text:
EU referendum leaves UK SMEs dangerously exposed as three quarters fear currency confusion
The growth and profitability of UK SMEs trading internationally could be derailed by exchange rate volatility ahead of the UK’s referendum on its EU membership, according to the latest research by currency experts World First. ‘Currency confusion’ is also leaving many businesses dangerously exposed to this year’s likely currency volatility due to a lack of preparedness and a knowledge gap.
The survey of over 1,000 senior decision makers at UK-based SMEs making cross-border payments found that despite 75% fearing that currency volatility from the EU referendum will impact their business, almost half (47%) are failing to take any notice of foreign exchange markets and over a third (35%) believe that having a currency strategy is not important.
The research also revealed the extent to which UK SMEs remain dangerously exposed to currency fluctuations with 45% admitting they have been caught out by a sudden movement in exchange rates and 26% having been severely impacted by market volatility.
The findings also highlighted a stark lack of appreciation on how exchange rate movements impact their business with 43% admitting they did not fully understand this and half (51%) that currency markets ‘scare’ them.
Despite this, 78% recognised that having a proper currency strategy could improve profitability suggesting that for many SMEs, currency confusion and a failure to effectively manage their FX exposure is impacting the bottom line.
According to World First’s own data, the average UK SME trading overseas made international transfers to the value of £256,700 last year, meaning that the nation’s 304,200 SME importers and exporters – or ‘mini-multinationals’ – would have made an estimated total of £78bn in international payments in 2015. This clearly sets into context the need for businesses to better manage their currency exposure to protect themselves in what is set to be a volatile 2016, given increasing uncertainly around the UK’s membership of the EU and the prospect of further interest rate rises by the Federal Reserve and a slowdown in China amongst other threats.
Commenting Jeremy Cook, chief economist at World First said:
“2015 was one of the most unpredictable years in currency market history and there is little reason to expect change in 2016. With the EU Referendum hanging like an economic Sword of Damocles, there is an enormous degree of uncertainty and concern in markets and therefore it’s crucial that any business operating internationally has a clear strategy for managing their currency exposure.
“One only has to look at the precedent set by the Scottish Referendum, which saw sterling lose around 6.5% against the USD in the two months before the vote, to realise how great a threat this could be to the mini-multinationals who don’t have the balance sheet strength to absorb such major shocks. This situation is made all the more grave given the widespread lack of appreciation on how such rate movements impact the bottom line.”
Commenting Jonathan Quin, CEO of World First said:
“Given that SMEs are the engine-room of the UK economy and key to our international trade, more needs to be done to ensure they are adequately protected from currency swings caused by events such as the EU Referendum. Specifically, whilst there is a lack of clarity about the exact timings of the EU Referendum, SMEs should take the initiative now to help mitigate against the risks of currency volatility that we’ll likely see in the run up to the eventual day votes are cast.
“Supporting UK SMEs on the journey to become mini-multinationals is at the heart of the government’s plans to rebalance the economy and to drive the competitiveness of our exporters. Therefore, collectively, the industry and policy makers need to better educate businesses on the benefits of a well-managed currency strategy, as well as providing specialist advice and products that can help our nations’ business thrive on the international stage.”
The survey also revealed that the Euro (54%) was by far the most common currency the UK’s SMEs buy when transferring from Sterling, followed by the US Dollar (32%), the Australian Dollar (2.3%) and the Chinese Renminbi (1.7%).


text:
Industry 4.0, Automation and 3D printing are three of the hottest topics in manufacturing, and this podcast targets all three! Listen in as Alan Rooks, Editor in Chief of Manufacturing Engineering magazine, talks with Steve Fruehe, pre-sales solutions consultant, and Zach Gray, strategic business developer for Siemens about the basics of digitalization; approaches to gathering and storing the required data; and how app development figures into the equation.
Displaying 1-10 of 68 results for
At a grand opening ceremony on Nov. 5, Fives DyAG Corp. (Smart Automation Solutions Division) celebrated the inauguration of its new center of competency for controls engineering in Greenville, South Carolina.
Hurco Companies Inc. has partnered with BMO Automation to provide customers a tested automation solution that requires minimal integration, according to the companies.
When it comes to being successful, manufacturers today have more tools than ever to succeed. Chris Mahar, Associate Editor of Manufacturing Engineering, talks with Jeff Lage, President, Advanced Manufacturing Technologies at Ellison Technologies, about how Industry 4.0 is helping manufacturers improve operations through data collection and insights. Providing tips on how businesses can get the most capacity out of their machines, remove waste and enable their machines do more.
FABTECH 2019, held Nov. 11-14 at McCormick Place in Chicago, featured multiple educational opportunities for attendees. A key feature of the FABTECH educational program, and one open free to all attendees, were the Leadership Exchange Panels.
In my capacity as the Chair of the Council of the Manufacturing USA institute directors, I often get asked about trends in U.S. advanced manufacturing.
Machine tool orders fell slightly in September on a monthly basis, the Association for Manufacturing Technology said in a monthly report.
ProShop USA, provider of digital manufacturing management systems, is donating ProShop ERP software to the student-run Eagle Manufacturing business at Brown County High School in Nashville, IN.
Much has changed in the world of automotive accessory designing, engineering, and manufacturing in the past few years. Sales and after sales of automotive parts have witnessed a surge in data-usage across the horizontal and vertical value chains between suppliers, business partners, internal departments, and the end-customers.
High QA, Inc., the developer of Inspection Manager Quality Management Software, has established a headquarters operation in Sevenum, Netherlands, to directly serve its customers on the European continent.

domain: news


text:
Update: The solid, unassuming Dig Dog is kind of an ideal “Spelunky on the go” type of video game, and we enjoyed happening upon it first during the 2017 Fantastic Arcade in Austin, Texas. This weekend, Dig Dog gets a proper re-release on the Nintendo Switch, so we’re taking an opportunity to resurface this article that’s ultimately less review and more origin story. After all, Dig Dog isn’t just a solid, cheap option to enjoy with Switch’s portable mode—it’s also a remarkable example of a game coded and drawn as a hands-free experiment. This piece originally published on February 9, 2018, and it appears unchanged below.
Dig Dog is a pretty fun little video game. Call it “Spelunky for kids”—and don’t think of that as a backhanded compliment, either. Dig Dog, which launched Thursday on iOS, Xbox, Windows, and Mac, shaves away some of the genre’s complications, controls smoothly, and has depth. It’s as if the modern wave of randomly generated, dig-for-surprises adventures had existed in early ’80s arcades. (And all for only $3!)
I liked Dig Dog enough when I stumbled upon it at last year’s Fantastic Arcade event in Austin, Texas. But my interest in the game spiked when its creator reached out ahead of this week’s launch to confirm something I’m not sure any other video game creator has done: coding an entire game by himself… without using his hands.
- Cox Internet now charges $15 extra for faster access to online game servers
- The Orville proves it’s one of the best sci-fi shows on TV with S2 finale
- With its latest battle, Game of Thrones solidifies its seat on TV’s VFX throne
- Id Software’s open source shooters get ported to Apple’s iOS, tvOS
- Minecraft creator Notch unwelcome at 10th anniversary due to online conduct


text:
– Sam’s Club is rolling out a new in-store demonstration and sales program for
the consumer electronics, wellness, and food and beverages categories.
According to Sam’s Club
president/CEO Brian Cornell, the chain has tapped Shopper Events, a third-party
marketing company, to develop an enhanced “Tastes and Tips” sampling program
that will include integrated demo stations, signage, and trained, uniformed
staffers who will also sell the products they demo.
“Our demos can be a competitive advantage,
and we want to take this member experience to the next level,” Cornell told store
associates in a notice.
The program replaces about 10,000
in-store sampling personnel, or nearly 10 percent of the chain’s workforce.
Sam’s Club claimed it’s less a
cost-cutting move than an effort to improve its product-sampling program. Shopper
Events already manages the “Bright Ideas” in-store demos for Walmart, Cornell
said, and the terminated employees, most of whom were part-time workers, will
be able to reapply for an equal number of new positions with the marketing
Sam’s Club is also cutting about
1,200 new business membership reps, the company said, and earlier this month
announced plans to close 10 underperforming stores.


text:
Food Fuelling Inflation More Than Energy Prices
CPI rose to 10.1% in July, up from 9.4% in June. A big increase had been expected, because there is almost no drop out from July 2021, so all the new inflation in June-July 2022 fed directly into an increase of 0.7% in the headline CPI. Month on month Inflation remains well above the historic norms and we are continuing to see the impact of war and sanctions on Food and Energy-consuming Transport. If new inflation continues at this high level, inflation will not drop significantly until 2023. The main positive contributors to the change in inflation in July were:
- Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages 32%
- Recreation and culture 10%
In other sectors there was a mixed story, with some small negative contributions (Furniture & Household equipment and Health) and the rest being small and slightly positive. Food remains the main driver of inflation, with Transport and Energy being less important this month.
July 2022 is an exceptional month in that all the new inflation fed through into the headline figure. Month on month inflation was high for all months in 2021 except for July; as we move forward from July 2022, to sustain or increase the headline inflation level, new inflation will need to come forward to replace what drops out from 2021. If the new inflation in 2022 is higher than the old inflation dropping out from 2021, we will see an increase in inflation; if the new inflation is lower we will see a decrease. The inflationary story for the remainder of 2022 will be a tug of war between past inflation pulling down with the new inflation pulling up.
The future path of inflation depends crucially on how the Russo-Ukrainian war affects the world economy and more importantly the impact of sanctions imposed on Russia by the Western powers. On the positive side, in July an agreement was reached between Ukraine and Russia, brokered by the UN and Turkey, to allow shipments of Ukrainian wheat via Turkey to the rest of the world. At the same time, the EU made clear that Russian exports of grains and fertilizer by ship were not subject to EU sanctions. Whilst this will serve to ease the world supplies of grain and fertilizer, there are counteracting effects of climatic events which are working to restrict food supply – these include a drought in much of northern Europe including France, Germany and the UK. The EU and Britain have yet to impose the ban on insurance for Russian oil shipments to other countries (although both have sanctioned their own purchases of Russian oil). The delay may be linked to the possible future imposition of a price-cap on Russian oil exports. However, U.S. Senators Marco Rubio, Rick Scott and Kevin Cramer have introduced legislation “to impose mandatory sanctions on any entity which registers, provides insurance to, or facilitates registration of any vessel engaged in the shipment of Russian oil, petroleum products, or natural gas to the Peoples Republic of China” which if passed would represent secondary sanctions on China (although not on other countries as yet).
There are thus mixed signals in how sanctions will play out in future months and the ensuing effect on inflation. The greater the effect of sanctions on world supplies, the greater the effect on prices and hence inflation.
For Britain and the EU, the future path of gas prices is one of the main drivers of future CPI inflation. The supply of natural gas is highly inelastic in the short run as is the demand. Reductions in Russian supply have led to a dramatic rise in price and an increase in expenditure and hence the revenue of gas suppliers – including Russia. British and Continental households are thus paying more in total for less gas and will continue to do so for some time. The Bank of England predicts that the average British household will see its expenditure on energy increase to over £4000 by January 2023 (as compared to an average of £1250 in 2021). In the longer run (3-5 years) it will be possible to replace most Russian gas, for example with a new pipeline for Israeli gas and with more expensive LNG from a variety of sources. In the shorter run, some European governments, including Germany, are reversing the phasing out of coal-fired and nuclear power stations to try to fill the gap.
China’s zero covid policy has had a major impact on the Chinese economy and global supply chains in 2022. The Chinese government has started to gradually ease the zero covid policy, under the new policy dubbed “dynamic” zero covid. This is a positive development, although it remains to be seen how rapidly it leads to a freeing up of world supply chains originating in or passing through China. No major shift is likely before the start of the 20th party congress in October.
More widely, a slowdown in growth in the World as the cost-of-living crisis affects real incomes and leads to a reduction in discretionary consumer expenditure may lead to a decline in some commodity and energy prices across the world. This may mitigate the inflationary pressures somewhat, although in the UK and EU the effect of war and sanctions is likely to dominate.
Turning back to the July inflation figures, we can look in more detail at the contributions of the different sectors to overall inflation, we can look at the old inflation dropping out of the annual figure (June-July 2021) and the new monthly inflation dropping in (June-July 2022) and use the expenditure weights to calculate CPI. In the chart below, we show the “dropping out” in blue and the “dropping in” in light brown. The overall effect is the sum of the two and is shown as the burgundy line.
An alternative perspective is to look at the annual inflation rate across all the 12 types of expenditure. This is shown in the following chart with the red line being the overall level of CPI inflation. As we can see, the annual inflation rate is higher than CPI inflation in some sectors and lower in others. The top three inflation levels are Housing, Water & Energy, Transport, and Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages. The bottom three are Health, Communication and Miscellaneous Gods and Services.
Out of over 700 types of goods and services sampled by the ONS, there is a great diversity in how their prices behave. Each month some go up, and some go down. Looking at the extremes, for this month, the top ten items with the highest monthly inflation are:
|Table 1: Top ten items for month-on-month inflation (%), July 2022|
|Men’s Branded Sport Sweatshirt||70.80|
|Kerosene – 1000l Delivered||46.72|
|Womens Short Sleeve Sports Top||40.91|
|Househld Services Maint Policy||37.17|
|Boys T-Shirt 3-13 Years||31.18|
Another month in which Mascara wearing people in sportswear particularly hard hit. The ten items with the highest negative inflation this month are shown in Table 2.
|Table 2: Bottom ten items for mom inflation (%), July 2022|
|Mens Shoe Formal Style||-15.64|
|Personal Computers (Cpi)||-17.58|
|Canned Tomatoes 390-400g||-18.27|
|Women’s Casual Outer Jacket||-19.92|
|Television 39″ Or Smaller||-20.53|
|Charcoal Bbq Not Disposable||-25.54|
|Blu Ray Disc (Film) From Chart||-26.18|
A good month for older consumers who still buy hard back books and Blu Ray discs.
In both these tables we look at how much the item price-index for this month has increased since the previous month, expressed as a percentage. These calculations were made by my PhD student at Cardiff University, Yang Li.
Looking Ahead: Ukraine and Beyond
We can look ahead over the next 12 months to see how inflation might evolve as the recent inflation “drops out” as we move forward month by month. Each month, the new inflation enters the annual figure and the old inflation from the same month in the previous year “drops out”. However, the invasion of the Ukraine by Russia in February and the western sanctions in response make things even more uncertain. That said, the invasion and sanctions are certainly going to continue to increase inflation as we go forward. We have therefore adjusted our four scenarios:
- The “medium” scenario assumes that the new inflation each month is equivalent to what would give us 2% per annum – 0.17% per calendar month (pcm) – which is both the Bank of England’s target and the long-run average for the last 25 years. This is a reference point only, as inflation will be well above this level for the next year or two.
- The “high” scenario assumes that the new inflation each month is equivalent to 3% per annum (0.25% pcm).
- The “very high” scenario assumes that the new inflation each month is equivalent to 5% per annum (0.4% pcm). This reflects the inflationary experience of the UK in 1988-1992 (when mean inflation was 0.45%). It also reflects the continuation of the UK average in the second half of 2021. This level of month-on-month inflation would indicate a significant break from the historic behaviour of inflation from 1993-2020.
- “Sanctions” scenario. This assumes that new inflation per month is 0.8%, equivalent to 10% per annum. This is a high figure, which is unlikely to be sustained for a prolonged period unless geopolitical conditions deteriorate.
We have added the “Sanctions” scenario since March 2022 to reflect a lower bound on what we can expect as sanctions and the war itself affect global energy and commodity prices. We have dropped the “low” scenario from previous releases as this is now irrelevant. The “Very high” scenario is probably the central forecast, but of course there is very high uncertainty now. Month on month inflation has averaged over 1% since February 2022.
In addition, we also have additional “drop ins” resulting from how energy prices are regulated: the OFGEM price cap which alters domestic energy prices every 3 months (previously 6 months) to reflect the behaviour of wholesale energy prices over the previous months. OFGEM will increase the price-cap at the beginning of October 2022 and again at the start of January and April 2023. With the recent behaviour of energy prices this seems likely to be a big increase which will show up in the October 2022 inflation figures. We have set this at 1.5%, with the increases in January and April at 1% each. The April 2023 rise will be offset by the corresponding drop-out of the increase in April 2022. However, the increase in January will not be offset in this way, since there was no price cap change in January 2021 (OFGEM has recently increased the frequency of price cap adjustment). The effect of the price-cap increase in January 2022 is thus expected to be particularly large in terms of its input into the increase in CPI inflation.
The increase in the expected OFGEM price-cap changes has raised the expected path of inflation. The peak for the Very High scenario is now at 11.8% in January 2023. Under the sanctions scenario the peak in January 2023 has increased to 13%. The Sanctions scenario seems to be in line with the Bank of England’s August Monetary Policy Report forecast which also predicts a peak of inflation at 13% in January 2022.
In all scenarios, there is a rapid fall in inflation from February 2023, which is due to the drop out of the high inflation figures in the corresponding months this year. However, inflation will remain well above 3% for the whole of 2023 and will not return to target until mid-2024. This forecast assumes that geopolitical tensions do not deteriorate. An escalation of the war in Ukraine and direct involvement of NATO (for example conflict of Russia directly with Poland or the Baltic states) would rapidly deteriorate the picture for inflation. Looking east, if the rising tensions between the US and China lead to an intensification of the trade war or even open military conflict in the South China sea or Taiwan (Republic of China), world supply chains would be disrupted, and inflation significantly raised.
Figure 2: Looking forward to July 2023
For further analysis of current and future prospects for inflation in the UK see:
Will Inflation take off in the UK? The Economics Observatory.
NIESR Economic Outlook Summer 2022
 This analysis makes the approximation that the annual inflation rate equals the sum of the twelve month-on-month inflation rates. This approximation ignores “compounding” and is only valid when the inflation rates are low. In future releases I will add on the compounding effect to be more precise at the current high levels of inflation.


text:
The latest buzz is that new Windows software update for tablet computers and laptops, is slated to arrive this August. It is speculated that the new update will boost the sales of tabs and laptops; moreover, the new system would offer fresh start screen, start menu, and few interface options that will compel users not to go away from the Windows platform.
New Patches to Fix the Common Issues
In case you’re unsure why your system behaves oddly post update, it’s due to Windows automatic update. Microsoft is aiming at correcting all patches in all the Windows editions, ranging from XP to 8.1. The security features would be updated very soon and is also said that Microsoft won’t support traditional operating system.
Direct Competitor to Apple’s Mavericks
The new Windows 8.1 would lock horns with Apple’s OS X Mavericks that comes with a range of software features and other enhancements and will be available in the market during the month of October along with Mac Book Pro with Intel’s Haswell processor and Retina display.
Improvement on the Existing Apps
Microsoft’s app team has also been working very hard over the past few weeks, creating new features and giving major revamps to existing apps, such as Network Speed Test app and Yammer Feed app. The team has launched many apps in their stores since a week. The applications are created to work with Dynamics AX R2 and it’s for approval for businessmen or users an easy and quick method to verify and approve things, such as budgets and expense reports.
It is also possible to get connected with associates through LYNC to check approved items. Timesheet is yet another app that indicates and creates timesheet for business. Users can view existing list of timesheet and also send for approvals.
Will Windows 8.1 be a Game-Changer?
With Windows 8.1, the company is focusing towards a more rapid delivery; the company will distribute Windows, named as ‘Blue’ to OEMs by October. The new 8.1 edition will be made available to Windows R& and 8 customers as a free upgrade via Microsoft Windows store.
The new updates are considered to resolve remote code implementation risks, which is one of most awful releases from Microsoft. It is said that the version of Windows 8.1 will come with more security upgrades than other editions. The security experts haven’t been told about what to expect from this new edition, but by August, we can get to see what’s stored in this package.
The company hasn’t disclosed number of Windows 8 licenses sold, but it is being vaguely speculated that Microsoft has sold more than 100 million licenses to date.


text:
Customer safety has always been a top priority for us, so we are pleased to be one of the founding signatories to a new European Memorandum of Understanding on Online Product Safety.
We fully support the commitments in the European Commission’s memo, which closely mirror the kind of protections we already provide to our customers when they shop with sellers on Amazon.
The memo ensures all signatories have strong processes in place proactively to remove dangerous items from sale, for example, once they are notified on official recall websites, such as the EU’s RAPEX system. The twelve agreed areas of focus support our own longstanding commitment to improve the safety of our customers, going beyond existing legislation.
Full details about the commitments within the MoU can be found here .
On behalf of Amazon, our Director, EU Public Policy, James Waterworth, signed the memo alongside European Commissioner Jourova in Brussels today.


text:
Since completing the acquisition of Sequent on Sept. 24, Big Blue has ramped up marketing and research efforts around Sequent's server technology.
The first fruits are due next month when IBM opens its fifth Teraplex Integration Center, this one to showcase Sequent's non-uniform memory architecture (NUMA).
IBM is touting the integration center's importance for furthering the adoption of Sequent's NUMA-Q server line, but analysts contend it is a strategic operation for driving new technologies to market.
"IBM is preparing to roll out NUMA technologies to their entire server product line," Technology Business Research analyst Joe Ferlazzo said. "What they're starting to do is bring NUMA solutions to market, and they want people to come in and test it."
Big Blue is betting NUMA's scalable architecture, which currently supports up to 64 Intel processors with planned 256-processor support, will breathe new life into existing products, particularly RS/6000, AS/400 and S/390 computers.
The NUMA architecture allows manufacturers to take advantage of far more processors than current Intel-based servers.
Although technically elegant, the NUMA systems haven't met with a critical mass of sales. Until now, the largest Intel server makers have not adopted it.
IBM's marketing and technical prowess could change that.
The integration center will allow customers to test the waters before the next big technological shift in the winds. The introduction of Monterey is slated for sometime next year.
Monterey, a next-generation of Unix developed by IBM, Sequent and SCO, is expected to be the high volume Unix on Intel's IA-64 processor architecture, drawing in part from SCO's large install base.
"What IBM did was purchase the (NUMA) technology for Monterey, so that it could be scalable on the software side of it," Ferlazzo said. "Now they have to be able to make the systems that will run it, and they have to prove this to the market."
The integration center will serve to prove its concept, as IBM prepares customers for the appearance of NUMA on other server lines. NUMA on Netfinity, for example, could be big for IBM and its customers, following the release of 64-bit Windows 2000 next year.
Netfinity then could emerge as a volume platform supporting Monterey and Windows partitioned on the same server, allowing IBM to better support and scale applications in mixed environments.
Initially, IBM will use the integration center to introduce customers to NUMA-Q, and there it will focus on "business intelligence."
Business intelligence is an industry term for tools used by businesses to analyze massive amounts of information stored on databases. The tools are most frequently used by large business-to-consumer operations, such as retailers, insurance companies or telcos.
Aslam Khader, IBM's senior manager for NUMA-Q, estimates about 25 percent of NUMA-Q sales are for business intelligence.
NUMA-Q's business intelligence growth rate is about 40 percent, and Khader expects it to account for about 30 percent of the server line's business by early next year.
"We expect to grow this part of our business even faster now that we're part of IBM," Khader said.
Big Blue last week committed to spend about $30 million to promote business intelligence products and solutions.
IBM's hardware cost for setting up the NUMA-Q Teraplex Integration Center, located in Beaverton, Ore., was between $5 million and $10 million, Khader said.
Customers will be able to use the facility for testing applications as they expand to multiple terabytes of storage.


text:
Bing announced on Wednesday because they often lead to unaffordable repayment terms and financial harm to consumers that it would ban all advertisements for payday loans and related products on its website.
David Graff, the manager of international item policy at Bing, announced in a post that the ban that is global simply just take effect July 13 and would connect with loans which is why payment ended up being due in 60 days as well as for loans that carry an annual portion price of 36 % or maybe more.
â€œThis change was created to protect our users from misleading or harmful financial loans,â€ Mr. Graff composed. â€œAds for economic solutions really are a area that is particular of offered exactly how core they truly are to people’s livelihood and well-being.â€
This is the time that is first the organization has prohibited such a diverse variety of monetary adverts on its web web site, however the move had been welcome by advocates looking for stricter controls on a market long accused of focusing on low-income and minority communities with loans that carry egregiously high interest levels.
Lisa Donner, the executive manager of People in the us for Financial Reform, stated in a declaration that Bing’s choice would stop abusive loan providers from advertising exactly exactly exactly what she called â€œdebt-trap products which do severe and harm that is lasting customers.â€
Wade Henderson, president and leader associated with Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a coalition representing significantly more than 200 nationwide companies, stated in a statement, â€œThese organizations have actually long used advertising that is slick aggressive advertising to trap customers into outrageously high interest loans â€” frequently those least in a position to manage it.â€


text:
How strong is the pet industry? It's so strong, that when a PETCO store explodes, executives not only mention it in a year end conference call but manage to turn it into an example of the success of the company.
In its 4Q and Full Year 2004 conference call on March 10, PETCO Animal Supplies, Inc. said services represent the fastest growing segment of its business, growing at a rate of 21% in the fourth quarter. This is similar to PETsMARTs recent comments about the growth of the pet services segment.
But the language and points of emphasis by PETCO differed significantly from PETsMART. Words like "community involvement," "social responsibility," and sentences about the health and emotional development of children, families and companion animals represent the value the company places on understanding the mind of the customer.
PETCOs overall business focuses products and services on the trend of pets being one of the family, illustrating a "powerful evolution of the pet industry," according to Brian Devine, Chairman of the Board.
The dual demographic of young professionals and baby boomers was directly addressed in the conference call, as was the continued expansion of the pet pampering trend. Data on the industry, customers, stores and vendors seem to be well collected and parsed by the company.
In 2005, PETCO's services offerings will continue to grow. Grooming is already available in almost 90% of stores, the dog day camp will expand from 3 current test locations to 10 in 2005, and "education" services (training) will continue to grow, with the company hiring a huge number of trainers and groomers each year.
Educating the employees is also a high priority at PETCO. Combining companion animal training with a shifting management development strategy (one that de-emphasizes traditional skills to focus on the big picture: how the animals, the customers, the employees and the business vision interact) illustrates the importance the company places on defining the corporate culture.
This tight focus on synergizing the customer's psychology with the business seemed to pay off in 2004, with the company reporting net sales up 12.5% in 2004 to $1.8 billion, and comparable year store sales up 6.2% from 2003.
In 2003 the company opened 3 new stores. In 2004, 17 stores were opened, and in 2005 the company plans to open 90 stores, evenly spread over the first three quarters. This is a very different pace from PETsMART, which said it will open the majority of its new stores in the fourth quarter of 2005. Next year's conference calls may show some interesting data resulting from this mismatch, as all new stores would follow the new Pisces design model.
Make that 91 stores this year, including a replacement for the store in Eatontown, New Jersey that blew up due to a gas leak last Friday, March 04. According to the company, the concerted effort to rescue the animals spoke highly of the community and employees.
Not mentioned in the call, but perhaps even more emblematic of some of its points, is the PETCO employee trapped in the rubble of the collapsed building, talking to 911 on her cell phone and wondering who will take care of her dog if she dies.
We wish her and everyone else affected a speedy recovery. And we know her dog will help.
Labels: company info, petco, petsmart, services


text:
Well, looks like the Staples Affair just doesn't want to quit. David Brock posts a letter to Staples CEO Ron Sargent more or less accusing him of lying:
As you may know, Staples, Inc. officials reviewed, edited, and approved the Media Matters press release of January 4, 2005, in both draft and final form. That release stated that Staples was not renewing advertising on Sinclair local news programming due in part to concerns registered by visitors to the SinclairAction.com website, which was launched December 14, 2004, to protest the conservative slant of Sinclair's news programming, in particular a nightly conservative commentary called "The Point."
Visitors to the SinclairAction.com site who contacted Staples, Inc. received email replies from the company informing them that as of January 10, 2005, Staples, Inc. would no longer advertise on Sinclair local news programming.
Who to believe? Does Brock have proof of Staples vetting the press release? And if he does, why not post that, also? Was Staples reacting to pressure from MMA or was the company merely adjusting a media buy which Brock then sought to exploit?
Or was Staples' original decision in fact to drop Sinclair "based in part on the activism generated by SinclairAction.com" only to realize that they were now alienating a huge audience and lost nerve?
Amy Ridenour has more.


text:
Linda Pihl, Head of ERP & Reporting Solutions for St1, sought future-proofed price management software to manage her company's burgeoning multinational business and satisfy its customers' constantly evolving needs. PROS got St1 up and running at the speed of light.
Gerald Francqueville, Quotation Process Manager & Project Owner for an industrial equipment supplier, discu...
A Free Virtual Conference ExperienceRegister Now
Other content in this Stream
How businesses can responsibly and responsively manage pricing through uncertain, volatile market conditions brought on by the global COVID-19 outbreak. Get expert advice on price strategy.
Read the new PricingBrew Journal report - "Rethinking the Pricing Journey" and learn why now is the right time to start rethinking your pricing journey.
COVID-19 has changed the way the world does business. Adapt your pricing strategy to face these challenges and attract new customers.
PROS and Accenture Strategy discuss how companies can leverage price model innovation, analytics and technology to navigate through the COVID-19 crisis.
Listen to Craig Zawada as he explains why it’s so important that businesses maintain discipline in their price strategy through the COVID-19 outbreak.
Global Hospitality Supplier powered its eCommerce transformation adding PROS real-time pricing capabilities and dynamically personalized pricing for thousands of eCommerce customers.
44% of B2B buyers will transact more than half their purchases digitally by 2020. Get an inside look into B2B buying professionals' perspectives on speed, personalization, and intelligence.
The Coronavirus crisis has increased uncertainty for a lot of businesses. The Price Advantage author Craig Zawada shares his perspective on how effective pricing can help businesses.
Sambit Dutta, Senior Director of IT Development & Enterprise Architecture for Land O’Lakes, speaks to improving the company’s online platform with PROS products.
Pricing can have a powerful impact on revenue, margin and competitive advantage. Learn how to use analyst research and customer reviews to find the best price optimization solution for your company.
Listen to the first session PROS Live Q&A: COVID-19 Pricing Impacts. PROS pricing experts share insights on the short-term pricing actions that should be considered through the COVID-19 outbreak.
A global car rental company couldn't effectively handle its 1 billion active prices manually. That's where PROS price management technology comes in. The company now maximizes margins on every deal.
The global pandemic requires businesses to adapt pricing models to swiftly changing customer needs and value perceptions. Listen to the second PROS Live Q&A session.
Dr. Stephan Liozu discusses how companies need to prioritize developing and executing a pricing leadership team if they want to succeed in today’s digital economy.
Curious how you can use pricing and promotion solutions to increase revenue and margin? Read the "Forrester Now Tech: Pricing and Promotion" report.
Energy companies can drive rapid and lasting digital transformation with the best dynamic price optimization and management, digital selling, quoting, insight, and analytic software solutions.
Get an expert advise on why the COVID-19 crisis is accelerating the shift to digital selling and what separates those seeing success in those channels from those failing to convert viewers to buyers.
Next-day delivery and digital selling are changing the cargo business. See why this major player relies on PROS pricing solutions to haul at the speed of business.
Surviving today’s market volatility requires businesses to be responsive to their customers’ needs. Haley Glasgow explores three ways companies in Australia and New Zealand can achieve this.
PROS Solution Strategy Director, Valerie Howard interviews Andy Dvorocsik, Managing Director at EY on how companies are protecting, growing, and innovating their business through COVID-19.


text:
Kit and Ace merges content and commerce
Why the fashion brand has redesigned its e-comm platform to make editorial stories shoppable.
Consumers prefer in-store over online experience
When price isn’t a factor, more than half of consumers would prefer to visit a brick-and-mortar location, especially for food.
PetSmart brings The Secret Life of Pets to stores
Before the film’s debut, the retailer is hoping to connect with consumers with a massive in-store takeover.
Giant Tiger goes national
To promote three new fashion lines and remind shoppers about its products, the retailer is taking to TV with its first-ever mass-market push.
Canadians give up (some) pleasures for prudence
A new Mintel report suggests rising food costs are making consumers more conservative.
Check it out: Sport Chek celebrates the #GreatOnes
A new spot narrated by Wayne Gretzky uses real footage to show the power of a father’s support.
Loyalty cards: where’s the love?
Year-over-year, Canadians consider loyalty cards less trustworthy and less personalized, according to a new report.
Ikea Canada names new country marketing manager
Lauren MacDonald was promoted to oversee the brand’s marketing strategy.
Three lessons on retail innovation
Post STORE 2016, Jackman Reinvents’ Mike Magnacca looks at how the mindset on digital is shifting.
Mark’s thanks dads who step up
The retailer is increasing its investment in more emotionally engaging ads, beginning with a new Father’s Day campaign.
Brunet’s new (app)etite
This small Quebec pharmacy wants people to make small, healthy lifestyle changes. So it’s rolled out an app to help.
Retail vets launch Three Sixty Collective
A former Ikea marketer and J.C. Williams consultant join forces at the new firm.
The new Sears wish book
COO Becky Penrice discusses how the 64-year-old retailer is finding its foothold for the future with Initium, Pinball and its iconic catalogue roots.
Exploring other cultures through food: Mintel report
Canadians are craving ethnic meals, but some are intimidated to make their own. Here’s how brands can help them.


text:
Ampere: Ad-Supported Option Drove Netflix’s Highest Domestic Subscriber Growth in Two Years
January 19, 2023
Netflix generated its highest spike in new domestic subscribers in almost two years following the launch of a lower-priced ad-supported option on Nov. 3, 2022, according to new data from Ampere Analysis.
London-based Ampere said the $6.99 tier, which is $3 less than Netflix’s basic ad-free plan, resulted in a 58% increase in new daily subscribers in the three days following the launch compared to the three days before the plan’s debut. Following those 72 hours, interest in the ad-supported tier dropped off to 8% of new Netflix subs — with 36% of those sign-ups being completely new to the service, and 64% switching from ad-free.
Subscribe HERE to the FREE Media Play News Daily Newsletter!
Indeed, 25% of Netflix’s ad-supported subs switched from an ad-free plan, spearheaded by 67% coming from the $9.99 basic plan, 21% from the $15.99 standard plan and 12% from the $19.99 premium plan.
Ampere contends 75% of Netflix’s ad-supported subs also subscribe to at least three other services — led by Prime Video, Disney+ and Hulu.
Netflix has said it doesn’t expect the ad-supported option to have a material impact on subscriber growth until this year.
“Netflix’s [ad-supported] tier has succeeded at drawing back more price-sensitive subscribers who had previously churned,” analyst Mayssa Jamil said in a statement.
The analyst suggests that with increased competition from other ad-supported and ad-free SVOD services, Netflix’s $6.99 AVOD price makes it easier for subs — notably heavy stackers — to subscribe to multiple platforms.
“Some basic [ad-free subs], who are more prone to churning as economic uncertainty and competition increases, have been downgrading to the ad-tier, which will aid customer retention in the long-term,” Jamil said.
Netflix reports Q4 fiscal results today at the close of market trading.
One thought on “Ampere: Ad-Supported Option Drove Netflix’s Highest Domestic Subscriber Growth in Two Years”
No ads for me. I will pay a few bucks more.
I want to watch a movie. No some B.S. Ads.


text:
New date of the show is 19th June 2021.
In light of the current situation with Covid-19 the organisers are rescheduling the York Family History Show from 20th June 2020 to 19th June 2021.
If you have already booked for York 2020, you can either transfer this booking to next year or ask for a full refund.
However, there is good news – This year they will be holding an online virtual event on the 20th June 2020 that will provide all the features of the physical show (apart from the catering!) and you are invited to take part from the comfort of your own home.
The online show will have virtual exhibitor stalls on GenFair, an ‘Ask the Experts’ stand, video lectures and an expert Q&A panel session.
This show has the potential to bring you to the biggest audience there has been but the organisers need to know if you’d be interested in virtually attending contact thefamilyhistoryshow.com then click Online.


text:
by Connor Morgan | CBS2 | Saturday, November 26th 2016 MARION, Iowa (CBS2/FOX28) — Black Friday is…
By Adam Moore, CBJ on Small Business | Thursday, March 24, 2016
It will be a busy spring in Marion, as no fewer than eight businesses are slated to open or expand in the city’s Uptown District.
Among the new businesses scheduled to open or expand in April are:
Cranky’s Uptown Bicycles (1170 Seventh Ave.), a full-service bike shop
Desert Frog (1090 Seventh Ave., Ste. 100), a retailer and producer of bath and body care products
Uptown Snug (760 11th St.), a casual pub located in the back of a restored historic building
Another Road Brewing (631 Ninth St.), which is relocating and expanding from its prior space at 1175 Eighth Ave.
May will see the opening of the Eclipse Trading Post (777 11th St.), which will offer ethically traded, earth-friendly goods, and Fashion Par Kitchens (1246 Seventh Ave.), which focuses on custom cabinetry for both new construction and remodels.
Kazoo Photography, which was formerly at 1090 Seventh Ave., will also unveil an expanded studio space at 1308 Eighth Ave., with a grand opening planned for May 21. Google Nail Spa (1121 Seventh Ave.) will open sometime in the coming months, although a date has not yet been set.
Ali’s Weeds Floral & Gift Boutique (524 10th St.) and South Miami Formal Fashions (786 Eighth Ave.) have also both relocated within the district in recent weeks. South Miami will hold a ribbon-cutting tomorrow at noon to mark its arrival.
“There’s definitely a buzz and a desire to relocate uptown, with the investment we’ve seen,” said Uptown Marion Director Ashley Zierath.
She noted that the district has seen $6.8 million in private investment since becoming a Main Street Iowa community in 2013, and that a recent commercial real estate showcase in the city drew more than 70 people – more than double the number who attended in 2014. More public infrastructure work and the launch of the city’s ImaginArt in the Alleys initiative this summer will drive even more business development and traffic, she said.
For more information on the coming businesses, visit the Uptown Marion website.


text:
The new store will open at the city centre Princes Quay mall.
Toytown is arriving in the city centre shopping precinct on Saturday 23rd March and will be located in a prime spot on level two.
Centre manager John Magee said: “Toytown is well known for its great selection of big brands at fantastic prices, and we’re delighted to welcome it to Hull.”
Toytown was first established in Northern Ireland in 1980 and now boats 27 stores in the UK. The opening will see a number of new jobs created in Hull.
John added: “Welcoming a major retailer such as Toytown is great news for the centre as we position ourselves as a family friendly retail destination. Along with high-street and outlet shops, we have Vue Cinema, a 12 lane bowling alley, soft play, Quasar facilities and delicious eateries, so families really can enjoy a fantastic day out.”
Alan Simpson, Toytown founder, added: “We are delighted to be bringing the Toytown brand to Hull. We are renowned for our extensive ranges of toys and nursery products, and our competitive pricing. We will be open for business on Saturday 23rd March, and we look forward to welcoming customers to our new store in Princes Quay.”


text:
Give tax sops on exports of medical textiles: FICCI
New Delhi: The government should cover the entire chain of manufacturing medical textile for exports under tax benefits for promoting a promising area of growth in the global market, industry body FICCI said.
"...there is a large untapped potential in exports of these new generation non-woven (man-made fibres) medical textiles, especially to developed countries like the US" FICCI said in a statement here.
To tap this market (the US and EU), the industry would require export incentives like Duty Entitlement Pass Book Scheme (DEPB) to be competitive in global markets, it said.
Under the DEPB scheme, companies can avail refund of customs duty paid on imported raw material for manufacturing products meant to be exported.
Medical textile products include gowns, caps, masks, drapes, hospital uniforms, bandages, surgical dressings and hospital beddings.
"Currently, DEPB rates are provided for only those medical textiles which are manufactured from spun yarn, and non-woven fabrics (directly made from the fibres) do not get any DEPB benefit," it said.
The current medical textiles market in India is around Rs 2,365 crore and is expected to touch Rs 3,737 crore by 2012-13, it added. "This offers a huge opportunity for new generation medical textiles in India", it said.
It further said that the government should amend Indian Drugs and Cosmetics Act to include new generation medical textiles made of fibres and disposable medical textile products.
These fibres are now extensively used in foreign countries for various medical textile products.
"Medical textiles made of cotton as used currently in the country do not meet many of the health and safety requirements," it said.
Most of the hospitals in India continue to use these traditional products despite being less hygienic, since the new and latest products are not included under the Drugs and Cosmetic Act of India, FICCI Taskforce on Technical Textiles Chairman Shishir Jaipuria said.
More from India
More from World
More from Sports
More from Entertaiment
- Admissions 2015: Know India's best ranking Universities
- Yasin Bhatkal calls wife from Hyderabad jail, talks of 'help from Damascus'
- Zee Media Exclusive interview with UPSC topper Ira Singhal's family
- UPSC announces Civil Services Examination 2014 results
- Dr Subhash Chandra Show: Is Corporate Social Responsibility nothing but a marketing gimmick?
- UPSC announces Civil Services Examination 2014 results; women bag top four positions
- Five guerrillas, one soldier killed near LoC
- 3rd Test, Day 2: Sri Lanka rattle Pakistan in decider
- Indian Mujahideen chief Yasin Bhatkal indicates Islamic State will help him get out of jail soon
- Missing UK schoolgirls seen carrying Kalashnikov rifle in ISIS's Raqqa?


text:
Ford Motor Co. reported a 13% increase in U.S. new-vehicle sales in November as the company posted double-digit sales growth for trucks and utility vehicles, though car sales slipped.
Ford has been outperforming peers for more than two years, returning to No. 2 domestically behind General Motors Co. in the process. Broadly, November auto sales are expected to rise 14% from a year ago, helped by early holiday deals and deferred demand from the summer months, according to car-shopping website, Edmunds.com. For Ford, Edmunds projected a 9.9% sales increase. Citi analysts wrote:
Ford reported November sales +13%, which was above consensus expectations for a 10% increase. Importantly, consistent with our channel checks, Ford’s retail sales were very strong in the month rising 20% and pointing to continued share gains (we estimate a 15.2-15.5% retail share in the month).
Ford’s cut its loss on the day, and is currently trading about flat.


text:
Amazon has invested more than £1bn in TV, movie and live sport content in the UK since 2018, with plans to pump even more cash into establishing itself as the go-to content provider for Brits.
Not only is this the first time Amazon have disclosed the level of investment in Prime Video in the UK, but it also shows the continuing momentum for the ecommerce giant.
Managing director of Prime Video UK Chris Bird told the Guardian: “Over the last five years we have crossed the £1bn mark, that feels like a milestone to recognise our growth here. We are fully committed to our future in the UK, as we are across Europe and the world.”
Earlier this year, Prime Video announced a multimillion-pound long-term contract with the iconic Shepperton Studios. In a vote of confidence in British pictures, the move will give Amazon exclusive use of new facilities at the Surrey studios for future original TV series and movie productions.
Amazon Studios notably announced that its upcoming Lord of the Rings series will film its second season in the UK, pumping even more cash into the booming film sector.
New Zealand’s minister for economic development and tourism, Stuart Nash, said the first series, which was filmed in New Zealand, cost around NZ$650m (£332m) to make, with the overall series costing over a £1bn to make.
By contrast, its biggest rival Netflix revealed that it would be slowing down its investment in new shows amid dwindling subscriber numbers, which it predicts are only set to worsen.
Netflix Chief financial officer Spencer Neumann said the company would be “pulling back” on spending growth, rooted in the desire to maintain operating profit margin at about 20 per cent.
For a content powerhouse like Netflix, this still means spending $17bn on content next year – up 25 per cent from 2021 and 57 per cent from the $10.8 billion it spent in 2020.
Netflix’s UK head of production Anna Mallet said earlier this year that she holds $1bn-a-year budget to produce content in the UK.
On Tuesday, Netflix said it had laid off 150 employees in the US, raising questions for what this will mean for the UK


text:
Home sales and prices both increased in December, as the residential market continued to be strong in the Harrisburg area.
For the three-county region, home sales jumped 15.4 percent compared to the year-ago period, while the median sales price increased 3.6 percent, according to the Greater Harrisburg Association of Realtors (GHAR).
In Dauphin County, residential sales rose to 273 units compared to 238 in December 2018, while the median sales price increased to $166,900 from $165,000, said GHAR.
Cumberland County saw sales go up to 283 units versus 234 a year ago as the median price rose to $215,000 compared to $207,900. In Perry County, sales dipped in December to 21 units from 28 units in the prior year, while the median sales price rose to $182,500 from $161,450, stated GHAR.
Throughout the region, the average days on the market fell considerably, down 8.3 percent from the year-ago period, GHAR said.


text:
Chile-based LATAM Cargo is expanding its footprint in the European pharmaceutical sector, adding its “pharma passive” service in London Heathrow Airport (LHR) – a pharma-specific infrastructure that sustains the product in a 15° to 25°C range. The carrier already operates its “pharma active” service through the LHR hub, which protects commodities in the -20° to +25°C range.
The majority of the pharma products that are produced in the United Kingdom require temperature controls, “along with strategic routes to reduce their transfer times,” said Alfredo Noguerales, senior sales manager for LATAM Cargo’s EMEA region. “In this sense, Brazil is a gateway to Latin America, which offers more efficient times.”
According to the World Health Organization, the already-booming global pharmaceutical industry is forecasted to continue to rise from a US$300 billion market to $400 billion in the next three years – with temperature-sensitive pharma products and biologics leading the growth.Like This Post


text:
Inside sources have exclusively revealed to BreatheHeavy.com that Britney is getting her hair done tonight at her home in the Summit by celebrity hair stylist Kim Vo once again. “Security was insane,” they said.
Perhaps she’ll go blonde? Maybe a rich light brown? We’ll find out soon enough!
Can’t wait for the big unveiling! Heard it here first!


text:
|By PR Newswire||
|January 8, 2013 07:00 PM EST||
LAS VEGAS, Jan. 8, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Today at the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show, TCL, the largest television manufacturer in China and seventh biggest mobile device maker in the world, debuted a wide range of products for U.S. consumers including TCL MoVo with Google TV, a new technology that automatically recognizes individual family members and tailors the viewing experience to their preferences. The company also announced that TCL products, including the HD China Star 3D TV, will be featured in the upcoming film, Marvel's "Iron Man 3."
"TCL is poised and ready to show U.S. consumers the most advanced technologies we are bringing to millions of other homes around the world," said Dongsheng Li, chairman of TCL Corporation. "Now that we've established ourselves through online sales with leading U.S. retailers like Amazon, Best-Buy and Costco, we're focused on increasing our in-store presence and kicking off a new global marketing campaign. The partnership with Marvel Studios on Marvel's "Iron Man 3" is one example of how we'll share our products with U.S. consumers in 2013."
Powered by the award-winning Marvell® ARMADA® 1500 series system-on-chip platform, TCL is among the first to offer both a Smart TV and set-top box with the latest Google TV platform. MoVo incorporates Google TV's advances, including Voice Search and PrimeTime, an application that will search over 100,000 movies and television episodes across multiple video services including Google Play. With TCL's Personal Box Office (PBO) technology, family members just need to press the power button and personally-tailored, commercial-free content streams from the MoVo set.
"By leveraging Marvell's award-winning technology and the most current Google TV platform, TCL will deliver innovative Smart TV solutions on a global scale that incorporate voice recognition, advanced multimedia search and discovery, and the very best Marvell has to offer in video, sound and connectivity, all at an affordable price. Our work with TCL and Google delivers game-changing entertainment experiences for consumers around the world that will drive the Smart TV market forward at a rapid pace," said Weili Dai, Co-Founder of Marvell. "Marvell is very proud to see our innovation, commitment, and hard work with Google and our partner companies lead to the milestone of TCL's new Smart TV product with the most current Google TV platform. Google and Marvell share a passion for improving the way the world enjoys entertainment, and we are thrilled to see companies such as TCL, and many others to follow, leverage this opportunity to the fullest in their newest TVs and devices."
In addition to the TCL MoVo with Google TV, TCL is showcasing a variety of smartphones, tablets and televisions at their CES booth (#9825 in the LVCC Central Hall) under the TCL and Alcatel ONE TOUCH brands.
TCL Branded Products
The iCE SCREEN™ is a multi-touch, extremely lightweight (13 lbs) TV that offers users a tablet-like experience, instant access to social media and Google Play, and a host of intelligent cloud applications to help aid in the enjoyment of games, music and photos, as well as movies and TV shows. Users can orient the 24-inch screen horizontally for TV viewing or vertically to create a virtual jukebox or play an arcade game.
Already honored with a 2013 iF Design award, the TCL V101™ is a uniquely-designed smart TV with a front panel between the screen and speaker mesh to give it a stylish, modern look. Packed with a quality display and sound system in a mere 11.5mm side profile, the V101 also has a WiFi speaker embedded in the stand to enhance sound quality.
With over 36 square feet of screen real estate, the 110-inch Ultra HD China Star 3D TV™ is not only big, it's heroic. Tony Stark's Smart TV choice in the next installment of Marvel Studio's blockbuster franchise, Marvel's "Iron Man 3," the Ultra HD China Star 3D TV™ features active 3D technology, multi-touch, intelligent and dynamic backlight, and an ultra-high brightness of 800 nits. Marvel's "Iron Man 3" releases in theaters May 3, 2013.
Alcatel ONE TOUCH Branded Products
TCL is debuting three new Alcatel ONE TOUCH smartphones at CES this year: an ultra-light smartphone with a 4.7" IPS display called the ONE TOUCH Idol™; the thinnest smartphone yet at 6.45 mm, the ONE TOUCH Idol Ultra™;and the first phone tofeaturethe MediaTek MT6589 quad-core chipset, the ONE TOUCH SCRIBE HD™.
Also announced at CES were a WiFi 4G LTE internet key called ONE TOUCH Link W800™, the ONE TOUCH EVO7 HD™, a WiFi 7 inch tablet that can be upgraded to 3G /4G connectivity thanks to removable a 3G/4G module, and two other tablet models: the ONE TOUCH TAB7 HD™ and the ONE TOUCH TAB8 HD™.
Founded in 1981, TCL is one of the largest consumer electronics enterprises in China with a global presence. TCL Corporation has three listed companies: TCL Corporation (SZ.000100), TCL Multimedia (HK.1070) and TCL Communication (HK.2618). Currently, TCL Corporation has set up four business units – TCL Multimedia Holdings, TCL Communication Holdings, China Star Optoelectronics Technology and TCL Home Appliances Group, as well as six business groups – System Technology Unit, Techne Group, Emerging Business Group, Investment Group, Logistic & Service Group and Real Estate Group. TCL employs more than 60,000 people and has more than 40 sales offices around the world, as well as 15 R&D centers, spread across China, United States, France, and Singapore, and 20 manufacturing bases and selling products under TCL, Thomson, and Alcatel ONE TOUCH brands. In 2011, TCL Corporation achieved global sales of RMB 60.834 billion, and reach the TCL LCD TV ranking 5th globally. In 2012, the brand value of TCL had exceeded RMB 58.326 billion, continuing to hold the No. 1 TV brand position in China today. In Dec. 2012, TCL announced that they expect to exceed 15 million LCD/LED TV shipments in 2013, thus entering the list of the world's first tier of TV manufacturers. For more information visit www.tcl.com.
About ALCATEL ONE TOUCH
ALCATEL ONE TOUCH is a brand within TCL Communication, an international multicultural company which designs, develops, and markets globally a growing range of mobile and Internet devices. One of the fastest growing of the world's top ten mobile phone manufacturers, TCL Communication makes access to mobile technology simple, designing their products around individual's lifestyles, enabling the end users to do more. TCL Communication is a public company listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (2618.HK) and part of TCL Corporation, one of the largest consumer electronics companies in the world. For more information, please visit www.alcatelonetouch.com.
About Marvell Technology Group
Marvell Technology Group (NASDAQ: MRVL) is a world leader in the development of storage, communications and consumer silicon solutions. Technology Group's diverse product portfolio includes switching, transceiver, communications controller, wireless and storage solutions that power the entire communications infrastructure, including enterprise, metro, home and storage networking. For more information, visit www.marvell.com.
About Marvel Entertainment
Marvel Entertainment, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, is one of the world's most prominent character-based entertainment companies, built on a proven library of over 8,000 characters featured in a variety of media over seventy years. Marvel utilizes its character franchises in entertainment, licensing and publishing. For more information visit www.marvel.com.
About Marvel's "Iron Man 3"
Marvel's "Iron Man 3" pits brash-but-brilliant industrialist Tony Stark/Iron Man against an enemy whose reach knows no bounds. When Stark finds his personal world destroyed at his enemy's hands, he embarks on a harrowing quest to find those responsible. This journey, at every turn, will test his mettle. With his back against the wall, Stark is left to survive by his own devices, relying on his ingenuity and instincts to protect those closest to him. As he fights his way back, Stark discovers the answer to the question that has secretly haunted him: does the man make the suit or does the suit make the man?
Starring Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Guy Pearce, Rebecca Hall, Stephanie Szostak, James Badge Dale with Jon Favreau and Ben Kingsley, Marvel's "Iron Man 3" is directed by Shane Black from a screenplay by Drew Pearce & Shane Black and is based on Marvel's iconic Super Hero Iron Man, who first appeared on the pages of "Tales of Suspense" (#39) in 1963 and had his solo comic book debut with "The Invincible Iron Man" (#1) in May of 1968.
Marvel's "Iron Man 3" is presented by Marvel Studios in association with Paramount Pictures and DMG Entertainment. Marvel Studios' President Kevin Feige is producing and Jon Favreau, Louis D'Esposito, Charles Newirth, Victoria Alonso, Stephen Broussard, Alan Fine, Stan Lee and Dan Mintz are executive producers. The film releases May 3, 2013, and is distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.
TCL North America
Porter Novelli for TCL
For basic one-to-one voice or video calling solutions, WebRTC has proven to be a very powerful technology. Although WebRTC’s core functionality is to provide secure, real-time p2p media streaming, leveraging native platform features and server-side components brings up new communication capabilities for web and native mobile applications, allowing for advanced multi-user use cases such as video broadcasting, conferencing, and media recording.
Jul. 30, 2016 10:45 AM EDT Reads: 1,053
SYS-CON Events announced today that Venafi, the Immune System for the Internet™ and the leading provider of Next Generation Trust Protection, will exhibit at @DevOpsSummit at 19th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on November 1–3, 2016, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA. Venafi is the Immune System for the Internet™ that protects the foundation of all cybersecurity – cryptographic keys and digital certificates – so they can’t be misused by bad guys in attacks...
Jul. 30, 2016 10:15 AM EDT Reads: 1,500
ReadyTalk has expanded the capabilities of the FoxDen collaboration platform announced late last year to include FoxDen Connect, an in-room video collaboration experience that launches with a single touch. With FoxDen Connect, users can now not only engage in HD video conferencing between iOS and Android mobile devices or Chrome browsers, but also set up in-person meeting rooms for video interactions. A host’s mobile device automatically recognizes the presence of a meeting room via beacon tech...
Jul. 30, 2016 10:00 AM EDT Reads: 504
The cloud market growth today is largely in public clouds. While there is a lot of spend in IT departments in virtualization, these aren’t yet translating into a true “cloud” experience within the enterprise. What is stopping the growth of the “private cloud” market? In his general session at 18th Cloud Expo, Nara Rajagopalan, CEO of Accelerite, explored the challenges in deploying, managing, and getting adoption for a private cloud within an enterprise. What are the key differences between wh...
Jul. 30, 2016 10:00 AM EDT Reads: 2,176
It’s 2016: buildings are smart, connected and the IoT is fundamentally altering how control and operating systems work and speak to each other. Platforms across the enterprise are networked via inexpensive sensors to collect massive amounts of data for analytics, information management, and insights that can be used to continuously improve operations. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Brian Chemel, Co-Founder and CTO of Digital Lumens, will explore: The benefits sensor-networked systems bring to ...
Jul. 30, 2016 09:15 AM EDT Reads: 1,646
On Dice.com, the number of job postings asking for skill in Amazon Web Services increased 76 percent between June 2015 and June 2016. Salesforce.com saw its own skill mentions increase 37 percent, while DevOps and Cloud rose 35 percent and 28 percent, respectively. Even as they expand their presence in the cloud, companies are also looking for tech professionals who can manage projects, crunch data, and figure out how to make systems run more autonomously. Mentions of ‘data science’ as a skill ...
Jul. 30, 2016 09:00 AM EDT Reads: 578
Manufacturers are embracing the Industrial Internet the same way consumers are leveraging Fitbits – to improve overall health and wellness. Both can provide consistent measurement, visibility, and suggest performance improvements customized to help reach goals. Fitbit users can view real-time data and make adjustments to increase their activity. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Mark Bernardo Professional Services Leader, Americas, at GE Digital, discussed how leveraging the Industrial Internet a...
Jul. 30, 2016 08:00 AM EDT Reads: 751
Amazon has gradually rolled out parts of its IoT offerings in the last year, but these are just the tip of the iceberg. In addition to optimizing their back-end AWS offerings, Amazon is laying the ground work to be a major force in IoT – especially in the connected home and office. Amazon is extending its reach by building on its dominant Cloud IoT platform, its Dash Button strategy, recently announced Replenishment Services, the Echo/Alexa voice recognition control platform, the 6-7 strategic...
Jul. 30, 2016 07:45 AM EDT Reads: 716
In addition to all the benefits, IoT is also bringing new kind of customer experience challenges - cars that unlock themselves, thermostats turning houses into saunas and baby video monitors broadcasting over the internet. This list can only increase because while IoT services should be intuitive and simple to use, the delivery ecosystem is a myriad of potential problems as IoT explodes complexity. So finding a performance issue is like finding the proverbial needle in the haystack.
Jul. 30, 2016 07:45 AM EDT Reads: 2,400
There will be new vendors providing applications, middleware, and connected devices to support the thriving IoT ecosystem. This essentially means that electronic device manufacturers will also be in the software business. Many will be new to building embedded software or robust software. This creates an increased importance on software quality, particularly within the Industrial Internet of Things where business-critical applications are becoming dependent on products controlled by software. Qua...
Jul. 30, 2016 07:30 AM EDT Reads: 1,689
Big Data, cloud, analytics, contextual information, wearable tech, sensors, mobility, and WebRTC: together, these advances have created a perfect storm of technologies that are disrupting and transforming classic communications models and ecosystems. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Erik Perotti, Senior Manager of New Ventures on Plantronics’ Innovation team, provided an overview of this technological shift, including associated business and consumer communications impacts, and opportunities it ...
Jul. 30, 2016 07:30 AM EDT Reads: 484
The 19th International Cloud Expo has announced that its Call for Papers is open. Cloud Expo, to be held November 1-3, 2016, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA, brings together Cloud Computing, Big Data, Internet of Things, DevOps, Digital Transformation, Microservices and WebRTC to one location. With cloud computing driving a higher percentage of enterprise IT budgets every year, it becomes increasingly important to plant your flag in this fast-expanding business opportuni...
Jul. 30, 2016 05:15 AM EDT Reads: 2,712
IoT is rapidly changing the way enterprises are using data to improve business decision-making. In order to derive business value, organizations must unlock insights from the data gathered and then act on these. In their session at @ThingsExpo, Eric Hoffman, Vice President at EastBanc Technologies, and Peter Shashkin, Head of Development Department at EastBanc Technologies, discussed how one organization leveraged IoT, cloud technology and data analysis to improve customer experiences and effi...
Jul. 30, 2016 04:00 AM EDT Reads: 2,139
The Internet of Things will challenge the status quo of how IT and development organizations operate. Or will it? Certainly the fog layer of IoT requires special insights about data ontology, security and transactional integrity. But the developmental challenges are the same: People, Process and Platform. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Craig Sproule, CEO of Metavine, demonstrated how to move beyond today's coding paradigm and shared the must-have mindsets for removing complexity from the develo...
Jul. 30, 2016 03:00 AM EDT Reads: 1,657
SYS-CON Events announced today that MangoApps will exhibit at the 19th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on November 1–3, 2016, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA. MangoApps provides modern company intranets and team collaboration software, allowing workers to stay connected and productive from anywhere in the world and from any device.
Jul. 30, 2016 02:45 AM EDT Reads: 1,497
The IETF draft standard for M2M certificates is a security solution specifically designed for the demanding needs of IoT/M2M applications. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Brian Romansky, VP of Strategic Technology at TrustPoint Innovation, explained how M2M certificates can efficiently enable confidentiality, integrity, and authenticity on highly constrained devices.
Jul. 30, 2016 02:15 AM EDT Reads: 1,196
“delaPlex Software provides software outsourcing services. We have a hybrid model where we have onshore developers and project managers that we can place anywhere in the U.S. or in Europe,” explained Manish Sachdeva, CEO at delaPlex Software, in this SYS-CON.tv interview at @ThingsExpo, held June 7-9, 2016, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY.
Jul. 30, 2016 02:00 AM EDT Reads: 1,694
The IoT is changing the way enterprises conduct business. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Eric Hoffman, Vice President at EastBanc Technologies, discussed how businesses can gain an edge over competitors by empowering consumers to take control through IoT. He cited examples such as a Washington, D.C.-based sports club that leveraged IoT and the cloud to develop a comprehensive booking system. He also highlighted how IoT can revitalize and restore outdated business models, making them profitable ...
Jul. 29, 2016 10:15 PM EDT Reads: 2,088
Internet of @ThingsExpo, taking place November 1-3, 2016, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA, is co-located with the 19th International Cloud Expo and will feature technical sessions from a rock star conference faculty and the leading industry players in the world and ThingsExpo Silicon Valley Call for Papers is now open.
Jul. 29, 2016 08:00 PM EDT Reads: 2,756
We all know the latest numbers: Gartner, Inc. forecasts that 6.4 billion connected things will be in use worldwide in 2016, up 30 percent from last year, and will reach 20.8 billion by 2020. We're rapidly approaching a data production of 40 zettabytes a day – more than we can every physically store, and exabytes and yottabytes are just around the corner. For many that’s a good sign, as data has been proven to equal money – IF it’s ingested, integrated, and analyzed fast enough. Without real-ti...
Jul. 29, 2016 07:45 PM EDT Reads: 1,220


text:
Another online disruptor tries out brick-and-mortar
Figs is giving the staid, $10 billion medical apparel industry a shot in the arm.
One of the fastest-growing companies in the United States has opened its first physical space.
Figs, the female-founded brand that’s disrupting the $60 billion staid medical apparel industry with stylish scrubs, has opened a pop-up on trendy Melrose Place in Los Angeles. The 1,800-sq.-ft. space features a lively, modern design, with a larger-than-life art installation, called The FIGS Medicine Cabinet, ideal for Instagram selfies. Other features include an embroidery workshop, special “night shift” shopping hours, a speaker series and other special events.
“Medical professionals have never had the opportunity to shop for their uniforms like they would regular clothes, despite wearing scrubs more frequently than any other article of clothing they own,” said Heather Hasson, co-founder and co-CEO, Figs. “We wanted our pop-up shop to feel lively and playful, but also modern.”
The pop-up carries Figs’ full line of men’s and women’s scrubs, along with compression socks, tote bags, loungewear, lab coats and outerwear. The company prides itself not only on its fashionable stylings, but also for its high-performance proprietary fabric that is both comfortable and functional, and incorporates such features as yoga waistbands and smart storage (pockets, zippers, hidden pockets). The inside of each garment has an inspirational saying targeted to modern healthcare professionals.
Founded in 2013, Figs set out to disrupt the medical apparel company, which has traditionally been dominated by low-end suppliers that sell to brick-and-mortar stores, by selling directly to consumers through its e-commerce platform that utilizes predictive analytics and lifestyle-driven imagery. To date, the company has raised $75 million from investors, including most recently $65 million from Tulco (the fourth-largest raise for a female-founded company in 2017). Figs also has a social mission. Its Threads for Threads initiative has donated over 500,000 sets of scrubs to healthcare providers in need in over 35 countries around the world.
Figs was ranked as Number 21 on Inc. Magazine’s Inc. 5000 ranking of the nation’s fastest-growing companies in 2018. It has experienced a 9,948% growth rate over the prior three years.
No comments found


text:
bne IntelliNews – Hungarian consumers cut spending in June
Retail sales growth in Hungary slowed to an annual rate of 4.1% in June from 12% the previous month (chart), reflecting a shift in consumer habits after the government announced lockdown measures austerity to fill the budget deficit and that inflation has galloped 20 years. -high. Adjusted for calendar year effects, retail sales rose 4.5%, below analysts’ expectations of 8%. On a monthly basis, retail sales fell for the third straight month, down 0.5%.
Hungary’s retail sector started the year on a strong note, boosted by massive pre-election tax transfers and wage increases. Months before the election, families received a tax refund, pensioners a 13-month pension, a bonus for armed personnel was paid in February and the minimum wage was increased by 19%, resulting in double-digit growth in the industry. between February and May.
In June, adjusted food sales edged down 0.3%, non-food sales increased 2.5% and vehicle fuel sales jumped 23.6% year-on-year, driven by regulated prices .
Food and non-food sales contracted over one month, down 0.25% and 3.6% respectively.
In absolute terms, retail sales amounted to HUF 1.43 trillion (€3.6 billion). Food sales accounted for 45% of the total, non-food sales 36% and gas station sales 19%.
In the first six months, retail sales increased 10.4% unadjusted and 10.3% adjusted year-over-year. Adjusted food sales increased 2.2%, non-food sales increased 12.5% and vehicle fuel sales increased 30%.
June retail trade data signals further slowdown for the sector in the second half of the year, which is bad news for the economy, as consumer spending was a major driver of GDP growth in the first quarter of more by 8%.
Rising inflation has wiped out much of the growth in real wages and the 25% rise in food prices is increasingly dampening consumption, Erste Bank said in a note. The weak base and phasing out of oil tourism has also reduced fuel sales and retail sales in general.
ING Bank analyst Peter Virovacz pointed to a second consecutive monthly contraction in food sales and the slowest growth in non-food sales on an annual basis since the pandemic, signaling that Hungarian consumers adapt to rising inflation and austerity measures. This could be seen as the trend before a recession, but it’s too early to tell, according to Virovacz.
The impact of energy subsidy cuts is not included in the June data, as the government announced it would cut energy subsidies last month.
Hundreds of thousands of households will pay the market price for gas and electricity above the level set by the government as the national average, which many analysts say is too low as it includes empty houses, cottages and summer residences.
The collapse in household demand is one of the main reasons why Hungarian economic growth is expected to slow dramatically in the second half of the year, and the possibility of a technical recession is not excluded, business portal Portfolio.hu commented.


text:
Atlus Reveals Soul Hackers 2 Game for Release on August 25
posted on by Crystalyn Hodgkins
Atlus revealed on Monday that it is developing the Soul Hackers 2 game, and will release the game in Japan on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Windows, and Steam on August 25. Atlus West confirmed on Monday that it will release the game in English on August 26 for the same platforms. Sega Europe will also release the game for the same platforms on August 26.
Original Japanese version
Atlus West describes the game:
In a war between Devil Summoners, it's up to Ringo and her team to decrypt destiny and save the world from apocalypse!
Atlus released the Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers game as part of its overall Shin Megami Tensei franchise for Sega Saturn in 1997, PlayStation in 1999, and Nintendo 3DS in 2012. Atlus released the 3DS version in North America in 2013.
Atlus released the Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner game for Sega Saturn in 1995, and then released it for PlayStation Portable in 2005.
Update: English release information added.
this article has been modified since it was originally posted; see change history


text:
By mutual agreement.
"I ... have ambitious writing plans for the next year, and you all will be the first to know about them as they unfold."
It'll provide creative collaboration within the spheres of fashion, beauty, and entertainment.
She will continue to run the Fashion East program.
A roundup of opinions from the fashion industry and beyond.
Joshua Schulman will be the store's new president.
Was he fired from Jil Sander or not?
Plus, Victoria Beckham's new cover, YSL's new eyewear, and more fashion news.
Bergé likens Saint Laurent to Faulkner.
It's the company's old chief accounting officer.
The future of the company remains uncertain.
Even though he's no longer at his eponymous label.
Laurence Kleinknecht will be YSL's new worldwide press director.
"I’m not at liberty to say anything about what’s gone on.”
WWD reports, again, that designer Maxime Simoens is leaving the label.


text:
PatchBot will keep your Discord channel up-to-date on all the latest Minecraft (Bedrock) patch notes.
Posted: 29 November 2023
### Information on the Minecraft Preview and Beta:
Posted: 15 November 2023
Posted: 8 November 2023
Posted: 2 November 2023
Posted: November 2, 2023
A new update has been released to address some issues that were introduced with the 1.20.40 update.
Please continue to upvote and report any new bugs at bugs.mojang.com and leave us your feedback at feedback.minecraft.net!
Posted: 25 October 2023


text:
An insider has told Autocar that Honda isn't involved in the development of McLaren's upcoming entry-level model programmed for a 2015 launch.
An insider has told Autocar that Honda isn’t involved in the development of McLaren’s upcoming entry-level model programmed for a 2015 launch.
Motor Trend said last week that Honda could provide the engine for McLaren’s new model, taking into account the F1 collaboration between the two parties from 2015. However, this won't happen according to a McLaren insider who said "at the moment there is no anticipated impact on the road car division as a result of the Honda deal."
While "at the moment" leaves some room for speculations, chances are the P13 won't be powered by a Honda engine. Instead, it will likely use McLaren's V8 3.8-liter but detuned to output around 450 bhp (335 kW).
Some will consider this as good news since Honda can fully focus on the NSX revival due in 2015.


text:
When I lasted check in on the local/regional brewery scene, the commonwealth of Virginia had just cleaned up at the Great American Beer Festival. I was also trying, mostly in vain, to get local Oktoberfest. Port City was the only local märzen I got my hands on, though I found some Old Dominion which was [...]
‘Food and Drink’ Archive
Breweries from the Commonwealth of Virginia did very well at the Great American Beer Festival in Denver. My hometown brewer, Port City Brewing Co. here in Alexandria, took home gold for its Optimal Wit. I really enjoy it in late spring and early fall when there is just a sligtht coolness in the air.
Good news for local beer lovers, Verizon Center, home of the Washington Capitals, Wizards and Mystics now serves two local brews, Port City and DC Brau. They haven’t even put out press releases yet. It looks like Port City’s Downright Pilsner and DC Brau’s Citizen (Beglian Style Pale Ale) and Corruption (IPA) are what’s [...]
ASHBURN, Va. — Last year I mentioned that I discovered the old Partlow Bros. at the intersection of Ashburn and Hay roads and the W&OD trail had turned into a barbecue place. I was really excited that Carolina Brothers, as it is now known, sold glass bottled soda like Pepsi (with sugar, not corn syrup), [...]
Ben’s Chili Bowl to land at Reagan National – The Post
Ben’s Chili Bowl continues to expand with a location at Washington National Airport scheduled to open in 2014.
The addition of Ben’s is part of an aggressive push by airport officials to revamp concession offerings at both Reagan National and Washington Dulles International airports. Along with [...]
First off, it needs to cool down for me to get in the mood for Oktoberfest/Märzen beers – Port City Brewing Co. has one that I’m eager to try.
DC Brau grew 195%, fifth fatest in the nation according to The Street. They are now producing about 5,000 barrels annually. h/t Joe Riley
Port City doubled production [...]
Local Mumbo Sauce Seller May Have to Call Its Condiment Something Else – CityPaper
There is disagreement over whether the sweet sauce served at D.C. carryout out restaurants is mumbo or mambo sauce. A trademark dispute may help solve the issue:
But according to a decision by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s Trademark Trial and Appeal [...]
Ben’s Chili Bowl expanding to Virginia – Washington Business Journal
Iconic Washington D.C. half-smoke purveyors Ben’s Chili Bowl is paying to open a location in Rossyln, Arlington County:
Ben’s co-owner Nizam Ben Ali confirms that the restaurant’s ownership has signed a lease for 1725 Wilson Blvd., which is in the shopping center that used to house Ray’s [...]
DC Brau, the first brewery in Washington, D.C. to open after Christian Heurich Brewing Company closed in 1956, is bringing back Heurich’s lager. From the DC Brau release – RECREATION OF HEURICH’S LAGER TO LAUNCH IN AUGUST:
Just as most DC residents are closely acquainted with DC Brau today, there was a time in recent [...]
Kroger buys Harris Teeter grocery chain for $2.4B – USA Today
North Carolina-based Harris Teeter has been a welcome entry in the D.C. area supermarket scene over the last decade. I like Teeter because they get me through the lines much quicker than Giant and Safeway — a critical factor when shopping with a child. The [...]


text:
Niyi Odebode, Abuja
The Federal Government, on Wednesday, said the country would, in 2018, achieve rice production of seven million metric tonnes.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, who stated this in Abuja at a press conference on the Federal Government’s achievements in rice production, said Nigeria was “inching closer to self-sufficiency” in the crop.
He stated, “By 2018, the administration targets a rice production of seven million metric tonnes. As of 2015, rice demand in Nigeria stood at 6.3 million metric tonnes.”
The minister said the Federal Government was aware of the high price of locally produced rice, despite increase in its production.
He, however, assured Nigerians that the rise in production would eventually lead to fall in the price of rice.
He stated, “I know the question agitating your minds now will be: Why is the price of locally-produced rice still on the high side despite the increased production?
“Suffice it to say, however, that the increased production is bound to eventually bring down the price of rice and also bring succour to Nigerians.”
He said the Thailand Rice Exporters’ Association recently revealed that within a spate of just two years – from September 2015 to September 2017 – Nigeria’s rice importation dropped from 644,131 metric tonnes to just about 21,000 metric tonnes.
The minister said as a result of the Muhammadu Buhari administration’s success in local production, “some investors from Thailand have shown interest in establishing rice milling plants in Nigeria.”
Muhammed assured Nigerians that the coming of the foreign investors would not drive local farmers out of business.
According to him, the foreign investors would mostly be involved in the value chain aspect of rice production.
He recalled that unlike a few years ago, Nigeria had become one of the largest producers of rice in the world.
The minister added, “The improvement in rice production across the country did not happen by accident. It is largely due to the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme, initiated by President Muhammadu Buhari, which supports farmers through inputs distribution and loans to boost rice production.”
He explained that the increase in rice production had led to the establishment of rice mills.
All rights reserved. This material, and other digital content on this website, may not be reproduced, published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed in whole or in part without prior express written permission from PUNCH.
Contact: [email protected]


text:
Clava American Introduces Vegan Line of Canvas Bag
Clava American, Englewood, N.J, announced it introduced a vegan line of canvas bags. The Carina and Wellie collections feature fashion- and retail-inspired bags and accessories. Mia Hur, designer and vice president of operations at Clava American stated, “We just felt it was the right time to launch a vibrant and fresh line of non-leather bags for Clava.” Hur continued, “It allows us to expand on our already very established and expansive line of leather goods, while being able accommodate our customers with different materials and, most importantly, different price points.” The collections will be available in late fall.
For more information on Clava American, visit www.clava.com.


text:
“Uno, dos, tres … Tequila” This is the song that supermodel Kendall Jenner sang when she announced her new business: the production of tequila. After months of social media teasers, it now looks like the 25-year-old is marketing her tequila. Long last! Yes, because the 818 Tequila has been in work in progress for more than four years. This is what we read in Jenner’s post on Instagram.
“This is all we’ve had in the last year, and I can’t wait for everyone to get their hands on it to have as much fun as we do!”, commented the model.
Kenny’s tequila first circulated on social media on February 8. But the girl doesn’t stop there. There will be three varieties of 818 available: “Blanco Tequila” aged for less than two months; “Reposado Tequila” aged less than a year; “Añejo Tequila” aged three years. The drinks will be made 100% with blue agaves. The name 818 is inspired by the zip code where the Kardashian / Jenner family lives in Calabasas, California. At the same time, the distillate is produced in a factory in Mexico.
However, fans with a keen eye have known this for some time. Kendall was spending a considerable amount of time in Mexico lately. In fact, in one of his shots of the period, they managed to glimpse a bottle 818. This obviously was placed in a corner in the background, merely triggering a possible collaboration between the brand and the Kardashian clan.
The model posted a roundup of photos to reveal the launch of 818, proving that her brand has already won several awards in the liquor world: including Best Reposado Tequila at the World Tequila Awards and the Chairman’s Trophy at the Ultimate Spirits Challenge. 818 Tequila could hit shelves in the spring or summer. At the moment, there are no official dates yet.
Will 818 Tequila be the new favorite drink of celebrities? Maybe. Surely Kendall Jenner will have to face the competition of many other stars who have become testimonials or have decided to produce their brand of wine or spirits in recent years. A few names? Brother-in-law Travis Scott, Adam Levin, Ryan Reynolds, Sarah Jessica Parker, Cameron Diaz, Kate Hudson, Diane Keaton, Jay-Z, George Clooney, Drew Barrymore, Brad Pitt & Angelina Jolie, Justin Timberlake.


text:
Disney partners with Dapper Labs to launch its NFT platform, Disney Pinnacle, featuring iconic characters and collectible digital pins. The platform, built on the Flow blockchain, will debut on major app stores later this year.
From classic cartoons to Star Wars figures, the platform introduces uniquely styled digital pins for global fans. Dapper Labs CEO Roham Gharegozlou highlights the instant and secure trading experience.
Scheduled for release on the Apple App Store, Google Play Store, and the web, Disney Pinnacle operates on the Flow blockchain, previously utilized by Ticketmaster for NFT event tickets. This move follows Disney’s recent restructuring, involving the closure of its metaverse division. Despite the shift, the entertainment giant aims to engage audiences worldwide through the growing NFT trend.


text:
December 1, 2021
The coronavirus pandemic will likely cost the global tourism sector $2 trillion in lost revenue in 2021, the UN’s tourism body said, calling the sector’s recovery “fragile” and “slow.”
According to the latest forecast by the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the same amount was lost in 2020, making it one of the sectors hit hardest by the health crisis. Despite recent improvements, the report warned that demand for travel could be further affected by “uneven vaccination rates around the world and new COVID-19 strains which had prompted new travel restrictions in some countries.
In the past few days, the emergence of the Omicron variant has led dozens of countries to reinstate restrictions on arrivals, or to delay relaxation in COVID-19 travel and testing rules, leading to wide uncertainty for holiday season travellers worldwide.
Spikes in oil prices and the disruption of global supply chains have also had an effect. According to the latest UNWTO data, international tourist arrivals are expected to remain 70-75 per cent below 2019 levels in 2021, a similar decline as in 2020.
“Data for the third quarter of 2021 is encouraging,” UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili said. “However, arrivals are still 76 per cent below pre-pandemic levels and results across the different global regions remain uneven.”
In light of the rising cases and the emergence of new variants, he added that “we cannot let our guard down and need to continue our efforts to ensure equal access to vaccinations, coordinate travel procedures, make use of digital vaccination certificates to facilitate mobility, and continue to support the sector.”
Despite the improvement seen in the third quarter of the year, the pace of recovery remains slow and uneven across world regions.
In some sub-regions, such as Southern and Mediterranean Europe, the Caribbean, North and Central America, arrivals actually rose above 2020 levels in the first nine months of 2021.
However, arrivals in Asia and the Pacific were down by as much as 95 per cent when compared with 2019, as many destinations remained closed to non-essential travel. Africa and the Middle East recorded 74 per cent and 81 per cent drops respectively in the third quarter compared to 2019. Among the larger destinations, Croatia, Mexico and Turkey showed the strongest recovery in the period of July to September.
The Caribbean had the highest results of any of the subregions defined by the UNWTO, with arrivals up 55 per cent compared to 2020.
International tourist arrivals “rebounded” during the summer season in the Northern Hemisphere thanks to increased travel confidence, rapid vaccination and the easing of entry restrictions in many nations.
In Europe, the EU Digital Covid Certificate has helped facilitate free movement within the European Union, the report added.
Analyst Certification -The views expressed in this research report accurately reflect the personal views of Mayberry Investments Limited Research Department about those issuer (s) or securities as at the date of this report. Each research analyst (s) also certify that no part of their compensation was, is, or will be, directly or indirectly, related to the specific recommendation(s) or view (s) expressed by that research analyst in this research report.
Company Disclosure -The information contained herein has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, however its accuracy and completeness cannot be guaranteed. You are hereby notified that any disclosure, copying, distribution or taking any action in reliance on the contents of this information is strictly prohibited and may be unlawful. Mayberry may effect transactions or have positions in securities mentioned herein. In addition, employees of Mayberry may have positions and effect transactions in the securities mentioned herein.


text:
(FOXNEWS) — Nestle USA has recalled select Nestle Drumsticks for possible contamination of listeria monocytogenes, which can lead to serious illness and birth defects.
The recall affects the Drumstick Club 16 Count Variety Pack and 24 count Vanilla Pack, which were made at the company’s Bakersfield, California, ice cream production facility. The cones are 4.6 fluid ounces each.
In a news release, Nestle announced that investigators found listeria monocytogenes on equipment contact surfaces from a location on the production line at the Bakersfield facility. The Drumstick cones themselves have not tested positive for listeria monocytogenes.
Advertisement - story continues below