Rs 131.5 croreDuring the quarter, Jubilant opened 76 new Domino’s stores taking the network strength for Domino’s in India to 1,701 stores. It entered 22 new cities during the quarter to expand its reach to 371 cities across India. The company also opened two new stores for Popeyes and one store for Dunkin’.
Jubilant FoodWorks Q1 Results: Profit rises 63% to Rs 112.58 crore"The increase in revenue was driven by like-for-like growth of 28.3 per cent. Dine-in and takeaway channels combined witnessed strong sequential growth, while momentum continued in the delivery channel," said JFL in its earnings statement.Load More
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