Jan 22, 2018  -  Last night, Beingmate Baby & Child Food Co Ltd (Beingmate) issued a forecast earnings downgrade for its financial year ended 31 December 2017, revising the previously announced forecast loss of RMB 350 million – RMB 500 million to a forecast loss of RMB 800 million – RMB 1 billion (NZ$171 – NZ$214 million). As an investor in Beingmate (18.8 per cent shareholding), we are extremely disappointed by this announcement and the on-going performance of the company. We are seeking more information on the forecast downgrade in addition to receiving Beingmate’s full year financial statements. We will consider the financial implications on our investment for the purposes of our upcoming interim financial results. We are also aware that as part of this announcement, four Beingmate directors, including the two directors designated by Fonterra, have expressed reservations relating to some aspects of Beingmate’s financial management and reporting practices. We have total confidence in the judgement of our designated directors (Johan Priem and Christina Zhu) and that their actions are in the best interests of Beingmate and all of its shareholders. We are concerned about the reservations they have expressed and are seeking clarification on the matters of concern. Despite Beingmate’s recent performance, the strategic rationale for our broader partnership with Beingmate still stands. We are disappointed that Beingmate is not maximising the opportunity created by the early registration of its 51 formulations under the new registration rules. The Chinese market is growing rapidly and within five years, forecast demand for infant and baby dairy products will be more than the total for other global markets, so the potential remains. China is one of Fonterra’s largest global markets, accounting for NZ$3.4 billion of our sales revenue and a normalised earnings contribution of greater than NZ$200 million in FY17. Our business in China has been enabled by our integrated strategy, comprising of Ingredients, Consumer and Foodservice, our China farms and our Beingmate partnership.

| A Fonterra release  ||  January 22, 2018   |||

Jan 22, 2018  -  Dramatic change is needed to grow New Zealand’s small business economy and, to that end, a summit of heavy hitters are gathering in Auckland next week (January 31) to push for a new approach. Entrepreneur Tenby Powell put out a call pre-Christmas for Government to establish an Institute for Small Business and gained overwhelming support from within New Zealand and farther afield.

Jan 21, 2018 -  One of the main sources of frustration for those of us who are blockchain and cryptocurrency enthusiasts is the degree to which big companies and large financial institutions still don’t understand our industry write Daniel Gross and Timothy Goggin . Earlier this week, one of New Zealand’s largest banks ASB released a blog post by their General Manager of Global Markets, Nigel Annett. We believe that post offers tremendous insight into how financial institutions and other major organizations are thinking about cryptocurrency and blockchain adoption.

Jan 19, 2018  -  New Zealand's level of manufacturing expansion slowed during December, according to the BNZ - BusinessNZ Performance of Manufacturing Index (PMI).

Jan 16, 2018  -  The Government must keep its hands off motorists’ piggy bank, says the Taxpayers’ Union after the Transport Minister reportedly told stakeholders he’s considering using New Zealand’s roading fund for non-roading projects.

Jan 16, 2018 - Some Kiwi firms see the Amazon opening in Australia as a threat. Others believe it’s a massive opportunity to crack a major market in good company. Kevin Kevany discovers one of its biggest advocates.

Amazon.com.au’s opening in Australia is anything but a threat to New Zealand’s SME (small and medium enterprise) manufacturing sector. In fact, it could turn out to be one of the greatest boosts to our food and beverage, specialist clothing, hi-tech and other locally derived and targeted product producers in decades. Certainly since the global financial crisis.

And it can simplify any Kiwi company’s first foray into the prized Aussie market; always a daunting task for a first-timer.

One man voicing these optimistic predictions (“Amazon will be transformative for Australasia, given the relatively small size of the regional market”) knows what he is talking about too.

Paul Grey has made a great success of guiding similar product producers onto the Amazon marketplace – which has been described as “the Western world’s largest online retailer, offering customers almost any product, delivered almost anywhere, and all at very competitive prices”.

Grey has an established reputation for doing just that in Canada, the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain, plus many years’ experience helping Kiwi companies export into the US.

He now stands ready to provide his experience and skills in the Australasian market through his company, ExportX, plus his proprietary software which simplifies the process of getting products listed with Amazon.

“ExportX specialises in representing brands in the Amazon sales channel,” says Grey, adding that it's not trivial to do it properly. “We're closely involved in preparations for the Australia launch, and we're hoping many local businesses will choose ExportX to handle regional Amazon sales.

“In addition, our software arm offers A2X, which is a cloud service, automating the accounting for Amazon marketplace sales. A2X is already processing around $1 billion of third-party Amazon sales worldwide, for more than 1,000 sellers. It will likely be an essential system component for local businesses setting up to sell on the new website.”

Continue here to read the full article written by Kevin Kevany for NZBusiness  ||  January 15, 2018   |||

Jan 16, 2018 - Tomas Izo, a lead engineering director in machine perception at Google Research, will be an exciting speaker at the biggest global tech summit ever held in New Zealand in Auckland on February 19 and 20. The event, Digital Nations 2030, is an international meeting coinciding with the visiting ministerial and business delegations from the world's leading Digital Nations and the D5 meeting in Wellington next month. The D5 is a network of the world’s most advanced digital nations.

Jan 16, 2018  -  Retail card spending rose 0.5 percent in the December 2017 month when adjusted for seasonal effects, Stats NZ said today. This is the fourth consecutive monthly rise in retail card spending.December 2017 monthly retail card spending up

Jan 16, 2018 - The latest NZIER Quarterly Survey of Business Opinion shows a sharp drop in business confidence following the General Election, with a net 11 percent of businesses expecting economic conditions to deteriorate over the first half of 2018. Business confidence had fallen in the previous quarter ahead of the General Election, and it appears uncertainty over new Government policies have made businesses even more downbeat.

Jan 15, 2018  -  Kiwi workers who have enjoyed the traditional New Zealand summer break at the start of the year should be heading back to their jobs this month feeling rested, refreshed and ready to face the next 12 months. But their challenge, research shows, will be hanging on to that feeling.  Work-life balance was identified as an issue by 66 per cent of respondents in the New Zealand Diversity Survey, conducted in October last year. Stress was a challenge in 62 per cent of organisations surveyed, and 50 per cent of respondents noted concerns about the mental health of staff or colleagues.