Darrell Lea sold to
VIP Petfoods. Darrell Lea went into
administration on July 10, closed 32 company-owned stores on August 2,
remaining 27 stores to close September 9.
Sales had fallen by 20 percent over the past five years to about $80
million. 246 permanent and 172 casual staff to be made redundant, remaining 83
staff to be employed in manufacturing, marketing and distribution roles. Soft
licorice and Rocklea Road products will remain. VIP Petfoods run by husband and
wife Tony and Christina Quinn, estimated wealth of $350 million, have four
factories around Australia, employ about 600 staff, said to be biggest manufacturer of chilled petfood globally, 20
percent of revenue comes from exports. [CR: It’s all manufacturing food, does
it really matter what species it is for?]
Queensland may remove
water tank requirement on new homes. No final decision made, would save
home buyers $6000. Since 2007, 130,000 rainwater tanks have been installed in
homes, 20,000 for commercial premises, said to have 20 billion litres of water
and reduced infrastructure costs by up to $1.4 billion. [CR: The pendulum
swings between housing affordability and environmental savings. Water scarcity
versus housing, until there is a common denominator of true environmental cost
policy will continue to swing.]
Brisbane’s Airport
Link tunnel falls short, but traffic up? Road cost $4.1 billion, target of 135,000 per
day, attracted 81,470 per day in its first month of operation despite being
toll free. Discounted tolls to follow for 15 months. [CR: “If you build it,
they will come” (be advised, the size and shape of “they” may be less than
expected).]
Average CEO tenure:
From article talking about CEOs moving on from companies including Transfield
services, Mirvac Group, Pacific brands, Stockland, and FKP Property Group,
after yesterday’s article on big wave of write-downs. Goldman Sachs research
says average CEO tenure is 5.8 years (down by 11 months in past five years).
Exclude eight companies with CEOs who have been in place 15 years and the
average tenure drops to 3.9 years. Reasons for shorter tenure said to be based
on increased short-termism, globalisation driving increased competition,
structural changes, and greater shareholder focus on governance. US CEOs have
longer stints (average 8.4 years) said t be due to less focus on governance.
[CR: That said, I wonder what the average tenure is in other c-suite positions
or even management roles such as General Manager. I would expect it to be
decreasing across the board?]
Tablet vs. Smartphone vs. Laptop vs. Desktop growth rates: Australians to buy 2.4 million tablets in 2012, 70 percent higher than 1.4
million in 2011. 15 percent of Australians will own tablets by end of 2012,
expected to be 30% by end of 2013, fuelled by cheaper tablets. Local smartphone sales slowing to a growth of
11 percent, laptop sales fell 10 percent, desktop sales dropped 7.5 percent.
Hybrid devices expected to be expensive and take a few years to reach
mainstream, tablets to bridge the gap. [CR: The opportunity is to ensure
today’s digital solutions are architected to be adaptable for future
interfaces.]
Part-time SME owners
increasing. Number of people in Australia running their own business
part-time is at its highest level in a decade. Of the 1.2 billion people that
run SMEs, about 442,000 do so on a part time basis. [CR: I wonder how many of
those run more than one business, and what the profitability difference is
between focusing on your business or being distracted with a “day job”.]
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