Retail News CRM

Tag: asia

  • Davidoff Hong Kong opens cigar flagship

    Davidoff Hong Kong opens cigar flagship

    Swiss tobacco brand Davidoff has launched its Hong Kong flagship in luxury retail complex The Landmark.

    The 580sqft outlet significantly enlarges the brand’s previous space in the mall by more than half its size. The original outlet was the brand’s third best-selling cigar outlet internationally, accounting for more than 25 percent of the brand’s Asian sales.

    “We are delighted to relocate our new flagship store in Hong Kong,” said Davidoff Asia MD Laurent de Rougemont. “The challenge in designing this unique cigar shop was to preserve the company’s history but to continue our mission to delight and surprise our customers worldwide by delivering unique brands and unrivaled retail experiences.”

    “This enlarged new flagship store continues the Davidoff legacy of an inspiring place where aficionados can find exceptionally crafted Discovery Series cigars from different regions, as well as the complex tasting profile of Winston Churchill Collection,” said Davidoff Hong Kong regional manager and store manager Charles Lim.

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  • Asus Experience Store opens in Singapore

    Asus Experience Store opens in Singapore

    Singapore’s first Asus Experience Store has opened on the third level of Bugis Junction.

    The 3000sqft concept area contains three separate areas: a Republic of Gaming-branded store for gaming equipment, the main showcase space for laptops and peripherals and an assistance centre for service and technical advice.

    The gaming store contains a six-station gaming network called the Battlezone, which visitors can book online to use for free. The brand hopes to hold regular events in the space to help foster the local gaming community.

    The Asus computer outlet contains the brand’s full range of workstations and hosts workshops in image and video post-production.

    Included in the Asus Experience Store is space specially dedicated to workshops where customers can learn how to post-produce images and videos or hear professional talks about Asus products.

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  • Missoni opens flagship store at Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands

    Missoni opens flagship store at Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands

    Luxury fashion retailer Missoni has launched a flagship store at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore

    The 150sqm store stocks a range of womenswear, menswear, beachwear and accessories. A central product featured at the launch is the brand’s new M Missoni collection, created by designer Margherita Maccapani Missoni.

    The launch was celebrated with a cocktail party, attended by local media and celebrities as well as the firm’s creative director and president Angela Missoni.

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  • 7-Eleven Malaysia’s profit up 10 per cent year on year

    7-Eleven Malaysia’s profit up 10 per cent year on year

    7-Eleven Malaysia’s profit surged 10 percent year on year in the third quarter.

    Figures released by the firm showed sales growth of 4.5 percent during the quarter and a 5.1-percentage point improvement in gross profit margin.

    The firm opened 53 new stores during the period, taking the total network to 2382 stores.

    7-Eleven Malaysia’s profit improvement looks set to continue in quarters. “We are confident that continuous implementation and improvement of our strategic roadmap in strengthening the key areas of assortment, supply chain, operational excellence, store base and digitally enabling the organization will continue to deliver positive results despite challenging headwinds as we look forward to ensuring that 7-Eleven remains as Malaysian consumers preferred convenience store brand,” said CEO Colin Harvey.

    The company’s board said trading conditions for the next quarter are expected to be stable.

    “We will continue to focus on our customer’s needs, pursuing our core strategy pillars of operational excellence, cost management and commercial innovation, at the same time refreshing the 7-Eleven brand in the mind of customers through refreshed stores, innovations in our pricing, promotions, and developing exciting products,” read a statement from the board.

  • LVMH-Tiffany deal signed

    LVMH-Tiffany deal signed

    Subject to regulatory approvals, the LVMH-Tiffany deal is sealed: the French luxury fashion powerhouse will take over the iconic New York City-headquartered jeweler.

    But it may be mid next year before the transaction is completed after shareholder and regulatory processes are complete.

    LVMH will pay US$135 per share in cash for Tiffany, giving the jeweler an equity value of €14.7 billion or $16.2 billion.

    The LVMH-Tiffany deal provides “an exciting path forward,” said Tiffany chairman Roger N Farah, describing LVMH as “a group that appreciates and will invest in Tiffany’s unique assets and strong human capital, while delivering a compelling price with value certainty to our shareholders”.

    Bernard Arnault, chairman, and CEO of LVMH and now within striking distance of becoming the world’s richest man when this deal is settled, described Tiffany as “a company with an unparalleled heritage and unique position in the global jewelry world”.

    “We have immense respect and admiration for Tiffany and intend to develop this jewel with the same dedication and commitment that we have applied to each and every one of our Maisons. We will be proud to have Tiffany sit alongside our iconic brands and look forward to ensuring that Tiffany continues to thrive for centuries to come.”

    It was a quick deal, coming little more than one month after the rumors of negotiations broke and will mark the beginning of a new chapter in the 180-year-old company’s history.  But the two spokesmen said completing regulatory filings and the formalities of shareholder approval might take until “mid-2020”.

    With more than 300 stores worldwide, Tiffany will give LVMH a strong position in the jewelry sector in which it is underrepresented compared to luxury-goods rival Richemont. The French company says the LVMH-Tiffany deal will strengthen its watches and jewelry division and complement its huge portfolio of 75 brands. Most significantly, it gives the luxury retail group a strong presence in the key US market.

    Farah said Tiffany undertook “a thoughtful internal process” and sought expert external advice before agreeing to terms with LVMH.

  • DBS Awards Nine Social Enterprises

    DBS Awards Nine Social Enterprises

    Nine do-gooder firms in Asia are taking home nearly $1 million (S$1.3 million) under this year’s DBS Foundation Social Enterprise Grant Programme.

    Three of this year’s winners hailed from Singapore: NamZ, a food science startup; reach52, which uses apps to collect health data from under-served rural communities and hook them up with care providers; and Agape Connecting People, which finds work for people with disabilities, single mothers, prisoners and other disadvantaged job seekers.

    From empowering the disadvantaged and marginalized, to creating nutritious food that benefits both the environment and smallholder farmers, we are delighted to support these inspiring social entrepreneurs as they strive to build a better future for all, said Karen Ngui, head of group strategic marketing and communication at DBS in a media statement.

    The DBS Foundation scheme, which was launched in 2015, is open to social enterprises from Singapore, India, Indonesia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China.

    Each recipient gets up to S$250,000 to scale up its business operations. The funds can go towards market expansion, a production ramp-up, or other ways to grow the company’s impact on society.

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  • OCBC Prefers Next Leader To Be From The Inside

    OCBC Prefers Next Leader To Be From The Inside

    The chief of Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp has signaled that he favors internal candidates over external ones to succeed him when the time comes.

    Samuel Tsien, who is in his eighth year as the chief executive officer at Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp (OCBC), wants someone familiar with various parts of the bank to lead, without giving names.

    We have internal candidates who are strong candidates, who have moved around in different functions, who are able to take over the bank in the event of a need, said Tsien, 65. Singapore’s other lenders are pursuing various tracks for management succession: United Overseas Bank’s boss recently expressed openness to outsiders while DBS Group Holdings wish to groom leaders from within.

    Under Tsien’s leadership, the group has spent meaningfully to grow its footprints in banking and wealth management. In 2014, OCBC spent $5 billion to take over Wing Hang Bank in Hong Kong. Subsequently, it bought the Singapore and Hong Kong wealth operations of Barclays, helping OCBC’s Bank of Singapore become the sixth-largest private bank by assets in Asia excluding China.

    More recently, OCBC was considering a bid for Jakarta-based PT Bank Permata, a move that would have made it Indonesia’s fifth-largest lender by assets. However, the bank walked away after considering Permata a poor fit, people with knowledge of the matter.

    The Shanghai-born leader also has ambitions to further expand in insurance, which OCBC counts as its third pillar alongside banking and wealth management. While its insurance arm – Great Eastern Holdings – is well established in Singapore and Malaysia, Tsien said he sees more room for growth in Indonesia and Greater China.

    Last year, Great Eastern bought PT QBE General Insurance for $28 million in Indonesia, and Tsien said he would look at other opportunities to grow, including acquisitions.

    In Hong Kong, the bank has a 33 percent stake in Hong Kong Life Insurance, which it decided against selling last year. «That operation is quite small. So we are still investing into this corporate but not significantly, as we look for opportunities in this market,» Tsien said.

  • Viettel, VinSmart get approval for factories in Hanoi

    Viettel, VinSmart get approval for factories in Hanoi

    The government has approved the construction of two new factories in Hanoi by state telecom giant Viettel and private smartphone producer VinSmart.

    Viettel will build a 9.1-hectare plant at the Hoa Lac High-Tech Park on the city’s outskirts to test and manufacture high-tech equipment and a 13.2-hectare research center for defense products, electronic and telecom equipment, network infrastructure, and 5G and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies.

    Viettel will also coordinate with the park’s management board to trial applications for smart cities related to issues like environmental management, urban lighting and smart parking.

    VinSmart, the electronics arm of Vietnam’s biggest private conglomerate, Vingroup, will build a 4.8-ha smart electronics plant which is likely to have a capacity of 125 million devices a year in its first phase.

    Their completion dates are not known.

    Viettel and VinSmart’s plants are two of four new projects worth VND7.46 trillion ($320.42 million) that have been approved at the park, according to the Ministry of Science and Technology.

    The others are by two private companies to produce drugs and radiation-resistant plastics.

    Military-run Viettel in January became the first company in the country to receive permission to trial 5G services followed by MobiFone. It plans to launch in 2020, installed the first 5G station in Hanoi early this year and made the first 5G phone call in May.

    VinSmart was established by Vingroup in June, and produced its first smartphones within just six months. It has produced a total of eight models so far.

  • Vietnam tightens consumer loans

    Vietnam tightens consumer loans

    Vietnam has tightened rules on consumer loans, requiring a progressive decline in their ratio in the coming years.

    Cash loans cannot exceed 70 percent of a finance company’s total loans for consumer durables starting 2021, according to a decree issued recently by the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV).

    The ratio will drop to 60 percent in 2022, 50 percent in 2023 and 30 percent in 2024.

    Finance companies can only disburse cash loans for customers without bad debt records with the National Credit Information Center under the central bank. The decree is set to take effect on January 1, 2020.

    Competition has intensified in the consumer loans division as new players enter the market. Vietnam had very few finance companies in 2015, but as of June this year 16 firms had received permission to operate, not counting alternate lending and pay-day loan platforms, SBV data shows.

    FE Credit, the biggest player so far, accounts for 47.3 percent of the market, followed by Home Credit with 16.9 percent and HD Saison with 10.1 percent, according to financial data provider FiinGroup.

    However, finance companies’ revenue growth has been slowing down, from 87.4 percent in 2015 to 15.3 percent last year, it said.

    Outstanding consumer loans amounted to 19.7 percent of Vietnam’s total outstanding last year, up 3 percentage points from 2017, FiinGroup added.

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  • Netflix wants to produce Vietnamese content

    Netflix wants to produce Vietnamese content

    U.S. streaming service provider Netflix wants to produce content in Vietnam as it seeks to expand in Asia, its CEO has said.

    Speaking at a meeting with Mai Tien Dung, Chairman of the Government Office on Monday, Reed Hastings added that the company, which has set up offices in other Asian countries like India, Singapore, South Korea, and Japan, wants to set up one in Vietnam too.

    Netflix has been available in Vietnam since 2016 at VND180,000 ($7.8) a month for a basic subscription.

    It has been seeking to produce and acquire rights for more Asian content to increase the number of global subscribers.

    In September “Hau Due Mat Troi” (Descendants of the Sun Vietnam) became the first Vietnamese series to be screened on Netflix following the screening of movies like “Trung So” (Jackpot) and “Hai Phuong” (Furie).

    Netflix has 151 million subscribers in 190 countries.

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  • Uber Stripped Of London Operating Licence

    Uber Stripped Of London Operating Licence

    Uber was stripped of its London operating license on Monday for the second time in just over two years as the city’s regulator said the taxi app was not “fit and proper”, having put passenger safety at risk.

    A change to Uber’s systems allowed unauthorized drivers to upload their photos to other drivers’ accounts, meaning they could pick up passengers as if they were the booked driver, which happened in at least 14,000 trips, Transport for London (TfL) said.

    “It is unacceptable that Uber has allowed passengers to get into minicabs with drivers who are potentially unlicensed and uninsured,” Director of Licensing, Regulation and Charging at TfL, Helen Chapman said on Monday, the day the firm’s license expires.

    The Silicon Valley-based company has 21 days to appeal the decision and can continue to operate throughout the process, which is likely to include court action.

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  • Honda Two-Wheelers Resumes Operations At Manesar Plant

    Honda Two-Wheelers Resumes Operations At Manesar Plant

    Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI) has announced that the company has decided to resume operations at the Manesar plant following widespread protests by workers. The protests started earlier this month after some contractual workers, whose contracts had expired or were nearing the end of contract, were asked to go on indefinite leave. More than 2,000 workers had protested the decision, forcing HMSI to suspend operations at the company’s manufacturing facility in Manesar. Now, HMSI has released a statement saying that all permanent workers have been asked to join duties from November 25-28 in four batches.

    “The decision to resume production at Manesar plant was initiated on November 22nd. All permanent staff associates were informed to join duties from 25th to 28th November in four batches. The process of joining back to work has started as per schedule and we look forward to the normalcy of operation after this process is completed. With the intention of maintaining industrial peace, Manesar plant management reaffirmed that all permanent workers are expected to resume work as per the schedule and carry out their assigned duties with discipline, good faith, cooperation and positivity,” an official statement from Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI) said.

    The protests began on November 5, when some contractual employees were not allowed to go into the plant. The Manesar facility of HMSI employs around 1,900 permanent workers and 2,500 contract workers. According to the employee union, HMSI had reduced production of the facility by 50 percent, and sacking contractual workers. On its part, HMSI maintains that a slowdown in the auto industry over the last 11 months had led to production adjustment and manpower realignment at the plant. According to HMSI, the contractual workers whose term had been completed were relieved from their duties, but permanent workers were not impacted.

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  • DHL To Debut Zero-Emission Electric Delivery Vans In U.S. Cities

    DHL To Debut Zero-Emission Electric Delivery Vans In U.S. Cities

    Deutsche Post DHL Group’s StreetScooter electric vehicle unit will enter the U.S market next year as delivery firms and municipalities work to cut greenhouse gas emissions. DHL will debut StreetScooter’s zero-emission Work L delivery van in two urban U.S markets, one on each coast, starting in Spring 2020, the companies said

    They did not specify which markets would be the first.Full deployment could come in 2022 and 2023, said Ulrich Stuhec, StreetScooter’s chief technology officer, who joined the company from Ford Motor Co in October. Los Angeles, London, Berlin, Tokyo and 30 other cities around the globe have been working to establish zero-emission zones by 2030.

    Those cities hope to curb accumulating greenhouse gases that contribute to extreme weather, higher temperatures and rising sea levels, which have steep economic, environmental and human costs

    The transportation industry – which includes fossil-fuel-burning ships, trains, trucks and planes – accounted for 14% of global greenhouse gas emissions in 2010, according to the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

    Over the last three years, DHL has kicked off “CO2-free last-mile delivery” efforts with German cities like Berlin, Hamburg and Munich. Roughly 10,000 of the 12,000 StreetScooter electric vehicles on the road make DHL deliveries. They operate in Amsterdam, Vienna and cities around Germany – saving roughly 36,000 metric tons of CO2 per truck each year, StreetScooter said.”We have the most experience on the road while others are still working on their first prototypes,” StreetScooter’s Stuhec said in a recent interview. Up-and-coming delivery competitor Amazon.com Inc in September gave the electric vehicle industry a jolt with its plan to order 100,000 electric delivery vans from Rivian Automotive LLC, a company it funds

    The first vans should hit streets in 2021. Meanwhile, Amazon said its delivery partners are using around 200 electric vehicles

    United Parcel Service Inc has 1,000 electric and hybrid electric vehicles in its fleet, and FedEx Corp last year announced plans to deploy 1,000 electric vehicles in California

    DHL fully acquired StreetScooter in 2014

    The unprofitable subsidiary is seeking new investors and customers to further ramp production

    Current partners include the United Kingdom’s Milk & More, which ordered 200 trucks, and Japanese delivery firm Yamato, which has started to deploy 500 planned vehicles

    In September, StreetScooter cracked the world’s biggest electric vehicle market – signing a memorandum of understanding with Chinese carmaker Chery Automobile Co to begin electric van production in 2021

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  • Cebu Pacific cut flight delays in October

    Cebu Pacific cut flight delays in October

    Budget airline Cebu Pacific recorded minimal flight delays in October as on-time performance went up.

    The Department of Transportation (DOTr) said on Monday that Cebu Pacific posted an on-time performance of almost 85 percent last month, better than the 80.66 percent in September.

    A flight is considered on time if it leaves within 15 minutes of the scheduled departure.

    “The improved OTP is a result of the close cooperation and coordination with concerned government agencies to minimize delays across our network,” Michael Ivan Shau, Cebu Pacific chief operations officer, said in the statement.

    Earlier, flag carrier Philippine Airlines said on-time performance in the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia), the country’s busiest gateway, hit 92 percent for the month of October.

    The DOTr noted in the statement that improved efficiency followed the signing in June of a commitment to decongest Naia and support the development of other gateways, including the Sangley Airport in Cavite.

    “I am happy that months after we signed the pledge of commitment, we continue to see improvements in OTP across the industry. I hope these efforts are sustained to make air travel in the Philippines more efficient and comfortable,” Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade said in the statement.

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