July 24, 2013 REUTERS PepsiCo reported higher-than-expected quarterly earnings on Wednesday, as price increases and productivity improvements helped its margins in the face of weak soft-drink sales in North America and Europe. In addition, the company, which makes Pepsi-Cola, Frito-Lay snacks and Tropicana juices, cited a lower tax rate and a $137 million gain related to refranchising its bottling operations in Vietnam. A J. P. Morgan analyst, John Faucher, said those issues made the results look better than they were. “The headline is much better than the net result,” Mr. Faucher said. The smaller soft-drink company Dr Pepper Snapple Group also released results on Wednesday, saying profit fell on weak sales volume. A week ago, Coca-Cola reported disappointing sales, blaming poor weather. Nelson Peltz, an activist shareholder, said that PepsiCo should buy Mondelez International, maker of Oreo cookies, and split off its soft-drink business. Despite the numbers, PepsiCo stood by…

Michael Baker July 24, 2013 The Age Out go Dunkin Donuts and Wendys, in come Lululemon and Anywhere Fitness. Imagine, if you can, that your local shopping centre or strip has done away with Woolworths and Coles, has no Kmart, Big W or Target, no fashion clothing or homewares store, and no junk food. Its tenant roster bears little resemblance to the mix of brands that made the Australian retail industry successful in the past, that hold it back in the present and threaten its vitality in the future. And the place is rocking. It brings together a group of tenants in one place that promise something many find priceless: the opportunity, no matter how illusory, to stay young, healthy and beautiful. It caters to the new fashion, where people no longer define themselves by what they wear but how they feel, look and function. There are any number of…

TIM BOREHAM July 29, 2013 The Australian VISITING German pricing expert Frank Bilstein has a salutary warning for local supermarkets, utilities and insurers that indulge in price wars: condition customers to expect a discount at your peril. The A.T. Kearney partner has witnessed the perils of rampant discounting in his home retail market, which he laments has become a Euro dumping ground for poor-quality goods. “It’s like toothpaste: once it’s out of the tube there’s no way of getting it back,” he warned. “Once you have trained people (to expect discounts) there’s no turning back.” Mr Bilstein, who is reviewing the consulting firm’s pricing range, said “very aggressive” pricing in the insurance and electricity sectors might look good for customers, but “at some point it becomes a disservice to both the consumer base and the companies involved”. In the case of the US telco sector, low data pricing increased smartphone…

MJ Angel July 25, 2013 The Age Thanks to social media, smartphones and technology, consumers are now more savvy than ever. For many of us, more goes into our decisions to buy products than just price. We want to know if what we are buying is good for us, and how its production affects the environment and communities from which it is sourced. Is the food we are feeding our families genetically modified? Are the beauty products we use tested on animals? Do the clothes we wear come from sweatshops, made by companies that don’t support human rights? Thanks to a free little app that became available for iPhone and Android earlier this year, we can take the guesswork out of those questions. Buycott empowers us; it educates us and in turn educates the global consumer community in which we live. The app has two major functions. The first allows…

Rachel Wells July 29, 2013 The Age Australian fashion retailers are moving to slash prices, increase product ranges, improve customer service and even looking to global expansion in the face of increased competition from internationals. But despite efforts to stem the loss of market share to overseas retail giants such as Zara, Topshop, H&M and Uniqlo, which have, or are about to, set up shop here – not to mention those already selling online – retail experts say some Australian fashion retailers simply won’t survive the looming foreign invasion. ”I think there’s a lot of shedding to do,” says Steve Ogden-Barnes, a retail industry fellow at Deakin University. ”I see a parallel between Australia’s retail environment and the Galapagos Islands of old. ”In relative isolation, some interesting and unusual species have grown up but now someone else has turned up on shore; it exposes all those weaknesses,” he says. Already…