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Tag: Australia

  • Canon Australia launches Renting Service for cameras

    Canon Australia launches Renting Service for cameras

    A picture may be worth a thousand words, but in terms of actual dollars, it could be worth many times that, once you consider the cost of all but the most entry-level DSLR cameras, lenses and other accessories. But now, a hefty price tag need not be an obstacle for budding photographers, thanks to a new sharing platform launched by Canon Australia on Tuesday. The platform, called Kyōyū, the Japanese word for “share”, aims to be the Airbnb for Canon cameras and accessories. Camera owners can use it to rent out their gear and get a return on their investment, and would-be owners can use it to borrow or try out items without needing to buy them outright.

    “At Canon, we believe in constantly innovating to create the ultimate user experience,” Jason McLean, Canon Australia’s director of consumer imaging, said in a statement.

    “We don’t want ownership to be the only reason to experience our goods and services,” he said.

    The platform was created in partnership with design agency, The Diner, and has been in the works for over a year.

    According to McLean, Kyōyū is an extension of the brand’s long-held goal of building a community of passionate photographers, which saw it launch the Canon Collective in 2013 to bring like-minded people together for workshops and other events, and open its first experience centre in Melbourne in 2018.

    “For years, we’ve been looking at our brand and how can we do more with the products people buy. We created Canon Collective and opened the experience centre for that reason, and this is the next evolution of that,” he said. 

    The concept is currently exclusive to Australia, but McLean said it could be rolled out in other markets if it proves successful.

    More than 230 members have already signed up to the platform, primarily across Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, and the company aims to have 1500 registered users by the end of 2019.

    Canon charges a small fee on each transaction to cover the cost of managing the platform and providing up to $15,000 of insurance on every rental.

    “One of the greatest concerns we heard through our early research was what happens if something goes wrong, if something accidentally gets damaged, or stolen,” McLean said.

    Canon has taken this same “test and learn” approach to its other offerings, such as the experience centre that opened in Melbourne last year.

    “It’s hitting the mark,” McLean said about the store, a 320sqm space where customers can touch and feel Canon’s product range without having to ask store staff to take them out of a locked cabinet.

    “Customers love the staff, they love that staff are not pushy. What we’re working on now is building awareness. It’s the best kept secret in Melbourne,” he said.

    Canon Australia will continue testing the offering in Melbourne for another six or so months before deciding whether to launch experience centres in other capital cities around Australia.

    Meanwhile, the Canon Collective has taken on a life of its own. According to McLean, nearly 50,000 people are part of a closed Facebook group, where they share advice and support one another, without needing much moderation or guidance from Canon itself.

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  • Cebu Pacific leads in Philippines-Australia flights

    Cebu Pacific leads in Philippines-Australia flights

    Budget carrier Cebu Pacific has kept its market share lead in the Philippines to Australia route, a statement on Thursday showed. Citing data from Australia’s Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics from November last year, Cebu Pacific said it cornered a market share of 39.5 percent versus close competitor Philippine Airlines, which had a 38.1-percent share.

    Cebu Pacific flies between Manila, Melbourne and Sydney. It also competes with Qantas, however the Australian carrier’s operations are limited to Manila and Sydney.

    “As more brand-new aircraft enters the CEB (Cebu Pacific) fleet, we are now in a position to seriously study the possibility of expanding to more destinations in Australia. We are encouraged by our performance in the Australia market,” Candice Iyog, vice president for marketing at Cebu Pacific, said in the statement.

    The airline said demand has been going up. For Nov. 2018, some 48,000 passengers flew between Manila, Melbourne and Sydney. The figure represented a growth of 31.3 percent. Cebu Pacific alone carried 18,971 passengers, or a year-on-year growth of 56 percent.

    Cebu Pacific flies five times weekly between Manila and Sydney and thrice a week between Manila and Melbourne. Cebu Pacific is the only low-cost carrier with direct service from Manila to Sydney and Melbourne.

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  • AirAsia launches cheap fares to Bali, a thriving tourism destination for many Australians’

    AirAsia launches cheap fares to Bali, a thriving tourism destination for many Australians’

    AirAsia is offering cheap one-way fares to a tropical Indonesian island, which has been tipped to take the top spot as the favourite destination for Australians. The budget airline announced its new four-time weekly flights between Perth and Lombok, east of Bali this week.

    As part of the announcement, AirAsia is offering one-way flights to Lombok from just $99. AirAsia has launched cheap one-way fares to Indonesia’s newest holiday hotspot Lombok, which has been tipped to take the top spot a favourite destination for Australians

    The budget airline announced its new four-time weekly flights between Perth and Lombok, east of Bali this week Jetsetters can snag the cheap flights until March 24, to travel between June 9 and October 26.

    Australian sun-seekers are expected to flock to the new destination, which has been described as ‘the new Bali’.

    Lombok, east of Bali, has gearing up to become the next tourism hotspot with promises of endless blissful beaches.

  • Henley & Partners Opens Australia Office

    Henley & Partners Opens Australia Office

    New office caters to burgeoning international demand for Australia’s investor migration programs, as well as interest from within Australia for alternative residence and citizenship options abroad. Global firm in residence and citizenship planning Henley & Partners has announced its expansion into Australia and has made several key personnel hires, the firm said in a media release.

    The office is located in Melbourne, and will be led by director Tony Le Nevez.

    «Australia is the number one resettlement destination for high-net-worth individuals. With our global presence and expertise in assisting these clients acquire alternative residence or citizenship, it makes perfect sense for us to open an office in Australia,» Dominic Volek, managing partner and head of Southeast Asia, said.

    Strong Regional Growth

    This has been a period of strong growth in the region for the firm, which recorded 48 percent year-on-year growth in Southeast Asia. It opened a Thailand office in 2018 to cater to the burgeoning demand for residence and citizenship planning services among HNWIs there.

    «We expect the interest and demand that we are seeing in Southeast Asia to continue with eight of the top 10 fastest growing wealth populations forecast to be in Asia over the next five years,» Volek said.

    Key Appointments

    • Tony Le Nevez, Director, Henley & Partners Australia

    Le Nevez has over 35 years’ experience in the migration services industry. He previously worked for the Australian Department of Immigration in Canberra, and at for the Australian foreign service in Bangkok, Athens and Vienna, where he was a senior policy advisor and First Secretary. He joined the private sector in 2006 and is a member of the Investment Migration Council.

    • Jacky Poh, Deputy Head, Henley & Partners Singapore

    A wealth management professional for over 10 years, Poh has worked closely with HNWIs to execute prudent investment strategies inclusive of discretionary portfolios. Poh works closely with the managing partner to ensure the smooth operations and resource management of the Singapore office. He is also focused on establishing and maintaining relationships with key clients and stakeholders to drive business growth, with an emphasis on progressive Southeast Asian markets.

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  • Credit cards declining, Australians switch to new methods

    Credit cards declining, Australians switch to new methods

    A new report from data and analytics firm ilion suggests there is a mass-shift underway in the way Australians finance their purchases.

    According to its inaugural credit card report released on Sunday, Australian consumers under the age of 30 hold over half of all buy now, pay later accounts but just 10 per cent of total credit cards.

    One reason for this may be that banks are traditionally reluctant to give credit cards to younger consumers, who they view as a “more risky demographic group”. This coincided with new, alternate payment methods.

    “With evolving forms of repayments offering consumers more choice in an increasingly fragmented and competitive credit system, Australia is at the tipping point of its credit card cycle,” illion chief executive Simon Bligh said.

    As the payments landscape changes, retailers need to consider whether they should offer alternate payment options, if they haven’t already.

    “Retailers will need to respond to shifts in how consumers want to purchase and pay off their goods and services over coming years, particularly as younger Australians enter adulthood and constitute a growing and more influential proportion of the spending population,” Bligh said.

    While a majority of under 30s still hold a credit card (57 per cent), the long term trend is exponentially changing in the favour of BNPL options.

    Source: illion

    As the ilion report highlights, however, those under the age of 30 are twice as likely as their parents to fall more than two months behind in credit card payments.

    “[This suggests] they have a greater difficulty balancing spending and debt, regardless of their credit limit,” Bligh said.

    “Likewise, the likelihood of failing to pay off credit card debt on time increases if consumers have more than one card, and increases again if those cards are with multiple banks.”

    According to a recent investigation into the BNPL industry by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, one in six users of the services had become overdrawn, delayed a bill payment or borrowed additional money to overcome payment obligations.

    This stems from the fact that both BNPL and credit cards allow customers to buy something that may be out of their price range, and easily put themselves in a position of becoming unable to meet their repayments.

    “The exponential growth in this industry, along with the risks we have identified, means this will be remain an ongoing focus for ASIC,” ASIC commissioner Danielle Press said.

  • Franchising report reveals “cultural problems”

    Franchising report reveals “cultural problems”

    The Australian Senate thinks there needs to be a comprehensive shift in power in the franchising sector.

    In a long-awaited report on its inquiry into the sector, released today, the Senate said the current regulatory environment has failed to deter poor conduct and exploitation within the sector and created an imbalance in power.

    On that basis, it recommends giving greater protection to franchisees and whistleblowers and applying greater penalties for misconduct. This would involve making several changes to the Franchising and Oil Codes and giving more responsibility and enforcement powers to the ACCC to conduct investigations into misconduct in the sector.

    “There are deeply rooted cultural problems that will not be resolved by a franchisor replacing a few senior executives,” the report stated.

    The report points out that disclosure has been the principal and almost only protection for franchisees, and that while many franchisors would like to keep it that way, it is no longer sufficient.

    “The extent and breadth of misconduct within the franchise sector demonstrates that disclosures and transparency alone, while vitally important, are an insufficient response to power and information asymmetry,” the report said.

    The report recommends more protection for franchisees and employees who want to blow the whistle on franchisors engaging in misconduct, and suggests that whistleblower protections should apply in these cases. The inquiry uncovered many instances of franchisors using intimidation to keep franchisees from speaking out.

    The report also recommends steeper civil penalties be introduced into the Competition and Consumer Act 2010, and the Franchising Code of Conduct, in order to ensure they act as a “meaningful deterrent” against further misconduct.

    The penalty amounts would be similar to those currently found under Australian Consumer Law, and should be prescribed in legislation so that the limit on penalties under industry codes does not apply to franchising.

    One of the major issues in the sector presented in the report is wage theft, partly due to the business model franchisors operate under, and partly due to social and cultural problems within the industry.

    “At times, wage theft is occurring as a way for franchisees to extract profits or service payments in order to stay afloat in a financially constrained business model (given wages are one of the greatest costs in the franchisee’s control),” the report said.

    “Whilst many franchisors cited greed as the primary motivation for wage theft, the committee notes that the issue is far more complex and partly inherent to the business models’ structural breakdown of power and the imposition of cost controls.”

    Last week, the Migrant Workers Taskforce recommended criminal penalties be put in place for businesses which intentionally conduct staff underpayment, noting it had found “widespread levels of non-compliance with relevant laws.”

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  • API doubts Sigma plans

    API doubts Sigma plans

    The proposed merger between the owners of the Priceline and Amcal pharmacy chains is off after Sigma Healthcare rebuffed an approach by its rival.

    Amcal owner Sigma, which is restructuring after losing a contract to supply Chemist Warehouse, said on Wednesday that October’s cash-and-scrip approach by Australian Pharmaceuticals Industries had undervalued its long-term prospects.

    Instead of responding with an increased offer, API questioned Sigma’s plans and said it would now decide what to do with the 12.85 per cent stake it bought late last year.

    “The Sigma Board has chose a path to restructure its significantly downsized business, rather than pursue a merger to create a future that benefits consumers, pharmacists and both sets of shareholders,” API said.

    Sigma said it agreed the tie-up could save the combined company $60 million a year through supply chain consolidation, but that a business review completed last month found $100 million in potential savings through cost-cutting as a stand-alone company.

    It also said that a decline in API’s share price also meant the offer was worth 12 per cent less than when it was made in October.

    The offer was worth about $727 million when it was made public in December.

    API countered by saying the cost savings that Sigma was citing were uncertain and unclear, and would mostly be offset by revenue lost by Chemist Warehouse’s decision to take its business elsewhere.

    It also pointed out its offer represented a 41.8 per cent premium to the average price of Sigma shares in the month before the offer was announced.

    “API notes that very little information has been provided by Sigma in relation to its intended restructure,” API said.

    Sigma shares slumped on the development, dropping 14 per cent to 52.5 cents by 1423 AEDT, their lowest since before the merger proposal was made public.

    API shares were down 3.57 per cent, at $1.35.

    Sigma is the owner of franchise brands Amcal, Chemist King, Discount Drugs and Guardian.

    API owns the Priceline, Soul Pattinson and Pharmacist Advice brands.

  • Disneyland for all things pasta

    Disneyland for all things pasta

    Five or six years ago, Australian retail pundits who’d visited the 50,000sqf Eataly Italian “food emporium” in New York (which opened in 2010), were breathlessly rhapsodising about it in presentations back home.

    My visit to its Munich outpost two years ago was pleasant but not earth-shattering. Still, the enterprise continues to march across the globe, currently with 40 locations across its core countries of Italy and the US, as well as Japan, Korea, Germany, Sweden, Russia, Brazil, Turkey and the Middle East, with further sites planned for Belgium, Hong Kong, South Africa, France, Canada, the UK and Australia in the “near future”.

    Eataly executive chairman Andrea Guerra told the Financial Times at the end of 2017 that the company was planning major expansion over the next decade and wanted to “have a store in every world capital”. Or maybe he was just talking the company up in advance of a theoretical IPO, which a potential overreach into theme parks may have derailed. Let’s take a look.

    Authentic or dumbed-down?

    For those not familiar with it – or somehow immune to past hype – Eataly is a large format/footprint Italian marketplace or food hall comprising a variety of upscale restaurants, food and beverage counters and delicatessens, bakery and other specialty food counters, a supermarket, other retail such as homewares and kitchen utensils, and a cooking school.

    Guerra defined its concept as “a complete emotional food experience where customers shop, eat and learn all about Italian food, all in a cross-selling approach”. Its strapline, Alti Cibi, translates literally as “high food” – which perhaps may go some way to explaining its perceived high prices, a continual source of aggravation on its Tripadvisor reviews.

    Eataly originally showcased a number of small and artisan companies operating in the food and wine sector, such as durum wheat pasta from Gragnano, mineral water from the Maritime Alps, Veneto and Piedmont wines, Ponente Riviera Ligure oil, Piedmont fassone meat, and traditional Italian cheese and cold cuts. In theory, Eataly offers “the best artisan products at reasonable prices” and says it creates a “direct relation between producers and distributors, focusing on sustainability, responsibility and sharing”.

    Despite its pun-in-English name, Eataly is not a US franchise. It’s actually Italian, and therefore in theory “authentic” although some Italians think it’s dumbed-down. It was founded in 2004 in Italy’s northern Piedmont region by Oscar Farinetti, an entrepreneur formerly involved in the consumer electronics business. In 2007 he converted a closed vermouth factory in Turin into the first location of Eataly.

    Fast forward to 2018 and Eataly has 40+ locations in the northern hemisphere and a 2017 revenue of €465 million ($737 million), a 20 per cent revenue increase on the previous year (7 per cent up in Italy, 48 per cent up in the US but primarily through lateral growth via new store openings) although its profits are negligible and variable. Like-for-like store growth statistics are hard to come by.

    Eataly was theoretically due to list on the Italian stock exchange in mid-2018 with a 33 per cent floating capital and a huge valuation (more than €2 billion). However it does not yet appear to have done so, and has been suspiciously “quiet” in new store openings in any market since early 2018.

    An educational dinner at the farm

    It appears ambition may have strangled the golden goose. In advance of a theoretical mid-2018 IPO, in November 2017 Farinetti and Guerra launched Fico Eataly World in the northern Italian city of Bologna, with at best mixed results and feedback.

    Dubbed the Disneyland of Pasta, Fico Eataly World was inaugurated by prime minister Paolo Gentiloni and claimed to be the world’s largest agri-food park. Its 20 acres contains three dozen restaurants, a gigantic market, farms and factories enabling visitors to see how products are made and processed, and a variety of “multimedia experiences”. It is intended to “unify Italy’s diverse food culture under one roof”. There is a multitude of pop-up-style stores selling Italian produce and kitchenware; six experiential educational pavilions; several classrooms, sports and play areas as well as a cinema and a 1000-capacity congress space. It is surrounded by several hectares of farm animals and vegetable plots. The project took four years to complete, at a cost of €120 million. It works with over 150 Italian companies, from relatively small to very large, and has created more than 3000 jobs.

    But inevitably it has its detractors, who denounce it as an American concept in search of an Italian home, and has had patchy performance.

    Forecast to bring in three million visitors a year, in 2018 in its first five months of operation it had brought in just 1.5 million. And only 1.8 per cent of them were foreigners versus a projection of 30 per cent. Reports suggested that on those initial numbers, it won’t meet the required breakeven of four million visitors a year.

    The site has been plagued by claims of isolation – the “culinary cathedral in the desert” is not readily accessible by public transport. It is now, apparently, investigating hotel and resort development to cater to the conference market. According to reports, it has laid off substantial numbers of staff.

    Where are the tourists?

    Either way, the question remains whether an American-style retail idea can work in Italy unless it’s substantially marketed to foreign visitors as a tourism (not retail) destination, and made readily accessible.

    It appears the substantial capital required for Fico Eataly World and its mixed performance have stalled its IPO.

    And regarding its Australian visions, it’s not as if the nation is bereft of Italian restaurants. Due to its sizeable Italian-heritage population, there are Italian eateries everywhere, both alti and not-so-alti. If and when Eataly’s food emporium returns to its retail roots and comes to Australia, it will be interesting to see how it caters to this market.

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  • Wesfarmers, Woolworths lead list of top 1000 Australian companies

    Wesfarmers, Woolworths lead list of top 1000 Australian companies

    Research firm IBISWorld on Tuesday revealed Australia’s top 1000 companies in 2018, with Wesfarmers and Woolworths placing within the top five.

    The list provides an overview of Australia’s corporate landscape, and highlights the largest firms, growing and declining sectors and new businesses to watch in the coming years.

    According to the report, over 75 per cent of the companies on the list lifted their revenue over the course of the year, with total revenue across the list having increased 1.5 per cent year on year, while over 70 per cent of businesses remained profitable.

    However, after enjoying the top position in 2017, IBISWorld senior industry analyst James Thompson expects Wesfarmers to drop from second position in the list next year due to its demerger from supermarket Coles.

    Source: IBISWorld

    There were a number of new entrants, including online retailer Kogan, which joined the list at number 910 after generating significant revenue due to its expanded service offering and the growth of Kogan Mobile. The online retailer enjoyed annual revenue growth of 10.6 per cent, totalling $231.8 million, over the 2018-19 financial year.

    Noni B, which entered the list at number 997, did so off the back of the successful integration of the brands it acquired from Specialty Fashion Group, which delivered revenue growth of 17.8 per cent for the year.

    Other notable retailers on the list include:

    • Metcash: 26
    • Aldi: 49
    • JB Hi-Fi: 56
    • 7-Eleven: 84
    • Harvey Norman: 123
    • Cotton On: 157
    • Myer: 158
    • Super Retail Group: 160
    • David Jones: 175
    • Costco: 244
    • Ikea Australia: 323
    • Luxottica: 480
    • The Reject Shop: 527
    • Accent Group: 612
    • Michael Hill: 710
    • Nike: 772
    • Amazon: 968
    • Retail Food Group: 995
  • PVH opens third Tommy Hilfiger store

    PVH opens third Tommy Hilfiger store

    US-based PVH Corporation opened its 13th full-price Tommy Hilfiger store in Australia on Friday, just days after the fashion brand held its Tommy Now runway event in Paris, featuring a collection designed in partnership with American actress and brand ambassador, Zendaya.

    The new store, located in Sydney’s Mosman suburb, showcases the TommyXZendaya collection and the brand’s Spring 2019 collection, in keeping with Tommy Hilfiger’s early adoption of the ‘see now, buy  now’ runway trend. Customers can also shop the brand’s denim collection and newly launched men’s and women’s sportswear collections.

    The store, which opened on International Women’s Day, also offers the brand’s IWD capsule collection, which features t-shirts and sweaters with inspirational slogans, such as: “Be the change” and “Powerful”. The brand is donating $1 from every style sold to the International Women’s Development Agency, a non-profit that works to advance women’s rights and gender equality in Asia Pacific.

    Spanning 130sqm, the store design reflects Tommy Hilfiger’s new global retail concept, which fuses the brand’s American heritage with clean, modern finishes and a bright, airy aesthetic. A high-resolution digital screen showcases the brand’s latest global campaigns for an immersive brand experience.

    The Mosman store is the third Tommy Hilfiger store to open in the past eight months in Australia, reflecting the parent company’s efforts to minimise its exposure to Myer and other struggling department stores by increasing its retail presence. The brand opened a store in Burwood, NSW, in June 2018 and in Perth, WA, in October. The brand also launched an online presence in Australia in September.

    In a presentation to investors in May 2018, PVH Brands Australia, a 50-50 joint venture between PVH and local apparel retailer Gazal Corporation, which held the licences for  Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein and Van Heusen in the local market, said it would open 34 stores across the brands in the coming years.

    Since then, PVH has announced an agreement to acquire Gazal. The closing, which is subject to shareholder, court and regulatory approvals, is expected to occur in the second quarter of 2019.

    Tommy Hilfiger operates 1800 stores in over 100 countries around the world.

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  • Nike global warehouses goes carbon neutral

    Nike global warehouses goes carbon neutral

    A Nike warehouse in Melbourne’s Altona North suburb has become the first facility in Australia to receive a ‘whole-of-building’ carbon-neutral certification from the National Carbon Offset Standard.

    The certification is the latest recognition for the site, which has also received a Green Star Performance rating and was named the ‘Best Industrial Project’ at the National Energy Efficiency Awards in 2017.

    The 18,000sqm warehouse, which is owned by the Stockland property group and was custom-built for Nike by Toll, was designed with environmental efficiency in mind.

    Some of the site’s unique features include translucent roof sheeting to maximise daylight so warehouse lighting can be switched off when ambient light is sufficient, roof insulation to assist with temperature control and an optimised conveyor system, which was rewired and reprogrammed to operate in relation to product volumes, eliminating unnecessary movement.

    The retrofitting of 1300 light fixtures with high-efficiency LEDs also helped the site to halve its total electricity consumption, exceeding the greenhouse reductions required by NCOS.

    Toll and Nike offset the remaining greenhouse emissions generated by the building by investing in forest conservation projects in Tasmania as well as in an energy recovery waste water treatment plant in Thailand. These projects protect local biodiversity and native species support jobs in local communities and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, according to a statement from the comp

    Nike’s operations director Marie Varrasso said the success of the facility reflects its commitment to reducing its carbon footprint whilst delivering efficient solutions and savings which can be passed on to its customers directly.

    “Through this collaboration, continuous improvements have been introduced into the supply chain, which ultimately benefits Nike’s footwear, apparel and equipment customers. It’s a unique relationship, with innovation at the heart of everything we do,” she said.

    Stockland’s general manager of logistics and business parks Tony D’Addona said the project has has been a worthwhile education process for the property group’s warehousing and logistics business and helped to improve its management approach to sustainability.

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  • Australians love their pets

    Australians love their pets

    Venture to the local shops and you’ll probably see dogs outside on the footpath waiting for their owners. Perhaps the store has provided a hook for dog leads and a bowl of water for thirsty canines. But travel further from home, into the city centre for example, and you are unlikely to see many dogs, or other pets. The same applies to most parks and beaches, and certainly to cafés, bars, restaurants, department stores, and public transport.

    Although Australia is a nation of pet owners and pet lovers, our non-human companions are not welcome in most public spaces in our towns and cities.

    Pets outnumber people

    Some 62% of Australian households have a pet. While these rates are similar to those in the United States (65%), they are much higher than the United Kingdom (40%) and continental Europe (around 40%), where pets are much more visible and tolerated in public places.

    There are 4.8 million pet dogs, 4.2 million pet birds and 3.9 million pet cats in Australia. Of those of us who don’t have a pet, 59% report we would like one in the future. The ratio of pets to people in Australia is 101:100 – there are more animal companions than Homo sapiens.

    In fact, more of us live in a house with a cat and/or a dog than with a child. For many people, especially those without children, pets are increasingly being anthropomorphised and replacing human family members.

    Pet ownership rates are not rising significantly in Australia, but our spending on pet-related goods and services is increasing substantially. In 2016 we spent A$12.2 billion on pets and pet-related goods and services.

    Businesses are responding to the growth of the pet supplies sector by developing and marketing everything from vegetarian pet food to sophisticated smartphone surveillance apps. The market for pet insurance, pet day care, pet taxis, grooming and funeral services is robust, providing many opportunities for entrepreneurs and start-ups to tap into consumer demand for pampered pets.

    High-density housing and shrinking yards

    At the same time as spending on pets is increasing, our backyards are shrinking, with many of us choosing high-density apartment living. In addition, new housing developments feature larger houses and garages, which dominate the block at the expense of front and back yards. This means there is much less room for our pets at home than ever before.

    Historically, the Australian dream was a house on a quarter-acre block with plenty of outside space for pets, but blocks and yard space are shrinking in new housing developments.

    With outdoor living space disappearing, pets and their owners must increasingly turn to public spaces for social activity and interaction.

    Pets in public places

    The problem is that pets are not welcome in many public places. In most local council areas, the presence of domesticated animals is heavily restricted and governed by myriad council by-laws.

    Local parks and beaches are mostly off-limits. The fines for non-compliance are hefty.

    If you want to take your dog to a local café, you’ll have to sit outside. Even if you go to a “human-friendly” dog or cat café you won’t be served food because most pet cafés aren’t permitted to make or serve human food.

    In most cities, pets are not allowed to travel on trains, trams, buses or ferries; travelling with pets is either outlawed altogether or managed with strict guidelines for restraining pets and restricted travelling times.

    Research confirms the many benefits of pet ownership. In terms of general health and well-being, they improve our mental health and often provide the impetus to exercise. These are important issues for our time-poor, fast-paced and stressed-out society.

    Pet ownership also allows for interaction with others in social settings and in local communities. The importance of pets in fostering social interaction has been established in a study that found owning a pet is incredibly important for well-being and increasing social connectedness in neighbourhoods. In fact, 60% of participants in the study who owned a dog knew their neighbours better than those without a dog. Even 25% with a different type of pet reported the same.

    City planning for pets

    There is clearly a need to provide more public places for animals and humans to interact, particularly in settings that allow for greater social interplay. As city planners work towards cities that are “smart”, “green” and “walkable”, the focus should also be on making our towns and cities much more pet-friendly by providing outdoor spaces that encourage and foster interaction between animals and humans.

    We need an approach that recognises the benefits of human-animal connection and makes provisions for “animal-friendly” cities by opening up more areas for pets and their owners.

    Given Australia’s passion for pets, we should be able to interact with them in public. This will help us strengthen social ties, build local communities, improve our health and reduce social isolation.

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  • Australian dollar rises over weekend

    Australian dollar rises over weekend

    The Australian dollar has risen slightly over the weekend to 70.42 US cents, up from 70.22 US cents on Friday.

    The Aussie dollar also trades at 62.67 euro cents, 54.20 British pence, $1.03 New Zealand dollars, 78.24 Japanese Yen, and 4.733 Chinese Renminbi.

    Australian markets are also expected to be affected by Monday’s public holiday in Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and the ACT.

    CommSec chief economist Craig James says its no surprise that after the losses in the US, there would be similar declines in our own market on Monday.

    “US investors are trying to mull up the state of the economy – job figures were much weaker than expected but the question is whether this is just a one off type development. And housing stats were much firmer than expected,” he told AAP.

    “So that data was more mixed than anything.”

    He said investors could expect Monday to be a little softer in terms of volume, and potentially, growth because of the public holiday.

    He said because of that, no major economic data had been released.

    But what everyone is waiting for is a development in the US-China trade dispute.

    “Without new information, we are effectively in a holding pattern.”

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  • Regulating Facebook could hinder small businesses

    Regulating Facebook could hinder small businesses

    Digital platforms provide a host of challenges for governments. Questions about how to best protect privacy, democracy, and speech online become more pressing every year.

    But policies that affect online platforms also affect international trade. Many Australian small businesses rely on digital platforms to stay on par with their international competitors.

    As Australia starts tackling the challenges wrought by digital platforms, policymakers should be careful not to undo the good things that stem from an evermore connected world. That includes the critical role of these platforms in helping retailers sell their products to overseas customers.

    Platforms facilitate exports

    As my new research with colleague Danielle Parks shows, digital platforms appear to significantly reduce the economic distance and trade costs between buyers and sellers.

    Take Facebook, for example. Facebook is both a social networking platform and digital market platform, where Facebook’s Marketplace helps business owners connect with potential customers.

    The social networking interface allows buyers and sellers to message each other and exchange information about what the seller has, and what the buyer wants. Meanwhile, Marketplace features like identity verification and buyer ratings help to facilitate connections more quickly, and with more trust, than might otherwise be possible.

    There isn’t a lot of large-scale data on cross-border e-commerce, so researchers must get creative to study digital platforms and trade. The findings are extraordinary.

    One study found that 97% of US-based eBay sellers export product to overseas buyers. Another found the “economic effect of distance” to be 65% smaller on eBay. In other words, the digital platform reduces the challenges of selling to people in other countries.

    Research conducted by PayPal showed that 79% of US small businesses on its platform sell to foreign markets. And PayPal merchants that exported, outperformed businesses in general. Interestingly, that finding held for coastal and non-coastal businesses, and for rural and urban businesses alike.

    In our new study, we surveyed Australian businesses on Facebook. We found that those with a Facebook presence were 63% more likely to export their products internationally than other businesses. The propensity to export was higher across all business sectors and nearly all company sizes.

    This emerging pattern shows how world markets are opening up to smaller businesses that might not otherwise be able to compete with their larger, multinational rivals. These findings can partly be attributed to export-prone firms being more likely than others to use digital platforms. But there is no question that the platforms can also enable trade.

    Most governments recognise the need to dismantle barriers to foreign market access, and any new policies regarding digital platforms should not make it harder for small and medium sized businesses to engage in trade.

    How regulation could hurt small businesses

    The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is currently conducting an inquiry into digital platforms at the request of the treasurer.

    The ACCC’s preliminary report recognises how digital platforms have revolutionised the ways consumers and businesses communicate with one another. The report also highlights concerns over data privacy and the influence of bad actors producing and spreading misinformation.

    The final report, expected in June, will make policy recommendations that aim to address these concerns. But these policies could also inadvertently threaten the revenue streams of businesses that advertise on these platforms or that use them to facilitate online sales.

    Restrictions on the cross border flow of consumer information could interfere with everyday business practices. For example, a key advantage of e-commerce, especially for small businesses, is using search engine techniques to reach larger audiences, and target potential customers. So, search engine restrictions could limit the way businesses target customers with advertising, therefore limiting a business owner’s ability to reach customers abroad.

    Other regulations could restrict business owners from storing the personal information of customers – such as credit card information, consumer preferences and purchase history. That would then limit businesses in how they interact with customers at home and abroad.

    What’s happening at the moment

    Australia is not alone in considering these tough issues. The landscape of digital data flows, data privacy, and e-commerce is a work in progress for governments across the globe.

    The EU recently enacted data privacy regulation called the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which is designed to:

    […] fundamentally reshape the way in which data is handled across every sector, from health care to banking and beyond.

    Meanwhile, the United States Congress will likely consider new internet privacy legislation this year.

    Provisions on digital data flows have been included in major recent international trade agreements. Both the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) and the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) bar data localisation requirements. That means foreign companies would only be allowed to work in a country if they built out or leased separate data infrastructures in that country – a costly endeavour, especially for smaller businesses.

    On the other hand, USMCA and TPP do not allow participating countries to require that platforms disclose their source code or algorithms. These provisions do not necessarily preclude countries from adopting privacy protections, but they do make it easier for platforms like Facebook to operate without fear that they will be asked to handover important intellectual property.

    As the government considers the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission report, one thing should be clear: any policy changes should not overlook the role of these platforms in helping Australian small businesses sell goods to customers in the global marketplace.

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  • Three Kaufland sites got approved for Victoria

    Three Kaufland sites got approved for Victoria

    The big players on the Australian supermarket scene will be buckling up for some stiff competition this Friday morning, with the announcement that German hypermarket Kaufland has received planning approval for its first three stores in Victoria and Australia’s largest distribution centre.

    The first stores at Chirnside Park, Dandenong and Epping received planning approval after an independent Advisory Panel process and despite the objections of many other players in the market.

    The state-of-the-art distribution centre to be located in Mickleham, will be the largest in Australia and will act as the point of consolidation and distribution of goods to its supermarkets.

    The proposed Melbourne headquarters was also approved.

    Kaufland Australia managing director Julia Kern celebrated the news today with Treasurer of Victoria and Minister for Economic Development, Tim Pallas.

    “Kaufland is committed to long term investment both in Victoria and across Australia. The development and approval of our first three stores, our distribution centre and our proposed future headquarters in Victoria will result in the creation of up to 1,600 Victorian jobs,” Kern said.

    “Our initial investment of $459 million will create opportunities for local businesses and stimulate much needed competition and consumer choice in Australia’s supermarket sector.”

    Kern thanked the Victorian Government and everyone who participated in the independent Advisory Panel process. She said she was looking forward to opening Kaufland stores in Victoria in due course.

    Kaufland supermarkets will have a total store area of 4,000 square metres and will be stocked with local, regional and international products at discount pricing. Each store will include a bakery, butcher and liquor areas.

    A number of independent local businesses such as cafés, sushi bars or nail salons will compliment the overall shopping destination.

    “Kaufland will be a one-stop destination supermarket. Our aim is to provide all Australians with more service and choice, highlighted by our principles of simplicity, quality, variety and price.”

    “Kaufland is delighted to call Australia our new home. We look forward to continuing our commitment to partner with local businesses and the wider community to ensure we create the best outcome possible.”

    “Being customer centric is at the heart of all that we do – driven by our values of Performance, Dynamics and Fairness, we aim to increase choice, provide high quality service and promote fair competition to ensure that the customer is always the winner,” Kaufland said in a statement.

    Three further proposed Kaufland sites, at Oakleigh South, Coolaroo, and Mornington, are currently being reviewed by the Advisory Panel.

    The supermarket this week began advertising for Area Manager positions after receiving an additional $145 million capital injection from its German parent Schwartz Group for its ambitious plans down under.

    The family-owned business currently operates 1,200 stores in 7 countries, with over 150,000 employees across Europe.

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