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Source: in.reuters.com
London men stake their place in the fashion spending arena - fashion.telegraph.co.uk
Notable rises in male spending have been reported ahead of London's first men's fashion week, London Collections: Men.
BY Alice Newbold | 14 June 2012
Burberry men's live stream Photo: REX
The reputation of menswear has long been shackled by the image of begrudging males sitting outside female changing rooms on endless, uninspiring weekend quests to department stores. Or the stalwart socks and tie or socks and knitwear combo invariably bought for fathers and grandfathers across the British nation for birthdays and holidays, alike.
Tarnishing the notion that men remain only excited about football, Rihanna and varieties of lager are the American Express Business Insights team. Ahead of London Collections: Men, which launches today, the banking sector conducted a study assessing the aggregated spending behaviour of millions of card members. The trend that emerged was, ironically (and pun-worthy), men's fashion.
READ: London to get its own Men's Fashion Week(end)
The data analytics arm of America Express found that males born after 1982 - "Generation Y" - increased their overall spending on fashion faster than all other generations. Shopping at a heightened rate of 4% every year Generation Y whipped out their plastic at twice the rate of the next fastest generation, the "Baby Boomers" (those born between 1945 and 1964).
Tagging the male mentality towards fashion as a basic "famine or feast approach", men, it appears, resist high street splurges in favour of luxury goods, spending 24% more per transaction, though less often, than their female counterparts.
Commenting on Burberry's announcement last month that they had experienced a 26% increase in menswear sales, chief executive of the British heritage brand, Angela Ahrendts said: "In this economic environment, men want to look better, they want to look sharper."
READ: Burberry's Angela Ahrendts: men want to look smart
While Burberry's tailoring and enhanced ranges drove a 26% rise in their menswear sales, the overall year-on-year spending on luxury fashion increased by 5.7% in Generation Y men and 1% in all males. British male shoppers subsequently snubbed mainstream lines decreasing their spending by 1.2%, while women lapped up the high street, spending 0.7% less on luxury goods and 5.7% more on high street fashion fixes.
"There is a reason that London is hosting its first men's fashion week: men in the city are clearly staking their place in the fashion spending arena," affirms Sujata Bhatia, vice president of International Business Insights at American Express.
Source: fashion.telegraph.co.uk
Asia Coffee-Choppy London distorts trading, Vietnam at premiums - Reuters
* Vietnamese robustas at premiums to London
* Sumatran beans at premiums of up to $70 despite harvest
* Liffe down 7.5 pct from this year's peak
By Lewa Pardomuan
SINGAPORE, June 14 (Reuters) - Robusta beans in top producer Vietnam were offered at premiums again after sellers held back their stocks and waited for London futures to rebound further, while high prices in Indonesia curbed trading, dealers said on Thursday.
Vietnam's robusta grade 2, 5 percent black and broken was either on par or at premiums of $10 to London's September contract, having been quoted at $20-$30 below Liffe earlier this week and at discounts of $20 last week.
Cherries have begun to appear in coffee trees ahead of the next harvest later this year in Vietnam, but farmers and exporters still hold some quantities of coffee from the previous crop, which they may want to sell when they need extra cash.
Vietnamese beans were last quoted at premiums to London in February.
"I think they will sell the coffee when they want to. It's difficult to say, but I think there are around 300,000 tonnes of coffee left from the last crop," said a dealer in Hong Kong.
"You can find coffee in Vietnam but it's difficult to buy beans in big quantity. Indonesia was very aggressive to sell in the past week, but I think people will still continue to buy Vietnamese beans."
Robusta futures on Liffe edged higher on Wednesday, with September ending up $29, or 1.4 percent, at $2,099 a tonne, but prices were still well below a 8-1/2-month high at $2,269 struck in late May.
Not to be outdone by Vietnam, exporters in second-largest robusta producer Indonesia offered Sumatran grade 4, 80 defect beans at as high as $70 premiums to London futures from discounts of $10 last week.
Vietnam and Indonesia account for nearly a fifth of the global coffee output in the current 2011/2012 crop, according to the International Coffee Organization.
"European roasters are quiet at the moment. We offer beans at $20 to $70 but there are no deals. I heard Nestle was in the market last week to buy around 10,000 tonnes but I am not sure if there were deals," said a dealer in Singapore, referring to the world's biggest food group that makes Nescafe coffee.
"Daily arrivals are steady at around 1,500 to 2,000 tonnes."
The harvest in Indonesia's main producing island of Sumatra started at the end of January and may peak in June, while the next crop in Vietnam is expected to start in October or November in the Central Highlands coffee belt.
WEEKAHEAD
Beans in Vietnam and Indonesia could be offered at premiums next week if London futures stay at the current levels because of pressure from other markets ahead of a make-or-break Greek election.
Coffee output from Vietnam's current 2011/2012 crop would reach 20 million bags, up 2.7 percent from the previous season, the International Coffee Organization said, raising its estimate by around 9 percent from 18.3 million bags previously. (Editing by Ed Lane)
Source: www.reuters.com
Battle of the beach resorts – Skegness accused of putting down rivals Blackpool and Brighton - Daily Telegraph
Local newspapers in both resorts took the decision not to carry the new advert.
“Skeggy” or as it’s affectionately known “The Costa del Skeg”, also claims to be “England’s cultural coast” where “great art and coast come together”.
Blackpool attracts about 13 million visitors each year, with plans in place for a £220m transformation of the resort's centre, while more than eight million people flock to Brighton annually.
In comparison Skegness only welcomes around four million visitors each year, generating £450m for the local economy.
Last year it was described in the Lonely Planet guide as "good family fun if you immerse yourself in the whole tacky spectacle".
But James Gilbert, ELDC’s communications team leader, who commissioned the idea, said the campaign said that view was 30 years out of date
“We want to challenge people’s perceptions and showcase the amazing art, culture, dance, theatre and music that is staged in the town,” he added.
“These adverts are highlighting alternative views, we hope to entice people into having a look at what Skegness has to offer.
“Obviously, Brighton and Blackpool attract more visitors than Skegness and we are not seeking to insult anyone who lives there or visits there.
"We are not trying to upset anyone, it's a bit of friendly rivalry," he said.
Skegness is hoping to get publicity for an "amazing summer of events", which includes So Festival and the Olympic Torch Relay on 27 June.
But Claire Smith, from the guesthouse and hoteliers association Stay Blackpool, said it was a "dirty tricks" campaign.
She said: "Skegness is a lovely little place and this campaign isn't drawing me in, in fact it's making me think about Blackpool and Brighton.
"It is difficult times. Blackpool has an abundance of stuff going on all summer as well, as I am sure Brighton has, but I don't think this campaign is the way to attract visitors," she said.
Both Skegness and Blackpool are featured in a TV advertising campaign to encourage Britons to take their holidays at home in 2012
Skegness once relied on The Jolly Fisherman with the slogan “So bracing” to promote the town in reference to the chilly north-easterly winds that whipped the beach off the North Sea.
Not since the Mods fought the Rockers back in 1964 has there been so much trouble on Brighton’s sea front.
A spokesman for Brighton and Hove City Council said: “Good luck to them. It’s slightly hard to tell what they’re getting at, however.
“As Brighton is widely known as a successful, buzzing, cultural place, with England’s biggest arts festival, claiming to be dissimilar is a strange strategy.
“But if Skegness wants to remind thousands of people that Brighton is here, that’s fine.”
Former city council leader Mary Mears said: “There’s a big difference between the two.
“Those people that visit Skegness maybe would not want to go again whereas we get lots of repeat customers in Brighton and Hove.”
Robin Morley, of Brighton-based Magnetic Events, is directing So Festival later this month.
He said: “I do have cross loyalties as Brighton is my home but have worked with East Lindsey council for three years.
“I think the advert shows Brighton and Hove has two sides to it, like any town or city.”
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
London 2012 Olympics will come in under budget, government says - The Guardian
The government has promised the Olympics will come in under budget – at a cost of less than £9bn to taxpayers – but will spend extra money within that on crowd control measures in light of a bigger-than-expected turnout for the jubilee celebrations and the torch relay.
The sports and Olympics minister, Hugh Robertson, admitted that organisers had underestimated by around a third the amount that would be required to pay for signage, stewarding and crowd control measures such as crush barriers and temporary bridges that will ease congestion in Greenwich and Hyde Park.
It is expected that larger than expected crowds could throng the capital in the three days before the opening ceremony as the torch enters central London and will turn out in huge numbers for the marathon and the cycling road race, which finish on the Mall.
"There is a certain amount of this that you assess as the thing develops and these costs emerge. As a government, you're caught here. The first responsibility of a government is the safety and security of its people," he said.
"We have to do everything we can reasonably do to ensure the safety and security of the very many people, judging by the jubilee, who will attend. There is an element of managing success here."
An extra £19m will be added to the budget for crowd-control measures and managing central London, taking it to £76m. Overall, there was an increase of £29m in the money released to Locog over the most recent quarter, including £8m for putting in concessions and toilets around the Olympic venues.
That will take the total that the London organising committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (Locog) has received from the public funding package to £736m, including a security budget to cover guards within Olympic venues that almost doubled to £553m.
Robertson said that the crowds who lined the river during the jubliee river pageant despite the inclement weather, estimated at around 1.2 million, and the popularity of the torch relay showed that numbers attending might be even higher than expected.
"We knew this would be the moment when people suddenly got this. But we have been pleasantly surprised by the sheer scale of it. If you consider that the torch is coming down the Thames [on July 27] the capacity for lots and lots of people to come and see it is increased," he said.
The additional investment was an insurance policy to ensure that London could cope with the influx, he said.
"London is going to be the place this summer, if the rain holds off, to come and have a party. It is very difficult to estimate how many people will take the car, the train or the ferry and come here for a party with a rucksack on their back."
Transport for London is planning on the basis that there will be 1 million extra people in the capital, although that could be offset by a decline in non-Olympic tourists.
Critics have claimed that Locog, which has a privately raised budget of £2bn to stage the Games but has now received £736m in public money on top of that, should be subject to greater scrutiny. But the government argues that all the public money that has flowed to the organising committee is either for pre-agreed elements of the budget such as security or is for new tasks that it has taken over from the Olympic Delivery Authority.
With the project 98% complete, there is £476m of contingency funding remaining, and Robertson said he could now be confident that it would come in under £9bn.
The National Audit Office had warned there was a real risk that the budget would be bust, but the Department for Culture and Media and Sport and the Government Olympic Executive have continued to insist that they would come in below £9.3bn.
The original bid estimated the cost of the Games at £2.4bn but didn't include VAT or security costs.
The Labour government, chastened by the experience of the Millennium Dome and Wembley, built in a huge contingency fund of £2.7bn when the current funding package of £9.3bn was set in March 2007. The huge increase was justified on the back of the regeneration of east London and other claimed legacy benefits.
Robertson said that the large contingency was a wise move because it allowed the project to weather the economic downturn, bearing the cost of building the Olympic Village and the International Broadcast Centre from public funds before selling them back to the private sector.
Much of the credit for coming in on time and on budget will go to the Olympic Delivery Authority, which came in more than £500m below its baseline budget through savings made during the construction process. Delivering the venues on time, despite the ongoing debate about the future of the £428m stadium, meant that it avoided the prospect of escalating costs as contractors rushed to finish venues.
Robertson said the publicly funded budget had delivered value for money: "I have been a cheerleader for this process right from the beginning. There was a recognition right from the word go the original figure would have to change dramatically. Everybody's eyes were opened to the possibility that this gave us once we had won the bid."
Attention is now likely to turn to the use of a surplus of more than £400m. Despite lobbying from some sports organisations, Robertson said there was no chance that it would remain within sport and would instead flow back to the Treasury.
But campaigners said that would "verge on money laundering", because lottery money that was partly used to fund the Games was diverted from other causes.
"It will be an utter outrage – and verging on money laundering – if lottery revenues raided by the government to fund the Olympics go back to the Treasury," said Jay Kennedy, the head of policy at the Directory of Social Change.
"This money was taken away from supporting vulnerable people and communities across this country at a time when they needed it most. Government needs to keep its promises and do the right thing – any underspend must be used to refund the Lottery as soon as possible."
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
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