Something’s cooking at McD’s
Mcdonald’s Australia and Telstra are putting the finishing
touches to an agreement which will soon see a roll-out of the
nation’s largest network of WiFi locations at 600 McDonald’s
restaurants throughout the country.
‘WiFi’, also known as a wireless local area network
(WLAN), enables devices such as laptop computers or PDAs equipped
with wireless cards to connect to the Internet without cables at
designated sites by using state-of-the-art technology.
More... |
Cashcard signs up Movieline, Woolies
Cashcard has acquired the Movieline ATM network, and also
embarked on a major rollout of ATMs to Woolworths + Plus Petrol
outlets as part of an exclusive arrangement with Australia’s
fastest-growing petrol retailer.
The Movieline service was established as a joint venture between
the three cinema groups, Hoyts, Greater Union/Birch Carroll and Coyle
and Village Cinemas, specifically to provide ticketing services via
ATMs and the Internet.
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Sydney Central Plaza makes $390m
Coles Myer has sold Sydney Central Plaza to Westfield Trust for $390 million. This is a record for the sale of an individual
Australian retail property and according to CEO John Fletcher, an
important milestone in the execution of Coles Myer's five-year
strategy, which includes capital management initiatives to divest
non-core assets and reinvest in higher returning retail assets.
Under fair value accounting the property was revalued at the half
year ended 2003 and accordingly the profit on sale of the property
will not be material.
More... |
Big W moves into the FastLane
BIG W, a division of Woolworths Ltd, is trialling self-checkout
from NCR Corporation systems in two of its Sydney stores –
Warringah Mall (Brookvale) and Eastgardens (Pagewood).
The NCR FastLane allows customers to scan, bag and pay for their
own items using debit, credit or cash, without the assistance of a
checkout operator.
More... |
Beating the plastic bag menace
A viable alternative to the use of plastic bags has been launched
into the Australian marketplace.
Earth Basics, a Canberra-based company, is the first Australian
supplier of Enviro-bag, a corn-starch based bag that is completely
bio-degradable.
More... |
Fone Zone dials far and wide
Leading privately owned mobile phone retailer, Fone Zone has
stepped up its retail outlets by 50% with the acquisition of two
mobile phone retailers, Let’s Talk and In Touch Communications.
Fone Zone specialises in mobile communications and specialises in
new mobile Internet technologies. The company is a Telstra Premium
Dealer and was Telstra’s National Dealer of the Year in 2002.
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Gift fairs expanding
Reed Exhibitions and Gift & Homewares Australia are to share a
newly opened hall at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre this year, as an
extension to gift trade fairs which will again be staged concurrently
in August.
The new hall, which until recently was occupied by the Mazda car
company, has been refurbished and renamed ‘Bay 21’. It
will provide an extra 4,000m2 of exhibition space, enabling both
fairs to accommodate some of the waiting list of potential
exhibitors.
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Nokia faces sales slump
Nokia, the world's biggest mobile phone maker, has warned that its
revenues and earnings will be weaker than expected in the first
quarter of this year.
The Finnish group, which makes more than a third of the world’s
handsets, says its network equipment division would post a
"substantial" loss for the three months to March. Growth in
mobile phones was also likely to be sluggish.
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Sam’s targets supermarkets
Following its 40% half-year net profit rise after tax to $1.009
million, Sam’s Seafood Holdings Ltd expects growth to
accelerate further with the acquisition of Ocean Fresh Seafood and
expansion of its wholesale unit.
According chairman Graham Denovan, the Ocean Fresh Seafood
acquisition provides Sam’s with opportunities to distribute to
major supermarkets.
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Pushing the ambit of Unconscionable conduct
By Stephen
Pallavicini*
The decision of Barrett J in Softplay Pty Limited v Perpetual
Trustees WA Pty Limited [2002] NSWSC 1059, potentially expands the
ambit of unconscionable conduct.
Softplay operated children’s playing facilities at three
Westfield shopping centres in NSW, Hornsby, Miranda and Chatswood.
Westfield proposed, for the benefit of the centres’ customers,
to install its own children’s playing facilities including
refreshment facilities in the common areas of the centres.
More... |
Aussie tipped for Internet post
Paul Twomey, a former Australian government official, is being
tipped to become the next president of the Internet Corporation for
Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the worldwide domain-name system.
ICANN's role as administrator of the domain-name system (DNS) puts
it at the heart of many important decisions impacting users
worldwide, with authority to decide which Internet domains (such as
dot-com, dot-org and dot-net) exist, who can sell those addresses and
how much it costs to buy them.
More... |
ACCC seeks Eftpos submissions
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has
received an application by an EFTPOS Industry Group*, which includes
banks, credit unions and building societies, to approve an EFTPOS
reform proposal.
If approved the proposal would allow the group to collectively
reduce current interchange or wholesale fees for EFTPOS transactions
to zero.
More... |
Toys R Us sales disappoint
Citing “disappointing” sales in its U.S. toy stores
that fell below projections, Toys R Us Inc., reported fourth quarter
sales of $US4.9 billion, flat with last year’s fourth quarter,
and net earnings of $278 million, against net earnings of $158
million the year earlier.
For the year, total sales rose 1% to $US11.3 billion, with net
earnings of $US229 million against $68 million for 2001.
More... |
Coles Myer makes headway
Coles Myer Ltd has bounced back into stock exchange favour
following a 2.5% boost in interim net profit to $217.9m.
Star performers in the half-year bounceback were the K mart and
Officeworks group boosting pre-tax profits by 95.6% to $85 million;
and Target showing a 70.8% rise to $68 million.
More... |
Close
This bulletin is edited and compiled by retail commentator John Kingsley-Jones.
John has worked as an Editor, Chief Sub-Editor
and journalist in magazines and newspapers both
in Australia and overseas.
In the past 15 years, he has consulted to a
range of companies and brands such as Unilever,
Mars Confectionery, TipTop, Tooheys, McWilliam's
Wines, Goodyear and BMW.
That's it for this issue of the Retail One-Stop. If you
have any questions or comments please give us a call on 02 9419 8356 or email us
on info@eps.net.au.
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