US zoo names panda cub ‘Bao Bao’ or ‘Treasure’ |
- US zoo names panda cub ‘Bao Bao’ or ‘Treasure’
- Cut from the same cloth: Esprit tries on Zara for fashion makeover
- Candian police arrest Toronto man on suspicion of spying for China
- Milan win to end chaotic week, Juve extend lead
- More Americans spend less on Black Friday sales
- One Direction top British album chart for second time
| US zoo names panda cub ‘Bao Bao’ or ‘Treasure’ Posted: 01 Dec 2013 04:54 PM PST
Bao Bao — treasure" or "precious" in Mandarin — is only the second cub to survive birth at the zoo since it received a pair of giant pandas in 1972 following president Richard Nixon's historic visit to China. In line with Chinese tradition, the naming ceremony took place 100 days after the tiny female's August 23 birthday. Assistant US Secretary of State Kerri-Ann Jones and Chinese Ambassador Cui Tiankai unrolled two scrolls inscribed in both English and Chinese. First Lady Michelle Obama hailed Bao Bao as a "symbol of the growing connection between our two countries" in a video message. Cui, meanwhile, explained that the Chinese tradition of waiting 100 days before naming a cub "represents the wish that the baby... will live as long as 100 years." More than 123,000 people voted to pick a name on the zoo's website. The winner outdid Ling Hua ("darling, delicate flower"), Long Yun ("charming dragon"), Mulan ("legendary young woman" or "wood orchid"), and Zhen Bao ("treasure" or "valuable"). Bao Bao wasn't at the ceremony and won't be making her debut until early January, officials said, as they pointed disappointed fans to the zoo's webcam instead. Only about the size of a stick of butter at birth, Bao Bao weighed 10.8 pounds (4.9 kilogrammes) on November 22 and even reacted to noises, they added. Bao Bao won't be a Washington resident forever. In four years, the newest member of the capital's panda family will be sent to China and become part of a breeding programme there. Pandas are notoriously reluctant at reproducing when held in captivity. Bao Bao's mother Mei Xiang — who had five false pregnancies from 2007 to 2012 — gave birth to a stillborn twin cub on August 24. She also had a female cub in September 2012 but it died six days later from liver damage due to underdeveloped lungs. Her first cub, Tai Shan, was born in July 2005 as a result of artificial insemination. He now lives at the Bifengxia Panda Base in Ya'an, in Sichuan province. Paternity tests determined that fellow panda Tian Tian is Bao Bao's father, also through artificial insemination. Fewer than 1,600 pandas remain in the wild, mainly in China's Sichuan province, with a further 300 in captivity around the world. But this summer was a busy one in the panda world, with births in Spain, Austria and Atlanta, Georgia. China also recorded the only double birth of the year. — AFP  |
| Cut from the same cloth: Esprit tries on Zara for fashion makeover Posted: 01 Dec 2013 04:51 PM PST
Jose Manuel Martinez Gutierrez, 44, has stacked his management suite with veterans of Zara owner Inditex, the world's biggest retailer whose model of rapidly changing fashion analysts say is among the best in the industry. He also unveiled upgrades to technology and distribution to help his new hires get clothes designed, manufactured and on the racks in three to four months from the current seven to eight month time frame. Now, all he has to do is get customers to buy the clothes. The former McKinsey consultant and supply-chain whiz has laid the foundations for Esprit's recovery over the next 12-18 months with his nuts and bolts overhaul — he cut 10 per cent of Esprit staff in the past year — but the real gauge of success will be in growing sales. And in today's increasingly crowded market for high-street fashion, that means being able to adapt to the rapidly changing and divergent tastes of price-sensitive shoppers. "We are mostly focusing now on improving all of our products' design and value for money, rather than on rethinking our sales strategy," Martinez told Reuters. To succeed, he will need buy-in from every part of the business, ranging from Esprit's design and sourcing departments to its marketing managers. "Our business figures are extremely far from our goals and expectations," he acknowledged in a letter to shareholders in Esprit's most recent annual report in October.
Brand revival While Esprit's plans may be similar to what worked for Inditex, it faces at least one problem its rival didn't. Inditex owns most of its stores. Nearly a fifth of Esprit's stores and 60 per cent of its sales area is franchised and not directly owned and run by the Hong Kong-listed brand which also has headquarters in Ratingen, Germany. Feedback on which clothes are selling well takes longer. Franchises tend to be quicker to cut their losses by putting poorly selling items on sale — a potential problem for a company such as Esprit, which has franchise-run stores and self-branded stores in some of the same countries. "It becomes more complex to manage inventory and pricing in a situation where a certain amount of internal competition has been created," said Jamie Merriman, a senior analyst financial research firm Bernstein Research. Martinez said that decisions to open or close stores would be based on return on investment and profitability but that Esprit plans to keep its multi-channel distribution model. Even if Martinez succeeds in dramatically shortening Esprit's production time, it's not clear whether speed alone will be enough to revive the brand. H&M, Gap Inc and Uniqlo, the flagship brand of Japan's Fast Retailing Co Ltd, are faster than Esprit at getting new products to market, and also cheaper. More expensive brands like family owned Max Mara and Gucci, owned by luxury conglomerate Kering SA, are also developing quicker turnaround times, as are luxury brands such as Prada SpA . "Competition is very intense," said Aaron Fischer, head of consumer research at brokerage CLSA. "Esprit has high brand awareness but it needs to convert foot traffic into sales - and that requires good products. Right now, their products are quite poor compared with their peer group."
Fast-fashion DNA Esprit shares hit a record low of HK$6.95 (RM2.90) on September 26, 2011 as the company struggled with loss-making stores and closing down its North American operations. The shares now trade over HK$16, but have remained well below historical highs for more than three years. Yet only two of Esprit's 10 biggest shareholders have trimmed their stakes in the most recent reporting period, and those cuts were just 0.01 per cent and 1.03 per cent, respectively, according to Thomson Reuters data. Six of the top 10 investors increased their stakes and newcomer Tiger Global Management LLC bought a 5.09 per cent stake. "The company has been very transparent in communicating our strategy to the market, which includes our shareholders, and so far the overall response has been positive," Martinez said, responding to Reuters' questions via email. Since joining Esprit in September 2012, Martinez, who spent nearly a decade running Inditex's supply chain, has hired at least five former colleagues as his top lieutenants, news of which propelled the company's shares each time. His latest hire was at the end of October when Rafael Pastor Espuch joined as chief product officer, sending the shares more than seven per cent higher. One thing that stands out about the new hires is their many years of service with Inditex, which ranges from six years to as many as 18 years. "All these people certainly have a fast-fashion DNA, but can they change the culture of a company on their own?" said Joaquin Villalba, who was former head of European logistics operations at Inditex and worked with Martinez.
The MIT connection Much of Inditex's success can be attributed to its tightly controlled distribution system that sends tens of thousands of garments a day from distribution centres in Spain to more than 6,100 stores in some 86 countries. The speed of the system, which uses sophisticated software and robots to process and pack orders, helps it to respond to catwalk trends as fast as within a fortnight. It's a strategy that the company has fine-tuned over the years in partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's LGO MBA programme in the United States and is a strategy that Martinez worked to refine shortly before he left the company. "Instinct has been used to make many pertinent decisions, from design to distribution. Design is difficult to measure, but distribution is not; analytics lie behind many distribution processes in the retail world," said Villalba, who founded mStore Operations, a business application for smartphones that supports fast-fashion processes like ordering and restocking. Rachel Kelley, the author of an MIT thesis on transferring clothes between stores, said Martinez mentored her during her six-month internship at Zara and set her the task of creating a mathematical model to make re-stocking more efficient. "He had a very clear vision for the project," said Kelley, who expects her new model to earn Inditex an additional US$18 million per year in profit. "He knows where he wants Esprit to go and how he wants to redesign the supply chain, and I think that's why he'll achieve it." Martinez has already moved to get clothes on racks more quickly. "We have already invested in a state of the art, fully automated distribution centre in Mönchengladbach, Germany," he told Reuters. "Additional investment may likely be required in warehousing space to implement a more ambitious stock replenishment model." — Reuters |
| Candian police arrest Toronto man on suspicion of spying for China Posted: 01 Dec 2013 04:45 PM PST
Jennifer Strachan, a chief superintendent with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, told a news conference that Canadian citizen Qing Quentin Huang, 53, faced two charges of attempting to communicate with a foreign entity. "On Thursday the RCMP was informed that the accused was taking steps to pass on information of a classified nature to China," she told a rare weekend news conference. "In these types of cases, sharing of information may give a foreign entity a tactical, military or competitive advantage by knowing the specifications of vessels responsible for defending Canadian waters and Canadian sovereignty." Strachan said Huang, who was arrested on Saturday, had worked for a subcontractor involved in ship design. She declined to say what information Huang had tried to provide to China, but said there was no threat to public safety. Canada has had a complicated relationship with China, with official efforts to boost trade and improve business ties at times conflicting with deep concern about the role that Chinese state-owned entities should be allowed to have in Canada. Canada last year allowed state-owned energy company CNOOC Ltd to buy up domestic energy producer Nexen Inc, but made clear that it would not allow further purchases of domestic oil sands companies by state-owned enterprises. Huang was arrested just days after Canada's official spending watchdog said the government has underestimated the costs of a multibillion-dollar naval shipbuilding plan and will either have to build fewer ships or settle for vessels with fewer capabilities than it initially planned. The new ships will play an important role as Canada asserts sovereignty claims in the Arctic, a disputed region that is rich in energy and mineral resources. The news conference announcing Huang's arrest involved officials from many Canadian security agencies, including several police forces, border services and the secretive spy agency, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. The Toronto resident, who police said appeared to have been acting alone, will appear in court for a bail hearing on Wednesday. The charges carry a maximum sentence of life in prison. ― Reuters |
| Milan win to end chaotic week, Juve extend lead Posted: 01 Dec 2013 04:43 PM PST
Fernando Llorente headed home in added time to give leaders Juventus a 1-0 win over Udinese and second-placed AS Roma salvaged their unbeaten record when Kevin Strootman scored a 90th minute equaliser in a 1-1 draw at Atalanta. Fourth-placed Inter Milan were on the wrong end of a late goal when Renan's 89th minute strike for Sampdoria pegged them back to a 1-1 draw in front of new chairman Erik Thohir who was watching his first game at San Siro. Juventus, who chalked up their sixth consecutive league win and clean sheet, extended their lead to three points over Roma who, after winning their first 10 games, have drawn their last four. The defending champions have 37 points from 14 games with Roma on 34 and Napoli, who visit Lazio today, in third place with 28. Juventus were watched by more than 12,000 schoolchildren who occupied the Curva Nord and Curva Sud areas behind the goals, closed to the ultras because of anti-Naples chanting at previous matches. Playmaker Andrea Pirlo went off injured after only 14 minutes and Juventus were saved in the second half when goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon produced a stunning reaction save to keep out Antonio Di Natale's effort from point-blank range. There was an element of luck about their winner as Stephan Lichtsteiner's shot appearing to be going wide until Llorente managed to get his head to it and divert it into the net. Milan's first away win in Serie A this season ended a winless five-match run in the league, although they had to come from behind to do it. Catania stunned Milan when Lucas Castro scored with a shot which deflected off Daniel Bonera's back in the 13th minute but Riccardo Montolivo levelled six minutes later for the injury-plagued visitors. Mario Balotelli missed a free header on the hour but atoned three minutes later when he blasted a low free kick through the Catania wall to put Milan ahead. Kaka made the game safe when he broke down the right and lashed a right-foot shot into the roof of the net with nine minutes left. Catania had Panagiotis Tachtsidis sent off for a wild lunge at Balotelli, who shortly afterwards was also involved in a furious row with Nicolas Spolli, angrily pointing his finger at the Argentine before being restrained by his team mates. Neither player was booked and Balotelli was substituted shortly afterwards. Milan endured a troubled week off the field with chief executive Adriano Galliani announcing angrily on Friday that he was resigning after nearly 28 years at the club. On Saturday, he changed his mind and agreed to stay on, sharing his role with club president Silvio Berlusconi's daughter Barbara. Roma fell behind when Davide Brivio's free kick found its way under the wall and caught Roma goalkeeper Morgan De Sanctis napping. They were saved when Adem Ljajic got to the byline and pulled the ball back for Dutch midfielder Strootman to score from close range. Colombian midfielder Fredy Guarin gave Inter a first-half lead, only for Renan to level for Sampdoria who have drawn both their games under new coach Sinisa Mihajlovic. Cagliari came from two goals behind to hold Sassuolo 2-0 at home and Chievo beat Livorno 3-0. — Reuters |
| More Americans spend less on Black Friday sales Posted: 01 Dec 2013 04:42 PM PST
About 141 million people, or 59 per cent of the adult American population, shopped or intended to shop for so-called Black Friday deals from Thursday morning when the Thanksgiving holiday began through late yesterday, according to the National Retail Federation. Stores that opened their doors on Thursday — a new trend to lure consumers even on the sacrosanct Thanksgiving family holiday itself — attracted 45 million people, a 27 per cent increase over last year. The survey, conducted for the NRF by Prosper Insights & Analytics, surveyed 4,464 adults on Friday and Saturday, with a 1.5 per cent margin of error. But customers came in even bigger numbers for the steep discounts available on so-called Black Friday, considered the unofficial start of the holiday shopping season. The frenzy was such that tempers flared across the nation, with reports of fistfights, a stabbing and a shooting. In all, around 92 million people shopped in stores or online Friday, for a 3.5 per cent increase from 2012. But they spent less on average (US$407.02 or RM1,312.57 per person from Thursday through yesterday) and their larger numbers failed to make up for the decreased spending, for the first time since 2009. This year's Black Friday weekend spending reached US$57.4 billion total, against US$59.1 billion the year before, a 2.7 per cent decrease. But the retail federation remained upbeat, with NRF president and CEO Matthew Shay declaring "cold weather, unique promotions and unbeatable prices put millions of Americans in the mood to shop for holiday gifts this weekend." He predicted that in the days leading up to Christmas, "retailers will continue to aggressively promote their in-store and online offerings, looking to entice today's very budget-conscious and value-focused shopper." During a press conference, Shay stressed that the weekend of discounts was only one part of the shopping season. The NRF still expects an overall increase of 3.9 per cent on all holiday shopping compared to last year, he said. This season's holiday shopping season is six days — including one weekend — shorter than last year's due to the late date of Thanksgiving. Despite opening on Thursday, closing late Friday and offering a bevy of appetizing deals, brick-and-mortar stores reaped less benefit from the sales than online merchant websites. The survey found that Americans spent an average of US$177.67 each online, a three per cent increase from last year. Online shopping also accounted for 43.7 per cent of their purchases overall, against 40.7 per cent in 2012. Internet analysts comScore got similar figures. It said Americans spent US$1.2 billion online on Friday alone, the first time the shopping crossed over the billion-dollar mark, for a 15 per cent increase year over year. "Clearly, many consumers prefer to avoid the crowds and lines typically associated with Black Friday by shopping from the comfort of their own homes, and we saw a record 66 million Americans do that this year," said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni. "Thanksgiving once again posted a well above average growth rate and is the fastest-growing online shopping day over the past five years, as more Americans opt for couch commerce following their Thanksgiving Day festivities." But it's not over yet. The weekend of "doorbuster" deals will be topped by "Cyber Monday," with fresh online promotions set to reach new records. — AFP |
| One Direction top British album chart for second time Posted: 01 Dec 2013 04:39 PM PST
The five-strong band's third studio album beat Take That singer Gary Barlow's latest solo offering, "Since I Saw You Last", in the race to the top spot. The Official Charts Company, which compiles the figures, said "Midnight Memories" had sold 237,000 copies in the last week, making it the fastest selling album of 2013. One Direction have enjoyed global success since coming third in the 2010 series of "The X Factor", the British television talent show on which Barlow is currently a judge. Their debut album, "Up All Night", reached number two in Britain in 2011 and their follow-up, "Take Me Home", went to number one last year. Both topped the US album chart. Barlow had to settle for second place, while his Take That partner Robbie Williams slipped from first position to third with "Swings Both Ways". In the singles chart, Scottish singer Calvin Harris and Swedish DJ Alesso were a new entry at number one with "Under Control", a collaboration with the English band Hurts. Last week's number one, "Somewhere Only We Know", by English singer Lily Allen, slipped to fourth place. ― Reuters |
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