Route 11 Potato Chips finds success as a cult favorite in a fiercely competitive market

Route 11 Potato Chips finds success as a cult favorite in a fiercely competitive market

By Don Harrison, Published: March 21 | Updated: Sunday, March 23, 4:11 AM

MOUNT JACKSON, Va. — Being a small fry can have its advantages. Take the Route 11 brand of sweet potato chips. The snack-food giants — Frito-Lay and such — haven’t taken up the challenge of this more fragile of the tubers, which tends to caramelize and burn during mass production. Read more of this post

LEGO turned itself around by analyzing overbearing parents

LEGO turned itself around by analyzing overbearing parents
By Mikkel B. Rasmussen and Christian Madsbjerg 6 hours ago
After decades of growth and innovation—in 2000, the company was the fifth-largest toy maker in the world—LEGO hit a major slump. In January 2004, it announced a huge deficit. It was, by its own accounts, bleeding cash to the tune of $1 million a day. Owner and CEO Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen, grandson of founder Ole Kirk Christiansen, was at the helm of a strategy to turn the company around. He stepped down and appointed Jørgen Vig Knudstorp, a former McKinsey consultant, as new CEO of the company. Read more of this post

The Secret World of Fast Fashion: From 1960s Korea, through Brazil, to today’s Los Angeles: Inside the world that brought you Forever 21—and those skinny jeans in your closet

The Secret World of Fast Fashion
BY CHRISTINA MOON • March 17, 2014 • 6:00 AM
From 1960s Korea, through Brazil, to today’s Los Angeles: Inside the world that brought you Forever 21—and those skinny jeans in your closet.
Over the past 15 years, the fashion industry has undergone a profound and baffling transformation. What used to be a stable three-month production cycle—the time it takes to design, manufacture, and distribute clothing to stores, in an extraordinary globe-spanning process—has collapsed, across much of the industry, to just two weeks. The “on-trend” clothes that were, until recently, only accessible to well-heeled, slender urban fashionistas, are now available to a dramatically broader audience, at bargain prices. A design idea for a blouse, cribbed from a runway show in Paris, can make it onto the racks in Wichita in a wide range of sizes within the space of a month. Read more of this post

Starbucks May Leapfrog McDonald’s in Market Value

THURSDAY, MARCH 20, 2014
Starbucks May Leapfrog McDonald’s in Market Value
By JACK HOUGH | MORE ARTICLES BY AUTHOR
McDonald’s has been an excellent long-term investment. However, the struggling chain could see its market value eclipsed by Starbucks. Read more of this post

Inditex Builds for the Future: Fashion Giant Continues to Invest in New Stores

Inditex Builds for the Future
Fashion Giant Continues to Invest in New Stores
CHRISTOPHER BJORK
Updated March 19, 2014 12:04 p.m. ET

Pablo Isla at the new distribution hub in Cabanillas del Campo, Wednesday. Reuters
Zara parent Inditex’s CEO said the retailer will continue investing heavily. Shown, a distribution center near Madrid. Reuters
CABANILLAS DEL CAMPO—On dusty Spanish scrubland just outside Madrid, the world’s largest fashion retailer is laying bricks to support growth for the next decade. Read more of this post

A Sour Bean Sweetens Cocoa Supply

A Sour Bean Sweetens Cocoa Supply
LESLIE JOSEPHS
Updated March 19, 2014 9:05 p.m. ET

With a name reminiscent of a “Star Wars” droid and a reputation for having an acidic taste, the CCN 51 cocoa bean is an unlikely savior of the $110 billion chocolate market.

Read more of this post

Luxury giants flex their muscle to lock down prime window space

Luxury giants flex their muscle to lock down prime window space
Wednesday, March 19, 2014 – 20:43
Reuters
PARIS – French luxury group LVMH is trying to push out smaller rivals from plush Place Vendome in Paris after buying one of its highest-profile buildings, illustrating the intensifying battle for Europe’s prime retail locations. Read more of this post

The world’s largest clothing retailer is now selling leftover Zara clothes to compete with fast fashion

The world’s largest clothing retailer is now selling leftover Zara clothes to compete with fast fashion
By Lily Kuo @lilkuo 2 hours ago

The numbers: Inditex, the world’s largest clothing retailer, best known for its Zara chain, reported almost flat net profit for 2013—€2.4 billion, or $3.3 billion—in line with expectations but only 1% higher than the year before.

Read more of this post

Yoga-wear Lululemon Has Entered Completely New Territory With A New Clothing Line; The line, called “&Go,” targets women who are “out the door at daybreak and moving until midnight”

Lululemon Has Entered Completely New Territory With A New Clothing Line
HAYLEY PETERSON RETAIL MAR. 19, 2014, 4:37 AM

This $198 dress is part of Lululemon’s new clothing line, &Go.

Lululemon has launched a brand new line of casual clothes for outside the yoga studio that includes sundresses, pants and tank tops.

Read more of this post

Supermarkets find move into banking difficult

March 18, 2014 11:02 pm
Supermarkets find move into banking difficult
By Emma Dunkley
It’s not just the grocery market facing troubles, as supermarkets trying to establish retail banks are finding out.
Sainsbury’s, which has reported its first fall in sales for nine years, was the inaugural retailer to launch a bank in the UK, as part of a joint venture with the Bank of Scotland, now Lloyds Banking Group.

Read more of this post

Shell bundles up lossmakers to achieve turnround

March 18, 2014 5:35 pm
Shell bundles up lossmakers to achieve turnround
By Ed Crooks in New York
Royal Dutch Shell has reorganised its lossmaking American shale gas and oil operations into a single business in an attempt to turn around their performance, the company has said.

Read more of this post

Chicago confronts dirty bonanza of Canadian tar sand boom

March 19, 2014 12:20 pm
Chicago confronts dirty bonanza of Canadian tar sand boom
By Neil Munshi in Chicago
A bulldozer rumbles over a mountain of fine black powder amid the abandoned shells of long-shuttered steel mills in a poor neighbourhood on the far southeast side of Chicago.

Read more of this post

Wal-Mart Can’t Reach GameStop’s Level in High-Margin Used Videogames; Selling used videogame boasts gross margins of 40-50%, compared with 20% for new game software and 5-10% on new game hardware

Wal-Mart Can’t Reach GameStop’s Level
MIRIAM GOTTFRIED and JUSTIN LAHART
March 18, 2014 3:40 p.m. ET
GameStop’s stock fell on news that Wal-Mart is entering the used-videogame business>. But Heard on the Street’s Miriam Gottfried thinks the reaction is overblown. Photo: “Call of Duty” Activision.
In the world of videogames, it is tough to beat a seasoned professional.

Read more of this post

Billionaire Li Ka-shing’s Retail Business Watson IPO May Hit $6 Billion

Watson IPO May Hit $6 Billion
Billionaire Li Ka-shing’s Retail Business to List in Hong Kong, London by End of June
PRUDENCE HO And P.R. VENKAT
Updated March 18, 2014 3:32 p.m. ET
Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing’s retail flagship plans to list in both Hong Kong and London by the end of June, people familiar with the situation said Tuesday, in what could be one of the world’s largest initial public offerings since late 2012.

Read more of this post

Bottega Veneta CEO says bigger, not more shops key to growth

Bottega Veneta CEO says bigger, not more shops key to growth

10:38am EDT
By Astrid Wendlandt and Pascale Denis
PARIS (Reuters) – Bottega Veneta, Kering’s No.2 luxury brand in terms of sales, is slowing down the pace of shop openings to preserve exclusivity, and plans to focus on enlarging and improving the performance of its existing stores, its head said.

Read more of this post

How Free Pizza Helped Make Planet Fitness The Fastest-Growing Gym Franchise In America

How Free Pizza Helped Make Planet Fitness The Fastest-Growing Gym Franchise In America

ALISON GRISWOLD STRATEGY  MAR. 17, 2014, 11:11 PM

Once a month, national gym chain Planet Fitness has a free pizza night.

So many members come in for these food-filled evenings that the health club franchise usually gives away 250,000 slices each time, for more than 3 million pieces a year. That’s probably not surprising when you consider that Planet Fitness recently hit 5 million members and is now the fastest-growing gym chain in the U.S., according to co-founder and chief executive Chris Rondeau.  Read more of this post

Inditex Group (Zara) quietly grooms cut-price brand for budget battle

Inditex quietly grooms cut-price brand for budget battle

2:18am EDT

By Sarah Morris

ARROYOMOLINOS, Spain (Reuters) – At the Xanadu shopping mall in Madrid’s suburbs, the indoor ski slope is busy with children but the designer stores are quiet. In this former mecca for high spenders, discount shop ‘Lefties’ looks like just another post-recession pop-up budget brand. Read more of this post

Diageo takes on Jack Daniel’s in row over how whiskey can be made; Diageo wants distilleries to be allowed to make Tennessee whiskey in reusable barrels, much to the horror of Jack Daniel’s maker Brown-Forman

Diageo takes on Jack Daniel’s in row over how whiskey can be made

Diageo wants distilleries to be allowed to make Tennessee whiskey in reusable barrels, much to the horror of Jack Daniel’s maker Brown-Forman

Jack Daniel’s stores its whiskey in new barrels made at a Brown-Forman plant Photo: Alamy

By Agencies

7:53PM GMT 17 Mar 2014

If it isn’t fermented in Tennessee from of at least 51pc corn, aged in new charred oak barrels, filtered through maple charcoal and bottled at a minimum of 80 proof, it isn’t Tennessee whiskey. So says a year-old law that resembles almost to the letter the process used to make Jack Daniel’s, the world’s best-known Tennessee whiskey. Read more of this post

‘One size fits all’ marketing by global companies fails in Africa

March 16, 2014 1:08 pm

‘One size fits all’ marketing by global companies fails in Africa

By Katrina Manson in Nairobi

When a television advertising campaign promoting Indian mobile phone company Bharti Airtel in Africa fell flat a few years ago, the marketers went back into the cutting room to work out why. Read more of this post

The ice-cream cone, one of the most brilliantly designed products in history, is losing its battle with the boring tub

March 17, 2014 6:24 pm

Save the cone

By Brian Groom

How can this happen? The ice-cream cone, one of the most brilliantly designed products in history, is losing its battle with the boring tub. According to Kantar Worldpanel, sales of cones or cornets in the UK fell 5.5 per cent last year despite a 6.9 per cent rise in overall ice-cream sales. Tubs of luxury ice cream to be eaten at home are leading the market. Read more of this post

Low-priced fashion retailer Forever 21 Inc. opened its first store in Brazil this past weekend, causing a stir among the country’s price-sensitive shoppers who lined up for seven hours to buy $4 tank tops

In Brazil, the Long Wait for Fast Fashion

LORETTA CHAO

Updated March 17, 2014 7:52 p.m. ET

Hundreds of shoppers waited to enter Brazil’s first Forever 21 store. Loretta Choa/The Wall Street Journal

SÃO PAULO, Brazil—Low-priced fashion retailer Forever 21 Inc. opened its first store in Brazil this past weekend, causing a stir among the country’s price-sensitive shoppers who lined up for seven hours to buy $4 tank tops and other trendy items priced far below competitors. Read more of this post

Jack Daniel’s Faces a Whiskey Rebellion; Diageo Presses to Relax Rules on What Makes a ‘Tennessee Whiskey’

Jack Daniel’s Faces a Whiskey Rebellion

Diageo Presses to Relax Rules on What Makes a ‘Tennessee Whiskey’

MIKE ESTERL

Updated March 17, 2014 7:34 p.m. ET

A feud has erupted among distillers over a seemingly simple question: When is a whiskey “Tennessee Whiskey”? Read more of this post

Supermarket shareholders braced for margins to hit historic lows

Supermarket shareholders braced for margins to hit historic lows

Investors call for Tesco to aggressively cut prices after market share hits 10-year low

Morrisons is to invest £1bn in prices over the next three years, with Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury’s expected to respond Photo: ALAMY

By Graham Ruddick

9:30PM GMT 15 Mar 2014

The biggest institutional investors in Britain’s supermarkets are bracing themselves for profit margins to hit historic lows after struggling Morrisons declared a price war to try to halt a decline in sales. Read more of this post

Is virus-inflated U.S. hog market bubble about to burst?

Is virus-inflated U.S. hog market bubble about to burst?

Fri, Mar 14 2014

By Theopolis Waters and Barani Krishnan

CHICAGO/NEW YORK (Reuters) – Fund managers and traders have chased hog prices on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange to record highs on fear of a deadly pig virus, but a market reversal is likely if government data in the next two weeks shows no major damage from the disease. Read more of this post

How Pembina pulled off a 500% return by keeping pipelines full and building trust with First Nations

How Pembina pulled off a 500% return by keeping pipelines full and building trust with First Nations

Claudia Cattaneo | March 14, 2014 6:00 PM ET
CALGARY • Mick Dilger, president and CEO of Pembina Pipeline Corp., is the first to acknowledge that owning pipelines in energy-friendly Alberta goes a long way to making aggressive expansion a welcome event. Read more of this post

Undressing today’s man: Men’s fashion enters a renaissance

Undressing today’s man: Men’s fashion enters a renaissance

By Claire Zillman, reporter March 14, 2014: 11:37 AM ET

For the past few years, the gentleman shopper has been flexing his fashion purchasing power. What’s behind the remarkable growth in menswear sales?

FORTUNE — To all the ladies out there wondering, yes, that man in the cubicle next door or the guy at the grocery store does indeed have a better wardrobe than you. Read more of this post

Why McDonald’s Is Taking On Starbucks Over Coffee

Why McDonald’s Is Taking On Starbucks Over Coffee

By Asit Sharma | More Articles
March 10, 2014 | Comments (23)

McDonald’s coffee-led breakfast strategy in visual terms. Image courtesy McDonald’s.

At the end of this month, Starbucks  (NASDAQ: SBUX  ) is likely to post a result that will draw little attention, but is intriguing for its larger implications: The company will overtake McDonald’s  (NYSE: MCD  ) for the first time in pre-tax earnings in Japan.  McDonald’s, of course, has struggled in Japan recently. Its 50-owned Japanese subsidiary recently announced that it was closing 74 stores, or about 2.3% of its total store count, due to declining customer demand. Starbucks’ demand arc in Japan is quite another story — the company has gone from zero to more than 1,000 stores in less than 20 years.  Read more of this post

Consumers in China: The true meaning of san yao wu

Consumers in China: The true meaning of san yao wu

China’s new consumer law has local and foreign firms worried

Mar 15th 2014 | SHANGHAI | From the print edition

FIFTY-TWO years ago this week, John Kennedy gave a speech to Congress in which he argued that consumers “are the only important group in the economy who are not effectively organised, whose views are often not heard.” His eloquent plea for their protection led to the United Nations guidelines for consumer protection and to the annual celebration of World Consumer-Rights Day on March 15th. Read more of this post

Why the Greek Yogurt Craze Should be a Wake-Up Call to Big Food

Why the Greek Yogurt Craze Should be a Wake-Up Call to Big Food

by Manny Picciola and Stuart Jackson  |   8:00 AM March 14, 2014

In 2005, Hamdi Ulukaya purchased a yogurt factory in upstate New York that had been shuttered by Kraft Foods. He wanted to use it to produce a line of strained, or “Greek,” yogurt called Chobani. If you’ve been in a grocery store lately, you probably know the rest — the brand caught on quickly. But for years, as Chobani gobbled up market share, the major food companies stuck to their regular lines of yogurt. Chobani went on to become the second largest yogurt seller in the U.S. and cost General Mills, Dannon, and other established players billions of dollars in sales. And new reports say that Chobani is talking with investors about a deal that would value the company at $5 billion. Read more of this post

Starbucks gives up exclusive license to high-end Keurig pods

Starbucks gives up exclusive license to high-end Keurig pods

9:20am EDT

(Reuters) – Starbucks Corp (SBUX.O: Quote, Profile,Research, Stock Buzz) will get a wider selection of Keurig Green Mountain Inc’s (GMCR.O: Quote, Profile, Research,Stock Buzz) single-serve K-Cup coffee packs, in exchange for giving up the exclusive license for Keurig’s highest-end coffee packs, the companies said on Friday. Read more of this post