(TNS) — Alto CEO Will Coleman is used to getting lots of questions when he tells people he leads a ride-hailing company. When he founded the startup a year ago, Uber and Lyft were already household names. Now they’re publicly traded giants.
But the Dallas-based company is showing signs of growth, even in a competitive industry. It has about 10,000 active members who pay a subscription-based fee. It’s driven nearly 100,000 rides. It serves more than 900 square miles of the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
Alto has also raised an additional $6 million to expand in Dallas and enter two new markets — another metro area in Texas and one in California — by the end of the year. Its venture capital backing now totals $20.5 million, with most from Road Ventures, a Swiss fund focused on transportation.
The company wants to operate in 15 large U.S. metro areas in 3 to 4 years, Coleman said.
Alto’s business model is nearly the opposite of its better-known rivals, who rely on contract workers who drive their own cars. Alto owns a fleet of about 60 SUVs. It employs more than 100 drivers who get health insurance and other benefits, along with pay. It has a membership-based model and a higher price tag.
Instead of competing on price, the company seeks out riders who are willing to pay for a more upscale experience.
“We are an accessible luxury," Coleman said. "We are focused on safety, consistency and quality, and for people that care about that, we think we’re the best in the space. If all you care about is getting the absolute cheapest ride from point A to point B, that’s not Alto.”
Coleman would not share Alto’s annual revenue but said the company’s Dallas operations will become profitable in late 2020 or early 2021. Starting in October, Alto’s revenue covered the direct operating cost of each ride, including drivers, vehicles, fuel and insurance.
Coleman, a Dallas native and former McKinsey & Company consultant, said Alto’s focus on profitability is timely. Uber and Lyft are under pressure from Wall Street as investors push for proof that they can make money.
Alto spends a higher percentage of its revenue on employees. About 60% of its overall costs are employee salaries and benefits, Coleman said, but that allows the company to train and screen drivers, he said. It also translates to lower insurance costs and lower vehicle expenses, since the company can buy and maintain the SUVs at scale.
Alto’s major backer, Road Ventures, was instrumental in its founding, and it led the recent round of funding. Road Ventures is majority owner of Alto. Patrice Crisinel, a Road Ventures board member, said it owns “just a little more than the majority" but wouldn’t disclose the percentage.
The venture firm hired consultants to explore investing in a ride-hailing company. Through the research, the firm’s leaders met Coleman and decided to fund a new company instead.
Crisinel said the research uncovered large segments of the market that didn’t use ride-sharing as much — particularly professional women and families. He said Road Ventures believed a new kind of company focused on safety and superior customer service could appeal to those customers.
“Our bet was right,” he said.
In addition to drivers, Alto has grown to about 25 home office employees, including software engineers and a customer experience team. It hires an average of eight drivers a week to keep up with demand.
Customers are equally split between men and women but tend to be more affluent. Most have household incomes of $100,000 or higher, Coleman said.
Unlike Uber or Lyft, Alto doesn’t raise prices during busy times — but riders must plan ahead for trips. Riders request a ride through a smartphone app. The wait is typically about 10 minutes. It doesn’t have a shared ride option either. (Uber and Lyft don’t have a carpooling option in Dallas but offer it in cities like San Francisco and New York.)
Over the past year, Alto has expanded its coverage area in Dallas and tweaked its approach. It launched with a members-only subscription model but now allows guests to pay per ride. Membership costs $12.95 a month or $99 a year, in addition to the cost of rides. For guests, there is no membership fee, but rides cost about 30% more. About 85% of its rides are taken by members.
Alto isn’t the only company putting its own spin on ride-hailing. Via offers ride-hailing in several major cities and has struck deals with public transit agencies. Zum and HopSkipDrive market themselves as a solution for busy parents who need help with kids’ pickups and dropoffs. Dallas-based Bubbl hires drivers who are off-duty police officers, veterans and first responders.
Alto has tried to stand out with unique touches. Uniform-wearing drivers pick up customers. All rides are in white Buick Enclave SUVs with vanity license plates and a leather interior. Riders can pick music or select “Do Not Disturb," if they have a work call or prefer quiet. And the company borrowed a strategy from high-end hotels by developing a signature scent that drivers spray before each ride. It’s a subtle mix of cypress, vetiver and bergamot.
Alto plans to add other customized features, such as allowing riders to turn up the air conditioning or dim the lights. In the future, the seats may be preprogrammed to adjust for customers, for example, Coleman said.
“We want our customer to feel like they are in control and to feel like they are getting in their car — not someone else’s car,” Coleman said. “That’s really the feeling that we think differentiates us from our competitors.”
©2020 The Dallas Morning News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Signs await supporters and opponents of the Seattle head tax. (Hanna Scott, KIRO Radio)
This new House bill for a King County jobs tax shows the sleaze of the people in charge here.
The tax would affect businesses with employees making $150,000 or more per year. King County businesses with 50 employees or more would be subject to the tax. Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan and King County Executive Dow Constantine knew from the 2018 Seattle head tax debacle that they couldn’t pass a jobs tax that way, so they went straight to the Legislature to accomplish it.
By the way, if you wonder why I’m calling it a jobs tax, it’s because a head tax is a euphemism. This is a jobs tax. And when you tax things — whether cigarettes, alcohol, or jobs — there will be less of those things.
It will start out as just applying to King County businesses with 50 employees, but you know that over time this tax will expand to more counties and smaller businesses. Any time we give government a new tax toy, they abuse the heck out of it. Every tax skyrockets. The sales tax was 4 percent when I was a kid; now it’s up to 10.
King County Councilmember Dunn: County jobs tax will hurt the poor
But then I found out something about this jobs tax I didn’t know. Local governments would be exempt from it. How sleazy is that?
Government says it’s because they would have to take away vital dollars from other funds to pay the tax. Hey government, what do you think private companies have to do when you keep taxing them to death? They can’t just manufacture the money out of thin air. They actually have to pull money from other line items in their budget. It might make the difference between making a profit that year and just breaking even (or going in the red). It may stop them from being able to grow that year.
How many government employees do you think make over $150,000 per year? Sound Transit has 80 employees making over that amount. The Port of Seattle has 196. The King County government has 522. This is clearly not just department heads making that large of a sum.
But the winner in our Sweepstakes of Greed is the City of Seattle. The City of Seattle has 1,049 employees making over $150,000 per year. Do you think we’re getting our money’s worth from all of those workers? I’m sure we are from a few. But I doubt we are from all 1,049, seeing as Seattle is engulfed by homelessness and drug use and property crime and traffic congestion.
Luckily for Seattle, the city won’t have to pay for all of these workers.
We have spent over $10 billion on the homelessness-industrial complex in the last 14 years, and the problem has gotten dramatically worse. Think about that. There is no correlation between money and solving the homelessness problem. There is an absolute correlation between a lack of drug prosecution and the homelessness problem.
What this county-wide jobs tax shows is that the Seattle sleaze is spreading like the coronavirus all around the region.
Listen to the Dori Monson Show weekday afternoons from 12-3 p.m. on KIRO Radio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.
Roku stock is falling after the company said on Friday it may take Fox apps off its streaming platform.
“Roku’s distribution agreement with FOX Corp is set to expire on Jan. 31. We offered FOX an extension so that Roku can continue to bring a large and valuable audience to FOX but FOX declined,” the company said on its blog. “If an agreement is not reached, we will be forced to remove FOX channels from the Roku platform. We will no longer have the legal right to distribute their content.”
Roku shares (ticker: ROKU) were down 6.9% to $121.65 on Friday, while Fox was off 0.5% to $36.27. The S&P 500 had fallen 1.6%.
Roku said negotiations with Fox will continue and the company hopes they can reach an agreement. When asked for comment, Roku sent the same statement it posted on its corporate blog.
“Roku’s threat to delete FOX apps from its customers’ devices is a naked effort to use its customers as pawns. To be clear, FOX has not asked Roku to remove our apps, and we would prefer Roku continue to make them available without interruption,” a Fox spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “Only Roku can pull apps from its customers’ devices, and we would urge them to stop the intimidation tactics and reconsider the merits of irritating their best customers in pursuit of Roku’s own interests.”
Barron’s parent company News Corp and Fox have common ownership.
Roku sells video-streaming hardware, which enables consumers to watch content streamed over the internet, and licenses its operating system to TV makers. The company’s stock was one of the best-performing stocks in the market last year. Its shares were up about 337% in 2019.
Wall Street analysts are generally positive on Roku, with 68% having a Buy or Overweight rating on the stock and 16% with a Hold rating, according to FactSet. The company is slated to report its fourth-quarter earnings results on Feb. 13.
“Roku is acting from a position of strength, leveraging its leading OTT viewership,” Rosenblatt Securities analyst Mark Zgutowicz wrote in a note to clients Friday. “We are buyers of the stock on weakness here.”
Write to Tae Kim at tae.kim@barrons.com
Pushing older people out of the workforce costs the U.S. economy $850 billion a year, according to AARP.
The 50-plus population contributed 40% of the country’s gross domestic product in 2018, according to research released this week by AARP and the Economist Intelligence Unit. This subsect of the workforce also supports 88.6 million jobs and $5.7 trillion in wages and salaries, their work directly and indirectly.
Yet, older workers are often discriminated against, and had they been allowed to stay in their positions, move between jobs or re-enter the workforce, the country would have amassed nearly a trillion dollars more. The 50-plus population’s economic contribution amounted to $8.3 trillion in 2018, and is expected to triple to $28.2 trillion by 2050. If age discrimination was eliminated, the total economic contribution could rise to $32.1 trillion in 2050, the AARP report said.
See: These words are a sign of age bias in job postings
“Age discrimination is pervasive,” said Debra Whitman, vice president and chief policy officer of AARP. Age discrimination is sometimes layered on other discrimination, including those toward genders and races, she added.
Age discrimination is rampant in the workforce, as well as in the hiring process, research has shown. In a study where fictitious resumes for people of varying ages were sent as job applications, the younger applicants were likely to get the callback. Older women have an even harder time finding a job, and since women tend to live longer and earn less than men over their lifetimes, can put them at risk for impoverishment in their old age.
Read: More people are returning to work after retiring — and they’re happy about it
Legislative proposals address these concerns. The Protecting Older Workers Against Discrimination Act, sponsored by Republican and Democratic representatives, would reverse a 2009 Supreme Court decision that made it harder to claim age bias for a layoff or demotion. The law currently requires the older worker to prove age discrimination was the reason for their dismissal or demotion, as opposed to previously, when employers had to offer a legitimate reason for firing or demoting the individual.
Also see: This CFO couldn’t get hired at 61, so he started his own business -- and hired lots of seniors
Still, there’s a place for older people in the workforce. Americans are living longer than ever before, and many expect to spend more time working. An average American retiring at 65 could expect to spend one or two decades in retirement otherwise, and their involvement in a company could positively impact younger workers, who can learn from them.
Not everyone wants to call it quits in their 60s. Although the number of older Americans in the workforce is significantly smaller than those in the beginning and middle of their careers, the number of workers 65 and older has tripled in the last 30 years, and for those 75 and up, it’s almost quadrupled in the same time frame.
The Baton Rouge metro area gained 7,700 nonfarm jobs over the past 12 months through December.
It was among four of Louisiana's nine metro areas that added nonfarm jobs over the year, according to preliminary U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics data that is not seasonally adjusted. Four metro areas lost jobs, while Alexandria was flat.
Louisiana overall added 8,300 jobs, an increase of 0.4% to 1.9 million jobs.
The Capital City metro area had 419,100 jobs and grew by 1.9%.
Top gains were in leisure and hospitality, 3,100 jobs, an increase of 7.8%, while education and health services added 2,200 jobs. Baton Rouge also saw growth in trade, transportation and utilities, 200 jobs; federal, state and local government, 100; business and professional services, 1,500; manufacturing, 400; other services, 300; and financial services, 100 jobs.
Notably, construction added 200 jobs, after largely being on the decline for the past year.
Mining and logging, which includes the oil and gas industry, were flat.
The information sector was down by 400 jobs.
The unemployment rate for Baton Rouge was 4.5% in December, up from 3.9% in December 2018.
Statewide unemployment was up slightly to 4.9% from 4.4% a year ago. U.S. unemployment was 3.4%, down from 3.7% in December 2018.
LAFAYETTE: The Acadiana region added 800 jobs over the year, an increase of 0.4%, to 205,800 jobs. There were job gains in manufacturing, 900; trade, transportation and utilities, 200; education and health services, 600; and federal, state and local government, 300. Business and professional services dropped by 700 jobs; mining and logging, 100; financial services, 100; construction, 300; and information, 100. The leisure and hospitality sector was flat. Unemployment in Lafayette was 4.9%, up from 4.3% in December 2018.
NEW ORLEANS: The Crescent City added 11,900 jobs, an increase of 2.0%, through December to 597,000. Professional and business services added 6,300 jobs; education and health services, 2,500; construction, 300; leisure and hospitality, 3,800; other services, 400; and mining and logging, 300. Losses stemmed from trade, transportation and utilities, 1,200 jobs; information, 900; federal, state and local government, 200; and manufacturing, 600. Financial services was flat. The unemployment rate was 4.4%, up from 4.0% in December 2018.
OTHER AREAS: Hammond added 1,000 jobs over the year to 47,000. Job losses were in Houma-Thibodaux, by 1,300 to 84,200; Shreveport-Bossier City, 2,900 to 178,400; Lake Charles 1,000 to 116,900; and Monroe, 600 to 78,600. Alexandria job growth was flat at 61,500.
Louisiana's nonfarm employment grew 9,300 jobs over the past 12 months through November, a 0.5% increase driven by health services and education.
The Baton Rouge metro area gained 4,900 jobs over the past 12 months through October.
The nine-parish Baton Rouge area is projected to gain 4,900 jobs next year, a 1.2% growth rate, an annual forecast from the Baton Rouge Area C…
［ヤマガタデザイン］
有機米栽培の生産性向上に向けた共同研究を開始
山形県庄内地方で事業を通じた地域課題の解決を目指す街づくり会社、ヤマガタデザイン株式会社(本社：山形県鶴岡市北京田字下鳥ノ巣23-1 代表取締役 山中 大介)は、令和元年11月に、国立大学法人東京農工大学が開発した食用米を利用し、多収かつ食味の良い、有機米の生産販売に向けて「有機米デザイン株式会社（大学発ベンチャー：東京都小金井市中町2丁目24番16号 先端産学連携研究推進センター116号室 代表取締役 山中 大介）」を設立しました。このほど、有機米の栽培に関する知見の収集と諸課題の解決に向けた共同研究を本格的に開始いたしました。
今後とも弊社では、連携機関との協働を積極的に進めるほか、除草作業を省力化するロボット開発など、有機米のマーケット拡大と有機農業に取り組む農業者の所得向上を目指した活動を推進して参ります。
有機農業を巡る状況
世界の有機食品売上は年々増加しており、日本でも消費者の関心が高まっています。また、新規就農希望者への調査でも有機農業に興味や実施してみたいとの要望はますます高まっている状況にあります。しかしながら、有機農業を安定的に営農していくには、栽培に関するノウハウや経験に不安を持つ農家も多く、国内の耕地面積のうち有機栽培面積は数%程度と、まだまだ取り組みは限定的な状況です。さらに、水稲では、10アール当たりの粗収益は有機栽培が慣行栽培に比べ2倍近くになるものの、労働時間は、およそ1.5倍となるなど、生産性に及ぼす時間的制約が大きな課題として挙げられています。中でも除草にかかる労働時間は５倍近くになるとの報告もあり、ロボット化への期待が高まっています。
出典：令和元年8月農林水産省生産局農業環境対策課「有機農業をめぐる事情」p13より
目的
弊社は、前述の有機米の栽培における課題を解決し、農業者の所得向上と有機米マーケットの拡大に取り組みます。今回の共同研究では、同大学が開発した食用米を利用し、多収かつ食味の良い、有機米の栽培技術確立に向けて取り組んで参ります。また同時に、有機米の栽培における除草の省力化という課題に対して、弊社が検討を重ねてきたロボット技術での解決を目指します。
共同研究の内容
今月より本格的に始まる共同研究では、東京農工大学農学部の大川泰一郎教授(※1)の指導の下、有機米の栽培に優位性を持つ品種やその特性、その特性を活かすための栽培技術、並びに有機米の栽培条件実現のための技術手段に関する研究に取り組む計画です。東京農工大学農学部の有する有機栽培に関する多くの知見やノウハウと共に、この共同研究で得られた成果は、庄内で弊社が行う有機米の栽培に活かしていくほか、今年4月に開校する鶴岡市立農業経営者育成学校（SEADS）の研修生にも還元していきます。
ヤマガタデザイン株式会社とは
山形県庄内地方で事業を通じた地域課題の解決を目指す街づくり会社です。農業分野以外にも、交流/関係人口を呼び込む「ショウナイホテル スイデンテラス」、地方都市の子育て環境を向上させる全天候型児童遊戯施設「キッズドームソライ」を運営しています。また、UIJターン者を増やすポータルサイト「ショウナイズカン」を運営しています。
「持続可能な農業の仕組み」の構築に向けて
弊社では、有機農業をベースとした農業生産、人材育成、そして研究開発の3つの柱で課題の解決に取り組んでいます。農業生産では、海外からの輸入に頼っている化学肥料、化学合成農薬に依存しない、有機資源循環農法を実践することで、持続可能な農業に取り組んでいます。昨年から引き続き栽培するベビーリーフやミニトマトは、栽培面積を更に拡大します。また、新たに今年から約9ヘクタールの面積で、有機米の栽培を開始します。
人材育成では、今年4月に開校する「鶴岡市立農業経営者育成学校（SEADS）」の運営を担う予定で、全国から集まる研修生を育成し、農業者が著しく減少する現状に対して、将来の担い手を確保します。
研究開発では、多くの協働機関とのオープンイノベーションな開発体制の構築を積極的に進めるほか、水稲有機栽培における除草工数削減のためのロボット開発や各種設備の開発などにチャレンジし、生産性の向上を目指します。
これらに加え、地域全体で利用できる有機農業のブランド「SHONAI ROOTS（ショウナイルーツ）」を立ち上げ、販路を確保することによって農業経営の安定化に寄与し、持続可能な農業の実現に取り組んでいきます。
【参考リンク】
東京農工大学農学部生物生産学科 大川泰一郎教授
http://kenkyu-web.tuat.ac.jp/Profiles/2/0000197/profile.html
鶴岡市農業経営者育成学校(SEADS)
https://tsuruoka-seads.com/
SHONAI ROOTS
https://shonai-roots.com/
企業プレスリリース詳細へ （2020/02/01-01:15）
造船会社のヤマニシ（宮城県石巻市）が31日、東京地裁に会社更生法の適用を申請したことに関連し、七十七銀行は同日、ヤマニシに対する債権75億7200万円について取り立て不能・遅延の恐れがあると発表した。大半を引き当て済みとし、2020年3月期の通期業績予想に変更はないとしている。
帝国データバンクによると、ヤマニシの負債総額は約123億円。同社は1920年に創業し、漁船の建造で培った技術力をもとに貨物船やコンテナ船などに受注を広げた。ピーク時の売上高は約198億円。東日本大震災で被災した後の14年に事業を再開したが、受注が伸び悩み、財務体質が悪化していた。
The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Office holds a press conference with the latest information on the helicopter crash that killed nine, including Kobe Bryant.
The charter company whose helicopter crashed and killed basketball star Kobe Bryant, his daughter and seven others on Sunday was not certified to fly in conditions requiring pilots to fly using only cockpit instruments, media reports said.
Continue Reading Below
Island Express Helicopters, which owned the Sikorsky S-76B that crashed, was only certified to operate under visual flight rules, which mean pilots must be able to clearly see outside the aircraft in daylight, Kurt Deetz, a pilot and former safety manager at the company, told the New York Times.
KOBE BRYANT DEATH HAS JENNIFER LOPEZ AND SHAKIRA PLANNING SUPER BOWL MESSAGE
Investigators work the scene of a helicopter crash that killed former NBA basketball player Kobe Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, and several others Monday, Jan. 27, 2020, in Calabasas, Calif. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
The aircraft is equipped for instrument flying, however, the report said.
"There is only one way you can be in the clouds, on an I.F.R. flight plan or by accident," Deetz told the newspaper, referring to instrument flight rules.
KOBE BRYANT INSPIRES DRAMATIC CHANGES TO NBA ALL-STAR GAME
The helicopter's pilot, Ara Zobayan, was licensed for instrument flying, most likely had little experience in doing so given the company's operating limitations, Deetz told Forbes separately.
The twin-engine helicopter slammed into a hillside in Calabasas, California, amid visibility-limiting clouds and fog.
Air traffic controllers had given Zobayan "special visual flight rules," or clearance to fly in the less-than-optimal weather around the Burbank airport.
The pilot had reported that visibility was sufficient for visual flight, the Times said, adding that the weather appeared to have worsened as the flight continued.
GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE
In a separate statement, Island Express Helicopters said it was suspending all services.
"The shock of the accident affected all staff, and management decided that service would be suspended until such time as it was deemed appropriate for staff and customers," the charter company said.
Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant in Game 2 of the NBA basketball finals, in Los Angeles. June 2009 (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill, File)
The death of Bryant, 41, an 18-time NBA all-star and one of the most admired athletes around the globe, sent shockwaves through the sports and entertainment worlds.
(Reporting by Shubham Kalia in Bengaluru; Editing by Gerry Doyle)
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ON FOX BUSINESS
CAIRO (Reuters) - Sitting in her sister’s apartment on a noisy Cairo street, Rania Sayed one day hopes to leave a city that is becoming more congested as Egypt’s population ticks up to 100 million, a milestone it will pass next month.
A general view shows the crowd and shops at Al Ataba, a popular market in central Cairo, Egypt January 28, 2020. Picture taken January 28, 2020. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany
Like many others, she wants to move to one of the new satellite settlements being built for a booming population whose rapid growth President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi has identified as one of Egypt’s biggest challenges alongside terrorism.
“I want to move them (her two children) to a place where people have better mentalities, where there is education,” said the 36-year-old resident of the Ard Al Lewa district, where rows of apartment blocks rise above dusty, unpaved streets.
“Unfortunately, things are very difficult in places like this...so I hope to be able to live to a good social standard.”
Egypt’s 100 millionth person is expected to be clocked up on the official statistics agency’s digital counter in central Cairo in February.
The newborn will join a nation where six people in ten are under 29 years old, said Aleksandar Bodiroza, representative of the U.N. populations fund in Egypt.
Many Arab and African countries are struggling with rising populations. But in Egypt the pressures are acute, because 97% of its people live on just 8% of its territory, crowded along the Nile, Bodiroza added.
Creating new space for housing, schools and hospitals is a priority as Egypt’s population grows by 2.5 million people a year, he said. In inhabited areas, 1,400 people are packed into every square kilometer.
The biggest problem is jobs. The workforce will reach 80 million within 10 years, the World Bank says.
But to create enough jobs, annual economic growth needs to be at least triple the population growth rate, said Radwa El-Swaify, head of research at Pharos, a Cairo financial firm.
Based on population growth of 2.5% this would require 7.5% GDP growth, compared with the government’s forecast of up to 5.9% for the current fiscal year.
In addition, Egypt’s economy could be hit by water shortages caused by climate change and a Nile dam being built upstream by Ethiopia. Infrastructure, including roads and public transport, will also come under pressure as the population grows.
“Thirty years ago this whole area was agricultural land,” said Nabil Rawash, 60, who also lives in Ard El Lewa.
“But with the overcrowding and population growth, people started coming here to build,” he added, standing in a street packed with people and cars.
Officials say they have managed to bring down fertility rates thanks to a “Two is Enough” campaign challenging the tradition of large families in rural areas.
This is aimed at more than 1.1 million poor families with up to three children. The Social Solidarity Ministry has trained volunteers to encourage people to have fewer children.
“During 2019, we have conducted 2,680,000 home visits,” said Desiree Labib, project director at the ministry. “Among these visits 407,000 women have asked to be referred to family planning clinics.”
She pointed to a U.N. study which found the fertility rate dipped to 3.1 in 2018 from 3.5 in 2014.
“If we apply more discipline, so that families have less children, we can reach fertility rates of 2.1 by 2032,” said Abdelhamid Sharaf El Din, a senior statistics official.
That still means the population will grow to 153 million by 2052, but if the fertility rate were 3.4 it would hit 191 million, he said.
Either way, the government needs to do something about congestion in Cairo, home to about one in five Egyptians. It is planning to start moving ministries as soon as June.
But for many, moving there is not an option due to lack of transport and jobs, said Timothy Kaldas, non-resident fellow at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy.
“The over-centralization of Egypt’s state and economy has led to this overwhelming concentration of Egyptians in one metropolis,” he said.
Writing by Ulf Laessing; Editing by Giles Elgood
CBS CEO and chairman Joe Ianniello is departing the company, ViacomCBS announced Friday.
George Cheeks, vice chairman of NBCUniversal Content Studios, will take over as CEO and president of CBS Entertainment Group effective March 23. Cheeks will report directly to ViacomCBS CEO Bob Bakish.
Ianniello was appointed as acting CEO of CBS while the media company searched for a successor for Les Moonves, who left the company amid sexual misconduct allegations. Last April, CBS said it would suspend its search for Moonves' successor and keep Ianniello in the role through the end of the year.
"I'm grateful to Joe for his many contributions to CBS and for the meaningful role he has played in bringing the CBS and Viacom teams together," Bakish said in a statement. "Thanks in no small part to his efforts, the CBS brand has a strong and loyal following across a variety of platforms – positioning it well for this important next chapter."
Viacom and CBS agreed to merge last August, bringing an end to years of on-and-off discussions. The merger was completed last month.
Disclosure: Comcast is the owner of NBCUniversal, parent company of CNBC and CNBC.com.
Westrock Coffee announced on Friday that it will pay $405 million to purchase a North Carolina company that is the nation’s largest coffee and tea manufacturer and supplier to restaurants and convenience stores.
The combined entity will have 1,700 employees globally and there are plans to establish corporate headquarters in Little Rock, according to Westrock CEO Scott Ford.
“This is tremendous news for our company and a validation of the work we’ve been doing for our customers and the growers who support our business,” Ford said. “It’s going to be great news for Little Rock down the road as we work with our new team members to expand our growth organically and through acquisitions.”
Westrock is purchasing S&D Coffee & Tea of Concord, N.C., which was founded in 1927 to provide fresh roasted coffee and tea to local and regional grocery stores. S&D is a subsidiary of Cott Corp. of Canada, which sold the business to Westrock.
The transaction is expected to close by March 1, Ford said. S&D has annual revenues of $600 million, according to a recent federal filing.
"The S&D team is known for its dedication, hard work and passion for quality beverages and first-class service to its customers. That commitment is evident to anyone who visits S&D or works with them, and we are confident S&D will continue to thrive under its new ownership," Tom Harrington, Cott's chief executive officer, said in the company's news release announcing the transaction.
Though corporate offices will be transitioned to Little Rock over time, Ford emphasized that there are no plans to change the core team in North Carolina. Indeed, he said the S&D executive team will play a key role in growth plans and the operations in North Carolina likely will be expanded.
“They are a much bigger company than we are and have the personnel and infrastructure in place to help build a strong company,” Ford said. “We’ll expand our roasting plant and offices in North Little Rock and have plans to expand the facilities in North Carolina.”
Westrock and S&D will continue to serve customers under their respective brand names for now. The new company will be the nation’s leading integrated coffee company, meaning it has the ability to import, export, roast, grind, process and package coffee provided by growers in more than 20 countries.
Both companies have built strong reputations providing private-label coffee to some of the nation’s leading businesses. “Together, we’ll be the biggest and the best coffee provider in the nation,” Ford said.
Westrock primarily serves retailers like Walmart, Sam’s Club and CVS outlets. Its secondary market supports the hospitality industry, providing coffee to many of the marquee hotels on the Las Vegas strip.
S&D primarily serves the restaurant industry with a secondary market of convenience stores. Its customers include McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Chick-fil-A and Circle K.
Westrock was founded in 2009 by Scott Ford and his father, Joe, along with other private investors. Today, the company has about 400 employees with offices in seven countries.
Read Saturday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.
[unable to retrieve full-text content]
Westrock Coffee to acquire North Carolina coffee and tea company THV11.com KTHV
BOSTON — In his first address to the U.S. Congress, President Donald Trump hailed General Motors Co, Harley-Davidson Inc, Intel Corp and seven other companies as innovators and job creators, predicting they would be among those producing "tens of thousands of new American jobs" and investing "billions and billions of dollars."
Nearly three years later, with unemployment at the lowest in half a century, that first presidential portfolio has stumbled to fulfill that forecast. While Trump's 10 companies have spent billions on new factories and upgrades, they failed to keep pace with new hires, according to a Reuters analysis of the group's capital expenditures and headcount since 2017.
Collective employment at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV, Ford Motor Co, GM, Harley, Intel, Lockheed Martin Corp, Sprint Corp, Walmart Inc and small biotech Amicus Therapeutics has remained flat at about 2 million workers, the analysis shows. In the same period, total U.S. employment has risen by 4.5%.
Graphic - Jobs boom?: https://ift.tt/2U76r83
Wall Street has not smiled extensively on Trump's selected companies either.
Most of the companies’ total shareholder return has trailed the S&P 500's 47% advance and sector benchmarks since Trump’s February 2017 speech. Only four of the 10 have outperformed the broad benchmark while five have lagged the wider market by 35 points or more, as of Jan. 28.
White House Deputy Press Secretary Judd Deere declined to comment about the individual companies, but noted more Americans are coming off the sidelines and finding work, and U.S. wages and consumer confidence are rising.
"Despite headwinds from severe monetary tightening and a global recession, President Trump's agenda of fair and reciprocal trade, lower taxes and deregulation has created the strongest economy we've ever seen," he added.
Still, struggles within the Trump portfolio underscore how the president's economic and immigration policies have produced uneven results as he seeks another term in the White House.
Since he took office, only Fiat Chrysler and defence contractor Lockheed Martin have added a meaningful number of net new workers.
Lockheed's U.S. headcount is up about 15%. Fiat's employment is up about 11%, with some gains coming from broader North American operations. The net gain of jobs at the two companies is about 22,800 since the end of 2016, according to company disclosures.
"What a great brand Jeep is," Trump said in a shoutout to Fiat Chrysler's hot-selling vehicle, before signing a tariff agreement with China.
By contrast, the combined overall U.S. headcount at Ford and GM has declined by about 10,000, or 5%, to 184,000, despite investing billions of dollars in their automotive plants. (For a graphic click https://ift.tt/37VGvAF)
For a broader picture, the U.S. economy has produced an average of 193,000 new jobs per month, over the past three years. But even with the benefit of Trump's 2017 massive corporate tax rate cut, that is 14% less than the 224,000 jobs per month created during the last three years of Barack Obama's administration, according to U.S. Department of Labor figures.
“Trump wins some, loses some when compared to Obama,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at financial research firm Moody's Analytics, referring to various economic indicators like stock market gains (more under Trump), federal budget deficit (less under Obama), fixed mortgage rates (lower under Obama) and household net worth (higher growth rate under Trump).
Graphic - Obama vs Trump: https://ift.tt/2RHN0kV
But Zandi and four other economists interviewed for this story said Trump sets himself apart with a restrictive immigration policy that is exacerbating labour shortages across jobs that pay low wages and top-end salaries.
“This is going to become a very severe impediment to growth,” Zandi said. “We're used to seeing 200,000 new jobs created every month, but it will be one-fourth of that a few years from now.”
The U.S. labour force has grown at an annual rate of 0.5% in the 10 years since the Great Recession ended. But in the other four recent recoveries, annualised labour force growth was more than doubled, exceeding 1%, according to economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.
Meanwhile, a key plank in Trump's agenda - rebuilding the country's manufacturing base - recently took a hit when the sector fell into its deepest slump in more than a decade.
But there are plenty of bright spots, big and small.
U.S. headcount at defence contractor Lockheed Martin, for example, has surged 15% to about 102,300 employees since the end of 2016 as it seeks full-rate production of its F-35 fighter jet, according to company.
Lockheed shares have climbed, too, producing a total return of 76% since Trump’s 2017 speech, easily outpacing the S&P 500’s total return of 47% during that time.
Amicus Therapeutics Inc, which Trump hailed for treating rare metabolic disorders, has nearly doubled its U.S. headcount to more than 500 people, according to U.S. Department of Labor disclosures. Its shares are up 39% since Trump's speech, boosting its market value to more than $2 billion. The Nasdaq US Small Cap Biotech Index is up 61% during that time.
Graphic - A presidential stock tip?: https://ift.tt/2tTxfOJ
SPENDING BILLIONS
In 2018, the Trump portfolio of companies collectively used about $60 billion from their cash flows on capital expenditures to make new products and to remain competitive, according to their financial statements. Intel, for example, plowed $29.6 billion into research and development and capital investments during 2019, up 33% from 2016 levels. It plans to invest more than $7 billion to complete a chip plant in Arizona, one of the largest construction projects in the country.
“We anticipate it will create 3,000 Intel jobs,” company spokeswoman Chelsea Hughes said. Intel's total return is 99% since Trump highlighted the company in his first address to congress.
After a recent surge in its stock price, Intel is beating the 91% total return of the S&P 500 Semiconductor Index. The benchmark includes high-flying rivals like Nvidia Corp, whose shares are up 147% since Trump's address.
Japan’s Softbank Corp is also investing billions of dollars in U.S. startups, and has created thousands of jobs, with help from American venture capital firms and mutual funds.
But as seen by the WeWork saga, and other troubled investments like the dog walking company, Wag Labs Inc, a lot of those jobs could disappear overnight.
Other companies Trump touted that have kept payrolls inline are getting mixed reviews from investors.
Shares of Harley-Davidson have dropped 34% since the president hailed the “magnificent motorcycles” in his first address to congress. Trump's trade tensions, however, have hurt the Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based company, which last year struck a deal to build a smaller motorcycle in a venture with a Chinese company. Harley-Davidson’s latest available headcount of 5,900 is down slightly from 6,000 at the end of 2016, according to company disclosures.
Trump has criticized the company for moving some of its production offshore. Harley Davidson did not return messages seeking comment.
The economists Reuters spoke with applaud the investments, but they say big chunks of capital go toward upgrades and automation, not necessarily net gains in workers.
“There's not a lot of trickle down to the local economy,” said Sarah Low, a University of Missouri-Columbia economics professor who focuses on employment in rural areas.
(Reporting By Tim McLaughlin; editing by Dan Burns and Edward Tobin)
Alto CEO Will Coleman is used to getting lots of questions when he tells people he leads a ride-hailing company. When he founded the startup a year ago, Uber and Lyft were already household names. Now they’re publicly traded giants.
But the Dallas-based company is showing signs of growth, even in a competitive industry. It has about 10,000 active members who pay a subscription-based fee. It’s driven nearly 100,000 rides. It serves more than 900 square miles of the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
Alto has also raised an additional $6 million to expand in Dallas and enter two new markets — another metro area in Texas and one in California — by the end of the year. Its venture capital backing now totals $20.5 million, with most from Road Ventures, a Swiss fund focused on transportation.
The company wants to operate in 15 large U.S. metro areas in 3 to 4 years, Coleman said.
Alto’s business model is nearly the opposite of its better-known rivals, who rely on contract workers who drive their own cars. Alto owns a fleet of about 60 SUVs. It employs more than 100 drivers who get health insurance and other benefits, along with pay. It has a membership-based model and a higher price tag.
Instead of competing on price, the company seeks out riders who are willing to pay for a more upscale experience.
“We are an accessible luxury," Coleman said. "We are focused on safety, consistency and quality, and for people that care about that, we think we’re the best in the space. If all you care about is getting the absolute cheapest ride from point A to point B, that’s not Alto.”
Coleman would not share Alto’s annual revenue but said the company’s Dallas operations will become profitable in late 2020 or early 2021. Starting in October, Alto’s revenue covered the direct operating cost of each ride, including drivers, vehicles, fuel and insurance.
Coleman, a Dallas native and former McKinsey & Company consultant, said Alto’s focus on profitability is timely. Uber and Lyft are under pressure from Wall Street as investors push for proof that they can make money.
Alto spends a higher percentage of its revenue on employees. About 60% of its overall costs are employee salaries and benefits, Coleman said, but that allows the company to train and screen drivers, he said. It also translates to lower insurance costs and lower vehicle expenses, since the company can buy and maintain the SUVs at scale.
/arc-anglerfish-arc2-prod-dmn.s3.amazonaws.com/public/PI2XQALUTOTH6PNL6S3SL6BWVU.jpg)
Alto’s major backer, Road Ventures, was instrumental in its founding, and it led the recent round of funding. Road Ventures is majority owner of Alto. Patrice Crisinel, a Road Ventures board member, said it owns “just a little more than the majority" but wouldn’t disclose the percentage.
The venture firm hired consultants to explore investing in a ride-hailing company. Through the research, the firm’s leaders met Coleman and decided to fund a new company instead.
Crisinel said the research uncovered large segments of the market that didn’t use ride-sharing as much — particularly professional women and families. He said Road Ventures believed a new kind of company focused on safety and superior customer service could appeal to those customers.
“Our bet was right,” he said.
In addition to drivers, Alto has grown to about 25 home office employees, including software engineers and a customer experience team. It hires an average of eight drivers a week to keep up with demand.
Customers are equally split between men and women but tend to be more affluent. Most have household incomes of $100,000 or higher, Coleman said.
/arc-anglerfish-arc2-prod-dmn.s3.amazonaws.com/public/K7Y3BLUO3ZAKNGXYSDEKBTAUAE.JPG)
Unlike Uber or Lyft, Alto doesn’t raise prices during busy times — but riders must plan ahead for trips. Riders request a ride through a smartphone app. The wait is typically about 10 minutes. It doesn’t have a shared ride option either. (Uber and Lyft don’t have a carpooling option in Dallas but offer it in cities like San Francisco and New York.)
Over the past year, Alto has expanded its coverage area in Dallas and tweaked its approach. It launched with a members-only subscription model but now allows guests to pay per ride. Membership costs $12.95 a month or $99 a year, in addition to the cost of rides. For guests, there is no membership fee, but rides cost about 30% more. About 85% of its rides are taken by members.
Alto isn’t the only company putting its own spin on ride-hailing. Via offers ride-hailing in several major cities and has struck deals with public transit agencies. Zum and HopSkipDrive market themselves as a solution for busy parents who need help with kids’ pickups and dropoffs. Dallas-based Bubbl hires drivers who are off-duty police officers, veterans and first responders.
Alto has tried to stand out with unique touches. Uniform-wearing drivers pick up customers. All rides are in white Buick Enclave SUVs with vanity license plates and a leather interior. Riders can pick music or select “Do Not Disturb," if they have a work call or prefer quiet. And the company borrowed a strategy from high-end hotels by developing a signature scent that drivers spray before each ride. It’s a subtle mix of cypress, vetiver and bergamot.
Alto plans to add other customized features, such as allowing riders to turn up the air conditioning or dim the lights. In the future, the seats may be preprogrammed to adjust for customers, for example, Coleman said.
“We want our customer to feel like they are in control and to feel like they are getting in their car — not someone else’s car,” Coleman said. “That’s really the feeling that we think differentiates us from our competitors.”
ＳＢＩホールディングスは31日、地方銀行との連携による「第４のメガバンク構想」を推進するため、２月中をめどに数社のパートナーと共同で持ち株会社を設立すると発表した。持ち株会社の当初の払込資本は100億円程度となる見込みで、ＳＢＩが51％超を出資する。
地銀に対する投資を統括することになる持ち株会社や傘下の共同出資会社には、ＳＢＩのほか都市銀行や有力地銀、ベンチャーキャピタルなどが出資することを想定している。１年半以内に新たな出資パートナーを募集し、払込資本の規模を300億円まで増強することを目指す。
マイナス金利政策で金利収入が落ち込んだ結果、地銀は収益力の低下で経営環境の悪化にあえいでおり、ＳＢＩは同構想を掲げて支援のための投資を強化している。これまでに島根銀行や福島銀行、筑邦銀行に出資する計画を発表した。
連携の一環として共通システムや海外投融資の機会を地銀に提供するほか、地方産業の活性化でも連携することを計画している。
■本合意について
情報アセットマネジメント事業（SNS運用戦略策定・運用代行）を行うWhoever株式会社は、Podcast等の各種音声プラットフォーム（Apple iTunes StoreやSpotify）を活用した、音声コンテンツの運用を開始します。
事業領域の拡大により、音声データを活用した情報資産運用サービスを提供可能になりました。
また、株式会社こえラボでは、発信サポートサービス面における強化を通じた、新たな付加価値提供が可能となりました。
■株式会社こえラボについて
株式会社こえラボは音声メディアコンシェルジュとして、Podcastで配信したい方に向けて、トータルプロデュース（企画・収録・編集・配信）を実施しています。
また、Apple iTunes StoreやSpotifyのプラットホームを活用した、インターネットラジオ配信サービスを提供しています。
【お問合せ先】
メールアドレス：info@koelab.co.jp
【会社概要】
社名：株式会社こえラボ
住所：東京都新宿区新宿７－２６－７ビクセル新宿１Ｆ
設立：２０１６年１０月２０日
ＨＰ：https://koelab.co.jp
Podcast：ポッドキャストの配信で人生が変わる
https://podcasts.apple.com/jp/podcast/id1256406473
■Podcastについて
インターネット上で音声や動画のデータファイルを公開する方法の1つであり、オーディオやビデオでのウェブログ（ブログ）として位置付けられている、インターネットラジオ・インターネットテレビの一種です。
■Whoever株式会社について
ソーシャルメディア領域に特化した資産運用サービスを専門に取り扱う、本邦初の「情報アセットマネジメント事業会社」です。
最新のITを駆使することで、お客様の生涯における事績（伝記）を「情報資産」として、後世に受け継がれる状態にすることを目指します。
情報資産の形成、保全を通じた、発信力・影響力・人的ネットワークの繁栄をサポートします。
【事業概要資料】
https://prtimes.jp/a/?f=d44298-20200131-4527.pdf
【お問合せ先】
メールアドレス：info@whoever.co.jp
【会社概要】
社名：Wｈｏｅｖｅｒ 株式会社
住所：神奈川県横浜市西区浅間町３丁目１７１番地３７号
資本金：１，０００万円
設立：２０１８年８月１６日
決算：１２月
業種：情報・通信業
HP：https://whoever.themedia.jp/
[unable to retrieve full-text content]
A New Wrinkle And Danger In How Automation Will Obsolete Jobs Forbes
WASHINGTON — Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross predicted Thursday morning that a deadly virus originating in China would cause companies to reconsider their global supply chains and ultimately “help to accelerate” the return of jobs to the United States.
In an interview on Fox Business, Mr. Ross said diseases like the Wuhan coronavirus, which has killed more than a hundred people and sickened thousands, were “another risk factor that people need to take into account” when considering where to locate operations.
“Every American’s heart has to go out to the victims of the coronavirus, so I don’t want to talk about a victory lap over a very unfortunate, very malignant disease,” Mr. Ross said. “But the fact is, it does give businesses yet another thing to consider when they go through their review of their supply chain.”
He cited the deadly SARS outbreak that paralyzed China 17 years ago, as well as the African swine fever that has decimated China’s pig farms.
“So I think it will help to accelerate the return of jobs to North America,” Mr. Ross said of the coronavirus. “Some to U.S., probably some to Mexico as well.”
The Trump administration has been waging a global trade war in an attempt to bring jobs back to the United States. That has included steep tariffs on imported goods, which President Trump has wielded as a cudgel to force companies to relocate manufacturing to the United States.
Officials have said that the first-phase trade deal Mr. Trump signed with China this month would improve ties between the countries. But they also say that their tariffs — which remain in place on more than $360 billion of Chinese products — will cause American companies with Chinese operations to think about moving their supply chains back home.
Some companies that can move operations out of China have been doing so, in part to avoid the tariffs and in part because of longer-run economic factors, like China’s rising wages. But economists say that few of these factories are moving back to the United States. Instead, competition for factory space in low-wage countries like Vietnam, Mexico and India to make clothes, toys and shoes has been fierce.
And many companies say they are unable to move their supply chains, often because it is too expensive to shift or because China is the primary manufacturer of their materials. For instance, China remains the global hub of electronics manufacturing, and a huge consumer market in its own right.
The Chinese government has placed entire cities under lockdown to stop the spread of the coronavirus, and encouraged companies to let their workers stay home.
The moves are expected to result in a major dent in the Chinese economy — and are likely spill over to slow global growth. Jerome H. Powell, the Federal Reserve chair, said on Wednesday that “there is likely to be some disruption to activity in China and perhaps globally.”
The virus has already caused companies including Apple, Ford and Toyota to reroute supply chains and idle factories in China, while Ikea, Starbucks and other businesses have temporarily closed some Chinese stores. British Airways and Air Canada have suspended all flights to mainland China, while other major airlines have reduced the number of flights.
Mr. Ross, a wealthy investor, has been criticized for making controversial or seemingly out-of-touch statements in televised interviews before. In May 2018, he held up a can of Campbell’s soup while arguing that the administration’s metal tariffs would have a minimal effect on consumers. In early 2019, he suggested that workers who had been sent home without pay during the government shutdown should take out personal loans.
The Commerce Department, in an emailed statement, said Mr. Ross had made clear that the first step was to bring the virus under control and help victims of the disease. “It is also important to consider the ramifications of doing business with a country that has a long history of covering up real risks to its own people and the rest of the world,” the statement said.
