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Why is Eastgate a Threat to the Market?
According to the developer and the Council, the Eastgate development will bring lots of new jobs to Leeds, transform a derelict area and increase tourism. The Market, they say, will benefit from the additional customer footfall this will bring. But we think that Eastgate as currently proposed will come at a major cost for two main reasons. First, contrary to the developer’s PR spin about transforming a site “derelict for 40 years”, it will mean the demolition of most of the existing Eastgate Terraces and iconic buildings like the Lyons Works Factory. As this Yorkshire Evening Post article from 2009 shows, the scheme has already decimated Leeds’ small Chinatown area and caused misery for some small businesses affected by Compulsory Purchase Orders. Second, the proposed changes to the city’s transport system along with the design and scale of Eastgate pose a major threat to the future of Leeds Kirkgate Market.
Following the September 2010 public consultation event, we outlined some of these concerns here. Now that we have read the outline planning application, we believe there are six main reasons to be worried:
1. Traffic chaos – by pedestrianising all roads in the Eastgate Quarter, much of the existing traffic will be re-routed to travel around the Market, turning it into a very congested and polluted traffic island. George Street, which runs along the Northern edge of the market, will not only become a major bus corridor hosting at least 75 buses an hour, but also a key servicing and customer pick-up area for the proposed John Lewis store. The resulting traffic will act as a major blockage to Market customers and will turn the Markets area into a more polluted, unsafe and unattractive environment.
2. Car parking and trader servicing – the Market will lose the benefit of the 400 space short-stay car park on George Street right next door, which will be relocated to a new multi-storey car park some 500 metres from the Market, representing a 1km round-trip and a major drawback for potential customers. The York Street NCP car park is a rip-off, charging a minimum of £5. George Street is also one of the traders’ key servicing points but they will be negatively affected by the changes to public transport and the competition for loading bays from the new retailers in the Eastgate Quarter.
3. Heritage undermined– the Market’s beautiful and unique architectural heritage embodied in the Grade 1 Listed top part will not be preserved and enhanced by the Eastgate Quarter; instead, it will be over-shadowed by a John Lewis store up to 68 metres towering over the market, and subjected to increased levels of destructive emissions.
4. Poor connectivity – although the developer claims that Eastgate will “encourage pedestrian linkages between this part of the city centre to Kirkgate Market”, the proposed design will effectively shut pedestrians off from much of the Markets area. George Street will be dominated by moving vehicles and the Markets will be visually impaired by the height of the Eastgate development buildings, the lack of straight visual lines and the double decker buses that will be permanently in front of the Markets.
5. Construction disruption – the Market will be literally right next door to a building site for at least 42 months – some 1092 shopping days – meaning dirt, dust, noise, construction vehicles, the closure of the neighbouring George St car park and road closures that will severely disrupt both traders and customers.
6. Ruinous and unfair competition – putting 130 new retail units right next door to the Markets, including rival food halls in the new John Lewis – which will be directly opposite the Markets – and the new Marks and Spencer, will undoubtedly harm many of the Markets’ existing businesses and stalls. This will be corporate retail business and modern facilities unfairly competing with small independent businesses struggling to survive in a deteriorating Market infrastructure that is being continually denied investment from its Council owner.
We have provided more evidence to back up our concerns in our objection to Eastgate statement.
1. What is Eastgate?
2. Why is Eastgate a Threat to the Market?
3. What are the wider concerns about Eastgate?
4. How can we challenge the Eastgate scheme to protect the Market?


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Apple's App Store celebrates two billion download milestone
iPhone users are still visiting the Apple App Store in droves, having downloaded more than two billion applications to date.
Apple today announced that users have downloaded more than two billion applications from its App Store.
The news comes on the same day that mobile phone fans discovered that O2's exclusive hold over Apple's iconic iPhone is coming to an end as Orange will be offering it to UK users on its network by the end of the year.
More than 85,000 applications are now available to the ever-growing iPhone and iPod Touch user base, which Apple reckons stands at around 50 million at present.
Back in July, the company celebrated reaching the 1.5 billion app download milestone, showing just how quickly things have changed in a matter of months.
"The rate of App Store downloads continues to accelerate with users downloading a staggering two billion apps in just over a year, including more than half a billion apps this quarter alone," said Steve Jobs, Apple's chief executive, in a statement.
"The App Store has reinvented what you can do with a mobile handheld device, and our users are clearly loving it."
Click here for our timeline of the App Store's first year.
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Fans of Pure Barre and Cycle Bar, who may have been dismayed when the two businesses closed last Sunday, will soon be able to get their fix when the combined franchises open in a single space on Hyman Avenue later this month.
After eight years at the helm of Pure Barre, owner Jordan Bullock will take over operations of both businesses when they reopen.
The move comes about in large part because both Pure Barre and Cycle Bar are recent additions to the brand lineup of Xponential Fitness, a California-based company that also owns Club Pilates, Row House, Yoga Six and Stretch Lab, among others.
“Pure Barre was the latest brand to be purchased,” said Bullock, “and we just thought it would be a really great combination to put both in one big space.”
The new address for both businesses will be 535 E. Hyman Avenue – literally across the street from Pure Barre’s current location – which just happens to be the address of popular yoga studio Aspen Shakti. With the three different workouts all right next to one another, Bullock hopes locals and visitors alike will come to see 535 E. Hyman Ave. as a one-stop-shopping address for workout fans.
“It’ll make it kind of the fitness hub of Aspen,” she said. “All three of those workouts definitely complement each other. So we’re super excited to be Shakti’s neighbor and feel like this allows people to come in and experience all three things, maybe in one day, or maybe spin one day, do some yoga and then maybe do the barre thing.”
While Shakti has yoga classes and Cyclebar is all about spinning, the barre thing, as Bullock calls it, is “a musically driven workout that uses components of ballet, yoga and pilates” all while holding onto a barre handrail such as one might find in a ballet studio. Despite those associations, “there’s no dancing,” according to Bullock.
It’s a formula that has made Pure Barre the most established barre franchise in the world with 520 North American locations. But the musical drive that has helped make it so popular has also caused the Aspen location some headaches, as there is a pending lawsuit against Pure Barre from 2018 claiming the business was the source of “unreasonably loud and annoying music, noise and vibrations.” That lawsuit was filed by the owners of the penthouse apartment above the studio.
The closure of the current location and move across the street don’t solve Pure Barre’s legal hassles, which are headed toward mediation.
Bullock noted that all her current Pure Barre employees and teachers will still have their jobs after the move, and while she couldn’t speak for Cyclebar just yet, she thought all its employees would keep their jobs, with one notable exception. Cyclebar owner Hayley Killam will be stepping aside after selling her two-year-old franchise (which also had issues with noise complaints at its Spring Street location), but she plans on being around to help out Bullock as a friend and patron.
“Right now I’m just going to support Jordan, and I’m going to be there for her and help her to succeed,” said Killam. “And I’m going to be a rider at Cyclebar instead of the owner. That’ll be nice.”
Bullock had hoped to keep both Pure Barre and Cycle Bar open for the month of July, but it wasn’t logistically feasible as she got the new space ready. Closing both meant a roughly three-week gap in classes, but that should be remedied soon enough.
“There’s a light at the end of the tunnel,” said Bullock. “We’re doing a pretty extreme build-out. It’s going to be very high-tech and very modern and beautiful. I wish the transition had been a little more seamless, but that’s OK. Everyone can take a small break. It’ll get everyone excited for our new opening. We have brand new state-of-the-art ‘smart bikes’ coming for Cyclebar that are really cool that light up when you start riding them, and we have a really great audio-visual system. It’s going to be amazing when all is said and done.”
Work on the site began in early June with “a huge team of guys.” They’re in the process of painting and putting the finishing touches on the space right now, and Bullock figures the opening will come in about 2-3 weeks.


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Brewers Anheuser-Busch InBev (ABI.BR) and Anadolu Efes (AEFES.IS) have agreed to merge their operations in Russia and Ukraine in an attempt to strengthen their position in a declining market.
Russians are among the world’s biggest drinkers of alcohol, but beer sales, which grew rapidly after 2000 on the back of investment from international players, have tumbled since 2008 when the government began taking steps to curb drinking, such as raising taxes and limiting sales.
AB InBev, the world’s largest brewer and home to brands including Budweiser and Stella Artois, announced the non-binding deal on Wednesday without disclosing financial terms. AB InBev owns 24 percent of Efes, Turkey’s biggest brewer, inheriting it from SABMiller, which it acquired last year.
The Belgium-based brewer said the 50-50 merger would result in a new company called AB InBev-Efes, which will be fully consolidated in the financial accounts of Efes. AB InBev will treat the business as an equity stake.
Shares of Anadolu Efes were up 2 percent in Istanbul at 0910 GMT, as the addition of AB InBev’s 12 percent share of the Russian market stands to make Efes into a much stronger No. 2 player behind market leader Carlsberg (CARLb.CO). Efes already has 16 percent of the market, which Euromonitor says has a retail value of $15 billion. It has forecast that to shrink to $14.1 billion by 2021.
“We should not down play the competitive significance of today’s development,” Mirabaud analyst Jonathan Fyfe said in a note. He said Efes has been outperforming the market for some time, and that combined revenues should get a further boost from the increased distribution that Efes’ network can give to AB InBev’s international premium brands.
He also said that having fewer competitors in the Russian market will lead to “a more rational pricing environment”.
AB InBev shares were down 1 percent in Brussels, while Carlsberg shares were down 0.6 percent in Copenhagen.
Aside from saying the combination would strengthen the competitive position of both companies’ brands and create potential for further growth, AB InBev said in a statement the deal enhanced its relationship with Efes and the value of its stake, now worth around 3 billion Turkish lira ($847.00 million).
Analysts have speculated over whether AB InBev will keep the stake in the long term.
Both brewers will have equal representation on the board of the new company, but Tuncay Ozilhan, chairman of Anadolu Group and Anadolu Efes, will be its chairman.
The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2018.
By Martinne Geller
Danone has appointed three deputy CEOs to “better connect categories and regions” and drive the delivery of its ‘Renew Danone’ strategy. The new appointees are Veronique Penchienati-Bosetta, Shane Grant and Juergen Esser. They will report to Danone CEO Antoine de Saint-Affrique.
PepsiCo Portugal has announced that it will invest €7.5 million to construct a new biodigester, which will turn organic waste into biogas. As well as helping its Carregado facility to achieve a 30% reduction in carbon emissions, the biodigester will also contribute to reducing gas consumption, allowing the installation to use the biogas produced during the anaerobic digestion process.
Kerry is sponsoring The Kerry Upcycled Food Foundation Fellowship in a new partnership with the Upcycled Food Foundation (UFF), the non-profit subsidiary of the Upcycled Food Association (UFA). The research fellowship is the second initiated by the UFF and will work toward advancing the understanding of the market, consumer perception and technical opportunities of upcycled food.


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The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has ordered all e-commerce platforms to delist non-dairy and plant-based products classified as dairy products. On September 3, the food regulator issued a notification informing e-commerce food business operators (FBOs) to not offer such dairy alternatives under the dairy category.
The new rules will impact both the new-age companies and direct-to-consumer (D2C) dairy alternatives. Such alternatives include Raw Pressery, Epigamia, Urban Platter, and Goodmylk, as well as FMCG giants like Sofit (Hershey’s) and Amul.
What does the notice say?
According to the FSSAI, there are several exceptions to the ‘dairy’ phrase. The phrase could be used for goods like coconut milk, peanut butter, and others. Further, the term “curd” does not primarily refer to dairy products and also encompasses non-dairy goods such as soybean curd.
As per the notice, if any e-commerce company is found guilty during the investigation, it will be given 15 days to enhance or change product labels and comply with the Food Safety and Standards (Food Products Standards and Food Additives) Regulations, 2011. The decision affects e-commerce platforms including Amazon India, Flipkart, BigBasket, and Grofers, among others.
FSSAI has asked the State Food Safety Departments to investigate and identify specific instances of e-commerce platform violations.
Need for clarity
The FSSAI has not stated which plant-based or non-dairy product it is targeting. Oat milk, rice milk, walnut milk, flax milk, soy milk, and other products claim to be alternatives to cow/buffalo milk at the moment.
The present notice is not a major source of concern for e-commerce platforms relying on consumer electronics and apparel to drive their sales. However, one cannot say the same for plant-based and dairy alternative startups. Further, such platforms rely on the major e-commerce platforms to sell their products. If e-commerce platforms remove these businesses’ products from the dairy category and place them in a newly created “non-dairy” category, product discovery may suffer, resulting in a drop in sales.
You can read the notice/order here.


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A new ‘pot luck’ cafe is offering people in Blairgowrie and beyond the chance to enjoy a free meal thanks to a partnership between the Strathmore Centre for Youth Development (SCYD) and Tesco.
The unusual eaterie is based in the Wellmeadow Cafe on Gas Brae and is open on Tuesdays from 3.30pm until 6pm.
The scheme sees supermarket giant Tesco redistribute surplus food that would otherwise have been thrown away to local community groups and organisations that transform it into nutritious meals available to local people.
The initiative, which is run in conjunction with Fareshare – a national organisation that aims to fight hunger by tackling food waste– has been trialled by Tesco in other areas and is now being rolled out across the country.
Teresa Donaldson, coordinator at SCYD, is delighted that the group has been chosen by Tesco to participate in the project.
She said: “Tesco approached us to see if we would be interested and we jumped at the chance to get involved.
“As well as running the pot luck cafe on Tuesdays, we have also been looking at community-orientated programmes based around healthy eating in recent months, and this ticks a lot of boxes for us in that regard.
“We’re hoping volunteers will be able to come along and help out in the cafe for example, and as well as gaining valuable experience they will also have the chance to work towards getting their food hygiene certificates.
“Wellmeadow Cafe chef, Becky Moran, trained as a community Cook-It coach over the summer, and we are developing ideas to help educate local people about eating healthily on a budget, and working with Tesco will go a long way to being able to deliver this.
“We would like to say a big thank you to Tesco for supporting local community groups in this way - it’s such a simple idea that will make a big difference to the day-to-day lives of lots of people.”
Three different soups were on the menu last week – carrot and sweet potato, mushroom, and tomato and pepper, all served with a toasted crumpet and butter.
Courgette spaghetti with a tomato sauce was also available, as well as lots of fresh fruit and tasty treats such as doughnuts, croissants, bagels and fruit pies.
Becky, the current Blairgowrie and Rattray Young Person of the Year, added: “The first week we collected four big boxes of produce from Tesco and were able to make lots of soup and offer treats such as croissants and pastries as well.
“We put up a post on Facebook and there were so many positive and supportive comments from people saying what a fantastic idea it was.
“The young people who come to SCYD after school all had soup and fruit – as well as some of the sweeter goodies!”
Lisa Finlay, people manager at Tesco in Blairgowrie, said: “We asked our staff for suggestions of local groups and organisations that we could work with on this and they suggested SCYD’s Wellmeadow Cafe.
“We are also working with Perth Autism Support and are looking for other organisations or community groups to get involved as well.
“The surplus produce that we redistribute includes fruit and vegetables, cakes, grocery items and goods that are perfectly fine but that we can’t sell due to damaged packaging.
“It’s fantastic to see the food being put to such good use and we’re delighted to be able to help groups such as SCYD and Perth Autism Support help people in the local community.”


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Heard the one about return of lolly jokes? Gags revived on sticks after 25 years
Finishing a lolly and reading out the joke revealed on the stick was once a traditional part of childhood.
Now, 25 years after it was phased out, the joke on a lolly is being revived.
To celebrate its return, an ice cream company has held a nationwide competition to find the perfect joke for its lolly stick.
Comeback kid: Cadbury is bringing back jokes on lolly sticks after a break of 25 years
The winning entry was: ‘Who is in charge of the hankies? The hankie-chief.’
Scaffolder Charlie Thomas, 44, of Whitley Bay, Tyne and Wear, won the £5,000 first prize for the joke, which will appear on Cadbury’s Dairy Milk lollies.
Its competition attracted 2,000 entries on Twitter and was judged by a public vote.
No laughing matter: One Cadbury Dairy Milk lolly will contain a golden stick worth £10,000 as part of a promotion bringing back jokes on lollies
Mr Thomas’s joke has also been engraved on to an 18-carat gold stick worth £10,000 that has been put into a random Cadbury’s lolly for a member of the public to find.
They are being handed out in Covent Garden until Sunday.
When they go on sale next year, the lollies will carry a range of jokes that may include famous comics’ contributions and some of the other competition entries.
Lolly jokes, which usually took the form of groan- worthy puns, stopped appearing in 1988 because consumers were thought to have developed more sophisticated tastes.
However, recent research found that two thirds would like to see the jokes make a comeback.
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You’ll must splash out if you wish to dive right into a pool this summer.
With a brand new deal with suburban dwelling, 1000’s of Americans are dashing to construct in-ground pools. But their goals of enjoyable in the solar are bumping up in opposition to skyrocketing demand for supplies, manufacturing and delivery delays, even pure disasters.
In the tri-state space, it may take a 12 months or extra after buy simply to start putting in a splashy hangout.
Worse nonetheless, a primary vinyl in-ground pool — with out the bells and whistles of heating, decking or any additional customization — prices $85,000 on common, up from the $60,000 to $65,000 in 2019, mentioned Glen Baisley, 50, the advertising and marketing director of Neave Group Outdoor Solutions, whose work consists of constructing pools in the Hudson Valley and Fairfield County in Connecticut. The identical with a extra premium materials, corresponding to gunite, can now run $120,000 on common — up from $100,000 in 2019.
But whereas many really feel like fish out of water, these promoting a home with a pre-existing pool are locking in offers quick and over ask.
The estimated value-add of a pool in New York has jumped to $31,847 on common in the wake of the pandemic — up from the $14,968 tallied earlier than COVID. That’s a 113% spike, according to an April report from real-estate referral firm HomeLight.
“Whoever ends up buying my house in Chappaqua is getting such a gift. They have no idea,” mentioned Julie Stein, 50, of her custom-built home in the prosperous Westchester, NY, hamlet, now listed for $3.27 million.
Located at 12 Bradley Farms, Stein — who just lately relocated to Connecticut along with her household after 13 years in her home — outfitted the 7,820-square-foot, four-bedroom residence with a roomy chef’s kitchen and stylish limestone flooring.
But by far her home’s hottest function is a just-filled, 900-square-foot yard pool, her dream amenity, which took two years to finish.
Initially, Stein checked out a $140,000 whole cost for the design and set up — however with the want for a short lived fence and work on the irrigation, amongst different prices, it rose to greater than $200,000.
“It was hell,” she added of the course of — which included a months-long development backlog as a consequence of the COVID-19 shutdown.
Now, her new pool makes her home, listed since February, much more marketable — and she or he hopes her buzzier fixture makes for a quicker sale.
“You’re in a pool that has never been swam in,” mentioned Stein. “You don’t have to do anything.”
But for many who hope to construct their very own pool, supplies stay briefly provide.
“We haven’t seen chlorine now for months,” mentioned Wayne Hemming, 54, a Totowa, NJ-based gross sales middle supervisor at Superior Pool Products, which provides “everything but the water” to native pool shops and contractors. “I’m not even sure when I’m going to see another 25-pound bucket of chlorine at this point.”
Supplies like lights, pumps and tiles, are additionally typically out of inventory.
Adding insult to harm, February’s uncommon winter storm in Texas prompted demand to spike as a consequence of broken pool tools that house owners wanted to exchange.
Then, final August, a hearth destroyed a Louisiana chemical plant that’s a scorching spot for chlorine manufacturing.
Nevertheless, home house owners proceed to pony up.
In decrease Fairfield County, the first 5 months of 2021 noticed 449 gross sales of houses with pools, up from the 250 pool-privileged houses that offered in the identical span in 2019 — a 79.6% enhance, in keeping with Brown Harris Stevens (BHS). They’re additionally promoting for extra. Houses with pools up to now in 2021 shut at $438 on common per sq. foot — 45.5% above the $301 recorded in 2019.
“This phenomenon erupted because of COVID,” mentioned Douglas Elliman agent Stacey Oestreich, who’s advertising and marketing Stein’s home alongside colleague Nancy Strong, and who has her personal pool-equipped home in Armonk, NY, in contract for “significantly over” its $1.69 million ask after per week on the market. “It’s almost like, ‘If you have a pool, I’ll take your house with it.’ ”
Oestreich factors to a different deal she dealt with for the pool-clad 340 Guard Hill Road in Bedford, NY, which offered for $5.45 million final month. In 2019, when pools have been much less in demand, a home close by at 449 Guard Hill Road, with almost 4 extra acres and extra sq. footage, offered for $4.2 million — down from its $5.49 million ask.
“You’re entertaining more in the home, you’re living, working, schooling, exercising — you’re doing everything in the home, and I think people have gained a real sense of appreciation for that,” added Alison Bernstein, founder and president of Suburban Jungle, an actual property advisory platform.
But BHS dealer John Engel sees the development in an even bigger lens.
“The rental market and the for-sale market are seeing an increased demand for not only swimming pools, but nice outdoor spaces,” he mentioned. “Flat land is now an asset, waterfront is now an asset, more acreage is an asset — a pool is just one more of those amenities that people are looking for.”
Last week, Engel listed a five-bedroom home with a pool at 1654 Ponus Ridge in New Canaan Conn., for $1.5 million, and it acquired a full-price provide on its first day.
And due to a gunite pool, Douglas Elliman agent James Keogh’s East Hampton home went into contract after three weeks for over the $1.59 million ask.
“Vinyl had always been good enough,” he mentioned, however “those upgrades were major [in the sale].”
After her headache-filled construct in Westchester, Stein knew what was on the high of her checklist when she purchased a brand new home in Connecticut: a pool.
“I didn’t want to go through what I went through in Chappaqua,” she mentioned.


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Food Bank doubles space, adds more farmland for produce
The San Antonio Food Bank has doubled its warehouse space and added to its farmland, enabling it to provide more fresh produce and meat to those seeking food assistance throughout South Texas, officials have announced.
“This is a strategy that will allow us to better nourish those we help feed,” food bank CEO Eric Cooper said after a ribbon-cutting ceremony this month at its facility off Texas 151 on the far West Side, which was attended by a host of civic leaders .
The food bank helps provide food assistance to an estimated 58,000 people a week through partnerships with more than 500 nonprofit groups in 16 counties, Cooper said.
The $15 million expansion includes the Harvey Najim Children's Pavilion and 20 acres of farmland behind the pavilion. The new acreage augments the existing two-acre Spurs Community Garden, now brimming with winter vegetables.
The expansion's goal was not necessarily to increase the number of people served, but to provide more variety in types of foods available through emergency assistance at food pantries, soup kitchens and other programs and facilities that work with the food bank, he said.
“This will help diversify the plate.”
Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich, honorary chair of the expansion's capital campaign, spoke at the event about the need for the food bank and its partners.
“Basketball is entertaining, but it's silly,” he said. “It's just basketball. This represents people's lives. (The food bank) nurtures people who don't have what many of us do have.”
Attendees toured the new warehouse space, where metal racks held boxesof oversized cans of applesauce, beans and other products. The 106,000-square-foot addition, which adjoins an existing warehouse of almost the same size, includes new freezer and refrigeration space to store more fresh food.
The expansion was funded largely by a small group of local foundations, corporations and individuals, Cooper said, along with $4 million from a federal tax credit program that helps build facilities in low-income communities.


text: Like it or not, the holiday shopping season is quickly approaching. While some stores are stocking their shelves sky-high, REI — a popular outdoor apparel and sporting goods store — has taken a decidedly different approach. This Black Friday, REI will close its doors, encouraging shoppers to #OptOutside and take to nature instead. The move comes at a time when most retailers are pushing for more shopping hours during the Thanksgiving holiday. REI: 1, Black Friday Madness: 0.


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September 26, 2019
BOSTON — Rich Dachman had two goals at the keynote speech he presented at the New England Produce Council’s 20th anniversary Produce, Floral and Foodservice Expo.
He wanted to explain how to get more foodservice business and how to improve the health of the world.
“I love the business. It’s a ‘Saturday Night Live’ crowd in here, and it’s been good to me,” Dachman told the crowd at the Sept. 18-19 expo in Boston. “But I always knew there was some higher calling other than profit.”
His two discussion topics directly correlate with his career. Dachman was senior vice president of produce for about 12 of the almost 19 years he worked for Sysco Corp. After he retired, he became CEO of Houston-based Brighter Bites.
The nonprofit organization feeds underprivileged elementary school children fresh produce, providing tools for healthier habits that spread to their families and schools.
Foodservice has challenges different from retail.
“If you can understand this, you might be better able to penetrate the business,” Dachman said.
First, it’s important to understand the foodservice distributor categories: broadliners such as Sysco with its full line; captured such as Martin Brower with McDonalds as its proprietary customer; specialty suppliers such as Hardie’s Fresh Foods; and wholesaler/retail, like D’Arrigo Bros. of New York and Costco.
Then, there are foodservice operators, ranging from quick-service restaurants to fast casual, family dining, local chains and independents.
Big customers for foodservice business are cruise lines and hotels, management companies for colleges and universities, and kindergarten-12th grade school systems.
It’s a complex system, in which supply and logistics lines constantly cross before reaching a distributor.
“I used to say, I think there are 17 ways to screw it up,” Dachman said. “Nobody understands the economics of the produce business because it’s the exact opposite of everything else you do in your life. The more you pay, the worse the quality.”
The price goes up because the yield is down, which is usually because of weather, and growers will put whatever they can in a box, he said.
“Customers, they’ll say, ‘I don’t understand, I’m paying $40. At least it could be good.’ And you’re like, ‘Well, it will be good when it’s $12,’” Dachman said as the crowd laughed.
There are few acceptable excuses for lower-quality or missing products in foodservice.
“We can’t give an excuse to a restaurant that they can’t give their patrons,” he said. For example, diners expect to eat the Caesar salad on the menu, despite a romaine distributor’s late delivery.
Still, operators like and need fresh fruits and vegetables because they’re great flavor enhancers, they’re on-trend for health-conscious diners who want transparency, they’re more economical than protein, and they can be promoted as locally grown, Dachman said.
As far as a distributor’s expectations, “quality and food safety are an entry card to do business,” he said. They expect a consistent, dependable supply, good communication, sales support, competitive pricing, innovation and long-term thinking, not transactional.
Food is medicine
Switching gears, Dachman said he fully backs using the industry to help the world.
“We are the pharmacists of the future,” he said. “We have the product. We have the solution.”
The produce industry is selling something that can reduce obesity and childhood diabetes, yet there is not enough advertising, social-media influence or central effort at gaining this exposure, Dachman said.
The snack industry sells product that is unhealthy, convenient, delicious and consistent with the help of big advertising dollars and social-influencing power.
“The snack industry is kicking the produce industry’s butt. We see each other as competition, peaches versus plums, but our competition is the snack industry,” he said.
Dachman believes everyone in the industry has a responsibility in this area.
“I’m pissed off about it, and I’m part of the solution. The health of our country, specifically our children, is not looking very good,” Dachman said, providing these statistics:
- 10% of the U.S. population has poor access to fresh food;
- Less than half of U.S. children eat the recommended daily amount of fruits and vegetables;
- Three out of 10 children are considered obese and have a chance of developing diabetes;
- 98% of the 10 food-related ads that children watch daily involve food with high sugar or sodium content;
- Latino children see 49% more sugary food ads on Spanish TV compared to their caucasian counterparts; and
- 30% of children ages 2 and 3 don’t eat vegetables.
This is where solutions such as Brighter Bites come into play.
Funded by the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and sponsors including Walmart, the program provides bags of groceries to school families for three eight-week periods, to not only feed people with less fresh-food access, but to teach them how to eat. Besides living in food deserts with little access to fresh produce, many people live in food swamps, where unhealthy food is too prevalent.
Studies of the program have showed that scratch-cooking at home doubled for Brighter Bites families, he said.
“The big engine that makes this feasible is the giant amount of surplus produce,” Dachman said.
After two years, the average family consumes 19 additional servings of fresh fruits and vegetables a week.
“There is profit with this. That translates to over $6 million dollars in produce sales. Bottom line, we’re creating consumers that didn’t exist before,” Dachman said.
He challenged everyone in the industry to look at what they eat, what they serve at their companies and if they let employees take home boxes of their produce.
Here is a link to the article, originally posted by The Packer.
Read more about the NEPC’s 20th Annual Expo drawing national and international crowds.
“Are you walking the walk? You’ve got to do something,” he said. “How do you expect to sell something that you don’t even live?”


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After many delays in a ship date, Plastic Logic has officially canceled its Que ProReader product, which debuted in January and was supposed to ship this year. At CES, mediabistro.com’s editorial director took a video tour of the eReader with a premium $799 price tag.
Looks like the new Kindle, the Nook, the iPad and the slew of other eReaders were just too hard to compete with. Richard Archuleta, CEO of Plastic Logic had this to say: “We recognize the market has dramatically changed, and with the product delays we have experienced, it no longer make sense for us to move forward with our first generation electronic reading product. This was a hard decision, but is the best one for our company, our investors and our customers.”
Still Plastic Logic isn’t out of the business entirely. Archuleta also stated: “We plan to take the necessary time needed to re-enter the market as we refocus, redesign and retool for our next generation ProReader product. We continue to perfect our core plastic electronic technology and manufacturing processes that are central to our product’s unique value proposition.”
Via Sarah Weinman.


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Pressler’s Bonus Down, Options Up
San Francisco, Paul Pressler, CEO of Gap Inc., will get 1.5 million stock options as part of a compensation package, but his cash bonus was cut 64% from last year, from $3.1 million to $1.1 million. According to company filings, Pressler’s 2004 salary was the same $1.5 million.
FTC Reportedly to Block Blockbuster Bid for Hollywood
Washington, D.C., The U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) competition bureau plans to recommend that the agency block a hostile bid by Blockbuster to buy Hollywood Entertainment, according to published reports.
The FTC bureau is expected to make a formal recommendation to the agency’s five commissioners within the next several days on the Blockbuster bid for Hollywood. The FTC has agreed to make a decision by March 21 on whether it will oppose the combination of the two companies.
Neiman Marcus Considers Sale of Company
Dallas, The Neiman Marcus Group, Inc. today said it is considering selling the company as a strategic alternative to enhance shareholder value. The company added that it would not disclose details about its exploration of this or other strategic alternatives until the board has approved a transaction. The Group, which includes specialty retailers Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman, is retaining Goldman Sachs & Co. as the financial advisor in this endeavor.


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FTT, the native token of crypto exchange FTX, surged 7% after a report that payment giant Visa (V) has partnered with the exchange to roll out crypto debit cards.
The partnership will see the exchange release crypto debit cards in 40 countries with a focus on Latin America, Europe and Asia, according to a CNBC report. FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried told CNBC that crypto debit cards can disrupt traditional payment networks.
FTX first announced plans to roll out a debit card in January after rival exchange Coinbase released its own version last summer.
“Even though values have come down there’s still steady interest in crypto,” Visa Chief Financial Officer Vasant Prabhu told CNBC.
Crypto payments have been a slow burner since the inception of digital assets more than 10 years ago. Price volatility and a lack of desire to use scaling solutions like the Lightning Network has perturbed retailers, but accountancy firm Deloitte believes that is soon to change with a prediction that 75% of merchants will accept crypto within the next two years.
At press time, FTT was trading at $25.36. FTX did not immediately respond to CoinDesk's request for comment.
UPDATE (Oct. 7, 2022 11:46 UTC): Updates headline and lead, adds context throughout.
The leader in news and information on cryptocurrency, digital assets and the future of money, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups. As part of their compensation, certain CoinDesk employees, including editorial employees, may receive exposure to DCG equity in the form of stock appreciation rights, which vest over a multi-year period. CoinDesk journalists are not allowed to purchase stock outright in DCG.


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LA UNIÓ de Llauradors has announced that the current citrus campaign is yielding disastrous results, with average prices at origin (taking into account the official prices of the Council of Agriculture) that are almost 30% lower than those of the same period of the previous campaign.
While lower prices were already recorded at the start of the season, with early clementines, for example, costing 33% less than in the same period of the previous campaign, things have been getting worse as the weeks have passed for the rest of varieties. The average decrease, taking all varieties into account, has reached 27%, and if we look just at the two predominant varieties, we observe how the price of Clemenules mandarins has fallen by 33% and that of Navelina oranges by 20%. To this price drop, we must add a 10% increase in production costs as a result of the drought.
The lack of buying and selling by stores is widespread in practically all the regions and there is still a lot of fruit hanging in the trees; only cooperatives are harvesting at a normal rate. Numerous citrus growers have told LA UNIÓ about their despair when thinking about how their fruits could fall to the ground if not harvested within a reasonable period of time, "which could lead them to accept any offer, even if the conditions are disadvantageous."
Given this situation, the citrus sector of LA UNIÓ is considering the organisation of protests. In fact, a protest was already held last Wednesday together with its Catalan counterpart (the Unió de Pagesos) before the Representation Office of the European Commission in Barcelona against the agreement between the EU and South Africa.
LA UNIÓ will inform the Food Information and Control Agency (AICA) of the Ministry of Agriculture about all illegal practices detected in the field, as well as about the abusive practices carried out by large distributors. In fact, LA UNIÓ has already conducted checks in two shopping centres and found prices that could violate the Food Chain regulations, consequently reporting it to the AICA and the General Trade and Consumption Directorate of the government of the Region of Valencia.
One of this is a bargain price at Alcampo coinciding with Black Friday, with 5 kilos of oranges costing just 1.99 Euro (0.40 €/kg) and a kilo of mandarins sold for 0.59 Euro/kg. The other retailer is Carrefour, where four kilograms of oranges are given away for free to customers making purchases worth over 40 Euro between 18 and 27 November. These are just two examples of promotions carried out by large supermarkets at the expense of the producers. LA UNIÓ is not against bargain prices, as long as the margins are covered by the distribution chains and not by paying growers a lower price. The use of citrus as a way for these chains to make a greater profit from other products cannot be done at the expense of the work and effort of the producers.
This negative situation has also been observed in other producing regions, and therefore, a meeting of all organizations nationwide, belonging to the Union of Unions, has been planned for next week, where they will study the actions that may be undertaken.
LA UNIÓ pointed out that the Spanish Government has not been able to defend the interests of Spanish citrus growers in Europe, as revealed by the recent agreement with South Africa, nor has it been capable of enforcing the current Food Chain regulations.
For more information:
Carles Peris, Head of the citrus sector
Tel. +34 658 92 89 23


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A round-up of stories on Washington wine from January 1st to 7th 2012. Read previous round-ups here.
From around the world…
The Manila Standard gives a year in review with a callout to Washington wine.
From around the country…
Decanter writes about new AVAs, including Naches Heights.
St. Louis Today writes about 2011’s best budget friendly wines with a callout to the Columbia Crest Grand Estates Merlot, Hedges CMS, and Efeste Riesling.
D Magazine writes about Waterbrook.
The Anniston Star talks about wine and the New Year’s diet with a callout to Hedges CMS.
New York Daily News writes about new AVAs with a callout to Naches Heights.
The San Francisco Chronicle writes about wine competition winners.
From the blogosphere…
Weekly Volcano writes about South Sound wine sipping.
Northwest Wines writes about Tom Douglas’ favorite Washington wines.
WINO Magazine writes about El Corazon’s Cabernet Franc.
Wine Peeps gives its best of Washington wine country 2011.
Write for Wine writes about what’s been opened lately.
Woodinville Patch writes about 2012 wine deals.
Woodinville Wine Update writes about weddings in Woodinville.
Sips & The City writes about the upcoming Seattle Food & Wine Experience.
Northwest Wine Anthem gives a Friday find.
Lucha Vino compares Washington bubbles versus Euro bubbles.
From the locals…
Seattle Weekly writes about what to do with leftover wine.
Bellingham Herald writes about the 2011 harvest.
The News Tribune gives its top 10 wines stories of 2011.
Issaquah Press writes that local voters supported Initiative 1183.
Pacific Northwest Inlander writes about the effects of 1183 on distilleries.
Mercer Island Reporter writes about Maryhill.
Port Orchard Independent writes about the closing of Puget Sound Wine Cellar.
The Tri-City Herald writes about Northwest wines in the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition.
Seattle Times writes about Constellation’s slumping profits.
That’s all folks!


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Adobe Says HTML 5 Won't Replace Flash
June 19, 2009 12:30 PM
comment(s) - last by
Open source advocates claim Adobe is showing open source animosity
When it comes to rich media on the Internet today, much of the media is powered by Adobe Flash. Flash has some competition like
, but Flash continues to be one of the most supported rich media applications.
The future of Flash is not as clear as it once was with Google touting the ability to support rich media applications online with HTML 5. For its part
Adobe insists that Flash will survive
HTML 5 and Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen went so far as to dismiss HTML 5, reports
Narayen said, "[T]he fragmentation of browsers makes Flash even more important rather than less important."
Perhaps the most interesting demonstration that could put fear into the hearts of Adobe and its shareholder is the demonstration by Google at its developer conference of a YouTube prototype using HTML 5 instead of Flash.
Adobe's John Dowdell posted a blog comment in response to numerous headlines and Tweets that called HTML 5 a "Flash-killer." Dowdell called Apple, Google, and Mozilla "a consortium of minority browser vendors" and considered the absence of Flash on the iPhone and Silverlight technology as an endorsement of the technology.
Dowdell wrote, "Silverlight's launch helped boost the popularity of Flash. ... iPhone helped to radically increase the number of phones with Flash support."
Adobe has taken a defensive tact with regards to HTML 5 leading to speculation that the company may be more afraid of the technology that it wants to let on.
reports that some readers posted comments to Dowdell's blog calling the advocacy of Flash another sign of Adobe's "open standards animosity."
Adobe is trucking along in the poor global economy, but reported a 41% drop in profits for its last quarter. Despite the decline in profit the stock price remains steady, which
believes is a sign that investors see the drop in profits as due to the economy and not issues with the company or its offerings. Strategy
reported in February that MySpace and YouTube were
driving the adoption of some forms of Flash
. If YouTube movies to another platform it would be a significant blow to Adobe.
This article is over a month old, voting and posting comments is disabled
RE: May be not replace but I hope force them to fix the issues in Flash...
6/20/2009 4:04:27 PM
Theora is completely based on an earlier version of the "Flash codec", VP3.
The problem isn't that they don't know where to improve the codec, the problem is H.264 already took the cake and patented it. H.264 is by far and large the best video codec out there today.
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With fireworks becoming an integral part of the UK social calendar and it now going on for months rather than days, we at Vetoquinol feel it’s important to raise awareness and support the pet owner in helping their dogs and cats cope with the noises and changes in their environment.
With this in mind we asked CVS veterinary clinics to put their thinking caps on and come up with some informative displays within their practices to help educate pet owners and provide information on the products and support available during the fireworks season, a competition sponsored by Zylkene.
We had such an array of amazing entries submitted and it was very difficult to decide on the winners.
Fireworks season is a busy time of year for us here at Vetoquinol with Zylkene calming supplement. Zylkene is a natural choice for behavioural support that can be used for common stressful situations such as fireworks, loud noises, moving home, holidays, cattery or kennels, vet visits and more.
For more information on supporting your pet through stressful situations visit: www.zylkenepet.co.uk
Latest news of vetoquinol
23 Jul 2020Vetoquinol has announced its acquisition of Profender® and Drontal®, the broad spectrum dewormers for cats and dogs, and is now the new...
09 Apr 2018The Equistro team had a brilliant time at the William Fox-Pitt clinic on the 24th and 25th February. Saturday saw a series of flatwork...


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Paul Roberts , the CEO of PRImodels — which is the Australian most innovative model management company for fashion models based in Australia— Roberts said Australia has the cosmopolitan edge in the selection of finding a unique face to match the brand image of any company brand history and DNA in the digital age.
In a statement sent to Business Communities, Roberts highlights the need for corporate brands to protect their brand image reputation in the digital age.With the rise of pirates sites such as Rip off Report and others who extorts money from reputable companies in exchange to remove anonymous internet postings written by competitors to harm the company good reputation .Roberts laid out some of his immediate concerns about the piracy of these fraudulent sites publishing defamatory materials to harm any corporate brands good reputation gained over years of brand customer loyalty.
He said: “Very alarmed , . The business community has to be protected, which will be ongoing considerable monitoring, will obviously need decision-making and deter such fraudulent activity. This is not good news, to say the least. However, law makers will need to push for stricter laws to stop such fraudulent practice occurring.”
Roberts goes on to say that a case study made by Fortune 500 companies identifies “An empirical study of Fortune 500 companies suggests that “reputation management” is gaining ground as a driving philosophy behind corporate public relations”.So now companies must primarily build its brand online presence in limiting its reputation management risks.
He added: “It just underlines the importance of implementing a strategy: digital platforms to interact with customers in virtual time and feeds, which ironically means changing the way we communicate and engagement in the digital world.With the rise of internet fraud and counterfeits, so does the skepticism of what we read online is true or false to the reader?
Corporate Governance rules must be re-written says Roberts, companies must have a clear mission statement to embrace a business culture of being very transparent about how business is conducted ethically and fairness.
Roberts has long championed for good business practices as ceo of his Australian owned companies over 26 years, he wanted to be an example for new entrepreneurs to thrive in a culture of fairness for all.Reputation is built over many decades in building a brand customer loyalty and Roberts understands the business philosophy acquired when he created his first company 26 years ago.
At the company’s headquarters in Melbourne earlier this year , Roberts said: “Obviously we have plans to deal with the current challenges in the current digital technological age., we think, in the short to medium term for the prospects of the company to remain a key innovator in the new business model we have adopted. What it means is we will have new markets created , not necessarily in Australia , but in Asia, USA and European markets.”
Any corporate brands needs to identify these digital threats in brand reputation management, sites such as Rip Off Report are here to destroy good businesses goodwill and reputation by fake unverified posts by competitors.
Meanwhile, Roberts highlights ,”It will be more damaging for companies to keep a blind eye of these sites, companies must educate their clients of the dangers it presents for now and in the future.Companies engagement with clients in the digital platform opens new frontiers and challenges online. Fake postings by competitors will not provide any remedy, they will not be worth any value to customers perception of the brand they are engaging with.They may lose a lot of advantages that they already have.”
Paul Roberts , PRIModels CEO’s statement:
The future is very promising, to say the least. However, we must work closely with law makers and the business communities to eradicate the rise of these pirate fraudulent sites.We must build a fair platform for all. So companies can innovate new brands of products and services for the growth market place in the digital age.
Extract from Paul Roberts to Business Communities. Australia 2017 Copyright.


text:
BMW is reportedly planning its first M Performance model using a plug-in hybrid powertrain, according to a BMW Blog report. The car in question will allegedly be a 7-Series dubbed the M750Le – which denotes both the electrified powertrain as a long wheelbase.
Rather than a thirsty V8 or V12, BMW will outfit the M750Le with the B58 3.0-liter turbocharged inline-six coupled to an electric motor. This engine, sans the hybrid system, currently delivers 382 HP in the M40i, but a figure closer to 400 HP is possible for the new plug-in hybrid 7-Series that could be built in short wheelbase guise too.
Combined power could swell to as much as 550 HP and 590 lb-ft (800 Nm) of torque with the electric motor, giving the executive saloon enough grunt to rival even the M760Li xDrive. In addition, BMW will use its latest-gen batteries that offer greater electric range, as well as a more efficient electric motor.
This isn’t the only 7-Series plug-in hybrid being developed, though. According to the same source, a 745LE PHEV is also on the cards with the same electric motor and battery pack as the M750Le, but a slightly less powerful internal combustion engine that could deliver anywhere between 450 and 470 HP.
BMW is looking to reinvigorate its lineup of ‘green’ cars, and hybridizing the 7-Series is certainly one way to do it, although the launch date is, at this point, unknown.


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JFC Delivers 200 Computers to Colombian Trade Unions
Justice For Colombia News |
on: Monday, 30 March 2009
Working with the charity Computer Aid International, and with financial support from trade union branches all over Britain, Justice for Colombia has arranged for two hundred computers to be shipped to Colombia for distribution around trade union offices. The project, which also received financial support from the British TUC, was proposed by the CUT trade union federation in Colombia last year during a visit by CUT President Tarsico Mora to the UK.
Upon arrival in Bogota, scheduled for sometime next week, the CUT will distribute the computers around trade unions at a national, regional and local level, greatly increasing their capacity to communicate with members, produce materials and keep membership records. Currently many Colombian trade unions either have no access to computers or depend on outdated and obsolete machines.
"The new computers will make a huge difference to the ability of trade unions to organize effectively and the CUT will be providing training in their use to those trade unions that require it," said Mr Mora. "Many of our membership records are currently held on paper and the new computers will allow us to manage the information far better than we can at the moment" said Aidee Moreno, head of human rights for the agricultural workers trade union FENSUAGRO.
Justice for Colombia arranged for Spanish-language software to be installed on all of the machines before they were shipped and raised nearly £10,000 in a fundraising appeal to help cover the costs of the machines and the shipping. After all expenses were taken into account, and thanks to the assistance of Computer Aid International, the cost of each computer came in at under £50 – far cheaper than any other source.


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Contxto – From the ashes of Uber Jump Mexico City bikes, emerges an unexpected micro-mobility phoenix. Bicitekas—a Mexican bike-centric charity—announced yesterday that they had saved 1,500 electric bikes previously destined for destruction.
It was World Car Free Day.
It is rare to see the pandemic give us a happy twist ending, but even we hadn’t expected this. A little while back Contxto produced a deep dive into the future, and potential demise, of micro-mobility in Latin America.
In his conclusion, the dive’s author, Víctor, foresaw five possible outcomes. That micro-mobility in Latin America would:
- Thrive after cheaper/more resistant transports were developed.
- Shift towards a subscription model, aka the not-so-sharing economy.
- Depend on consumer-owned micro-mobility
- Depend on government-financed micro-mobility
- Have no micro-mobility at all
So, turns out we were right on many counts and completely wrong on others. What happens when you mix and mash a bunch of the above options?
Well, you get Biciteka.
Market fail: Uber ditches essential service in Mexico City
The pandemic recession is hurting more every day. Therefore, the economy is being put back into action whether health experts want to or not.
Mexico City’s traffic is back to 80 percent of where it used to be pre-Covid-19. This means, if you can’t afford a car, you’re stuck in the metropolis’ notoriously congested public transportation system. Unsurprisingly, Mexico’s rate of Covid contagion is spiking again.
The local government has taken a few steps to mitigate the situation. One of them was to open up bike lanes alongside the city’s main metro lines and bus routes to ease overcrowding.
It seems to be working, bike usage is up by 250 percent now, compared to when the lanes were opened a few weeks ago.
There’s only one problem. People need a bike. If you don’t have your own, you could hitch a ride on some of the city government’s heavily subsidized rental bikes. But only if you move around the tiny portion of the city that they cover; a portion that happens to cover most upscale broughs.
Even in neighboring, but less affluent Azcapotzalco, there few to no micro-mobility options—government or otherwise.
And even these richer parts of town are seeing a scarcity of bikes as Jump—Uber’s electric bike service—bailed on the Mexican capital back in May.
Soon after it was revealed that the San Francisco-based giant would be destroying the bikes. Uber did this as Jump in the US faces a chronic shortage of bikes. Obviously, it was far more expensive to ship the Mexican hardware than to just destroy it.
As Víctor said, there is a clear lack of unit economics behind these mega-mobility corporations’ micro-mobility solutions.
Bicitekas rescues Uber Jump bikes
Bicitekas got in touch with Uber representatives and negotiated a settlement. They then reportedly paid a symbolic price for the bikes after negotiating to get them off the death row Uber was paying to put them on.
It is purportedly the only global instance in which Uber’s abandoned Jump bikes have been saved in any city, after being deemed unprofitable.
The Jump bikes were rebranded Bici Catarinas.
But that wasn’t the end of Bicitekas’ odyssey. The charity then came to an agreement with the local authorities of Azcapotzalco. They were thus able to afford the electric bikes the legal permissions to operate in this borough which lacks government bicycle services.
Now, after Bicitekas figured out a sustainable model with the local government, 500 electric bikes will roam this previously underserved neighbourhood. What is to be done with the other 1,100 is something I am trying to find out for you.
So there you have it. Not private, not individual, not government, but charity owned bike services in a small part of a massive town.
Is this a scalable model? I have my doubts, but that is probably not what the residents of Azcapotzalco are worried about, not now that they’ve got their new Bici Catarinas.


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Verizon Prepaid introduces 3G mobile hotspot to Prepaid Unlimited at great new value, and a new $30 plan joins the Prepaid lineup. Plus, Travel Pass for Mexico and Canada!
Fios Internet/TV customers w/ Multi-Room DVR Enhanced or Premium service can now stream Netflix originals directly from the Fios Interactive Media Guide and Fios TV channel 838.
Front prints to playlists, Verizon has the perfect gifts and tips on how to use them with loved ones.
Traveling to PyeongChang in Feb.? Use your plan in South Korea just like you do at home when you sign up for Verizon Up by 2/28: Get TravelPass for free in Feb. in South Korea.
Starting 1/25, Verizon Total Mobile Protection adds nationwide cracked screen repair; international replacements and repair, plus lower deductibles on most phones.
Verizon expanded its device testing lab, adding 13 additional testing rooms to our existing 10,000 square foot test facility in Bedminster, New Jersey.
Starting online Thursday and in stores on Black Friday, get the Google Pixel 2, Google Pixel 2 XL, Samsung Galaxy S8, Samsung Galaxy S8+, Samsung Galaxy Note8 and Moto Z2 Force.
Fios is offering a few new promotions to help customers use all their technology and devices to their full capacity.
Get fast, convenient screen crack repairs for $29 with Total Mobile Protection at Verizon. Sign up now through November 17 and protect Verizon phones bought within 24 months.
You can get iPhone X and all of Apple’s latest products, including the new generation iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus and Apple Watch Series 3 with built-in cellular, at Verizon.


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Environmental, health, and safety (EHS) software company Cority has acquired Greenstone, which has a range of sustainability platforms for businesses and supply chains.
United Kingdom-based Greenstone began as a carbon accounting software business in 2006 and has grown to offer software-as-a-service systems as well as environment, social, and governance reporting tools that can track activity across a company’s entire operations, including with suppliers and investors. The company facilitates the gathering, analyzing, and sharing of sustainability data through guided workflows, questionnaires, data collection systems, and emission and framework libraries.
It is the third sustainability-focused acquisition for Cority in the past two years, including WeSustain and Reporting 21. Cority’s moves come as pressure continues to grow from investors, shareholders, and regulators to prioritize sustainability efforts, the company said. Cority said the Greenstone acquisition improves its ESG and sustainability services but also will help it expand other offerings.
Executives are increasingly looking to improve their ESG and sustainability strategies, and a recent survey from Deloitte found most are looking to shift from making commitments in those areas to being more proactive. Big areas of the ESG focus are reporting and disclosures.
The Greenstone platforms will be incorporated into Cority’s Sustainability Cloud, which helps businesses with managing, reporting on, and acting on their sustainability initiatives. The Sustainability Cloud aggregates datasets from throughout an organization, which are fed into a central location to provide accurate insights into EHS and sustainability performance.
Cority has been active in acquisitions and integrating those new offerings into its platforms and services. In October 2022 it said it had upgraded its waste management platform, improving tracking and reporting capabilities, following its acquisition of Enviance. More businesses, such as water management company Aqualia are also using platforms to merge EHS and ESG capabilities.
“Reporting frameworks, market maturity, and complexity of operational impacts vary dramatically across geo-regions, industries, and company size,” said Ted Kail, chief product officer for Cority. “We want to be able to meet our customers wherever they are; whether that is at the beginning of their sustainability journey with simple reporting needs, or extremely complex GHG (Greenhouse Gas) calculations for organizations that have been monitoring their global footprint for decades. The acquisition of Greenstone will enable us to better support customers across this broad spectrum, building upon our existing set of robust sustainability and ESG reporting solutions and expertise.”
Greenstone has more than 75 customers in 106 countries across 15 industries. Terms of the deal were not announced.


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Down 16% Year to Date, Qualcomm Is a Bargain
Shares of chip manufacturer QUALCOMM have had a rough year. The stock is down approximately 16% year to date as the company struggles with a number of challenges.
Qualcomm definitely has its fair share of headwinds. It's having significant trouble collecting licensing royalties in China, and has publicly stated its belief that certain vendors are underreporting device sales in that region.
While Qualcomm's woes are a concern, there's nothing to me that indicates the company is threatened by a long-term deterioration. Qualcomm still generates a ton of free cash flow, has an excellent balance sheet, and thanks to the market's panic selling, the stock is very attractively valued. If anything, Foolish investors with a long-term vision should take this opportunity to buy this great company at an even better price.
Bumps in the roadQualcomm's situation is troubling in some respects, but the problems facing the company seem entirely manageable and short term in nature. On the Qualcomm Technology Licensing issue, the tech giant said last quarter it settled with a "large licensee" in China, which should boost the QTL business going forward.
Separately, investors appear concerned that Qualcomm lost out on the Galaxy S6 and Note from Samsung, and the ensuing loss of share. Collectively, these issues are why Qualcomm's operating profit declined 2% through the first two quarters of the fiscal year, and why the company expects current quarter revenue to decline 14% at the midpoint of its guidance.
But while investors may be concerned that Qualcomm reduced its outlook, Qualcomm's long-term future remains bright. Management still expects 10% growth in the value of total device sales this year. This is a key number for Qualcomm, because the royalties it receives are based on the value of device sales. This makes Qualcomm's technology-licensing business an excellent cash-flow generator.
With regard to losing Samsung, remember that Qualcomm operates a diversified business. It's not overly reliant on one device maker. While losing Samsung will hurt, it's far from a death blow. Qualcomm will still benefit from the continued growth in the smartphone industry as a whole.
For instance, Qualcomm's MSM shipments soared 24% last quarter, to 233 million units. That explains why the company still expects a fairly decent year, as the mobile station modem business is an important part of Qualcomm's smartphone presence. To me, this indicates underlying demand for Qualcomm's products, and the smartphone industry more broadly, remains strong.
It may take some time for Qualcomm to right everything that's going wrong right now. But the various challenges facing Qualcomm can be overcome. If nothing else, the market's punishment of the stock has presented an attractive buying opportunity for long-term investors.
Valuation, cash returns look very appealingShares of Qualcomm exchange hands for 14 times trailing earnings and 12 times forward EPS estimates. When you exclude the mountain of cash that Qualcomm has on the balance sheet, the valuation profile is even more compelling. Qualcomm currently holds $29 billion in cash and investments on the balance sheet with almost no long-term debt to worry about.
Considering Qualcomm's 1.6 billion shares outstanding at the end of last quarter, that comes out to a little more than $18 per share in cash. Excluding this, Qualcomm stock trades for just 10 times trailing earnings. Moreover, Qualcomm generates a lot of cash, and is committed to returning a boatload of that cash to shareholders. It pays a hefty 3% dividend yield, and as you can see, Qualcomm's P/E is near a five-year low, while its dividend yield is at a five-year high.
QCOM P/E Ratio (TTM) data by YCharts.
Qualcomm raked in $7.7 billion of free cash flow last year,and has announced a huge round of share buybacks, which should help boost earnings growth going forward. It plans to buy back $15 billion of its own stock, which would amount to about 15% of its current market capitalization. This includes $10 billion it expects to repurchase by March of next year.
As a result, I believe investors should view Qualcomm's poor stock-price performance this year as nothing more than an excellent buying opportunity.
The article Down 16% Year to Date, Qualcomm Is a Bargain originally appeared on Fool.com.
Bob Ciura has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Qualcomm. The Motley Fool owns shares of Qualcomm. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ICBA Supports Clear and Simple Credit Card Disclosures
Disclosures Will Demonstrate Value of Community Bank Credit Cards
Washington, D.C. (October 15, 2007)—The Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) told the Federal Reserve in a comment letter that while proposed changes to credit card disclosure rules will require substantial time and effort to implement, the changes will benefit consumers when they shop for a credit card by highlighting that community banks offer straightforward credit card terms that are not subject to frequent change.
"Fundamentally, the changes will benefit community bank customers, and consumers in general," said Karen Thomas, ICBA executive vice president and director of government relations. "Clearer and more simple disclosures will ensure consumers are fully informed about the terms of their credit cards and will demonstrate that community banks offer credit cards with lower rates, lower fees and fewer penalties and junk fees."
The hallmark of community banking is a customer relationship built on trust and the fundamental basis for the Federal Reserve's proposed changes are fully compatible with that, ICBA said in its comment letter on the proposed rules.
ICBA agreed that the proposed changes will help to ensure credit card disclosure information is presented clearly, concisely and in easily understood formats such as a summary table. In addition, the changes will ensure that important card features-such as interest rates, fees and other key information-are highlighted in the disclosures consumers receive in a way that calls attention to these particular features.
ICBA also urged the Federal Reserve to incorporate sufficient flexibility in the final rule to allow community banks to adapt to new technologies and changing markets. This is especially important considering the rapidly evolving delivery channels for credit cards and other banking services.
Read ICBA's credit card disclosure comment letter at www.icba.org.


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Toyota (NYS: TM) is issuing a safety recall for 7.43 million vehicles across the globe. The Japanese car manufacturer said 2.5 million of the vehicles with potential window problems are in the U.S.
The issue involves the power window master switches of some of the company's most well-known brands, including Camry and Corolla sedans and RAV4 sport utility vehicles, built between 2005 and 2010. Toyota said in a press release that commercial lubricating agents applied to a "sticky" window switch could potentially melt the switch or even cause a fire.
A Reuters report says this is the biggest single recall in 16 years. Toyota reportedly recalled more than 10 million units in 2009 and 2010 to address potential unintended-acceleration issues.
The latest recall comes on the heels of multiple recalls by Japanese rivalHonda (NYS: HMC) . Toyota has also recently seen sinking demand in China thanks to public sentiment regarding the Chinese-Japanese political fight around ownership of the islands called Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China.
The article Toyota Recalls 7.43 Million Vehicles originally appeared on Fool.com.
Dan Carroll has no positions in the stocks mentioned above. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.


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One of Canada’s largest licensed weed producers has formed a strategic partnership with a major pharmaceutical company, marking the first — and much anticipated — foray of Big Pharma into the legal cannabis industry.
Tilray, which is largely a British Columbia-based company but with headquarters in Toronto, announced early Monday morning that it had signed a binding letter of intent with Sandoz Canada, an affiliate of Sandoz International GmBh, which is part of the Swiss pharma giant Novartis AG.
The agreement has two major components to it. First, it will see Tilray leveraging Sandoz’s know-how and internal sales force to educate Canadian pharmacists and physicians about Tilray’s medical cannabis products. Second, Sandoz and Tilray will partner up exclusively to develop new non-combustible cannabis products such as gel caps, edibles and sprays. And depending on future regulatory changes, Sandoz could eventually become the wholesale distributor of Tilray’s medical products to Canadian pharmacies and hospitals.
“A lot of people were wondering when global pharma would enter the cannabis industry. Now it officially has,” Tilray Chief Executive Officer Brendan Kennedy told VICE Money in an interview. “This is a huge milestone for us, our industry, and the medical community at large.”
Canada’s medical marijuana market, established in 2013 under the Access to Cannabis for Medical Regulations (ACMPR) regime, has already spawned a billion dollar industry. In the second quarter of 2017 alone, licensed weed producers sold 7,500 kg of cannabis oil products and almost 6,000 kg of dried marijuana. There are roughly 235,000 registered medical cannabis patients and 10,433 medical practitioners nationwide who have at some point, prescribed medical cannabis to patients, according to data from Statistics Canada.
One of Canada’s largest licensed weed producers has formed a strategic partnership with a major pharmaceutical company, marking the first — and much