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orbemnews · 4 years ago

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Bloggers turning social savvy into six-figure salaries Story highlights Fashion bloggers have become important players in the fashion industry With millions of followers, they command front row seats at fashion weeks Bloggers are now converting their social currency into hard cash Top bloggers earn six-figures a year from advertising, brand collaborations Fashion Season: Paris takes you behind the scenes of the Paris catwalks and beyond, exploring the French capital’s most stylish hidden corners. (CNN) — Seven years ago, Imran Amed started a blog from the living room of his flat in Notting Hill, West London. He had recently quit his job as a management consultant and decided to pursue a passion he harbored since childhood – fashion. Fast forward to today, and what started as a collection of musings read by Amed’s friends and family has grown into The Business of Fashion, one of the industry’s most influential online journals, with 1.6 million followers. The site employs 15 people and regularly features interviews with the likes of Karl Lagerfeld and Michael Kors, making Amed one of the rising stars of the blogging phenomenon that is taking the fashion world by storm. In a few short years, bloggers have gone from being observers on the fringes of the action to bona fide tastemakers, whose recommendations can make products sell out. And brands, keen to capitalize on this effect, are increasingly looking to advertise on the blogosphere, hoping to tap into a ready-made audience of followers. Cashing in On the high end people are charging $50,000 for a sponsored post. James Nord, cofounder of Fohr Card This means that, for many bloggers, what started as a hobby has turned into a revenue-generating vehicle – and for a select few, a full-time job raking in a six-figure annual salary. “A lot of these blogs are like businesses now, and may have three, four writers working for them,” says James Nord, co-founder of Fohr Card, a directory which charges brands a subscription to connect with the blogs on its books, and also provides them with traffic and follower data. “On the high end, people are charging $50,000 for a sponsored post. Those big numbers are usually due to the fact that the blog is reaching a lot of people,” he explains, adding that the fee was appropriate for the amount of promotion the brand was getting, and similar to what would be spent on traditional advertising. One of the most common ways bloggers make money is by affiliate marketing where, through companies like rewardStyle and Skimlinks, they get a commission every time someone buys a product after clicking through from a link on their blog. Bloggers are now earning money from Instagram too. The people that you see now have amazing skills, many have teams in place, and it’s definitely more of a professional game Yuli Ziv, founder of Style Coalition RewardStyle’s LIKEtoKNOW.it app sends followers who like an Instagram photo an email with ready-to-shop links of featured products, paying bloggers a small percentage if a sale is made. “Right now, Instagram is one of the most important platforms a blogger can be on,” says James Nord. “What we’re seeing as a trend is that URL traffic from their actual blog is falling, but following on their other channels such as Instagram, Tumblr, and Facebook is growing fast.” Other sources of revenue include sponsored posts, Twitter chats, ad banners, and for those who have built up a personal brand, co-designing capsule collections and acting as a spokesperson for a label. “Many of these bloggers are becoming celebrities and getting TV careers. For some of them it’s a path for a high-profile job, but many of them realize you can run a successful business earning six figures by doing what you love,” says Yuli Ziv, author the book Blogging Your Way To The Front Row and founder of Style Coalition, a company which connects brands with influential bloggers who have a minimum of 10,000 unique visitors a month. Social superstars Some blogging superstars have become celebrities in their own right. New York City-based Leandra Medine, author of Man Repeller, signed to CAA, the Hollywood mega-agency better known for representing Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks than street-style sensations. Italian front row regular Chiara Ferragni, who has clocked 2.8 million followers on Instagram since starting her blog The Blonde Salad in 2009, has collaborated with luxury brands like Christian Dior, Louis Vuitton and Max Mara. “Three months after I started the website I started getting fist invitations to shows at Milan Fashion Week, some of them for the front row so I was like, ‘wow!’ I had never been to a show before, and I didn’t know the way the fashion world worked, it was totally new to me,” says Ferragni. She now has a team of 13 people, and says she generates over $7 million a year, mainly from her line of shoes, as well as adverts, commissions and brand consultancy. You don’t have to be based in a fashion capital to make spectacular earnings. According to Women’s Wear Daily, Salt Lake City blogger Rachel Parcell, who pens a personal style blog Pink Peonies, is expected to make $960,000 this year from affiliate links alone. Cutthroat competition But before you pack in the day job to make your fortune blogging about shoes remember it’s a competitive arena. “The competition is so tough, even compared to three years ago, the stakes are getting higher. The people that you see now they have amazing skills, many have teams in place, and it’s definitely more of a professional game,” says Ziv. A huge number of followers doesn’t always translate to mega-earnings either, according to Micky Khanna of UK-based Optimus Performance Marketing, which connects brands to bloggers. Many of these bloggers are becoming celebrities and getting TV careers. Yuli Ziv, founder of Style Coalition “We look at those who have an active following. You can have a low number of followers but of good quality, or you may have a large number of followers, but because of the quality it may not necessarily convert. That’s something we need to determine on a face-to-face basis,” he says. So what exactly do established brands get out of working with bloggers? “The custom content that bloggers create on behalf of the brand is something that you can’t compare with advertising because it’s very personal and very authentic,” says Yuli Ziv. “We’ve seen the quality of bloggers’ work increasing constantly, and if you compare average advertising budget that brands spend on TV or print, what they can get for the same budget working with bloggers is incomparable.” Rachel Parcell, author of Pink Peonies blog, is set to earn a six figure sum this year according to WWD. Style Coalition says that 13% of their bloggers earn more than $100,000 a year and 54% blog as a full-time job. And how do you build the right kind of following that attracts advertisers? “Social media has enabled people writing from literally their living rooms to get in contact with a global audience,” says Imran Amed. “Every time we create an articles or a video it’s shared thousands and thousands of times on social media. It’s kind of like turbo-charge word of mouth Audience wants to come to your blog and Instagram and see new content every day. James Nord, cofounder of Fohr Card So with blogging becoming increasingly popular and everyone and their dog penning their thoughts on fashion, what separates the professional bloggers from the amateurs: “Consistency,” says James Nord, “the people who become successful do have a unique point of view, but the hard part is waking up every single day and producing things over and over and over again. Audience wants to come to your blog and Instagram and see new content every day.” Source link Orbem News #Bloggers #salaries #Savvy #sixfigure #Social #turning

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multipleservicelisting · 4 years ago

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Makeup Without the Markup

Some people are lucky enough to have one good idea in life that they then build into a successful business. Marcia Kilgore had five.

First, in 1996, she founded Bliss, a New York City beauty emporium with a cult following that mushroomed into a lucrative line of beauty products and later became the first North American acquisition made by LVMH, for an estimated $30 million.

Then there was the affordable bath, body and cosmetics brand, Soap & Glory, which became a staple of British bathrooms and was sold to the drugstore chain Boots Alliance in 2014. Next came an ergonomic footwear line, FitFlop; and then Soaper Duper, a vegan bath and body products label.

But it is her fifth company, Beauty Pie, that the 52-year-old serial entrepreneur believes to be her best idea yet.

“I’ve had some good ones in the past,” Ms. Kilgore said. “I’m proud of them all. But Beauty Pie? Beauty Pie eclipses the rest.”

Beauty Pie, which has its headquarters in London, began operations four years ago and is a buyers’ club for beauty addicts. Members pay a monthly membership fee for backdoor access to some of the world’s best fragrance, skin care and cosmetics factories, many of which supply big-name luxury brands that go on to charge sky-high multiples for the products once they are stamped with their logo. With Beauty Pie, members can get regular deliveries of Japanese skin cleansers and South Korean serums, Italian lipsticks and perfumes sourced from Grasse in France, all of which arrive in signature rosy pink packaging.

The idea came to Ms. Kilgore one afternoon in a Milan train station as she made her way back from a beauty manufacturing region in Italy known as Lipstick Valley. She had about $5,000 worth of free samples from local factories in a shoulder bag.

“I suddenly thought, ‘What if all the women who usually buy these products in Sephora or department stores could have this feeling that I have right now?’” Ms. Kilgore recalled. “That they were getting a great deal by cutting out the middlemen. That they could access beauty at real cost, meaning they could go on and afford and explore so much more in terms of great products. I knew making customers feel good like that had real power, even if it would also put some noses in the industry out of joint.”

After all, making clients feel good is what energized her businesses from the beginning. Ms. Kilgore was born in 1968 in Saskatchewan, Canada. Her father died when she was 11. Money was tight, and after high school, she moved to New York with $300.

For several years she worked as a personal trainer, and then, having taken an aesthetician’s course after recurring bouts of acne, Ms. Kilgore found a new niche: offering facials from her East Village apartment.

In 1996, she opened the Bliss Spa in SoHo. A Vogue article waxed lyrical about her rubs, peels and wraps. Oprah Winfrey and Calvin Klein and Madonna became clients. The waiting lists for treatments like the Quadruple Thighpass and Double Oxygen facial with Ms. Kilgore were up to 18 months long. (In 1997, Julia Roberts told People that even she sometimes had a hard time getting an appointment.)

A kitschy best-selling product line followed, as did spas and a decade of 90-hour workweeks for Ms. Kilgore and her team, who would relax customers with King Kong videos in the electrolysis room and talk to them like old girlfriends.

“Bliss stood out as a brand because it had a personality that was quirky and interesting and different from everything else out there back then, just like Marcia herself,” said the beauty entrepreneur Bobbi Brown.

“She was also a shrewd pioneer who opened up a whole new lucrative sector of the health and beauty sector,” Ms. Brown said. “She has never been someone who is afraid of taking chances.”

With each of her ventures Ms. Kilgore appears able to bottle and then sell a moment in the beauty zeitgeist, an industry once dominated by a handful of global behemoths. In recent years, however, independent start-ups have proliferated, their success buoyed by innovative products, social media savvy and eager consumers.

Beauty Pie has arrived at a time when shoppers are more aware than ever of how and where their products are made and increasingly prize transparency from retailers. Online subscriptions, for toiletries and flowers and household goods, have also grown in popularity, particularly since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

An annual Beauty Pie membership costs $99, or starts at $10 a month, which then includes lower prices on more than 300 products.

“At one point I thought I might need to get a bulletproof vest for ruffling the feathers of the beauty old guard with all this, that I couldn’t do it, that everyone might hate me,” Ms. Kilgore said from Geneva, where she lives with her husband and two children. With skin so luminous that it cuts through the fuzz of the Zoom screen, she is an alluring ambassador for her brand — including on social media, where she frequently offers tips and solicits feedback on new releases.

“But then I thought about it again,” Ms. Kilgore said. “This is about democratizing luxury beauty. It is about respecting the intelligence and needs of a customer I know I understand.”

If she had given in to her fears, she said, “I would hate myself. If you are almost too terrified to do something, there is usually a reason. The reason being it’s a really good idea.”

Some industry observers have pointed out that for a Beauty Pie membership to make financial sense in terms of overall savings, the volume of purchases has to be well into the hundreds of dollars. Others have noted that at a time when the sector is heaving with innovation and choice, not all beauty aficionados will want to commit their beauty budget in one place, and that the multiple levels of membership could be confusing to some shoppers.

Ms. Kilgore said that since March memberships and revenue are both up significantly, though she declined to provide figures for the company. She did, however, disclose that Beauty Pie had recently taken on venture capital investment — the first time she has taken outside funding for any of her businesses.

“For the first few years I just put all inbound interest from investors in a folder,” Ms. Kilgore said. “But if you want to play in this arena and want to get the best talent hired into your business, then you do need to have that funding.” She noted that the money raised from Index Ventures, Balderton Capital and General Catalyst would be used in part to improve Beauty Pie’s technology operations and marketing reach and to increase its product range.

Danny Rimer of Index Ventures said that it took a long time to persuade Ms. Kilgore that it would be worthwhile to work with investors

“Marcia has built everything on her own until now, but we knew we had to convince her,” Mr. Rimer said. “There is nothing more important to an investment, early or late stage — even with a great product — than the entrepreneur behind it. We have to be convinced that this person has been placed on the planet to build their vision into a business.”

Ms. Kilgore described herself as a “wild workaholic,” albeit one whose usually relentless travel schedule had been curbed by this year’s lockdown measures. Lately, downtime has involved meditation apps, learning Mandarin and French, and going for hikes in the mountains near her home with a 45-pound vest. Not most people’s idea of relaxing, perhaps, but she said she wouldn’t have it any other way.

After the sales of previous ventures like Bliss and Soap & Glory made her wealthy, Ms. Kilgore had mulled taking a step back from the roller coaster of start-up life.

Then, she said, she realized that “working on how to bring people joy” is what makes her happy, “from the days when I did three part-time jobs to support my mom in high school or when I did facials sitting on a crate in my apartment and then watched my clients float out the door.”

“It just gives me the biggest thrill,” she said. “And I’m not ready to give that up.”

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mariaclaragomez276 · 5 years ago

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Q&A with Cristina Mallia, SLH’s Senior Vice President of Hotel Services

TELL US ABOUT YOURSELF. WHERE ARE YOU FROM?

I live in Surrey with my partner John. My parents are both originally from the same beautiful village in Sicily, but my mum grew up in France from an early age. After settling in the UK in their early twenties it meant that my sister and I then spent every summer in Sicily seeing grandparents and family, and every Christmas in France seeing my mum’s side of the family. My sister and I soon started speaking Sicilian/Italian and French at an early age. We grew up enjoying all three cultures!

WHAT IS YOUR ROLE AT SLH AND WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE THING ABOUT IT?

As Senior Vice President of Hotel Services, I am responsible for managing a team of 14 Revenue Account Managers across 5 offices and for Global Training. As Revenue Account Managers we are the main contacts for our community of 500 plus hotels. We play a key role at SLH in maintaining a strong relationship with the Owners, General Managers and their team members at the hotels. We work with them to ensure they connect to the brand, participate in our opportunities and ultimately get the most out of being part of the SLH community.

My favourite thing about my role is working with a brilliant team of professionals and hoteliers. We all come from different parts of the world, speak multiple languages, have mostly worked in the 4/5 star hotel business and we learn a lot from each other on a daily basis.

WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR BEST EXPERIENCE WHEN VISITING AN SLH HOTEL?

There have been a few so it’s difficult to pin point one, but what they all have something special in common – because our hotels are all independently owned, you can really feel how proud they are of their hotel and their local area, and you can see that they genuinely want you to experience their part of the world and make it a trip to remember.

WHAT SLH HOTEL DO YOU MOST WANT TO VISIT?

I would say Petit St. Vincent Island, St. Vincent & The Grenadines – it’s a private island in the Caribbean that you can also hire exclusively for your entire family! Last time the General Manager was here to give a presentation, they mentioned an all-you-can-eat lobster offering at the hotel’s beach restaurant. John would love that!

WHICH IS YOUR FAVOURITE CITY AND WHY?

Miami – for all-round sun, the beaches, exploring, shopping, the people, the fun atmosphere. I have stayed at The Betsy South Beach and The Plymouth South Beach, which are both fantastic hotels. The Betsy has a wonderful restaurant – the best steak I have ever had!

WHICH DESTINATION DO YOU MOST WANT TO VISIT AND WHY?

Hawaii – John has already been and raves about it. We always say that one day we are going to get married out there. Let’s see…!

WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE HOBBY, OUTSIDE OF WORK?

I don’t really have a hobby. I spend most of my evenings and weekends either seeing my family (particularly my adorable nephew and niece) and friends or going away. I do love dancing – I am the first and last person on the dance floor and I love singing karaoke. The girls in the Singapore office took me to karaoke and we sung nonstop for 3 hours – we could have gone on for 24 hours! I have actually just signed up for ice skating lessons as it’s one thing I am particularly terrible at and would love to be more confident at. Let’s see how I get on – you never know, I might be the next Jayne Torvill.

DESCRIBE AN AVERAGE DAY WORKING AT SLH

It’s certainly dynamic and fast paced. Each Revenue Account Manager looks after around 40-50 hotels, and we know all our Owners and General Managers personally as we meet them during hotel visits, office visits and at regional meetings or conferences. We offer many services to support our hotels drive revenue so we have to be fully trained in most areas of the business and help with all sorts of queries. Communication is key, so I am continuing to keep the global team up to date with the latest opportunities and tools for the hotels.

HOW DO YOU BRING A PIECE OF YOU TO SLH?

I am bubbly and energetic, and my partner in crime at work, Romina, is always saying that I am full of ideas and initiatives and that I need to slow down! In fact, everyone says I need to slow down. Having worked for the company for almost 14 years, the team at SLH are family to me.

The post Q&A with Cristina Mallia, SLH’s Senior Vice President of Hotel Services appeared first on Small Luxury Hotels.

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bigyack-com · 5 years ago

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Louis Vuitton and NBA announce global partnership; to design case for NBA trophy, clothing range - fashion and trends

Fashion label Louis Vuitton has struck a partnership with the National Basketball Association (NBA), a major men’s professional league. This multi-year partnership makes the French fashion house the first official Trophy Travel Case provider of the NBA. The partnership marks Louis Vuitton’s first and only partnership with a North American sports league, a statement said. The NBA and Louis Vuitton will also work together to co-author stories regarding the trophies and its travel companion. The bespoke case crafted in the Maison’s historic Asnières Ateliers on the outskirts of Paris, is coated with the brand’s iconic emblem monogram canvas and fitted with traditional brass fixtures. Its interior comprises of a midnight blue velvet fabric, contrasting from its brown exterior and includes two small drawers below the trophy stand.Louis Vuitton, a popular brand amongst several celebrities in India and abroad is also well-known for its range of leather handbags, priced exorbitantly. The fashion label has in the past worked with tennis and soccer teams in the past (including a soccer-ball shaped bag in 1998) and will be producing a clothing range as well inspired by the league. The agreement comes amid a drive by Vuitton - the world’s biggest luxury label by sales and the main revenue driver at its French parent group - to woo U.S. shoppers as well as young consumers. Like movie stars, singers or models, sports stars can also wield an influence in the world of fashion, as fans look to emulate their look or follow their every step on social media, and brands are increasingly trying to court shoppers this way.The NBA-linked, limited edition range of clothing will be designed by Virgil Abloh (Founder and CEO of Off-White and Artistic Director of menswear at Louis Vuitton). A one-time DJ, Virgil Abloh is credited with making streetwear fashion like hoodies a popular choice in fashion across groups. In late 2019, Virgil Abloh became fashion’s ‘renaissance man’ through a tie-up with Musee de Louvre (Louvre Museum). The T-shirts, sweatshirts and hoodies in the collection were adorned with some of Leonardo Da Vinci’s greatest works to mark the 500th anniversary of the Italian artist’s death. The hoodies were seen as a mix of Leonardo male nudes and paintings like ‘Saint Anne’ with the four-arrowed logo of Abloh’s ultra-hip Off-White label. -- With inputs from Reuters Follow more stories on Facebook and Twitter Read the full article

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toldnews-blog · 6 years ago

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New Post has been published on https://toldnews.com/lifestyle/french-titans-pledges-to-notre-dame-pass-e850-million/

French Titans’ Pledges to Notre-Dame Pass €850 Million

In the aftermath of the fire at Notre-Dame, one of the great symbols of France, the luxury industry — another symbol of the country, thanks to names such as Dior, Louis Vuitton and Saint Laurent — has pledged hundreds of millions of euros to the cathedral’s restoration.

The donations were followed on Tuesday by other pledges that soon surpassed 850 million euros, or about $960 million, and included beauty, energy, technology and finance companies as well as private individuals.

On Monday, as Notre-Dame burned and flames lit the sky, the Pinault family — owners of Kering, the second-largest luxury group in France — was the first to publicly offer a significant contribution, pledging to donate €100 million to the rebuilding effort.

[Black churches destroyed by arson saw a surge in donations after the Notre-Dame fire.]

“The Notre-Dame tragedy strikes all French people, as well as all those with spiritual values,” said François-Henri Pinault, chairman of Artémis, the family holding company that controls Kering.

“Faced with this tragedy, everyone wishes to bring this jewel of our heritage back to life as soon as possible,” he added. “Today, my father and I have committed to donate €100 million from the Artémis fund to take part in the effort needed to fully rebuild Notre-Dame de Paris.”

Shortly afterward, the Arnault family and LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, led by Bernard Arnault, the richest man in France, announced that they would give €200 million.

“The LVMH Group puts at the disposal of the state and the relevant authorities all of its teams — including creative, architectural and financial specialists — to help with the long work of reconstruction and fund-raising, which is already in progress,” they said.

LVMH is the largest luxury group in the world. Its fashion holdings include Celine, Dior, Givenchy and Louis Vuitton. The group also owns drinks brands including Moët & Chandon, Dom Pérignon and Veuve Clicquot, as well as the landmark Parisian stores Le Bon Marché and La Samaritaine. The group reported revenue of €46.8 billion in 2018.

Mr. Arnault was an early supporter of Emanuel Macron’s presidential bid, and Brigitte Macron, the French first lady, wears Louis Vuitton for most of her high-profile public events. Mr. Arnault also masterminded the Fondation Louis Vuitton, the contemporary art museum in the Bois de Boulogne designed by Frank Gehry that has helped reshape the landscape of Paris and that will ultimately become a gift to the city.

For its part, Kering owns luxury brands such as Balenciaga, Boucheron and Yves Saint Laurent. The Pinault family — also among the richest in France — owns the wine estate Château Latour. The group’s 2018 revenues were €13.67 billion. François Pinault, the patriarch of the family that controls Kering, is building a contemporary art museum in the former Bourse de Commerce in the center of Paris that will be designed by the architect Tadao Ando.

François-Henri Pinault, Mr. Pinault’s son, is married to the actress Salma Hayek. Kering has its headquarters in Paris, and Ms. Hayek posted a message of condolence and support on Instagram after the fire. “As many others I’m in deep shock and sadness to witness the beauty of Notre-Dame turn into smoke,” she wrote. “I love you Paris.”

The two fashion groups are deeply embedded and invested in the heritage of France as a global beacon of beauty and artistic creativity, a tradition that is also carved into the stones of Notre-Dame.

In recent years, the luxury industry across Europe has become actively involved in restoring historic monuments. The Italian leather goods group Tod’s is underwriting the restoration of the Colosseum in Rome for €25 million. Fendi, which is owned by LVMH, paid €2 million toward the restoration of the Trevi Fountain in the Italian capital (the company held a fashion show there when it was completed). Bulgari, a jewelry brand also under the LVMH umbrella, spent €1.5 million on the Spanish Steps in the city. And Salvatore Ferragamo, an Italian luxury goods company, has supported the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.

The motives are both altruistic — supplying funds that local governments do not have in the interests of saving a joint inheritance — and self-interested — the companies clearly understand that the more closely they associate with masterpieces of history, the more they bask in their glow.

In addition, when it comes to Notre-Dame, donors will benefit from a hefty tax write-off. Individuals in France can get a 66 percent discount on charitable gifts, while companies can deduct 60 percent of their corporate sponsorship expenses — which would most likely include assistance to the cathedral — from their corporation tax, though the amount is capped at 0.5 percent of turnover.

However, on Wednesday the Pinault family issued a public statement saying they would not take any tax deductions for their donation. “For the Pinault family, there is no question of French taxpayers having to bear the cost of such a deduction,” they declared.

The gifts from the likes of the Arnaults and the Pinaults are a reflection of how personally, and how profoundly, the fire has reached into the identity of French citizens and their businesses.

Indeed, just after the announcement from LVMH, Patrick Pouyanné, the chief executive of the French energy company Total, said on Twitter that his firm would contribute an additional €100 million to the cause, and L’Oréal and the Bettencourt-Schueller Foundation, which is backed by the family that founded the cosmetics giant, pledged a total of €200 million. Offers of aid in the reconstruction effort also came from the bank Société Générale (€10 million) and Crédit Agricole (€5 million, via their foundation) and the advertising firm JCDecaux (€20 million), while the tire maker Michelin also promised a large sum and the construction giant Vinci offered to provide workers and architects. Tim Cook, the chief executive of Apple, said on Twitter they wold also donate to the cause, though the company has not yet specified how much. Other donors include Sanofi, Axa, and Capgemini.

Their legacy will now be part of Notre-Dame’s future.

Liz Alderman contributed reporting.

#dallas morning news lifestyle editor #lifestyle news 2017 #lifestyle news facts #lifestyle news in tamil #lifestyle news malayalam #lifestyle news stories #lifestyle news times of india #lifestyle newspaper chandigarh #lifestyledesign #the lifestyle newshound podcast

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mikemortgage · 6 years ago

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Kore.ai Announces Rapid Revenue Growth, Expansion and Funding from Naya Ventures to Manage Increased Demand in 2019

ORLANDO, Fla. — Kore.ai, a global leader in conversational AI, is preparing for another year of record growth in 2019 after closing 2018 with 300% growth in bookings, and the addition of dozens of new Global 2000 enterprise customers across 7 verticals in Americas, Europe and Asia.

“We are at the cusp of a great journey, with conversational AI having already captured market imagination. Our comprehensive enterprise platform credentials are well established, and our clients are seeing massive ROI along with improved customer and employee satisfaction. Our vision of deploying a conversational interface to any application to improve user experience and enable automation has been proven through varied use cases,” said Kore.ai Founder and CEO, Raj Koneru.

To back this growth, Naya Ventures, a US-based venture capital firm that backs early-stage disruptive technology companies with the potential to emerge as market leaders in areas like deep tech, cloud and AI invested in the company during 2018. Additional funding was provided by CEO/Founder, Raj Koneru in 2018 on top of the significant funding he has made since inception. Overall, funding is in excess of $45 million in the company so far.

“Kore.ai is uniquely placed with an unlimited potential for growth and strategic relevance in an emerging technology space,” said Dayakar Puskoor, Managing Director, Naya Ventures, explaining the rationale behind the investment. “Kore.ai’s performance is enviable, with an impeccable record on all aspects that a fast-moving technology company is expected to emulate – be it consistently proven leadership, growth momentum, technological relevance, innovation and engineering excellence, strategic partnerships or brand recall. We believe our collaboration through this funding will help Kore.ai scale greater heights and realize its vision of creating intelligent enterprises through conversational AI,” he stated.

To manage the tremendous growth and strong pipeline, Kore.ai appointed Michael Eckhoff as chief revenue officer (CRO) to head its global sales in 2018. Michael added: “The incredible reception of the Kore.ai platform by enterprise customers and prospects demonstrates the platform’s breadth of capabilities and product maturity in a fragmented market. We are building a world class team of account management professionals to support the market demand.”

Further, the company appointed industry veteran Devendra Kumar (DK) Sharma, ex-CIO of Citigroup International, as a full-time board member. “DK brings a wealth of experience to Kore.ai and we are excited to welcome him to our board of directors,” said Mr. Koneru. “We believe his successful track record in the technology space, together with his extensive experience will be extremely valuable as we continue to grow.”

The company has also grown its employee base significantly since last year with currently more than 250 employees focused on advanced areas of conversational AI. In parallel, Kore.ai has forged strategic industry partnerships to strengthen its joint go-to-market reach. Thousands of developers across dozens of leading consulting and system integration firms and technology/ ISV partners use Kore.ai’s platform to build industry-leading conversational AI solutions.

Some of the exciting use cases that Kore.ai is building for key customers include:

a prominent US bank with global presence using Kore.ai for retail banking, commercial banking and institutional client groups, as well as for internal requirements in both digital and interactive voice response (IVR), realizing significant reduction in live agent handling for key functions;

a large European bank running Kore.ai-built bots for its IT helpdesk, security and audit, achieving 100% more than the projected ROI in the first year;

a global telecom giant using Kore.ai to implement bots for sales and customer support with a realized 20% increase in customer satisfaction and reduction in process steps;

a luxury cruise line piloting Kore.ai’s bots platform installed entirely on-ship for enhanced guest service and commerce;

a large electrical equipment manufacturer realized over 90% reduction in live customer service and technical support chats currently handled by human agents.

“Kore.ai has consistently set the tone for greater adoption of conversational AI by foreseeing the demands of the market. Our clients appreciate the originality, comprehensiveness and market readiness of our platform. 19 industry analysts – including Gartner, IDC, Everest Group, HFS and others – have researched and validated our rich feature set, comprehensive platform capabilities and market leadership,” Mr. Koneru explained.

Some major enhancements of 2018 include:

implementing open, extensible APIs for efficient integration with global enterprise systems and analytics engines;

bolstering omnichannel capabilities by growing to over 30 out-of-the box pre-integrated channels;

enhancing the unique hybrid NLP and intelligent dialog turn management capabilities;

employing an IVR integration framework on the platform with advanced contact center AI capabilities with integration to leading IVR, speech recognition and text-to-speech platforms;

expanding global reach with support for languages including English, French, German, Spanish, Chinese (traditional and simplified), Portuguese, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, Dutch and Bahasa;

innovating the Universal Bot – one master assistant that routes requests to several backend chatbots across different functions and domains as needed;

creating an advanced AI based knowledge extraction and ingestion feature set to take structured and unstructured content to produce bot knowledge;

creating a new state-of-the-art proprietary AI framework to discover intents, sub intents, entities and discourse patterns from historical chat and call transcripts to enable rapid conversational AI bot creation and ongoing optimization.

About Naya Ventures

Founded in 2011, Naya Ventures invests in early stage AI and cloud-based companies where its emerging market channel relationships and go-to-market strategies can efficiently increase enterprise value. Lead by serial entrepreneurs in the mobile and cloud industry, Naya Ventures’ principals work alongside a global network of C-level executives and general partners at influential US technology companies and venture funds. Naya’s strong mobile and cloud industry reputation, its relationships with leading technology companies and its global network of technology and market development resources help accelerate value creation. Its relationships also provide Naya with an extensive deal sourcing and follow on funding capability.

About Kore.ai

Kore.ai is a market leading conversational AI partner for Global 2000 companies. It provides an enterprise-grade, end-to-end Conversational AI platform available on-premise/cloud for building, deploying and managing secure, smart, conversational bots across 30 different digital and voice channels. Kore.ai partners with top ISVs and global system integrators for helping companies meet their digital transformation needs leveraging the power of enterprise chatbots.

Kore.ai has repeatedly won global analyst acclaim and was most recently featured in Gartner Market Guide 2018 for Conversational Platforms, IDC Innovators: Conversational AI Software Platforms 2018 and Everest Group’s Conversing with AI – Intelligent Virtual Agents Market Report 2019.

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ladystylestores · 4 years ago

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MooRER Upgrades Offering With New Categories, Retail Services – WWD

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MILAN — Italian outerwear specialist MooRER has expanded its product categories.

After launching men’s pants and knitwear, the brand has enriched its offering with denim pieces, footwear and small leather goods. The women’s line will also be expanded to include denim, knitwear and dresses starting from the spring 2021 collection.

In addition to new categories, the label has upgraded its retail strategy by implementing new customized shopping assistance services. Customers can now ask for remote consultations with sales assistants, the home delivery of goods purchased at the brands’ flagships as well as for a concierge service enabling stores assistants to bring a selection of pieces to their homes. Consumers will also be able to book online an in-store appointment or a single garment to try on in the flagship soon.

Although the lockdown halted the brick-and-mortar activity for months, the company said it expects a double-digit growth in 2020, supported by a series of investments it has made in technology to ramp up the business after the pandemic’s peak phase. Last year, revenues were flat at 30 million euros compared to 2018.

Based in Castelnuovo del Garda in the Veneto region, MooRER was founded by Moreno Faccincani in 2006. Known for its luxury down jackets and outerwear, the brand is produced by specialized manufacturers in the area surrounding its headquarters and takes pride in full traceability of its products.

The company counts four monobrand boutiques, including one in Milan’s luxury shopping street Via Montenapoleone, in Tokyo’s Ginza, Italy’s Cortina and Germany’s Sylt. The label is available at more than 1,000 multibrand points of sale and luxury department stores globally, including Italy’s Rinascente and Tsum in Moscow.

The MooRER store in Milan. Courtesy Photo

As reported, last year investment fund Borletti Group acquired a 25 percent stake in the brand. Faccincani continues to hold his role of president and creative director of MooRER.

Borletti Group was founded by former Rinascente president Maurizio Borletti and former Emanuel Ungaro chief executive officer Paolo De Spirt in 2005. The investment in MooRER followed Borletti Group’s backing of Italian fashion brand Elisabetta Franchi, which, before the pandemic, was eyeing a public listing in the first quarter of 2020 on the AIM segment for small caps of the Italian Stock Exchange.

Previously, Borletti Group was also among the investors that acquired Italian department store chain La Rinascente in 2005 and French department store chain Printemps in 2006. La Rinascente was eventually sold to Thai group Central Retail Corp. in 2011, and Printemps in 2013 to Divine Investments SA, a Luxembourg-based investment fund backed by Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, the former emir of Qatar.

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mobileautorepairpros · 5 years ago

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This Just In: New Auto Giant

Two of the most well-known names in the automotive industry are becoming one. Peugeot S.A…. also known as Groupe PSA… and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles have agreed to merge. They’re equal partners in the deal. Combining a French based company with an Italian-American multinational corporation will create the fourth largest global OEM by volume and third largest by revenue. The merged companies are expected to produce annual sales of 8.7 million units and combined revenues of nearly $189 billion. 46% of revenues will come from Europe and 43% will be generated by sales in North America. This comes a little more than six months after Fiat Chrysler Automobiles’ proposed merger with French automaker Renault fell through.

One of the benefits of any merger is combining resources. In the auto industry that usually means sharing vehicle platforms, engines and technology. In this case, FCA says “more than two-thirds of run rate volumes will be concentrated on 2 platforms, with approximately 3 million cars per year on each of the small platform and the compact/mid-size platform”. The merger runs the gamut of vehicles from luxury brands like Alpha Romeo and Maserati to the compact PEUGEOT 108. They’ll be sharing more than hardware. Like every other automotive company, they’ll be combining forces to develop sustainable mobility, autonomous driving and connectivity. FCA says “these synergy estimates are not based on any plant closures resulting from the transaction”.

A Dutch parent company will oversee this new automotive giant. As with any merger, both companies’ shareholders and regulators must approve the deal. That’s expected to take up to 15 months.

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velvetcream03-blog · 5 years ago

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What Net-a-Porter’s Alibaba Deal Says About the Luxury E-Commerce Opportunity in China

Hello BoF Professionals, your exclusive 'This Week in Fashion' briefing is ready, with members-only analysis on the key topic of the week and a digest of the week's top news.

This week, Alibaba scored a major coup by signing Net-a-Porter onto Tmall’s Luxury Pavilion platform. The Richemont-owned e-commerce portal, the biggest online luxury fashion website by sales, will sit on the Luxury Pavilion, which is available through Tmall, and Alibaba will take over operations of Net-a-Porter’s Chinese app and help launch a Chinese version of Mr Porter, the luxury retailer's menswear sibling. To date, customers in China have only had access to an English-language version of the men's site.

The latest move signals several truths about China's fast-moving online luxury market. For one, the already powerful e-commerce platforms operated by Alibaba and JD.com are further consolidating their power in the luxury space. For Alibaba, scoring a deal with what is arguably the world’s most prestigious online luxury player is a big victory in its ongoing battle with arch-rival JD.com, which pumped $397 million into luxury fashion marketplace — and Net-a-Porter competitor — Farfetch last year.

The deal also puts pressure on the few remaining sceptics who refuse to partner with China’s e-commerce giants. Luxury executives like Gucci’s Marco Bizzarri — who earlier this month at the BoF China Summit remained steadfast in his decision to stay away from platforms like Alibaba’s Tmall — could start to feel more isolated. Going it alone increasingly looks like a tough sell in China’s fast-growing online luxury market. And while there are very legitimate concerns about counterfeits and ceding control to Chinese conglomerates, for more and more luxury players, the motto now seems to be: "If you can’t beat them, join them."

Yoox Net-a-Porter chief executive Federico Marchetti was quick to take to social media in the minutes following the announcement of Richemont’s Alibaba deal. “Winning in the Chinese luxury market means thinking big,” Marchetti posted on Instagram. But the bigger story seems to be that even the established e-commerce giants of Europe now have to plug and play into a much bigger digital ecosystem if they are to reach their potential in the Chinese market.

China’s major e-commerce platforms have made major strides in luxury e-commerce over the past 18 months. And since Richemont acquired YNAP for €2.7 billion (a little over $3 billion) in May of this year, the e-commerce group has made no secret of its desire to partner with a local player in order to grow its China business. YNAP has long seen great potential in the Middle Kingdom, but it hasn’t managed to break through with great success, despite several efforts at entry and revitalisation.

Yoox made its first foray into Chinese e-commerce in 2010 via the launch of Emporioarmani.cn, and followed with other own-brand sites and Yoox.cn in 2012. That same year, Net-a-Porter acquired Chinese luxury e-commerce player Shouke.com, which was relaunched as Theoutnet.cn, a Chinese-language version of Net-a-Porter’s discount sister site. That site was then integrated as a Chinese-language section of the global Theoutnet.com site in 2015 to the dismay of Chinese consumers, who complained the global site lacked integrated customs tariffs clearing and local payment options.

Of course, 2015 was also the year of the merger between Yoox and Net-a-Porter, creating the world’s largest fashion e-tailer. But even being the world’s biggest online luxury player didn’t seem to give the group a leg-up in China, where it struggled to localise and lure consumers away from dominant Chinese e-commerce platforms.

As e-commerce sales in China topped $1 trillion in 2017, international luxury brands still remained underrepresented on the country’s big digital platforms, which were driving much of the momentum in the Chinese online luxury market. According to Gartner L2, only 24 percent of luxury brands had official stores on Tmall (Alibaba’s B2C e-commerce platform) and only 10 percent operated them on JD.com as of June 2017.

The big shift in luxury e-commerce in China occurred when the two dominant B2C platforms, Tmall and JD.com, turned their attention more aggressively to the space with the launch of specialised platforms Toplife, a standalone app launched by JD.com in June 2017, and Luxury Pavilion, an “app-within-an-app” accessed by invite only through Alibaba’s Tmall platform, first launched in August last year. YNAP is the latest of more than 60 partners to align with Luxury Pavilion in its 14 months of existence.

The attraction for these brands is obvious: Alibaba’s pool of 600 million potential customers, closer alignment on anti-counterfeiting efforts across its platforms and access to the tech giant’s famed big data operation.

On the flip side, the move into luxury is, in many ways, a sensible evolution for Alibaba and JD.com, which already have dominant positions in the wider consumer market. In 2018 Alibaba’s platforms, which include Taobao and Tmall, will account for 58.2 percent of all retail e-commerce sales in China, while JD.com will capture a 16.3 percent share, according to Emarketer. But the blockbuster quarterly growth now expected by shareholders could only be sustained by growing average spend per transaction.

Conveniently, this pivot came not only as Chinese consumers were re-embracing luxury with a vengeance — figures from Bain & Company put luxury market growth in China up 20 percent last year — but also as the central government, which had been central to the country’s luxury downturn, following President Xi Jinping’s 2012 crackdown on conspicuous consumption, encouraged consumers to “upgrade” their consumption, in order to help move the Chinese economy away from its traditional manufacturing and exporting base towards a consumer-led model.

The scene is certainly set for blockbuster online luxury growth in China, with more than $20 billion of luxury goods sold in the country last year and e-commerce currently accounting for more than 28 percent of retail sales (and growing) in the country. What also now seems certain is that international players are increasingly positioning themselves to capitalise on this growth by aligning with dominant Chinese technology players — the only ones with meaningful market share, local knowledge and the logistical networks to make it happen.

THE NEWS IN BRIEF

BUSINESS AND THE ECONOMY

Source: Gucci

Strong sales growth at Gucci helps Kering beat forecasts. The French luxury conglomerate said revenue reached €3.4 billion in the third quarter and increased 27.5 percent on a comparable basis. Sales growth had been expected to slow more sharply from 31.5 percent a quarter earlier to the 22.5 percent rise forecast in a poll of analysts by Inquiry Financial. Shares in the group, which had been particularly hit in the past three months over worries Gucci was running out of steam, were up 8.2 percent.

Puma lifts outlook as basketball launch goes well. Third quarter sales rose a currency-adjusted 14 percent to €1.242 billion ($1.42 billion), while operating profit was up 28 percent to €130 million, beating average analyst forecasts for €1.2 billion and €119 million respectively. Puma saw sales rise almost 16 percent in the Americas in the quarter and 23 percent in Asia, showing little of cooling in the region even as concerns grow that a trade war will curb spending by Chinese shoppers.

Ferragamo shares jump as widow's death sparks takeover talk. The death of Wander Ferragamo has prompted speculation that her heirs may eventually sell their stakes in the Italian luxury shoemaker. The shares, which peaked in 2015, rose as much as 8.8 percent. She was a key member of the family shareholders who controlled the company, opposing any sale after the company was floated on the Milan stock exchange in 2011. While the brand has struggled to keep up profitability, it might still be attractive to buyers.

PEOPLE

Philip Green | Source: Shutterstock

Sir Philip Green named in Parliament as the businessman at centre of Britain's #MeToo scandal. The Topshop owner was identified by Lord Hain, the former Leader of the House of Commons, after two days of speculation over the name of the man behind the injunction. The former Labour cabinet minister said that he had been contacted by someone “intimately involved in the case” and felt a “duty” to reveal the name using parliamentary privilege. Following Lord Hain’s comments, there were calls for the billionaire to be stripped of his Knighthood and for a crackdown on the use of non-disclosure agreements by “serial offenders.”

Christopher Raeburn joins Timberland. He joins the VF Corporation-owned brand as global creative director. Raeburn, who also helms his namesake label, will share his time equally between his own brand and Timberland. He will be based in his London studio and his first collection for Timberland will be Autumn/Winter 2020.

Giles Deacon joins Aspinal of London. The accessories brand has named Deacon as design director, effective immediately. The appointment comes after a well-received collaboration on Giles x Aspinal capsule accessories. Deacon will continue to helm Giles Deacon Couture as creative director.

Marine Serre, Richard Quinn and more nominated for Fashion Awards 2018. The nominees have been revealed ahead of the December 10 ceremony at London’s Royal Albert Hall. They include household names such as Alessandro Michele for Gucci and Demna Gvasalia for Balenciaga to emerging designers like Craig Green, Martine Rose, Rejina Pyo and Samuel Ross for A-Cold-Wall*.

MEDIA & TECHNOLOGY

Amazon shares dip after sales miss. The e-commerce giant reported sales that missed analysts’ estimates, and issued a disappointing revenue forecast for the busy holiday quarter, suggesting it may be reaching a saturation point in the US. Revenue gained 29 percent to $56.6 billion in the third quarter. Analysts’ projected $57.1 billion. Sales will be from $66.5 billion to $72.5 billion in the current period, falling short of analysts’ average estimate of $73.8 billion.

Mytheresa launches kids. The Neiman Marcus-owned e-tailer is kicking off children’s clothing sales with 35 brands, including capsule collections from Gucci and Dolce & Gabbana. The new offering is targeted at existing Mytheresa customers, 40 percent of whom have children.

BoF Professional is your competitive advantage in a fast-changing fashion industry. Missed some BoF Professional exclusive features? Click here to browse the archive.

Source: https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/professional/what-net-a-porters-alibaba-deal-says-about-the-luxury-e-commerce-opportunity-in-china

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brassring2020 · 6 years ago

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AYA Analytica financial health memo September 2018

As of September 2018, this regular podcast is available on our Andy Yeh Alpha fintech network platform.

Goldman, JPMorgan, Bank of America, Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley, and UBS face an antitrust lawsuit. Goldman, JPMorgan, Bank of America, Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley, and UBS face an antitrust lawsuit. In this lawsuit, a U.S. judge alleges the illegal conspiracy that they have kept stock loans in the stone age to stifle financial market competition in the $2 trillion stock-lending market. These large banks boycott the startup platforms AQS, Data Explorers, and SL-x in order to maintain their competitive advantage in stock loans. In this fashion, these banks maintain monopoly control over stock loans and so charge excessive fees to investors and short-sellers. A counter argument sheds skeptical light on the court decision that continuing to execute stock loans under the current rules and standards somehow amounts to an illegal conspiracy. This alternative argument suggests that the current class actions against these banks would result in an unreasonable restraint on trade. Indeed, this dispute boils down to whether there is sufficient evidence of collusion among the plaintiffs in direct competition with the above startup platforms. Stock loans are important to short-sellers when the investor borrows stocks in order to immediately sell them. Institutional investors with large current stock positions profit by lending out these stocks, whereas, borrowers aim to profit by buying the stocks at lower prices later.

The SEC sues Elon Musk for his August 2018 tweet that he has secured external finance to convert Tesla into a private company. The Securities and Exchange Commission (S.E.C.) sues Elon Musk for his August 2018 tweet that he has secured external finance to convert Tesla into a private company. Federal regulators accuse Musk of misleading stock market investors with false public statements. This regulatory move can potentially oust Musk out of his current chief executive leadership at the electric carmaker Tesla. The S.E.C. files a recent lawsuit in federal court in New York to accuse Musk of committing fraud by making false public statements that may inadvertently be detrimental to shareholder value. This lawsuit seeks to bar Musk, who is both the CEO and executive chairman at Tesla, from serving as an executive director of public corporations such as Tesla. This punishment is one of the most serious remedies that the S.E.C. can impose against corporate executive incumbents. From a regulatory perspective, Musk might be reckless in not knowing the fact that his public statements can mislead stock market investors who maintain an active interest in Tesla shares. Both in truth and in fact, Musk has never confirmed key deal terms such as deal price and stock exchange etc with any relevant source of external finance. Tesla shares tumble 12% in direct response to this S.E.C. lawsuit. The S.E.C. eventually settles this lawsuit with Elon Musk who has to relinquish his chairman role but remains the CEO with complete corporate control at Tesla. As part of this swift legal settlement, Musk and Tesla have to pay hefty fines $20 million each. Musk and Tesla neither admit nor deny any egregious mistakes that the S.E.C. alleges in recent times. Elon Musk ultimately has to abort his prior plan to transform Tesla into a private company. This recent case sets a new precedent for CEOs and executive chairmen who might inadvertently erode shareholder value via their erroneous public statements, tweets, articles, blogs, and posts etc. S.E.C. regulatory scrutiny and oversight can thus serve as a central safety valve that prevents CEOs and executive chairmen from social engagement that might lead to false public statements.

Michael Kors pays $2.3 billion to acquire the Italian elite fashion brand Versace. Michael Kors pays $2.35 billion to acquire the Italian elite fashion brand Versace. In accordance with Michael Kors's 5-year plan, the joint company grows Versace's sales revenue to $2 billion per annum, opens more stores worldwide, and improves the brand's ecommerce services to expand its apparel, footwear, and accessories business franchises. Donatella Versace remains an Italian fashion label, but the U.S. fashion Group Michael Kors rebrands itself as Capri. As a major U.S. handbag maker, Michael Kors acquires Gianni Versace plus its debt to enter the exclusive high-end European luxury market. As part of the deal, Donatella Versace stays as the chief fashion designer to oversee the brand. In effect, Capri seeks an innovative M&A entry into the global market for personal luxury goods from handbags to clothes and accessories with more than $300 billion revenue as of mid-2018. This buyout is a significant step toward building a bold and efficient fashion business that would rival the French heavyweight conglomerates LVMH (Louis Vuitton, Fendi, and Givenchy) and Kering (Gucci, Balenciaga and Saint Laurent). No similar U.S. conglomerate has comparable scale, this buyout can be the key watershed between U.S. and French fashion designers. In fact, Coach has made moves to implement a similar model with ambitious acquisitions of Kate Spade and Stuart Weitzman, owning the European luxury fashion brand Versace would give considerable clout and star power to the Capri fashion portfolio.

Sirius XM pays $3.5 billion shares to acquire the music app company Pandora. Sirius XM pays $3.5 billion shares to acquire the music app company Pandora. This acquisition would form the largest audio entertainment company worldwide. Building on its current 15% equity stakes in Pandora, Sirius initiates a stock acquisition with an exchange ratio of 1.44 Sirius shares for each share in Pandora. In response, Sirius experiences a 7% stock price dip while Pandora share price trades at a hefty 13% premium. This deal generates several synergies between Sirius XM and Pandora. First, the broader music network includes 100+ million active users. Sirius now has 35 million subscribers in North America and 23 million users on an annual trial. Meanwhile, Pandora carries 70 million active users and 6 million premium subscribers. Massive network effects can result from this merger. Second, Sirius can tap into Pandora's mobile and web advertisements, and Pandora benefits from Sirius's greater financial capital and in-car presence. As the joint company cross-sells its music services to build new audio packages, Sirius plans to keep operating both brands for better user experience. Third, the Pandora-Sirius combination can better hold up against intense competition from Apple, Spotify, and Amazon as these latter platform orchestrators invest aggressively in their music services. Subject to customary shareholder approval and regulatory scrutiny etc, the deal can close in early-2019.

BAC chief investment strategist Michael Hartnett points out that U.S. corporate debt accumulation can cause the next financial crisis. Bank of America Merrill Lynch's chief investment strategist Michael Hartnett points out that U.S. corporate debt (not household credit supply or bank capital shortage) can cause the next financial crisis. U.S. public corporations have gradually accumulated more than $6 trillion debt with low interest rates since the global financial crisis from 2008 to 2009. This corporate debt binge helps fund the recent recovery in new capital investment and equipment, full employment, and stock buyback in America. Corporate default rates are minuscule, and U.S. companies now sit on hefty cash stockpiles primarily due to robust U.S. economic output gains and corporate tax cuts under the Trump administration. At some inflection point, however, both economic growth and corporate income may start to slow down. U.S. companies then have less firepower to pay back debt, and it is not easy for these companies to roll over their debt in due course. Debt-laden companies would be vulnerable to higher costs of capital as the Federal Reserve continues the current interest rate hike. These higher costs of capital can translate into a credit crunch, which adversely affects both employment and capital investment as the U.S. economy slides into an economic recession.

Anne Krueger explains why the Trump administration's current tariff tactics undermine the multilateral global trade system. Former World Bank and IMF chief economist Anne Krueger explains why the Trump administration's current tariff tactics undermine the multilateral global trade system. In the post-war decades, America has led the way in establishing the troika of major economic institutions, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, and the World Trade Organization (WTO) (formerly known as the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)), that collectively form the primary basis of international economic order in place today. Due to the healthy expansion of an open multilateral trade system under the WTO, international trade has grown 1.5 times faster than global GDP since World War II. The WTO 164-member economies commit to supporting an open multilateral trade system with common rules and procedures. These rules can achieve for international trade what domestic commercial codes can accomplish for contracts and transactions between parties within a given jurisdiction. Under WTO rules, international trade partners are subject to the same national regulations just as domestic firms have the same rights in regional courts. Governments cannot discriminate against other WTO members, so trade benefits for one trade partner must apply to all other trade partners under WTO rules. It is essential to ensure that trade partners receive fair regulatory and judicial treatment from WTO member-state governments, and the principle of non-discrimination has been a core tenet of the global trade system. Under this WTO framework, the Trump administration now uses national-security concerns to justify tariffs on steel-and-aluminum imports from China, Canada, Europe, Mexico, and Japan etc. Whether these tariffs would help reduce U.S. trade deficits remains complex and mysterious. The Trump discriminatory tariffs undermine the WTO economic order and so induce China and other countries to seek reparation through the WTO dispute-settlement mechanism. These countries may retaliate against Trump tariffs and in turn would exacerbate the current global trade quagmire.

The Trump administration imposes 10% tariffs on $200 billion Chinese imports. The Trump administration imposes 10% tariffs on $200 billion Chinese imports and expects to raise these tariffs to 25% additional duties toward the end of this year. These new tariffs arise on top of punitive duties that the Trump administration enacted earlier in mid-2018 on $50 billion Chinese goods and services. Now U.S. tariffs hit more than half of Chinese imports to America. China can retaliate against American tariffs in several ways. First, China may impose tit-for-tat tariffs on $60 billion U.S. imports. This retaliation, however, stretches limits on the narrow scope of bilateral Sino-U.S. trade negotiations. Second, China has the option to offload its massive ownership of U.S. Treasury bills and notes. These foreign investments help finance the perennial U.S. budget deficit. If the Chinese government decides to engage in large-scale U.S. government bond sales, the likely yield curve inversion can adversely affect American economic output and employment. Third, China produces numerous low-cost products for the typical American household. U.S. tariffs may thus inadvertently boost the costs of both household consumption and firm production in America. In turn, higher inflation induces the Federal Reserve to accelerate its hawkish interest rate hike. Overall, these concerns shed skeptical light on the Sino-U.S. trade war that the Trump administration uses as a tactical solution to relentless bilateral trade negotiations with China.

Nobel Laureate Robert Shiller's long-term stock market indicator points to a recent peak. Nobel Laureate Robert Shiller's long-term stock market indicator points to a recent peak. His cyclically-adjusted P/E ratio (or CAPE) accounts for long-term corporate profitability and market valuation. CAPE has correctly helped anticipate the Black Monday 1987 stock market crash, the dotcom bubble collapse in the dawn of the new millennium, and the global financial crisis from 2008 to 2009. As of September 2018, this metric gauges the U.S. stock market value at 33 times the average corporate income over the past decade. CAPE serves as a useful economic indicator of U.S. stock market (over)valuation at this stage of the business cycle. In fact, the current U.S. stock market capitalization well exceeds American real GDP economic output. It is often difficult to beat the market, whereas, it can be quite easy and imperative to save on capital income taxes and transaction costs. Wharton finance professor Jeremy Siegel, however, disagrees with this CAPE analysis of U.S. stock market valuation. Even if U.S. stocks appear to be expensive, they remain good bargains in comparison with bonds in light of the small default risk premium. Relative valuation of stocks-versus-bonds continues to be favorable during the current Trump stock market rally throughout most U.S. history.

Apple releases its September 2018 trifecta of smart phones or iPhone X sequels: iPhone Xs, iPhone Xs Max, and iPhone XR. Apple releases its September 2018 trifecta of smart phones or iPhone X sequels: iPhone Xs, iPhone Xs Max, and iPhone XR. Both iPhone Xs and iPhone Xs Max have edge-to-edge OLED touch screens. The former comes with 5.8-inch display, and the latter has the largest ever 6.5-inch display. Both offer 512GB digital storage such that each user can save about 200,000 photos on each device. Both offer Face ID that Apple's artificial intelligence facilitates in a fraction of a second. Apple's A12 Bionic microchip launches apps 30% faster. With smart 12-megapixel back cameras, these flagship smart phones now allow for the integration of dual SIM cards for the user to add alternative phone numbers to a single device. Also, iPhone XR serves as the more affordable version and offers 6.1-inch liquid crystal display (LCD) display (Liquid Retina). In fact, iPhone XR comes in white, black, blue, coral, yellow, and red, provides Face ID with no home button, and uses haptic touch to navigate apps. Overall, Apple can afford to charge higher retail prices of the flagship iPhone product lines with higher-pixel camera resolution, longer battery life, and better digital storage.

Bill Gates shares with Mark Zuckerberg his prior personal experiences of testifying before Congress. Bill Gates shares with Mark Zuckerberg his prior personal experiences of testifying on behalf of Microsoft before U.S. Congress. Both men drop out of Harvard to pursue their software companies, and both men testify before Congress over their corporate actions and decisions. Gates warns Zuckerberg to be mindful of Washington (because the Department of Justice both fought and dominated 3-year lawsuits against Microsoft in response to the Gates defiant tone that the computer industry is hyper-competitive with no need for quick fixes). Zuckerberg now faces a similar legal quagmire. Facebook has to employ artificial intelligence advances to fix several issues in relation to foreign interference in U.S. elections, post-Cambridge-Analytica user privacy abuse and invasion, and offshore tax avoidance. As a social media outlet in direct competition with Twitter, Facebook may face similar antitrust regulatory scrutiny from Washington (as Microsoft raised antitrust concerns about its Windows computer system and Office and Internet Explorer software packages). In the next decade, both U.S. and E.U. authorities either regulate or break up tech titans such as Facebook and Google for better consumer protection and tech market competition. In fact, the Microsoft antitrust case has deep implications for big tech regulation. It is indeed anti-competitive for tech titans to orchestrate their platforms to favor their own software products. For this reason, the European Union slaps a $2.7 billion fine on Google for tilting online search results to stifle competition. Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act shields tech companies such as Facebook, Twitter, Google, YouTube, and IBM etc from any potential deterioration in the overall quality of online content curation. Meanwhile, it is still difficult for U.S. and E.U. regulators to hold tech titans responsible for their online content curation and software service provision due to scant legislation. With respect to the widespread use and adoption of information communication technology (ICT), no reasonable court would attempt to set an intrusive precedent at the risk of shaking up the U.S. ICT industry both in Silicon Valley and elsewhere. It may be easier for these regulators to impose one-off, ad hoc, or sporadic fines and penalties on tech companies due to both antitrust and tax avoidance concerns.

President Trump tweets that Apple can avoid tariff consequences by shifting its primary supply chain from China to America. President Trump tweets that Apple can avoid tariff consequences by shifting its primary supply chain from China to America. The Trump tariffs on another $200 billion Chinese goods can affect iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods as well as adapters and chargers for a major host of iOS products. These tariffs can in turn raise prices for Apple consumers. An Apple upstream supplier Foxconn moonlights new U.S. plant sites in addition to its recent liquid crystal display (LCD) plant establishment in Wisconsin. However, Foxconn and other Apple upstream suppliers still need to mull over whether it is sufficiently profitable to open new plants for AMOLED touch screens in America. In a recent interview with CNBC news anchor Becky Quick, Berkshire Hathaway's Warren Buffett shares his view that many market watchers seem to underprice iPhone X [and its sequels]. In a recent product release, Apple raises the retail prices of iPhone Xs, iPhone Xs Max, and iPhone XR with higher-pixel camera resolution, longer battery life, and better digital storage. In accordance with Apple CEO Tim Cook's wise and prescient prediction, the Trump steel-and-aluminum tariffs may impact the major iPhone and iPad product lines when the Trump administration activates these punitive tariffs on $200 billion Chinese imports.

Warren Buffett, shares his key insights into life, success, money, and interpersonal communication. One of the greatest investors on earth, Warren Buffett, shares his top 13 ingenious insights into life, success, money, and interpersonal communication. Most institutional money managers and retail investors can learn much from the collective wisdom of these wondrous quotes on Business Insider. One cannot make a good deal with a bad person. It is better to hang out with people whose behaviors are better than ours. Good outcomes take time; so one cannot produce a baby in one month by making 9 women pregnant. It takes 20 years to build our reputation and only 5 minutes to ruin it. One should learn to sit in his or her office to read all day. After all, we only find out who is swimming with few clothes when the tide goes out. It is unnecessary to accomplish extraordinary missions to get extraordinary results. We should be fearful when others are greedy, and we should be greedy when others are fearful. We can measure success by how many people love us. We need to be confident enough that we will achieve fulfillment one day. When we are in the luckiest 1% of humanity, we owe a great deal to the rest of humanity to think about the other 99%. Price is what we pay, and value is what we get. We need not be a rocket scientist to manage well personal finance, and investment is not a game where the smart guy beats the less smart one.

The Economist suggests that the world has learned few lessons of the global financial crisis from 2008 to 2009. The Economist re-evaluates the realistic scenario that the world has learned few lessons of the global financial crisis over the past decade. Good times breed complacency. As the Trump administration rolls back Dodd-Frank rules and regulations, the Federal Reserve has yet to raise countercyclical capital buffers for most large banks. When prudence prevails, no regulator is a perfect judge of financial risk. The Economist points out that the news is both good and bad. The good news suggests that most U.S. large banks fund themselves with proportionately more equity. The average bank equity capital ratio increases substantially from 3% to double digits in the decade after the Lehman financial meltdown. However, the bad news suggests that most U.S. households, firms, and financial intermediaries react slowly to the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis from 2008 to 2009. Former U.S. Treasury Secretary and Harvard President Larry Summers shares the ingenious insight that the U.S. economy suffers secular stagnation, government debt, and inflation in the recent decade after the global financial crisis. In light of both gradual greenback appreciation and national populism, Harvard chair professor Kenneth Rogoff indicates that the current Trump stock market rally may be the calm before the next financial storm. Despite Trump tax cuts and infrastructure expenditures, the U.S. economy operates near full employment with high inflation, currency, and interest rate risks. This trifecta poses a red alert to the Trump administration and its advisory troika (National Economic Council, Federal Reserve, and Treasury). Both the U.S. Treasury and National Economic Council favor imposing draconian tariffs on at least $200 trillion Chinese imports. This specific trade tactic aims to help curtail bilateral U.S. trade deficits with China. Similar trade tactics may involve Canada, Europe, Mexico, and Japan. Moreover, the Federal Reserve accelerates the current interest rate hike (with at least one rate increase in September 2018 and another in December 2018). This hawkish interest rate hike is likely to continue until late-2019. All of these fiscal and monetary measures can help contain the high-risk trifecta of inflation, fiscal debt and deficit, and secular stagnation.

Citron Research short-sellers initiate a class-action lawsuit against Tesla and its executive chairman Elon Musk. Citron Research short-sellers initiate a class-action lawsuit against Tesla and its executive chairman Elon Musk because he might have deliberately orchestrated taking Tesla private to burn investors. This lawsuit alleges that Musk might have inadvertently engaged in stock price manipulation via his premature tweet. Musk may prefer Tesla to go private such that he can steer major business decisions without worrying about near-term share price gyrations. However, taking Tesla private requires large lump-sums of equity finance from outside venture capitalists. This lawsuit sheds skeptical light on whether Musk's premature tweet on funding Tesla to go private should be subject to U.S. SEC regulatory scrutiny. Short-sellers can serve as an effective alternative corporate governance mechanism that helps discipline corporate management in major business decisions. Not only do short-sellers pose an effective threat to incumbent entrenchment and rent protection, but short-sellers also help improve share price efficiency and information content. Short-sellers short shares at artificially high prices, wait a while for negative news about the company, and then buy back these shares at lower prices to earn short-term gains. The Citron lawsuit against Tesla and Elon Musk represents a classic example of potential fraudulent stock price manipulation that proves to be detrimental to short-sellers.

Amazon follows Apple to become the second U.S. public corporation to hit $1 trillion stock market valuation. Amazon follows Apple to become the second American public corporation to hit $1 trillion stock market valuation. Amazon's founder and chairman Jeff Bezos is now worth about as much as the total net worth of both Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. Amazon captures about half of every ecommerce dollar in America. With more than 550,000 employees and $178 billion in annual revenue, Amazon sells almost everything from cloud-computing space to bread and butter. Amazon sells a great deal of excitement to investors, customers, and media firms. For starters, Amazon excites readers with a new way to shop for books online and then a new way to read Kindle Fire e-books. Amazon excites content creators to curate on Kindle Direct Publisher. Amazon excites cloud users and hackers with a new way to power the Internet via Amazon Web Services. Amazon excites its premium members with a new way to experience fast delivery via Amazon Prime. Amazon excites home owners with a new way to interact with an artificially intelligent outpost Alexa. Bezos focuses on long-term customer-centrism with one pivotal question: What is not going to change in the next decade? Amazon continues to offer low-price products and services online with fast delivery and vast selection.

Thomas Piketty empirically shows that the top 1% cohort rakes in 20%+ of U.S. national income. As the famous French economist who studies global economic inequality in his recent book *Capital in the New Century*, Thomas Piketty co-authors with Berkeley chair professor and John Bates Clark medal winner Emmanuel Saez and others the latest September 2018 World Inequality Report. This fresh report empirically demonstrates that the rise of both income and wealth for the top 1% U.S. population mirrors the fall of both income and wealth for the bottom 50% U.S. population. Specifically, the top 1% cohort rakes in more than 20% of U.S. national income in 2017 in comparison to only 11% back in 1980. At the same time, the bottom 50% cohort receives about 12% of U.S. national income in 2017 in comparison to about 20% back in 1980. Not only do the rich become richer and the poor become poorer, the income and wealth transfers seem simultaneous, synchronous, and causal in time-series data. This stark feature shows an empirically robust increase in U.S. economic inequality over the recent decades. However, this socioeconomic issue cannot reflect talent concentration in specific labor markets. At least some of this dichotomous wealth inequality arises from the fact that several industries such as biotech, telecom, and social media mold big players with competitive moats into quasi-monopolies. These big players invest heavily in patents, trademarks, copyrights, and other intellectual properties in order to safeguard their market dominance against external competitive forces. Nobel Laureate and former chief economist at World Bank Joseph Stiglitz points out that tech titans have become quasi-monopolies with high market concentration. This concentration serves as a primary explanation for worse income and wealth inequality in America. When the major network platform orchestrators such as Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Netflix, and Twitter (FAMGANT) reinforce their current market strength and dominance, they may violate antitrust laws and regulations. Also, several other industries such as big pharmaceutical firms (Johnson & Johnson, Merck, and Pfizer etc) and telecoms (AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile) are new additions to the list of U.S. quasi-monopolies. This technological trend aggravates socioeconomic inequality, deepens anti-competitive concerns, and harms consumer benefits in terms of longer-term price and quality improvements.

We share famous inspirational stock market quotes by Warren Buffett, Peter Lynch, Benjamin Graham, and several others. We share several famous inspirational stock market quotes by Warren Buffett, Peter Lynch, Benjamin Graham, Benjamin Franklin, Phillip Fisher, and Michael Jensen. Price is what you pay. Value is what you get. We should be fearful when others are greedy, and we should be greedy when others are fearful. It is far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price, than a fair company at a wonderful price. Great investment opportunities arise when unusual circumstances cause the share-price misappraisal of excellent companies. Everyone has the brainpower to follow the stock market. We need to know not only what stocks we own, but also why we want to own them in the first place. The individual investor should act consistently as an investor and not as a speculator. An investment in knowledge pays the best interest. The stock market is full of individuals who know the price of everything, but the value of nothing. Average investors who try to trade often will only make their brokers rich. Investors must draw a distinction between a good company and a good stock. After all, one can buy a good stock but may end up paying too much for it.

President Trump criticizes the WTO and proposes indexing capital gains taxes to inflation for U.S. investors. In an exclusive interview with Bloomberg, President Trump criticizes the World Trade Organization (WTO), proposes indexing capital gains taxes to inflation for U.S. investors, and then expresses no regrets over appointing the new Fed chairman Jerome Powell. Trump points out that WTO rules have been an unfair trade deal for America because the U.S. often has to respond passively to assuage many WTO complaints and concerns. When Trump comes into office, America reverses the U.S. long-term disadvantage and starts to win trade lawsuits because the Trump administration threatens to withdraw America from the WTO if the Geneva international organization declines to shape up. Meanwhile, Trump indicates that Canada may or may not continue to be part of the NAFTA trade deal. Moreover, Trump rejects the European Union's trade proposal to eliminate tariffs on automobiles.

In the same exclusive interview with Bloomberg, President Trump proposes indexing capital gains taxes to inflation, and this change would slash taxes for investors when they sell assets such as stocks, bonds, and real estate properties. This index adjusts the original purchase price for inflation and so helps spur job creation and economic growth because investors would face minimal taxes on erroneous phantom income. These real tax cuts benefit small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) owners, founders, and entrepreneurs. National Economic Council top economic adviser Larry Kudlow indicates that the Trump administration hopes to bypass Congress to implement this expansionary tax policy. Trump opponents contend that this additional fiscal stimulus may exacerbate economic inequality in America.

In accordance with the grand notion of central bank independence, President Trump likes and respects Powell as the Fed chairman who should be free from political influence. Trump expresses no regrets over appointing Powell to succeed Yellen in the Federal Reserve System's top post. However, Trump hints to the new Fed Chair that he should help accommodate U.S. economic affairs during the current interest rate hike. In fact, Trump expects the greenback to stabilize within reasonable bounds as the Fed chairman pencils in some further interest rate hikes in September and December 2018. This interest rate hike can continue its current cycle until December 2019 as the core CPI inflation rate surges past the neutral 2% target.

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digitalmark18-blog · 6 years ago

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Global luxury brands chasing China's cash-rich millennials armed with family money

New Post has been published on https://britishdigitalmarketingnews.com/global-luxury-brands-chasing-chinas-cash-rich-millennials-armed-with-family-money/

Global luxury brands chasing China's cash-rich millennials armed with family money

HONG KONG (REUTERS) – Global luxury brands from Prada to LVMH are investing in China for the first time since a crackdown on conspicuous spending five years ago, focusing on smaller, less developed cities even as the world’s second-largest economy slows.

Increasing spending by cash-rich Chinese millennials, largely unhindered by a crackdown on corruption and extravagant spending, is prompting brands to revamp some stores and open new ones in second- and third-tier cities where luxury spending is growing faster.

The youngsters, who account for around 30 per cent of the sector’s China sales, are a demographic less sensitive to wider economic factors, executives said.

“There is the emergence in China of a very strong upper class or upper middle class,” Mr Jean-Paul Agon, chairman and chief executive of cosmetics group L’Oreal said on a call with analysts.

“And the difference is that now millennials from this middle and middle upper class are absolutely not hesitant to buy luxury brands.”

Often single children armed with family money, the 20-34 year-old demographic started buying luxury brands at a young age and purchases more frequently, splurging on everything from jewellery and fashion, to cosmetics and handbags, industry experts say.

Many millennials are also choosing to remain in the country’s outlying provinces, shunning more expensive, larger cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, thanks to rapid industrialisation and urbanisation.

“Where the spend is? It is the post-90s, the young generation – definitely a young generation that spends money on luxury,” said Shanghai-based Mr Daniel Zipser, senior partner at McKinsey & Co.

Revenue growth in China’s luxury segment was around 15-20 per cent for the first half of the year, Mr Zipser added.

TRADE WAR JITTERS

Chinese luxury shoppers account for more than 500 billion yuan (S$100 billion) in annual spending, representing almost a third of the global luxury market, McKinsey said in its latest report.

Brands including Kering’s Gucci to Britain’s Burberry and French luxury handbag maker Hermes all reported resilient appetite from Chinese shoppers in the second quarter even as escalating China-US trade tensions cast a pall over the broader economy.

The share of luxury purchases made in China is rapidly increasing, several executives said, spurred by price cuts from top brands after authorities reduced import duties on some goods and made it harder to buy products from overseas websites and vendors. A strong euro at the start of 2018 also put off tourists from spending in Europe, executives said.

Prices of luxury goods in China, previously significantly higher than in Europe and the United States, have been gradually falling. Taxes have also been lowered by 7-17 per cent, allowing firms to cut prices.

Italian luxury outerwear maker Moncler has reduced its prices in China by 3.5 per cent on average since July, while Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Hermes have also cut prices.

“When I compare it with the United States, the price difference between brands is not that large,” said student Sunny Deng, 28, who studies in the United States but was on holiday in Shanghai. “Sometimes it’s even cheaper here.”

SMALLER CITY PUSH

To capture the rapidly growing millennial market, global names are increasingly moving further afield from China’s first-tier cities – the previous engines of growth.

Prada, which reported strong half-year earnings bolstered by Chinese consumers, opened seven stores this year in Xi’an, home of China’s Terracotta Army in the northwest. Three were for the Prada label, two for its Miu Miu brand and two for Church’s.

LVMH opened a store in the sprawling central city of Wuhan, home to 11 million people, while jewellery brand Chaumet opened a store in the city of Wuxi, outside Shanghai. Hermes is launching a store in Xi’an in September.

Even so, luxury firms are wary of demand softening in the second half of the year as a trade row between China and the United States escalates.

“It would be unwise not to make some allowances for the uncertain political and macroenvironment,” Mr Jean-Francois Palus, Kering group managing director, said in July.

LVMH chief financial officer Jean Jacques Guiony, on a call with analysts in July, also warned of potential risks from increased global tariffs.

“Although the luxury industry is not in the front line on this, such a risk would certainly bare some negative consequences for us,” he said.

Brands have also been putting increasing emphasis on their digital offerings to court China’s online shoppers.

Louis Vuitton and Gucci both launched Chinese e-commerce sites last year and Hermes plans to roll out its site in China later this year.

Louis Vuitton has also teamed up with China’s Baidu to use facial recognition to support its first fragrance campaign in the country.

Mr Zipser said Chinese households were ramping up spending thanks to a younger generation who enjoyed buying luxury. McKinsey expects incremental spending from existing Chinese customers to account for 60 per cent of the next 10 years of growth.

“It is all the extra spend per person increasing on that. In the past, it was primarily more people. Now it is more people plus more spend of existing people,” he said.

Source: https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/global-luxury-brands-chasing-chinas-cash-rich-millennials-armed-with-family-money

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cleopatrarps · 6 years ago

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The Foxconns of fast beauty propel South Korean cosmetics

SEOUL (Reuters) – At a factory two hours south of Seoul, women clad in plastic caps and masks put peach-colored eye-shadow into cases, right next to a machine churning out a skin-color face powder.

Cosmetic products are seen on display at an AHC cosmetic store in Seoul, South Korea, June 22, 2018. Picture taken June 22, 2018. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji

The difference between the two lines: the first is supplying one of France’s best-known premium cosmetic brands, while the second is serving a South Korean budget firm.

The plant is operated by Cosmecca Korea (241710.KQ), the country’s third-biggest contract cosmetics maker, which produces a range of products for more than 300 customers, all the way from high-end brands like Estee Lauder (EL.N) to nimble domestic firms such as Clio and Dr.Jart.

It is factories like this that have made South Korea the epicenter of fast beauty, a world in which the time it takes to get a product idea onto store shelves has dropped dramatically, often by years. This is vital as fickle millennial consumers can easily leave last year’s hits as this year’s busts.

Their dominance of the world of contract manufacturing for cosmetics may have become as important to the industry as Apple (AAPL.O) iPhone manufacturer Foxconn (2354.TW) has been for electronics.

Some of the major Korean brands they work for have been acquired by global cosmetics companies such as L’Oreal (OREP.PA) and Unilever (ULVR.L), and according to people with direct knowledge of the matter, the manufacturers themselves have received investment offers, some from foreign cosmetics firms.

South Korea’s three largest contract manufacturers – Cosmax(192820.KS), Korea Kolmar (161890.KS) and Cosmecca – have all been approached by foreign investors about buying a minority stake in recent years, three people with direct knowledge of the situations told Reuters. The sources asked for anonymity and declined to elaborate further citing confidentiality of the approaches.

One of the sources said one of the manufacturers had rejected a 2016 offer from an overseas cosmetics company for a minority stake, partly due to concerns that such an alliance could upset its broader customer base.

Representatives for the companies declined to comment.

A woman holding her mobile phone walks past an AHC cosmetic store in Seoul, South Korea, June 22, 2018. Picture taken June 22, 2018. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji

DEMAND FROM CHINESE BRANDS

Though largely staying in the background with little public recognition themselves, contract manufacturers stand to benefit as Korean brands they work for rapidly grow in China’s $53.5billion cosmetics market. That’s thanks to their value for money image, fast turnaround times for new products, and smart online marketing.

China’s own fast-growing cosmetics brands, albeit still small, are also driving the revenue growth of South Korean manufacturers, although margins on these contracts can be low, company officials say.

The stock market performance of the three has been mixed, though they have all outperformed the main benchmark in South Korea.

Shares of global No.1 Cosmax (192820.KS), has gained 34percent year to date, far outpacing a 8 percent drop in the wider South Korean market .KS11.

Cosmecca shares rose 8 percent and second-ranked Korea Kolmar (161890.KS) fell 3 percent in the same period.

All three have, though, outperformed the 21 percent decline in shares of Amorepacific Group (002790.KS), South Korea’s largest cosmetics powerhouse. Amorepacific, which uses both in-house and contract manufacturing, reported revenue fell 10 percent and operating profit slumped by nearly 30 percent in the first three months of2018. Its brands include the top-end Sulwhasoo, mass market Innisfree, and young makeup offering Etude House.

Even as all the top three contract firms, which are also known as original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), posted revenue growth in the same period.

“The surge of smaller players gives tough times to beauty giants like Amorepacific. By contrast, this is a favorable environment for OEMs,” said Park Jong-dae, an analyst at HanaInvestment & Securities.

“While brand companies have up and downs, OEMs garner stable earnings. They are most suited to the industry’s structural changes – Asian growth and diversified distribution channels.” STRUGGLING TO CATCH-UP

In particular, they are central to the success in the high-growth China market of small Korean brands with new ideas but no production or research capabilities, industry executives and experts say.

When French luxury giant LVMH’s (LVMH.PA) private equity arm was conducting due diligence on Clio before buying a stake in2016, among its key questions was: “How do you come up with new products at such a fast speed?,” said Lim Mira, a manager atClio’s strategic planning team.

Contract manufacturers such as Cosmax deliver on orders much more quickly, in as fast as three months compared to about a year overseas contract manufacturers require, Lim said.

The firm used to source products from an Italian contract manufacturer in the past, but has now shifted to Korean manufacturers, she said.

“Many global players are struggling to catch up as the life cycle of any success has shortened, pushing them to come up with new innovations at a much faster speed,” said Laura Chu, a China-based account director at researcher Kantar International.

In China, Unilever’s share declined from 3.2 percent in 2014to 2.8 percent in 2017, while L’Oreal’s share fell from 9.4 percent to 8.5 percent during the same period, according to research firm Euromonitor.

Seeking to turn the tables, both Unilever and L’Oreal, as well as other European and American majors, have paid big premiums in the last two years to scoop up South Korean brands thriving in China.

Unilever announced a 2.27 billion euro ($2.67 billion) deal for Carver Korea in September – maker of the A.H.C. cosmetics brand, whose China sales rose more than 30 percent in 2017,according to Kantar International.

“Geographically it will enable us to strength our position in two of the top five largest skin care markets – China and Korea,” Lizzy Chen, a U.K.-based executive at Unilever, told Reuters.

South Korea-based Nanda, which was acquired by L’Oreal for an undisclosed sum in May, saw sales of its flagship cosmetics brand 3CE double in China last year. The strong performance was particularly notable given that last year a major spat between Seoul and Beijing over South Korea’s installation of a new U.S. missile defense system led to an unofficial boycott of South Korean brands in China. South Korean contract manufacturers have been expanding China production to meet surging demand.

Cosmecca’s chairman Cho Im-rae said that in recent years it has been running its factories in China at full throttle. It is planning to open a third factory there.

“China’s cosmetics demand is growing enormously,” he said in an interview with Reuters.

Reporting by Joyce Lee and Hyunjoo Jin; Additional reporting by Dahee Kim; Editing by Soyoung Kim and Martin Howell

The post The Foxconns of fast beauty propel South Korean cosmetics appeared first on World The News.

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