Bruce Springsteen has provided the vital bit of inspiration for the revolutionary, new ROADOG motorcycling top and the inventors are keen to show their gratitude when The Boss is in New Zealand.

The Christchurch-based company has been in touch with Springsteen’s management team to present him with their ultra-light, super warm jersey.

“After all, Bruce is a fellow motorbike enthusiast, and our target mark, so we’d love to know what he thinks of our ROADOG jersey,” says director Glenn Rodgers, who has also offered to loan Springsteen Harley Davidson to take him on a ride around the beautiful South Island roads.

The ROADOG their experienced their a ‘voila moment’ riding back from the last Bruce Springsteen concert in 2014 on an icy cold night.

“We had been working on a special, light, new design to protect motorcyclists from the cold winds on long road trip, and had come up with a concept that combined New Zealand merinowith a Hydrotex layer to keep the wind out,” explains Rodgers.

“But that night, riding back from the concert in Auckland, we were still suffering and realised we needed something extra.

“Eventually discovered an amazing American material called Thinsulate that proved to be the crucial ingredient,” says Rodgers.

Springsteen will be in New Zealand for two concerts on February 21 in Christchurch and February 25.

The ROADOG jerseys have received rave reviews from riders throughout New Zealand. “And they all want to get their hands on one of them, so we are already looking at increasing our production.”

| A Roadog article  |  February 19, 2017  ||

Unilever on Friday rejected a $143bn (£115bn) takeover offer from US food giant Kraft Heinz, saying that it sees absolutely no “financial or strategic” merit in a tie-up.

Kraft said in a statement earlier in the day that it had “made a comprehensive proposal to Unilever about combining the two groups to create a leading consumer goods company with a mission of long-term growth and sustainable living”.

>  >  > Continue to full article                      More reading here

Xiekon has officially opened its doors for its own sales, service and support operation in Australia and New Zealand.

The Xeikon solutions have been available in Australian for many years, latterly through Absolute Electronics, however when Xeikon was bought by Flint last year the ink giant instigated a strategy of direct operations within the region.

Trevor Crowley, general manager, Xeikon says, “For the market it means they have a direct line to the factory and the technology developers, and it means they have a supplier whose sole focus is Xeikon.”

Xeikon ANZ will be using its own service engineers to support the presses, with parts and consumables located in Sydney and the regional headquarters in Kuala Lumpur, which will also host the regional technology center with both simplex and duplex technology installed. Crowley says, “The service will be at the level that Xeikon users would expect, we recognise the importance of quick response in today’s world. We are investing heavily in factory trained engineers to cover both Australia and New Zealand”

Xeikon is gearing up for a massive six months, first with the launch of the direct operation here, then the Xeikon Café in Belgium next month, which will see more than 20 different applications produced from Xeikon printers and a variety of integrated finishing lines, third is PacPrint in May at which Xeikon has booked a stand for the first time to show what Crowley says is ‘a first first for Australia’, and then LabelExpo which takes place in Brussels in September.

Crowley says, “Xeikon is a proven and real solid alternative in labels, packaging, folding carton and document printing. The systems print at the highest quality, are the only digital printers that are FDA approved for direct dry food contact, hold some of the best light fastness in our industry, and are cost effective.”

The Xeikon presses are aimed at existing digital print business and printers who want to transition from analogue to digital, however, Crowley also sees digital label greenfield installations coming into play. He says, “Xeikon has an extensive portfolio, its printers are flexible and allow user to work in a variety of applications from labels to folding carton to documents to marketing collateral. They have an unmatched flexibility, and are available as either reel to reel or reel to sheet configurations, and can print on almost any media without the need for pre-coat or post-coat.”

The sales operation begins under Xeikon’s auspices today, while the service operation will transition between Absolute and Xeikon from now until March 31.

Tetra Pak building $25m Thai packaging plant forseeing a  30% jump in Asia-Pacific demand for beverage caps, lids

SINGAPORE -- European food-processing and packaging company Tetra Pak announced it will invest 24 million euros ($25 million) to build a plant to produce caps and lids for beverage products in Thailand. The company said it aims to tap growing demand for such packaging in the Asia-Pacific region.

The facility will produce caps and lids for dairy, juice and other beverage products, mainly for customers in Asia, Australia and New Zealand. Production capacity will be more than 3 billion units per year.

The factory is expected to open in early 2018 and will be located in the same compound as Tetra Pak's existing Straws and Strips plant in the eastern province of Rayong.

Michael Zacka, Tetra Pak's regional vice president for South Asia, East Asia and Oceania, said in a statement that customers are "increasingly looking for packaging that is functional and convenient." He added that the company's growth outlook for the region is "extremely positive" and that the plant will help "open many new opportunities."

Tetra Pak expects demand for packaging with caps or lids in the region to grow by more than 30% between 2015 and 2018. In November, it announced a 100 million euro investment in a new Vietnamese packaging plant to expand its manufacturing footprint in the region. The same month, it also signed a deal with Dubai-based Binghatti Holding to receive approximately $6.8 million in financing to develop packaging and filling lines at an Abu Dhabi factory.

|  A Tetra Pak release  |  February 16, 2017  ||

Mondelez International, the US company that returned US$1.1 billion to shareholders last year, is to close its Cadbury factory at the end of 2018, moving production to Australia and eliminating 350 jobs to cut costs.

The decision will end more than 80 years of production in Dunedin, where the Cadbury factory is a popular tourist attraction and can send the aroma of chocolate wafting over nearby suburbs. The first redundancies would be made before the end of this year, with about 100 people kept on in the business until early 2018, it said.

Mondelez vice president for Australia, New Zealand and Japan Amanda Banfield said the company was "focused on becoming globally cost-competitive through increased production and investment in larger sites while reducing costs, which allows us to fuel the growth in our brands".

She said the factory's distance from its main market of Australia, "low volume and complex product portfolio, make it an expensive place to manufacture our products". The Dunedin factory exports 70 percent of production, mainly to Australia.

Cadbury has lost supermarket shelf space in New Zealand to local brands including J.H. Whittaker & Sons, the nation's second-largest chocolate brand behind Cadbury. It has also battled to retain consumer loyalty after missteps including replacing some of the cocoa butter in its bars with palm oil, a move it reversed after complaints about the taste and the source of the oil.

Nasdaq-listed Mondelez reported global sales US$25.9 billion in 2016, a year in which it returned US$800 million to shareholders by repurchasing stock and paid about US$300 million in cash dividends. It has forecast organic net revenue growth of 1 percent for 2017 after a 0.6 percent gain in 2016. Net earnings last year fell 77 percent to US$1.66 billion.

Mondelez shares last traded at US$45.37 and have gained about 16 percent in the past 12 months.

The company said it was considering making an investment in 'Cadbury World' in Dunedin and about the future use of the factory site. A final decision on a proposed redevelopment would be made by April, it said in a statement.

Green Party co-leader Metiria Turei, a Dunedin resident, sought to make election-year capital out of the announcement, saying the Cadbury factory "has survived major economic ups and downs for more than a hundred years, but it hasn’t been able to survive a National government’s inaction on manufacturing".

“If elected to government in September, we will establish a Minister for Manufacturing in Cabinet, to better represent the interests of manufacturers and ensure they thrive," she said, calling the closure "a tragedy for Dunedin".

Local Labour MPs David Clark and Clare Curran said the closure was "a devastating blow for Dunedin".

Chinese companies started talking a decade ago about cracking the U.S. auto market with an array of low-cost passenger vehicles. That hasn’t happened, so instead they’re getting under the hoods of American cars by buying up parts makers at a record pace writes  Bruce Einhorn for Industry Week.

Ningbo Joyson Electronic Corp. supplies windshield-washer and ventilation systems to some of the world’s biggest carmakers, including Ford Motor Co., General Motors Co. and Volkswagen AG. Last year, it spent more than $1 billion buying a Michigan maker of air bags and an Indiana manufacturer of assembly-line equipment.

Now, it’s on track for potentially the biggest deal yet -- using a subsidiary to bid for beleaguered air-bag maker Takata Corp. (IW 1000/616) and further entrench itself in chassis sold to U.S. drivers. The deal would continue an aggressive strategy that put Ningbo Joyson at the forefront of a record $1.6 billion in investments in U.S. companies by Chinese parts makers last year seeking global supply-chain access to compensate for a maturing home market.

>  >  >  Continue to full article

SkyNews reports that The McLaren group's sports car arm will repatriate production and development of its chassis in a move creating at least 200 jobs.

McClaren has agreed a £50m deal to build a new production and research facility for its carbon fibre sports car chassis in the UK.

McLaren Automotive, a sister firm of the wider group which includes the Formula One racing team, is bringing the work back to the country from overseas in a move creating 200 jobs.

The roles would comprise mainly production staff, with 50 support workers.

The factory is to be housed next to the University of Sheffield's Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) under a partnership arrangement, which includes a training programme for McLaren apprentices.

Full production is due to be reached by 2020.

Mike Flewitt, McLaren Automotive's chief executive, said: "In 1981, McLaren was the first company to recognise the exceptional properties of carbon fibre, and we have designed the highly technical material to be at the heart of every McLaren road and racing car ever since.

"The now-iconic McLaren F1 was the world's first road car to be built with a carbon fibre chassis and every car built more recently by McLaren Automotive has the same.

"Creating a facility where we can manufacture our own carbon fibre chassis structures is therefore a logical next step."

He added: "At the AMRC, we will have access to some of the world's finest composites and materials research capabilities, and I look forward to building a world-class facility and talented team at the new McLaren Composites Technology Centre."

|  A SKYNews release  |  February 8 2017  ||

In the highly competitive world of fabricated structural steel, some local producers and advocates now actively promote reducing the labour component by rationalising building design to enable them to reduce their price and deliver simplicity, says Challenge Steel chief executive Suresh Nagaiya.

“However, Challenge Steel achieves its competitiveness by dealing with one of China’s largest and highly renowned steel producers. Therefore, we can deliver both design complexity or simplicity cost-effectively for the likes of signature buildings.

“The fact that Challenge Steel is now involved in some major rebuilds in Christchurch post its devastating earthquakes shows the level of assurance, absolute quality, and sheer cost-effectiveness we’re able to deliver,” says Mr Nagaiya.

“Thankfully in New Zealand we’re seeing more and more award-winning design in significant public and private buildings. What’s more, steel is now often a very visible component of a building’s celebrated architecture and aesthetics.”

Mr Nagaiya also notes that renowned engineer Dr Peter Johnstone, who’s been in the media a lot following recent earthquakes, advocates that steel not concrete should increasingly be the lead design component in large New Zealand buildings.

Challenge Steel has quickly risen to become one of New Zealand’s largest importers of fabricated structural steel. The CEO says its business continues to grow as public entities and private developments up and down the country demand even more confidence and integrity around quality assurance.

“Challenge Steel is fast getting recognised for establishing a whole new benchmark when it comes to quality assurance and comprehensive product testing, making the likes of developers, procurement and project managers very receptive to our arrival into the local marketplace.

“People are increasingly cognisant of any potential issues and simply can’t afford to procure products that could erode public or consumer confidence in their structures. They naturally want the highest of assurance and we can categorically deliver.”

In recent months Suresh Nagaiya along with Challenge Steel founder and chairman Bert Govan have made trips to China with clients, contractors and prominent engineers showing them the exhaustive processes in action and providing confidence in the product and systems in place.

“We take clients and construction industry experts over to China and they are blown away. They soon see the quality of product being turned out, the robust testing and certification process, and the fact that each steel product is stamped with a unique code to ensure complete traceability. They also see Southern QA’s people on the ground at the fabrication factory. They come back to New Zealand with all the confidence they needed,” he says.

Challenge Steel had its genesis in the Christchurch earthquakes. Its supplier is the Shangdong Iron & Steel Group (Shan Steel) – a wholly state-owned steel conglomerate and one of China’s largest steel makers.

Mr Nagaiya says the motivation of Challenge Steel was to challenge and change New Zealand’s traditional procurement model. They wanted to introduce a lower price threshold into the local steel market and to positively impact on the high construction costs that were negatively impacting on the likes of housing affordability.

“We developed a world-class model over three years that delivers best practice at every step, and we’ve partnered with an array of expert individuals and world-class organisations. As well as manufacturer tests, our products are independently checked both in China and New Zealand, and then potentially by our own city councils. It’s very rigorous.”

Another factor inspiring confidence are Challenge Steel’s key leaders. Last year Tony Sewell and Geoff Cranko joined the board as its two new independent directors.

Mr Sewell is also the current chairman of Business New Zealand, and the former long-time chief executive of Ngai Tahu Property Limited. Geoff Cranko is also the Group Managing Partner of Strategy Design & Advertising and a former CEO of SGS.

Chief executive Suresh Nagaiya is a University of Auckland civil engineering graduate and IPENZ member. As a part-owner of central Auckland project management company, N-Compass, he also brings considerable senior project management experience.

“Challenge Steel is living proof you can deliver both competition and quality into the local steel market. It’s a proposition that’s really resonating and we’re now helping to lift local confidence in imported fabricated structural steel,” says Mr Nagaiya.

| A Challenge Steel release  |  February 8, 2017  ||

On Monday, Carl Bass, the CEO of $18 billion Autodesk, gave an interview with Pando Daily’s Sarah Lacy where he described President Donald Trump as “actingsomewhere between a dictator and a small business owner.”

On Tuesday, Bass announced that he’s stepping down as Autodesk CEO, effective immediately.

He’ll stay on the Autodesk board and assist with the search for a new chief executive, with senior executives Amar Hanspal and Andrew Anagnost holding down the fort as interim co-CEOs.

Autodesk is best known as the company behind AutoCAD, the ubiquitous design software for the worlds of architecture, manufacture, and construction.

In a blog entry, Bass says he’s been discussing the possibility of this move “for the last couple of years.” Still, the timing of his departure is interesting, given the explicit nature of his criticisms of Trump.

“I’ve known Bass for a while, and I am used to his outspoken nature. But even I couldn’t’t believe he said some of this on the record,” Lacy wrote in preface to her interview that was published on Monday.

Tech companies like Google and Netflix have spoken out against Trump’s policies, particularly the recent order temporarily suspending immigration from predominantly muslim countries. But those comments have focused on Trump’s policies, whereas Bass’s comments were aimed directly at the President’s character.

“We are talking about a guy who likes belittling people. He really is a bully. Look, everyone I talk to, the tech guys, who went to that first meeting, well, you saw what they looked like. They didn’t want to be there,” Bass told Lacy.

It’s possible that Bass felt more free to express his opinion knowing that he was about to step down from the CEO job.

> > > Continue to full article on BusinessInsider

A Ferret news item around the release of a lightweight and durable rope guide providing greater flexibility, reliability and safety on small or mid-sized wire rope hoists, to Australia and New Zealand.

Wire rope hoists are used in a wide variety of industries including construction and infrastructure, mining, manufacturing and materials handling, automotive, cement, primary production, process engineering, ports, shipping and logistics.

The guide has a rigid construction, allowing it to withstand extreme and demanding environments.

Kevin Williams, national parts and sales support manager, Konecranes Australia and New Zealand, said it was simple to install and does not require any speciality tools other than spanner or ratchet.

“Rope guides optimise the performance of wire rope hoists, by guiding the rope as it extends or retracts, making sure it’s straight and not causing additional wear. They are an essential part of maintaining a long rope life,” Williams added.

The universal and patented design allows for a range of drum diameters with fast installation and its roller wheels provide smooth transition movement, which can reduce drum wear.

A variety of accessories, sensors or other equipment can be directly fitted on the frame. This modular design allows for the fitting of additional features such as drum cleaning, side-pull prevention and rope measuring.

|  A Ferret release  |  February 6, 2017  ||