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By IE&M Research
Ayesha Takia, reinforcing her commitment to health and wellness, has given a new flavor to Mumbai-based startup The Good Life Company. Started by Bhuman Dani and Shariq Ashraf, the company sources teas from different parts of the globe.
“India, unfortunately, has become a copycat story. Entrepreneurs take an idea that has worked elsewhere and ‘Indianise’ it, be it Flipkart, Snapdeal or Ola. We are not innovative. In the case of Magzter, it was a need we had. We had a magazine (Galata), we wanted to make it digital and give it a global reach. That’s how Magzter was born. You see few innovative moves here – like Flipkart’s cash-on-delivery model. Sadly, it is not in our ethos. Many entrepreneurs come with great ideas, get money in the bank and burn it. Many people took a lot of money and diluted their ownership. As a result, they have become glorified employees and don’t have the drive to take the company to the next level.” – Girish Ramdas, who set up Magzter
When they met restaurateur Farhan Azmi to have their teas listed with his hospitality ventures – Café Basilico, Koyla and Chai Coffi, Farhan decided to invest in the company. With Ayesha Takia Azmi he seed funded `6.75 crores in April 2017. Now The Good Life Company is listed with over 75 hotels, restaurants and cafes. The company recently launched its e-commerce website where consumers can buy the entire product range.


text: By John S. McClenahen TX:Beginning with the slated release of February's consumer confidence survey on Feb. 27, a steady stream of U.S. economic data will determine by how much the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) lowers short-term interest rates at its scheduled Mar. 20 meeting. The National Assn. of Purchasing Management's manufacturing index due out Mar. 1 and February's unemployment rate, average hourly earnings, and average work week -- all due for release on Mar. 9 -- will be among the most closely watched numbers. Like many other analysts, UBS Warburg LLC, a Stamford, Conn.-based unit of UBS AG, expects chairman Alan Greenspan and his FOMC colleagues to cut the influential federal funds rate another 50 basis points to 5% at their March meeting. "All in all, the risks on [GDP] growth remain firmly on the downside," says UBS Warburg. "The consumer sector is being restrained by the weakening job market and a fading of wealth effects. Export demand is being hurt by weaker foreign growth as well as several years of [U.S.] dollar appreciation. And the boom in business investment has ended; the only question now is how rapidly spending weakens."

domain: news


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Now Hiring: U.S. Government Job Openings Surge
P.M. Edition for Sept 18. While many companies cut jobs, the U.S. government is hiring—and boosting pay. Reporter Te-Ping Chen reports on what Uncle Sam is doing to try and attract workers. And WSJ national security editor Sharon Weinberger talks about why the U.S. is racing to catch up with China and Russia when it comes to game-changing hypersonic technology. Plus, Detroit carmakers and the United Auto Workers union resumed contract talks. Shelby Holliday hosts.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices


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CUB’s ex-CMO and in-housing architect Chris Maxwell launches Lution outsourced advisory and talent model with ex-Clemenger CEO Nick Garrett
Agency models are deeply challenged but not dead – and more brands are set to in-house their creative, martech, adtech and media agency services this year, reckon former CUB top marketer Chris Maxwell and Clemenger CEO Nick Garrett. They are backing a major brand swing to in-housing in 2021 – and plan to help make it happen.
What you need to know:
Former CUB Marketing Director and Connections Director Chris Maxwell says CUB made huge gains in efficiency and speed over external agency partners when the brewer created an in-house production and media unit in 2017.
More brands this year will swing to in-housing as they reconfigure their external agency arrangements.
Nick Garrett says Lution’s outsourced model for in-housing allowed brands to tap a huge local and global pool of senior “special ops” creative and strategy talent who have left large advertising networks.
Maxwell says In-housing allows brand owners to retain IP, learnings and talent rather than external partners landing the benefits.
It was revolutionary for CUB. It took us from being five years behind the curve to probably five years ahead of the curve really quickly.
Garrett, for instance, will remain working and advising brands in his other consulting business in Australia and internationally, along with leading Lution’s Enhanced Creative Panel, which draws from senior local and global creative talent who have left the big agency networks and are now working in special ops and projects.
Garrett told Mi3 agencies still have a strong, albeit different, future – but face significant pressures, mostly because holding company investor imperatives crimped their ability to re-engineer business models five years ago when it was clear structural pressures were coming to a head.
Maxwell is of a similar view after the frustrations CUB experienced before investing in its in-house marketing services unit.
Brands reverse 'capability bleed' to agencies
“I’ve experienced the transformation that came from the traditional way of working with external agencies, big agency retainers and lots of different moving parts to bringing programmatic media, digital content and social in house,” says Maxwell. “It was revolutionary for CUB. It took us from being five years behind the curve to probably five years ahead of the curve really quickly.
“One of the other frustrations that came with outsourcing all the work was, as a [CUB] business, we weren’t getting any better,” Maxwell says. “We were kind of stagnant in the level of digital capability we had because the people who were doing the work and learning and getting better were all outside the organisation. The way to address that was to start bringing more of those learnings and those capabilities back into the business.”
Maxwell says turnaround speed and cost from external agency partners were points of increasing tension for him.
“Most of the big agencies have wonderful people working for them,” he says. “But when I was at CUB, we would work with a business like Clemenger and there were times where we wanted to maybe do a hygiene piece of content. The process to do that was the same as the process to make a big, expensive TV ad and the time frames were similar. I know clients all around Australia and the world have those same sorts of frustrations.”
There is an unhealthy balance in the in-housing conversation at the moment around efficiency, not effectiveness.
30% rate improvement for programmatic media
Similar challenges existed in media too for CUB, Maxwell says. In-housing CUB’s programmatic media buying from its media agency (PHD was appointed after digital media went in-house) quickly saw a 30% rate improvement. Why? “It’s hard to put your finger on whether it’s that we avoided some of the costs that were hidden in there, or whether it was just that we had more dedicated people who were more focused and were able to target better and manage the tools. It’s probably a combination of those things.”
But it is not all about cost. For all the upside Lution’s partners argue lie in brands taking more traditional agency capabilities in-house, Garrett warns that an obsession with efficiency gains from marketers will negate progress.
'Unhealthy balance': Efficiency versus effectiveness
“There is an unhealthy balance in the in-housing conversation at the moment around efficiency not effectiveness,” he says. Unsurprisingly, it’s why Garrett has assembled a global coalition of senior creatives who will feed into marketer-funded in-house agencies. “You can sense in the industry a coalition of the willing from ex-agency network creative leaders who are going small and independent. What we’re doing doesn’t replace agencies but they have been under heavy scrutiny for five years. It is the moment where those forces of transformation are happening at a faster pace. Brands can go in-house and get access to tier one talent who aren’t beholden to the major networks.”
Betfair buys in
Maxwell says there a numerous brands in Australia considering in-housing models but could not name them because of non-disclosure agreements. Betfair Marketing Director, Nick Thomas, however, was one who publicly backed Lution’s approach which saw the company in-house creative, production and media.
“As a result of the early value and insight the team were providing over and above the scope of the brief, we subsequently agreed an extended program for them to design our data and martech infrastructure to support the internal agency and growth agenda,” Thomas says.
Stay tuned for an Mi3 in-housing podcast with marketing, agency and in-housing leaders in the coming weeks.
The marketing and publishing worlds continue to watch with anticipation and unease as the rules of digital marketing are overturned via the recent Apple iOS changes and the impending cookie crumble. As the demand for greater privacy and transparency regarding access and use of personal data grows, after years of normalising tracking consumer behaviour online via apps and the web, the tide is turning. Consumers are now more informed and able to make the choice as to whether they accept these terms, whether the value exchange for use of their data is worth it, and the resounding answer appears to be no. So where does that leave the world of audience targeting?
The data doesn’t lie: women are feeling confident and empowered when it comes to purchasing cars, but according to the latest research, the automotive marketing industry still has a long way to go to catch up.
Are Media has dug into the data from its inaugural HERpulse Auto survey to reveal that although the majority of women are the key decision-maker when it comes to buying a car for the family, many still feel patronised and unrepresented throughout the marketing and sales cycle.


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updated 02:55 pm EDT, Mon October 25, 2010
RIM shows live BlackBerry PlayBook at Adobe event
RIM at Adobe's MAX conference today showed the first instance of the BlackBerry PlayBook running live. The demos showed a mix of both real and concept apps, including a concept health care app, HD video, Salesforce Chatter and SAP's business tools like CIO Cockpit. All of the apps were shown running on Adobe AIR, which is now the official SDK for RIM's new tablet.
As part of the demo, RIM showed how well mutlitasking worked on the PlayBook, switching away from the HD video without seeing a drop in frame rate. The prototype was also "stolen" from the stage for a quick hands-on after the show, including a brief demo to show guest Martha Stewart.
The device was first shown in physical form at its unveiling at BlackBerry DevCon in September, but at the time it wasn't shown working and even at demo areas was simply running a video loop. It suggested that RIM has been advancing quickly and may be on track for its promised early 2011 target.
Along with the appearance itself, RIM co-chief Mike Lazaridis also promised that early PlayBook developers would be "eligible" to get a free BlackBerry PlayBook as an incentive to write for the platform if they submitted an app that was approved for App World. RIM has been under pressure to improve interest in its devices and will have to compete with Apple's iPad platform, where about 35,000 apps are already native to the larger screen size.


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Great article on The Verge reporting on ‘No Love Like Yours’ – the latest video from Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. With the incredible FiLMiC Pro app loaded up onto their iPhone 6s Plus, actress-turned-director Olivia Wilde and her team turned Apple’s smartphone into a 4K filmmaking machine.
With the excitement growing and many of you getting your hands on the Apple iPhone 6 Plus for the very first time today, we thought you would be interested in reading and watching this interesting video, putting the iPhone 6 … Read more
There won’t be many people reading this article on theappwhisperer.com that aren’t familar with Instagram but what you will be surprised to learn is that Instagram is coming to Windows Phone. Instagram is already an incredibly popular on iOS and … Read more


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Qantas’s domestic services saw a drop in passengers in September even as its Jetstar and QantasLink brands showed strong growth.
The 3.5 per cent decline compared to September 2010 was attributed in part to the start of rolling industrial action by Qantas labour unions. But the numbers also reflect the growth of budget brands including Qantas’s own Jetstar, which saw a 9.1 per cent increase in domestic passengers to 878,000 for the month, according to numbers released by the company last week.
Jetstar Asia and Jetstar International also saw strong growth, with increases of 17.1 per cent and 9.7 per cent respectively. Qantas International, by contrast, was relatively static with an increase of just 0.4 per cent.
Traffic for regional arm QantasLink grew by eight per cent.
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Witches cackle evilly. Bats hover ominously. Tombstones are scattered over the grass.
No, this isn't a setting from the latest horror movie. It's the view from more than a few front yards in otherwise peaceful neighborhoods.
Halloween decorations have come a long way from homemade jack-o'-lanterns and the occasional cutout ghost. Now, some homeowners put as much effort into decorating for Halloween as they do for Christmas.
In some communities, celebrating the holiday has become a matter of keeping up with the Joneses.
"Before we put things up, there was only one other house in the neighborhood [with decorations)," says Kathy Garcia, who lives in the SilverLakes community of Pembroke Pines. "Once we did it, so many other homes have put things up too."
In fact, decorating for Halloween has turned into a friendly competition between the Garcia family and their best friends, Doug and Pam Isenberg, who live a few blocks away. "My husband made me walk around and itemize everything in front of Doug and Pam," Garcia says.
Garcia estimates she spent about $100 on the display - a price she considers a bargain, as she bought many items at wholesale.
Doug Isenberg, who lives near the Garcias in SilverLakes, won't say how much he paid for Halloween decorations in front of his wife. But behind her back, he whispers that it was over $250. "I'm on Halloween restriction now," he says.
The Isenbergs' house features such splashy decorations as a plastic severed leg hanging from a tree and a life-size figure in a casket lying on their living room floor.
"We're new homeowners, so this is new to us," Isenberg says. "The neighborhood kids come over and check out our decorations. We hope our kids will like it, too."
The Isenbergs are expecting their first child - fittingly enough, just before Halloween.
Apparently there are lots of families like the Garcias and the Isenbergs. Many Broward stores have seen a big increase in sales of their Halloween items. The new Target store in the Pembroke Lakes Mall, 11253 Pines Blvd., has been selling out of their Halloween merchandise consistently.
"Sales have been really good," says Joe Toscano, the store's assistant manager. "It seems like there's a strong boost in decorations this year, I don't know why."
Many of the shelves in the store's seasonal department lie empty, waiting to be restocked. "Look at this," Toscano says, holding up a Halloween Party Garland that sells for $4.99. "Can you believe we're blowing out of these things?
"Some of these items, you think to yourself, 'Why do they make them?' And people keep buying them, too - that's what's really scary."
Spencer Gifts, also located in the Pembroke Lakes Mall, also is doing a brisk Halloween business. Their best-selling decoration this year, says store supervisor Heidi Dildine, is the Large Shrieking Spider, a bargain at $14.99.
Dildine pauses before a rack of car air fresheners disguised as disembodied heads. "I had a guy come in here and buy three different ones of this thing," she says. "I just don't understand."
Some of the best-selling decorations this season are the sound-activated products: decorations that scream, shriek, cackle or creak when movement is sensed. Annie's Costumes and Magic, 801 S. University Drive in Plantation, has one of the largest selections of audible Halloween decorations in South Florida.
"Halloween has become very big in the four years I've been with this company," says store manager Nancy Spano. "People see these elaborate displays at the haunted houses and they decide to put up their own display at home."
At Spano's store, there are gargoyles, gruesome body parts, realistic full-size tombstones and every imaginable necessity for any self-respecting haunted house.
One of Spano's favorites is the sound-activated witch who cackles and pulls a skull out of a steaming cauldron. "I'm almost done," the skull intones.
Spano says that 60 percent of the store's yearly revenue comes from the two-month period around Halloween. "People will just come back year after year and add on to their collection," Spano says. "Our things aren't meant to be thrown away."
Whether it's a $200 life-size mummy or a $2.00 tissue paper ghost, more houses are getting into the Halloween spirit.
"We live in a kids' neighborhood," says Anne Chern, a Weston resident. "My husband thinks it's tacky to put things up, but I think the kids like it. We had more stuff up before. But my husband said enough is enough."
Jeryl Savasta, another Weston resident, says she decorates her house as early as a month before Halloween. "I think the more you decorate, the more kids will come trick-or-treating," Savasta says. "I gave away 50 bags of candy last year."
For Doug Isenberg, Halloween is his biggest chance to decorate his house all year. The family is Jewish and do not celebrate Christmas.
"So I do this for Halloween," he says. "It's not religious, so everyone can join in. It's a family-oriented holiday. We're just having fun."


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EU officials said Thursday, any breach of the Withdrawal Agreement could give the bloc grounds to take legal action, according to Reuters.
A note was reportedly distributed to the each of the member states saying the Withdrawal Agreement gives either party up to four years to launch a challenge.
An anonymous source also told the wire agency that Britain would fail if it tries to use a potential breach to win an advantage in trade talks.
Concerns have arisen since the UK government published its Internal Market Bill it says will protect the country’s internal market and the Good Friday Agreement.
The protocol in the Withdrawal Agreement around Northern Ireland in question is to prevent a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
But the new bill gives UK ministers powers to “disapply” rules around the movement of goods if a trade deal isn’t reached.
Critics say it could breach international law by breaking the terms of the Withdrawal Agreement, now an international treaty.
Measures under the bill could include tariffs being paid on all goods going across the border between Northern Ireland and Britain. Although a later bill may give Ministers powers on determining goods “at risk” of being exported to the EU and slapping duties on those.
Maros Sefcovic, the European commission’s Vice-President for Interinstitutional Relations and Foresight, arrived in London Thursday to speak with Cabinet Minister Michael Gove on what the Government intends with the new bill.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the government should consider “the reputational risk that it’s taking in the proposed way forward”.
Across the Atlantic, Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi said an agreement between the two countries could be off the table, “If the UK violates that international treaty and Brexit undermines the Good Friday accord, there will be absolutely no chance of a US-UK trade agreement passing the Congress.”
Trade talks between the UK and the EU continued Thursday.


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TOKYO: SG Holdings Co's delivery firm Sagawa Express Co on Tuesday revealed a prototype of its first jointly-developed electric vehicle (EV) with Tokyo startup ASF, as part of its plan to electrify all compact delivery vans.
Japan's delivery giant said it intends to replace all of its 7,200 compact vehicles to EVs by 2030, which should reduce its annual CO2 emissions by 28,000 tonnes.
"We will enhance work efficiency and safety through (developing) vehicles that are driver-friendly and digitalised," Sagawa Express President Masahide Motomura said.
Sagawa Express began developing an electric compact van in June with ASF, a Japanese startup and fabless EV manufacturer, meaning it contracts out production rather than owning its own factories.
Chinese OEM producer Guangxi Automobile Group will start mass production from September, with first vehicle deliveries expected a year later in 2022.
Compared with conventional automakers, startups such as ASF can more quickly develop vans specific to delivery drivers, Motomura said.
Still in development phase, the van includes features such as a wide driver seat and trunk space design that allows drivers to easily store goods and gadgets. The van can drive more than 200 kilometres (124.27 miles) on one charge.
Based on allegations, Mahindra said it had initiated an inquiry using a top consulting firm on the process of tooling purchases in its Automotive CDMM function. Following this, it indicated violations of the Code of Conduct by Rajneesh Vashishth-Vice President AD CDMM.
Videos of Epluto scooters on fire have gone viral on social media raising concerns over the safety aspect of EVs in general. If not nipped in the bud, it can potentially undermine India's nascent electric mobility revolution.


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Halo 4′s box art emerges thanks to fans
Team effort pieces together Halo’s next cover art.
Microsoft recently e-mailed out 32 pieces of a new Halo 4 image, and given the dedication of Master Chief fans, it only took around an hour to piece the puzzle together.
The Halo Waypoint forum members’ efforts revealed the image below, which has been confirmed by Microsoft as the official box art.
The picture itself is rather interesting, showing Master Chief in a dramatic stance in typical Halo-fashion, while a giant ship using what appears to be a tractor beam, hovers above.
It all looks a little Independence Day-ish, although if the image is anything to go by, we’re hoping that 343 Industries will deliver an experience that ties in with the epic artwork now revealed.
Halo 4 will be set in the aftermath of Halo 3, where Master Chief returns to confront his own destiny and face an ancient evil that threatens the fate of the entire universe. Halo 4 marks the start of a new trilogy that begins with its release in 2012.
Halo 4 is scheduled for a worldwide release on November 6 for Xbox 360.


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Hostess fans stock up on last Twinkies, other iconic foods
Christina Macsurak came out of the Hostess outlet store in West Mifflin on Friday with six boxes of snack cakes, Twinkies, Ho Hos and Mini Muffins.
It was all she could buy with money she had in her pocket. But Macsurak, 37, of West Mifflin vowed to return with her sister and her debit card to get whatever might be left of the iconic bakery's stock.
“We'll buy whatever we can,” she said.
A steady stream of lovers of Twinkies and Wonder Bread visited grocers and outlet stores after bankrupt Hostess Brands Inc. said it would shut down its bakeries, putting 18,500 people out of work, and liquidate assets.
People reacted quickly online, bemoaning or joking about the company's demise on sites such as Twitter.
“Hostess was Michelle Obama's Osama bin Laden,” wrote @StevenAmiri.
“What's the only two things that can survive a nuclear holocaust? Cockroaches and Twinkies. The Twinkie couldn't survive the unions though,” wrote @DrunkPunk_.
On auction website eBay, a seller from Raleigh offered single-wrapped Twinkies for a starting bid of $5,000. There were no bids but six days left in the auction.
The company employs about 140 people in Western Pennsylvania, said Dino Taormina, business representative for Teamsters Local 926, which represents about 80 Hostess delivery drivers.
“The notification, obviously, is a shocker,” he said.
Hostess blamed the striking Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union for crippling production and accelerating Friday's liquidation request in U.S. Bankruptcy Court.
The union represents about 60 Hostess workers in outlet stores in West Mifflin, Butler, Washington, Dunlevy, Vanport, Monroeville and Morgantown, W.Va., and distribution hubs in Cheswick, Charleroi and Morgantown, Taormina said.
He blamed poor management by Hostess executives.
“It's not the bakery workers' fault that this company chose to shut down,” Taormina said.
Hostess CEO Greg Rayburn said no buyer has stepped up to rescue the company. Without specifying, he said Hostess might be able to sell some of its 30 brands, which include Dolly Madison and Nature's Pride snacks. Experts agreed it's likely the biggest brands would survive.
To that point, Pabst Brewing Co. owner C. Dean Metropoulos & Co. said on Friday that his company is considering an offer to buy Hostess.
“Our family would love to purchase these iconic brands,” Daren Metropoulos, a principal at the private-equity firm, said Friday in an e-mail. “We have analyzed this opportunity very carefully for a few years now. Shedding the complications of the unions and old plants makes it even more attractive.”
Hostess, based in Irving, Texas, filed for Chapter 11 protection in January, its second trip through bankruptcy court in less than three years.
Unlike many competitors, Hostess is saddled with high pension, wage and medical costs for its unionized workforce. The company faced intensifying competition from larger companies such as Mondelez International, the former snack unit of Kraft Foods that makes Oreos, Chips Ahoy and Nabisco snacks.
Hostess sent home employees at its 33 factories when it suspended operations. Its roughly 500 bakery outlet stores will stay open for several days.
A cashier in the West Mifflin store declined to comment, as did workers who answered phones at other outlets.
Customers such as Tom Klein picked over remaining baked goods on shelves. Klein, 64, of North Huntingdon emerged from the store with three bags of Twinkies and cupcakes.
“I'm not happy,” he said. “I'll miss them.”
Giant Eagle Inc. spokesman Dick Roberts said supplies of Hostess products varied by store. “We are actively working to make available larger quantities of alternative snack offerings for our customers,” he said.
Supervalu Inc., the nation's third-largest grocery store chain, said sales of Hostess items jumped. The Minnesota-based company supplies Kuhn's and Shop ‘N Save grocery stores in Western Pennsylvania.
Heather Baumgartel, 36, of South Park rushed to the West Mifflin store after her parents called about the news.
“Hurry up and get over there,” Baumgartel said they told her. She carried a shopping bag stuffed with loaves of Wonder Bread for the family's Thanksgiving dinner and a bag of Ho Hos and cupcakes, “for the kids.”
“I'd hate to see them go out of business,” she said.
The Associated Press and Bloomberg News contributed to this report. Alex Nixon is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 412-320-7928 or email@example.com.
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Parisian Macao open for business
- October 5, 2016
Five years in the making, at a cost of US$2.9 billion, The Parisian Macao opened it’s doors on 15 September. As the newest resort on the Cotai Strip, The Parisian Macao boasts a comprehensive range of integrated resort facilities that include 3,000 rooms and suites, 5,200 sqm of convention and meeting space (including The Parisian Ballroom, which can cater to 2,600 guests), international restaurants, a spa, kids’ club, health club and pool deck with themed water park, as well as a 1,200-seat theatre and a huge retail mall called Shoppes at Parisian, which is spread over three levels and offers the latest in fashion and couture in a setting reminiscent of the streets of Paris.
In front of the hotel stands a half-scale, authentic re-creation of the iconic Eiffel Tower, and the resort seems set to become an iconic landmark in itself, the design evoking Paris through the ages.With the addition of The Parisian Macao, Sands China’s property portfolio now offers nearly 13,000 hotel rooms and suites, joining sister Cotai resorts The Venetian Macao; The Plaza Macao, featuring the Four Seasons Hotel Macao; and Sands Cotai Central, housing hotels by St Regis, Conrad, Sheraton Grand and Holiday Inn (plus Sands Macao on the Macao peninsula).
Together they provide a variety of entertainment options featuring international superstars, duty-free shopping with more than 850 retailers offering a broad array of name brands, 150,000 sqm of meeting and exhibition space for Asia’s leading conferences and exhibitions, transportation offerings, and more than 140 dining options including bars, lounges and Michelin-starred restaurants.
“There’s nowhere else in Asia where you can host 14,000 people for events under one roof,” said Sheldon Adelson Chairman and CEO of Las Vegas Sands. “MICE has played a significant part in Cotai’s development.” Adelson believes that two infrastructure projects will be catalysts to help grow the MICE industry further in the SAR: “The Zhuhai Bridge will give access to Hong Kong airport, and this will be a dramatic boost to Macao,” he said, also citing the Light Rail transport network that will connect Cotai and other parts of Macao by 2019.
Whilst still operating an extensive casino, The Parisian Macao’s focus on non-gaming activities and offerings is in line with the Macao government’s drive to change the SAR’s reputation as a gambling centre. “The Macao government wants gaming at no more than 9 per cent [of total hotel activity],” said Adelson. “We are the first concessionaire to have put a focus on non-gaming components… our proportion of gaming to non-gaming is 4.5 per cent.”


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RIYADH: China’s largest trading company Unipec has added 10 ships this month to transport crude from Russia. Meanwhile, Shanghai authorities unveiled fresh policies to help the economy get back on its feet.
· China’s largest trading company China International United Petroleum and Chemical Co., or Unipec, has added at least 10 hired tankers so far this month in order to transport Russian ESPO crude. This reflects a 400 percent increase in the number of ships booked a month earlier for the trade, Bloomberg reported, citing data from shipping analytics company Vortexa.
· Shanghai authorities have rolled out several fresh policies to help the economy recover from COVID-19 lockdowns repercussions, Bloomberg reported. The policies include tax rebates, allowing manufacturers to resume operations in June, accelerating approvals for property projects, providing new residential developments, reducing purchase tax for some vehicles, subsidizing electric vehicles, among others.
· Chinese e-commerce firm Alibaba’s revenue surged 9 percent when compared to a year earlier, CNN business reported. This comes as a result of an increase in online and mobile shopping demand among consumers. The growth in revenue is also attributed to a 12 percent climb in the firm’s cloud unit.
Extracted in full form: https://www.arabnews.com/node/2091946/business-economy


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Cafes and shops reopened in Singapore on Friday because the city-state eased coronavirus lockdown restrictions.
More than two months after a partial lockdown was imposed, massage parlours and spas also resumed operations while beaches were not off limits and sports and other facilities opened again.
“I feel happy because I can begin … a couple of restrictions still apply but I’m happy, I feel safe,” Mostafa Jamshidian, a computing researcher, told AFP as he walked through the central downtown .
Angelica Stasevich said she was “very happy”.
“Today it’s like i would like to sing, i would like to bop , i would like to steer ,” the 21-year-old said.
Social gatherings of up to 5 are allowed under the relaxed rules, but people must wear face masks and stay one metre (3.3 feet) apart.
Authorities are gradually easing restrictions imposed in early April that shuttered schools and non-essential businesses, as a test-and-trace effort stabilised infection rates.
The city-state’s 5.7 million residents had been told to remain home unless that they had good reason to travel out.
Singapore has the second-highest number of confirmed infections in Southeast Asia with quite 41,000 cases, mostly among foreign workers living in crowded dormitories. The price stands at 26.
In a Facebook post marking the reopening of most businesses, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said: “I am sure all folks are eagerly looking forward to the present day for an extended time! But please don´t go overboard celebrating.”
Potential super-spreader venues like cinemas, bars and nightclubs remain closed.
And live music and television shows aren’t allowed at reopened businesses because the noise could cause customers to talk more loudly, spreading droplets which could contain the virus.


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Once upon a time, a model named Gisele Bundchen claimed she didn't even own a brush. Now, the mogul is the new Pantene Ambassador, effectively proving my parents had no right to cut my hair off in third grade because I didn't brush my hair. (I was just being trendy.)
As of January 2014, Ms. Bundchen will be the new face of Pantene, as well as their brand new, first-ever, clinically-tested, anti-oxidant damage-blocking technology. She'll be involved in all print and TV advertising, instore displays, iMedia, and all other ways Pantene grabs your attention.
"Gisele is truly a woman who has it all," said Kevin Crociata, Marketing Director of North American Hair Care at Procter & Gamble. "Not only does she have one of the most iconic heads of hair in the beauty world, but she is also a true role model with a huge heart."
"We want to celebrate Gisele not only for her beauty, but also her genuine passion to empower women to be their best selves. Her tremendous career accomplishments, her success as a mother of two wonderful children, and her ongoing philanthropic work are an inspiration for women to be beautiful both inside and out. We are proud to have her as part of our North American Pantene family."
Bundchen, obviously, is equally enthused.
"I feel my hair has been through it all," she mused. "From being styled more than ten times in one day to enjoying the sun and surf with my children — and Pantene has helped to keep it healthy with every wash, no matter what the day may bring. I love that Pantene not only stands for healthy, strong hair, but also encourages women to give back specifically through a program like Pantene Beautiful Lengths."
Well congratulations to Pantene, to Gisele Bundchen, and to all of us who will now be one step closer to having Gisele's hair. We did it, 2013. It's done now.


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Oil and natural gas explorer and producer $EGN reported 2Q16 earnings of $36.76MM or $0.38 per share compared to a loss of $111.6MM or $1.52 per share last year, on lower costs and expenses. Total revenues dropped to $105.77MM from $168.33MM. Adjusted loss per share was $0.28 compared to EPS of $0.16 a year ago.
$DB is going to cut off services for about 3,400 clients in equities trading.
$F stock slid more than 2% after the company issued two safety recalls involving more than 650,000 Ford Fusion and Lincoln MKZ model cars.
The new CEO of $SBUX, Kevin Johnson, has some pretty large shoes to fill but there are many who have good faith in his ability to do so.
$TSLA opening a showroom in Michigan. A bold move !!


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FEDERAL WAY, Wash. -- Weyerhaeuser Co.'s third quarter earnings plunged 25 percent compared to last year, when the lumber and real estate company recorded income from a couple businesses it has since sold and a hefty tax gain.
But the company's revenue rose, and CEO Dan Fulton said Weyerhaeuser was "capitalizing on an improving housing market."
The Federal Way, Wash., company said Friday it earned $117 million, or 22 cents per share, in the three months that ended Sept. 30. That compares to earnings of $157 million, or $29 cents per share, in last year's quarter.
Revenue climbed 13 percent to $1.77 billion.
Analysts surveyed by FactSet expected, on average, earnings of 18 cents per share on $1.79 billion in revenue.
Weyerhaeuser said last year's results included $24 million in earnings from businesses that were sold last year's third quarter. The company also recorded a $104 million income tax gain in last year's third quarter, as opposed to a $13 million charge in this year's quarter.
Weyerhaeuser also said revenue from its cellulose fibers business fell 9 percent this year to $459 million, but that was more than countered by wood products revenue that climbed 35 percent to $816 million.
Several expenses also rose in this year's quarter for Weyerhaeuser. The company's costs to produce its products climbed 11 percent to $1.42 billion, and its selling, general and administrative expenses rose 16 percent to $156 million.
Earlier this month, the company said it will raise its dividend 13 percent, or 2 cents, to 17 cents.


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CALVERTON, Md. — Intermodal volume increased 20.3 percent from last year in the third quarter, with international freight seeing a 28.1 percent hike, according to the Intermodal Association of North America.
IANA’s Intermodal Market Trends & Statistics Report states that domestic intermodal volume hit a new all-time peak in the third quarter, increasing 11.7 percent from 2009 to 1.59 million.
While North American container volume increased 13 percent during the quarter to 1.16 million, IANA says some domestic container shipments may have been limited by capacity constraints, which may have compelled some shippers to use trailers.
Intermodal trailer volume advanced 8.5 percent during the quarter compared to last year.
While many domestic container fleet operators have placed orders for new containers, there are still fewer domestic containers available to handle surging demand.
With the resurgence in international intermodal and continued gains in domestic containers, intermodal shipments are on their way to regaining the ground lost during the recession, reports IANA.
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STEPHEN CURRY SHOES, a global brand that makes stylish footwear, has been named the best-selling footwear brand in the world by a survey by footwear magazine, Walk Score.
Sanuk’s footwear line has a combined sales of $7.7 billion.
Sanuka, the brand’s other namesake, is a Japanese-owned brand that is the third-largest in the global footwear market, and it is also ranked as the best selling brand in Asia.
The survey of more than 2,500 people from 10 countries was conducted by Walk Score in partnership with the Australian Retailers Association and conducted in April 2017.
The top 10 brands in the survey included brands like Nike, Zara, Under Armour, Reebok, H&M, Clarks, and Dior.
The top-ranked brand in footwear is Dior, with a score of 14.7.
Sanuk shoes have a high level of customer satisfaction, which is reflected in the Walk Score report.
The survey found that the average customer rating for Sanuk shoes was 94 percent.
It also found that most consumers said they were satisfied with their footwear purchase.
“Sanuk is one of the most respected brands in this industry, and the company is recognized for its design, innovation and dedication to the business,” said Chris Johnson, senior vice president of global brand at Walk Score, in a statement.
“The brands success has been based on their ability to deliver quality products that can meet and exceed the needs of consumers.
Our survey showed that Sanuk products are well positioned to succeed in the fast-changing footwear market.”
Sanuk Shoes said in a press release that its products are designed to offer an all-around fit.
“Our shoe designs incorporate modern technology and we take great care to make sure every pair of shoes is stylish and comfortable,” the statement said.
The company said it is working with more than 100 brands to create a portfolio of innovative footwear, as well as providing customers with an assortment of products tailored to their individual needs.


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Yu launches BlackBerry service in Kenya
Kenya’s Yu has launched BlackBerry services across the country in a move that has already been welcomed by citizens.
According to a Yu statement, “the new services will enable subscribers to easily access e-mail, phone, text messaging, Internet, organizer and corporate data applications form a single, integrated device.”
Previously, those with BlackBerry’s in the country did not have access to all the services being offered by the smartphone manufacturer, which had left many questioning the telecom sector.
The move to launch the service should help boost overall Internet use and smartphone availability in the country, Yu said.
In addition to the new service, customers wanting to purchase their first BlackBerry will be given two free months of service on the new “BB complete plan” from any of the official Yu retail centers in the country.
“The operator will initially offer the BlackBerry Bold 9900, Bold 9780, Curve 8520 and Torch 9800. The handsets will not be locked to the network and customers can choose from eight distinct plans,” the company said.
The move has received massive praise from company officials in numerous industries who say it will make conducting business easier over mobile hand devices.


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While the country struggles to recover from a balance of payments crisis, a recent study shows that Sri Lanka can cut its import bill by 31 percent, at the least, and make considerable welfare gains if intraregional trade improved.A recent study ‘Consumers and Economic Cooperation: Cost of Economic Non-cooperation to Consumers in South Asia’ authored by Bipul Chatterjee, Deputy Executive Director, CUTS International and Joseph George, Research Associate, CUTS International, shows that South Asian consumers are expected to gain more than US$ 2 billion annually as a result of enhancement of intra-regional trade.
Currently, intra-regional trade in South Asia is hovering around five per cent of total trade of regional economies – the lowest percentage among all regional blocs in the world. Importantly, this will be a static gain estimated from possible sourcing of imports from within the region as against from rest of the world. Dynamic gains would be much higher if tariffs are reduced and non-tariff measures are addressed.
“Though aggregate welfare gains of Sri Lanka amount to a comparatively lower figure of US$ 288.61 million, per capita gains to the country would be the highest, as it is the least populated amongst the selected South Asian countries. On the 27 product categories included in its sensitive lists, diverted imports from within the region would help Sri Lanka to save 31.42 percent of its current import expenditure. Almost all of its expected gains come through imports from India in mineral fuels and oil by-products,” the study showed.
However, the study points out that Sri Lanka would not gain by imports from Bangladesh, as its own export basket constitutes articles of apparel and is price competitive and capable of capturing part of the South Asian textile market with Bangladesh. Though the welfare gains accruing to Sri Lanka, by way of imports from Nepal, are only US$1.88mn, the island nation is set to save close to 60 percent of imports from the rest of the world (RoW) by choosing alternatives from Nepal on certain items.
Sri Lanka also has the scope of improving its exports to the region.”Sri Lanka’s prospects are spread between textile items and cash crops, including rubber, tea and spices,” the study showed.The current aggregate import bills paid to RoW by the SAFTA members under consideration on these product categories amount to US$ 6,212.83 million. Intra-regional trade at reduced prices would generate 31.36 percent savings on this import expenditure, leading to annual savings of about US$ 1,948.15 million for buyers belonging to the region.
Welfare gains that would be made by Pakistan is US$ 206.18 million (59.04 percent savings on imports), India US$ 597.29 million (54.52 percent savings), Nepal US$ 457.50 million (42.83 percent), Sri Lanka US$ 288.61 million (31.42 percent) and Bangladesh US$ 398.56 million (14.33 percent).
The study covered five of the eight South Asian countries, viz. Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The quantitative assessment of the COENCOSA study shows a minimum consumer welfare gain of approximately US$ 2bn a year by way of savings on aggregate consumer expenditure on imported products in selected categories.
“However, the estimated figure represents only the minimum gains which will increase exponentially if the long run impacts of positive cycle of growth in intra-regional are considered. In other words, gains to consumers, as estimated in this study, is a static gain as it is based on existing tariff structure,” the authors said.
“It is a well-known fact that today tariff accounts for about 15-20 percent of the cost of doing trade of a commodity. Non-tariff measures including customs procedures and other procedural non-tariff measures account for more than 80 percent of cost of doing trade. In South Asia, if non-tariff measures affecting the cost of doing trade are addressed properly then gains to consumers from an enhanced intraregional trade regime would be much than static gains. Further gains can be achieved from gradual liberalisation of intraregional trade in services and investment.”A survey of some key stakeholders on their perception about enhanced intra-regional trade reveals that lack of reference to consumer welfare gains in the academic literature as well as in popular media has heavily influenced the perception of all categories of respondents.
“Generally, there exist very low expectations about consumer welfare gains, owing to either ignorance about the issue or negligence as an unimportant issue. While among producers/exporters and their associations, consumer groups and media ignorance about the issue is the main reason for low expectations, it is negligence among government officials and academia.”Most respondents, irrespective of categories, believe that intra-regional trade in South Asia is currently underperforming and its potential is highly under-rated. A striking observation is that representatives of consumer groups in general are more unaware about consumer welfare gains from a more open and balanced international trade regime than most other groups. This is because most of them have less knowledge and little/no representation in trade policy making process in their countries and hence, have minimal exposure to the subject,” the study showed.
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Farmer-shareholders of the dairy cooperative, Westland Milk Products, will be watching spending very closely as the country’s number two dairy cooperative has cut 60 cents per kilogram of Milksolids (kg/MS) to a range of $5.40 - $5.80 kg/MS before retentions.
Simpson Grierson is the first organisation in New Zealand to meet the standard required to be awarded the Rainbow Tick.
New Zealand Wool Services International Limited’s Marketing Executive, Mr Paul Steel reports that at today’s South Island Wool sale prices consolidated on the back of continuing short falls of volumes coming forward onto the market.
The New Zealand Lawyers and Conveyancers Disciplinary Tribunal has ordered former Tauranga lawyer Vinay Deobhakta to be struck off the roll of barristers and solicitors.
Each year CANSTAR researches both the deposit and credit card products available for New Zealand businesses and rates those products from one to five stars in accordance with the value that the product represents for business owners.
Synlait Milk has received approval of its Risk Management Programme from the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) for its dry blending and consumer packaging plant.
Finally, a cloud based solution even the number crunchers can get excited about.
Xerocon Australia 2014 proved to be the perfect launch pad for iAgri, the agri-add on partner for Xero’s farm accountancy solution.
High profile Australian television chef Luke Stepsys wants Australia opened up to New Zealand live seafood exports.
Strong growth in its helicopter engineering business has lifted the financial performance of specialist aviation solutions provider Airwork Holdings Limited (Airwork) beyond its IPO forecasts for the year to 30 June 2014.
ANZ today celebrated the opening of a more modern and convenient new branch in LynnMall, Auckland.
The branch has moved from the premises it has occupied since the early 2000s to a new location near the Countdown supermarket and entrance to the mall.
Join Voxy on Google+.
Compare Credit Cards - Interest rate and fees comparisons for New Zealand banks.


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NYT Sets Its Social Media Guidelines, Foodbook, And More In This Week’s Friday Download
October 20, 2017
By FTI Consulting
This week we’re delving into the exciting world of online mattress sales. Specifically, mattress review sites, which carry extraordinary weight in a showroom-less world.
In the past few years, a myriad of blogs have surfaced that exclusively focus on reviewing mattresses. They’re run by people with a very specific and – let’s face it – genius game plan: they vie for SEO dominance on phrases like “mattress review” and “best mattress,” and then strike marketing deals with mattress brands like Casper.
The Hustle looks at Casper specifically because as a startup the company was striking deals left, right and centre with these blogs, and it paid off. But when Casper received a cash injection in 2015, they stopped working with the blogs. Unsurprisingly, the bloggers started to promote other mattress providers instead, and the SEO power they wielded cost Casper millions in lost sales.
In the end, Casper decided to file suits against three mattress review blogs, and allegedly funded a buyout of one of the most prolific sites, Sleepopolis. Hey, if you can’t beat them, join them…or (plug alert!) you could talk to FTI about our pioneering SEO product Optimise!
Cracking The Whip
The New York Times announced on Friday an updated set of social media guidelines for its journalists. The publisher doesn’t want its reporters saying anything on social media that they wouldn’t write in the paper.
That includes: expressing partisan opinions, promoting political views, endorsing candidates, or doing anything else that “undercuts The Times’s journalistic reputation.”
Whilst we’d all agree that social media guidelines are a must, dramatically limiting what journalists can and can’t say on their personal social media accounts could be a bad move for The Times.
One of the publisher’s main attractions is its wide range of personalities, a number of whom (we’re looking at you Maggie Haberman and Mike Isaac) have acquired loyal audiences due to their frequent and untraditional social media practices. Without this, is The Times at risk of losing – or at least stifling – its USP?
The Food Game
If you’re in the US, you may have already tried out Facebook’s new feature that allows users to order food from local restaurants using its app.
Instead of competing with other food ordering services, Facebook has partnered with several industry players, meaning the feature isn’t driving any direct revenue to the platform. What it will do though is give users even more of a reason to never close their Facebook feed – something to consider when thinking about where to target audiences.
Also This Week
It takes just $1,000 to track someone’s location with mobile ads – [WIRED]
47% of teens say Snapchat is their favourite social network – [PIPER JAFFRAY]
The views expressed herein are those of the author(s) and not necessarily the views of FTI Consulting LLP, its management, its subsidiaries, its affiliates, or its other professionals, members or employees.
FTI’s digital practice in EMEA operates as a center of excellence for digital communications within the firm and is staffed by a team of practitioners with industry experience of consumer, corporate and financial communications. The team runs an active portfolio of multi-sector brands and partners with FTI’s teams and clients to provide a wide range of online reputation management services.


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Further consolidation is expected in the United Arab Emirates' remittances industry, the world's second largest, as declining volumes and a switch to digital transfers due to coronavirus-related movement restrictions endanger smaller exchange houses.
Remittances from the Middle East and North Africa, which mainly comprise money sent home by migrant workers in the wealthy six-member Gulf Cooperation Council, are set to fall by 19.6% in 2020, the World Bank forecasts.
"The market is very competitive. Everyone's present in the Gulf: global players, regional providers and a whole range of niche and corridor specialists," said Grant Lines, chief revenue officer at MoneyGram International Inc., which operates in more than 200 countries and territories and serves 22,000 currency pairs.
Such broad involvement is understandable, given the size of the market. The UAE's outbound remittances totaled $44.4 billion in 2018, second only to the U.S. Saudi Arabia was third with $33.9 billion, while Kuwait, Qatar and Oman were also in the top 20.
Stricter licensing requirements have caused the UAE's currency exchange sector to consolidate, with the number of companies falling to 80 as of 2019 from a peak of 140 in 2017, according to Rashed A. Al Ansari, CEO of Abu Dhabi's Al Ansari Exchange. His firm claims a 31% market share among currency exchange companies and has 190 branches across the country.
"With the rise of the pandemic and the difficult global economic conditions, we expect more of the smaller exchange firms to close, and possible acquisitions to take place among the medium[-sized] and larger exchange companies," he told S&P Global Market Intelligence.
In the UAE, remittances must be conducted via banks or exchange houses, making it problematic for fintech entrants to the industry because they must partner with established rivals. Britain's TransferWise Ltd., which declined to comment to S&P Global Market Intelligence, received a license from Abu Dhabi Global Market, the emirate's financial free zone, in late 2019. Currently, around three-quarters of remittances go through exchange houses and the remainder via banks.
"We haven't seen any revolutionary technology or new benchmarks in customer experience [from] the new fintech companies that have entered the market so far," said Al Ansari. "Hence, they were left with no other value proposition except to offer lower charges."
For popular MENA currency corridors, such as the UAE dirham to Indian rupee, fees are below the global average of 6.8%. Sending $200 from the UAE to India on average cost 3.45% in fees in the second quarter, according to the World Bank. The same transaction from the UAE to Pakistan cost 3.94%, while other destination markets are similarly priced: Philippines at 2.67% and Egypt at 3.53%. This quartet are the biggest destination remittance markets from the UAE.
UAE outbound remittances fell 15.6% in March
"Within each particular corridor, the difference in fees between providers can be as small as fractions of a dirham," said Shadi Kaddoura, head of market research at Dubai's Viva Consulting, which conducted research into UAE remittance costs for TransferWise.
The coronavirus pandemic has caused international money transfers to decline. UAE outbound remittances fell 15.6% in March, the most recent central bank data shows. Al Ansari forecasts his company's remittances will decline no more than 10% in 2020 versus a year earlier.
However, he said the number of customers using the company's digital services to remit money has more than doubled, with its app now accounting for nearly 10% of remittances.
"The pandemic has warped the speed of adoption for existing digital channels, shortening the uptake that would normally take three to five years into six months due to the restrictions in movements," he said.
To open a local bank account, UAE residents must usually earn at least 5,000 dirhams a month, which rules out hundreds of thousands of manual and service industry workers. They commonly receive their salaries on a pre-paid card permitting a single free-of-charge cash withdrawal per month, and usually take this cash to a mall where they can visit multiple exchange houses to find the best rate to transfer most of their salary home.
But the shift to exchange house apps could become permanent. Such apps engender greater customer loyalty — once a consumer has passed the necessary know-your-customer requirements to send money through an exchange house's app or a mobile wallet, they are much less likely to complete a similar process again to enroll with a rival provider's app.
Some entities have created mobile wallets to woo low-income customers.
MoneyGram is the remittance provider for the mobile wallets of First Abu Dhabi Bank PJSC, the UAE's largest bank by assets, the country's former telecom monopoly Etisalat and its Qatari rival Ooredoo.
"The stickiness we're seeing with Ooredoo is much, much higher than for cash transactions," said Ahmed Aly, MoneyGram International's head of Middle East operations.
MoneyGram's Lines said COVID-19 has not necessarily impacted overall volumes and revenue, depending on the size and scale and distribution and the partners companies have.
"It's more that it's changing how and where transactions are taking place," he said.
As of Sept. 29, US$1 was equivalent to 3.67 United Arab Emirates dirhams.


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Rumors suggest that when Apple reveals its newest line of phones in September, the top model will carry the name iPhone Pro.
If you're like many people I know, you receive more telemarketer calls than calls from people you actually want to talk to and no relief seems in sight.
Facebook memories occasionally offers painful memories of our past...like recalling the day eight years ago that I actually switched from iPhone to Droid.
A friend of mine has an elaborate spelling disclaimer as part of her email signature and it appears whenever she sends an email from her smartphone.
Screen-Free Week encourages children and adults alike to put down their phones and step away from computers and other screens.
For some reason, Apple seems interested in creating curved iPhone screens on future models. But is this 'cool' technology something we'd actually want?
An unfortunate woman learned that allowing a toddler to play with the wrong 'toy' could keep you locked out of your iPhone for a long, long time.
Investors are calling on Apple to create software that combats device addiction in young people...but whose responsibility is it?
As texting turns 25, there's continued concern about the use of periods to end sentences because of the way such 'complete' sentences are perceived.
Pope Francis says he wishes people would spend more time focusing on God instead of their cell phones in church these days.
There's a good chance you've answered your ringing phone only to be met with nothing: that silent call could be the prelude to something worse.
Apple says its newly-introduced facial recognition feature on its iPhone X did not malfunction during this week's big event, despite...
Depending on where you live, the big news of the day Tuesday was either recovery efforts from a hurricane or the introduction of Apple's iPhone X.
Parents are being asked to take a smartphone pledge to delay the age at which their children can have one of the controversial devices.


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SAVE £££s and raise cash for the City Hospital children’s ward
Save £££s off your next two weekly shops and give a boost to the Amazon children’s ward at the Peterborough City Hospital, simply by shopping at your local Anglia Co-operative foodstore.
Today the ET is helping to launch a fundraising campaign that could raise hundreds of pounds for the Amazon children’s ward at the Peterborough City Hospital.
For six weeks (until Sunday, June 24) the Anglia Co-operative foodstore in Mayor’s Walk, Peterborough, has pledged to support the ward with its ‘Pick up a Penny’ community campaign.
Store manager Gary Cowling said: “The children’s ward is close to our hearts at the store and we stage regular fundraisers for it. This time we want to provide tea, coffee and refreshments for parents whose children are staying in the hospital.”
The store has pledged to give 1p to the cause for every till receipt handed in by shoppers during the six weeks of the campaign.
Gary added: “Quite simply, the more you shop with us during that time, the more you’ll help us raise for the children’s ward. It doesn’t matter how much you spend – just hand your till receipt in!”
Last year, the store’s ‘Pick up a Penny’ fundraiser netted £150 for the ward and, to help you swell the kitty this year, it is giving you the chance to save £3 when you spend £20 on your next two shops there.
All you have to do is use the special coupon on this page - you save and the Amazon children’s ward gains!


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Families were treated to an unusual display of wild animals while out shopping in an Aberdeen mall.
They were greeted by life-sized replica mountain gorillas during the Wild Things half-term event at Union Square.
Children enjoying their break from school were given the chance to get up close to the models and find out all about their lives in the wild.
Keep up to date with the latest news with The Evening Express newsletter
The free animal tour was led by a team of comical intrepid explorers.
An Aberdeen spokeswoman said: “Aberdeen shoppers took a walk on the wild side today, as Union Square welcomed two replica mountain gorillas and a giant tortoise named Zelva for its half-term Wild Things event.
“The life-sized creatures grazed around the centre, as families got to learn more about their endangered habitat from a comic intrepid explorer. Lucky shoppers also got the chance to feed Zelva and marvel at her beautiful shell before picking up free Jungle-themed books via the Union Square PLUS App.”


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November 1, 2007: Six months after Steve Jobs showed it off, the original iPhone becomes Time magazine’s “best invention of the year.”
The iPhone stands out from the rest of 2007’s gadget pack, which includes the Nikon Coolpix S51c digital camera, the Netgear SPH200W Wi-Fi Phone and the Samsung P2 music player. Remember those? (Yeah, we thought not.)
October 7, 2011: Two days after the death of Steve Jobs, Apple opens preorders for its next-gen iPhone 4s.
The last iPhone that Jobs worked on directly, the 4s boasts a speedier A5 chip, improved 8-megapixel camera with 1080p HD video recording, and — most significantly — Apple’s new AI virtual assistant, Siri.
October 4, 2011: With the unveiling of the iPhone 4s, Apple introduces the world to Siri.
A groundbreaking example of artificial intelligence in action, Siri’s debut fulfills a long-term dream at Apple. In fact, the company first predicted such a feature in the 1980s — with the Siri launch coming at almost the exact month Apple envisioned.
September 22, 2014: Apple notches a new sales record with iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, selling an astonishing 10 million units in the first weekend the handsets go on sale.
The eagerly anticipated smartphones bring a redesigned form factor that will persist for years. The most obvious change? Larger 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch displays built to lure phablet fans. The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus also boast an A8 chip, improved iSight and FaceTime cameras, and — significantly — Apple Pay.
“Sales for iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus exceeded our expectations for the launch weekend, and we couldn’t be happier,” Apple CEO Tim Cook says in a press release. “We would like to thank all of our customers for making this our best launch ever, shattering all previous sell-through records by a large margin.”
September 7, 2005: Apple and Motorola launch the Rokr E1, the first Cupertino-sanctioned cellphone to run iTunes.
Even the high-profile demo goes wrong, and Apple CEO Steve Jobs is very unhappy with the results. The compromised device shows what an error it is to let an outside designer create a phone under the Apple banner. The company won’t make the same mistake twice.
August 18, 2007: A video goes viral on YouTube when 23-year-old internet personality Justine Ezarik, aka iJustine, posts a 300-page iPhone bill mailed to her in a box by AT&T.
The bill — which lists every single action that consumed cellular data on Ezarik’s brand-new iPhone — is quickly viewed by 3 million people and receives extensive media coverage. (You can watch it below.)
July 28, 2012: Apple buys biometrics company AuthenTec, acquiring the technology that will power future authentication and secure payments initiatives.
With a price tag of $356 million, the deal gives Apple the right to use AuthenTec hardware, software and patents. In the short term, Apple engineers start working to build Touch ID sensors into the iPhone 5s. Longer-term, AuthenTec’s mobile wallet tech paves the way for Apple Pay.
March 10, 2004: Apple sends out a survey to select Apple customers, claiming that it is considering relaunching the Newton MessagePad.
“We need to determine why the Apple Newton was not a commercial success and whether there is an interest in re-launching a new version of the Newton,” Apple’s survey says. “Your comments will help understand why the Newton failed and if there is interest in re-launching a new, improved Newton.”
In hindsight, it seems pretty clear that this apparent “interest” in launching another personal data assistant was a way of doing some undercover market research for the still-in-development iPhone.


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- Jun 20, 2007
Chrysler calling 2006 models "used" to unload them
When even deep discounts aren't getting the job done, sometimes you've got to bend the rules. Normally, a Chrysler dealer must use a car as a loaner for three months before designating it a used car. Still wondering what to do with a "glut" of 2006 vehicles in June of 2007, Chrysler has told dealers if they use a car as a loaner for just one day, they can consider it a used car and move it off the new car lot. Dealers also get an additional $2,000 discount as an incentive to use the program.
Instead of making fewer cars in 2006, Chrysler built more than dealers wanted and simply parked them around Detroit. Incentives helped move some, but the incentive program was to end May 31 of this year and dealers still had more 2006 cars sitting on lots than they wanted. Chrysler decided it wanted to finish strongly, so it eased the loaner requirements, a move dealers had been asking for. Chrysler still counts the cars as retail sales (even though they're just being moved to the used car lot), but the cars won't distract buyers who are looking at Chrysler's 2007 product. At one dealer in New Mexico, a 2006 Dodge Ram went from $33,000 to $26,000 in one day. An '06 Durango could be reduced by $11,500 after one day. Could be time to run a daily patrol around your local Chrysler dealership...
[Source: Detroit News]


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Windows 12 could come faster than expected. An insider reports on Microsoft’s new plans for Windows.
According to an insider, Windows 12 could appear as early as 2024.
© rafapress / Shutterstock.com
Windows 11 could be replaced by Windows 12 as early as 2024. This is pure speculation at the moment, but an insider report about Microsoft’s supposedly changed update plans for Windows suggests that Windows 12 could appear faster than expected ( we reported ).
Insider Zac Bowden reports on Windowscentral.com that Microsoft plans to return to the three-year cycle for major Windows versions. Every three years there should be a new, so-called “major version” of the Windows client. After Windows 11 was released in 2021, the successor is now planned for 2024.
New functions within a Windows version, such as Windows 11, should be more frequent than before, four times a year. But after Windows 11 will be replaced in 2024, Microsoft has canceled the Windows 11 update originally planned for 2023 with the code name “Sun Valley 3”. You can read more about this in Windows – Microsoft throws update plan overboard – you need to know that.
More frequent Windows innovations through “Moments”
Later this year, the Sun Valley 2 update will be released with Windows 11 version 22H2. Microsoft will then also end the previous development cycles for updates. All subsequent new Windows 11 features and experiences will then be delivered to users at a faster rate. Internally, Microsoft speaks of so-called “Moments”. According to Zac Bowden, up to four such updates can be expected in 2023.
In fact, Microsoft has already shipped new features in Windows 11 much faster than in the past. At the beginning of the year, the taskbar was given a few innovations. With Windows 10, there was no such thing in the past, so developers and users always had to wait for the half-yearly updates.
Useful for end users, rather bad for companies
In February, Microsoft had already stated that they were trying out new ways of introducing innovations in Windows. At that time, the Windows developer spoke of “experience packs” in this blog post. These are also delivered to users via Windows Update under this name.
It’s actually a good thing for Windows users if they get updates and improvements faster than before. This allows Microsoft to respond more quickly to feature requests that are frequently requested. The increase in the update frequency is rather bad for companies, especially since new functions can also bring new bugs. It is to be expected that Microsoft will offer the option here of preventing updates from being delivered to the Windows clients.


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Samsung has released the One UI 2.0 and Android 10 OS update for the Galaxy Note 9 smartphones in Germany, India, and now it is available in the UK. It will soon be available to other regions.
The software version of this update is N960FXXU4DSLB and the size of this update is 1900MB. It comes with the December security patch.
Samsung has already released the stable One UI 2.0 update for the Galaxy S10, Galaxy Note 10, Galaxy M20, and M30 smartphones.
If you want to check for the update manually, you can head into the device Settings then tap on the Software update menu and go for the Download and install option.
OneUI 2 / Android 10 available in the UK from GalaxyNote9


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Commercial real estate could look different post-pandemic
The exhibitor building in downtown Grand Rapids has eight restaurants, hotel space, meeting rooms and leisure facilities. Courtesy The Image Shoppe
The deadly pandemic has put commercial real estate at a crossroads as businesses, businesses and individuals decipher how to safely return to a new normal or permanently revolutionize the way they work.
Subsectors of the commercial real estate industry that have taken the brunt of the initial pandemic are returning to a volatile economic market. Some restaurants and retailers have permanently closed their doors while others are redesigning the way they deliver and deliver goods and groceries to consumers.
Most landlords and tenants have managed to reopen their doors to business, in part thanks to government funding such as the Paycheck Protection Program loan.
“The landlords were given assistance so they haven’t really felt the stress for the past 12 months, unlike if they weren’t getting government assistance,” said Jeffrey Tucker, senior managing director brokerage and principal at Bradley Company. “We haven’t seen many vacancies and the vacancies are starting to fill in due to the continued growth in (Class) A centers. We didn’t think we’d see this last May. We thought we were going to experience real stress. Businesses were closing, (other) spaces weren’t open for business, and the parking lots were empty, but we really didn’t see much of it.
With those funds, companies like restaurants that had to close their restaurants last year and offer roadside pick-ups last year have had to get creative over the long term, according to Bill Bussey, associate broker at Bradley Company.
“There have been many restaurants that have no pass-through, but those who have found a way to add this have done so,” he said. “For example, many places like Biggby only offer drive-thru and sometimes both – drive-thru and indoor dining. They made buildings they can put in a parking lot, and there might be a drive-thru or two, just a double-drive-thru and some tables outside, but you can’t go inside. “
Tucker said other companies that have mastered drive-thru efficiency are Chick-Fil-A and pharmacies, including those in places like Meijer and Walgreens, because there is less person-to-person contact. In addition to less contact, the addition of drive-thru proved beneficial for businesses and landlords during the pandemic.
“From a landlord’s point of view, if they have a mall and it’s not a freestanding drive-through location – when a landlord can only have two end caps for their investment, for their mall and not two – Thrus at the end – that’s loss of income for she, ”he said. “When they can’t figure out how to navigate the parking lot and get on and off the main road Thoroughfare, That’s a loss of income for them because the end cap with a potential degree of passage could potentially be built elsewhere for $ 22 per square foot, and if a Starbucks or McDonalds can end up going they could probably get $ 35 per square foot. There is significantly more new income and that also applies to pharmacies. “
Tucker said outdoor seating alongside drive-thru will be a requirement for any new restaurant.
“They could reduce some of their internal footprints, but I wouldn’t be opening a new restaurant if I didn’t have at least 20-30 outdoor seating (options) because whether it’s COVID or the closest, we see the value in that,” he said . “People in Michigan love to be outside.”
While some companies are closing, Bussey is opening and expanding in new locations where they can become more visible. Some popular retail stores have opened new locations across the country this year.
The companies and number of new locations this year per Bussey include:
- 5 bottom: 170-180
- Old Navy: 30-40
- Aldi: 100
- Citi Trends: Dec.
- Dollar General: 1,500
- TJ Maxx: 122
- American eagle: 60
- Fabletics: 24
- Dollar tree: 1,000
- Burlington: 75
- Goal: 30-40
- Starbucks: 50
- At home: 400
Daniel Burns, associate broker at Bradley Company and attorney at Dan Burns Law in Grand Rapids, said the pandemic has made employers think about how they will use their office space.
He said some employers are opting for open space, a concept employers had adapted before the pandemic. However, now some employers are also considering moving out of the office and letting their employees work outside of the office.
Burns says employers are now maximizing the use of technology, which could become an ongoing practice. While there were many mergers and branch closings prior to the pandemic, Burns said banks and insurance companies are reassessing the way they do business.
“I think you will see banks and insurance companies reevaluating their space and taking a close look at which of these groups of people we need here, which are flexible and which we will never bring back,” he said. “What banks and insurance companies are doing will trickle down and other companies will follow suit.”


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Shares of SAP SE hit a six-month high in early trading after the company released preliminary first-quarter results that showed customers are beginning to pick up information technology spending after cutting back during the pandemic.
The Walldorf, Germany-based software company said late Tuesday it saw a 7% rise in first-quarter cloud revenue and raised the lower end of its full-year forecast for cloud sales. Adjusted cloud revenue was 2.15 billion euros ($2.57 billion) in the period ended March 31.
SAP rose 3.8% to 116.46 euros in Frankfurt trading at 9:41 a.m., their highest level since October.
- “The results are likely to alleviate some pessimism,” Jefferies analysts wrote in a note, adding that investors will want to know the pace of customers’ cloud transition and extent of growth in new bookings for the business.
- Cloud and software sales increased 1% to 5.43 billion euros from a year earlier, the company said.
- Full-year adjusted cloud sales will be 9.2 billion to 9.5 billion euros, based on “the strong new cloud business performance” the company said in the statement. The new forecast raises the lower end of the guidance from the previous 9.1 billion euros.
- Concur, its expenses unit, continued to struggle due to the lack of business travel.
- First-quarter adjusted operating profit increased 17% to 1.74 billion euros.
- Chief Executive Officer Christian Klein is attempting to overhaul SAP, focusing on making it easier for customers to move to a newer suite of products and ramping up competition with rivals such as Salesforce.com Inc.
- The European firm has also been pushing to integrate its products with other tech platforms, to allow clients to run programs on Microsoft Corp.’s Azure or Amazon.com Inc.’s AWS.
- SAP said on Tuesday it was moving its businesses for the financial services industry into a venture with Dediq GmbH.
- SAP is scheduled to report formal quarterly earnings on April 22.
(Updates throughout with shares, analyst commentary)


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New Delhi: Paytm Mall — the e-commerce venture backed by China’s Alibaba Group — is likely to acquire a majority stake in the online supermarket BigBasket, reported Business Standard, citing unidentified sources as saying that Paytm Mall is at an advanced stage of negotiations with the Bengaluru-based company.
The financial daily mentioned that the digital payments company has been looking for an online grocery player ever since there were rumours in 2017 that American retail behemoth Walmart wanted to acquire an online retail partner in India. However, a Paytm spokesperson refused to divulge any such detail so far.
It is worth mentioning that Chinese e-commerce giant and Paytm backer Alibaba had pumped USD 200 million into BigBasket in February. Many analysts say the funds gave BigBasket the firepower to take on US-based Amazon and homegrown ecommerce giant Flipkart, both of which have entered into the online grocery space in India.
The publication quoted an unnamed source saying that talks are still on. BigBasket seeks a seat on the board of Paytm Mall and also wants the company to be “valued at a premium”.
Last month, One97 Communications Ltd, the owner of Paytm, received USD 300 million (about Rs 2,179 crore) in fresh fund injection from Berkshire Hathaway Inc. The transaction was the Warren Buffett-led company’s first investment in the country.
According to reports, the legendary investor, while addressing Berkshire's shareholders at the annual meeting in May, had shown an interest in the digital payments industry, mentioning that the financial payments industry is a huge deal globally and that many entities were working to reinvent the sector.
Meanwhile, Samara Capital and Amazon inked a deal last month to acquire the Aditya Birla Retail Ltd's food and grocery retail chain More for an enterprise value of around Rs 4,200 crore. The US-based online retail titan would initially hold 49 per cent stake in the supermarket chain, while the Indian private equity fund will hold the remaining 51 per cent stake.


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Top Financial Stocks
Financial stocks were finishing roughly split between winners and lowers Friday, with the NYSE Financial Sector Index rising about 0.1% while financial companies in the S&P 500 Index were falling just under 0.2%. The Philadelphia Housing Sector Index was climbing nearly 0.2%.
In economic news,
April trade prices were mixed, with imports rising less than expert opinion was expecting while exports prices were stronger than expected. Import prices rose just 0.3%, trailing the consensus forecast by 0.2 percentage points, boosted by a restrained 1.6% increase in imported petroleum prices despite a 5.5% gain in West Texas Intermediate prices last month. Export prices rose 0.6%, doubling up the 0.3% consensus following a 0.7% jump in non-agricultural export prices. Core price gains excluding fuel and food largely matched March's gains but weakened somewhat from January and February levels. Trade prices also continued climbing, although domestic inflation fears have calmed since an outsized jump in January price spooked the market.
The flash reading for consumer sentiment in May came in slightly shy of expectations, remaining unchanged from April final reading of 98.8, or 0.2 percentage points under the 99.0 consensus call. Current conditions slid slightly from month-ago levels to 113.3, offsetting a small rise in consumer perceptions of current conditions, according to the University of Michigan Consumer Survey Center.
Among financial stocks moving on news:
- Thomson Reuters (TRI,TRI.TO) dropped to a 27-month low on Friday, falling to its lowest share price since February 2016 at $36.52 each, after the news and financial data company reported Q1 earnings and revenue coming up short of Wall Street estimates, upstaging the launch of a new $500 million stock buyback program. Excluding one-time items, the company earned $0.28 per share during the three months ended March 31, improving on $0.25 per share during the same quarter last year but lagging the Capital IQ consensus by $0.06 per share. Revenue declined 3.6% year over year to $1.38 billion from $1.33 billion during the same quarter last year and also missing the Street view expecting $1.41 billion in quarterly revenue.
In other sector news:
+ Barclays ( BCS ) was hanging on to a slim gain in Friday's mid-day market, erasing most of a nearly 1% increase that followed the British financial services company saying UK regulators have issued a GBP642,430 fine to CEO James Staley over his actions in response to an anonymous shareholder and whistleblower who made several allegations, some that involved Staley. The $872,037 fine by the Financial Conduct Authority follows the agency determining Staley made serious efforts of judgment and saying his misconduct was "sufficiently serious to impose a penalty of 10% of Mr. Staley's relevant annual income."
- Waddell & Reed Financial ( WDR ) was narrowly lower Friday afternoon, falling to negative turf following a nearly 1% advance earlier in the session that followed the investment manager reporting a 1.2% decline in its assets under management during April compared with the prior month, falling to $79.2 billion from $80.2 billion in assets on March 31.
- Virtu Financial ( VIRT ) was down about 2% in recent trade, paring a more than 4% loss earlier Friday, that followed the market-maker pricing a $244.2 million public offering of nearly 8.72 million shares of its Class A stock at $28 apiece, a 5.2% discount to Thursday's closing price. Shareholders, including Virtu founder and board chairman emeritus Vincent Viola along with an affiliate of Temasek Holdings Ltd, sold another 6.28 million Class A shares through a concurrent secondary offering, receiving $175.8 million in combined gross proceeds. The company plans to use the net proceeds from its stock sale to repurchase an equal number of its common interest units and a corresponding amount of its Class D common stock.


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The aim of the ‘Circular Design Challenge’ initiative is to bring to the forefront environmental champions of tomorrow in the Indian fashion and textiles industry, according to a media release my IMG Reliance, an equal joint venture between RIL and IMG Worldwide (IMG), global leaders in sports, events, media and fashion.
Circular fashion is a concept aimed to reduce the waste that goes into landfills today and increase the lifespan, reusability and recyclability of the products created. The finalists– Pozruh by Aiman Sabri, Bareek by Aman Singh, IRO IRO by Bhaavya Goenka, I Was A Sari by Poornima Pande & Stefano Funari, Lifaffa by Kanika Ahuja, Saltpetre by Pooja Monga, Miesu by Seerat Virdi and Doodlage by Kriti Tula, were chosen after a rigorous selection process by an eminent jury. The challenge saw over 900 registrations from over 30 cities across the country.
The designers were required to incorporate circular components across the textile value chain in their design through the application of circular-design principles and demonstrate a positive impact on the environment and on society. They were evaluated and scored on usage of waste in their collection, fashion & aesthetic quotient, business viability/scalability, value chain and collaborations.
Going forward, the chosen applicants will be mentored across personality, pitch and presentation development. The winner will be felicitated with a grand cash prize of ₹20 lakh on January 31, 2019, which is celebrated as Sustainable Fashion Day at LFW Summer Resort 2019.
The cash prize will help the winner build their sustainable fashion brand, and avail an exclusive opportunity to showcase at the next season of LFW Winter/Festive 2019.
“As an industry leader in petrochemicals, RIL has embraced circularity and sustainability in our core values and operations, aiming to make the world a better place for the generations to come,” said Vipul Shah, COO – petrochemicals, RIL.
“We are confident that the Circular Design Challenge will provide enormous opportunities for budding concept creators, fashion designers and the entire textile value chain to exhibit their innovative ideas, designs with a focus on circularity and sustainability. The initiative will help the entire Indian textile value chain to become a global leader in ingraining circularity in their business strategy and operations,” Shah added.
“The Circular Design Challenge is an opportunity for innovative young designers to combine sustainable design practices with new circular business models, rethinking how we design our products for their next use -- not for ‘end of life,’ but rather ‘end of use’,” said Yuri Afanasiev, UN resident coordinator in India.
“Total greenhouse gas emissions from textiles production, at 1.2 billion tonnes annually, are more than those of all international flights and maritime shipping combined. Creative approaches such as ‘The Circular Design Challenge’ are a perfect opportunity to promote sustainable textile production and consumption and accelerate sustainable development in general,” said Atul Bagai, UN environment, country head, India.
“We are committed to bringing new design talent and innovators to the fore season-on-season. Our partnership with the UN in India and R|Elan’s ‘Fashion for Earth’ initiative for the Circular Design Challenge is a step towards identifying and supporting champions in the field of sustainability,” said Jaspreet Chandok, vice president and head of fashion at IMG Reliance. (PC)
Fibre2Fashion News Desk – India
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Comfort and food aren’t necessarily important to travelers nowadays. So what is?
Entertainment and technology.
A recent report by a Southeast Asian technology company, Traveloka, narrowed down who the World’s most tech-friendly airlines are. They analyzed the top 50 airlines from the Skytrax World Airline Awards 2018 which are the best of the industry and compared them in terms of Wi-Fi, in-flight entertainment, access to text, phone calls and power outlet availability. Here are the top 5…
Qatar Airways, tops the list as best for tech. Qatar responded to consumer demand by launching its “Super Wi-Fi” service earlier this year, with speeds that can top 50 Mega BITS per second. Passengers are offered their first hour of high-speed broadband access for free, but can purchase unlimited usage for the rest of the flight for $10. Pretty reasonable – especially if you are traveling on a long-haul flight.
Emirates, another Middle Eastern airline, earns second place thanks to its excellent in-flight entertainment package, which includes 3,500 channels of movies, TV shows, music and games including LIVE TV from CNN, CNBC, BBC and Sport24. Emirates also provides 20 Mega Bytes of free Wi-Fi to be used within two hours.
Now, there are a couple of US airlines that made the list as well. While it trails way down at No.37 in the Skytrax World’s Best Airline rankings, Delta Airlines shoots all the way to 3rd place when it comes to its tech-friendly ranking. They score highly in connectivity, offering free mobile messaging via WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and iMessage, as well as all-day Wi-Fi passes from $16.
UK flag carrier British Airways soars to fourth place because of its fast Wi-Fi speeds which average about 20 Mega BITS per second.
US budget carrier JetBlue came in at Number 5 on the tech list. It offers newly released movies and TV channels like as CNN, Fox and ESPN via seat-back screens on all flights longer than two hours. Customers also get free access to the Internet and free streaming via Amazon video.
And of all the airlines included in the report, most offered Wi-Fi so it’s definitely becoming more common but only a few provide it for free. Most allow a free trial period and then start to charge after a given amount of time. And all 50 airlines provided either in-seat power or USB ports – which is a really convenient.


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BBB Cycling Australia is pleased to announce a new long-term partnership with AusCycling. This is an important partnership that will further enhance our support of the Australian cycling community, particularly local bike retailers, AusCycling members and event organisers.
Combining our local retail support and contactless transactions makes this a partnership that provides budget relief for event organisers and an unrivalled level of convenience for cyclists all over Australia.
BBB Cycling Australia will offer a variety of sponsorship opportunities for cycling events across the country by contributing to prize pools in the form of digital vouchers.
AusCycling members are also set to reap the rewards of the partnership as they will have access to exclusive deals that will be offered via member newsletters.
“It’s fantastic to be able to provide more value for our local retailers and greater opportunity for event organisers across the country,” said Agostino Giramondo, EGM of Commercial, Clubs, and Community at AusCycling.
BBB Cycling is constantly innovating premium quality products, now offering a complete range of over 1,500 different parts and accessories to enhance cyclists’ experience. BikeSportz Imports, a local distributor of BBB Cycling Australia is excited to work with AusCycling to further grow cycling in Australia.
Redeem the rewards from our partnership and join the AusCycling membership program today! Please visit AusCycling
Inquiries for BBB Cycling Australia event sponsorship opportunities can be directed to: email@example.com EGM of Commercial, Clubs, and Community.