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Toyota is reportedly preparing the latest product of the sport utility vehicle (SUV) 2020 Toyota RAV4. This SUV will use some components of Toyota's racing division (TRD) so it looks sportier than the standard version.
The presence of the RAV4 Hybrid in NYIAS is the world's debut. Taking place in Crystal Palace, Mirai, and Toyota also presents hydrogen fuel technology that is still limited to the concept. Cars with hydrogen technology are enough to refuel five minutes from empty to full. The General Manager of Toyota America Bill Fay hinted that 2020 RAV4 TRD was inspired from the rally car. This car is expected to enter the production line and become a mass product.
2020 Toyota RAV4 Details Specs
There is no official information about the 2020 Toyota RAV4 TRD specification. But blowing news that Toyota pinned a new suspension, all-terrain tire model, additional frame (roll cage), and reduced weight reached 226 kilograms. For the driving heart, the Toyota RAV4 TRD uses a 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine and a six-speed automatic transmission system that has got new settings. So that power can reach 176 hp at 6,000 rpm and torque of 172 pound-feet at 4,100 rpm.
Toyota also presents the Teen Drive 365 simulator using Oculus Rift technology at the Toyota RAV4 2020 version. It became the first simulator to use virtual technology approaching reality to educate the public about the dangers that can be found on the road.
2020 Toyota RAV4 Market
To Bloomberg, Toyota's marketing executive of the United States, Bob Carter, said in the next five years, demand for compact SUVs is likely to exceed that for mid-size sedans. This SUV mainstay is primarily in RAV4 2020. At least, currently RAV4 sales have exceeded the Honda CR-V. Carter says by 2020, many young families prefer 2020 Toyota RAV4 rather than sedans.
"There's a really dramatic shift in consumer vehicle preference," he said. "Compact SUVs have the comfort of a sedan, are economical in fuel, have similar facilities and prices."2020 Toyota RAV4 is expected to sell 300,000 units in 2020 and Camry sedan reach 425,000 units. However, since last November, the compact SUV has increased its market share up to 30%.
Toyota Company since the middle of this year has opened a new generation Toyota RAV4 crossover booking. Ordering is done spot order or special order, as well as to explore the market. The exploration of public interest in Toyota 4X4 crossover is considered important because the car includes products for the niche market. "The price of 2020 Toyota RAV4 is well enough expensive, if not wrong.


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About 100 South Florida companies have advanced to the online voting round of a Walmart competition where up to five winners will get a chance to sell their products through the nation's largest retailer.
Thousands entered the national competition, which Walmart said will help businesses get noticed and exposed to millions of customers.
More than 50 companies from Broward and Palm Beach counties combined will be featured in the online voting round. Among them are apparel, cooking and fine arts companies.
Fort Lauderdale residents Bob Collins and his wife, Kim, hope The Joey Sweater, a garment that folds into a pouch attached to the inside seam, will get a huge amount of votes during the first public voting round of Walmart's Get on the Shelf competition.
In this stage of the contest, the online community gets to vote for their favorites among this year's entrants. Voting is now until Sept. 2.
Up to 20 products will advance to the next stage and be featured in an original weekly Web series from September to October, Walmart said. During the Web series, the public gets to vote again and determine a winner per week.
Up to five winning products will be sold on Walmart.com, the company said in a press release. From those winners, one or more may get their products on the shelves of select Walmart stores, depending on the number of online pre-orders from customers, Walmart said.
"Get on the Shelf taps into the spirit of American innovation and gives our customers a voice in selecting the products that will help them live better," Joel Anderson, president and chief executive of Walmart.com, said last month when the competition first launched.
Bob Collins, one of the founders of Joey Fashions, said its sweater is ideal for women who get cold easily, whether at restaurants, the office or elsewhere. The Joey Sweater isn't bulky, he said, and can fit in a purse or the palm of the hand.
"It solves a problem," Collins said. "If you mention it to most women, they get it right away."
Also vying for votes is Coconut Creek-based Advanced Outdoor Concepts Inc. with its small, portable Cobb grills about the size of a large cooking pot.
Without using much fuel, the Cobb grills can boil water and cook anything from whole chickens to steaks to eggs, said Chris Holloway, the company's president and owner.
Cobb grills are now sold online, through catalogs and smaller mom-and-pop retailers. Holloway believes winning the competition will help sell many more grills.
"I think the marketing and branding of a company like Walmart can take us to the next level," Holloway said. "And that's very exciting."
Sandra Canning, also from Coconut Creek, hopes her photography garners enough votes to keep her in the competition. Sandra Canning Fine Art Photography features images captured throughout Florida.
"If I don't get the votes, this will just be a sweet memory," she said.
Check out contestants from South Florida and elsewhere at getontheshelf.walmart.com.
email@example.com, 954-356-4526 or Twitter @MiriamValverde.

domain: news


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ANHC5 coming to Adelaide in October
The bumper ANHC5 program features more than 15 different speakers including international keynotes Mitch Steele (brewmaster and author – USA), Stan Hieronymus, (journalist and author – USA) and Bert Van Hecke (professional brewer – Belgium).
“ANHC is a jam-packed three-day event geared to kick your brewing ass with practical sessions, discussion panels, beer tastings, and networking,” the organisers say.
“Like-minded beer geeks, homebrewers and beer lovers will join a panel of Australian and international brewing experts and beer advocates.”
The conference includes a Coopers Brewery tour, as well as the ANHC Pairing Dinner, on Thursday October 13. The ANHC Gala Dinner and AABC (Australian Amateur Brewing Championship) Awards Presentation will be held on the Friday.


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Its not easy being green, especially when it catches on fire. Yet another resounding failure of the Barack Obama, government owned, green agenda … GM is buying back Chevrolet Volts. What else could we expect from an Obama endorsed product?
General Motors will buy Chevrolet Volts back from any owner who is afraid the electric cars will catch fire, the company’s CEO said Thursday.
In an exclusive interview with The Associated Press, CEO Dan Akerson insisted that the cars are safe, but said the company will purchase the Volts because it wants to keep customers happy. Three fires have broken out in Volts after side-impact crash tests done by the federal government.
Akerson said that if necessary, GM will recall the more than 6,000 Volts now on the road in the U.S. and repair them once the company and federal safety regulators figure out what caused the fires.
If its not bad enough that the Government had to bail out GM, now we are bailing out Volt owners who made the choice to buy these cars.


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Hamilton was a huge success when it transitioned a YouTuber who meticulously recreated Hamilton's first act in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.last year, yet the musical film may not be the most impressive reimagining of the hugely popular play. That accolade may instead go to Guitar_Knight14,
The clip, posted in December and catching fire this week, runs over 70 minutes. It features the music, characters and sets from Hamilton, dramatic camera cuts and all. Guitar_Knight14 is preparing Act 2, which can be seen early if you subscribe to their Patreon.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which centers around the player transforming a barren island into a paradise, features a photo studio for which players are encouraged to create elaborate sets and costumes. The game's developers at Nintendo probably didn't expect the life and times of one of the United States' founding fathers to be cinematically created within that studio, but that creativity is the magic behind Animal Crossing. Since the game's release, players have recreated Pokemon, Pac-Man and more.
It's a beautiful clash of two of 2020's pop-culture smash hits. Hamilton, one of the biggest straight-to-streaming successes yet, and Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which when it launched on Switch right as COVID-19 locked the world indoors.
With over 30 million units sold, New Horizons is the second-best-selling game on Switch. Nintendo still updates the game regularly, most recently letting players customize their characters with Super Mario items.


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U.S. bargain-hunting could be costly without travel insurance
With the rising dollar, some Canadians will be heading south this American Thanksgiving weekend looking for deals as the holiday shopping season begins— but that cross-border trip could end up costing more than planned if medical treatment is needed while away from home.
RBC Insurance is reminding Canadians to think about travel insurance, even for last-minute, short getaways across the border.
“Unfortunately, accidents can happen at any time, so don’t let a shopping trip end up costing you more than you bargained for,” said Stan Seggie, president and CEO of the travel insurance division of RBC Insurance. “For less than $25, you can purchase travel insurance for up to four days, to protect against unexpected emergencies that may happen when you go across the border,” added Seggie.
A national survey conducted by RBC Insurance/Ipsos Reid earlier this year, showed that 37 per cent of Canadian leisure travellers to the U.S. never purchase travel insurance. Unlike longer overseas trips that are usually planned months in advance, short cross-border trips can be more easily organized at the last minute, and with a sense of familiarity about destinations within North America, some travellers don’t think they need insurance.
A medical emergency in the U.S. is extremely expensive, especially when compared to the relatively low cost of travel insurance. For example, an appendectomy without complications costs an average of $20,331 (USD), and a major cardiovascular procedure without complications costs an average of $47,114 (USD), according to the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
Although insurance premiums are based on a variety of factors such as age and health, as well as the length and value of the trip, the emergency medical insurance coverage included in the RBC Insurance Classic Medical plan, for example, typically costs less than $25 for a one to four day trip. Another option, for those who travel several times a year, is multi-trip annual travel insurance that provides coverage for multiple trips within a 12-month period, which typically costs about $50.
This news content was configured by WebWire editorial staff. Linking is permitted.
News Release Distribution and Press Release Distribution Services Provided by WebWire.


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Looking for a location to dispose your electronics and tires? The City of Erie has a destination for you to do that.
You can recycle your items at the City of Erie Municipal Complex at 1926 Holland Street from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, May 1st.
Residents can bring up to six tires to dispose. There is no limit on how much electronics you can dispose.
Mayor Joe Schember says that from 2013 to 2019 the City of Erie recycled over 300 tons of electronics.
“Some of these electronics are very hard to get rid of and it’s very big and takes up a lot of room, so it’s a good opportunity to kind of clear out your house and get it ready for the next stuff that’s gonna be coming in,” said Mayor Joe Schember, D, City of Erie.


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Huawei and fingerprint sensor developer Goodix Technology faced a legal battle with touchscreen technology provider WaveTouch, which alleged patent infringements involving technology incorporated in the Chinese vendor’s smartphones.
Financial Times (FT) reported WaveTouch filed a lawsuit with a German court, accusing the companies of illegally using its system for enhancing the accuracy of smartphone fingerprint sensors.
WaveTouch said its system was replicated by China-based Goodix Technology for a series of mobile chips, which were then used for some Huawei smartphones, including its P40 and the Mate 40 ranges.
Goodix Technology dismissed the allegations and began invalidation proceedings against WaveTouch, FT stated.
The company told the newspaper it respected the protection of IP rights.
Goodix Technology dubs itself as “the largest biometric authentication solution provider for Android devices in the global market”, and its products are also used by many of Huawei’s rivals including Oppo, Vivo, Xiaomi and Samsung.Subscribe to our daily newsletter Back


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Wednesday, July 24, 2013
DriveCam Wins New England Food Distributor
San Diego-based driving safety system developer DriveCam announced a customer win today, saying it has signed City Line Distributors, a independent full service food distributor in New England, as a customer. DriveCam said the company will deploy DriveCam's systems across its entire fleet. Financial details, and size of the win, was not announced. City Line said its pilot program with DriveCam resulted in a "huge reduction" in seatbelt violations, use of handheld devices, and speeding with its drivers. DriveCam's systems are used to improve driver safety and monitor their driving habits.


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CEDAR RAPIDS — Nicknamed the “Mayor of NewBo,” local entrepreneur Steve Shriver and business partners are expanding into Czech Village to launch a specialized outdoor store that taps into outdoor recreation.
SOKO Outfitters, at 41 16th Ave. SW, would sell specialty gear and apparel for hiking, rock climbing, kayaking and camping, and also rent and sell kayaks.
The anchor brand will be Patagonia, and the shop would employ about 20 people, according to Shriver and city documents.
“It will be one of the larger retail businesses to operate in downtown Cedar Rapids,” Shriver said. “Without an outdoor store in Cedar Rapids currently, we think we have a pretty good business plan.”
Dick’s Sporting Goods, 4601 First Ave. SE, operates near Lindale Mall in Cedar Rapids, but SOKO would be more along the lines of a smaller niche operation like Active Endeavors in Iowa City or Fin and Feather, although without the hunting or fishing aspect, Shriver said.
The Cedar Rapids City Council on Tuesday backed a 10-year, 50 percent tax subsidy based on increased property value.
SOKO Outfitters would open Sept. 1, while the kayak sales and rental portion would launch this spring or summer, Shriver said.
ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ADVERTISEMENT
Investors, who also include Graig Cone, Ryan Sundermann, and Steve White, under the name C.W. Sundiver LLC, plan to invest $600,000 to renovate the 6,000-square-foot space, which used to house the Artisan’s Sanctuary. During the incentive period, the company will pay $146,100 in taxes and have $40,000 of that reimbursed.
Each of the owners has a background in outdoor recreation. Shriver, for example, is a rock climber, and Sundermann participates in adventure races.
The building’s interior will be completely gutted, but the brick facade would stay the same.
Plans call for redoing an external mural on the west face of the building, said Caleb Mason, a city economic development analyst. The project qualifies for incentives under the city’s core district reinvestment exemption, he said.
The store concept dovetails with the vision for the area.
The city’s greenway master plan calls for a 40-acre Czech Village Park just behind the shop. Meanwhile, city officials have set aside the bulk of the $200,000 for westside riverfront improvements in the fiscal 2019 budget for a kayak beach. The beach is a top priority of Cedar Rapids Parks Foundation, which is also raising money for the project.
Whether those plans come to fruition, the shop still is well situated with the Cedar River bike trail and Cedar River nearby and plans for hiking trails on Mount Trashmore, Shriver said. The store will not sell bikes, as the market already is well supplied, Shriver said.
“I think Czech Village is the future hot spot of Cedar Rapids,” Shriver said. “I’ve been integral to promoting NewBo. Czech Village is fresh and untapped.”
In other actions, the council:
l Approved a Johnson Avenue NW reconstruction project from First Avenue SW to Midway Drive NW valued at $6 million. The project would also include roundabouts at Jacolyn Drive NW and Wiley Boulevard NW, lane reduction, and water main and sanitary sewer replacement.
l Comments: (319) 339-3177; firstname.lastname@example.org


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Samsung to launch Galaxy M04 smartphone soon in India, to cost less than Rs 10,000
Samsung will soon launch low-cost smartphone Samsung Galaxy M04 in India. The device will cost less than Rs 10,000.
Samsung will soon launch low-cost smartphone Samsung Galaxy M04 in India. Samsung Galaxy M04 will be the successor to Samsung Galaxy M03 and will be priced under Rs 10,000 in India. The smartphone will target the segment of Android smartphone buyers who are willing to buy a low-end smartphone.
If the reports are to be believed, the Samsung Galaxy M04 could be priced around Rs 9000 (ie Rs 8,999). Although there is no confirmation about it yet, the promotional image of the device has revealed so. According to the leaked image, the device will have two rear cameras along with a flash.
The device is expected to offer up to 8GB of RAM on its top variant, including virtual RAM. Color options on the device are expected to include Mint among others. The processor on the smartphone is expected to be MediaTek’s low-end Helio G35 chipset, which will make it a 4G device. Geekbench has indicated that the device will offer a 6.5-inch HD+ display and will support dual SIM. The device is expected to be a rebranded version of the Samsung Galaxy A04e.
According to the Google Play Console listing, the Samsung Galaxy M04 will ship with Android 12 instead of Android 13. The smartphone’s resolution is expected to be 720×1600 while the device’s fingerprint sensor is expected. will be provided on the screen. the right.


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The blockchain is turning shipping documents into smart contracts
International goods flows could soon be transparent for all trading partners at any location and any time: a blockchain platform is set to turn global logistics into a comprehensive Supply Chain 4.0.28 Jan 2018 Tim Stockschläger
The worldwide businesses IBM and Maersk are working together towards establishing end-to-end digitization of global trade . An open platform for all companies will speed up international shipping trade and make its organization more reliable. The joint venture is based on figures from the World Economic Forum, according to which more modern supply chains are making world trade grow by 15%. The blockchain would be ideal for this project because it is able to save information locally, negotiate contracts and make goods transport easy to track. The two main features of the solution are therefore real-time information over the entire supply chain and conversion of shipping papers into smart contracts.
Various trading partners, transport and logistics companies have already indicated their interest in the solution, as have terminal operators and customs and government agencies. At the same time, there is still a significant demand for information on IoT in many companies, as an IDC study on behalf of Interxion has shown. Although 38% of IoT pioneers have their eye on integration of the supply chain, overall just a quarter of all companies already have experience with the Internet of Things. The biggest point of criticism is still the issue of security. At the same time, IDC considers “that the basic principles of blockchain will also be applied to IoT projects”. According to the analysts, blockchain services will form part of 20% of all IoT concepts by as early as 2019.
Interested in news about exhibitors, top offers and trends in the industry?
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On July 18, according to media reports, domestic PCB manufacturers increased their costs due to environmental issues and raw materials such as copper (clad laminates, copper foil), which led to a collective price hike. Since July, including Omron Electronics, Jianye Group and other PCB factories have issued price increase notices; as for the Taiwan factory, according to industry sources, there are still a lot of idle production capacity. It is not easy to follow the price increase at this stage.
First of all, as for the price increase of the raw materials, the copper price is the most concerned, and the rise of the copper price has significantly increased the cost of the copper foil substrate factory and the PCB manufacturer. According to industry statistics, the cost of PCB raw materials accounts for 33%. Among them, the cost of raw materials for copper foil substrates for thick copper accounts for 18%-20%. In addition, copper foil accounts for 30% of the total cost of copper and copper foil substrates.
In addition, in recent years, the awareness of environmental protection in the domestic market has risen, from the Kunshan limit in Jiangsu at the end of 2017, to the limited discharge in Zhuhai and Shanghai, to the strict inspection in Shenzhen, etc., based on the sewage discharge problem of the PCB industry, the PCB factory at this stage, regardless of Taiwanese capital Land, capital, and even foreign capital are all unpopular industries in the mainland. For this reason, in addition to the pressure of rising costs, the PCB industry has to shrink its production capacity and eventually face pressure to leave.
As a result, the PCB industry has increased the pressure on the cost of raw materials, and after the environmental problems caused by the problem of limited production capacity, the intra-indoor PCB companies have begun to inform customers of price increases since July. As for the Taiwanese factory, it is limited by the unsatisfactory demand. So far, the capacity is still limited. In addition, the price increase of the copper foil substrate factory in the second quarter of this year is not obvious. Therefore, the industry believes that it is too difficult to follow the price increase at this stage. high.
According to the news of the price increase, according to the mobile phone report online, the reason for the basic price increase is mainly due to the above two factors. On the one hand, the rise of raw materials, on the other hand, the environmental protection department is very restrictive. However, according to the author from the Shennan circuit, the other party said that there is no price increase, nor has it fallen!
In addition, some people in the industry told the author: “Is it true that the price increase is confirmed? I have not seen the direct documents. The environmental pressure is indeed there. The raw material prices are currently low in the year, but it is estimated that it will rise next. More is the current environmental protection. Under the pressure of raw materials, the industry is upgrading and transforming, eliminating backward production capacity.” Some institutions believe that with the replacement of 5G communication equipment and the localization of materials, the industry will realize the logical transition from cycle to growth. But for small and medium-sized manufacturers, it will undoubtedly cause a big impact, especially some small non-compliant manufacturers, without huge capital upgrades, will face the risk of bankruptcy!
According to the long-term follow-up observation of the mobile phone newspaper online, as early as 2016, the copper price began to rise from March, and the lead is mainly the second largest copper foil substrate manufacturer in China, Jianye Chemical (now renamed as Jianye Group). As of the end of 2016, both the lithium battery copper foil and the standard copper foil have been in a state of pricelessness. In 2017, the price of copper foil / CCL has not been alleviated! Due to the price increase of copper foil / CCL, the price of PCB board manufacturers is also rising! Previously, the mobile phone newspaper online has reported many times, PCB manufacturers Jianye laminate and Jianye Chemical continue to increase prices, prompting revenue and stock prices are also rising!
In 2016, some copper foil companies have long been unable to meet the long-term low-cost shut-off of factories and some copper foils to turn to lithium batteries for electric vehicles. The supply of copper foil for printed circuit boards (PCB) and copper foil substrates (CCL) continues to be in short supply. According to data from the China Chemical and Physical Power Industry Association, the price of raw materials for lithium batteries, including copper foil, electrolytic solvents, and salt-drilling, is very obvious, and the price increase of some products has even reached 50%. The CCL is also affected by the lithium battery and the automotive market, resulting in out-of-stock prices!
On August 21, 2017, the world’s largest CCL supplier Jianye Laminate announced the price increase notice again. From now on, its PCB sheet (CCL) and PP (prepreg) will increase by 10 yuan/sheet and 10% respectively. . This is the third time the company has issued a price increase notice after entering July. The first two were July 7 and 26 respectively, and the price increases were 10 yuan/sheet and 10% respectively.
At that time, Jianye Chemical also said that in the second half of the year, the electronic products market entered the traditional sales season, the demand for copper-clad panels increased significantly, and the supply shortage became more apparent. The Group has once again raised the price of its products. The Group is increasing sales of high value-added copper-clad panels, and new capacity will be gradually released, and operational efficiency is expected to continue to increase. The number of orders for the printed circuit board sector has increased considerably, and the production capacity of high-end circuit boards is in short supply.
On the evening of November 21, 2017, according to the announcement of Shengyi Technology, the company will publicly issue convertible corporate bonds with a total face value of 1.8 billion yuan for a period of six years. Mainly used in the high-heat-conducting and high-density printed circuit board CCL industrialization project (Phase II), the annual output of 17 million square meters of CCL and 22 million m of commercial bonding sheet construction projects, of which the former will invest 10.12 100 million yuan, using 700 million yuan in fundraising, the latter will invest 1 billion yuan, using 900 million yuan in fundraising! In addition, the establishment of a new R&D office building will invest 298 million yuan, and the total investment of the three major projects will reach 2.31 billion yuan!
From an environmental point of view, as early as December 2017, a number of Jiangsu Kunshan industrial enterprises were notified: On December 24, 2017, Kunshan City’s Office of the Leading Group for the Promotion of Special Actions for the Reduction of the Three Governance of the Three Branches issued Document No. 186. (2017), it was decided to implement a comprehensive shutdown of the industrial enterprises of the three sections of Wusongjiang Zhaojing (Shipu) from December 25, 2017 to January 10, 2018. . A total of 270 industrial enterprises will be fully suspended.
Among them, the 270 companies include 3 resistor companies, 1 semiconductor company, and hundreds of PCB circuit board companies. A number of companies confirmed receipt of the suspension notice. Zhou Guohua, deputy director of the Safety Production Supervision and Management and Environmental Protection Bureau of Kunshan High-tech Zone, confirmed the authenticity of the notice, but said that the plant was not completely shut down, but only required to produce wastewater to reduce emissions.
In addition, according to media reports, in the rapid fermentation of the follow-up effect caused by domestic restrictions, the industry recently said that the relevant policies have hit the second-line land-based factories that are not law-abiding. At present, the local atmosphere and the Taoyuan area in Taiwan began to pay attention to environmental protection two years ago. The recycling of waste materials is comparable, and Taiwanese factories are relatively unaffected by the high-standard environmental protection mechanism.
Domestically, this year began to conduct environmental inspections for many electronic manufacturing and chemical materials industries, especially this year, the new environmental protection tax is on the road, although the official is mainly to replace the sewage charges, although the sewage charges may be changed from official fees to environmental taxes. However, the actual operation still needs to pay the waste processor related costs, which is equivalent to adding a green tax. Due to the high production costs and the official rectification of waste water and waste gas manufacturers in the mainland, local industry experts believe that at least one small and medium-sized PCB manufacturers in China will face a collapse in this year.
In addition, according to relevant sources, the PCB industry has been shuffling in the past two years. Undoubtedly, under the supervision of relevant policies, the speed of shuffling will accelerate! It also stressed: “The PCB industry shuffle begins with the fluctuation of raw material prices, followed by the acceleration of the capital market, and the environmental protection department has also slammed it. Multiple factors have prompted the industry to reshuffle and eliminate unqualified small enterprises, making the industry concentrated in these two years. Rapid improvement!”
According to Zhu Rongwei, director of Jinbaize Enterprise Development Department, “the environmental protection tax levy, the rising prices of raw materials and the environmental protection storm, the supply-side reform is still the main theme of the industry, and the industry concentration is further improved. In the fourth quarter of 2017, orders from many large manufacturers were full. In the case of selective chopping, at the same time, a large amount of production capacity is under construction and transferred to the inland and western regions.” It also stressed that from January to October 2017, domestic enterprises completed investment growth of 30.30%, including joint-stock companies. And state-owned enterprises grew rapidly, with growth rates reaching 95.30% and 54.40% respectively.


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In addition to being allegedly caught trying to obtain an American Express Centurion card by illicit means, a netizen now alleges that 19-year-old Huang Chao-kang (黃照岡) was also the mastermind behind an Internet scam two years ago.
Huang, better known by his pseudonym Huang Chi (黃琪), gained notoriety in 2008 after he posed as a tarot card reader and an online consultant psychiatrist. Former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) reportedly visited Huang’s home in September 2008 for a -fortune-telling session.
Police arrested Huang again on May 20 for allegedly posing as Wei Hung-fan (魏宏帆), the second son of Wei Ing-chou (魏應州), chairman of the food and beverage giant Wei Chuan Corp and Ting Hsin International Group, the biggest producer of instant noodles in China, to obtain two American Express Centurion cards.
Centurion cards, also informally known as “black cards,” are charge cards issued by American Express catering to its more affluent and elite customers.
Huang reportedly spent more than NT$6 million (US$200,000). He also allegedly established a luxury goods company from which he earned NT$6.12 million, by using the two credit cards, depositing most of the money into a Mega Bank account.
A woman surnamed Sung (宋) also alleges that Huang scammed her into buying two apartments in Greater Kaohsiung and giving him NT$1.9 million in cash.
Sung claims she believed Huang was credible because he was accompanied by celebrity Amy Ho (何麗玲).
However, Ho said on Aug. 25 that she was also a victim and provided details of Huang’s scamming techniques, including a name card he had given her, as evidence that she was not working with the 19-year-old.
A netizen going by the username m44 noticed that the e-mail on the fake name card Huang was using was the same as that of an Internet con man who scammed NT$800,000 under the guise of buying dog food for stray dogs.
User m44 told reporters that on Aug. 20, 2009, a post was made by a dcdavid in the dog section on the PTT online bulletin board saying he was organizing an event for the Republic of China (ROC) Stray Animals Care and Help Association, with the aim of raising NT$800,000 to buy dog food for stray dogs.
The same e-mail was also found on a similar post found at the Chihuahua Legion site at www.a3m.com.tw with the username phoneofem, which appeared about six hours prior to the posting on PTT.
Though the funds were raised, dcdavid allegedly accused the dog food factory of not delivering the dog food to the kennels despite having paid it.
In a later post, dcdavid said he would refund the money, but required netizens who had donated to provide their personal information prior to the refund.
By November 2008, the matter remained unresolved and dcdavid stopped replying to queries on the matter.
Based on the claim that the e-mail on the name card was identical to that of the Internet scammer, the prosecution said it would investigate further to determine whether Huang was a suspect in the matter.
Translated by Jake Chung, Staff Writer


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The authors of MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries from the BattleTech series reported that the game will be released on PS4 and PS5 as early as September 23. The last project within the franchise on Sony consoles was MechWarrior 2:31st Century Combat, which came out on the first PlayStation in the 1990s. The story of the series is about a future in which pilots operate huge combat vehicles — they are sent on different missions in the universe.
MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries will include the Inner Sphere add-on, while the PS5 version will support DualSense features. Users will be able to try the PVE campaign or play missions in a co-op for up to four people.
In addition, the effects and interface have been improved, balance corrected, and a new intro to campaigns so on. Now MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries is available on Xbox One, Xbox Series and PC More on Gamermania Dontnod moves employees away to Sonic vs.
Dr. Robotnik — in release Sonic Colors trailer: Ultimate Yandex suffered biggest DDoS attack.


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What started out as a quest for a spare part that can morph shapes has taken the military's far-out researchers to a place not even they could have imagined going: the runway.
Meet the Darpa Hoodie, possibly the world's most efficient garment. Manufactured by San Francisco's Betabrand clothing designers, the shiny, oddly-seamed black-and-red hoodie – described by Betabrand as "the love child of Spiderman and a stealth fighter" – began life as an algorithm designed for one of Darpa's freakiest projects: Programmable Matter.
Programmable Matter is a quest to design a Transformer: objects that change their shape in response to an external command. (Betabrand prefers to compare it to the T-1000 from Terminator 2.) The military applications of Programmable Matter are wide-ranging: a universal spare part; an antenna that changes its dimensions in response to the communications system it uses; an army of shapeshifting human replicants. Engineers at Harvard and MIT have gotten as far as creating self-folding origami.
Two former MIT scientists with grant money from Programmable Matter, Jonathan Bachrach and Saul Griffith, now run an engineering and design studio in Frisco called Otherlab. As part of his Programmable Matter work, Bachrach, a spatial-computing guy, wrote algorithms for software that represents 3D shapes as their component flat panels, which can then be reassembled into different configurations. "Brainstorming with Saul, we started thinking about how that might work in the clothing industry," Bachrach says.
As it turns out, pretty easily. Their software took a representation of a man's head, neck and torso; distilled it down to its simplest shapes; and turned those very irregular shapes into panels to sew together. They took a mock-up to Betabrand founder Chris Lindland, a friend of Griffith's, who considered it "an interesting way of creating something that’s commonly made," Lindland says. Moved into production three weeks ago and offered for sale last Tuesday, Lindland says he's already sold between 50 and 60 Darpa Hoodies from a limited run of 100.
The whole thing is made out of a dozen panels of rip-resistant nylon, with a few zippers thrown in mostly for aesthetic purposes. The algorithm-derived panels mean there's no wasted cloth in the garment – the panels sew together in precisely the hoodie's silhouette. Fast Company's Co.Design blog approvingly described the aesthetic of the Darpa Hoodie as "zips and slashes everywhere that look pretty stylish."
A Darpa spokesman said he was unable to comment about the hoodie by press time – we'll update if Darpa has any additional reaction – and Bachrach demurs from saying how much grant money Otherlab has from the military researchers. Bachrach says that Darpa's encouraged the team to use software designed for Programmable Matter in commercial applications: "The idea is this could be useful as making body armor or something else difficult to make that’s custom fit to the human body."
Maybe an interim step is to give the Darpa guys some of their eponymous hoodies for a rainy day. "I haven't given them a Darpa Hoodie," Bachrach confesses, laughing. "I think they’d probably be happy about that."


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- MMIC Health ITDevelopment Consultant III, 2006 - present
- MMIC Technology SolutionsEMR Customer Service Specialist, 2005 - 2006
- Freelance Web Developer/Hosting ServicesWebsite Developer/Designer, 2003 - 2008
- Koronis Parts, Inc.Web Developer/Programmer/Tech Support, 2005 - 2005
- HealthPartners Central Minnesota ClinicsInformation Systems Assistant, 2003 - 2005
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Mayor Jorge O. Elorza today bet Seattle Mayor Ed Murray that the New England Patriots will beat the Seattle Seahawks in Sunday’s NFL Super Bowl XLIX.
“Belichick, Brady, Gronk and this entire Patriots team are playing their best football yet,” Mayor Elorza said. “I bet the Patriots will bring another championship home to New England, and am putting some of Providence’s favorite homegrown brands on the line. Go Pats!”
If the Seahawks win, Mayor Elorza will send between 12.5 and 13.5 pounds of items Providence is known for, including Olneyville New York System hot wiener sauce spice mix, sweet bread from El Quetzal Bakery, Trinity Brew House IPA, and music by Deer Tick and the Low Anthem.
If the Patriots win, Mayor Murray will send a gift basket to Providence City Hall full of items from Seattle that include Northwest alder-smoked salmon from Pure Food Fish Market, whole bean coffees from the original Starbucks at Pike Place Market and a giant bag of Skittles.
Mayor Elorza and Mayor Murray will be speak via phone at 3:30PM EST to finalize the wager.


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Dear John: I just received my Con Edison bill, which for the first time lists and explains all charges. So I found out that Con Edison is charging consumers a sales tax on the “Gross Receipts & other tax surcharges.” So, essentially I’m paying a tax on a tax.
I called the New York State Sales Tax Bureau and was told that there should not be a sales tax on taxes. When I spoke to Con Edison the company said that this was my problem since it’s the state that says they must collect this tax. Who’s at fault here? J.V.
Con Ed says the tax you noticed on your bill is one that the company bears, but it is passed along in rates and therefore included in the cost of service. “Sales tax is applied against our entire charges which includes many taxes and fees,” says Chris Olert of Con Edison.
“New York State does not charge a sales tax on residential utility bills, only NY City does,” says Olert. “The company only collects the sales tax. It does not charge it.”
Olert says the law has been on the books for decades. But the law prohibited the company from separately stating the tax on bills until 2000. “The company also pays a sales tax on the oil and gas that it buys to generate steam and electricity and that is also included in rates,” says the spokesman.
Send your questions to Dear John, The N.Y. Post, 1211 Ave. of the Americas, N.Y., N.Y., 10036, or firstname.lastname@example.org.


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Global leader for South-Asian content, YuppTV powers Aastha Group’s TV Channels (Aastha, Aastha Bhajan, Vedic & Arihant) voyage into the world of OTT. Aastha, the pioneer spiritual and cultural brand will be utilising YuppTV’s white-labelled video platform to be present across the digital world of web, mobile, and connected TVs.
Aastha mobile app was launched by Param Pujya Swami Ramdev Ji Maharaj and Shraddhey Shree Acharya Bal Krishan Ji. On this occasion, Swami Ji stated that it’s the beginning of a new era in the journey of Aastha the leading Indian Channel on spirituality and natural wellness through Yoga and Ayurveda. “Aastha” App would bring people across the world closer to Indian spirituality and meditation. Now, one can watch their favourite programs of previous nine days on “Aastha” Mobile App. anytime anywhere, as per their convenience.
Extending the words of Swami Ramdev Ji, Shraddhey Balkrishan Ji said that the “Aastha” Mobile app would play a huge role in connecting the younger generation across India and the world with the Indian spiritual value-based system and help them enrich their lives spiritually, mentally and physically.
Commenting on the association, Mr Uday Reddy, Founder & CEO of YuppTV said, “We are glad to associate with Aastha channel and expedite its reach across digital channels via our multi-screen white-labelled video platform. While the channel promotes spirituality and culture amongst the youth and elderly alike, our white labelled OTT Platform will ensure the channel’s direct reach and accessibility to the users.”
Elucidating upon the partnership, Pramod Joshi, CEO of Aastha TV added, “The present-day user is equipped with digital mediums, smartphones and tablets and their viewing habits have changed. Hence, it is important for us to be present where our users are and make it convenient for them to watch our content and have a direct connection with them. We thank YuppTV’s white-labelled OTT Platform for helping us successfully navigate through the world of OTT and make Aastha Channels directly accessible to users via iOS and Android mobile apps, websites and connected TVs.”
About YuppTV White Labelled OTT Platform:
Streaming Live and VOD content for over ten years, to audiences across the globe, YuppTV White-Labelled OTT Platform provides robust and scalable Multiscreen Live and VOD Streaming Solutions to Video Broadcasters, creators, aggregators who are looking for their own branded OTT apps and websites.
With more than 2 billion minutes in a month that are currently streamed through the platform, customers have a proven platform to rely on. Through YuppTV White Labelled OTT Platform, customers can have their apps on any internet enabled devices such as Android, iOS, Web, Roku, Samsung Tizen, AppleTV, LG WebOS, Fire TV, Android TV etc.
Some of the modules and features of YuppTV White Labelled OTT Platform include a Robust Video CMS and SMS, Live and Catch-up TV with EPG, Advanced Video Analytics, Billing and Payment Gateway, Dynamic Ad Insertion for Linear Channels, Multi-Bitrate Encoding and Transcoding for both Live and VOD, Web, Mobile and TV Apps etc.
For more details, please visit: https://platform.yupptv.com/


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During Eddy Cue and Jimmy Iovine s interview at Re/code s Code Conference today, Apple s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services revealed that last week the 35 billionth song was sold on Apple s iTunes Store. Back in February last year, Apple reached the milestone of 25 billion song purchases. In addition to crossing the 35 billion mark, Cue also revealed that iTunes now has over 800 million customers and over 40 million iTunes Radio listeners in the US and Australia alone. Also Read - Quick explained: EU’s standard charging port proposal for phones is bad news for iPhonesAlso Read - iPhone 13 series now up for sale in India: Check prices, offers and more
Cue was on stage with Jimmy Iovine, who along with Dr. Dre joins the Cupertino-based company post the acquisition. Earlier today, Apple announced that it had acquired Beats Music and Beats Electronics for $3 billion. Iovine too revealed some stats for Beats Music service. He said that Beats Music now has over 250,000 subscribers who have in total raked up around 5 million downloads. Beats Music app is currently available on iOS, Android and Windows Phone platforms and in an interview Tim Cook revealed that post the acquisition, it will continue to be available on Google and Microsoft s platforms.
Image Credit: Re/code


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(Yicai Global) May 11 -- Lotte Group plans to sell more than 50 discount stores in Shanghai and neighboring Jiangsu province as the struggling South Korean retailer heads for the exit after 11 years as sales collapsed amid a year-long diplomatic spat between Beijing and Seoul.
The divestment is expected to raise between KRW280 billion (USD263 million) and KRW290 billion and will leave the Seoul-based company with just 14 Lotte Mart supermarkets in central and northeast China, South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported. The veteran retailer, which had 112 stores in China, decided in September to pull the plug on operations in the country.
Beijing's dissatisfaction with Lotte's decision to provide land in South Korea's southeastern rural county of Seongju for the deployment of a US Army anti-missile system has cost the company CNY7.1 billion (USD1.1 billion). Sales at its remaining Lotte Mart stores in China have plunged by more than 80 percent, the report said.
The company entered the Chinese market in 2007 and quickly expanded the number of its outlets until getting caught up in last year's political pinch.
Last month, it sold 22 stores in Beijing to rival Wumei Holdings Inc., which runs one of the country's largest retail chains called Wumart, for KRW248.5 billion. Lotte is in negotiations with a number of retailers to conclude sales of the remaining stores in the first half of this year, the report added.
Moreover, Lotte's operating profit from duty-free outlets fell to KRW2.5 billion last year from KRW330 billion in 2016 in reaction to the same incident. China banned package tours to South Korea in March last year, causing Chinese visitor numbers to the country to slump 60 percent between March and October last year. That cost the country some USD6.8 billion, according to South Korea's National Assembly Budget Office.
Editors: Emmi Laine, Mevlut Katik


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The proposed acquisition of Johnson Products Co. by a diversified Miami-based company brought wails from some of Chicago's black leaders.
One termed the takeover of the Chicago-based, black-owned hair products company by a non-minority company "tragic." Another called it "disheartening" and predicted that many blacks would protest by switching their personal-grooming business to other black-owned companies offering similar products.
C'mon, fellas. If this is tragic, let us hope for more such tragedy. Would that African-Americans had more occasions to gnash teeth over deals like this, which will increase the company's value severalfold and offers the promise of substantial growth in sales and jobs.
A sense of loss in the community is understandable. George E. Johnson and his wife, Joan, founded the company in 1954. In the 1960s and 1970s it grew into one of the nation's largest and most successful black-owned businesses with its Ultra Sheen, Classy Curl and other popular brand names. It became a training ground and springboard for black entrepreneurs and other black companies.
But the company struggled in the '80s as it faced more competition and a fight among members of the controlling family. The Johnsons divorced in 1989, and Mrs. Johnson took over. She put her son, Eric, in charge and he turned the company around, but he left abruptly in early 1992 when he disagreed with his mother over the future control of the enterprise.
She agreed this week to sell the company to Ivax Corp., a maker of pharmaceuticals, specialty chemicals, medical products and cosmetics for black consumers. The stock transaction is valued at about $67 million. In 1989, when she became chairman, the company's market value was about $11 million.
After the acquisition, Mrs. Johnson, 64, plans to stay on to run the company as an Ivax subsidiary. Ivax hopes to expand and blend its cosmetics business with Johnson Products', eventually doubling output at the company's South Side plant and also doubling the company's sales to $100 million a year.
Some wonder how long Mrs. Johnson, who owns 54 percent of the company's shares, will stay after pocketing at least $33 million on the deal. Once she retires, some question how long Ivax will be committed to an African-American management and focus for the unit.
Dr. Phillip Frost, Ivax's chairman, is sensitive to such concerns and the implications of buying a leading symbol of black enterprise. "We'll continue everything they're doing and raise the level of commitment to the black community," he told one reporter.
A rich, honored part of Chicago's black business community is changing hands, not going out of business. Instead of bemoaning that, community leaders ought to see hope in a diversified company that can offer jobs and opportunity for African-Americans.


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Beam Inc., the Deerfield-based makers of such fine spirits as Courvoisier, Jim Beam Rye and Harvey's Bristol Cream has posted its third-quarter financial reports, and it's been a kind quarter: For the first time it's reporting earnings as a standalone liquor company. It split from Fortune Brands Inc. in October, subsequently renaming itself after its flagship brand and getting a snappier ticker symbol: BEAM.
Other encouraging developments this quarter include:
- Net income for Beam was $83.4 million, or $0.53 per diluted share, up 13% from $0.47in the year-ago quarter, benefiting partly from lower year-over-year interest expense.
- Net sales were $707.3 million, up 10%.
- On a comparable basis - excluding excise taxes and adjusting for foreign exchange, acquisitions/divestitures, and the ongoing impact of the new Australia spirits distribution agreement - total net sales would have been up 12%.
- Operating income was $142.4 million, up 4%.
Have a drink, Beam. You've earned it. But, you know, responsibly.
Read the full report here.


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With beer sales falling in the United States in recent years, the major companies in the industry are looking for new ways to increase their sales in the 21st century. And it appears there's one area they're really looking to break into: marijuana.
Business Insider recently ran a story about how the major beer companies in America are looking to expand into the country's legal marijuana market. Beer sales market share fell by one percent from 2016 to 2017, which follows a ten-year trend in which beer lost 10 percent of its market share to wine and hard liquors. Meanwhile, marijuana made $6 billion in the United States in 2016, and is expected to hit $50 billion by 2026. For beer companies, this is bad news. Analysts predict the beer industry will lose more than $2 billion to marijuana sales in the near future.
So instead of trying to compete with the marijuana industry, beer companies are trying to join it. Just last week Constellation Beverages, the company most famous for making Corona, bought a 10 percent stake in a Canadian cannabis company. And earlier this year, Lagunitas (which is owned by Heineken) test-launched a brand of cannabis-infused beers.
Many believe these were just the beginning of a trend where Big Beer gets involved with the marijuana industry. A similar trend occurred last decade with craft beers. As major brands, such as Budweiser and Bud Light, saw their sales drop, craft beer sales increased dramatically. This led to Big Beer invested heavily into that market. In 2009, craft brewers sold under 10 million barrels of beer. That number increased to 25 million barrels by 2015, thanks to investment from Big Beer.
It remains to be seen just how much Big Beer will invest into the marijuana industry in the United States. While several states have legalized it recreationally (including the largest, California), it's still illegal at the federal level and is sure to generate some headaches if they were to get involved.
But then again, if Big Beer decides it wants marijuana legal across the United States, it only takes a few bribes "campaign donations" before suddenly everyone in Congress supports cannabis.
(h/t Business Insider)


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The Honda Jazz is a car that’s rather difficult to get excited by. It has a more mature image than most of its rivals, and generally isn’t something that’s cropped up on our radar. Until now, that is, as there’s a new ‘Dynamic’ version that’s arrive as part of a mid-life update for the range.
Before you get too excited though, we should point out that this isn’t the sort of thing that’s going to give the super-light new Suzuki Swift Sport a run for its money: Honda has fitted a 128bhp, 1.5-litre inline-four… and that’s about it, really.
The suspension remains unchanged, although the outside has been given a makeover. There’s a new front splitter, a triple-strake diffuser, “sporty red accent” lines for the front and rear, LED headlights, front fog lights, side skirts, a cute little boot spoiler and gloss-black 16-inch alloy wheels.
The interior has been spruced up too, with a new pinstripe pattern for the upholstery, a leather-wrapped steering wheel and gearknob, plus a load of orange stitching.
Bearing in mind the kerb weight of the 101bhp, 1.3-litre Jazz and its leisurely 11.2sec 0-62mph time, the Dynamic should dip below the 10 second barrier quite comfortably. So it’s a lukewarm hatch rather than a scorching hot one, but we reckon it might end up being an entertaining little thing.
The Dynamic will be available to order along with the rest of the updated range from November, with first deliveries taking place in early 2018.


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Retailers and their supplier trading partners have been making an ever-increasing effort to collaborate across a wide array of promotional and supply chain initiatives over the past few years, as evidenced by the growing number of trade conferences co-sponsored by the Food Marketing Institute and the Grocery Manufacturers Association.
Further evidence of that collaboration now comes from SN’s latest survey of the technology used by food retailers as 28.9% of respondents said they are sharing data with their suppliers. Moreover, the survey reveals that 40% of larger retailers (with 50 or more stores) are sharing data, while 23.3% of smaller retailers (fewer than 50 stores) are doing so.
This is not the only example in the survey of greater adoption of an application by larger retailers — indeed, with numerous systems, larger retailers are seen to have a leg up on their smaller counterparts, indicating a significant “technological divide” in the food retailing industry.
SN’s online survey, conducted by Penton Research, a sister division of SN, from Feb. 2 through Feb. 21, forms the basis of this 17th annual State of the Industry Report on Supermarket Technology. Eliciting 45 responses from food retail and retail/wholesale companies, the survey asked about a broad spectrum of technology applications that retailers are currently using as well as those they plan to test or launch this year. It also delved into their IT budgets, digital marketing efforts, compliance with the PCI data-security standards, ability to scan the GS1 DataBar, among other IT issues.
This year’s survey drew more responses from smaller retailers. Of the 45 respondents, 30 (two-thirds) represented companies with fewer than 50 stores, and 13 (28.9%) were one-store operators. However, of the 15 respondents from companies with 50 or more stores, 14 reported sales of $1 billion or more; this, plus one smaller company, represents 21% of the 71 companies with stores and more than $1 billion in sales in SN’s list of the Top 75 North American food retailers.
Impact of Economy
The economic downturn of the past few years has impacted not only what individual IT investments retailers have made but their overall spending on technology. In fact, SN’s survey indicates that many retailers are still somewhat conservative with their IT spending, with 42.2% spending the same amount now as they did at the peak of the recession, and less than one-fourth (24.4%) spending more.
Still, 42.2% of respondents said they would increase their IT budgets in 2011 from 1% to 10%.
Among 45 applications/technologies listed in the survey, the most commonly used application cited by respondents is cashier monitoring, which analyzes POS data to pick up signs of illegal or unproductive cashier behavior — perhaps a sign of the difficult economy. More than half (55.6%) of respondents chose cashier monitoring as an application they currently employ.
In addition to cashier monitoring, other traditional applications most commonly used by survey respondents were category management (44.4%), scale management (37.8%), DSD systems (33.3%) and card-based loyalty systems (31.1%). The percentages were higher for the larger retailers — 53.3% for category management and card-based loyalty, and 46.7% for scale management and DSD systems.
Two digital applications — social media and online coupons — found themselves near the top of the list of applications used by respondents, with 44.4% employing social media and 37.8% featuring online coupons on their websites; two-thirds (66.7%) of the larger respondents are offering online coupons.
One of the more notable findings in the survey is that computer-based ordering (CBO) is used by 26.7% of respondents. Widely adopted in Europe, CBO has been largely avoided in the U.S. for decades. U.S. retailers have traditionally relied on handheld-terminal-wielding store employees roaming store aisles to generate product replenishment orders for warehouse-supplied items. With CBO, which sometimes goes by computer-assisted ordering or computer-generated ordering, the computer makes ordering decisions, subject to tweaking by store employees.
Because CBO is an application that requires an investment in demand-forecasting software and a commitment to establishing a perpetual inventory count in stores, many retailers, especially smaller operators, have found it too daunting, especially in demanding economic times.
Last year, however, 27.8% of respondents to SN’s survey said CBO would be a high-priority application and this year’s survey shows that many retailers have adopted the process. Apparently, reports of successful CBO implementations by such operators as Price Chopper and Hannaford Bros. have stoked interest among U.S. food retailers.
Price Chopper Supermarkets, Schenectady, N.Y., has reported reducing out-of-stock levels for warehouse-delivered Center Store and nonfood products to 2%, from as much as 4.5% by using CBO. Moreover, the chain has taken the unusual step of applying CBO to perishables and direct-store-delivery items. Following the implementation of computer-assisted ordering in its stores, Hannaford Bros., Scarborough, Maine, improved its sales in 2007 by more than one percentage point through the reduction of out-of-stocks. At the same time, the chain freed up $3.5 million of capital through lower inventory levels in its stores.
An application related to CBO that is used by just under one-quarter of respondents (24.4%) is fresh-item management (FIM), though the divide between large and small retailers (40% vs. 16.7%) remains wide.
Like CBO, FIM uses automation to order fresh products, but FIM also tracks shrink and plans production of perishable products. Last year Clinton Keay, senior vice president and chief information officer for Sobeys, Stellarton, Nova Scotia, described the chain’s adoption of a FIM system. Keay said the FIM system has enabled Sobeys to achieve a better in-stock position, improve sales and margins, and reduce shrink in its perishables departments.
“We are seeing an increase in inquiries in this area from food retailers,” Mike Griswold, vice president, research, AMR Research, Boston, said last year. “I think the realization that FIM can provide significant shrink and margin improvements is finally sinking in.”
Direct–store delivery has for many years been augmented by technology such as DEX (direct exchange), NEX (network exchange) and, more recently, ASNs (advanced shipping notices). In the SN survey, 33.3% of all respondents are using one of these DSD systems, including 46.7% of larger retailers and 26.7% of smaller retailers.
DSD system adoption appears to have grown since 2005. That year, GMA reported that only 35% of large-format food retailers used some form of an electronic receiving program. Of those, 54% used DEX, whereby the DSD delivery representative connects a handheld device into a docking station at the retailer’s back room to transmit invoice information. Another 6% used NEX, similar to DEX except that the information is sent from a supplier’s headquarters to a retailer’s headquarters and then to stores.
While more retailers are adopting DSD systems, some retailers are dissatisfied with the level of adoption of those systems by DSD suppliers. Susan Moore, director of electronic data for Safeway, Pleasanton, Calif., said last year that she would like to see a serious upgrade in the technology used by some suppliers for the check-in of direct-store-delivery goods at Safeway stores. “If we’ve recognized what technology can do for the front of the store, why is it we still have a pencil and clipboard at the back door?” she said.
Scan-based trading (SBT), whereby retailers pay vendors for goods after they are scanned at the POS, is another ordering system cited by a number of respondents, 22.2% overall, including 53.3% of larger retailers but only 6.7% of smaller operators. SBT has been implemented by such retailers as Safeway, D’Agostino’s Supermarkets, Lund Food Holdings, and Strack and Van Til.
SBT involves sharing POS data with suppliers, which 28.9% of respondents said they are doing as a separate application, including 40% of larger retailers. This is perhaps not so surprising for the larger retailers. In 2009, the Grocery Manufacturers Association published a white paper stating that most U.S. grocery retailers and mass merchandisers with more than $5 billion in annual sales are sharing weekly and even daily store sales and other data directly with their suppliers at no cost. But for 23.3% of smaller retailer respondents to be sharing data with suppliers suggests that the trend is gaining some traction across the industry.
The GMA report identified more than 30 business benefits that can result from exchanging retailer data. Among these benefits, which generally accrue to both retailers and manufacturers, are reduced out-of-stocks and inventory, improved forecast accuracy, lower merchandising costs and increased sales.
Another form of data sharing is synchronization of product data between retailers and manufacturers. One of the biggest industry technology initiatives since 2004 has been data synchronization through the Global Data Synchronization Network (GDSN), which is managed by GS1, Brussels. GDSN has expanded substantially since its inception, but much more among manufacturers than retailers, which is reflected in the SN survey.
Last June, among the 23,574 companies that registered global location numbers (GLNs) in GDSN, just 360 were retailers of any kind. Although major food retailers like Supervalu, Wal-Mart, Wegmans and others leverage the GDSN, there is evidence that a number of food retailers have yet to do so. In the SN survey, just 20.0% of respondents said they use data synchronization — 26.7% of larger retailers and 16.7% of smaller retailers.
In other in-store technology, price optimization has been one of the more frequently adopted applications in recent years, by both small and large retailers. In SN’s survey, about one in four (24.4%) of respondents said they use price optimization.
A trio of price optimization vendors — KSS Retail, Revionics and DemandTec — has been making headway with grocers, even during the recession, with systems that have become more affordable. In many cases, the software is being sold on a software-as-a-service (SaaS) basis.
Over the past several years, some retailers — notably Wal-Mart Stores — have used electronic check conversion at the POS via readers that capture MICR (magnetic ink character recognition) information from a check and transmit it to the Automated Clearing House (ACH) network. Paper checks are returned to the customer at the POS, and the customer must sign a receipt. In 2007, this process was extended to the back office of stores.
Either way, check conversion offers faster clearing, lower return fees and inexpensive ACH transactions (less than 5 cents per transaction). SN’s survey shows some adoption of check conversion at the POS, with 22.2% of respondents using it (33.3% of larger retailers and 16.7% of smaller retailers), but minimal adoption (11.1%) in the back office.
POS systems typically receive considerable attention from retailers. In the survey, 28.9% of respondents said that none of their POS systems would be upgraded or replaced in 2011. But others selected from a list of equipment that would be upgraded or replaced, including software (28.9), scanners (26.7%), terminals (26.7%), payment devices (17.8%) and printers (15.6%).
Popular Digital Apps
Digital applications have come of age in food retailing as hordes of retailers are connecting with shoppers through social media, online coupons and mobile applications, along with much more robust websites. In the survey, social media such as blogs, Facebook and Twitter was tied for the second-most popular application, with 44.4% of respondents using it.
In addition to posting everything from promotions to recipes to employee birthdays on their Facebook and Twitter feeds, retailers are leveraging social media to gain the kind of feedback that the Internet in general is unable to offer. When Supervalu has looked across the Internet — outside of social media — for comments about its retail brands, the company tends to just find talk about price and discounts. “There wasn’t a lot of feedback about whether our brand was doing well or not,” said Shelly Nelson, director of connections strategy and media for Supervalu, during a social media panel discussion at the LEAD Marketing Conference last fall. “But we definitely see that on Facebook.”
Online coupons also scored well in the SN survey, with 37.8% of respondents using them, including 66.7% of the larger retailers and 23.3% of the smaller retailers. More than one-fourth (26.7%) of the smaller retailers said they would test or launch online coupons in 2011. Some retailers offering online coupons, such as Skogen’s Festival Foods, Green Bay, Wis., allow shoppers to print them out at home, while other card-based retailers enable shoppers to download coupons to their loyalty card for electronic redemption at the POS.
Mobile marketing may be the hottest trend in retailing overall, and is increasingly infiltrating food retailing. Only 6.7 of the smaller retailers in the survey use it now, along with 26.7% of the larger retailers, but more than one-fourth (26.7%) of smaller retailers said they would test or launch mobile marketing this year.
Mobile coupon redemption remains a work-in-progress for food retailers. Cashiers need to be equipped with image scanners to scan bar codes directly off a mobile phone; since many stores lack that type of scanner, more time-consuming alternatives are being used.
Food retailers are also using their websites to build brand equity and earn the loyalty of shoppers, particularly through meal planning and list-building features. Meal planning/recipes apply to 46.7% of respondents in the survey, with weekly fliers at 44.4%.
Matter of Compliance
Survey respondents were also asked a series of questions about compliance with industry standards and initiatives. In these areas, smaller retailers sometimes surpassed their larger counterparts.
For example, a large percentage (84.4%) of respondents said they were in compliance with the PCI (payment card industry) data security standard, which is imposed by the card industry on retailers that accept credit and debit cards. That included 93.3% of smaller retailers and 66.7% of larger retailers. While PCI compliance is no guarantee of protection against hackers — as Hannaford Bros. learned in 2008 — retailers have made sure to follow the standard at least to avoid fines for noncompliance.
The Rapid Recall Exchange, a Web-based system created by the Food Marketing Institute and GS1 US, has improved the communication of recall information from manufacturers to retailers; it now includes more than 500 retailer, wholesaler and manufacturer subscribers. In the survey, without naming the Exchange, 64.4% of respondents said they can receive recall information electronically from suppliers, including 70% of smaller retailers and 53.3% of larger retailers.
In another area of food safety, produce trade associations have developed the Produce Traceability Initiative to help suppliers, distributors and retailers trace the source of contaminated food. In the survey, 33.3% of respondents, including 40% of larger retailers and 30% of smaller retailers, said they planned to meet the traceability requirements of the Initiative, which includes the ability to scan produce cases and store the data; another 33.3% of all respondents said it was under consideration.
One of the more pressing technology issues facing retailers this year is the emergence of the GS1 DataBar as the only bar code that will appear on coupons beginning July 1. In January, manufacturers were given the go-ahead to start removing the UPC-A bar code, which has been sharing space with the DataBar over the past two years. The DataBar is designed to encapsulate a great deal more information than the UPC-A code.
If retailers’ POS systems aren’t already prepared to scan and process coupons bearing only the DataBar, they will need to get ready soon or face the prospect of manually redeeming coupons at the checkout. In the SN survey, 62.2% of respondents said they are ready. Of those who said they are not ready, 27.3% said they would be by July 1, the effective deadline.
Coupons are not the only vehicle for the DataBar. A different form of the DataBar is also increasingly present on stickers — which also contain a price look-up number (PLU) — attached to loose produce. But no sunrise date has yet been established for leaving only the DataBar without the PLU on these stickers. Scanning the DataBar on loose produce eliminates the need for cashiers (or shoppers at the self-checkout) to key-enter the PLU number. The accuracy gained helps to reduce the shrink that occurs when organic or exotic produce is not identified correctly.
In the survey, 55.6% of respondents said their company can scan and process the GS1 DataBar for produce, including 56.7% of smaller retailers and 53.3% of larger retailers. Of those unable to do so, 26.7% said they would sometime in 2011.
About the Survey
SN’s 17th annual State of the Industry Report on Supermarket Technology is based on a survey of 45 food retailing companies, including 42 retailers and three wholesale companies with corporate retail stores. The survey was developed by SN editors and conducted by Penton Research, a sister division of SN, from Feb. 2 through Feb. 21.
Of the 45 respondents, 30 (two-thirds) represented companies with fewer than 50 stores, and 15 (one-third) were from companies with 50 or more stores. More than one-third of respondents (37.8%) said their company operates between two and 49 stores, and 28.9% of respondents said they were one-store operators.
One-third (33.4%) of respondents reported that their company’s annual sales were $1 billion or more, including 15.6% with sales of $20 billion or more. In addition, 55.7% of respondents said their company had sales of under $1 billion, with 33.3% reporting sales under $50 million. No sales volume was reported by 8.9% of respondents.
The job titles of respondents included director (20%), president (17.8%), senior vice president or chief information officer (13.3%), chief executive officer (11.1%) and vice president (6.7%).


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Another one of downtown Toronto's Starbucks locations has closed for good
While countless small businesses across Toronto have been permanently shuttering due to the financial ruin the pandemic has meant for them, residents are noticing another concerning pattern: that outposts of major chains are quietly disappearing as well.
In recent days, there's been the closure of the city's flagship Pickle Barrel, a long-standing Swiss Chalet, and multiple Starbucks in quick succession, on top of the many larger retailers that downsized their Canadian footprints earlier in the year.
The latest Toronto location of the ubiquitous Seattle coffee giant to shut its doors is the one at the busy downtown intersection of Queen and Bathurst.
what’s the worst thing to happen to you this week and why was it the starbucks officially closing on queen and bathurst?— the french prince of montreal (@makeeeena) October 28, 2020
The store was one of a handful of Starbucks that ceased operations early on in the pandemic due to lockdown restrictions, and never re-opened, even after it was able to do so.
A notice on the door indicated that the closure was temporary, but now it appears that the location has been completely gutted, with a new sign on its door encouraging customers to instead visit another Starbucks in the area.
According to the new sign, the location officially shut down on Oct. 25, and all interior fixtures and exterior signage have since been completely removed, leaving no evidence that the conglomerate was ever there.
Exactly. I've seen almost this same photo posted from Toronto, Ottawa, and Waterloo over the past week. Starbucks in downtowns across Canada closing up, quickly removing signs overnight.— Joel (@joelcadams) November 3, 2020
The closure likely has something to do with the entrance of a new Sbux location in the Loblaws just a block down at Queen and Portland, but it also comes days after the shutdown of the ones at Laird and Eglinton, King and Dufferin, Bloor and Avenue Road, and Yonge and Rose Hill.
Before this year, closures from the seemingly unshakable brand were few and far between despite the fact that there are hundreds in the city.
Starbucks did reveal in June that it planned to "restructure" and close or
reposition as many as 200 stores nationwide in the wake of the health crisis, prioritizing keeping those with existing drive-thrus or the potential for them.
The brand also stated on Twitter that it culls stores for a variety of reasons, including understaffing or not being able to adjust to the modified operations necessary amid COVID-19.
Still, many feel the fact that such a large company is suffering the economic pressures of the pandemic — and that it has decided not enough people are frequenting usually bustling locations in the downtown core of a major city — is worrying.
The closures are, though, definitely a good excuse for Starbucks fans to become regulars at the city's smaller independent coffee shops, who definitely need the support right now.
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As Liv-Ex releases its Power 100 Index for 2013, Bordeaux shows up other regions despite PR hype.
Liv-Ex has just released the 2013 Power 100, a yearly list of the most powerful brands in the market. What’s interesting about 2013 is that for the first time since the list has been compiled, the top spot was occupied not by a Bordeaux First Growth or Burgundy’s DRC. Instead, top spot in the rankings fell to Bordeaux Right Bank Château Pavie, followed closely by Château Angélus.
The story with Pavie and Angelus (up from 3rdand 23rd last year respectively) is an easy one to understand; with both châteaux upgraded from Premier Cru Classe B to Classe A about 12 months ago. As always with such an upgrade, both wines have seen a rise in price not only for the more recent vintages but for the brand as a whole. The continued success of these brands is also good news for Vin-X clients, many of whom have these two wines in their portfolio.
Another interesting fact about the most recent list is the predominance of Bordeaux in the rankings. As I discussed in a previous blog, much of the publicity and ‘hype’ in the market at the moment is currently focussed around areas traditionally viewed as peripheral to Bordeaux: Burgundy and Tuscany, for example, have had a lot of attention recently. However, every single wine in the top 10 of the Power 100 is from Bordeaux, with the exception of the Australian Penfolds Grange, with Burgundy’s DRC falling to a distant 15th, down from the lofty heights of first place last year. With all 5 First Growths taking their places within the top 20 of the index, this list may suggest that Bordeaux remains the dominant force in the market not only in terms of market share, but brand recognition and value.


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Pre-Open stocks action
U.S. stock futures pointed to a flat-to-weak start Thursday, a session after digesting the Fed's first rate hike in four years and after U.S. weekly jobless claims inched up for the third straight week.
The Nikkei and European markets improved after the Fed hike and a strong showing for the tankan survey of business optimism in Japan. Centrica was a strong mover in London after saying most of a $3.2 billion sale of a unit to private equity groups will be returned to shareholders, while supermarket owner J Sainsbury, whose competitors include Wal-Mart owned Asda, tumbled on a profit warning and the resignation of its chairman.
Smith Barney Citigroup analyst Lanny Baker cut his rating on Internet firm Yahoo YHOO to hold from buy after the stock passed his price target. Baker said the stock is up more than 63 percent since March. "Our valuation discipline suggests a more neutral stance may now be warranted," Baker wrote. On Wednesday, Yahoo shares rose 3 percent, or $1.05, to $36.40.
Merrill Lynch downgraded Emulex
Handset maker Nokia
Breaking news - See market pulse for breaking news
- First-time claims for state unemployment benefits increased for the third straight week, rising 1,000 to 351,000 in the week ending June 26, the Labor Department reported Thursday. The key four-week moving average of new claims increased by 2,500 to 347,000, the highest level in 10 weeks. Economists were expecting the weekly number to fall to 340,000 with the four-week average remaining close to 344,000.
Charles River Laboratories
+0.35%said it would buy drug development services firm Inveresk Research Group IRGI for $1.5 billion in stock and cash. Under terms of the deal, each Inveresk share will be exchanged for 0.48 Charles River shares and $15.15 in cash. Based on Wednesday's closing prices, the deal values Inveresk shares at $38.61 each, or a 25 percent premium. Separately, Charles River raised its earnings and revenue growth forecast for the second quarter, citing a strong market for its drug development services.
- SportsLine.com SPLN said it received $1.50 a share buyout bid from Viacom VIA, which owns a 38 percent stake in the online sports media company, for the shares that Viacom doesn't already own. The bid represents a 39 percent premium over SportsLine.com closing price of $1.08 on Friday. Viacom is a significant shareholder in MarketWatch.com, the publisher of this report.
- Exar EXAR said it is lowering its fiscal first quarter earnings outlook due to lower-than-anticipated revenues. The Fremont, California-based chip maker said it now expects to earn 3 cents a share compared with its prior estimate of 5 to 6 cents a share, on revenue expected to decline 9 percent on a sequential basis.
+0.42%said a Delaware court has indicated it did not materially breach a patent cross-license agreement it had with Qualcomm QCOM, -0.79%. According to the chip maker, the Delaware Court of Chancery said Qualcomm, as a result, is not entitled to terminate Texas Instruments' rights to Qualcomm's CDMA patents under the agreement.
-0.45%reported fourth-quarter net income of $212 million, or 40 cents per share, up from $150 million, or 28 cents per share last year. The Omaha, Neb. food giant was expected to earn 42 cents per share, according to a survey of analysts by Thomson First Call. ConAgra rang up $4 billion in fourth-quarter revenue, up from $3.6 billion. The company is forecasting "solid" earnings per share growth in 2005, with plans for acquisitions and a stock buy back. Shares of ConAgra rose 3 cents to $27.08 on Wednesday.
said its chief executive officer, Robert Miodunski, will leave the company on Sept. 30. The gaming machine maker appointed Richard Haddrill to succeed Miodunski. Haddrill was most recently the CEO of Manhattan Associates, and has been a board member of Alliance Gaming since April 2003. The stock closed Wednesday up 13 cents at $17.16.
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Sq. reported a virtually 60 % rise in third-quarter gross revenue on Thursday, fueled by a soar in Bitcoin transactions on its peer-to-peer fee service Money App.
The funds agency, which is buying purchase now, pay later pioneer Afterpay for $29 billion (roughly Rs. 2,15,282 crore), posted gross revenue of $1.13 billion (roughly Rs. 8,388 crore) within the quarter ended September 30.
Money App generated $1.82 billion (roughly Rs. 13,509 crore) in Bitcoin income, up 11 % from a 12 months earlier.
However San Francisco-based Sq. stated Bitcoin income and gross revenue decreased from the earlier quarter as relative stability within the cryptocurrency’s worth drove down buying and selling exercise. Bitcoin worth in India as of November 5 at 6:02pm IST stood at Rs. 49.22 lakh.
Its gross fee volumes, a measure of the transactions processed on Money App, rose 27 % to $3.7 billion (roughly Rs. 27,464 crore). Whole internet income jumped 27 % to $3.84 billion (roughly Rs. 28,503 crore).
Dorsey has been a particularly vocal supporter of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. A latest Bitcoin rally had reportedly doubled Sq.’ funding of $220 million (roughly Rs. 1,650 crore) to over $470 million (roughly Rs. 3,526 crores) when the world’s oldest cryptocurrency was buying and selling at round $62,000 (roughly Rs 46.52 lakhs).
In keeping with a report in Bitcoin Journal, Sq. holds practically 8,027 Bitcoins, acquired at an combination buy worth of $220 million and a median worth per Bitcoin of $27,407 (Rs. 20.56 lakhs), inclusive of charges and bills.
Sq. first introduced it had bought 4,709 Bitcoins at an combination buy worth of $50 million (roughly Rs. 375 crores) in October 2020. Within the full-year 2020 report, the corporate stated it had bought roughly 3,318 Bitcoins at an combination buy worth of $170 million (roughly Rs. 1,275 crores). Of the opposite firms — MicroStrategy and Tesla — whose Bitcoin investments not too long ago doubled, Sq. has acquired its Bitcoin for the bottom common worth per coin, the report stated.
Cryptocurrency is an unregulated digital forex, not a authorized tender and topic to market dangers. The knowledge offered within the article just isn’t meant to be and doesn’t represent monetary recommendation, buying and selling recommendation or another recommendation or suggestion of any kind supplied or endorsed by NDTV. NDTV shall not be chargeable for any loss arising from any funding primarily based on any perceived suggestion, forecast or another data contained within the article.


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Speaking at the FoodVision conference held in Cannes in France recently, David Croft, Waitrose director of food technology, said it was necessary to adapt to the way commodities were now traded around the world and the complexity of supply chains if fraud was to be detected before it became a crisis.
“As that [complex supply chain] network has become more apparent, have the controls that we use developed alongside it?” Croft asked. With complex supply chains, it was even more important for retailers to work closely with their suppliers to manage risks, said Croft. But he also argued for supply chains to be shortened to reduce the opportunities for fraud.
How responsibility was assigned for policing investigations into fraud, had yet to be decided, he said. In particular, the decision about dividing responsibility and funding of this work between the public sector and the food industry had yet to be fully hammered out, he added.
In Professor Chris Elliott's interim report into the horsemeat scandal, released last December, he argued for a Food Crime Unit (FCU) to be set up within the Food Standards Agency (FSA) to take the lead in such investigations. But the FSA’s board had raised concerns about the FSA’s ability to resource such a policing role.
Elliott, who is the director of the Global Institute for Food Security at Queen’s University, Belfast, is expected to publish his final report in mid-June. Once that happens and the government and FSA give their formal responses, questions about resourcing of the FCU should become clearer.
Pressure and prices
Rising meat prices and the pressure on suppliers to cut costs was another reason fraud had become more prevalent, Croft said: “The drive by every stakeholder to make a reasonable working margin creates pressure on primary producers from retailers and manufacturers to produce things ever more cheaply. Those pressures create an opportunity for people who want to make a fast buck; substituting an expensive ingredient with a cheaper one … what is clear is that price matters.”
He argued that “forensic auditing” should be used far more to identify examples of fraud. “That’s a new set of skills for the food industry,” he said.


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Group makes 3-D backups of world landmarks (Update)
We all know to back up our files and photos, but what about our castles and churches?
Extinct giant camel found far from the desert in Arctic discovery
(Phys.org) —A Canadian research team, helped by scientists at The University of Manchester, has discovered the first evidence of an extinct giant camel in the High Arctic. The three-and-a-half million year ...
Researchers create first-ever interior 3-D map of Leaning Tower of Pisa using breakthrough mobile laser mapping system
Developed by the CSIRO, Australia's national science agency, the Zebedee technology is a handheld 3D mapping system incorporating a laser scanner that sways on a spring to capture millions of detailed measurements ...
SXSW kicks off with vision of a 3D printing revolution
The 27th edition of South by Southwest kicked off Friday with a bold prediction that desktop 3D printing will unleash a new industrial revolution guided by "creative explorers."
3D printing on the micrometer scale
At the Photonics West, the leading international fair for photonics taking place in San Francisco this week, Nanoscribe GmbH, a spin-off of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), presents the world's fastest ...
See your photos in 3D on new website
(PhysOrg.com) -- You could turn your holiday snaps or favourite figurines into three-dimensional images with new free software developed by a researcher from Queensland University of Technology and the Australasian ...
A new dimension for 3-D protein structures
(Phys.org) —3D structures of biological molecules like proteins directly affect the way they behave in our bodies. EPFL scientists have developed a new infrared-UV laser method to more accurately determine ...
Creating 3D models with a simple webcam (w/ Video)
(PhysOrg.com) -- Constructing virtual 3D models usually requires heavy and expensive equipment, or takes lengthy amounts of time. A group of researchers at the University of Cambridge, Qi Pan, Dr Gerhard Reitmayr ...
Tokyo tech fair opens with robotic clapping of hands
From robotic hand-clapping arms to a device that could show tsunami alerts in the sky, Japanese technology researchers showcased their latest inventions in Tokyo Thursday.
A more stealthy robot may be hearing you soon
Seeing sound: Team develops noninvasive method to visualise sound propagation
High-performance loudspeaker manufacturers have been able to improve sound quality dramatically over the years, but still face the issue of dead spots.
3-D digital dinosaur track download: A roadmap for saving at-risk natural history resources
Portable laser scanning technology allows researchers to tote their latest fossil discovery from the field to the lab in the form of lightweight digital data stored on a laptop. But sharing that data as a ...
The future of exploration starts with 3-D printing
(Phys.org) —The latest in cutting-edge manufacturing is already making a significant impact in the future of space exploration.
Studying the female form: Math could lead to sexier lingerie, safer labcoats
Researchers in Japan have turned to mathematics to build a computerized 3D model of the female trunk that could help lingerie and other clothes designers make more sensuous, comfortable, and better fitting product ranges.


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Mondelez International has appointed Martin Renaud as global chief marketing officer. Renaud was previously president, fresh dairy for Europe at Danone. He fills a role left vacant since the departure of Dana Anderson last May. It has also created four new regional chief marketing officer roles, with Debora Koyama becoming regional chief marketing officer for Europe. Koyama joins from AB InBev where she was global marketing vice-president for Stella Artois and craft.
Snap has poached Facebook's Ed Couchman to be its UK general manager. Claire Valoti, who was recently promoted from UK general manager to be vice-president of international sales at the Snapchat owner, previously worked with Couchman at Facebook. Couchman, the director of agency partnerships at Facebook in the UK, has worked at the social media giant for six years. He will start at Snap in June. Facebook is expected to replace Couchman but members of the agency team will cover his duties for an interim period.
Irwin Gotlieb is stepping down from his role as global chairman of Group M and is moving to a senior advisory role with WPP. Kelly Clark, who was named global chief executive of Group M in 2016, will continue to lead the company.
TUI's UK and Ireland marketing and customer experience director Jeremy Ellis will leave the holiday company at the end of May. Ellis has been at TUI, formerly called Thomson Holidays, since joining as a graduate in 1991. He has held a succession of product development, CRM and marketing roles, and was promoted to his current position in September 2015. He will be replaced by Katie McAlister, currently digital director group and northern region, who will join the board as chief marketing officer on 1 June. McAlister has herself spent 19 years at the company, in digital and commercial roles.
MediaLink has recruited Nick Manning to be senior vice-president in London to drive European expansion. He will be a British face for Michael Kassan’s US media consulting business which is looking to expand internationally after being acquired by Ascential, the owner of Cannes Lions, a year ago. Manning was most recently chief strategy officer of Ebiquity, where he led much of the media auditing and benchmarking firm’s work on transparency, and he previously co-founded Manning Gottlieb OMD.
Richard Hill has been appointed chief strategy officer at M&C Saatchi Shop. He joins from Atomic London where he was founding partner and chief strategy officer.
Sara Cremer, chief executive of Redwood, has decided to step down to "explore a portfolio career", according to a statement. She has started as a trustee of the Maudsley Charity and will leave Redwood at the end of April. Cremer has been at Redwood for 10 years. Her successor will be Colin Kennedy, currently chief creative officer and managing director. Prior to joining Redwood, Kennedy has spent two decades as an editor in consumer media.
McCann London has nabbed creative team Drew Singleton and Ben Buswell from Grey London. The pair, who join as senior creatives, created the award-winning "Eyes print campaign for The Times. The agency has also promoted new business director Elizabeth Bernstein to head of new business.
Vice has named two new group creative directors to lead the youth media company's in-house creative team. Donna Lamar joins from Twitter where she served as creative director, Twitter #Studio, and David Lennon joins from Wall Street Journal's custom studios where he served as global creative director.
Starcom has promoted Elliott Millard to managing partner, head of planning, at Starcom UK and appointed Kay Martin as managing partner, clients. In a newly created role, Millard, previously managing partner, clients, will now be responsible for all UK planning. Martin re-joins the Publicis Groupe after five years at Havas, bringing her 13 years’ media experience.
RSA Films, the global production company founded by directors Ridley and Tony Scott, has expanded with a joint venture with Bare Films. The deal means Bare Films has been renamed Darling at RSA and joins the UK commercial production arm of RSA Films. The team will be led by joint managing directors Clare Timms and Kelly Doyle, as well as head of new business and executive producer Kat Downs. Darling’s team will also include directors representative Phoebe Court-Thomas and production managers Carla Terranova and Olivia Marcel.
Passion Animation Studios has signed director Jimmy Kiddell to its roster. Kiddell joins from The Mill and has previously worked on projects for Audi, Johnnie Walker, Range Rover and Netto.
Filmmaker and artist Arthur Jafa has signed with Stink Films for global representation. Jafa is known for his 2016 project "Love is the Message, the Message is Death", a seven-minute video set to Kanye West’s Ultralight Beam and exploring African-American identity, which screened across the world. In 2017 he also conceived, shot and edited the music video for Jay-Z’s 4:44.
The Gate London has appointed former Jaywing’s Epiphany director Kerry Fyans as head of media. Fyans has 17 years’ experience working in media agencies. She spent 10 years in various roles at the Dentsu Aegis Network.
Dessert brand Pots & Co has appointed Charlotte Green as its new marketing director to grow the brand. She has most recently worked for Divine, the fairtrade and farmer-owned chocolate company, as marketing director.
Provision Events, the sponsorship activation specialist, has recruited Matt Lomasney, former head of production at Because Experiential Marketing to head of production. Lomasney had been with Because for five years.
Above and Beyond has promoted brand services director Tom Bedwell to the newly created position of managing director. Bedwell joined the agency in July 2016 from McCann London, where he was managing partner.
Adtech company RhythmOne has appointed Ajay Daved as programmatic director and Jenny Thomson as client service and operations director. Daved was previously head of programmatic at YuMe, acquired by RhythmOne in February. Thomson was previously advertising operations director at Trinity Mirror.
The Advertising Standards Authority has named Zaid Al-Qassab, chief brand and marketing officer, BT Group as its new industry council member. Media consultant Aaqil Ahmed and Planet Communications and Caya director Nita Patelas have been appointed as independent members. All three members will judge both broadcast and non-broadcast ads and will begin their terms in April 2018. The new appointments will be replacing former Procter & Gamble marketer Roisin Donnelly, Sainsbury Family Charitable Trusts director Alan Bookbinder and home tutor Rachel Childs who have come to the end of their terms.
Konica Minolta Marketing Services (KMMS) his hired Catherine McPherson for the newly-created post of head of planning and strategy. McPherson joins from Grey London where she was a strategy director. She will report to Matt Wright, director of agency at Konica Minolta Marketing Services.