Retail News CRM

Author: Mei Ling Tan

  • DHL Hong Kong Air Trade Leading Index Q2 2018

    DHL Hong Kong Air Trade Leading Index Q2 2018

    The DHL Hong Kong Air Trade Leading Index has published its results for Q2 2018.

    Highlights of the DTI Q2 2018 include:

    • The overall trade outlook for Q2 2018 had a slight downward adjustment

    amid concerns over escalating trade conflict between the United States and

    China. Despite this, the latest DTI survey found that there are limited concerns

    about air trade and overall outlook for air trade is more positive, compared to

    the same period last year.

    • Outlook on air imports remains optimistic despite a modest dip from the

    previous quarter.

    • Air exports index dropped and is predicted to encounter challenges. Market demand has gained strength and turned positive in the Americas, but is countered by issues in Asia Pacific and Europe. • The Hong Kong government is planning to use its financial surplus to improve residents’ livelihoods. It is generally believed that this development will boost air import demand

    The DHL Hong Kong Air Trade Leading Index report is available at u.hkpc.org/dti_eng.

    The first indicator of its kind in Hong Kong, commissioned by DHL Express Hong Kong and compiled by the Hong Kong Productivity Council, the DHL Hong Kong Air Trade Leading Index aims to provide a forward looking perspective on overall air export and import trade volumes by analyzing key attributes of business demand.

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  • Fast Food Giant Jollibee To Acquire Tim Ho Wan Franchises In APAC

    Fast Food Giant Jollibee To Acquire Tim Ho Wan Franchises In APAC

    Jollibee Foods (JFC) announced yesterday that it would invest US$33.4 million (S$45 million or Php 1.74 billion) in a private equity fund that is set to acquire the master franchise of Tim Ho Wan in the Asia Pacific.

    In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, Jollibee said that it would account for 45 per cent of the total committed investments in Titan Dining LP, which is worth S$100 million.

    According to Jollibee, Titan has a binding agreement to acquire 100 per cent of the Asia Pacific master franchise holder of the Tim Ho Wan brand, Tim Ho Wan Pte Ltd (THWPL) and its affiliate Dim Sum Pte Ltd, which owns and operates Tim Ho Wan stores in Singapore.

    “Titan may eventually add other brands in the food service sector to its portfolio, with the objective to grow strong Asia-Pacific food service brands across multiple geographies and markets, and to bring strong global food service brands to Asia Pacific,” according to JFC.

    JFC chairman Tony Tan Caktiong trusts that this investment will bring “very healthy financial returns” to Jollibee.

    “Our long-term investment in Tim Ho Wan is in line with JFC’s mission to serve great-tasting food and spread the joy of eating to everyone,” he said.

    The deal will combine Tim Ho Wan’s Michellin-starred barbecue pork buns with Jollibee’s stable of Chinese restaurants: Chowking in the Philippines, and Yonghe King and Hong Zhuang Yuan in China.

    The trio of Chinese restaurants accounted for 23 percent of system-wide sales last year, said Jollibee.

    Jollibee, the largest fast food company in the Philippines, has been on an acquisition and expansion spree overseas.

    It recently secured US government’s approval for its acquisition of more shares in Colorado-based burger joint Smashburger.

    It also opened its first European store in March, and a third outlet in Canada in April.

    Due to aggressive store openings, Jollibee said that its net income rose 17.3% to 1.8 billion pesos (US$3.47 million) in the first quarter from a year ago as total sales rose 19.3% to 46 billion pesos.

    Now, Jollibee has the option to acquire “substantial ownership” of the Tim Ho Wan master franchise in the Asia Pacific after the term of Titan Dining ends in 7 years.

    It also said that it would operate as a Tim Ho Wan franchisee in Shanghai to prepare for that possibility.

    Tim Ho Wan currently has franchisee in Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan, Macau, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, Australia, and the Philippines; with an expansion development in the works in the Asia Pacific region.

    Together, Tim Ho Wan and Dim Sum operate 40 restaurants in total, both company-owned and franchised stores.

  • FedEx to link Guangzhou and Memphis hubs with air bridge

    FedEx to link Guangzhou and Memphis hubs with air bridge

    FedEx Express has launched a new route connecting its Asia Pacific hub in Guangzhou with its global Memphis hub. Initially, an MD-11 freighter is being used for the five-times-per-week route, but it will be replaced with a B777 freighter in May, to meet increasing shipping demand.

    In April, the flight departing from Guangzhou stops in Osaka and Anchorage, but with the change of freighter in May, the Alaskan stop will be dropped on four of the five flights — the Saturday flight stops in Honolulu and Anchorage.

    “As our business continues to develop across the Asia Pacific region, we constantly adjust our network and routings to better meet dynamic market needs,” said Karen Reddington, president, Asia Pacific, FedEx Express.

    “Adding volume and a faster, more direct connection to our Memphis World Hub will give Asia Pacific businesses a stronger competitive advantage in connecting to customers in North America and beyond.“

    The express operator said that Asia Pacific region is predicted to grow at a rate of 6.5% in 2018, 2% faster than the projected global growth rate, according to the World Economic Forum.

    Meanwhile, Boeing forecasts that air cargo flowing from Asia to North America is expected to increase by 4.7% per year over the next 20 years.

    In addition, 2017 saw Guangdong’s total import and export value of goods grew by 8% year-on-year, while the total import and export value with the US grew by 10.4% year-on-year.

    FedEx Express launched two new routes last year – one connecting Liège, Belgium and Memphis, with stops in Seattle, Anchorageand Shanghai and another linking Shanghai and Oakland.

    Early this year, FedEx Express officially opened its FedEx Shanghai International Express and Cargo Hub, the second international hub in China.

    Currently, FedEx operates more than 250 flights per week in China, with more than 160 of these flights going through the FedEx Asia hub.

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  • After Clark, AirAsia developing hubs in Puerto Princesa, Bohol

    After Clark, AirAsia developing hubs in Puerto Princesa, Bohol

    With a goal of increasing its fleet to 70 jets, Philippines AirAsia Incorporated is developing hubs in Puerto Princesa, Palawan and Panglao, Bohol, which are two of the country’s top tourist draws.

    “We are opening up Panglao when it opens up and Puerto Princesa. These will be opened up as hubs because we are lacking space in Manila. In the next 10 years, we should have 70 planes,” AirAsia president and chief executive officer Dexter Comendador told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Mandaluyong City last week.

    Comendador had reiterated the airline’s goal to make the Clark International Airport its main hub for operations, as the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) has inadequate space for the budget airline’s fleet expansion.

    In the next 3 to 5 years, Comendador said Philippines AirAsia targets to double its fleet. By 2032, it aims to have 70 planes.

    “We need to distribute the planes to the countryside. It will spread then development will follow,” the chief of Philippines AirAsia added.

    In 2013, the local unit of AirAsia moved its operations to the NAIA Terminal 4 in Manila after its then-affiliate Zest Airways Incorporated suffered heavy losses. It was in March 2017 when AirAsia moved back to its Clark roots.

    In line with its goal to increase its fleet, Philippines AirAsia is also increasing its flight frequencies to China, including Cebu-Shenzhen, Shanghai, and Guangzhou within the month.

    Comendador said Philippines AirAsia is looking to launch direct flights between Manila and Osaka, Japan by the 3rd quarter of 2018.

    “We’re trying to share each other’s tourists in the AirAsia group to bring them in here. Boracay is just a glitch. There’s Panglao, Puerto Princesa, Davao, Cebu. There are other places,” Comendador added, referring to the 6-month closure of Boracay to tourists.

    Philippines AirAsia operates a fleet of 17 aircraft with domestic and international flights out of hubs in Manila, Cebu, Kalibo, and Clark.

    It flies to Manila, Davao, Cebu, Kalibo, Tacloban, Tagbilaran, Puerto Princesa, Clark, Shanghai, Taipei, Incheon, Hong Kong, Macau, Kuala Lumpur, Kota Kinabalu, and Singapore

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  • HKT becomes a Carbon Black MSSP partner

    HKT becomes a Carbon Black MSSP partner

    HKT has arranged to become a managed security services provider (MSSP) partner of endpoint security company Carbon Black.

    As an MSSP partner, HKT will offer a suite of managed security services based on Carbon Black’s Cb Defense and Cb Response security solutions.

    These will include managed endpoint detection and response (EDR) services to help customers detect, prevent, predict and respond to advanced cyberattacks.

    Cb Defense is a cloud-based next generation antivirus and EDR solution for desktops, laptops and services. It is powered by Carbon Black’s Cb Predictive Security Cloud, which collects and analyzes unfiltered endpoint data to protect customers against future and unknown attacks.

    HKT will meanwhile use Cb Response to allow its security operations center team to identify malicious files used to execute an attack, pinpoint which endpoints and services are being attacked, diagnose the root cause, and provide actionable recommendations.

    “HKT is the largest telecommunications service providers in Hong Kong and the collaboration with Carbon Black will enable more enterprises and consumers to access next-generation security technology designed to thwart the sophisticated cyberattacks prevalent today,” Carbon Black VP and managing director for Asia-Pacific and Japan Matt Bennett said.

    “With Carbon Black’s market-leading cybersecurity solutions, HKT’s customers will be protected from advanced threats better than ever before.”

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  • More wholesale operators join blockchain trial

    More wholesale operators join blockchain trial

    More operators have joined the joint blockchain trial being conducted by HKT’s PCCW Global and telecoms and data center services company Colt.

    Members of the ITW Global Leaders’ Forum (GLF), including Australia’s Telstra, Hong Kong based HGC Global Communications, Spain’s Telefónica and the UK’s BT, are now getting involved in the initiative.

    The trial involves the use of blockchain to automate the inter-carrier settlement of wholesale international services.

    During a proof of concept trial in March, conducted with blockchain startup Clear, the companies demonstrated how blockchain can reduce the labor-intensive process of inter-carrier settlements from hours to mere minutes.

    Now the solution developed for the trial is being utilized in real time, with PCCW Global and Colt now using live data to settle and verify traffic, PCCW Global said.

    The companies aim to expand the bilateral testing to encompass multilateral relationships within the wholesale telecommunications industry.

    “We are very pleased that this PoC is expanding to include more carriers. A lot of the conversations at the GLF have been around how innovative technologies such as blockchain can be used to improve the overall efficiency of the industry,” PCCW Global CEO and GLF chairman Marc Halbfinger said.

    “With the PoC expanding to include more carriers, it is clear that the industry is seeing the benefit of becoming further aligned. Industry cooperation in this area will be incredibly powerful for the whole sector.”

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  • AirAsia Campaign Encourages Thai Travelers to Travel During the Week

    AirAsia Campaign Encourages Thai Travelers to Travel During the Week

    BDO Bangkok has released a follow up to a clever print campaign to encourage Thais to travel on AirAsia during the week, rather than over the weekend when Thailand’s tourist destinations are busier.

    To illustrate this, the campaign uses scenes from ordinary life to look like calendars – emphasising that the weekdays are less hectic.

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  • SK Telecom, Macquarie to buy security firm ADT Caps for $1.2b

    SK Telecom, Macquarie to buy security firm ADT Caps for $1.2b

    SK Telecom has partnered with Macquarie to fully acquire domestic security service firm ADT Caps for 1.276 trillion won ($1.18 billion), the South Korean mobile giant announced.

    SK Telecom will buy 55% stake in Siren Holdings Korea, the company that holds 100% stake in ADT Caps, for 702 billion won ($650.7 million), while Macquarie will buy 45% stake for 574 billion won ($532 million).

    The pair plans to sign a deal with seller Carlyle Group and complete the transaction as early as in the third quarter of this year, SK Telecom said in a statement.

    Through the acquisition, SK Telecom aims to build new business models by introducing technologies such as AI, IoT and big data to the country’s fast-growing security services industry and turns ADT Caps into “a next-generation security services provider” with these technologies.

    ADT Caps is the country’s second-largest security services provider with 570,000 subscribers. The company mainly provides physical security services, including access control and facilities management, and accounts for roughly 30% of the local physical security services market.

    In 2017, ADT Caps recorded revenue of 721.7 billion won and operating income of 143.5 billion won.

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  • DHL expands airfreight operation in response to Asian demand

    DHL expands airfreight operation in response to Asian demand

    DHL Global Forwarding is expanding its round-the-world freighter operation to meet demand growth on Asian and transpacific trades.

    The forwarding giant said that it would a deploy a second dedicated Boeing 747-400F — ACMI-leased through Atlas Air — to connect the US, Europe and Asia, following on from the launch of a first flight last year.

    The 100 tonne capacity flight will operate Shanghai Pudong to Cincinnati, from where it returns to Incheon, South Korea. Afterwards it will connect Korea to Wuxi, China continuing to Frankfurt-Hahn in Germany, and then back to Shanghai-Pudong Airport.

    Meanwhile, the operation launched last year will be re-routed to offer twice weekly departures from Wuxi to Frankfurt-Hahn.

    “The division is thus responding to strong growth in demand for air freight, chiefly for outbound services ex Asia and on the conventional transpacific route, fueled by almost all industries,” the forwarder said.

    DHL Global Forwarding chief executive Tim Scharwath said: “Demand is currently exceeding supply mainly due to the large economies performing strongly.

    “On major trade lanes volumes are high, but capacities are low – a trend that will continue. To increase our operational efficiency and to offer our customers the best-possible solution, we thus decided to create further capacities we have direct control over.”

    The forwarder said that increasing demand for airfreight capacities on Asian routes is fueled by all major industries, but specifically China’s electronics, electric motors, electrical and mechanical appliances as well as medical equipment companies are bolstering demand.

    China’s main export destinations are South Korea and Germany which are served by the new charter as well, but due to well-preforming global trade volumes are also increasing from the US and Europe.

    The positive development of world trade and its continuation is also clearly shown by the DHL Global Trade Barometer.

    The index recently increased to 66 points in March from 64 points in January. With an index value clearly above 50, the DHL Global Trade Barometer signals solid further growth for global trade for the next three months.

    “The gap between the well-performing world trade with a high demand for cargo space on the one hand, and at the same time a difficult capacity situation on the other side, has encouraged us in our decision to further deploy self-controlled capacity to the market,” added Scharwath.

    Last year a spate of freight forwarders began operating airfreight flights as they looked to meet a demand surge. Others expanded their block space agreements with airlines to meet the demand growth.

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  • Supernova selects Worldpay for cross-border payments in over 160 countries

    Supernova selects Worldpay for cross-border payments in over 160 countries

    Worldpay, Inc. a global leader in payments, has been selected by Supernova, a growing eCommerce company providing innovative health, beauty and fitness products, to help them improve user experience and drive global expansion across its four major brands: BodyBoss, Sand & Sky, SkinnyMint and Coco & Eve.

    To support its growth, Supernova needed an experienced partner to help it manage the complexities of trading cross-border and enhance fraud protection on high value products. Worldpay is helping Supernova by providing a single integration point for credit and debit cards, and other alternative payments; including online payment gateway; fraud, risk, and treasury management services.

    By using Worldpay’s payment pages, Supernova has access to the world’s most popular payment methods in over 30 languages – all of which may be used across multiple devices to increase online conversion. The innovative retailer now offers more than 10 popular alternative payment methods to its consumers, including Alipay, UnionPay, JCB, POLi, SOFORT, and iDEAL – with plans to switch on even more payment options in future.

    Since selecting Worldpay, the lifestyle brand has seen online conversion rates increase from 72% to 95%, along with a significant uplift in cross-border sales. This was achieved by matching the innovative retailer’s company presence in different markets, to Worldpay’s global network, allowing them to quickly and seamlessly route payment transactions across country borders.

    Alex Ostrowski, Co-founder at Supernova said, “We are an ambitious company firmly focused on providing the very best products and services to enhance the lives of our customers across the world. We needed a payments partner who would support our growth plans and understood our customers, who could deliver the best possible purchasing and aftercare experience, regardless of where they are shopping. Worldpay allows us to offer a growing number of emerging payment options, which helps our customers buy our products and allows us to provide a consistently personalised shopping experience in all the markets we operate in.”

    Phil Pomford, General Manager for Asia-Pac, Global Enterprise eCommerce at Worldpay said: “We are delighted to be working with Supernova, a fast growing and exciting lifestyle brand, to provide reliable and efficient cross-border online payments across its brand portfolio. Having a single payment provider makes international expansion quicker and simpler for global businesses, and the breadth of payment methods and currencies we offer removes the complexities of trading overseas. We look forward to continuing this partnership and supporting Supernova as the business goes from strength to strength.”

  • Free up your summer with two million Vietjet HK$0 tickets

    Free up your summer with two million Vietjet HK$0 tickets

    Welcome the coming of summer with Vietjet’s biggest promotion of the year, “Free up your summer with Vietjet”, which comes with millions of super promotional tickets priced from only HK$0 during the period of May 9 to July 31, 2018.

    On the first week of this exciting campaign, Vietjet will run a three-golden-day promotion offering 2,000,000 tickets priced from only HK$0 from May 9 to May 11 at www.vietjetair.com. The promotional tickets are available for Vietjet’s all domestic routes in Vietnam, Hong Kong–Ho Chi Minh City route and the airline’s other international routes from Seoul, Busan, Daegu (South Korea)/ Kaohsiung, Taipei, Taichung, Tainan (Taiwan)/ Singapore/ Bangkok, Phuket, Chiang Mai (Thailand)/ Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia)/ Yangon (Myanmar)/ Phnom Penh, Siem Reap (Cambodia) to Vietnam with flight period from August 20 to December 31, 2018?

    Summer is the season of joy, excitement and adventure. It is also the perfect time to “fly” with a youthful spirit, leaving behind all worries.Let’s fly with your family, friends across Vietnam and overseas destinations… with many exciting in-flight services this summer.

    Aiming to be a “Consumer Airline”, Vietjet is continually opening new routes, adding more aircraft, investing in modern technology and offering more added-on products and services to serve all demands of customers. Vietjet is a pioneering airline that is loved by many for its exciting promotional and entertainment programs, especially during the festive season. With high-quality services, diverse ticket classes and special low-fare tickets, Vietjet offers its passengers flying experience on new aircraft with comfy seats, delicious hot meals, beautiful and friendly cabin crew, and other interesting added-on services.

  • Singapore company AIQ brings Keat Hong Community Club online with Visual Recognition Technology

    Singapore company AIQ brings Keat Hong Community Club online with Visual Recognition Technology

    AIQ, a Singapore company that offers AI Visual Recognition Technology (VRT), today announced that their VRT is powering the Keat Hong mobile app to provide an interactive, smart and visual layer to resident’s interactions at Keat Hong Community Club (CC). The Community Club held its grand opening last Saturday on 5 May.

    AIQ’s technology will allow visitors to Keat Hong Community Club to access online features through their mobile phones. By using their mobile phone camera and the mobile app, residents can view photos and read about the heritage of the community club when they scan the physical heritage wall, as well as register for courses and events by scanning posters and digital kiosks. Utilising AIQ’s video recognition technology, visitors can even scan live video on outdoor digital panels which will lead them to discover additional video content on Keat Hong’s YouTube Channel.

    Mr Marcus Tan, CEO of AIQ, said: “We see our visual technology as a potential replacement for the QR code, and helping to connect the offline to the online. Even in a mobile first, online world, offline interactions still play a very important part of our daily lives, particularly at community clubs which are designed to be physical spaces for the community to get together. The ability to use images and visuals is also very important to build brand equity and recognition. What our app does is connect visitors at Keat Hong CC to the wealth of information and convenience available online.”

    AIQ’s Visual Recognition Technology can process live images and video with processing speeds of up to 300 milliseconds, with just 30 per cent of the image or video captured, by utilising a proprietary image matching and video recognition technology. Specifically, for visitors to Keat Hong CC, this means that they can almost instantaneously access online information through the app even if the area is crowded.

    The same AIQ technology was previously used by travel company Insight Vacations at the NATAS Travel 2018 and Travel Revolution fair in March. AIQ helped Insight Vacations increase engagement and interactions, by providing fair visitors with the ability to connect with information on Insight Vacation’s website and winning instant prizes just by scanning a static, physical poster at the fair. AIQ’s Visual Data Analytics technology also gave insight into fair visitor’s favourite holiday destination by tracking scans and interactions, providing immediate and useful data points for the company to customise their campaigns.The Keat Hong app is now available for download on Google Play and the App Store.

  • Vietnam tightens control over cryptocurrencies

    Vietnam tightens control over cryptocurrencies

    The central bank has cited tax evasion, fraud and money laundering as the reason for the move. The State Bank of Vietnam has directed banks and payment organizations to remain vigilant and keep a watch over all cryptocurrency-related activities.

    The directive follows a cryptocurrency ponzi scheme operated by a Vietnamese IT firm that made headlines last week for allegedly scamming investors out of VND15 trillion ($650 million).

    Tax evasion, fraud and money laundering were cited as the reasons for the directive.

    Vietnam’s financial and payment organizations are not allowed to provide cryptocurrency transaction services such as credit cards or currency conversion or transfer, the directive stated.

    The same organizations have been instructed to report any cryptocurrency transactions and take measures to deal with such cases in accordance with Vietnamese law.

    The State Bank also told its branches to cooperate with government agencies to develop a legal framework to deal with the distribution and transaction of cryptocurrencies.

    The IT firm that came under fire and sparked the move was Modern Tech, based in HCMC. The company is alleged to have held several conferences to encourage participants to invest in its cryptocurrencies, iFan and Pincoin.

    According to the disgruntled investors, the virtual currencies had operated in a similar way to a multi-level business model, or pyramid platform.

    In the beginning, Modern Tech paid investors via bank transfers. However, it quickly switched to using its own virtual currencies, while at the same time increasing its minimum investment limit, forcing investors to pour more money in.

    At the end of 2017, when interest payments started to come in late, investors started to catch wind of what was happening and staged a protest in front of the firm’s headquarters in HCMC.

    Modern Tech representatives have not responded to the accusations, and its founders have remained off the radar.

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  • Vietnam’s HDBank to absorb PGBank

    Vietnam’s HDBank to absorb PGBank

    Each share of PGBank will be converted into 0.621 HDBank share. Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City Development Joint Stock Bank, better known as HDBank, said its shareholders approved on Saturday a plan to merge with the unlisted Petrolimex Group Commercial Joint Stock Bank as it seeks to expand operations in the country.

    The merger is scheduled to take place by August this year, the bank said in a statement.

    Each share of Petrolimex Group Commercial Joint Stock Bank, or PGBank, will be converted into 0.621 HDBank share, it said, adding that HDBank will issue 300 million new shares for the conversion.

    The merger will enable HDBank to expand its client base, including with Vietnam National Petroleum Group, which holds a 40 percent stake in PGBank and a share of around 50 percent of Vietnam’s retail-transport fuel market.

    The shareholders also approved a pretax profit target of VND3.92 trillion ($172.15 million) for this year, a 62.2 percent increase from last year.

    HDBank, a retail bank whose vice chairwoman is Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, the billionaire founder and chairwoman of Vietjet Aviation, is targeting to grow total assets to VND242.87 trillion by the end of this year, up 28.3 percent from end-2017.

    HDBank, which listed its shares on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange in January following a $300 million IPO in November, reported pretax profit of 1.045 trillion dong in the first quarter this year, up 170 percent from a year earlier. ($1 = 22,771 dong)

  • Xiong’an New District New Showcase for another JD store

    Xiong’an New District New Showcase for another JD store

    Chinese e-commerce company JD has opened its largest-yet unmanned store, in Xiong’an New District.

    In the Xiong’an Civic Service Center,  the 246sqm outlet uses innovative technology as JD rolls out a “new-model industrial ecological chain”.

    Jingdong X unsupervised stores have already opened in more than 10 cities, including Beijing, Dalian and Tianjin, at malls, scenic spots and petrol stations. Shoppers use face-scanning technology to enter. Products have electronic price tags and payment is automatic.

    Xiong’an New District is being built south of Beijing as an economic hub, and JD is already planning a second store there. The move comes shortly after JD announced it would open 1000 convenience stores every day by the end of this year. The convenience retail plan runs on a franchise model.

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