Just opened, Gucci Roppongi in Tokyo is the first-ever Japanese flagship store designed by Alessandro Michele, the Italian fashion brand’s creative director.
Covering 228 sqm, the store is in Westwalk Roppongi, Minato-ku.
It features both women’s and men’s collections including ready-to-wear, footwear, handbags, luggage, accessories and jewellery.
There are also special items such as exotic clutches and rare Gucci handbags exclusive to the boutique.
Myanmar retail will get a boost from the lifting of US sanctions, opening the way for foreign investment.
The official end of the restrictions was formalised on October 7 and confirmed by the US Treasury, unblocking sanctioned properties, removing various banking restrictions and reporting requirements for investment. Exporters and manufacturers are expected to be the main beneficiaries, but the retail sector is also expected to see Western brands seeking local partners.
With the easing of restrictions, local partners will find it easier to find international firms looking to enter the country, but due diligence will be needed as per industry analysts.
Several brands have already entered the market in recent years including KFC, Pizza Hut and Gloria Jean’s Coffees. Japanese retail company Aeon was the first foreign retail chain to gain access to the market this year. It partnered with Creation (Myanmar) Group to open stores in Yangon and Mandalay.
In addition, demand for retail space, which is in shortage, is expected to go up following Aeon’s lead. While the trend of shifting from local stores to large retail centers will take time, the pattern is already changing in major urban centers. The wider range of products, particularly foreign brands is expected to further quicken the process.
Pizza Hut China has jumped on the robot restaurant bandwagon with its latest Shanghai outlet featuring two robot waiters.
On the basement floor of the new Shanghai Tower, which as yet only has its observatory open, it is Pizza Hut’s first concept store, PH+.
Guests are greeted by the two 80cm robots (both named Casper) at the door. The guest’s table number appears on their screen and one of them will lead the diner to their seat.
Diners can place their orders via a display screen. Signature dishes include steaks and soft-shell crab pizza, and there are also special cocktails.
In May, KFC introduced a high-tech outlet at Shanghai’s National Exhibition and Convention Center, where robots take the orders.
A pop-up Stella Artois Toasting Lounge has been opened by the Belgian brewer in Pacific Place, Hong Kong.
Until the end of the month, beer lovers and Christmas shoppers can sample a Stella Artois brew and buy the brand’s special Christmas set, exclusive to the lounge. The Christmas set features a limited-edition Stella Artois holiday chalice, which can be engraved on-site with the recipient’s name or a short Christmas greeting. There is also a limited-edition 750ml holiday bottle, which can also be engraved.
Both the chalice and bottle incorporate a star in their design, which pays homage to the brand’s origins. The Stella Artois brew was originally created by The Artois Brewery as a Christmas gift for the people of Leuven in Belgium, with “stella” being added to its title as it is Latin for “star”.
Fun and social social activities are also being offered at the lounge, plus a “happy hour” every day. There will also be surprise happy hours, signalled by the ringing of a bell.
Free half-pints are offered for certain social-media activity by guests, plus there are competitions with the limited-edition Christmas Set as a prize.
There is a special chalice installation where visitors can take selfies including a 360deg. “Moment with the Stars” photo to share on Facebook.
Open from 11.30am daily until 8.30pm but with specific hours for bar service, the lounge is on Level 1 at Pacific Place.
While finalising a buyer for its China and Hong Kong stores, McDonald’s Corp has decided to keep a “significant” minority stake.
The US fast-food chain has picked a consortium led by private-equity firm Carlyle Group and Chinese conglomerate Citic Group to buy the stores.
Its decision to retain the minority stake lowered the price tag from the $3 billion reportedly sought. An insider says McDonald’s decided to keep a slice of the business as it wants exposure to future growth in the world’s second-largest economy.
Meantime, the company will also keep its stores in South Korea, which it previously also wanted to sell, Reuters reports.
Early this year McDonald’s said it was reorganising its business in the region, seeking strategic partners in China, Hong Kong and South Korea as it switches to a less capital-intensive franchise model.
Japanese sake maker Asahi Shuzo plans to open a shop in Paris next year in collaboration with French chef Joel Robuchon.
It will have a bar featuring Dassai sake, with Robuchon overseeing a restaurant that will pair the rice wine with French cuisine.
It is rare for a domestic sake brewery to open a shop overseas.
Visiting Tokyo, Robuchon said that Dassai – made in Iwakuni, Yamaguchi prefecture – goes well with his dishes.
“We want to attract people who do not have any particular interest in Japan,” says Asahi Shuzo president Kazuhiro Sakurai about the restaurant venture. ‘We hope to expand the scope of Japanese food and blend it with local culture.”
Asahi Shuzo and Robuchon will jointly manage the Paris restaurant. The sake maker originally planned to open an outlet in the French capital two years ago.
America’s all-time favorite pretzel brand Snyder’s of Hanover will re-enter South Korean snack market via local snack maker Crown Confectionery Co., with the salty and buttery biscuit gaining popularity as a tidbit among beer and wine lovers in Korea.
A pretzel is a type of snack made from sourdough most commonly shaped into a twisted knot and has a salty taste. It remains as an all-time favorite snack in the U.S. and Europe.
Crown Confectionery on Tuesday said it inked an agreement with Snyder`s-Lance Inc., U.S-based snack maker that owns Snyder’s of Hanover brand along with many other snack labels, to form a strategic partnership. Under the agreement, the Korean snack maker will have exclusive rights on pretzel supplies to sell and distribute the Snyder’s of Hanover pretzels in Korea. The Korean snack maker also plans to gradually increase the volume of cross-selling products with Snyder`s-Lance.
Snyder`s-Lance first entered Korean snack market with its pretzels in 2007 through a bakery company as its reseller but it was forced to exit the market last year after failing to penetrate into Korea’s bigger retail shops. The America’s number one pretzel brand suffered a disgrace in its first attempt due to the marketing strategy of positioning itself as an assortment of bakery products when it actually is a type of snack, industry experts said.
The American snack maker posted $1.66 billion in net revenue for the full year 2015 and accounts for a 35 percent of pretzel market in the U.S.
The demand for pretzels is rising sharply, especially among beer lovers, said an unnamed Crown Confectionery official. The estimated size of pretzel market in Korea is around 40 billion won a year, according to local snack makers.
The pretzel assortments will hit the shelves in near future through Crown Confectionery’s sales network throughout the country, the official added.
Cebu Pacific, the country’s largest carrier, said Wednesday it was considering acquiring wide-body jets for possible flights to the United States.
While “no formal decisions” have been made, Cebu Pacific said studying the acquisition of new aircraft is part of its long-term planning.
In a disclosure to the stock exchange, the company said it was “evaluating new generation wide body aircraft that would enable it to enter new markets such as the United States.”
The clarification was issued after The Standard newspaper, quoting an aviation think-tank, said Cebu Pacific was planning to acquire new planes for trips to the US West Coast.
Cebu Pacific currently flies to the US territory of Guam. It also operates long-haul flights to the Middle East and Australia.
Lender Citibank Indonesia expects to book single-digit loan growth next year although it believes lending will pick up speed in the second half of 2017, the company’s top management said on Wednesday.
“For Citibank, we expect single-digit [lending growth]. It is better to be a bit conservative because we expect that lending will start to pick up in the third quarter,” Citibank’s CEO Batara Sianturi said.
He said Citibank was confident that the economy would improve next year, partly because it expects the funds released from the tax amnesty to flow into Indonesia’s real sector.
More liquid assets entering the country’s economy could be used to fund various projects, which would increase demand for loans, he said.
Batara said the company would focus on pushing loan growth in all segments, which include institutional banking and retail banking.
The lender’s financial report for the January-to-September period recorded that the bank’s loans decreased by 7.3 percent annually to Rp 39.07 trillion (US$2.9 billion) from Rp 42 trillion year-on-year.
Huawei introduced a new retail concept in its line-up of experience stores during a recent opening at SM City San Lazaro, Manila. The newly opened branch is the first in the city of Manila and the 44th in the country.
SI 3.0, the design blueprint of the Huawei SM San Lazaro store is guided by four traits – simple, premium, warm, and comfortable. Relative to its predecessor, the SI 2.0, the new design is marked with wider spaces and lighter ventilation promising an enhanced and more welcoming customer experience.
“Huawei continues to prove to be a game changer in the smartphone industry this year, and we have big plans to take advantage of this momentum. Our high-end premium phones such as the P9 and Mate 8 have been the drivers of this smashing success. As such, we would like to extend this premium, high-quality identity to consumer experience at our stores,” said Andy Fang, Country Head at Huawei Philippines.
Put together by the XV development team, this is being billed by its producers as the first-ever official mashup TV commercial in the history of Final Fantasy.
It was just a few days ago that we heard news of a possible collaboration between Final Fantasy XV and Nissin, the maker of Cup Noodles. After the developers of XV, Square Enix, received a delivery of ramen to congratulate their hard-working team on the game’s release, they responded by promising to return the favour with a special collaborative commercial. We didn’t have to wait long to find out what type of ad they had in mind, because the “CUP NOODLE XV” PR team have now revealed all the details of the collaboration, with the arrival of the special commercial below.
The first half of the clip, endorsed with the Square Enix logo, shows the current ad for the game, while the second half, which opens with the noodle maker’s name, Nissin Shokuhin, shows Cup Noodles “bringing chaos” to the ad, which features some of the game’s famous scenes. In this part of the video, characters like Ardyn and Luna are pictured holding the well-known instant snack.
Regis can now be seen telling an oversized cup of noodles to stand tall.
While Noctis is surrounded by forks with the noodles on his head.
In a particularly dramatic moment, our heroes defend Cup Noodles against the flames.
Could the mystery meat in Cup Noodles actually be made from Leviathan?
To coincide with the release of the new commercial, Nissin will be offering a box of 15 different Cup Noodle varieties to 150 lucky customers who enter a competition on the newly created Cup Noodle XV website.
While the noodles don’t appear with any special limited-edition packaging, unfortunately, the 15 “characters” to be won still look delicious.
Nissin and Square Enix enjoy a close relationship both professionally and geographically, given that the two companies are located a short four-minute walk from each other in Tokyo’s Shinjuku neighbourhood. This new collaboration is actually said to have been created out of their “neighbourly friendship” for each other.
What started as an in-game collaboration featuring Cup Noodles looks set to grow even stronger now, given this latest promotion. The campaign website even reveals that another 30-second “Special Edition” commercial will be arriving soon, so there’s still more to look forward to from these two iconic Japanese companies!
Nokia has published the industry’s first complete templating system for VNF lifecycle management, designed to streamline and automate VNF onboarding, integration and lifecycle management processes.
The company said today’s methods for managing VNF lifecycles – instantiating, monitoring, repairing, scaling, updating and backing-up – are costly, cumbersome and time-consuming.
To address this, Nokia said it has developed an open templating system, aligned with the latest industry standards and open-source tools, to streamline these processes.
The template specifications allow service providers and VNF suppliers to take advantage of the automated lifecycle management capabilities of the Nokia CloudBand Application Manager, enabling them to integrate more VNFs faster while reducing the cost and time required to manage VNFs in the cloud.
Nokia’s open templating system builds upon the ETSI NFV specifications (IFA011 and IFA014), Topology and Orchestration Specification for Cloud Applications (TOSCA) specifications and OpenStack tools. It provides key functionality to service providers, including VNF definitions for better integration and added support of complex structures, and eliminates the need for customization when providing VNF information to a generic VNF Manager and NFV Orchestrator.
By supporting both Nokia and third-party VNFs, the system gives service providers a much wider selection of virtualized network services they can offer subscribers.
Nokia is currently collaborating with fellow members of ETSI and TOSCA to complete development of VNF templating standards to benefit the entire industry.
Ron Haberman, head of Nokia’s CloudBand product unit, said, ”One of the goals of NFV has been to foster an open ecosystem of VNF suppliers to give service providers maximum choice in the capabilities they integrate, and to offer subscribers the best available services.”
KB Kookmin Bank, one of the country’s leading lenders, is striving to duplicate its notable success here in the global market through briskly tapping into lucrative businesses across the world.
Such efforts have started to bear fruit and the most recent example is its work of jointly arranging a 750 billion won ($660 million) project financing deal for a power plant in the United States.
Earlier this month, the Seoul-based lender said that it joined forces with global banks Mitsubishi and ING Bank to finance the 790 megawatt gas-fired power plant construction.
They attracted investors who purchased senior debt worth $660 million and of that amount, KB Kookmin arranged $200 million that is composed of a direct investment of $50 million and $150 million from other Korean firms.
In overseas project financing in which Korean constructors are not directly involved, domestic financial firms have played limited roles. But the recent feats showcase KB’s capacity, according to experts.
In retail banking, KB Kookmin has also been a pioneer in making a foray into offshore markets. As of the end of last year, it had 12 subsidiaries, branches and offices outside the country.
One of its latest initiatives in the overseas retail market took place in Cambodia where KB Kookmin opened a mobile-oriented bank, Liiv KB Cambodia, this September.
The digital bank offers various services such as account transfers, cross-border remittances and mobile payment services as well as various non-banking features like letting people top up their handsets.
A KB Kookmin official said that the new-concept bank has been accepted well and for further growth momentum, it plans to enable its customers to withdraw money at automatic teller machines by forming business alliances with Cambodia’s top-tier banks.
Observers point out that many successful firms tend to forget about management principles such as putting existing customers first and respecting business ethics but KB Kookmin appears to be different.
Its CEO Yoon Jong-kyoo has stressed globalization to secure new cash cows for the lender, but at the same time he reiterates that the bank should stick to principles.
“In an effort to become the most respected bank in the nation and to solidify its role as the leader of the Korean financial services industry, KB Kookmin Bank is committed to paying close attention to every one of our customers while providing the best customer-oriented services,” Yoon said.
“Upholding high moral standards and work ethics as bankers, KB Kookmin Bank’s entire staff and management will keep striving to fulfill our responsibilities to our customers and society, making it the most dependable and socially responsible bank.”
Amazon.com is using machine learning to try to change the shopping experience and the retail industry in general. Amazon employees are testing a new brick-and-mortar store, called Amazon Go, in Seattle that lets customers using an app bypass the checkout line.
Using a combination of machine learning, computer vision, sensors and deep learning, the smart store is designed to keep track of what users take off and return to shelves so it can track their purchases in a virtual cart. When they’re done, customers can just leave the store with their purchases; Amazon will charge their account and send them a receipt.
“We created the world’s most advanced shopping technology so you never have to wait in line,” the company said on its site. “With our Just Walk Out Shopping experience, simply use the Amazon Go app to enter the store, take the products you want, and go! No lines, no checkout. (No, seriously.)”
The 1,800-square-foot store, located at 2131 7th Ave. in Seattle, is in beta testing now so only Amazon employees are able to use it. The company expects it to be open to the general public in early 2017.
The store sells pre-made meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner and snacks made by on-site chefs and local bakeries. It also stocks milk and bread, along with meal kits, local chocolates and artisan cheese.
Customers only need an Amazon account, a smartphone and the Amazon Go app.
“Four years ago we asked ourselves: what if we could create a shopping experience with no lines and no checkout?,” Amazon said in its statement. “Could we push the boundaries of computer vision and machine learning to create a store where customers could simply take what they want and go? Our answer to those questions is Amazon Go and Just Walk Out Shopping.”
Patrick Moorhead, an analyst with Moor Insights & Strategy, said he’s intrigued by the concept and a bit surprised that a major retail brand already ensconced in brick-and-mortar stores didn’t come up with it first.
“Automatic checkout is absolutely a characteristic of the store of the future,” said Moorhead. “But I can see Amazon doing this to drive even more growth by going brick-and-mortar. The only way to be successful in brick-and-mortar is to change the game, and in this case, changing the game with checkout.”
He also noted that this is a good use of smart technology.
“This is the ultimate way to use this technology in retail,” said Moorhead. “The challenge with all technology like this is accuracy. What if the system charges you for something you didn’t take? That could be the big challenge to the system.”
Internet freedom around the world declined for the sixth consecutive year, according to the Freedom on the Net 2016 report released recently by Freedom House.
The US government-funded advocacy group has published Freedom on the Net 2016, which assesses internet freedom in 65 countries, accounting for 88% of internet users worldwide.
For the second consecutive year, China was the world’s worst abuser of internet freedom, followed by Syria and Iran, the report asserts.
An amendment to Chinese criminal law added seven-year prison terms for spreading rumors on social media (a charge often used to imprison political activists). Some users in China belonging to minority religious groups were imprisoned for watching religious videos on mobile phones.
Globally, the study found that two-thirds of all internet users (67 percent) live in countries where criticism of the government, military, or ruling family was subject to censorship. Governments in 24 countries also impeded access to social media and communication tools, up from 15 in the previous year. Moreover, authoritarian countries most frequently blocked access to these tools during political protests.
“Popular social media sites like Facebook and Twitter have been subject to growing censorship for several years, but governments are now increasingly going after messaging apps like WhatsApp and Telegram. Messaging apps are able to spread information quickly and securely — and some governments find this threatening,” said Sanja Kelly, director for Freedom on the Net.
“Jailing of internet users led to a significant chilling effect in many countries under study. When authorities sentence users to long prison terms for simply criticizing government policies online, almost everyone becomes much more reluctant to post anything that could get them in similar trouble.”
Meanwhile, digital petitions or calls for protests were censored in more countries than before, as were the views of political opposition groups and the LGBTI community. Nearly half (47%) of internet users live in countries where alleged insults to religion can lead to censorship or arrest.
Image-sharing platforms were blocked, and world leaders took strong action when their photos were mocked on social media. In Egypt, a photo depicting President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi with Mickey Mouse ears resulted in a three-year prison term for the 22-year-old student who posted it on Facebook.
“When faced with humorous memes and cartoons of themselves, some world leaders are thin-skinned and lash out” said Kelly. “Instead of enjoying a good laugh, they try to remove the images and imprison anyone posting them online.”