Aussie Post to deliver fresh blow to traditional retailers

Chris Zappone July 30, 2012 The Age ·Online shopping carts start to fill up. ·The battle for the consumer dollar is about to get tougher for traditional retailers with Australia Post lining up another online partner to chip away at prices. ·The postal service will be the exclusive shipping partner with a new Australia-based international shopping service called Tarazz.com.au. It’s going to go down like a lead balloon with local retailers “This is going to be perceived as a major kick in the guts for a retail industry already under significant pressure from overseas online retailers,” said Grant Arnott manager for the Online Retailer Tarazz boasts 250,000 different items, mainly from US retailers such as Wal-mart, Champs and Buy.com, with a target market of women fashion shoppers. The online shopping sites expects to increase its offerings to as many as 3 million items within the next year, featuring goods US…

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Member profile: WELLCOM

As business moves toward greater integration of all messages to its customers there are opportunities for greater efficiencies which may ultimately result in time and resource savings, an improved and more effective communication and potentially costs savings. Wellcom offers its clients a total range of services including design services and cross-media adaptations, 3D and 2D illustration, photography and creative retouching, online and digital services, TVC production, video and animation, Pre-media, image and asset libraries and online workflow processes. The following article makes for interesting reading and you are encouraged to contact WELLCOM to see how they may benefit your business. Read Article

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Woolies shares gain after sales beat estimates

July 23, 2012 The Age Woolworths, the country’s biggest supermarket chain, said total sales for its fourth quarter rose 5.1 per cent to $12.9 billion. Woolies shares rose as much as 35 cents, or 1.3 per cent, to $27.97, compared with a drop of about 1 per cent for the overall market. The company’s key food and liquor divison saw same-store sales rise 1.3 per cent, beating the 0.5 per cent pace expected by analysts in a Bloomberg survey. For the full year, sales rose 4.7 per cent to $56.7 billion, with food and liquor sales rising 3.8 per cent to $37.5 billion. Woolworths has been engaged in a struggle for market dominance with Wesfarmers, the owner of Coles. Wesfarmers’ Coles unit has outperformed Woolworths’ supermarket division for the past 12 quarters. So far in 2012, though, Woolies shares are up about 12 per cent compared with 8 per cent…

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Goodman Fielder faces earnings pressure

July 23, 2012 The Age Goodman Fielder says its full-year earnings are likely to be at the lower end of its forecast. Goodman said its normalised earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) and significant items was expected to be at the lower end of its $230 million to $245 million range. Its accounts for its 2012 financial year would also take a hit of about $200 million in relation to the valuation of some of its businesses. ‘‘While trading conditions and external markets remain very challenging, Goodman Fielder today confirms that it expects normalised EBIT (pre significant items) to be within this range at the lower end,’’ Goodman said in a statement. ‘‘Increased competitive pressure, including price reductions for supermarket private label bread and the resulting pricing pressure on proprietary branded bread, together with higher labour and logistics costs continue to impact earnings in the Australia/New Zealand Baking division.’’ The…

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Happy days here again for SunRice

July 23, 2012 The Age WHAT a difference a year (and some rain) makes. SunRice chairman Gerry Lawson, who along with his board recommended the failed $600 million takeover offer for the rice marketer by the Spanish food giant Ebro last year, has expressed relief on the bid being narrowly defeated by a vote of shareholders. ”The drought and the external bid made for SunRice last year highlighted some shortcomings in our company’s structure,” explained Lawson in the group’s annual report that was dispatched on Friday. The report celebrated SunRice cracking the $1 billion revenue mark for the first time and posting a 159 per cent jump in net profit. Lawson added that the former rice-growing co-operative would ”be conducting a review of our governance and capital structure in the coming months to consider the objectives we set in our conversion to a company in 2005, and whether SunRice is…

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Drink tap water down to its molecular level

Sky News news.com.au July 23, 2012 NEW York City opens its first water-only café, selling only tap water for a large price, $US1 for a cup. The café’s co-owner Adam Ruhf told Reuters that their water is cleaner and healthier than regular tap water, with no trace of any chemical or mineral compounds. “The human body is composed of 60 to 70 per cent water. It’s extremely important for people to drink water every day and we feel that drinking the most pure water gives you the greatest benefits to your health,” he told Reuters Television. This is shown by a very complicated purifying system situated behind the bar. The purifying system strips the cities tap water down to its molecular level – hence the Cafe’s name Molecule, Sky News reports. “It’s a seven stage filtration process going through KDF (Kinetic Degradation Fluxion), magnetic and catalytic, active-carbon-five-micron reverse osmosis, UV…

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