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In a report released by Partnership for a Healthier America (PHA) and the National Confectioners Association (NCA), American chocolate and candy companies are providing more transparency, choice and portion option guidance for consumers.
Leading chocolate and candy companies – such as Mars Wrigley, Ferrero, Ferrara Candy Company, Lindt, Ghirardelli Chocolate and Russell Stover Chocolates – met and even exceeded metrics associated with their five-year commitment through PHA to voluntrily increase percentage of portion options in their product portfolio and increase percentage of products that carry front-of-pack calorie labels.
Key findings include that half of individually wrapped products made by participating companies are available in sizes that contain 200 calories or less per pack, up 38.3% in the 2016 benchmark year. In addition, 94.8% of confectionery products have front-of-pack calorie labels, up from 53.7% in 2016. 98% of chocolate and candy packaging found at the front of the store have calorie labels printed on the front of the pack.
85% of chocolate and candy sold today comes in packaging that contains 200 calories or less per pack, according to the report, whether this is individually wrapped products or multipacks with smaller packages inside.
“The results of this commitment show that companies have the opportunity to impact change while still maintaining their business models and keeping consumers front and center,” said Nancy E. Roman, President and CEO of PHA. “We applaud these companies for stepping up and helping consumers manage their sugar intake through innovation, transparency, and education.”
In 2017, the companies mentioned joined forces in a commitment to PHA, setting a goal to provide more transparency, create more portion guidance options and educate consumers about how chocolate and candy can be an occasional treat in a balanced lifestyle. This commitment outlined by 2022:
- Half of individually wrapped products would be available in sizes containing 200 calories or less per pack
- 90% of best selling products of these companies would have calorie information printed on the front of pack
- AlwaysATreat.com would become a digital resource with easy to use information for consumers to better understand the role confections play in a balanced lifestyle
“The scale of these major global competitors and their ability to collaborate and drive meaningful change related to offering more transparency, portion guidance options, and educational tools for consumers seeking to manage their sugar intake is unmatched,” said John Downs, President & CEO of the NCA.
“We are proud of the results of our commitment to PHA; and our industry is continuing to focus on innovation in packaging and products to meet our consumers and retail partners’ needs and desires for great-tasting treats.”
“The data tells the story of an industry that has stepped up and done the right thing for the consumer without losing sight of where they want their business to go in the future,” concluded Hank Cardello, Executive Director of Leadership Solutions for Health + Prosperity at Georgetown University’s Business for Impact Center. “This proactive action by the companies to support consumers is a win-win, showing that the confectionery industry can do well by doing good.”
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Just got the iPhone 5, and don’t know what to do with your perfectly fine iPhone 4? (Jerk). Well, there’s a growing amount of cell phone recycling kiosks coming to malls near you that will pay you cash for your discarded gadgets. ecoATM, a startup that is building out these networks, has just raised $41 million in debt financing from private equity firm Falcon Investment Advisors, according to a filing, which could help it start pushing out a much higher volume of these kiosks.
Published Date:Wed, 02/06/2013

domain: news


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The 107-year-old United States company will pay Red Hat's shareholders a 62pc premium for their shares in a bid to accelerate its growth into the emerging $1trillion growth market for cloud-based computing systems. In other words, an open cloud provider improved by Red Hat's decades of knowledge in Linux and open source. "The acquisition of Red Hat is a game-changer", Ginni Rometty, IBM's chairman and chief executive, said in a statement.
Under the deal, Red Hat will be incorporated into IBM's Hybrid Cloud division. The real question is whether Red Hat's influence on Linux and open source will grow now that it has IBM's financial backing. "The largest software transaction in history and it's an open source company".
It's a bold stroke because Linux has become the most common OS in public clouds.
The company will be paying through cash and debt, as opposed to share exchange, but did not specify the proportions. It has faced years of revenue declines, as it transitions its legacy computer maker business into new technology products and services. "It changes everything about the cloud market".
Finally, the firms say that Red Hat will remain independent.
IBM and Red Hat will be strongly positioned to address this issue and accelerate hybrid multi-cloud adoption.
Headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina, Red Hat charges fees to its corporate customers for custom features, maintenance and technical support, offering IBM a lucrative source of subscription revenue.
The Red Hat purchase will give IBM an immediate cloud revenue boost growth as well as a suite of proven software products to sell through its global sales force. IBM shares have lost nearly a third of their value in the past five years, while Red Hat shares are up 170 percent over the same period.
"Importantly, Red Hat is still Red Hat".
Anticipating concerns that the acquisition would endanger Red Hat's appeal as an agnostic provider of open-source software, IBM said it will "remain committed to Red Hat's open governance, open source contributions, participation in the open source community and development model, and fostering its widespread developer ecosystem".
Red Hat shareholders still have to approve the deal, but the board of directors at each company has signed off, and it's hard to imagine strong protests from Red Hat shareholders given the premium over its most recent closing price.
The two brands also re-affirmed that the open-source nature of Red Hat will be maintained, and codes will still be contributed to the community.
For all that, maintaining Red Hat's standing and culture could prove hard for the company once known as Big Blue.
IBM revealed that it will be spending $34 billion for this acquisition, which should close in the second half of 2019 if it passes regulations.


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AUSTIN, Texas -- Whole Foods Market, Inc. here posted an 11.6 percent sales increase for the 12-week quarter ended April 8, 2007. However, its net income fell 11.2 percent to $46 million, due in part to the cost of new store openings.
Chairman, c.e.o., and co-founder John Mackey didn't seem to be too concerned yesterday. "We opened a record six new stores during the quarter, which brings us to 15 opened over the last 12 months, and we are still on track to open more stores this fiscal year than we ever have," he said in a statement. "We are very excited to see the acceleration in our new store openings materialize, as some of these are incredibly exciting stores that will allow us to redefine the marketplace and further differentiate our shopping experience from other food retailers. In addition, our new stores open at least one year continue to outperform our sales and ROIC projections, and we expect these new stores to be strong drivers of our future sales and earnings growth."
The chain said that members of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission staff have voiced concerns over its plan to buy rival Wild Oats Markets, Inc., and that the FTC has not yet decided whether to challenge the $565 million deal.
Sales for the quarter increased 11.6 percent to $1.5 billion, driven by 12 percent ending square footage growth and a 6.0 percent increase in comparable store sales on top of an 11.9 percent increase in the prior year. Identical store sales (excluding four relocated stores and three major expansions) increased 5.1 percent.
For the quarter, pre-opening and relocation costs were $15.6 million, compared to $7.3 million in the second quarter last year. Approximately $6.4 million relating to share-based compensation, pre-opening rent, and accelerated depreciation was expensed for accounting purposes but was non-cash, compared to $3.9 million in the prior year.
During the quarter, the company produced $67 million in cash flow from operations and received $14 million in proceeds from the exercise of stock options.
Capital expenditures were $102 million, of which $77 million was for new stores, and the company paid approximately $25 million to shareholders in cash dividends. At the end of the quarter, the company had total cash and investments of approximately $170 million and total long-term debt of approximately $3 million.
For the 28-week period ended April 8, 2007, sales increased 11.9 percent to $3.3 billion driven by 12 percent ending square footage growth and comparable store sales growth of 6.6 percent. Sales in identical stores (excluding four relocated stores and three major expansions) increased 5.7 percent. Net income was $99.7 million.
The company said it has recently signed nine new store leases averaging 42,000 square feet in size in the following locations: Capitola, Calif.; Lafayette, Calif.; Palm Desert, Calif.; San Francisco, Calif.; Santa Rosa, Calif.; Basalt, Co.; Honolulu, Hawaii; Ann Arbor, Mich.; and Yonkers, N.Y.
For fiscal year 2007, on a 52-week to 52-week basis, the company expects total sales growth of 13 percent to 17 percent and comparable store sales growth of 6 percent to 8 percent.
Longer term, Whole Foods said its goal is to reach $12 billion in sales in fiscal year 2010.


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The Miami Heat announced that tickets for Game 6 of the NBA Finals will go on sale Friday afternoon at 2:00pm.
Individual game ticket inventory is limited and tickets are expected to sell quickly. Fans can purchase tickets online at HEAT.com, Ticketmaster.com or by calling 1-800-4NBA-TIX. There will be an eight ticket purchase limit per household.
Tickets will not be available at the AmericanAirlines Arena Ticket Office for the initial on-sale date. Playoff tickets may be purchased at the AmericanAirlines Arena Ticket Office beginning on Monday, June 17 at 10:00 am.
The Heat forced a Game 6 with their win against the San Antonio Spurs Thursday night. Game 5 will take place in San Antonio on Sunday night.
Game 6 will be played at the AmericanAirlines Arena on Tuesday, June 18 at 9:00pm ET. If necessary, Game 7 will also be at the AmericanAirlines Arena, on Thursday June 20.


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The coronavirus is messing everything up for everybody. Now, people are not going to be able to order or by their goods because even Amazon has “temporarily” stopped shipping on non-essential goods.
In a statement released on the company’s website, the executives have taken measures to protect the community and their workers. Please read in entirety their position.
“We are closely monitoring the developments of COVID-19 and its impact on our customers, selling partners, and employees.
We are seeing increased online shopping and as a result some products such as household staples and medical supplies are out of stock. With this in mind, we are temporarily prioritizing household staples, medical supplies, and other high-demand products coming into our fulfillment centers so that we can more quickly receive, restock, and ship these products to customers.
For products other than these, we have temporarily disabled shipment creation. We are taking a similar approach with retail vendors.
This will be in effect today through April 5, 2020, and we will let you know once we resume regular operations. Shipments created before today will be received at fulfillment centers.”
Amazon was founded by Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest man and is the second-largest private employer in the Nation. According to the New Yorker, it brings in more than 1/3 of all the retail products sold on the internet from this country. The brand also owns Whole Foods and helps other companies like Etsy and eBay ship their goods. Amazon’s Web-services division powers vast portions of the Internet, from Netflix to the C.I.A.


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Japan's grocers, weathermen see rice bowl half empty
Bad weather may hurt this year's rice crop, further damaging its status as Japan's staple food.
What would Japanese food be without rice? Perhaps a taste of the future.
The origins of Japan's association with the cereal are lost in time. The link runs so deep that the early indigenous name of the country is said to be "The Land of the Water Stalk Plant."
But cheaper alternatives, busy schedules, and a bad crop are taking the steam out of Japan's sticky love affair with rice.
Poor weather this summer has focused fresh attention on this island nation's staple crop. Temperatures were some two to three degrees Celsius below normal throughout much of the country last month, and rice fields got only about one-third their typical exposure to sunshine, according to the Japan Metrological Agency.
One rice think tank expects this year's crop to drop 7 percent from last year, and anticipates an "extremely poor harvest" in the cooler north of the country, where the bulk of the national crop is farmed. Some observers say Japan may be facing its worst rice harvest in a decade.
This cloudy forecast, however, may not take the toll it once would have on the national palate. A new UN study goes so far as to say that "rice is no longer a staple food" in Japan.
To be sure, a fresh steaming bowl of short-grain sticky rice still stirs a nostalgia for home and pride in the country's rural ancestry. It is central to ceremonial meals at certain times of year, such as New Year rice cakes.
But to Akira Kogiso, a third-generation owner of a small rice shop in Tokyo, times have changed. When his grandfather opened the store 60 years ago, around half the calorie intake in the average Japanese diet came from rice. That figure drained to 23 percent in 2000, according to the International Rice Research Institute. "The number of people who eat rice in Japan has really dwindled," he says.
The decline may have been encouraged by a rice shortage a decade ago, which forced the government to import 2.4 million tons of rice the following year from Thailand, the US, China, and Australia. The event proved a watershed, sparking a long, if grudging, process of opening Japan's closed agricultural markets. While the rice market remains largely protected from foreign imports, family-run rice shops must now compete with supermarkets for customers. Ten years ago, "only specialty rice shops were allowed to sell rice by law," says Mr. Kogiso.
Ironically, the government's policy of promoting self-sufficiency in rice production and subjecting imports to tariffs - as high as 390 percent - may also be partly to blame for the fading importance of rice in the Japanese diet. The policy protects the small-scale, high-cost farming practiced by traditional supporters of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party coalition government.
But the puffed-up prices have put rice out of reach for lower-income families. The bulk of rice consumption occurs in older, wealthier households, while the less established economize with a more Western diet.
"Young people don't cook their own food anymore," says one shopkeeper. A McDonald's chain opened near his rice store earlier this year. "Restaurants and convenience stores target ready-made food at young families," he observes.
A study by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has found that Japanese consumers are more than willing to substitute other foods for rice if the price is right.
As incomes shrink and job security falls in uncertain times, Japanese families are adopting a diet based on bread, noodles, fresh meat, eggs, and vegetables.
Domestic shipments of pasta even rose 5.5 percent to 249,000 tons in 2002, according to a survey by the Japan-Pasta Association. The market expanded for the first time in three years, thanks in part to a demand for pasta at lunchtime by families eating at home more on the weekends.
Fresh meat has also become an important part of the Japanese diet, as consumer disappointment over a recent imposition of tariffs on imported beef and pork shows.
During the "rice crisis" of '93, some worried that rice's cultural importance might be threatened by the foreign varieties that were being brought in.
The cereal was thought to symbolize Japan more than any other food. It has played a formative role in the creation of Japanese social structure and was used as currency for paying taxes and wages until the mid-19th century. According to Shinto belief, the Emperor of Japan is the living embodiment of the god of the ripened rice plant.
Yet on the eve of the UN's International Year of Rice, rice sellers here can feel the waning of the "water stalk plant."
When Mr. Kogiso's grandfather opened his rice shop, there were few safer enterprises upon which to lay the foundations of a family business. Now, Kogiso and other local rice sellers are hoping a campaign to commemorate the Year of Rice will boost sales.
Whether they'll be selling the local product or emergency imports remains to be seen.


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Featured in Techcrunch
September 5, 2021
There is a good chance you’ve never heard of TAPPP, but you probably know some of its customers like Major League Baseball (MLB) and the NFL. And if you’ve ever seen pre-paid cards for access to the NFL Game Pass subscription services or MLB’s streaming service in your local supermarket, then you’ve seen its product, too. TAPPP focus is on making access to this premium live sports content available as a pre-paid service for these leagues.
As the company announced today, it has raised a $5 million Series A funding round led by leAD Sports/OurCrowd’s ADvantage Fund, with additional backing from Accomplice, Elysian Park, Go4it, Courtside VC and Sterling.VC.
TAPPP is currently available at over 5,000 retailers, including Walmart and Gamestop. The company notes that it makes access to these sporting events available to both the unbanked who can’t otherwise get a credit cards, as well as consumers who opt out of having one.
“TAPPP is a perfect fit for ADvantage’s debut fund. Its approach to serving untapped viewer segments through a combination of traditional payments and an innovative, on demand viewing experience, is unique and creative,” said Jeremy Pressman, a partner at ADvantage. “We at ADvantage are thrilled at the opportunity to leverage our deep connections in the sports market to broaden TAPPP’s reach even further.” Pressman will join TAPPP’s board.


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O’Fallon Brewery co-founder Fran Caradonna joins Schlafly as new CFO, CAO
Schlafly has hired O’Fallon Brewery and The Signature Beer Co. co-founder Fran Caradonna, who officially joined its executive team as chief financial officer and chief administrative officer on Monday, March 18. Caradonna will manage all Schlafly’s financials and accounting, and she’ll also oversee its daily administrative operations.
Caradonna co-founded O’Fallon Brewery in 2000 with her former husband, Tony; she has most recently acted as its general manager. Prior to starting the brewery, Caradonna managed financials, raised capital for expansion and helped launch several national craft beer companies at The Signature Beer Co.
Coincidentally, one of The Signature Beer Co.’s distribution partners in the early ‘90s was Schlafly, who was only selling beer at the bar of the Tap Room at the time. Through their work together, Caradonna helped launch Schlafly’s brands beyond the Tap Room, aiding the small craft brewery in expanding to sell bottles at Schnucks, Dierbergs and Shop n’ Save. Caradonna called her new position there “a match made in heaven.”
“We were intimately part of their team,” she said. “So for me, it’s like reconnecting with old friends – a full circle back to my beginning in craft beer.”
Going forward, Caradonna hopes to keep Schlafly in touch with those early days.
“The goal is to remain true to our roots and to remember that it’s all about the beer,” she said. “My goal is to get back to the fundamentals of selling craft beer. You’ve got to be a little scrappier when you’re a craft brewer. You’ve got to work a little harder, work a little more one-on-one. It’s about making sure the employees, the staff, the influencers, the people who show up at the Tap Room and the Bottleworks week in and week out, that they’re invested and that they feel the joy, that we’re all living the dream.”
For Caradonna, one of the biggest pulls was the opportunity to work with co-founder and board chairman Tom Schlafly. She sees his work as important not only to the beer scene, but also to the city itself. “What’s important to him is his impact on the community,” she said.
Schlafly is equally excited to work with Caradonna. “Her acute understanding of the beer business will be an invaluable resource to our time, and we are confident that her guidance will ensure Schlafly Beer’s success for the next 28 years and beyond,” Schlafly said in a press release.
Adam Rothbarth is a staff writer at Sauce Magazine.
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Cornell University Drops Licensed Apparel Agreement With Nike Over Labor Rights Concerns
We often hear that the third time is the charm, but with respect to the relationship that Cornell University has established with Nike, the entities might not have the opportunity to prove that, and few would probably fault the Ivy League institution for deciding to part ways permanently. On Friday, the school's president, Martha E. Pollack, notified the company that Cornell has chosen for the second time to end its licensing partnership, with concerns for Vietnamese factory employees’ working conditions being the impetus.
The decision’s origins date back to October 2015, when Cornell students and their contemporaries at other American colleges and universities sought, after having heard of labor exploitation of Hansae Vietnam Co. Ltd hires, to have the Workers Rights Consortium inspect its facility. The organization and the Fair Labor Association have since ventured to the Ho Chi Minh City complex numerous times. And, though Nike has addressed the severity of the gripes, including reports of stifling temperatures, physical and verbal abuse, and widespread termination of pregnant women, its overall progress “has fallen short,” according to an April 2017 update. That declaration soon helped the Cornell Organization for Labor Action to deem itself a winner over Nike, named, perhaps ironically in this case, for the Greek goddess of victory.
It remains to be seen just how Nike will continue to make amends to the Vietnamese location’s roughly 8,500 workers, with an Ithaca Voice article stating the marketer must still provide back pay for off-the-clock tasks, tend to cooling systems and ensure that sewing operators have proper seating. However, and here is where talks of the almighty dollar will surely arise, Pollack stated that her employer, which in 2010 first ended its connection to Nike over labor matters in Honduras, would again count itself as a client if Nike and Branded Custom Sportswear, its licensee partner, would follow the “standard contract language” that IMG Collegiate Licensing used to strive to safeguard against human rights violations.
Along with Cornell—which will continue to hawk its already supplied Nike merchandise—Georgetown, Northeastern and Rutgers universities, along with UC Santa Barbara, have nixed Nike as an ally. One wonders if they would be similarly forgiving if the apparel/footwear giant would come down to Earth, but maybe it is better that they all move along and find another collaborator. What do you think?


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In a bid to strengthen the South West’s circular economy and to tackle throwaway culture, a leading waste management and recycling company has invested £290,000 in machinery and facilities at its specialist plastics reprocessing centre.
DCW, the Zero to Landfill firm based in Exeter, has introduced a new 10,000ltr fountain blender, an extruder machine and a mezzanine to its Marsh Barton plastics recycling and reprocessing plant, DCW Polymers. Together, the machinery will increase production of DCW’s recycled plastic furniture range by 400% and create eight new jobs.
Waste plastics collected from businesses across the South West are taken to DCW Polymers where they are shredded into plastic granules by the new extruder. This material then goes back into the manufacturing process. The extruder, purchased from Boston Matthews in Worcester, allows DCW’s team of plastic recycling experts to process five times more plastic waste, improving productivity and keeping as much of the region’s plastic waste as possible away from landfill.
The fountain blender can blend approximately four tonnes of recycled granulated plastic at any one time. It provides a mix of material and colour suitable for the manufacturing of DCW’s recycled garden range which includes benches, dining sets, tables, chairs, fencing, decking and dog agility equipment.
To complement the new machinery, the family-run firm has invested £60,000 to build a new mezzanine which has increased the square footage of DCW Polymers by 2,880 sq ft. The extra floor provides further storage space for DCW’s recycled garden range, ensuring that products can be ready to meet the growing customer demand.
Simon Almond, DCW Managing Director, said: “We’re passionate about achieving a more circular economy in the South West. Circular economies are vital to have in place if we are to win the fight against climate change as they lower carbon emissions, reduce the use of non-renewable resources and ensure that waste is kept away from landfill sites. We’re proud of how DCW Polymers is already contributing to our region’s circular economy with our recycled garden furniture range and our recent investment will continue to drive our growth in this area.
“It’s important to us that we support the UK manufacturing industry and we were pleased to source our new extruder machine from Worcester based Boston Matthews. Our new machinery allows us to scale up production to meet the growing demand for sustainable, durable outdoor furniture which isn’t detrimental to the environment.”
A sustainable alternative to timber, the plastic furniture and products are maintenance free, will not rot, splinter or corrode and will not require painting or treating. Each item is made using 100% plastic waste collected from South West businesses and holds a 10-year guarantee.
DCW Polymers is the only specialist plastics recycling and reprocessing plant south of Bridgwater. With a fleet of 70 modern vehicles, the commercial recycling firm can collect items from both businesses and wider communities, providing a processing service for bulky plastics such as plastic bins, playground equipment, garden furniture, plastic pallet crates and even larger items such as kayaks and fuel tanks.
DCW empties in excess of 14,000 containers every week, diverting more than 40,000 tonnes away from landfill each year. It was the first independent company in the South West to offer a Zero to Landfill solution, meaning that all materials that can be recycled, are. DCW’s Zero to Landfill solution helps support the waste management and recycling industry by providing materials for onward processing, recycling and manufacturing.
As well as its Zero to Landfill service for mixed commercial waste, DCW also provides specialist waste management services such as chemical and WEEE disposal and site clearances.
For more information about DCW’s services, call 01392 361300 or visit www.dcw.co.uk.
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GSK is Launching a New Innovation Centre for Pharma Manufacturing
Reducing the time to market for medicine is a core goal of the pharmaceutical industry, and by playing its part in a new innovation centre GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is helping develop the new technologies and processes to get remedies to the people who need them more efficiently than ever.
Today, GSK is one of the most well-known pharmaceutical brands in the world, and employs over 99,000 people. The Brentford-based company has revenues of $37,642 million, placing it at #273 on the Fortune 500.
An Innovation Centre for Medicine Manufacture
In June, it was announced that work was to begin on a £56 million innovation centre for pharmaceutical manufacturing in Renfrewshire, Scotland. The project is the first of its kind in the world, and is being financed with contributions from various funds and Scottish enterprise sources, as well as significant investment from pharmaceutical giants AstraZeneca and GSK. The University of Strathclyde and the Medicines Manufacturing Industry Partnership (MMIP) will also be heavily involved with the Centre.
The Medicines Manufacturing Innovation Centre (MMIC) will be located in the area’s Advanced Manufacturing Innovation District and is expected to create 80 new high value research and development jobs by 2023.
“As an industry, it’s critical that we develop, test and adopt the latest innovations in manufacturing safely and quickly,” said Global Technology Strategy Director of Operations for AstraZeneca, Jon-Paul Sherlock. “We believe the collaboration between industry, academia and government via the MMIC will help drive this, and will ensure that new medicines can reach patients in a timely manner. AstraZeneca is delighted to be a founding partner and we are committed to playing an active role to ensure the MMIC is successful.”
One of the core roles for MMIC will be to take the output of the EPSRC Centre for Continuous Manufacturing and Advanced Crystallisation (CMAC) and translate it to the industry.
Continuous manufacturing is a dramatic departure from the way medicines are traditionally produced – in batches. With continuous manufacturing, factories can be producing medicines 24 hours a day, all year around. The process shift comes with many challenges, however, and it’s these challenges which CMAC carries out its research to overcome. Advanced crystallisation techniques are also allowing for the production of higher-value products with specific properties and the building of more efficient manufacturing processes.
However, raw research isn’t much use without practical applications, and it will be the responsibility of the MMIC to take those findings and come up with innovative ways to make them applicable in real-life manufacturing environments.
“Strathclyde has earned an international reputation for research and innovation that accelerates and enhances the manufacturing of medicines and pharmaceuticals,” said University of Strathclyde Principal Professor, Sir Jim McDonald. “As strategic partners in MMIC, we will have an enhanced role in supporting industry to deliver urgently-needed medicines both swiftly and effectively. MMIC will provide world-class talent, research capability, technology, facilities, knowledge and experience to industry to ensure these challenges are met.”
While there will always be a place for batch production in the pharmaceutical industry when it comes to small run or bespoke medicines, the MMIC’s goal of implementing continuous manufacturing and advanced crystallisation will ensure all medicines are brought to market in the most efficient manner possible, while still maintaining the high quality patients demand.
“Industry, government, academia and others are working together to secure an internationally competitive leadership position for the UK in life sciences for the long-term. GSK has long advocated the value of collaborations like the MMIC to capitalise on our world-class science base and deliver innovation that drives growth and improves patient care. We are delighted to have an active involvement in this new centre.”
Please download the agenda today for more information and insights.


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The website – which went live today (July 17) – allows patients to search for services, including sexual health, skincare and vaccinations, and which of PharmaDoctor’s more than 7,800 partner pharmacists are offering the required service.
Once registered on the website, patients can start an initial consultation online, before visiting the pharmacy. Pharmacists will then use PharmaDoctor’s pre-existing online consultation eTool to determine which treatment is appropriate for the patient, PharmaDoctor explained.
The website is free for patients to use and there are no booking fees for pharmacies already using PharmaDoctor’s eTool, it added.
“Following the success of our travel health eTool service, we know that more than 50% of travellers using the service prefer to begin their consultation online, before sitting down with a pharmacist,” PharmaDoctor chief executive Graham Thoms said.
“Not only does this save time for both patient and pharmacist, it also encourages patients to engage with pharmacy services remotely, which in turn drives more footfall to their services.”
PharmaDoctor plans to make all its services available via the consultation eTool “in the near future” and will add an electronic booking system to the website towards the end of the year, it said.
For more information, visit the PharmaDoctor patient website.
Read an interview with PharmaDoctor CEO Graham Thoms.


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November 01, 2021
The Sixers finally unveiled their long-rumored City Edition jerseys on Monday morning, a nod to the Philadelphia Spectrum, home to the Sixers from 1967 until 1996.
After last year's Boathouse Row jersey ruffled a few feathers and broke from the team's core color palette, the Sixers decided to go back to their roots for this year's jersey, invoking the arena where they played their last championship season. Using navy-blue as the base color with a red font across the chest inspired by Sixers jerseys from 1971-76, the rest of the details are directly connected to the Spectrum, with a large logo on the shorts and a four-color panel down the sides of the jerseys. The colors represent each of the four primary sports teams in Philadelphia — the 76ers (blue), Eagles (green), Flyers (orange), and Phillies (red).
As has become tradition, the jerseys will be accompanied by a themed City Edition court, with the Spectrum badge placed at center court, surrounded by red baselines and sidelines and the team's navy blue in the painted area, as seen below:
Philadelphia is expected to wear the new jerseys for the first time on Wednesday, November 3rd against the Chicago Bulls, and will wear the jerseys for each of 13 "Spirit of 76" promotional nights at the arena this season, where the team says the arena will feature "throwback themed entertainment" as well as giveaways. Those giveaways include posters featuring the team's current players in the retro-themed jerseys, such as the shot of Seth Curry seen below:
“The Spectrum holds a very special place in our franchise lore, having served as the 76ers’ home arena for nearly three decades,” Sixers President of Business Ops Chris Heck said in a press release. “The memories made at America’s Showplace, including the historic 1982-83 championship season, are priceless, and will be relived through the 2021-22 Nike NBA City Edition uniform. We’re also excited to display the colors of the Spectrum logo, which represent the teams that our fans love and support here in Philadelphia.”
Fans will be able to purchase City Edition merchandise beginning on Monday, November 15th on SixersShop.com and through the team's store at their current home arena, Wells Fargo Center.
Follow Kyle on Twitter: @KyleNeubeck
Like us on Facebook: PhillyVoice Sports


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It will implement a comprehensive strategy focused on the Asian market offering, with the aim of capturing the attention of thousands of tourists and luxury service seekers.
According to the president of PromPeru, Per capita spending by South Korean travelers is high in every city they visit.
Try to focus
A PromPeru top official emphasized that Hosting APEC will not only allow Peru to showcase itself in front of various countries around the world, but also in the Asian region a strategy has already been designed that will „focus well on cost and target audience”.
Thus, The company is looking for alliances to develop digital strategies and replicate past campaigns that have actually been successful.
„Last year, we ran several campaigns to bring in millennial influencers from Korea. They toured Peru, and the impact was immediately noticeable in the following months, because we started to see a big increase in tourism from South Korea. It's a strategy that works for us, and this year we're putting more emphasis on it.” going to give,” she pointed out.
. „Gracz. Namiętny pionier w mediach społecznościowych. Wielokrotnie nagradzany miłośnik muzyki. Rozrabiacz”.


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- Matt Dunlap
TSCRA – TEXAS SOUTHWEST CATTLE RAISERS ASSOCIATION Trade Show
On July 23-25, API had the privilege to attend the annual Texas Cattle Raisers Convention in Fort Worth, TX. This was the first agricultural trade show attended since the pandemic. We were excited to visit with current customers and vendors. Convention visitors provided an opportunity to discuss new business. Our booth displayed a 300 gallon molasses lickfeeder, a 150 gallon lickfeeder, and a mineral feeder. Inquiries into how the products were made allowed us to share the rotational molding process used to manufacture the feeders. Additionally, many of the components are injection molded leading to a discussion on that process.
API, a proud member of TSCRA , participated in the annual action benefiting the Special Ranger law enforcement through the donation of 300 gallon lickfeeder which sold considerably higher than list price. We look forward to an even better show next year as the country continues to reopen.


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updated 10:30 pm EDT, Thu November 3, 2011
Theriault was with Apple for four years
John Theriault, Apple's Vice President of Global Security, has left the company following the controversial iPhone 4S investigation in San Francisco, 9to5Mac is reporting. Theriault has been with Apple for over four years, having joined the company after serving as Chief Security Office at Pfizer. He is a former FBI agent and has been particularly active in fighting the growing problem of counterfeit Apple products in China. Apple has not commented on the report.
While the timing of Theriault's departure may be coincidental, it follows a series of strange events surrounding the loss of an iPhone 4S prototype last summer after an engineer accidentally left it behind at a restaurant (a story quite similar to the circumstances surrounding the loss of an original iPhone 4 prototype in a bar in April of 2010). This time, the company used the "Find My iPhone" technology to track the device down to a private residence, but despite repeated visits Apple's security team were unable to locate the prototype. The person who lives at the residence, 22-year-old Sergio Calderon, has offered conflicting stories about what happened.
Apple Security is alleged to have talked the San Francisco Police Department into accompanying them back to the residence where a search was initiated of the premises, but again turned up empty-handed. The department is investigating how it handled the incident.
While at Apple, Theriault reported directly to Senior Vice President and General Counsel Bruce Sewell. His security department was dubbed the "World Wide Loyalty Team" on the company's organizational chart. His departure follows that of Apple Senior Vice President of Retail Ron Johnson. [via 9to5Mac]


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Smartphone fans had a quite delightful year. We saw some amazing competition in the smartphone industry with high specifications at a relevantly low price. However, there was not much hardware performance growth in 2018. The software was the major area of development that we witnessed in the year passed by. Hence, there are a number of Technology which is going to improve in 2019 and we should keep a strict watch on them. The smartphone is one industry with rapid developments. Therefore, 2019 will be full of hardware and software improvements, in both budget and flagship Smartphone range. Below are some trends we expect to see in the smartphones of 2019.
Trends in Smartphones of 2018
1. Punch hole display
Some Rumored Smartphones you will be having a punch hole display. By punch hole display, we mean that the display will completely be covered by the screen. There will not be any bezel or notch, only open school containing the front camera will be present. This is a trend which we expect to be present in more than three-four models of Smartphones releasing buy some big companies in 2019. For instance, Huawei Nova 4 is confirmed to come with this Punch hole display. Moreover, the Samsung Galaxy S10 will also have this punch hole Technology. However, Samsung calls this infinity “o” display.
Therefore, two phones are already confirmed with the punch hole display. Hence, we expect this to be a trend in the upcoming smartphones. There is always copy paste format in the smartphone industry. Most Chinese companies follow the design of top Tech companies like Apple and Samsung. Hence, the punch hole display will surely become the new trend in 2019.
2. Improved Cameras
The camera race was a part of 2018 and will remain a significant area of development in 2019 as well. There are two ongoing races in the camera segment. One is the number of lenses. Till date, we have seen a quad camera and LG has announced 5 lens camera. However, the race doesn’t end here. There is a Chinese smartphone manufacturer which has patented of 16 lens camera. However, the possibility of actually implementing it seems quite impossible currently.
Another significant area of development will be the megapixels. Lumia has the highest record of 41-megapixel camera till date. Xiaomi has announced its intentions of manufacturing of 40-megapixel camera. Some other smartphones like the Huawei Mate 20 Pro are rumoured to be participating in the same race.
3. Quick Charge
The world is getting faster and so are the lives of human beings. In this fast-moving and busy generation, people really have the time to charge the devices. Therefore, some companies have indicated a quick charge to be an area of rapid development in 2019. We are already using the 3rd version of quick charge. This will be a continuing trend in the smartphones of 2019. Quick charge is a necessity of today’s smartphone users. Almost all the work we do are based on a smartphone. Hence, the average time of using the smartphone is increasing drastically. To tackle the needs of the consumers, manufacturers are already working on quick charge technology and we will further see it in 2019 smartphones.
4. Face Unlock
Face unlock is a feature which we have seen in 2019 flagship smartphones. However, we expect at face unlock feature will be the new trend in budget segment Smartphones of 2019. A significant improvement in the retina focused unlock is going on. According to most experts, the fingerprint sensor will be replaced by face unlock features in the upcoming Smartphones of 2019. This will ensure much more safety compared to the fingerprint, which can be used by someone while you are sleeping. Hence, these trains are going to lead the smartphone industry in 2019.


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The administrators of fashion chain D2 Jeans have sold 20 stores, which includes one at Cheshire Oaks, to a rival retailer in a move expected to save 200 jobs.
D2 Jeans collapsed after Christmas with administrators closing 19 of its 47 stores, making 200 staff redundant and jeopardising hundreds more positions.
Blue Inc today bought 20 of the 28 stores still being traded by the administrator BDO, which it will convert to its banner in the coming months.
Fashion retailer Blue Inc, which has been trading for nearly 100 years and whose backers include former Marks & Spencer boss Sir Stuart Rose, already has 171 stores and last year bought 46 Officers Club shops out of administration.
The stores being bought are in Ayr, Coatbridge, Dunfermline, Livingston, St Enoch centre and Fort shopping park in Glasgow, Barnstaple, Bicester, Cambridge, Cheshire Oaks, Sheffield, Gloucester, Newquay, Penzance, Truro, Banbury, King's Lynn, Ballymena, Portadown and Enniskillen.


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When it comes to a phone and its components, what is the "article of manufacture?"
In the Apple v. Samsung patent infringement case, the U.S. Supreme Court said last year that it could be a product or a component of the product. The decision upended Apple's $399 million judgment against Samsung based on the phone's entire design.
The Supreme Court did not define "the article of manufacture" for calculating damages in the case, however. The justices sent that determination back to the court of appeals.
On remand, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit this week rejected arguments from both Apple and Samsung on the question. Instead, the appeals panel sent the issue back to the trial judge.
"While Apple requests continued panel review, Samsung requests that we remand to the district court for a new trial on damages," the court said. " Instead, we remand this case to the district court for further proceedings, which may or may not include a new damages trial."


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Outdoor power, lighting popular at show
PEORIA – An electric neighborhood vehicle seemed to be the life of the party during last week’s Greater Peoria Farm Show at the Peoria Civic Center.
A steady stream of show attendees walked past a display from the Intimidator Brands, which featured the eNVy vehicle.
“It has been out for three years now and a lot of towns now are allowing these,” explained Rich Kuse, territory sales manager for Intimidator, covering Illinois and Wisconsin.
The small vehicle has turn signals, brake lights, and programmable acceleration in case younger drivers are operating it.
Intimidator also had the Spartan mower on display where visitors could actually operate it and drive it around. Last year was the first year for the ride and drive experience and Kuse was pleased with it.
“It was a big success.”
Those participating in the Spartan mower experience had a chance to register to win a mower. The fancy seats and chrome exhaust tips make the machines stand out.
“We are actually the fastest growing outdoor power equipment company in history,” added Kuse.
A Greater Peoria Farm Show exhibit from Edison Lighting Supply LLC appeared to light up the room – or at least the nearby exhibits. Edison offers anything from a small five watt all the way up to a 20-watt flood light and everything in between for offices, warehouses and farm shops.
“You’ll save a lot of energy going to LED,” noted Edison’s Jeff Nelson. “They might be eligible for a rebate from their electrical utility.”
Many of the booth spaces around Edison Lighting Supply didn’t have to worry about supplemental lighting as their lights were plenty bright.
“I’ve got dusk to dawn yard lights, eight-foot tubes, four-foot tubes and all of our stuff is guaranteed for a minimum of five years,” said Nelson.
According to Nelson, the newer lighting lasts longer and is considerably brighter than the older lights.
With sales representatives scattered all across the country, Edison Lighting Supply is a nationwide company that has been in business for eight years now.
“I’ve been in lighting for 16 years and my associate, Roger, has been in it 16 years also,” concluded Nelson.
More information can be obtained by visiting www.edisonlightingsupply.com or contacting Nelson at 866-643-0555.


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Mukesh Ambani is eyeing stakes in a host of Indian e-retailers to bolster Reliance’s retail offerings. A number of deals are in the works which, if successful, could help the company compete head-on in a fast-growing online retail market projected to be worth an estimated $170 billion by the end of the next decade.
With the Reliance Industries flagship JIO Mart already having an $8 Billion backing from Facebook and Vista Equity while a further $4 Billion in talks with Google topped by a $1 Billion investment in India by Amazon makes this investment crucial for the survival of Flipkart.
Flipkart recently announced the formal closure of the Jabong fashion portal, thereby making Myntra its sole focus – but the trouble lies in the company’s business model for the Indian apparel industry.
American E-commerce shines bright in the sky while on the ground Retail Indian stares at a Dark Diwali.
Offline retail is suffering amid a country-wide cash crunch, while credit-driven e-commerce giants Amazon and Flipkart soar in 2019 Diwali buying.
Leading e-commerce marketplace Flipkart said on Thursday it is fully compliant with foreign direct investment (FDI) laws and works closely with
Flipkart co-founder and former CEO Binny Bansal has sold $14 million worth of shares in the company to New York hedge fund Tiger Global, according to regulatory filings accessed through data intelligence platform Paper.vc.
BharatPe, India’s leading Fin-Tech Company and the fastest to grow to USD 650 million TPV (with 300 days of operations), today announced the appointment of two senior hires in its product team.
Online giants invest heavily in amplifying their business with experience and variety, and enticing users to buy subscription models at low prices.


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Alphabet Inc GOOG shares are trading lower Wednesday amid an antitrust lawsuit against the company over online advertising.
What Happened: The U.S. Justice Department has accused Google of abusing its dominance in the digital advertising space, per Reuters.
The report indicates the government has brought an antitrust complaint against Google that aims to force the company to sell its ad manager suite.
"Google has used anticompetitive, exclusionary, and unlawful means to eliminate or severely diminish any threat to its dominance over digital advertising technologies," the antitrust complaint reportedly said.
Related Link: Peter Schiff Says DoJ Harassing Google With Antitrust Lawsuit: 'Consumers Need Protection From Government...Not Private Companies'
What Else: Alphabet shares may also be facing selling pressure following Microsoft Corp's MSFT quarterly report. The tech giant doubled down on its investment in OpenAI's ChatGPT a day ahead of the report and then reaffirmed its increased focus on AI in the print.
"The next major wave of computing is being born, as the Microsoft Cloud turns the world’s most advanced AI models into a new computing platform. We are committed to helping our customers use our platforms and tools to do more with less today and innovate for the future in the new era of AI," said Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft.
Near the end of 2022, reports indicated that Google had declared "code red" to deal with the threat AI poses to Google Search. Google CEO Sundar Pichai had reportedly been involved in a series of meetings to define Google's AI strategy not long after ChatGPT took the world by storm.
From Last Month: ChatGPT Popularity Reportedly Leads To Google Declaring 'Code Red' As Sundar Pichai Increases Involvement In AI Strategy
GOOG Price Action: Alphabet has a 52-week high of $152.10 and a 52-week low of $83.45.
The stock was down 2.74% at $96.49 at the time of writing, according to Benzinga Pro.
Photo: Hebi B. from Pixabay.
© 2023 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.


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Customers want a frictionless experience from financial services companies; but security and anti-money laundering measures make this difficult. A panel of industry experts debated possible solutions to this and other challenges.
The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated digital efforts in financial services. Customer identity verification is one area where there is advantage to be gained, Adam Desmond of Mitek told an audience of financial services business leaders at a Business Reporter virtual roundtable.
The financial services sector has coped very well with the pandemic, delegates agreed. After a few weeks of disruption early on, financial services companies were able to support staff who were working from home, and redirect customers to phone lines and digital channels. However, there is real pressure to maintain progress on digitisation.
A layered approach to identity verification
Many of those at the briefing said that today’s main driver of change is customer demand. Customers expect a low-friction experience, just like they get from e-commerce firms, such as Amazon. Attendees agreed that onboarding customers remains a particular pain point. Artificial intelligence and analytics are likely to smooth this in future, but those at the briefing said these technologies remain limited.
Of course, there are reasons why financial services must be more careful about customer identification. Fraud, cybercrime and money laundering are greater concerns for financial services than for e-commerce. Passwords can be exposed, and documents can be forged or stolen. No single identity verification measure will be enough. And whatever efforts a company makes, there is always the possibility of customer data being exposed through a third-party data breach.
The best solution is to take a layered approach, combining multiple sources to verify identity. This could be a combination of documentary evidence, confirmation on a particular device, and one or more biometric measures. Some attendees said multi-factor authentication had been adopted slowly overall but was now becoming commonplace.
Unfortunately, each added layer of verification adds more friction for the customer. The tension between customer experience and the need to follow Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements and anti-money laundering (AML) regulations will remain a challenge for at least the short-to-medium term.
The era of open identity
One way things could be simplified would be with an interoperable identity framework used for KYC and AML This would save financial services companies from duplicating effort by repeatedly verifying the same people. Approval on one system could grant a customer access to multiple platforms.
However, there might be good reason not to do this. One attendee suggested that being better at preventing fraud or securing data than a rival could be an important competitive advantage. If customers are becoming more concerned about their personal information – and many attendees believed they are – then there is value here. The market leaders may not want to share best practice with the laggards.
This type of ‘open identity’ might well be driven by the spread of Open Banking measures. That could mean, for example, that when buying alcohol at a self-service till in the supermarket, age verification could be handled by checking with the customer’s bank and using the information the customer has agreed to share.
Although Open Banking is expanding, delegates at the briefing agreed that regulators were only playing a small role in driving change. This might be because they are understaffed or underfunded. But whatever the reason, it seems that they are leaving a vacuum. Delegates felt that regulators could take more of a leadership role instead of being stuck as “followers”.
Shifting consumer attitudes
The burden is on businesses to lead the way. Several attendees said that they are seeing signs of a shift in consumer attitudes to personal data. They have been willing, for most of the past two decades, to part with personal data in return for relatively minor bonuses, such as discounts or other rewards. But attitudes are changing. People know their data is valuable. Businesses must get better at offering value in exchange for it.
Younger people appear, at least anecdotally some attended claimed, to be more aware of the value of their data, and more cautious about sharing it. This change could be further accelerated by companies like Apple who are making data privacy a central pillar of their brand. If that proves to be popular with consumers, then other businesses in other sectors could follow suit.
After decades of predictability in financial services, there is now considerable uncertainty. This brings with it considerable opportunity. For example, people once chose a bank in their late teens – often the one that their parents used – and they stayed with that bank for the rest of their lives. Today’s customers are much more likely use multiple companies for different financial services and they are more likely to switch suppliers. And each time they switch, they must be verified. The sector seems to be only just beginning to grapple with the digital tools required to make this happen simply, safely, and securely.
Learn more how companies in financial services fight fraud today from Mitek’s Fraud Trends and Tectonics report.


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How Fortnite Became the World’s Most Popular game
With Fortnite Battle Royale on the crest of an enormous wave of popularity, it’s almost impossible to think that just a few years ago Fortnite was seen as an inevitable disappointment for developer Epic Games. Revealed in 2011, Fortnite was meant to be a showcase of Epic Games’ game development tool, Unreal Engine 4, and was scheduled to be released in 2013 as the first game for UE4.
However, development on Fortnite at Epic Games took a turn for the worse as the project took a backseat, with Epic Games confirming the game wouldn’t hit the 2013 release target.
Dark Days of Development
With various closed alpha and beta periods throughout 2014 and 2015, it was clear that Fortnite wouldn’t be releasing anytime soon. Epic Games was busy sorting out the backend elements of the game for it to work in the games-as-a-service model, and with the Unreal Engine 4 released in 2014, the team had additional work supporting other games being developed and released on their engine.
Fortnite took an even further backseat in 2015 when Epic Games announced another free-to-play game in development called Paragon. While Paragon began its open beta in early 2017, in about a year’s time Epic Games announced they would be stopping development and shutting down the Paragon servers.
Redirecting the Fortnite Bus Towards Success
While Paragon had sucked the development resources away from Fortnite, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney promised to fans that Fortnite would be the next big release the team would focus on. The team were working hard to reach the July 25th, 2017 release date, but ultimately decided to release the game into paid early access to allow themselves more development leeway while still having a product available for fans who had been waiting more than five years now.
However, it was in early 2017 that Epic Games noted the success of the battle royale game Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds, and began at looking at how they could create a similar game mode for Fortnite. In September of 2017, Fortnite started to turn things around with the release of their free-to-play Battle Royale game mode.
Fortnite Battle Royale’s Rise to Number One
A spin-off from the original game, the battle royale mode features matches in which 100 players are dropped onto an island with the last player standing the winner. To say that Epic Games struck gold would be an understatement, with over 10 million players on the battle royale mode just after two weeks after its release.
Epic Games kept their head down however and worked hard to release mobile versions of the battle royale mode in April 2018. In their first month, Epic Games took in over 50 million USD in microtransactions from the mobile version of the game alone.
What Lies Next for the World’s Most Popular Game
While Epic Games has been continuously expanding and updating Fortnite, it has run into a snag. It recently came out that Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds is suing Fortnite for the theft of intellectual property, more specifically copying of the game’s user interface and several in-game items. While this lawsuit is unlikely to go the way of Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds, Epic Games has undoubtedly been preparing for what will be a contentious trial.
After taking the battle royale crown from Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds, Fortnite now stands as the world’s most popular game, and many game studios are looking to replicate Epic Games’ success. From a development disappointment to the world’s most talked about game, Fortnite has had a meteoric rise that seems unlikely to slow down.


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Paul Holmes 23 Mar 2009 // 12:00AM GMT
Only 8 percent of Americans today have full confidence in banks and financial services companies, according to a new nationwide consumer poll conducted by Waggener Edstrom Worldwide and RT Strategies. This single-digit score marks a steep decline from the 31 percent confidence level the industry earned in polls conducted as recently as 2006.
Surprisingly, in the midst of the overwhelming lack of confidence in the industry, consumers still say that they have either “heard nothing” from the industry or that they “don’t like what they have heard.”
But while the industry suffers from a significantly diminished reputation, consumers still hold a fairly balanced view of recent actions taken by the industry—particularly the institutions that have received federal Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) funds. In this important area, Americans are clearly listening to what banks have to say right now, and so far are split evenly between those giving banks credit for good use of federal funds and those with doubts.
“Ironically, at a time when the financial services industry has the most at stake, its communications with consumers and policymakers have descended to a strikingly low level,” says Torod Neptune, senior vice president and global public affairs practice leader at Waggener Edstrom Worldwide. “Perhaps one of the most jarring findings in this survey is the sheer lack of industry leadership in communicating what financial services companies are doing to aid in a broad-based economic recovery,”
Specifically, the survey found that 44 percent of respondents said they had heard something from the industry but felt more negative after hearing it, suggesting that media coverage or advertising is shaping public opinion more than direct communication from the industry; 11 percent have heard something from the industry and felt better about the industry after hearing it, suggesting that when there is authentic and credible communication, it positively influences widely held opinions about the industry overall; and 38 percent have heard nothing directly from the industry at all.
“Americans are looking to banks and the financial services industry for answers, and so far, they are hearing none,” said Thomas Riehle, managing partner with RT Strategies, a bipartisan public affairs polling firm. “Historically we see a two-to-one positive score on what people have heard, given institutional attempts to present a positive image via PR and marketing, so when it falls as far as one-to-one, we know an institution is controversial and in trouble.
“In that context, these scores (four-to-one negative) are miserable.”
Despite the low vote of confidence, consumers still appear willing to give the industry the benefit of the doubt on questions about industry practices, such as the use of TARP funds. For example 28 percent said they believe that banks are using the recently secured federal TARP funds to make consumer loans; 23 percent said they believed the industry was using the funds to make business loans; 27 percent said they believed the industry was holding the funds in reserve; and 21 percent said they believed the industry was using the funds to pay salaries and bonuses for its executives.
Says Neputne: “Despite the overwhelmingly negative media coverage of the industry in the past few weeks, it was surprising to see that consumers still express a fairly balanced view of the industry and even acknowledge some of its recent positive contributions to economic recovery. Clearly there lies a huge opportunity for financial services leaders to step forward in the midst of this storm—but they need to proactively communicate.”


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GRAND RAPIDS — For the first time in decades, trucking carriers are in a position of strength.
“Virtual self-destruction” of the trucking industry finally reached equilibrium last year. Carriers large and small have shuttered their doors — including last May’s folding of USF Red Star in response to a threatened Teamster strike — while the industry slowed the creation of equipment and drivers.
The result was a sudden shortage of shipping capacity that, despite relentless fuel surcharges, has put trucking on the sunny side of the supply/demand curve for the first time since deregulation.
“We’ve been with the company for over 20 years and we’ve never seen it like this,” said Pam Hassevoort, CEO of Foreway Transportation Inc. “This has always been a difficult business to make a profit in — you’d have good years and bad. Last year was a very good year.”
“We’ve never seen it in this severity,” said Rick Ensing, president of Foreway. “This was the perfect storm.”
Donn Herreman, executive vice-president of non-asset based logistics firm Cargo-Master Inc. said 2004 was a banner year, and he expects the same for 2005.
“As a broker we gained on the field,” he said. “Capacity has been an issue for all of our customers, but we benefited by aggressively marketing to smaller carriers and growing our dedicated fleet.”
Cargo-Master has 30,000 carriers under contract. Through cooperation with branch offices across the nation, it has taken advantage of business that other carriers can’t — namely little or no lead-time freight that other providers turned away.
“We’ve been able to take the capacity issue and use it as an advantage,” Herreman said.
Other brokers aren’t as cheerful.
“Business is good,” said Nationwide Transportation President William Meyers. “But we had some difficulties last year because of a shortage of carrying capacity.”
Historically, West Michigan has always produced more than it has received, and that natural imbalance is still there. But many carriers diverted attention elsewhere in the state, including over 100 tractors to a single expanded factory in northern Michigan.
“Instead of excess capacity, we now don’t have nearly enough,” Meyers said. “In the second half of the year, carriers started to realize that they were in demand for the first time in a century.”
Foreway Transportation has struggled to meet the demands of walk-in business. “We’ve turned away a lot of shippers,” Hassevoort said. “We don’t have the capacity. We need to take care of the accounts we have under contract.”
As such, Foreway has seen higher revenue per mile but has not been able to expand on that.
Not like it isn’t trying.
Foreway has boasted an average fill-ratio of 97 percent as the driver shortage kept up to a third of some carriers’ fleets off the road. Ensing attributed this to a substantial increase in Foreway’s pay last year to attract new drivers.
Herreman mentioned that the driver shortage could be a boon for the economy, as displaced factory workers may find employment in transportation.
“If Joe Blow loses his factory job and wants to drive trucks, we can’t hire them,” he said. “We only hire drivers with a couple of years’ experience. They’ll have to pay their dues somewhere. They want to be home with their family at night, but they’ll be gone sometimes for months. There is a huge price at the entry level.”
While deregulation eliminated most barriers to enter the market, new barriers aggravate the capacity problem. Besides a lack of drivers, insurance costs skyrocketed and manufacturers slashed equipment output in recent years.
Ensing said there is a three-month lead-time on new equipment. New entries are in line with fleets that waited through the recession to replace aging equipment.
“Time heals everything,” Ensing said. “Independents are going to come back. It’s still an easy business to access and the carriers will increase their fleets. More people will start schooling drivers.
“The holdback is insurance and drivers. It will take longer to heal because of driver pay.”
Meyers believes that 2005 will be one of the best years transportation has ever seen. But it won’t be the cheapest.
“It took 23 years for the industry to virtually self-destruct and bring the price of product down to virtually nothing,” he said. “It’s not going to take 23 months to build a reasonable compensation for the services performed in the industry.”
He reported a major price increase in the last quarter of 2004, which he will be forced to pass along to his customers in 2005.
Using USF Red Star as an example was Bruce Ferrin, Western Michigan University associate professor of marketing and integrated supply.
“When USF shut them down, that completely changed the economics of competition in that region,” Ferrin said.
Ferrin explained that Red Star was a marginally performing carrier that stayed afloat through aggressive price-cutting. With it gone, so went the region’s price competition.
“That’s a microcosm of what’s happening across the nation.”
Customers should expect to bear the brunt of higher fuel costs, driver pay and insurance prices.
A logistics management survey co-sponsored by DHL and Reed Research Group last month predicted rate hikes of 4.5 percent across all modes of transportation in 2005 and 4.6 percent increase in trucking rates. Of respondents, 82 percent saw prices rise in the fourth quarter of 2004.
The majority blamed higher fuel costs (52 percent), followed by insufficient carrier capacity (32 percent).
Less than a third predicted shipping capacity to improve in the first quarter of 2005. Only 14 percent saw improved availability in the fourth quarter of 2004.
According to another Logistics Managementreport, express shippers UPS, FedEx and DHL each announced domestic average increases of a uniform 2.9 percent, with varying rates by delivery type — the highest being UPS Hundredweight Service, an LTL carrier, at 5.9 percent.
The Masters of Logistics survey last fall reported similar findings. Over the past two years, respondents had indicated that cost cutting was their primary strategy. With freight rates rising, though, shippers may have resigned themselves to higher costs, as only 16 percent named cost leadership as a driver. Instead, customer service was the leading strategy (36 percent).
While confirming drops in carrier capacity (3.5 percent for truckload) and noting declining delivery times, the report also showed shippers keeping a tight lid on inventory. Managers on average reported only 12,997 stock-keeping units in warehouses, a sharp reduction from 16,175 the previous year.
Ferrin believes that such a continued focus on lean or just-in-time manufacturing may set the stage for catastrophe.
“We may be on the verge of a major paradigm shift away from lean,” Ferrin said. “Just like we saw a shift toward it 20-some years ago.”
Ferrin explained that lean concepts were developed for a different economic climate. Twenty-five years ago, money was expensive, interest rates were high, and the just-deregulated transportation industries had excess capacity and were all competing on price (often with discounts of up to 60 percent off published tariff rates).
“Money was expensive so inventory was expensive, transportation was cheap,” Ferrin said. “It made sense to strip away your inventory.”
Today, the opposite factors exist: Money is inexpensive, interest rates are low, the shipping industry has shed its excess capacity and prices are steadily rising.
“There aren’t carriers left that will haul unprofitable traffic,” he said. “Then with the crunch of the booming import volumes from China and Asia, carriers are in a position where they can start to charge compensatory rates for the services they provide.”
Besides pricing, there are performance issues.
Ferrin cites Ford Motor Co.’s logistics nightmare that caused it to close its Hapeville, Ga., plant for two days in August due to a lack of parts.
“Some people are saying this is the shape of the world for the foreseeable future. Rates are going to increase, and people are going to take a hard look at how lean lean should be.”


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TAGS: San Diego e-cigarette ban, e-cig ban, San Diego City Council, electronic cigarettes, e-cig vending machines, vapor inhaler restriction, tobacco, smoking ban
SAN DIEGO, CA -- San Diego's City Council unanimously passed legislation that bans the sale of electronic cigarettes through vending machines. The rules also prohibit their use in all places where conventional smoking is banned.
The legislation, passed on Aug. 4, also will require businesses that sell e-cigarettes to obtain special permits.
The use of vapor inhalers will be prohibited in restaurants, theaters, sports facilities, parks and beaches, the same places where smoking traditional cigarettes is banned. They will be allowed in vehicles, e-cigarette shops, vaping lounges and private residences.
San Diego follows Los Angeles and Long Beach in regulating the devices.


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As we look back on the year 2011, eCommerce organizations continued to expand their global reach. A growing number of US and European retailers started shipping internationally. Brands enabled eCommerce on their own websites in new markets and launched online stores on marketplaces in multiple countries. Other companies with an interest in global eCommerce used the year to gain insights into new markets, determining which ones to prioritize in the years ahead. Rumors swirled about Amazon preparing to enter India. Or Brazil.
For many companies, however, the globalization process is still just beginning. Aside from a handful of companies that operate eCommerce sites around the world, few companies have a truly global online footprint. The growing number of US- and European-based companies that ship internationally will see revenues increase from these markets, but will start to hit a language ceiling: Close to two-thirds of online consumers in both France and Germany, for example, agreed with the statement, “I only shop from websites in my native language.” In the UK, the percentage is close to three-quarters.
2012 will not be the year that eCommerce organizations blanket the globe with localized offerings – they will, however, continue stepping into international waters. Next year we expect to see :
- More brands will sell direct in international markets. It is now commonplace to see large consumer brands operating their own eCommerce-enabled sites in markets such as the US and the UK. However, only a handful such as Dell and Burberry operate transactional websites in dozens of markets around the globe. Next year, an increasing number will look to extend their reach online globally, with brands expanding beyond French-, German- and English-language eCommerce sites in Europe, and increasingly enabling transactional sites in Asian markets such as Korea and China. Stay tuned for a more in-depth look at this topic in our upcoming report, due out within the next few weeks.
- International shippers will focus on consumers in specific markets. A growing number of online retailers embraced international shipping this past year, with well-known US brands such as Crate and Barrel, Williams-Sonoma and Bloomingdale’s all launching global shipping in 2011. In 2012, however, retailers will start to target customers in specific countries. The era of simply shipping to dozens of global markets while paying little or no attention to any individual one will give way to a more focused approach. Companies will invest more in localized landing pages, spend more on paid search and create shipping promotions targeted at shoppers in key markets. The most aggressive of the international shippers will look to improve the customer experience in their most lucrative global markets by exploring local fulfillment options.
- eCommerce companies’ “Tier 1” markets will include multiple emerging markets. In the past, eCommerce globalization for many companies meant launching a handful of sites in North America and Europe, with Japan frequently representing the sole eCommerce offering in Asia. By 2012, however, eCommerce organizations with global aspirations will have put the big emerging markets on their list of the most strategically important markets, lavishing funds on teams in or preparing to launch in these countries. Brands selling through traditional offline channels recognized the importance of emerging markets many years ago: In 2012, these markets will be equally important in brands’ online initiatives.
- BRIC will still be the acronym, but CBIR will be the order. Last year, I called out that China would be top of mind for many global eBusinesses in 2011. The momentum in China continued throughout the year, with a growing number of global brands launching their own eCommerce sites in the country or developing branded sites for marketplaces such as Tmall. In 2012, brands will continue to put the huge-and-growing eCommerce market in China at the top of their list of emerging markets, but Brazil will quickly emerge as the next big opportunity. Already, a number of global brands are turning their attention to Brazil, and next year will see many more launch. By contrast, India and Russia fall a step behind the two larger economies when it comes to attracting global eCommerce players, with retailers continuing to cite logistical challenges as barriers to entry in both markets.
- The mobile commerce gap will narrow substantially on global offerings. It’s common for eBusiness executives to ponder whether they should bypass traditional PC-based eCommerce altogether and go straight to mCommerce, especially in emerging markets. The answer is no: Setting up a back end supply chain in these markets is pricey and complex, so foregoing the traditional (and dominant) PC-based model to focus exclusively on mobile makes little sense. However, retailers today are still at the other extreme. Most launch traditional websites for new global markets without an accompanying mobile website or mobile app – only later are mobile options added. Next year, look for retailers and brands selling internationally to reduce the amount of time from an initial eCommerce launch to mobile commerce launch in new markets, and for an increasing number provide both in tandem.
What global trends does your eBusiness expect to see in 2012?


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British farmers fear they could go out of business following a post-Brexit trade deal with the US, the National Farmers Union has told the BBC.
NFU president Minette Batters said US farms could "outcompete" UK producers if standards were changed.
Speaking on the BBC's Today programme, Ms Batters challenged the government to provide reassurance to farmers.
"Are we going to hold our nerve or are we going to be sacrificed?" she said.
Last week, the head of America's farming lobby argued the UK should accept US food standards.
A US-UK deal is being touted as a way to boost the UK economy after Brexit.
Ms Batters said farmers would like to see EU regulations enshrined in UK law after Brexit, but that it had "not been agreed" by the government.
"We need that assurance from the prime minister", she added.
Last week, Zippy Duvall, head of the US National Farm Bureau Federation, vowed to "make sure" that US food standards prevail in a trade pact.
Mr Duvall told the BBC he wanted to have "a conversation" about food standards given the concerns in the UK.
US practices that are banned by the EU include irradiation, the use of gamma radiation to eliminate micro-organisms, and the use of genetically modified crops.
One of the most controversial practices is washing chicken with chlorine to kill germs. Critics argue not that the wash itself is harmful, but that it permits poorer hygiene standards earlier in the production process.
Mr Duvall argued that fears over such practices were not "science-based".
But Ms Batters said that the US is not addressing animal welfare and environmental protection, areas she said were not subject to US regulation.
She argued that a solution would be for agriculture to be left out of an agreement.
"There is a huge difference in opinion in what's needed in a US-UK trade deal", Ms Batters said.
Mr Duvall, a poultry farmer based in Georgia, previously warned that leaving agriculture out of a deal would be considered a betrayal by US farmers.
"It would be turning their backs on rural America, and that's where a big part of the population lives."
Ms Batters, who runs a mixed farming business in Wiltshire, acknowledged that "agriculture is always the last chapter in any trade deal to be ratified" because of the compromises often involved.
UK farmers have recently raised concerns about a no-deal Brexit, which could lead to high tariffs on goods exported to the EU.
Lamb and live sheep exports could face tariffs of 45-50%, while some cuts of beef could see tariffs of more than 90%.
If European firms start having to pay more for UK meat, they could switch to suppliers in other countries.
Other so-called "non-tariff barriers", like extra veterinary and customs checks at the border, could also increase costs to farmers.
Farms also currently receive more than £3.5bn a year in EU subsidies under the Common Agricultural Policy.
Agricultural land covers 71% of Britain's total land area, amounting to 17.4 million hectares.
Agriculture's contribution to the national economy stands at less than 1%, according to 2018 figures.


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An unknown hacker or group of hackers has supplemented a large-scale database with leaked accounts to 841 million accounts. In total, the hacker offers leaked accounts from websites of thirty companies for sale, reports TechCrunch.
The data is sold on the market place Dream Market on the darkweb, a closed part of the internet where users can surf more anonymously.
Security researcher Ariel Ainhoren tells TechCrunch the suspicion that the hacker has collected the data himself. Many websites whose leaked accounts are offered were not yet known to have been hacked, says Ainhoren.
The recently added hacked websites include eight million accounts from the Gifycat gif website, sixty million accounts from photo editor Pizap and several US services.
Earlier, the hacker already offered data from DNA test service MyHeritage, diet service MyFitnessPal and the social medium Dubsmash for sale.
About the author: Rick Culpepper
Rick Culpepper is of those journalists who dig the topic to the very bottom. He is often late with the delivery of the piece, but always does it perfectly. In his spare time, he collects data for one of the most high-profile investigations of corruption in the EU.


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The Co-operative Bank’s Digital Bees network is a DigiKnow partner, committed to helping people get online and improve their digital skills. On Friday 14 October, they are running Digital Drop-in sessions to help people across the North West feel safer and more self-sufficient online. Kerry Scott, Service Designer at The Co-operative Bank tells us more.
Building digital skills and confidence
To mark the Digital Bees’ 3rd anniversary of working in the community, I’ve coordinated these Digital Drop-ins at a number of our branches across the UK to help anybody who wants support with queries preventing them from doing the digital tasks they want or need to complete in their day to day lives.
More and more services are moving online, and this digital shift can be positive. But we know that some people feel less confident with technology, and they can feel ‘locked out’ of accessing some things. We call this ‘digital exclusion’ and we’re extremely passionate about doing our bit to tackle it.
We want to share our knowledge and guidance to help improve lives, such as:
- Help to set up an email address
- Help to set up and use video calling on a device
- Practical tools and tips on staying safe online from scams online.
It’s also a great opportunity for anyone who doesn’t know where to start when it comes to getting themselves set up online as we’re making sure we give as much time as people need when dropping in.
With the rising cost of living crisis, I believe that understanding digital tools and services can help keep costs down and give people the independence and access to support they deserve. So, we really hope we can play a part of making technology more accessible for the Greater Manchester community this Digitober.
What’s a Digital Drop-in?
The volunteers can help answer technology questions, especially about:
- Getting set up online
- Staying safe online
- Ways to communicate online
- Using the internet
- Digital banking
- Digital safety and accessibility features
Anyone is welcome – you don’t need to be a Co-operative Bank customer.
Our next event will take place on Friday 14 October, 10 am to 4 pm at the Co-operative Bank Stockport Branch, 1 St Peter’s Square, Stockport, SK1 1NX. They’ll be running at a few other branches across the North West too.
As well as the Digital Bee Drop-ins, my colleague Michael McGuinness will be delivering a free workshop on Wednesday 19 October at the Re:dish community hub. He’ll be sharing online security tips, including topics such as staying safe whilst using online banking and shopping online. Everyone is welcome, and it’s set to be a fantastic event.
For more information about The Co-operative Bank’s Digital Bees initiative and other events they’ve organised, you can read more on the Digital Bees’ website.
For regular updates from the #DigitalStockport blog, sign up for email alerts.


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Welcome to FindBiometrics’ digest of identity industry news. Here’s what you need to know about the world of digital identity and biometrics today:
FaceTec Triples Spoof Bounty Reward
FaceTec has tripled the total potential payout of its Spoof Bounty Program, raising the prize for successful spoof and camera-bypass attacks to $600,000. The program incentivizes white-hat security researchers to really try to hack its flagship biometric technology, enabling FaceTec to quickly become apprised of any security flaws that might need to be addressed. And in so doing, it demonstrates the quality and effectiveness of FaceTec’s solution, especially now that it offers such a sizeable payout to successful spoofers. Read our full story.
Veridos Acquires Serbia’s NetSeT
Veridos has acquired Serbia-based NetSeT Global Solutions, via a controlling stake in the identity management systems developer. The acquisition should help to further reinforce Veridos as a major provider of identity solutions. The company claims clients across over 100 countries, and offers solutions ranging from chip components to mobile IDs to biometric identification systems. Read our full story.
NEXT Seeks China Expansion With Strategic Partner
Oslo-based NEXT Biometrics has established a strategic partnership with Wiser, a China-focused market entry, equity advisor and venture partner. In announcing the partnership, Wiser Group CEO Kevin Chen called it “a cost-effective way for NEXT to increase its presence in one of the world’s largest biometric markets,” adding that his company “has a proven track record enabling European tech companies to succeed in China.” NEXT says that it expects the partnership to start generating revenue growth by the end of the year.
Jumio Boosts Sales Team With New Appointments
Jumio is looking to supercharge its sales efforts, announcing two senior appointments to that wing as it seeks to further boost the momentum gained during a very successful 2022. The company has named former Trulioo president Jon Jones as its new Senior Vice President of Worldwide Sales, and promoted Simon Winchester to the role of Vice President of Global Account Management.
Whoop Teams With Health Recovery Device Specialist
Whoop, the company behind an eponymous health-tracking wristband, has teamed up with Hyperice to assess the latter’s health recovery products’ effectiveness on end users. The collaboration will specifically look at Hyperice’s Hypervolt percussion massage device and its Normatec dynamic air compression system. Both the Whoop wristband and Hyperice’s solutions will feed data through the Apple Health app. In a statement, the companies described the integration as “the first of multiple joint initiatives between the brands that aim to further understand the impact of percussion massage and dynamic air compression on physical recovery while advancing human performance through quantitative data.”
Cognitec Brings ID Matching to FaceVACS-Entry Solution
Cognitec has enhanced its FaceVACS-Entry solution with new identity verification and Presentation Attack Detection capabilities. The face-scanning device is aimed at border control applications including eGates, kiosks, and border control booths, and can now match a subject against their photo ID, or against a given database. “The combined service of photo capture and person verification saves travelers lots of time at the border,” explained Cognitec Managing Director Alfredo Herrera.
ROC Brings American Biometric Tech to MOSIP
Rank One Computing (ROC) has partnered with the Modular Open Source Identity Platform (MOSIP). Developed by the International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore (IIITB), MOSIP is aimed at supporting large-scale, government-led identity initiatives on a cost-effective basis, and has been adopted for projects in the Philippines, Morocco, Sri Lanka, Uganda, Ethiopia, Republic of Guinea, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso, and the Togolese Republic. While multiple biometrics vendors have made their solutions available through MOSIP, ROC is notable for being a US-based firm offering solutions that have attained top rankings in NIST testing.
Kenyan President Tries to Steer Digital ID Back On Track
The President of Kenya is trying to get a years-long digital ID program back on track. In a speech at the end of last week, President William Ruto said that he has asked the country’s Ministry of Information, Communications and The Digital Economy (“ICT”) to make establishing a digital ID for Kenyans into a reality by the end of this year. As for what Kenya’s digital ID system would look like as it begins to take shape under the Ruto administration, the details remain unclear. But it may be worth noting that biometric technology has been relatively popular in the country. Read the full story on Mobile ID World.
January 31, 2023 – by Alex Perala
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Microsoft Azure could become more attractive to businesses that rely on Salesforce’s cloud-based customer management programs. The two companies are discussing a deal that would make some of Salesforce’s tools available to users of Microsoft’s cloud platform, Bloomberg reported today. In addition, Microsoft wants to integrate Salesforce data into Office applications. It would be an important move for Azure, which is currently lagging behind Amazon Web Services’ massive customer base. Putting some of Salesforce’s software on Azure would set Microsoft’s service apart from competitors like AWS and Google’s Cloud Platform, which don’t offer similar capabilities at the moment.
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) and Salesforce.com Inc. (CRM) are planning to announce an agreement as soon as today that will enable customers of Microsoft’s cloud-computing service to use Salesforce’s enterprise software, said people familiar with the talks, signaling a thaw between two longtime rivals. The partnership will make Salesforce’s customer-management programs available on Microsoft’s Azure service, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the discussions are confidential. Salesforce will also commit to using Azure to host some of its own applications and will integrate data from Salesforce products into Microsoft’s Office programs, the people said. An agreement would mark a shift in what has sometimes been a fractious relationship between the two companies. In 2010, Microsoft sued Salesforce for patent infringement, setting off a countersuit before the companies settled later that year. Microsoft in 2005 also announced plans to “give Salesforce a very effective run for their money” with a competing product and in 2010 ran an anti-Salesforce ad campaign with the tagline “Don’t Get Forced.”


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Asia's leading source of security and threat news
Online shopping stories
These search results are from across the Techday network of sites
Why you need to respond to customer feedback – especially online
Online shoppers have high expectations for how promptly online retailers should reply to questions and complaints.
Trade Me partners with Afterpay to offer ‘buy now, pay later' service
The partnership will let Trade Me sellers offer interest-free deferred payments to buyers, via Afterpay later in 2017.
Online shopping? Four tips for staying secure
Have you remembered Mother's Day? If not, better get on the net and buy something! Here's some tips for staying secure while online shopping.
Interest-free fixed-term payments option launches in New Zealand
PartPay assumes full risk for consumer repayments and also picks up the cost of payment processing.
Farro Fresh letting Kiwis get groceries delivered to refrigerated lockers
The lockers can be accessed by shoppers 24 hours a day using a digital code sent on completion of an online order.
'Digital locker' initiative brings in new chapter of online shopping
Farro Fresh have recently launched a new service that is ushering in the next generation of online shopping.
Millisecond delays can hurt conversion rates on online transactions – Akamai report
Online retail benefits from delivering better customer experiences, especially on mobile devices.
How retailers can use tech to their advantage
"It is essential for retailers to understand how consumer shopping habits have changed as they recover from the busy Christmas period."
New Zealand's 'love affair' with online shopping at Xmas a cyber security concern
"Scammers are constantly refining their skills and targeting New Zealanders with malicious links and scams."
Last-minute online Xmas shopping poses security risks
“A disturbing find is that one in eight respondents say they would accept discounts and special offers from retailers in exchange for their password."
Tips to ensure your website is not bait this online shopping season
Australians will spend around $7 billion online in the lead-up to Christmas. With this much money on the line, security is essential.
Use your 'common-sense' online this holiday season, researcher says
“As always, if an offer seems too good to be true then it probably is."
Shoppers warned of increased cyber risk as online shopping takes over
"When people start shopping for the Christmas season, hackers start their busy season too."
Could Mastercard's innovation pipeline be the answer to cyber security?
“The onset of new technology continues to transform the way we interact online, but as usage surges there is increased risk."
Report finds Kiwis love online shopping, but won't settle for shoddy deals
The 2016 Consumer Issues Report shows that the number of online sales in New Zealand is increasing – but also subject to plenty of complaints.
Facebook wooing SMBs with new shop and services sections
Social media giant Facebook is continuing its efforts to get inside small businesses with the roll out of two new sections on its Pages feature.
Warehouse, Noel Leeming online sales soar
The Warehouse Group is reports online sales ahead of domestic levels, with Noel Leeming growing online sales faster than the rest of NZ market.
Mobile payments get easier with new Visa product
Visa lauches digital swipe product enabling shoppers to complete online purchases by sliding a virtual image of their credit, debit or prepaid card.
Smartphones leading online sales
"For retailers, it’s a constant balance of where and how much to invest into the mobile experience and infrastructure.”
New online payment option comes to NZ
Visa has launched a new payment services that enables consumers to make secure online payments from an device.
Deal or no deal - depends on website speed
Developments in e-commerce means retailers need to make sure their infrastructure is up to scratch or risk their customers going elsewhere.
Online GST changes a mixed bag for Kiwis, says InternetNZ
InternetNZ is pleased the Government has decided on an appropriate threshold for overseas internet-based retailers before GST collection is required."
Draft law heralds end of GST-free digital goods
The days of GST-free music, games, e-books and software purchased online are coming to an end, with plans to tax online services from next October.
Keep safe while shopping online with these tips
MasterCard is urging Kiwis to up our game when it comes to protecting ourselves while shopping online.