Business and Financial News

Returning from a recent trip to Vietnam, an article from the International Herald Tribune caught my eye, and for obvious reasons.  It reiterates the explicit growth and frenzied pace on display in bustling cities such as Hanoi and Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City), and also underscores the favorable demographic thesis (nearly half of the population of 87m is in the labor force, and the broad, median age is 28.5) underpinning myriad, ongoing projections of an increasing derivitive in the country’s future, consumer-driven growth trends.  The population is currently growing at a rate of 1.2 percent/annum.

The piece also mentions Vietnam Dairy Products, or Vinamilk, already the country’s third most valuable company by market cap and which as of last week was up 16.6 percent from the end of 2008, compared with a 3.5 percent loss in the Ho Chi Minh index during the same period.  90 percent of the population lacks the enzyme necessary to process dairy; however, consumers are turning in droves to soya milk, and their consumption patterns correlate neatly with changes in income.  The firm expects a 30% increase in sales during 2010, and also to tack on at least ten points to its current market share of 35 percent.  That said, the company is also insulated to some degree from regional economic contraction as it continues to spread its influence internationally, servicing such large markets as the U.S., India, the Middle East, Africa, Poland, Germany and Cambodia with a diverse product line that includes milk powder, yogurt, and fresh milk, as well as fruit juice, herbal tea and the aforementioned soya milk.

Are you a military veteran starting or running a business? Do you know a veteran who’s considering entrepreneurship? B

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Barron’s has revealed that Thomas M McCoy, the executive Vice-President for corporate and legal affairs at Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE: AMD), has sold 94000 shares of the company at an average price of $8.33 per share between the 21st and the 24th of May.

Miriam Gottfried of the Barron’s expresses that this sale, worth $787,000 from an insider has come in a time when AMD is facing fierce competition from Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC). The share prices of AMD have climbed out of their recession lows owing in part to higher sales and an improved balance sheet.

Supermarket giant Asda said it was snapping up the UK arm of discount retailer Netto in a move set to add another 193 stores to its estate.

Asda, which is owned by US group Wal-Mart, has agreed a £778m deal to buy the stores, which it aims to convert to the Asda brand by next summer.

The group said it hopes to complete the takeover later this summer, subject to regulatory approval.

The deal marks an ambitious first move by new Asda boss Andy Clarke, who took over the reins earlier this month.

Asda, which currently owns 374 stores, is aiming to boost its smaller format store portfolio and said the Netto outlets will be added to a new division set up for supermarkets smaller than 25,000 square feet.

Netto – owned by Danish group Dansk Supermarked – employs 3,500 staff in the UK having launched on these shores in 1990.

The average size of its stores is 8,000 square feet.

Supermarket share figures from Kantar Worldpanel this week revealed Netto had a 0.7 per cent share of the grocery sector, but the discounters have seen previous stellar growth levels grind to a halt since the end of the recession.

Claus Juel-Jensen, managing director of Netto, said: “We have substantial opportunities for growth in Scandinavia and northern Europe and believe that the time has come to focus our efforts on the development of our business in these countries.”

Asda president and chief executive Mr Clarke added: “We very much look forward to welcoming Netto’s colleagues into our business and joining our team.

“Customers will benefit from low prices on a significantly broader range of quality products, complemented by the wide range of services we offer in all our smaller stores.”

The group hopes to increase staff numbers in Netto stores by “up to twice as many”, although it is unclear how many outlets it will ultimately be able to retain after discussions with regulators.

Asda recently outlined a five-year strategy to secure its position as the number two in food and leader in non-food sales, with plans to accelerate openings of smaller stores and launch more Living general merchandise outlets.

It has struggled in recent months, last week reporting its first sales fall in four years and battling to maintain its market share.

Kantar Worldpanel’s latest data showed its slice of the sector falling for the fifth month in a row, to 16.8 per cent.

Mr Clarke has taken over at a difficult time for the retailer as it suffers plunging food price inflation and stiff competition from rivals.

Previously chief operating officer and a former store manager with Asda, he succeeded Andy Bond, who is now chairman of Asda’s executive board – a newly created role – after five years at the helm.

Recently, Vistaprint did something that it hasn’t done before: it made it’s first foray into the television advertising world. Below you can see one of the recently released commercials. But what is important isn’t the ad, it’s the message that it sends: How do you make an impression? The commercial is based on the fact that sometimes the first impression isn’t necessarily accurate. But if you’re going to succeed in business, you have to make a good impression on the people that you’re selling to and interacting with.

The question is how have you made an impression, and have you ever been at first mistaken for something or someone else? We’d love to hear your feedback and real life stories.

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