Industry News

Visa and Mastercard have reached a nearly $30 billion settlement to limit credit and debit card fees for merchants by reducing their U.S. credit card interchange rates or swipe fees for at least a five-year period. The settlement, which also features a set of adjustments to Visa and Mastercard’s network rules, giving merchants more choice in how they accept digital payments, according to the credit card companies. The agreement includes: “This agreement brings closure to a longstanding dispute by delivering substantial certainty and value to business owners, including flexibility in how they manage acceptance of card programs,” said Rob Beard, chief legal officer, general counsel and head of global policy at Mastercard, San Francisco. “By negotiating directly with merchants, we have reached a settlement with meaningful concessions that address true pain points small businesses have identified,” said Kim Lawrence, president for North America at Visa, Purchase, New York. The settlement agreement with merchants resolves…

Australian food company Patties Food Group will help fuel the nation’s Olympic heroes in Paris, and the supporters who cheer them on at home, as an official partner of the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC). The three-year partnership, announced today, sees Patties Food Group’s famous Four’N Twenty become the official pie, and performance brand Fitness Outcomes become the official ready meal of the Australian Olympic Team. Four’N Twenty pies and Fitness Outcomes meals will offer Australia’s Olympians a taste of home in the athletes’ village in Paris. Patties Food Group Chief Executive Paul Hitchcock said the company was honoured to be associated with the AOC and the Olympic dreams of the nation’s best athletes. “Our Olympians are working hard to take on the world in Paris and Patties Food Group is proud to be working beside them to enhance the Olympic experience for all who follow and are part of the…

Energy and Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen has walked away from Labor’s target to have 89 per cent of new car sales electric by 2030, casting doubt on the government’s green agenda. After The Australian revealed Mr Bowen’s electric vehicle strategy was on track to fail with government departmental officials predicting fewer than a third of new car sales would be battery operated by 2030, the Labor frontbencher claimed there was no target. “We don’t have a particular EV target,” Mr Bowen said on Wednesday morning. Come up to me in the street and say, I’d like my next car to be an EV but I’m not really seeing the range of choices that are affordable. “And they’re right because there are many more affordable EVs that are available in other countries that aren’t available here because we don’t have efficiency standards.” from the federal transport department were that electric cars will make up…

CELSIUS and Suntory Oceania enter into definitive manufacturing, sales and distribution agreement. BOCA RATON, Fla., March 26, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Celsius Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: CELH), maker of energy drink brand CELSIUS®, today announced plans to expand into new international markets, growing the company’s global sales and distribution footprint to include Australia and New Zealand. “We’re pleased to introduce our refreshing, great tasting and functional CELSIUS energy drinks to consumers in Australia and New Zealand,” said John Fieldly, Celsius Holdings, Inc. Chairman and CEO. “We expect to continue our international growth at a measured pace, targeting strategically important energy drink markets and employing our proven playbook to build a strong and passionate consumer base.”  CELSIUS has selected Suntory Oceania as its exclusive manufacturing, sales and distribution partner in Australia and New Zealand. CELSIUS previously announced a sales and distribution agreement with Suntory Beverage & Food Great Britain and Ireland, and sales in those markets are expected to begin in the second quarter of 2024. “We are excited…

BP has launched a new food for now concept, offering freshly made breakfast and lunch options with seating areas, The Grocer can reveal. Jo Hayward, VP for convenience in Europe at BP, said it followed a trial at two company-owned sites in Holborough and Byron in 2023, with the concept set to be rolled out to a further 10 sites by April. As an extension of its Wild Bean Cafe brand, which is known for its ‘heat to eat’ pastries, baps, and coffee, the latest evolution consists of an in-store kitchen offering freshly prepared food that is made to order. The new menu includes fish finger sandwiches, avocado, halloumi and egg baps, crispy herby chicken burgers and its bestseller, the ‘big breakfast bap’. Hayward explained the range could be customised to customers’ tastes, such as switching mild mustard mayo for spicy gochujang ketchup, choosing rye or white bread, or requesting a runny egg yolk. “Gone are the days when a Coca-Cola…