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Following a series of financial moves, the contemporary Paris fashion company now has “additional financial flexibility to pursue the execution of its strategy and to seize future growth opportunities in order to consolidate its position as a global leader in accessible luxury,” it said. The restructuring resulted in an extension of the maturity of its debts and reduced average financing costs by around 200 basis points to 2.6 percent.
In a separate, e-mailed statement in response to a question from WWD, the company said it now has a “sustainable” debt structure that will help it manage variations in working capital requirements as well as finance projects such as speeding up expansion in China, pushing deeper into new markets like Japan and even adding “small acquisitions” to “complete” its brand portfolio. The company attributed the statement to Philippe Gautier, SMCP chief financial officer and director of operations.
The French company is controlled by Chinese textile conglomerate Shandong Ruyi Group and was listed on the Paris stock market in 2017, generating funds to fuel the expansion of its fashion labels around the world. Growth has been especially fast in China, where SMCP counts more than 100 stores after opening its first one in Shanghai in 2013.
SMCP’s contemporary labels are also making a push into the U.S. and Mexico and, last fall, Maje opened its fifth Manhattan store in Rockefeller Center.


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Will “Apps For Timeline” Make Facebook The Next Major Apps Ecosystem?
Last night Facebook formally launched the previously announced “Apps for Timeline.” If you’re Zynga CEO Mark Pincus (or one of a handful of other high profile publishers) then you’d probably argue that apps on Facebook have been wildly successful. But for most publishers and developers apps have not done quite as well. However this new […]
Last night Facebook formally launched the previously announced “Apps for Timeline.” If you’re Zynga CEO Mark Pincus (or one of a handful of other high profile publishers) then you’d probably argue that apps on Facebook have been wildly successful. But for most publishers and developers apps have not done quite as well. However this new “distribution mechanism” — the embedding of apps in Facebook Timeline — is almost certain to be much more effective.
A new “app store” to rival Apple, Google?
In fact Facebook could ultimately become another “app store” to rival the major mobile app marketplaces — although that remains to be seen. Others have argued that Facebook was readying a “challenge” for Apple and Google as an apps platform. This is clearly it, albeit in slightly different form than perhaps anticipated.
Apps for Timeline was briefly introduced last night in low-key fashion by Carl Sjogreen, Director of Facebook’s platform initiative. He was previously the founder and CEO of nextstop.com, before it was “acquhired” by Facebook in late 2010. Prior to that Sjogreen, like so many at Facebook these days, was at Google.
Thousands — even “hundreds of thousands” — of apps
At launch, there are 60 developer-publisher partners with apps in what’s effectively the Facebook App Store. Among them are: Yahoo, Foodspotting, Polyvore, Hulu, Gogobot, StubHub, LivingSocial and numerous others. Facebook says that these apps will better enable users to express themselves and “tell their personal stories” on Timeline. And the company envisions a future of many thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of Timeline apps.
In one view of the world, nothing has changed for Facebook except the presentation and placement of apps. However I think it’s justified to call this launch “Facebook Apps 2.0.” It could also become one of the primary answers to the “app discovery problem” now so widely lamented by mobile developers. Indeed exposure on Facebook Timeline will be a form of app “SEO.”
Mobile and monetization
I asked Facebook CTO Brett Taylor whether Apps for Timeline would equally be available in mobile. He said that everything would appear in mobile and suggested it would be as good or better an experience than on the PC. I also asked Taylor about an “app store” or gallery. One could argue that Facebook has already created one. He said that “would probably make sense” at some point.
In terms of monetization — the question every cynical journalist wants to ask — there will be none at this point. There are ads on the right rail of Timeline but nothing within the page. App developers won’t be permitted to show ads but they could potentially do other things of a commercial nature (e.g., take you to a link to buy the same shoes that are displayed in an app and were recently bought by one of your friends). Marketers and developers will no doubt invent creative ways to link apps to Pages and vice versa.
Foodspotting: a test drive
I installed the Foodspotting app into my Facebook Timeline to test drive the process. Unlike in the past, Facebook wisely allows the user to have total control over who sees your activity. You also get relatively fine control over the data the app can access. The image below is a kind of composite of several of the screens when adding an app to Timeline.
I didn’t have the Foodspotting app installed on my iPhone. When I clicked the Foodspotting app icon in the settings area of the Facebook smartphone app (see left screenshot below), it launched the iTunes store and prompted me to download Foodspotting. After I had it on my iPhone, when I clicked the Foodspotting icon it launched the app. This is not going to be typical user behavior but it’s very interesting to observe.
Facebook’s Sjogreen told me last night that the primary way that people will discover Timeline apps will be on their friends’ Timelines. I also gathered that the presentation of apps would vary and be somewhat personalized. If you and I are both looking at the same friend’s Timeline, in other words, Facebook might emphasize some apps for me and different ones for you based on a variety of signals.
App ranking and “SEO” on Timeline
It’s challenging at this point to imagine how this will look precisely but the analogy that came to mind was a personalized SERP. Sjogreen didn’t entirely disagree with that characterization or that there will be an “SEO” dimension to the presentation of apps on Timeline.
I don’t want to overreach and make grandiose predictions about Timeline apps’ impact on the market. I did that with Facebook’s introduction of daily deals, which proved to be completely wrong. Similarly Timeline apps might not turn out to be a major new tool for app discovery. But my guess is that it will have a significant impact and become an important new promotional tool for developers and publishers.
Many nuances and “best practices” will undoubtedly and quickly emerge in the coming weeks after Timeline goes live for everyone.
Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily MarTech. Staff authors are listed here.
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Audi Sponsorship Helps Yanni “Truth of Light” Concert Contribute Nearly RO 35,000 for Charity
Muscat, December 13th, 2011: Audi Oman’ s sponsorship of Yanni’s recent “Truth of Light” concert has helped organisers to contribute nearly RO 35,000 to organisations that help the visually impaired in Oman.
The concert organizers have now announced the details of the organisations to benefit from the event. Included are the purchase of Braille equipment for the Omar bin Khattab School; supporting the Ministry of Health in purchasing eye test machines for Al Nahda Hospital in Muscat and for the Salalah Hospital; the provision of riboflavin drops for 200 poorer children, and the offer of free eye treatment to the visually challenged at the Muscat Eye Laser Centre.
Abdel Karim Awwad, National Marketing & Sales Manager at Audi Oman, said: “We are delighted that our support has helped the concert organisers with their objective of raising both money and awareness about the challenges faced by the visually impaired in Oman.” He added “Audi Oman is fully committed to supporting worthy causes in the Sultanate and we are delighted that our sponsorship has played a part in successfully raising such a large level of charitable contributions.”
Audi was the presenting sponsor for the sellout concert that attracted 5,000 fans to Sultan Qaboos University in Muscat and gave the global superstar an Audi A8 L to drive around Muscat during his visit to the Sultanate.
For further information about Audi in the Sultanate or to book a test drive please call 245 84510, log on to http://www.audi-me.com/oman or visit any Wattayah Motors showroom where a team of fully qualified sales consultants will be able to assist you.


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The Clothing Manufacturers Association of India instituted the APEX AWARDS, the Premier Awards of the Indian Apparel Industry where the outstanding Performers of the Year are recognized and chosen by their own Peers to honour those who turn modest Apparel into a Lifestyle and acknowledges Excellence in Apparel Manufacturing, Marketing and Supply Chain Management; and also recognizes significant Contributions to the Industry from Allied Industries.
From the President's Desk
As I write this piece, we are coincidently in the middle of two historic events in our Industry – one, which took place last week, TEXTILES INDIA 2017, and the other, which is taking place next week, CMAI’s 65TH NATIONAL GARMENT FAIR.
Both are historic in their own ways. .... Read More


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With the popularity of NFTs soaring, new partnerships are formed and the latest is between Luxy and Polygon Studios.
Announcing the new collaboration, the Head of Polygon Studios, Shreyansh Singh said that the platform was excited to have Luxy on board considering that this is the reason for the establishment of Polygon Studios by the Polygon network, its blockchain gaming and NFT platform.
Its long-term strategy is in the growth of this subsidiary. Polygon Studios has been positioned to be a leader in blockchain gaming, NFT as the platform positions transitioning to Web 3.0.
“‘We love the look of LUXY! It is very beautiful, very fun to use and we are really excited about this project”
As Polygon Studios aim to promote NFT gaming through the support and platform that it provides for developers of non-fungible tokens and digital collectibles.
LUXY will work alongside Polygon Studios enabling NFT Creators, Gamers, and Artists an NFT Marketplace that has low fees, is scalable, and is fun! We want to give back to the community that has seen significant rises in gas fees and gas wars, which is leaving smaller projects in the NFT space behind. LUXY is being built for the everyday user, the artists, the out-of-the-box thinkers, and the dreamers.


text: It is being reported that HTC will be implementing a new release strategy for 2012 in which they will slow down the number of releases and focus on putting out higher quality products. They will have a pretty quiet schedule for the first half of the year. They will be releasing their first 4G WindowsPhone featuring a 4.7" display like the Titan and will be on AT&T's LTE network expect an announcement at CES. It will accompany a new Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich device the HTC Elite coming with Beats Audio. That device is rumored to be released on AT&T as the HTC Congressional in early April. The new devices will accompany the previously announced HTC Ville and HTC Edge. So expect a more focused HTC next year with a fewer number of mid-range products.


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The Venezuelan government just announced a new state-run cryptocurrency remittance platform called Patria Remesa, according to an official press release. The platform allows the people of Venezuela who are working abroad to send money back to the country.
The National Superintendent of Cryptoactives, Joselit Ramírez, announced in a radio program broadcast by Radio Nacional de Venezuela (RNV) that the crypto remittance platform is fully operational now. He further ensured the safety of the funds, saying that sending remittances through the government’s oil-backed crypto is safer and inexpensive compared to all other mediums of cross-border payment transfer.
Venezuela has been optimistic about cryptocurrency, seeing crypto trading as a way to accelerate its economy and pulling the country out from the deep economic crisis. According to Ramírez, the Petro will become more competitive internationally.
“The world is evolving, there is a new economic revolution that is coming, it’s advancing in the country and contributing to the world economy,” Ramírez said on the broadcast. “The traditional financial system is no longer enough. That’s why cryptocurrencies arrived to open your eyes to the new economic world.”
Will Crypto Save Venezuela’s Crippled and Sanctioned Economy?
Venezuela has been going through serious economic issues after the U.S. has imposed a strict trade embargo on Maduro’s government, freezing its assets in the US and barring transactions with it. Not only that, but Venezuela’s long-time ally Cuba has also been facing several economic and political hurdles as the U.S. has also tightened the trade policies with it as well. Since then, the governments of both nations have been studying crypto and blockchain and their applications in various domains of development.
The Venezuelan government, led by Nicolas Maduro, has started to implement its cryptocurrency initiative in order to bring its economy back in shape. Previously, Venezuela launched its state-backed cryptocurrency, Petro, and has been promoting it across the nation furiously. Recently, the government has ordered private and public sector banks to open a trade window for the Petro. Under the order, all banks across the nation have to allow consumers to accept the Petro cryptocurrency and conduct overseas transactions in Petro too.
The country is doing everything it can to improve and boost the economy, and now it came to a point that the government is urging Venezuelans working in other countries to begin sending money home through the nation’s controversial cryptocurrency.


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The Chinese company F-Eye UAV Technology together with the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics conducted a series of flight tests of a promising FY-36 drone with a fuel cell running on Methanol. According to the South China Morning Post, during one of the test flights the device spent 12 hours in the air.
Today, several companies around the world are developing unmanned aerial vehicles with fuel cells. The vast majority of these machines use hydrogen fuel cells to generate electricity. At the same time, cells working on methanol, it is easier to recharge by adding alcohol to them.
The weight of the Chinese drone is 15 kilograms. According to the developers, the device is capable of carrying a payload weighing up to 3 kilograms. The FY-36 is made according to an aeroplane scheme with a pushing air propeller in the tail part. The device is also equipped with two beams, which are located on two electric motors with propellers. They are necessary for vertical takeoff and landing.
To date, F-Eye UAV Technology has conducted 15 test flights of the FY-36 drone. The company said that they intend to develop a large version of the device, which could carry a significant payload.
In 2017, the American startup FlightWave Aerospace Systems introduced the Jupiter-H2 drone, designed to deliver mail and purchases. This drone is equipped with a hydrogen fuel cell, due to which it can be in the air for up to two hours.
The device is made according to the quadrocopter scheme and has eight propellers placed in pairs coaxially in the fairings. The width of the Jupiter-H2 frame is 70 centimetres. The drone is capable of transporting goods weighing up to 1.3 kilograms.


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While a variety of railing options are available today, a growing number of homeowners are opting for stainless steel cable railing.
Homeowner demand for personalized outdoor living space continues to be strong. Now is the time for dealers to dial in their stocking strategy for the 2018 deck-building season.
Our best customers come via word of mouth—brothers, sisters, neighbors. We’re building second, and third, homes for some of these people. We keep them happy.
When a company’s been in the lumber business for 130 years, it’s a safe bet they’ve learned a few things along the way.
As we scout for those up-and-comers to run our businesses in the future, we’re fortunate that there is a wellspring of promising individuals—in the cooperative education pool.
The specially formulated, high performance fiber cement siding has a natural wood look and is easy to maintain and can stand up to weather conditions in all climates.
Selling is tough enough without working against ourselves.
Western Forest Products, Vancouver, B.C., has agreed to buy Hampton Lumber’s lumber processing and distribution center in Arlington, Wa., for about $9 million.
Robust homebuilding and remodeling activity continues, supporting high levels of lumber shipments at mills across the Southeast.


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Owing to the success of its polished diamond auctions in June, JSE-listed De Beers’ auction sales business will run its next two polished diamond auctions on August 10 and August 24.
De Beers Auction Sales is a global business involved in negotiating the sale of rough diamonds to manufacturing, retailing and trading business buyers.
Headlining the events is a 15 ct internally flawless fancy vivid yellow rectangle brilliant, as well as a 2 ct fancy pinkish purple cushion.
Customer responded well to the initial auctions in June, where most polished diamonds directly from De Beers were sold.
The third-party exceptional polished diamond auctions also saw several of the flagship diamond lots on offer being sold, including the lead lot of a 7.21 ct D Colour flawless pear-shaped diamond.
Neil Ventura, De Beers auction sales Vice President said, “We been encouraged by the early reaction to auctions of our own polished diamonds and to our third-party exceptional auction sales,” said.
He added that the uptake of goods in the auction of De Beers’ dual-certified polished diamonds indicates that there is healthy demand for products with this additional layer of assurance.


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Top US Food Co-Op to Track Seafood Using Mastercard’s Blockchain Tech
A food tracking platform utilizing Mastercard's blockchain technology is to be piloted by U.S. food co-operative giant Topco at its member grocers.
Enterprise blockchain isn’t dead, but survival has meant more collaboration and some smart pivots. A dispatch from this week’s Consensus: Distributed.
Mastercard, IBM and the provincial government of British Columbia are among the founding members of the Trust over IP (ToIP) Foundation.
The new debit card enables U.S. customers to spend their crypto holdings as fiat currency.
Mastercard, the innovation arms of Ripple and Binance, and eight other firms joined a group supporting blockchain education in universities worldwide.
The credit-card giant pulled out of the Libra Association in October. Now its chief has opened up on why.


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I like to study other investors' mistakes as part of my investing process. I believe this is one of the best ways to learn and develop as an investor, and it is a lot less painful than making the mistakes myself.
I am not only searching for errors that resulted in a loss. I think there is a lot to learn from mistakes such as opportunity cost, where an investor skipped over an opportunity in favor of something else, only for the missed opportunity to go on and outperform. These errors are usually harder to find, but they can be just as informative.
One example of this is the fact that multiple successful hedge fund managers sold shares of Apple Inc. (AAPL, Financial) too early. Warren Buffett (Trades, Portfolio)'s decision to sell off some of his position in Apple last year was only a modest reduction, but it has cost Berkshire Hathaway's investors billions in missed profits. An even bigger loss came on the part of activist investor Carl Icahn (Trades, Portfolio), an earlier investor who sold out of the stock entirely in the first quarter of 2016.
Selling too early
Icahn was one of the first high-profile billionaire investors to have a sizable position in the tech company and believe in it when the rest of the market was looking the other way.
Icahn Capital Management first reported a position in Apple back in the third quarter of 2013. According to its 13F, the fund bought around 110 million shares in the quarter. The fund manager continued to increase his holding over the next few quarters. By the first quarter of 2015, it made up 21% of the fund's $32 billion portfolio, the second-largest holding after core position Icahn Enterprises (IEP, Financial).
In the third quarter of 2013, the stock had fallen to around $17 per share after peaking at around $25 towards the end of 2012 (all figures are split-adjusted). The activist investor tried to push the company to increase its capital returns to investors. He complained that the corporation was criminally undervalued, and it should not have been holding so much cash on its balance sheet when it could have been returning the money to investors. He proposed a $150 billion buyback.
Ultimately, the company gave in to his demands. It spent $120 billion buying back shares through the end of 2016, when Icahn had completely sold out of the position.
The hedge fund manager sold the entire position in the first quarter of 2016. The stock was changing hands for a split-adjusted $30 per share at the time of the sale, a significant 100% return from a blue-chip stock in a period of just over two years.
Icahn made the classic mistake of selling a winning stock too early. He thought he could time the market, and the company was becoming fully valued. However, it seems as if he discounted the overall brand power of Apple and the power of the subscription services the company sells to its consumers.
It is unlikely that any investor or analyst would have predicted that Apple could eventually become a $3 trillion company back in 2013, but that is just the way the world works sometimes. It is also a valuable lesson of why selling a top-performing holding with a substantial competitive advantage is usually a bad idea. A company that can earn high capital returns and compound those returns year after year is worth holding onto forever (at least, as long as it maintains its advantages).
It is difficult to calculate exactly how much money Icahn left on the table with this trade, as I do not have the exact figures. Still, according to my estimations, if the investor had held on and not sold a single share between 2013 and today, his holding would be worth somewhere in the region of $40 billion. Icahn Enterprise's market capitalization is just $14.5 billion at the time of writing. This trade could be flagged up as one of the biggest missed opportunities of all time.


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Tokyo, May 16 (): Basic services on the Sony PlayStation Network and Qriocity services were switched on for users in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Australia and New Zealand for the first time in more than three weeks, but users in Asia face a longer wait for service to resume, reports IDG News service.
Sony pulled the plug on the two online services after discovering on April 19 that its data center in San Diego had been attacked. A subsequent computer forensics investigation into the hack revealed the massive theft of personal information including user names, e-mail addresses, login IDs and passwords.
The PlayStation Network is a platform for online gaming and a channel through which Sony sells games and other content to console and handheld owners. Qriocity is an online service for Sony’s networked consumer electronics products that offers music and video content.
” The first phase in the U.S. and Europe went well,” said Satoshi Fukuoka, a spokesman for Sony Computer Entertainment in Tokyo. “Users are able to access the service. There have been no major problems,” he said.
Sony also re-enabled the playback of already rented video, ” Music Unlimited ” online audio streaming, access to third-party services like Netflix and Hulu, PlayStation Home and friends features such as chat. Full service is expected to resume by the end of May in these markets.
Users in Asia, including Sony’s home market of Japan, are still waiting for service to be restored.
The company is consulting with regulatory authorities in each of the markets in which it operates before resuming service, said Fukuoka. Sony doesn’t formally need approval to restart the online services, but the company has decided to seek the understanding of regulators before it does so, said Fukuoka.
He offered no estimate on when service will return in Asia.


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Digital entertainment company Hungama claims to have crossed 50 million monthly active users (MAUs) worldwide across its service. It claims that its user base has expanded by more than 200% in the last 12 months and that 250 million users accessed its service over the last year. Hungama attributed this increase in active users to the fact that it has introduced several new features to the platform, as well as to the growth in mobile data adoption.
The company plans to expand into newer markets to increase its digital music and video distribution and adds that it’s targeting 100 million MAUs by March 2016. The company had raised funding worth $40 million led by Bessemer Venture Partners and participation from the existing investor Intel Capital in July last year.
In comparison, Hungama’s competitor Saavn had claimed, in January this year, that it has over 11 million monthly active users and that it received more than 30 million unique users in 2014. Saavn had also claimed that the service witnesses close to 200 million streams per month and that 90% of its users are on mobile.
Hungama’s content tie ups and catalog additions
Late last month, Hungama tied up with Saregama to add over 100 playlists and over 25 radio stations of different eras, musicians, composers and artists. In March, Hungama announced a new application called Hungama Play for streaming movies. The app will feature about 3,000 Indian language and English movies. It has a monthly subscription of Rs 199 where users can watch movies on the catalog unlimited number of times.
In the same month, Hungama added some Marvel and Disney movies to its catalog, along with a video-on-demand subscription for its users. In a similar deal in 2013, Hungama had partnered with Warner Bros Digital Distribution to let its users watch full length feature films on Hungama Movies.
The company had also tied up with VH1 Supersonic and rolled out exclusive content over its digital properties for the first quarter of 2015. The partnership included 30 club events and 30 college events till March 2015 and began with Vh1 Supersonic Goa Fest in December 2014.
Hungama PRO: In December last year, Hungama tied up with Aircel to offer its ad-free PRO service free for two months to Aircel subscribers. Hungama’s PRO service users could stream unlimited number of music tracks and videos. They could also cache unlimited songs and videos to their phones for offline listening/viewing. Hungama had rebranded its paid subscription service for its music and video streaming mobile app as PRO service, in June last year, and added new features to the service.


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CASHe, India’s leading digital lending platform for salaried millennials has awarded its social media creative mandate to Digitale, part of Lookad India Pvt. Ltd, a 360-degree integrated digital marketing agency. According to the mandate, Digitale will steer CASHe’s social media assets such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter& LinkedIn by providing engaging digital content to increase engagement and organic growth with interactive content.
Talking about the association, Riddhi Chakrabarty, Chief Growth Officer at CASHe says, “We’re excited to be setting out on this journey with Digitale as our creative digital partner for our social media platforms. Digitale is known for conceptualizing digital campaigns that break the category code. I am sure with their compelling creative ideas we will be able to strike the right chord with our audience in communicating our brand philosophy as well as promote our product and services while enhancing CASHe’s presence in the digital space.”
On winning the mandate, Mrinal Lunia, Founder & CEO, Digitale says, “We are pleased to partner with CASHe and help elevate the brand positioning in the digital hyperspace amongst millennials. This brand has a strong mass appeal in the country and we wish to apply creative, new age thinking and building a strong storytelling narrative to create a distinct persona to help future proof the brand. Looking forward to working with an open-minded client and creating a digital boom!”
Commenting on the partnership, Arnab Samanta, Creative Director at Digitale says, “We are excited to have CASHe on board. Being a trusted name in the market, we will enhance the brand’s vision of expanding its reach amongst the millennial by crafting a new line of communication for the brand in the digital space. We are keen to be a part of their growth journey and hope to live up to their expectations.”


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Report: Google M&A freight train continues with Plannr purchase
- John Cook
Well, that didn't take long. Just a day after Google's M&A chief indicated that the company would continue its breakneck pace of acquisitions, the search titan has reportedly gobbled up an online social calendar service from a Seattle startup. The service is called Plannr, and it was developed by the brains behind Seattle startup Everything is the Best.
The news was reported earlier today by TechCrunch, which cited multiple sources familiar with the matter. We've reached out to Ben Eidelson and Jason Prado of Everything is the Best for further comment, and we'll update if we hear back.
Here's an earlier TechFlash report on Eidelson and Prado's social calendar service, which I believe at the time was called PencilYouIn. "Most people use email or phone calls or text messages to schedule things, and then put them in their own individual calendars," Eidelson said at the time. "And that kind of works on a basic level, but we thought there would be a huge benefit to giving the general consumer a social calendar where all of their event entities can be shared with the people they are scheduling these things with."
A source tells me that Amin Zoufonoun, director of corporate development at Google and a speaker at the WTIA TechNW Forum yesterday, was also in town to finalize the the acquisition of an undisclosed Seattle startup. That would lead one to believe that Plannr was the service in question, but let me know int he comments if Google is planning on acquiring your company this week.
Eidelson and Prado, both former Microsoft employees, have a number of Web-based products in the works. They are also the creators of the Ride Penguin mobile ride sharing application for those looking to split a cab to or from the Seattle or Las Vegas airports.
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Secondary packaging for the pharmaceutical industry is our specialty.
Why can’t anyone else offer you Ondaplast’s levels of quality and hygiene?
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23 September 2021
Ondaplast is waiting for you at Fachpack 2021
Ondaplast will exhibit at Fachpack 2021, the most important European industrial packaging trade show. The event will be held from September 28th to September 30th at the Nuremberg Messe and our company will be in the hall 7 / stand 07-434.


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Ikea has committed to using only renewable and recycled materials in its products by 2030.
Currently, 60% of the Ikea range is based on renewable materials, while nearly 10% contain recycled materials.
They have also pledged to remove all single-use plastic products from the Ikea range globally and from customer and co-worker restaurants in stores by 2020, designing all Ikea products with ‘new circular principles.’
They have also said their food menu will get an overhaul, with new ‘plant-based’ choices as well as a veggie hot dog launching later in the year.
Inter Ikea Group CEO, Torbjörn Lööf, said: ‘Our ambition is to become people and planet positive by 2030 while growing the Ikea business. Through our size and reach we have the opportunity to inspire and enable more than one billion people to live better lives, within the limits of the planet.’
To reduce the total Ikea footprint by an average of 70% per product they say they will work together with home furnishing suppliers across their factory operations. They also say they will offer solar panels in 29 markets, up from five which currently offer the product.
Lena Pripp-Kovac, sustainability manager, said: ‘Becoming truly circular means meeting people’s changing lifestyles, prolonging the life of products and materials and using resources in a smarter way.
‘To make this a reality, we will design all products from the very beginning to be repurposed, repaired, reused, resold and recycled.’
At this year’s Democratic Design event, held annually, Ikea demonstrated several new solutions and innovations that they say will enable people to save water, clean the air in their homes and use products made from innovative and recycled materials. These include a tap nozzle can save more than 90% of water used and the development of textiles that will help purify air in the home.


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Both short and mid-term confidence among British farmers has remained negative for the third consecutive year, according to the findings of a new survey.
The National Farmers’ Union’s (NFU) latest Confidence Survey reveals that one of the biggest issues causing concern is the phasing out of Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) subsidies, which will under the Government’s Agriculture Act 2020 be replaced with the Environmental Land Management (ELM) scheme - rewarding farmers and land managers with public money for ‘public goods’ such as better air and water quality.
A total of 78% of the 662 NFU members surveyed said they believe the withdrawal of direct payments will have a negative impact on their business. This is followed by the rise in input prices (59%), changes to regulation and legislation (53%), farm gate prices (45%) and markets or supply chains they sell into (40%).
Minette Batters, president of the NFU and a Westcountry farmer, said confidence is critical for all businesses as it influences production, investment and growth intentions, and so has a wider impact on farming’s economic contribution as well as food production.
Mrs Batters, who runs an arable and livestock enterprise in Wiltshire, also highlighted that levelling up urban and rural areas would help build confidence within the industry and boost business and investment opportunities for farmers, in turn delivering more for the country.
She explained: “The fact that both short and mid-term confidence has remained negative since 2018 is very telling of the uncertainty and challenges farmers continue to face.
“Farming is a long-term business. Confidence in our businesses is absolutely crucial if we are to continue to be productive and profitable and the driving force behind sustainable, climate-friendly food production around the world.
“Yet this survey shows that many farm businesses are still reeling from the impacts of the pandemic and that there is lots of apprehension about the significant changes to rules and regulations coming down the tracks.”
The survey, which classes short-term confidence as one year and mid-term confidence as three years, also found that 44% of farmers and growers have been impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, with the figure jumping to 73% for horticulture businesses.
Common impacts of the pandemic include reduced output prices, disruption to markets and / or customers, and the impact on diversified enterprises such as holiday cottages.
Mrs Batters continued: “It is not surprising that the phasing out of BPS is the top concern among our membership. Farmers will start seeing payment rates being reduced this year, without any new schemes to replace this income and a lack of detail about the interim and future schemes.
“Not knowing what kind of standards will be involved in these future schemes makes it very difficult for farm businesses to plan for the future.
“Farmers need to know that the Government is supporting them and investing in rural Britain. We need to know that the government is working to level up urban and rural areas and resolve issues such as rural planning, rural crime and inefficient broadband and connectivity.
“Investment in these areas will help build confidence and provide more opportunities for farm businesses, enabling them to deliver even more for the country, from producing more quality, sustainable and affordable food to contributing to the Government’s green growth ambition.”
The survey was taken by 662 NFU members between November 5, 2020 and January 8, 2021. Read the NFU’s Levelling up rural Britain report here.


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DAYTON, Ohio, Sept. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — Digital marketing leader, Vivial, today announced that it has been selected as the winner of the “Best Content Writing Service” award in the fourth annual MarTech Breakthrough Awards program conducted by MarTech Breakthrough, a leading market intelligence organization that recognizes the top companies, technologies and products in the global marketing, sales and advertising technology industry today.
The Vivial team produces more than 6,000 pieces of content each month for companies across thousands of industries, ranging from specialized medical centers to home improvement contractors. Vivial brings together leading talent: researchers, writers, and editors, all focused on high-value content that is able to deliver information across a variety of platforms including inboxes, social media, newsfeeds and that also strikes the right tone. Vivial’s content directs individuals to a company’s website, blog, or other landing page while building goodwill among consumers.
“Thank you so much to MarTech Breakthrough for once again recognizing Vivial for our content writing services. Local businesses are vital to a community’s livelihood. At Vivial we seek to help these businesses grow by creating compelling content that drive connections and strengthen relationships between them and their customers,” said Laura Cole, VP of Marketing at Vivial. “Most local businesses don’t have the time or resources to produce high-quality, custom content on a regular basis. Leveraging Vivial allows owners to focus on running their business while letting the experts do what we do best: get the right message in front of the right audience at the right time.”
The mission of the MarTech Breakthrough Awards is to honor excellence and recognize the innovation, hard work and success in a range of marketing, sales and advertising technology related categories, including marketing automation, market research and customer experience, AdTech, SalesTech, marketing analytics, content and social marketing, mobile marketing and many more. This year’s program attracted more than 2,850 nominations from over 17 different countries throughout the world.
“When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, local business owners – more than ever before – needed to connect and communicate with their customers quickly and effectively. Their messages included everything from announcing temporary closures to conveying changes to business hours and services to introducing enhanced safety measures to sharing reopening plans,” said James Johnson, Managing Director at MarTech Breakthrough. “By recognizing that communication was key to survival, Vivial was able to assist these businesses as they executed their paths forward. Vivial served a critical role in engaging audiences with necessary and appropriate content. For the fourth consecutive year, we offer our sincerest congratulations to Vivial for being the winner of our ‘Best Content Writing Service’ award.”
Vivial is a digital marketing company that offers omni-channel solutions proven to connect brands of all sizes with potential customers, while engaging with current customers. Serving hundreds of thousands of local, national and enterprise customers through direct and indirect channels, Vivial helps businesses build, implement and optimize marketing programs to reach consumers quickly and effectively. Vivial works behind the scenes so that their clients can get back to running and growing their businesses successfully.
Vivial’s success is highlighted by recognitions such as: “2020 BIG Innovation Award” Business Information Group, “Top 10 SEO Solution Providers,” Marketing Tech Insights; “10 Best Marketing Solution,” Industry Era; “30 Fastest Growing Tech Companies,” Silicon Review; and numerous “Best Places to Work” awards from the American City Business Journals. Vivial is also a 2021 Best Place to Work-CertifiedTM company.
For more information, visit https://vivial.net.
About MarTech Breakthrough
Part of Tech Breakthrough, a leading market intelligence and recognition platform for global technology innovation and leadership, the MarTech Breakthrough Awards program is devoted to honoring excellence in marketing, ad and sales technology companies, products and people. The MarTech Breakthrough Awards provide a platform for public recognition around the achievements of breakthrough marketing technology companies and products in categories including marketing automation, AdTech, SalesTech, marketing analytics, CRM, content and social marketing, website, SEM, mobile marketing and more. For more information, visit MarTechBreakthrough.com.
Elizabeth Jensen, Approach Marketing, +1 (773) 750-2569, [email protected]


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TransferTo, an Ingenico company, and Taiwan Mobile today announced the launch of Mobile Talktime Transfer for all Taiwan Mobile prepaid subscribers. Mobile Talktime Transfer is a value-added service that allows subscribers to send prepaid mobile credits to their loved ones’ mobile phones in Indonesia and the Philippines instantly and simply via SMS. This is the first such value-added service ever launched in the country.
To launch Mobile Talktime Transfer users simply need to send an SMS to 83880. They are then asked to select the mobile recharge products they wish to send as a gift. The subscriber’s prepaid balance is then debited by the amount of the gift and the recipient’s phone overseas is automatically credited.
“We’re delighted to have teamed up with Taiwan Mobile to offer this groundbreaking service for the 150,000 Indonesians and nearly 100,000 Filipinos living in Taiwan,” said Eric Barbier, TransferTo CEO. “This service will make it easy for this population to send affordable but meaningful gifts to their loved ones back home on a more regular basis.”
“Together with TransferTo, we’re delivering more value for our prepaid mobile subscribers that can let them maintain close relationship with their loved ones” said Sean Hsieh, vice president of Taiwan Mobile. “Our mission is to ensure total customer satisfaction to all segments of the telecom market including people living far from home. Taiwan Mobile will continue to deliver quality communication and value-added services, and we believe that TransferTo is the perfect complement to round out the package.”


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Published on : Mar 19, 2015
AstraZeneca has decided that it will not go alone for marketing Movantik but will collaborate with Japanese drugmaker Daiichi Sankyo for the purpose. Daiichi Sankyo has reportedly signed a $200 million deal for helping the launch of the constipation pill.
Daiichi Sankyo has signed the agreement for earning the co-marketing rights of the medicine of its sales in the U.S. Movantik had won approval from the FDA in the September of the year 2014. Depending on sales of the medicine, Daiichi Sankyo will also shell out another $625 million against milestone payments.
According to the deal, AstraZeneca will be the manufacturer of the drug, it will book sales and pay part of the sales to Daiichi Sankyo along the way. Both of the companies will run their own commercial operations and field their own sales representatives.
The companies are planning to bring the drug to the market early next month. AstraZeneca’s EVP Paul Hudson said in a statement that AstraZeneca is very delighted about the collaboration with Daiichi Sankyo. The collaboration will help AstraZeneca in expanding its commercialization of the medicine in the U.S. market so as to get the important medicine to the huge pool of patients who are suffering from opioid induced constipation.
Movantik (naloxegol) is developed in corporation with Nektar Therapeutics, and is highly regarded as a distinctive treatment method for constipation that is induced by opioid painkillers. But the drug will also have to face a few issues - analysts say that patients as well as doctors are not very savvy about constipation that is induced from opioid. Patients prefer more the use of over-the-counter medicines for constipation than going for a prescription solution.


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In an effort to get in on the phone market, and with the Windows Phone pretty much fizzling out, Microsoft has decided on a new course of action to beat its competitor, by taking over the iPhone with its own apps.
To that end, they’ve launched Word Flow, an app for iPhone that functions as a replacement keyboard.
It’s designed to make it easier to send messages and text with a single hand, a godsend for the more technologically challenged among us. However, according to Mashable, it’s only available in English in the US at the moment, and can function using the Swype feature, where you can text by swiping between letters to string words and sentences together.
However, the most prominent feature of this app is the ‘arc mode’, wherein your keypad converts itself into an arc, which makes it easier to type with one hand and is suitable for left and right handed people.
The app also has a regular predictive algorithm to suggest words, and all in all, makes typing texts a whole lot easier, at least on larger iPhones. Apart from this, you can also customise the background on the app, to get your keyboard to look just a little more funky.
This app was actually a product of Microsoft Garage, a format where Microsoft employees can work on technologies that don’t pertain to their immediate job. Even though it’s only for the iPhone right now, hopefully it’ll come out for everything else soon.


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Where is the Canadian dollar heading? What about oil prices? And is the next leg in interest rates up or down?
Renato Anzovino is the first to admit he doesn't know. But the manager of the $60-million Heward Canadian Dividend Growth Fund says his investing strategy doesn't rely on making such predictions. Instead, he tries to identify companies that can thrive in any environment.
One of the first things he looks for is a steadily rising dividend. "That confirms to us that the underlying business is solid and the outlook going forward is positive," Mr. Anzovino says.
The fund produced an annualized total return – including dividends – of 11.3 per cent for the five years ended Oct. 31, beating the S&P/TSX composite index's comparable return of 8.4 per cent. (As a pooled fund, Heward Canadian Dividend Growth reports results before fees, which range from 1 to 1.5 per cent depending on the size of a client's investment.)
A growing dividend isn't the only factor Mr. Anzovino considers. He also looks for relatively predictable earnings, low debt levels, increasing free cash flow and an attractive valuation. Here are five of the fund's current holdings.
Canadian Tire (CTC.A)
Mention Canadian Tire Corp., and most people think of the namesake stores that sell hardware products, household items and sporting goods. But the company also has its own financial services division, owns extensive real estate assets and operates other retail banners including Mark's, Sport Chek, Pro Hockey Life and Atmosphere. The company's diverse product mix and accessible locations have insulated it from online competition and contributed to rising same-store sales, including growth of 3.9 per cent in the third quarter. Canadian Tire has been raising its dividend annually and recently announced an unusually large increase of 38 per cent along with its latest results.
Intact Financial (IFC)
Intact Financial Corp. is the largest property and casualty insurer in Canada, operating through the Intact, belairdirect, Brokerlink and OneBeacon brands. With an estimated 17-per-cent market share, the company's scale allows it to streamline costs and increase profitability, Mr. Anzovino says. Yet the insurance market remains highly fragmented, providing plenty of opportunity for the company to continue its growth-through-acquisitions strategy. The stock's yield may be modest, but the dividend has grown at an annualized rate of nearly 10 per cent over the past five years and Mr. Anzovino sees more growth ahead. Intact's recent acquisition of U.S.-based specialty insurer OneBeacon Insurance Group is a "game changer," he says, because it gives the company a platform for expansion in the U.S. market.
With wireless data usage continuing to grow, smartphone penetration increasing and immigration bringing in a steady supply of customers, the long-term outlook for the wireless industry is very favourable, Mr. Anzovino says. Telus Corp. is also benefiting from rebounding economic growth in Western Canada and from the lowest customer turnover or "churn" rate in the industry, thanks to its strong customer service. Recent results have been solid: The company added 152,000 cellphone, internet and TV accounts in the third quarter . The company also increased its dividend by about 2.5 per cent – its second increase of the year – bringing total dividends declared in 2017 to $1.97 a share, up 7.1 per cent from $1.84 in 2016. And there's likely more to come: Telus aims to continue increasing its dividend twice a year at an annualized rate of 7 per cent to 10 per cent through 2019.
Open Text (OTEX)
Shares of enterprise software giant Open Text Corp. have struggled of late, reflecting concerns about an increase in the company's debt ratios following a string of acquisitions, Mr. Anzovino says. But the company generates strong free cash flow and should be able to bring its debt down to more manageable levels, he says. The stock trades at a multiple of about 13 times estimated earnings for the year ending in June, 2018. And the dividend – which was initiated in 2013 and is declared in U.S. dollars – has been climbing at an annualized rate of about 15 per cent over the past four years. The attractive valuation, growing dividend and Open Text's expertise at driving increased profitability from acquisitions make the stock an appealing pick in a business world that's increasingly going digital, he says.
Cineplex Inc. shares have plunged about 24 per cent this year, reflecting a weak slate of releases and worries that the movie business is in decline at the hands of Netflix and other streaming options. But Mr. Anzovino says the fears are overblown: After a spate of summer duds, recent movies such as Thor: Ragnarok and the soon-to-be-released Star Wars: The Last Jedi herald a turnaround at the box office. There's also more to Cineplex than movies.
The company operates Playdium amusement centres, hosts competitive video game events, operates a growing network of digital displays in restaurants, malls, banks and other venues and is expanding its Rec Room chain of dining and entertainment centres. "The company is transitioning from a movie theatre operator to a truly diversified entertainment company," Mr. Anzovino says. Cineplex's dividend has grown at an annualized rate of 4.9 per cent over the past five years.


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Messengeremailprintcommentatlanta — Cheap Kids Jerseys Nfl NFL Owners On Tuesday Approved Pittsburgh
For me, it’s always been my life’s mission to help people in a number different ways whether it be in this country or this countries, Boldin said in an interview that will air on NFL Total Access at 7 p.m. ET Monday. But for the last couple of years I’ve been advocating for criminal justice reform. I’ve been trying to improve police-community relations across the board. I think where nike nfl jerseys china cheap we are as a country now, it breaks my heart to see how divided we are and I don’t think it should be that way.
Kerley, 29, a fifth-round pick of the Jets in 2011, re-signed on Sept. 5 after being released by nfl draft jerseys how are they made the San Francisco 49ers. He finished the season with 22 catches, 217 yards and one touchdown.
You see disasters all the time, and you think, that’s so terrible—I can’t imagine what that’s like, Watt says. But then you’re watching on TV and everything is underwater, and you see the name of the street that you drive to and from work, and you’re like, this is real.
Joined ESPN in 2006Follow on Tyron Nike jersey MessengerEmailprintcommentATLANTA wholesale chinese nfl jersey — NFL owners on Tuesday approved Pittsburgh Steelers minority owner Patriots jersey Customizeds David Tepper to purchase the Carolina Panthers from founder Jerry Richardson.
The Ravens brought in Lewis after Vaughan struggled in Thursday’s preseason opener and dropped to the bottom of the depth chart. Baltimore will go with Mallett, Lewis and Josh Woodrum in Thursday’s preseason game at Miami.
The Giants essentially run a steady 11 personnel lineup. On 353 of 405 cheap nike nfl jerseys
wholesale reviews possible first and 10 scenarios last year, they cheap nfl jerseys trotted out three wide receivers, a tight end and a running back. On their most common second and third down scenarios (second-and-10, third-and-4) the breakdown was the same. Imagine, then, Cowboys jersey Customized swapping Cruz for Marshall — an interesting but not direct one-for-one switch that will allow the offense to nfl cheap wholesale jersey store take on a different look especially on intermediate routes. Because of cheap football jerseys his size and length, Marshall tends to get open a few yards before cheap Tom Brady jersey Cruz.
In my class at Villanova last week, 2018 nfl jersey rankings professor Glenn Bracey, a scholar in social movements and race, said this of stick to sports: ‘Stick to sports’ is particularly offensive when you’re cheap kids jerseys nfl talking Joe jersey about a group of people cheap nfl jerseys 2018 who are among the wealthiest and known people of color in the country. What you’re basically saying is, ‘Dance for me boy.’ I consider it a form of co-optation. You can see that entire discussion cheap china nfl jerseys here.
With an ever-growing list of owners joining the Colin Kaepernick deposition dance card, it was inevitable that cheap jerseys China the leader of the band would have to go under oath and answer questions from Kaepernick’s counsel, Mark Geragos.


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One part of DeWind’s business is wind farm development, and in 2009 the company entered into an agreement with Glenmore Wind Farm, Urban Power, and Prelude by which it agreed to pay $250,000 for the exclusive right to purchase or sell the other parties’ interests in a 14 megawatt wind farm project.
DeWind did not find any buyers for the project and last month sued Glenmore, Urban, and Prelude for breach of contract.
According to the complaint (DeWind Complaint), DeWind’s inability to close a sale of the project was due to misrepresentations the defendants made about, inter alia, the project’s wind resource estimate or the defendants’ failure to complete additional development work required by the agreement.
Specifically, DeWind alleges that the defendants inflated the capacity factor/resource estimate of the wind farm:
Defendants misrepresented the Project’s wind resource estimate by representing that the project site contained a higher forecasted capacity factor than it actually did. Prior to execution of the Agreement, Defendants represented that the project site contained a net capacity factor of 31.8% in a financial deal pro forma dated May 5, 2009. However, the wind resource estimate report provided by the Defendants after execution of the Agreement stated that the project site actually had a net capacity factor of 25.8%.
This difference in net capacity factor made the project non-economical, DeWind alleges, and turned out to be a “decisive cause” of its inability to sell the project.
The complaint says the misrepresentation is a violation of the agreement, and DeWind is asking the court to award a refund of the $250,000 fee.
Although this is not a case involving allegations that would typically be called greenwashing, I believe it is properly viewed as a greenwashing case because it involves false or misleading statements about the environmental benefits of a produce or service.
The plaintiff just happens to be a large commercial consumer instead of an individual consumer, and the service is wind energy output instead of products or services sold to individual consumers.
Most discussions of greenwashing are unduly restricted to cases in which an individual consumer, a class of consumers, or a consumer watchdog such as the FTC challenges a company making false or misleading green claims about its products or services.
To put greenwashing in its proper context I think we should consider a wider range of cases, some of which are not immediately recognizable as instances of greenwashing.
To do so requires looking beyond individual consumers to commercial consumers and beyond green marketers to companies that make false or misleading claims about clean tech products and services.
From this broader vantage point, and keeping in mind the definition of greenwashing – making false or misleading claims about purportedly environmentally friendly products, services, or practices – we are able to recognize, observe and understand greenwashing in its proper context.
If DeWind’s allegations of inflating net capacity factor for a wind farm are true, those misrepresentations would be greenwashing, and anti-greenwashing legal actions such as this case are at least equally, if not more, important than the false or misleading claims directed at individual consumers.
Eric Lane is a patent attorney at Luce, Forward, Hamilton & Scripps in San Diego and the author of Green Patent Blog. Mr. Lane can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.org.


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Join top executives in San Francisco on July 11-12, to hear how leaders are integrating and optimizing AI investments for success. Learn More
Despite the fact that women own 10.6 million businesses in the U.S. and represent 35 percent of startup business owners, they receive a piddling 4.2% of venture capital funding. This means women-owned companies tend to be smaller and grow more slowly than companies owned by men. MoolaHoop launched a crowdfunding platform for women entrepreneurs today to bridge this gap.
MoolaHoop is a rewards-based crowdfunding platform that specifically works with women-led businesses looking to raise capital. Selected businesses are featured on the site with a profile telling their story and a fundraising goal, along the lines of Kickstarter and Indiegogo. MoolaHoop aims to go beyond financial support, however, by creating a robust ecosystem — dubbed the “Hoop” — that helps women leverage their existing social and professional networks, as well as gain access to mentorship, education, and skill training.
“The economic impact that women-owned businesses represent is enormous,” the company said on its site. “MoolaHoop’s core mission is to improve access to capital for women entrepreneurs, helping them attract debt-free funding while building a strong base of supporters for their new venture.”
Crowdfunding sites have gained a tremendous amount of momentum over the past few years and Deloitte estimates that rewards-based crowdfunding will raise $700 million in 2013. Raising venture capital money works for some startups, but not for all. Entrepreneurs that have historically existed on the periphery of the tightly-knit VC network — like women, minorities, hardware companies, and people outside of tech hubs — are finding crowdfunding to be an effective alternative method of financing. Startups initially passed over by VC firms (like Pebble) have raised millions of dollars on Kickstarter and Indiegogo, and now a new wave of crowdfunding platforms is emerging to focus on specific groups or verticals.
MoolaHoop is not only focusing on women-led companies, but also those “doing good.” One of the first featured projects is a partnership between BlueAvocado and Open Arms to produce an eco-friendly collection of accessories made using reclaimed materials and sewed by female war survivors. Another project is by a company called LiveWordly, which is building a global marketplace for products handcrafted by women in the developing world. A portion of all sales is donated to a non-profit that supports education within that country.
“We want to make a difference in the world by creating cultural experiences for people here and giving back to the people and places where we are importing from,” LiveWorldly’s founder Kael Robinson told VentureBeat. “Right now we are trying to get money to employ 30 people in Kenya to make products for us to sell, and we will give a portion of the proceeds to a local school in one of Africa’s worst slums. But currently the way money is given out and investors decide to invest is not ideal.”
Robinson first started working on LiveWorldly five years ago after a trip to Brazil. The company has grown and now has a presence all over the world. Its campaign on MoolaHoop strives to raise $25,000 to get this new Kenyan collection off the ground, and invest in future projects.
MoolaHoop was founded by Brenda Bazan and Nancy Hayes. Both women spent years in executive roles at IBM and left to enter the non-profit world.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact. Discover our Briefings.


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Leading Verizon Authorized Retailer CellOnly today announced its partnership with Toronto-based Intelocate, who will provide its multi-location operations platform to the entire CellOnly organization.
Intelocate is a versatile operations platform that allows multi-location businesses to streamline and consolidate their organization-wide issue reporting and resolution, task management, and communications functions into a single, easy-to-use platform.
“Providing our front-line team faster responses and resolutions to issues is our priority as an operations team. Intelocate helps us achieve this by centralizing issues and delivering them to the right people with less back- and-forth communication,” said Ryan Bowden, Facilities Manager at CellOnly. “By also being able to send tasks to our front-line, they have a clear view of the day’s priorities.”
“It’s essential that the modern telecommunications retailer has a platform that reflects the fast-pace of the industry,” said Tim McLaughlin, VP of Sales for Intelocate. “This partnership will allow CellOnly to reap the benefits of our platform when it comes to Issue Reporting and Resolution, Task Management, and Centralized Communications. By consolidating these key operational functions into a single platform, and removing barriers for location-based staff, CellOnly will be able to focus on elevating their already high level of customer experience as the organization grows coast to coast.”
Intelocate will provide CellOnly with a platform that not only encompasses issue reporting and resolution, task management, and centralized communications, but also many other key aspects of day-to-day business operations, including vendors, serialized assets, human resources, and facilities.
CellOnly is a Verizon Authorized Retailer with locations throughout the Midwest and beyond, serving communities in Arkansas, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming. In addition to cellular phones, tablets, wireless service, devices, and accessories, CellOnly has built a reputation for exceptional customer service and an unmatched store experience. For more information, visit www.cell-only.com.


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Huawei is not giving up on the U.S. market despite a report claiming that national security concerns caused Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S) to shut the Chinese company (and its smaller Chinese rival ZTE) out of the bidding process for the firm's network modernization project. Huawei has insinuated that these concerns are largely overblown.
Charlie Chen, Huawei's senior vice president for U.S. marketing, told the Financial Times that eventually Huawei will land a deal with a major U.S. carrier, even if it does not happen right away. "It may take a long time. It may take three or five or 10 years, it doesn't matter, we'll get there," he said.
According to a report earlier this month in the Wall Street Journal, Sprint decided to cut Huawei and ZTE out of the bidding process for its multi-billion-dollar network modernization project after U.S. government officials expressed security concerns. Both the Journal and the FT have reported that Commerce Secretary Gary Locke contacted Sprint CEO Dan Hesse about the concerns. Sprint has declined to comment on the bidding process, and Huawei representatives have said Sprint has not contacted them about the speculation.
Huawei has previously committed to taking a "long-term view" toward North America, so Chen's comments are not entirely surprising. However, they likely are an indication that Huawei will not be deterred in expanding its presence in the U.S market.
The Journal report said that Alcatel-Lucent (NASDAQ:ALU) and Samsung are the two finalists for the Sprint bid. Sprint's target range for the contract is said to be between $5 billion and $7 billion, and the carrier hopes to announce a vendor partner by year-end.
Bill Plummer, a Washington-based Huawei executive, told the FT that the security concerns are mainly about cybersecurity as a broad threat, and not Huawei specifically. "The interdependence of the supply chain is just now beginning to be understood in this town," he said, pointing out that U.S. companies manufacture much of their equipment in China.
- see this FT article
Alca-Lu confident ahead of Sprint network bid
Report: Sprint excludes Huawei, ZTE from network project over security concerns
Former defense official joins Amerilink in Huawei lobbying bid
Lawmakers ask FCC to probe security risks from Huawei, ZTE
Amerilink adds new board members for Huawei's lobbying campaign
Huawei outlines three-pronged plan to address security concerns
Sprint assessing final bids for network modernization endeavor


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Internet behemoth Facebook is at something of a crossroads. Its next five years of growth will look markedly different to the five years which preceded it, and advertisers are starting to demand more accuracy and transparency for every dollar they spend on the platform.
73 per cent of Facebook’s revenues come from Europe and the United States, but these Western markets are also its slowest-growing, with growth rates of just 1 per cent each quarter. The only way to increase revenue in these markets is to dial up the volume of ads in the News Feed — but it is impossible to pump more ads into an already-saturated space without negatively affecting the user experience. While the platform has avoided interruptive advertising so far, focusing instead on ad-supported publisher inventory with Video and Instant Articles, it is now experimenting with mid-roll ads.
“Facebook is stuck between a rock and a hard place,” writes Recode’s Tony Haile. “As much as Facebook wants to create a better experience than the mobile web it disdains, the pressure to make these new inventory opportunities big enough and fast enough forces it down a road of increasing UX compromises by publishers who long since fought the war between short-term revenue and long-term user engagement, and too often chose the quarter over the future.”
Facebook currently hopes to acquire premium video content, but new third party audits of its metrics are calling into question the overall value of video advertising on the platform. According to Digiday, viewability rates on Facebook video campaigns fall well below the 50 per cent average, landing between 20 and 30 per cent (with some agency executives claiming the numbers are even lower). Facebook recently opened up its viewing figures to auditors after a series of measurement gaffes led media buyers to demand more transparency.
The MRC video viewability standard dictates that at least half of an ad’s pixels must be in view for at least two continuous seconds in order to be counted. Organisations such as Unilever and GroupM have additional conditions, expecting the full video to be in view, and the sound on.
While Facebook’s lack of consistency in its reporting has frustrated some agencies, there is still every reason to advertise there. Facebook now enjoys 2 billion daily users, and remains a less expensive alternative to TV. This extensive reach and relative low cost could, in some advertisers’ eyes, cancel out the fuzzier details surrounding viewability metrics.
to News Alerts


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Xiaomi set to launch Redmi Note 4 in India today, here is how you can watch live
Xiaomi is set to launch the Redmi Note 4, its next mainstream phone, in India today.
By India Today Web Desk: Xiaomi is set to launch the Redmi Note 4, its next mainstream phone, in India today. The phone which is set to replace Redmi the Note 3 in the company's lineup, will be unveiled in India at a launch event in New Delhi. The event is scheduled to start at 11.30 and the launch will be live streamed on the Xiaomi website.
The Redmi Note 4 was globally unveiled last year and in some countries it is already available. However, it has been expected that the Redmi Note 4 launching in India will be slightly different compared to the global device, possibly in a good way. The global variant of the Note 4 sports a 5.5-inch FullHD screen with LCD panel, a metal body and all the bells and whistles, including a fingerprint scanner, that you can expect from a phone like Note 4. The global variant is powered by MediaTek Helios X20 processor with 10 cores and has variants with 2GB and 4GB RAM. The internal storage too varies from 16GB to 64GB.
#RedmiNote4 A New Note Rises in India today :) Stage is set, were ready! Live today at 11:30AM IST on https://t.co/4TqDj4IeFz. See ya 4?? pic.twitter.com/Ls0FZd8TpS Hugo Barra (@hbarra) January 19, 2017
On the rear the phone sports a 13-megapixel camera and on the front it has a 5-megapixel camera. The phone has a large 4100 mAh battery inside it.
The Redmi Note 4 succeeds the Redmi Note 3, which is arguably one of the best phones Xiaomi has launched in India. In fact, research reports after research reports have highlighted that the Redmi Note 3 has been one of the top phones in India in 2016. Given this context, a lot is riding on the Note 4 for Xiaomi. With this phone, the company hopes to take on the likes of the Lenovo P2, the Moto G4 Plus and even the Lenovo Z2 Plus, which recently saw its price cut by Rs 3,000.
How to watch Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 event
While the Redmi Note 4 launch event is in Delhi, it will be live streamed at http://event.c.mi.com/in/milaunch/january2017/. Now that is not YouTube, where the streaming is usually fuss-free but it is better than nothing. Update: The live stream is available on YouTube. You can check it here
But in case you can't track the live stream, you can keep an eye on the Facebook and Twitter pages of Xiaomi India. The company will push out relevant updates from the launch event to tell its fans and prospective consumers more about the Redmi Note 4.


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This is the latest development following threats by chief executive elon Musk to cut jobs at the electric car manufacturer. Musk claimed that it was "overstaffed in certain areas".
Musk did not comment on the staffing situation in China, which produced more than half the cars for the automaker worldwide and contributed 25% to its revenue in 2021.
It was not obvious that notification of the June 9 event was made to staff for "smart production" roles.
China still allows resume submissions for more than 1000 openings posted on social media platforms, such as those of aerodynamics engineers and supply chain managers.


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Tech titan Apple has begun early plans for a game streaming subscription service, sources tell Cheddar.
Like its competitors Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Verizon who are all working on cloud game streaming services, Apple is eager to bite off the new digital frontier of "Netflix for games" market. Five sources familiar with the matter say Apple started planning the service in 2018, which corresponds with the company's need to shift away from hardware to a more digital service-based approach.
There's a few ways this could manifest and dramatically change the industry. It's likely that Apple's streaming service, which will include a pool of games streamed remotely to iDevices for a monthly fee, will be a mix of all types of games. But they should be premium paid experiences--free-to-play games shouldn't show up. We're thinking AAA, AA, and indie games will show up on the service. Sources say Apple may become a publisher and partner up with key developers, which is an incredibly ambitious move. Armed with Apple's might, devs could make some pretty immersive experiences across iPhones, iPads, and Macs and maybe even tap AR/VR tech to boot. The downside is this could further spread an already-fragmented industry.
The next move could involve an expansion into other hardware to accompany this service.
We could see Apple make a new games console, or at the very least a set-top box type of device that serves as a direct conduit for the "iStream" platform. The subscription should stream to every modern iDevice out there (phones, tablets, computers and maybe even consoles?) in an effort to attract more users and tap the company's strongly loyal fanbase.
Existing hardware is already set up to run certain demanding mobile games. Apple's current A-series chips are quite potent and provide enough power to deliver console-quality experiences, but latency and connectivity are the key barriers to break when it comes to game streaming.
Nothing's been confirmed so far and we may not see Apple announce the service any time soon. It's also possible the plans could fall apart in early incubation phases.
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Posted on February 11, 2008, Jonathan Wal-Mart Covering Up "M" Rated Games
It seems the retail giant known as “Wal-Mart” will soon be making another step in it’s ongoing endeavors to censor its own stock. Stores will soon begin displaying “M” rated games in a black sleeve that obscures 3/4 of the game‘s cover, much like adult magazines in many news shops.
“It is the responsibility of Wal-Mart to protect our children from potentially damaging content, such as the covers of some video games,” said a company spokesperson.
Oddly I’m not too surprised to hear that Wal-Mart’s doing this, given that they already only carry censored versions of music. It’s still pretty ridiculous though, especially since I can’t think of a single “M” rated title that has anything too offensive on its cover. Not to mention the fact that the games are encased in glass, so children can’t even inspect the back. And if they’re so concerned about the games’ content, then why are they stocking them at all? I’m so confused.
Via Scrape TV
UPDATE: We’ve just been informed by Scrape TV that this story was actually a work of satire; an excellent one at that considering a number of other sites believed it as well. In other words, it’s fake. Wal-Mart nor any other retailer is actually covering up the front of game boxes (though I’m going to add a big, fat “yet” to the end of that).


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The Wii-only and well-reviewed samurai Western Red Steel 2 sold about 50,000 copies in the U.S. in March, its first month of release, according to financial analyst Michael Pachter. [UPDATE: Ubisoft comments.]
That follows a halving by publisher Ubisoft of its sales projections for the game. The previous Red Steel, a first-person shooter/sword-fighting game like its sequel, has sold more than a million copies.
The difference between the two Red Steels is not just critical reaction — the first was panned — but a few years. Red Steel, the first Wii game ever revealed, via the cover of Game Informer magazine, was a 2006 Wii launch title.
The sales figures appear poor, at best mediocre, compared to the plus-300,000-copies numbers of the top 10 best-selling games in the U.S. last month, as reported by NPD, which is also the source of Pachter's numbers. The sales also continue the trend of poor numbers for Wii games that were made to appeal to fans of more violent action-oriented games. The best of those games typically sell very well on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 and appeared to have a shot early in the Wii's lifespan when the likes of Resident Evil 4's Wii re-make, the first Red Steel, Call of Duty: World At War cracked the million-copy barrier. But recent games of this type, including EA's September Dead Space Extraction (9,000 copies in its first month) haven't come close to appearing in the top 10 charts.
This isn't a case of so-called hardcore Wii games not existing or selling on the Wii but of support for those titles dwindling.
UPDATE: A Ubisoft spokesperson confirmed the sales figures but correctly pointed out that they are based on only a partial month's performance, as Red Steel 2 was released on March 23, less than half a month before NPD's March reporting period ended on April 3. "Considering that the NPD sales only accounted for 12 days on the store shelves and that NPD doesn't include all retailers we are looking forward to a complete month of sales data to see where we stand."
It should be noted that Red Steel 2 creative director Jason VanenBerghe told the live audience of Kotaku Talk Radio last month that a port to the PlayStation 3 was not planned. But the complex motion control system that makes the game special and required a Wii MotionPlus to operate would seemingly function with the PS3's new Move controller.


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Important developments today:
1. Japan’s unemployment rate inches up in January
Japan’s unemployment rate inches up in January. Japan’s unemployment rate inched up to 4.6% in January from 4.5% the previous month, according to a release by the Internal Affairs Ministry. The rise in unemployment rate mostly reflects an increase in number of previously inactive people resuming job searches rather than increased firing. Indeed, industrial production rose by 2% (m/m) in January and spending on capital goods also grew by 7.6% in Q4 2011. Further, the restoration of supply chains post-Thai floods, and ongoing reconstruction in the Tsunami hit areas is expected to lend support to output and employment growth in the coming months.
Among Emerging Market
In East Asia and the Pacific, Philippines’ central bank cut its benchmark overnight borrowing rate (reverse repurchase rate) by 25 basis points to 4.0% to support weakening domestic demand amid a relatively benign inflation outlook. Inflation is expected to remain within the central bank’s 3-5% target range in 2012-12. Meanwhile, Indonesia’s consumer price inflation slowed to 3.56% (y/y) in February from 3.65% in January, and Thailand’s to 3.35% from 3.38%, both reflecting contained food price pressures.
In Europe and Central Asia, Turkey’s merchandise import grew at a sluggish pace of 2.8% year-on-year (y/y) in January, slowing further from the 4.1% pace recorded in the final two months of 2011 due to a drop in demand from the European Union, Turkey’s largest trading partner.
In South Asia, Pakistan’s consumer price inflation accelerated to a six-month high of 11.1% (y/y) in February from 10.1% in January, led by steep increases in food and transport costs (with fuel price increases reflecting higher international crude oil prices) of 10.6% and 18.8%, respectively.


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Seven years ago, one of the worst industrial disasters in history — the collapse of an eight-story commercial building in Rana Plaza, Dhaka — demonstrated to the world the heavy price of producing cheap clothing to fuel the ‘fast fashion’ industry for consumers in the global North
The tragedy on 24 April 2013 killed 1129 and injured more than 2500 workers. In response, Western companies invested in two organisations: The Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh created by European businesses and The Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety created by North American retailers. The brands declared that it was no longer going to be business as usual and that they would strictly monitor and inspect a portion of Bangladesh’s factories.
In the last seven years, registered factories in Bangladesh have been required by the Alliance and the Accord to comply with electrical, fire safety and structural standards. The factories covered by these monitoring agreements account for 27 per cent of total factories, since Tier 2 and 3 subcontracting factories are not monitored by these organisations. By 2018, 16 per cent of all Accord and Alliance registered factories had successfully completed the entire remediation process.
While the Accord spends US$11 million every year supporting engineers and monitoring staff, non-compliant factories did not receive any financial support to make necessary improvements. Smaller and under-resourced factories were simply terminated when they were not able to comply.
These agreements were successful in making a portion of Bangladesh’s factories structurally safer, but there has not been much progress in several other key areas. Garment workers in Bangladesh still do not get paid a living wage making it impossible to accumulate any savings. They face brutal crackdowns on their right to organise and bargain despite an initial increase in union registration after 2013. Brands adhering to the fast fashion business model continue to squeeze suppliers by setting unrealistic targets, continually demanding that they produce increased quantities faster and cheaper.
Since the Rana Plaza disaster, lead times have declined by 8 per cent, prices paid to suppliers have declined by 13 per cent and wages have dropped by 6 per cent. The reality in 2020 is worse than business-as-usual in 2013.
The emphasis on the physical building as the main culprit of the Rana Plaza disaster allowed for a narrow focus on improvements to infrastructure alone, while ignoring power inequalities between brands, suppliers and workers that have allowed this sector to flourish with low wages, poor working conditions and high profits.
Today, the industry is facing devastating consequences as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. 2.7 million workers have been fired or temporarily suspended. Most have been sent home without pay and more than half of the garment factories have had to shut their operations. By the middle of April, buyers had already cancelled or postponed US$3.2 billion of garment orders from Bangladesh.
During this time of global upheaval, brands have used their unequal power positions with suppliers to justify cancelling or postponing orders and refusing to pay for orders that suppliers have already produced and materials that have already been procured, despite having a contractual obligation to do so. Brands have benefited from cheap labour from Bangladesh for decades but do not feel obliged to take care of those at the bottom of their supply chains. As a result, tens of thousands of garment workers in Bangladesh may die, not from COVID-19, but from starvation.
Brands have bought into the notion that necessary improvements to factories are better handled by third party monitors, rather than by labour groups or workers themselves. This has been a way to justify crackdowns on workers organising — struggles are deemed disruptive and unproductive for the industry and the country’s economic growth. Unfortunately little has changed in the last seven years to improve workers’ ability to bargain, negotiate and improve their conditions.
When garment workers in the Rana Plaza building noticed cracks early on, they were told to return to work in order to meet the demanding targets for that day. These workers — who were threatened with not receiving their wages or being fired if they left the building — were forced to return to a situation that eventually cost them their lives.
Seven years later, garment workers are still placed in the unenviable position of having to choose between their lives and maintaining their livelihoods. Many garment workers have been told to go back into their factories, even under a nationwide lockdown, or otherwise lose their jobs. This is a choice no one should have to make.
Unless there is meaningful change in the industry, there will be another disaster in the garment sector of unprecedented scale. Buildings that have been made safer over the last seven years may not collapse but if current practices by those at the top of global supply chains continue, the entire industry might.
Article originally published: https://www.eastasiaforum.org/2020/04/24/persistent-danger-plagues-bangladeshs-garment-industry/
Sanchita Banerjee Saxena is Executive Director of the Institute for South Asia Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, and Director of the Subir and Malini Chowdhury Center for Bangladesh Studies. She is editor of Labor, Global Supply Chains, and the Garment Industry in South Asia: Bangladesh after Rana Plaza (Routledge, 2020) and author of Made in Bangladesh, Cambodia, and Sri Lanka: The Labor Behind the Global Garments and Textiles Industries (Cambria Press, 2014).


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The battlefields in Arctic Combat are shutting down. Webzen recently announced that the games service will be come to an end on September 2nd. The gradual shut down of the games services began last week with the closing of its in-game store. Certain compensations are being offered to veteran players that made purchases for the game.
by Stacy Jones on Aug 06, 2013


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WORLD BUSINESS BRIEFING: AMERICAS
WORLD BUSINESS BRIEFING: AMERICAS; INVESTMENT AT VOLKSWAGEN-MEXICO
By Sam Dillon
Published: December 14, 1999
In a major expansion of its Mexico operation, Volkswagen said it would invest $1 billion over five years at its plant at Puebla, 60 miles east of Mexico City. The new spending will include $500 million to modernize Volkswagen's huge Puebla compound, which produces both the New Beetle and the classic VW Bug, and an equal amount to ''diversify the products that VW assembles there,'' the company said. The expansion is part of the company's plans for $33 billion in new investments worldwide by 2005.


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Newly-crowned Share Farmers of the Year Sarah and Aidan Stevenson are looking forward to their leadership roles over the next 12 months.
Awards general manager Chris Keeping says the finalists are looking to progress and grow their equity and position in the industry, "exciting to see and great to witness".
Share farmer head judge and DairyNZ senior consulting officer Abby Scott says the economic climate has prompted finalists to change some practices to ensure they better manage available resources.
"People were focusing on growing grass and supplements within their farm boundary and making sure they used it. And they were more interested in profit per hectare than benchmarking milk production per cow. We also saw innovative ways of reducing costs," Scott says.
"They were all positive about the industry, their business and their equity growth. Their positivity... was infectious. There's no doubt they're in the industry for the long haul."
Share Farmers of the Year Mark and Jaime Arnold are 50% sharemilking 500 cows for Mike and Sherynn Harold and Stuart and Sandra Cordell at Dannevirke. It is their fifth season on the farm and a great relationship with the farm owners led the owners to partner them as they progressed from lower order to 50% sharemilking.
Jaime says their farm operation is all about people.
"We are surrounded by people who have great influences; our staff make us who we are. We call our farm owners our farm partner and appreciate their support."
The Arnolds took a huge pay cut when they launched their dairy farming career eight years ago.
The former logging crew manager and teacher went on a single herd manager's salary when they stepped onto a dairy farm for the first time.
Thomas Chatfield became the 2016 New Zealand Dairy Manager of the Year and Nicholas Bailey was announced the 2016 New Zealand Dairy Trainee of the Year.


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recent survey of iPhone users put out by Rubicon Consulting entitled "The Apple iPhone: Successes and Challenges for the Mobile Industry," reveals some interesting demographics about the typical iPhone user, their satisfaction with the device, and the revenue that the iPhone brings to AT&T. Not surprisingly, it seems that iPhone users are very satisfied with the product and are making heavy use of features like email and web browsing. The increased use of these types of data functions has also led to higher bills, which produces about $2 billion in additional revenue for AT&T, the exclusive iPhone carrier for the U.S., as well as higher bills for iPhone owners.A
The survey, which focuses on U.S. users, shows that the iPhone user base consists mainly of young early adopters about 75% of whom are previous Apple customers.
This coincides with other Apple-related findings just released regarding today's younger generation: a Morgan Stanley survey reveals that 40% of college students say their next computer purchase will be a Mac.
The kids like their Apple products.
Many of the iPhone users are young. Half are under thirty. Fifteen percent are students.
When asked to rate their level of technology expertise, most described themselves as technically sophisticated, a reminder that, for now, many of the iPhones are still in the hands of early adopters, a typically technically-savvy group.
The iPhone survey shows that half of the iPhone users replaced conventional mobile phones (most often the Razr) while 40% replaced other smartphones (like Blackberrys and Windows Mobile devices).
For the iPhone owners, email is the number one function utilized on the phone, with 70% of users checking their inboxes at least once per day. Web browsing runs a close second, with 60% of users surfing at least once per day. A majority of users, 75%, says that they do a lot more mobile browsing than they did with their previous phone, and with half of them coming from conventional cell phones, that's not a big shock.
What is interesting is that for a quarter of the iPhone owners, the iPhone is displacing the notebook computer. Twenty-eight percent of those surveyed responded that they are now often carrying an iPhone instead of their notebook computer. So it's almost as if the iPhone and Macbook Air are competing for the same customer.
Despite the iPhone's ability to get more people surfing the web, 40% responded that the iPhone has trouble displaying some of the web sites they want to visit. This is most likely due to iPhone lack's of Flash (our coverage). And with Windows Mobile's licensing of Flash Lite, Apple's going to feel some pressure to resolve the issues preventing Flash from coming to the iPhone.
AT&T For the Win
Despite the all the unlocking tools and hacks, 82% of those surveyed report their phone is not unlocked. This is good news for AT&T, who is raking in the profits - nearly $2 billion in increased revenues.
From the survey, here's how the $2 billion was calculated:
Some of that revenue gets shared with Apple - rumored to be at $18 per phone - but not all. And now that the switchers are AT&T customers, there's the potential to up-sell them from basic plans to ones that generate even higher revenue, like those pricier ones listed in the chart below:
For the iPhone users, switching to the iPhone meant phone bills that increased by an average of 24%. They don't seem to mind, though, since the typical iPhone use is richer than the average - in fact, iPhone users reported household incomes are about 40% higher than the U.S. median. However, this finding is consistent with early adopters for technology products.
So, What Does It All Mean?
Now, the challenge for Apple is to get their product beyond the youthful technophiles and into the hands of mainstream users in order to maintain sustained growth. While the early adopters are a great group for launching a product, without mainstream use, the early success won't last.
Apple's recently announced support for Microsoft Exchange is a step in the right direction in order to get business users on board, a move that may push more mainstream adoption.
But even so, the high price stymies some potential purchasers (cough cough), and the phone's relative success is currently US-only - its sales in Europe have not been as promising nor does it make use of Europe's 3G networks.
However, the iPhone has already had a lasting impact on the mobile industry: its very creation put pressure on other mobile companies to deliver more PC-like phones with better browsers which will push forward greater adoption of mobile web.


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Mobile prepaid users can now get RM10 for RM10 cards from next year but calls, messages and data will be charged GST upon usage.
The GST rollout last month has put many Malaysians on a fairly bumpy ride. We look at some of the hiccups that we went through since its implementation and the steps that have been taken to address them.
A wiser spending trend among consumers in Malaysia has emerged since the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST).
The Customs Department and the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) are at odds over reverting prepaid reloads to pre GST rates.
Prices of 99 items in Peninsular Malaysia, 145 items in Sabah and 102 items in Sarawak have been reduced upon the implementation of GST.
The Ministry of Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism has targeted 100 companies, to join its price reduction campaign this year.
With GST, will parents with school-going kids (especially to private and international schools) be further burdened down financially?
Check out these GST-free restaurants in the Klang Valley, and keep those greens in your wallet!
Consumers are urged to lodge complaints against traders who suddenly increase prices following the implementation of GST.
Still confused about GST. You are not alone. Here are 5 common misunderstandings that you may have about GST and why you need to know the answers now!


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London, UK (PRWEB) December 3, 2009
Premier Inn, the UK's biggest hotel chain, has launched its first hotel in India and announced plans to open nine further hotels in India in the next five years.
Premier Inn is expanding in India to capitalise on the country's developing business traveller market. Currently there are a limited number of budget brands providing hotels in India (http://global.premierinn.com/in/hotels/our-hotels.action ) - and this represents an excellent opportunity for Premier Inn, with its strong budget hotel model.
Premier Inn India Managing Director, Aly Shariff, said: "Large Indian corporates, multi-national companies, SME's and small privately owned firms are the kinds of customers we are targeting - there is a huge and rapidly growing junior and middle management population that represent an excellent opportunity for us. We have planned 10 hotels in five years, with Bangalore now open, following this will be properties in Delhi (2010) and Pune (2011), as well as looking at other potential sites."
Patrick Dempsey, Managing Director of Premier Inn UK (http://www.premierinn.com/ ), said: "India represents one of the fastest growing economies in the world today, and we are confident that Premier Inn will be successful in India. Our strong budget hotel model of great quality combined with excellent value will no doubt be an attractive proposition for business and leisure travellers alike."
Premier Inn Bangalore (http://global.premierinn.com/in/hotels/bangalore-whitefield.action ) will cater for its guests with 105 rooms, a multi cuisine restaurant, bar, gymnasium and a conference room.
Premier Inn's development in India comes just 18 months after Premier Inn launched its first international hotel in Dubai (http://global.premierinn.com/gcc/hotels/dubai-hotels.action ). Premier Inn Dubai now has 2 hotels, with the third site opening in December 2009.
About Premier Inn
Award-winning Premier Inn is the UK's largest and fastest-growing hotel brand with 580 budget hotels and more than 40,000 rooms across the UK and Ireland. Premier Inn bedrooms feature en-suite bathroom, TV with Freeview, and WiFi internet access. Premier Inn offers customers a money-back 'Good Night Guarantee' of a good quality room, comfortable surroundings and friendly service, which is unique amongst Britain's leading hotel chains.
All Premier Inns feature a bar and restaurant; situated inside the hotel or adjacent, offering a wide range of food choices.
Premier Inn was the first Britain-wide hotel group to sign up with national tourist board VisitBritain; this means Premier Inn is now part of a new quality assessment scheme, specially created for budget accommodation.
In 2008 Premier Inn launched in Dubai and in 2009 opened its first hotel in India. On a domestic front, Premier Inn is set to be the largest provider of budget hotels in London by the 2012 Olympics.
For further information please contact:
20-23 Mandela Street
0207 693 6999