Dec 20, 2017 - Eagle Australasia has been selected by BLR Aerospace as exclusive dealer for BLR products in Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea, the company announced on 15 December.
Eagle will represent BLR products in these markets, including the FastFin system for the Bell 204, 205, 212, 412 and UH-1 model helicopters; as well as the Dual Tailboom Strakes for the Bell 206 series, including the Bell PH-58 and Agusta Bell models.
The FastFin tail rotor enhancement and stability system is designed to provide improved OGE loads, enhance productivity and improve stability during hover operations to reduce pilot workload and fatigue.
The Dual Tailboom Strakes are developed for single-rotor helicopters with enclosed tailbooms. They work by organising and controlling rotorwash, reducing undesired sideways lift on the left side of the tailboom and reducing turbulence under the tailboom.
| A Shephard release || December 20, 2017 |||
Dec 20, 2017 - Providing the opportunity to sharpen business administration skills through on-job and online learning, Skills Active now offers an exciting programme for the Level 3 New Zealand Certificate in Business (Administration and Technology).
The qualification Skills Active delivers is specifically designed to suit people who work in a wide range of office administration and business roles within the sport, recreation and performing arts industries.
Officially launched on December 8, this is the first of Skill's Active's new business suite of qualifications.
Chief executive, Grant Davidson, is proud that the organisation is able to offer this nationally-recognised business qualification, which will provide value across all of Skills Active's industries.
"In all of our industries, the customer is key. Therefore, it is a natural fit for us to offer a qualification that develops an individual's customer service, technology and business administration skills," Dr Davidson says.
"Skilled staff with strengths in these areas will allow a workplace to run more smoothly, which in turn will provide a better experience for the customer."
The qualification is designed to be undertaken on-the-job, and assessed online. Staff learn while they earn, receiving on-job support and mentoring from managers, supervisors and colleagues to complete their qualification. Through completing the qualification in the workplace, new skills and knowledge are applied directly to the work the staff member engages with in their role. This ensures the qualification is highly relevant and useful to both staff and the workplace.
The qualification is a 60-credit package and includes tasks around: planning for your success, producing business documents; data processing to produce business information; and providing administration support.
The qualification is estimated to take around eight months to complete for a person newly entering their role.
The qualification costs $650 + GST. This price includes all fees, assessment costs, access to Skills Active’s learning support staff, and all online tools and useful study materials in one space.
With a high volume of interest already, Dr Davidson encourages anyone who is working in business and office administration roles in the sport, recreation or performing arts industries to sign up to this qualification.
"Doing this qualification while on-the-job gives you the opportunity to learn crucial business administration skills that are directly relevant to your role. The knowledge and skills you gain will enhance your confidence and increase your productivity within the workplace.”
To find out more about this qualification, and learn how to sign up, click here.
| a Skills Active release || December 20, 2017 |||
Dec 20, 2017 - Ethereum, the second largest cryptocurrency by market cap, is having a field day. It's currently trading at $850, a new all-time-high, after an incredible rally in which it nearly doubled its price in nine days writes Stan Schroeder on Mashable.
Ethereum's current market capitalization is $82 billion, according to CoinMarketCap.
Bitcoin, by far the biggest cryptocurrency with a $318 billion market cap, has also grown in this period, but at a much slower pace. It's currently trading at $18,976. Its price neared the important psychological milestone of $20,000 on two occasions but has swiftly bounced back.
There was good news for both Bitcoin and Ethereum in December. Two large exchanges, CBOE and CME, started trading Bitcoin futures this month, and the launch went pretty much without a hitch. Futures at both exchanges are trading above current price for January, at $19,490 and $19,600, respectively.
Ethereum likely benefited from a recent statement from SEC Chairman Jay Clayton, which commented on the state of ICO or initial coin offerings — crowdfunding events typically held on Ethereum's platform. Clayton warned potential investors of the dangers of unregulated ICOs but he also made it clear that some digital tokens generated in ICOs are not securities and do not fall under SEC's regulations.
Continue here to read the full article and view graphs on Mashable || December 20, 2017 |||
Dec 20, 2017 - VALLEY CENTER, Calif., Dec. 19, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Concierge Technologies, Inc. (OTC Ticker: CNCG) today announced that their wholly owned California subsidiary Kahnalytics, Inc. has acquired all of the assets and business of Original Sprout LLC, a California Limited Liability Company ("OS"). As of today, Kahnalytics has commenced operations under the fictitious business name "Original Sprout" from its location in San Clemente, CA.
Original Sprout, a manufacturer and distributor of clean, non-toxic, all-natural hair care and skin products, was founded in 2003 by master hair stylist Inga Tritt. Since that time the company's distribution has grown to include major grocery store chains, professional salons, health and beauty stores, family resorts, and hundreds of individually owned retail and Internet outlets. Originally conceived as a non-toxic baby shampoo, the product line has been expanded over the years to include an adult hair and skin care line, specialties for teens, and additions such as sun screen and lotions. The complete line remains true to its heritage of all-natural, non-toxic, ingredients. The brand is well recognized and in use by caring mothers, celebrities and royalty alike world-wide.
The purchase price, subject to certain adjustment provisions and staged payments, was paid in cash by Kahnalytics with funds advanced by Concierge Technologies under an interest-free loan. For further details please refer to the Form 8-K filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission by Concierge Technologies on December 19, 2017.
David Neibert, President of Kahnalytics and COO of Concierge Technologies, remarked "We have been working to close this transaction since first signing a letter of intent on May 1, 2017. Since that time Original Sprout has operated in consistent fashion and continued to grow its sales revenues. As a wholly-owned subsidiary of Concierge Technologies, Original Sprout will further benefit from our attention to bottom-line profitability and access to additional resources for marketing outreach and product development. The current staff of Original Sprout will remain with the company and, over-all, the transition will be a seamless event for our customers. Original Sprout is a remarkable company and Inga Tritt has created a remarkable product. I hope our shareholders take the time to investigate our website at www.originalsprout.com and to try our products available at select retailers or online. Many mainstream hair care products claim to be "all natural", but Original Sprout is the real deal. Try the products, you'll be as impressed as we are."
About Concierge Technologies, Inc.
Founded in 1996, Concierge Technologies, Inc. today is a global conglomerate with operating businesses in financial services, food manufacturing, and security systems with facilities located in the United States, New Zealand, and Canada. Concierge's common stock is listed as "CNCG" on the OTC QB Exchange.
This release may contain "forward-looking statements" that include information relating to future events and future financial and operating performance. Forward-looking statements should not be read as a guarantee of future performance or results, and will not necessarily be accurate indications of the times at, or by, which that performance or those results will be achieved. Forward-looking statements are based on information available at the time they are made and/or management's good faith belief as of that time with respect to future events, and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual performance or results to differ materially from those expressed in or suggested by the forward-looking statements. For a more detailed description of the risk factors and uncertainties affecting Concierge Technologies or its subsidiary companies, please refer to the Company's recent Securities and Exchange Commission filings, which are available at the Company's website (www.conciergetechnology.net) or at www.sec.gov.
SOURCE Concierge Technologies, Inc.
Dec 20, 2017 - Justice Robert Dobson and Professor Martin Richardson drew a line between online content aggregators and distributors such as Facebook and Google and news organisations Fairfax New Zealand and NZME in rejecting the publishers' appeal to merge.
Among Justice Dobson and Professor Richardson's findings in the 100-page High Court judgment, they backed the Commerce Commission's decision to turn down a proposed merger of NZME and Fairfax NZ, which was touted as the only way the country's dominant newspaper publishers could stand up to the likes of Facebook and Google eating into their online advertising revenue. The publishers claimed the online giants would remain a significant competitive constraint on a merged business, something the commission didn't believe in its decision to reject the transaction and that view was upheld in the High Court in Wellington.
The judge and professor said the commission's approach distinguishing a difference between producers of news, and collators and redistributors was relevant and that the regulator was right to exclude the likes of Facebook and Google in assessing the competitiveness of online national news production, which were unlikely to be a "meaningful constraint" on the merged publisher.
"Observed patterns of behaviour suggest that readers are likely to assess content from sites operated both by producers and by collators," the judgment said. "In seeking out reliable original news, visitors to collators' sites are likely to discriminate in their level of attention, placing greater credence and therefore spending more time on items from reputable producers of news."
Justice Dobson accepted the collators and distributors helped promote plurality of voices by inviting readers to access a wide range of news sources, however a distinction between production and distribution was still necessary, because "fifteen recyclers of the product of two producers of news are still only making two views available".
The publishers talked up the constraint caused by Google and Facebook, pointing to the two-sided market of competing for an audience as well as vying for advertiser dollars. Traditional publishers have struggled to respond to Google and Facebook hoovering up online advertising having devalued their print operations by freely distributing their content online.
While the online threat was front and centre of the firms' application, online ad sales only account for a fraction of the publishers' combined revenue which is still largely derived from traditional print advertising.
Among the regulator's concerns in rejecting the merger was the prospect of the dominant publisher introducing a subscription model to access a news website, better known as a paywall. NZME and Fairfax rejected that analysis, saying a merged entity would probably not introduce a paywall because of the unprofitable experience internationally. While Justice Dobson and Professor Richardson didn't accept that approach, saying the local environment was different, they did see the failure of paywalls internationally as compelling.
"We take a different view from the commission and cannot rate the prospect of a paywall being introduced as a sufficient likelihood to take it into account as conduct the appellants would likely undertake as a result of an SLC (substantially lessening competition) in the online reader market," they said.
| Source: ShareChat || December 20, 2017 |||
Dec 20, 2017 - Synlait Milk (NZX: SML; ASX: SM1) is partnering with Foodstuffs South Island Limited to become the Cooperative’s exclusive supplier of its private label fresh milk and cream from early 2019.
Synlait intends to invest approximately $125 million in an advanced liquid dairy packaging facility to supply Foodstuffs South Island.
The investment establishes a platform for Synlait to pursue a range of dairy-based products for domestic and export markets in the future.
“Combined, the partnership with Foodstuffs South Island and investment in a new facility is a further and significant step towards our goal of being a more diversified and balanced business,” says John Penno, Managing Director and CEO.
“We believe this opens up a new category - everyday dairy - and has the potential to both leverage our current position and explore new customers and markets.”
“This category represents the dairy products people consume every day. Our long-term success in this category will be based on our ability to win customers in the New Zealand market first and today we’re taking a foundational step towards that.”
Synlait’s partnership with Foodstuffs South Island is strategic for both parties.
“We are very proud of our Canterbury dairy farmers and the way they farm. We are excited about making our farmers’ fresh milk available to everyone in the South Island, in partnership with Foodstuffs,” says Mr Penno.
Fresh milk and cream from Synlait will be packaged in Value and Pams branded products, which are available across New World, PAK'nSAVE, Four Square and On The Spot stores.
“The partnership allows the Cooperative to provide high quality fresh milk and cream to our customers. The partnership allows us to give our customers surety around milk supply with an innovative New Zealand-based milk supplier,” says Steve Anderson, CEO Foodstuffs South Island.
“In time, we are looking forward to collaborating with Synlait to create a range of new and innovative dairy-based products that our customers will enjoy.”
Synlait’s research and development centre in Palmerston North, which is a collaboration with Massey University and FoodPilot, will provide the technical new product development expertise needed to establish, validate and deliver these capabilities at Synlait.
The expected $125 million investment in an advanced liquid dairy packaging facility is aimed at delivering a state-of-the-art liquid blending and packaging platform. It will allow Synlait to produce fresh milk and cream for domestic use and the ability to pursue a range of dairy-based extended and long-life consumer products in future.
“This will be one of the most sophisticated fresh milk and cream processing facilities in New Zealand.”
“By leveraging what we have learnt about milk quality and blending dairy products in our infant formula business, we will deliver a great facility at Synlait Dunsandel,” says Mr Penno.
“Our everyday dairy category offers many B2B and B2C opportunities in the established and growing export milk and cream market.”
With a minimum annual capacity of 110 million litres, the facility will be capable of producing:
• High-specification pasteurised milk and cream for domestic use
• Extended shelf life (ESL) dairy products
• Long-life milk and cream for export
• Ready to drink (RTD) liquid infant formula and toddlers milks
• Other blended dairy-based beverage products
Mr Penno says Synlait has proven experience from establishing and rapidly growing a successful infant formula business.
“We’ve demonstrated that we can introduce new capability, manufacture world-class product, build a profitable business around it and provide a long-term strategy for sustainable returns. This will be no different.”
| A Synlait release || December 20, 2017 |||
Dec 20, 2017 - Victoria University of Wellington geologist Dr Rob Mckay is leading an international expedition to Antarctic waters in January to discover how warming oceans will affect the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, and what that could mean for rising sea levels, global weather systems and marine life. An associate professor at Victoria’s Antarctic Research Centre, Dr McKay will head a 30-strong team of scientists from the International Ocean Discovery Programme (IODP) on the JOIDES Resolution, a 140m long scientific research ship operated by the IODP. “We plan to spend nine and a half weeks down in the outer Ross Sea to drill six geological drill sites—each of which could be up to a kilometre below the sea floor,” says Dr McKay. “We want to understand how the ocean and the ice sheets interact. So what happens when you put warm water next to the ice sheets? Do they melt? If so, how quickly do they melt? And what’s the impact of that melt on the oceans?” By drilling down so deeply into the sea floor, the team will be able to get a glimpse into the past—up to 20 million years ago—and “greenhouse worlds” that contained the same level of carbon dioxide currently in our atmosphere. "Using these geological records to see what the planetary response was to the current carbon dioxide levels means we can better understand what the scale of change could be for us, and what the earth is capable of in a warmer world,” says Dr Mckay. “Antarctica today acts as a giant heat-sink that keeps the planet cold. If you change that, you’re changing a major part of the global climate system. We’re trying to understand what happened the last time that was changed.” If the West Antarctic Ice Sheet were to melt—as it has in the past—Dr McKay says the global sea level would rise about 3 metres. The impact from the collapse of the Eastern Antarctic Ice Sheet would be even more dramatic, as it contains enough ice to cause an estimated 20-metre rise in sea levels. “The consequences of that for coastal living, globally, are obvious, but we’re also trying to understand the implications for the biosphere in the Southern Ocean. This is one of the largest biological habitats on the planet and we don’t know how it will respond to these changes,” says Dr McKay. An important difference between then and now is also the fact that the increase in carbon dioxide levels that took many thousands of years to occur as part of natural cycles, has happened in just a couple of centuries due to human emissions and is continuing. No stranger to the coldest, driest, windiest continent on earth, Dr McKay travelled to Antarctica when he was just 20 years old for his first-ever overseas trip—which he describes as a “complete sensory overload”. Two decades later, and the five years he has spent planning the current expedition are about to pay off, as he will follow in the footsteps of a number of pioneering Victoria University researchers. “One of the reasons I was invited to be the co-chief scientist on this expedition is that we have a very strong link with records of previous drillings, led by Victoria,” says Dr McKay. “It’s been almost 50 years since the first drilling in Antarctica, which was carried out by scientists that included Victoria University Emeritus Professor Peter Barrett—former director of the Antarctic Research Centre. He revolutionised the way we view Antarctica, in terms of its geological record, and really pioneered core sample drilling on the continent.” “He developed a record that is absolutely fundamental to interpreting Antarctica’s role in global climate change.” After a hiatus of almost eight years, Dr McKay is looking forward to returning to Antarctica and drawing on this wealth of existing research to gather material that is “likely to inform global research for many years to come”. Dr McKay will be joined by two other New Zealanders on the expedition: Giuseppe Cortese, a microfossil expert from GNS Science who will be exploring how plankton communities will be affected by global warming, and Western Springs College teacher Rosa Hughes-Currie. Ms Hughes-Currie will be the first New Zealand high school teacher to take part in an IODP expedition.
| A Victoria University release || December 20, 2017 |||
Dec 20, 2017 - Fisher & Paykel Healthcare Ltd said on Monday it had signed a contract for Leighs Construction Ltd to construct the fourth building on its 42ha Auckland campus at Maurice Paykel Place, East Tamaki.
The new building will have a gross floor area of 35,700m² and consist of a mix of research & development, pilot manufacturing and warehousing areas. Groundworks have been substantially completed and construction will start in late January, with an expected operational date of 2020.
2300 employees – over half Fisher & Paykel Healthcare’s global workforce of 4100 – work at the campus’s existing 3 buildings. Supply chain, environment & facilities general manager Jonti Rhodes said the new building would accommodate expected growth until about 2023.
“The blend of R&D, manufacturing & warehousing that we have in our existing buildings gives us a very open working environment and helps us work collaboratively across functional groups. It’s a unique, modern way of working that we are looking forward to developing further in the new building,” he said.
The company has also started a building programme in Tijuana, Mexico, where construction of a second manufacturing facility is underway with an anticipated completion date of late 2018. The company has 950 employees in Tijuana, where it’s been manufacturing in a leased facility since 2010.
The total cost of the building projects in New Zealand & Mexico is expected to be about $200 million.
Fisher & Paykel Healthcare designs, manufactures & markets products & systems for use in respiratory care, acute care, surgery & the treatment of obstructive sleep apnea. The company’s products are sold in over 120 countries.
| The BDR report || december 20, 2017 |||
Dec 20, 2017 - New Zealand's seasonally adjusted current account deficit for the September 2017 quarter narrowed to $1.3 billion, Stats NZ said today. This is $183 million smaller than the June quarter's deficit and was driven by a fall in imported goods.
The current account balance records the value of New Zealand’s transactions with the rest of the world in goods, services, and income. When we have a current account deficit, it implies foreigners earn more from New Zealand than we earn from overseas economies. It is an important measure of the health of the economy.
Goods deficit smallest since June 2014
The shortfall between the value of exports and imports in the September quarter was much smaller than in the June quarter – the seasonally adjusted goods deficit was $26 million, down from the June quarter’s $437 million deficit and the smallest since the June 2014 quarter.
In the June 2017 quarter, the goods imports recorded its highest level – driven by imported vehicles. This was offset by strong exports in dairy products. In the September 2017 quarter, imports of goods fell $470 million while exports of goods fell $58 million.
"Although we still imported a larger value of goods than we exported, it is the reduction in imports that caused the smaller deficit this quarter compared with last quarter," international manager Daria Kwon said.
"Our terms of trade also reached an all-time high in the latest quarter with import prices falling more than export prices".
Overseas merchandise trade: September 2017 has more detail.
The seasonally adjusted services surplus was a steady $1.2 billion for the September 2017 quarter, $91 million narrower than for the June 2017 quarter. The seasonally adjusted goods and services surplus increased to $1.2 billion in the latest quarter – up from a surplus of $840 million in the June 2017 quarter.
Income deficit increases
The primary and secondary income balance measures the income on investments, in and out of the country, that foreign investors make in New Zealand and that Kiwis make overseas. It also includes transfers (goods, services, or money) between New Zealand and the rest of the world.
The combined primary and secondary income deficit increased $136 million in the September 2017 quarter – up to $2.5 billion.
The primary income net outflow increased $312 million in the September 2017 quarter, to reach $2.4 billion. New Zealand businesses earned less income from their overseas subsidiaries this quarter, while the income earned by foreign-owned businesses was relatively steady.
Secondary income net outflow decreased $175 million – down to $85 million in the September 2017 quarter, partly offsetting the increase in the primary income deficit. New Zealand's outflow of secondary income consists of transactions where we do not receive a financial benefit in return, mainly from foreign aid.
Annual current account deficit same level as 2016
The current account deficit for the year ended September 2017 was $7.1 billion, the same level as for the year ended September 2016. A $659 million increase in the primary income deficit was the main driver behind the current account deficit, but this was partly offset by a $378 million increase to the goods and services surplus.
For the year ended September 2017 the current account deficit as a ratio of GDP was 2.6 percent. It was 2.7 percent of GDP for the year ended September 2016. The annual current account deficit has remained between 2 and 4 percent of GDP since 2010.
| A STATSNZ release || December 20, 2017 |||