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Job Ads Down!!

Tim — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 00:41:58 +0000

Job ads took their biggest monthly fall since internet and newspaper ads were combined in 1999, dropping 10.4per cent in February to 161,583 a week, or 39.8per cent lower than a year ago.

Signed Craig

Tim — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 23:43:03 +0000

Hi,

I am fascinated by these Craig posters. Who is he, does anyone know him?

Signed Craig No.3

Signed Craig No4

Tim

Craig from Melbourne!

Tim — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 00:28:49 +0000

Hi,

this is way off topic but very strange and amusing. Has anyone else spotted these posters appearing in Melbourne. They are signed Craig and he has some strange ideas.

Here is the first two, I have more to post but I will put them up progressively.

Craig's Poster No.1

Craig's Poster No.2

Tim

Twitter – finding a job!

Tim — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 02:14:52 +0000

I am starting my Twitter experience today and will start posting FMCG jobs on Twitter.

Please sign up to my posts at http://twitter.com/fmcgblog

please give me any advise or feedback.

Thanks

Tim

SEEK profit down 9% – Still a cash cow

Tim — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 01:32:15 +0000

SEEK announced a profit of $32M profit for the Six months to Dec 08 on a turnover of $109M. What a business! Wish I had some shares as they rose 15% on the announcement as the market feared much worse.

It is plain to see that SEEK has a dominant place in the online Job space with their competitors MyCareer and Career One an increasingly distant 2nd and 3rd.

Joint chief executive Paul Bassat made some interesting comments;

“One thing we are seeing with the downturn in the economy is further acceleration of the migration from print to online, with online now capturing 79 per cent of all job ads.”

As a long term investment, I see some problems with the SEEK business model, primarily, barriers to entry and secondarily, Web 2.0 and 3.0.

These are discussions for another time though.

Tim

$42B Fiscal Stimulus

Tim — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 06:36:07 +0000

Many commentators have labeled the December 08 $10.4B cash stimulus handout as useless, including Gerry Harvey who said

“In retrospect now you say to yourself: ‘was that a real good idea, that was 10.4 billion, that’s a lot of money’”

It definitely had an impact on retail sales, but if most of those items were imported, it may have just cleared the channel a bit and helped the Chinese economy.

Well we have a more comprehensive stimulus plan this time from the Government. Several cash handouts and some Tax benefits for business that should definitely give a boost to demand.

Have a look at The Age summary for more details.

Tim

Cadbury Schweppes Agency Decision

Tim — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 22:32:10 +0000

Cadbury Schweppes has done a double-take on its continuation of its relationship with Publicis Mojo and has annoannounced it will now split the business between two agencies.

Saatchi & Saatchi will take over the Cadbury Dairy Milk portfolio, while Publicis Mojo will continue creative duties on the remianed of the confectionary brands as well as innovation projects.

Tim

Got it Wrong!

Tim — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 22:46:19 +0000

Well as I have been saying Schweppes was on the market and being spied from Japan. Got the country right but the company wrong. Drinks giant Asahi Breweries has bought the Schweppes business from Cadbury PLC.

This is subject to The Coca Cola Company not using its last offer rights, which it holds for 90 days. It would be a hard road for the guys from Atlanta to get the business with the ACCC having a close look at the Schweppes bottling arrangements for the Pepsi brand.

The cash sale price of the business is £550 million ($A1.19 billion), which is sightly more than market expectations.

Asahi Breweries

The Age reported that:

BusinessDay believes that unsuccessful bidders included Suntory, the Australian-based Coca-Cola Amatil (which has Coca-Cola as a 30 per cent shareholder) and P&N Beverages.

So I was close but no cigar.

Tim

Golden Circle Shareholder’s Give Approval to Heinz Deal

Tim — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 23:22:05 +0000

Golden Circle Shareholder’s have given overwhelming approval to the Heinz offer. The deal needed a 75% support level and received over 99% approval for the offer to be accepted.

Baring any issues from the Qld Supreme Court, the deal will be implemented by 30th December 2008. They have been given the Green Light by the ACCC and the FIRB so its now down to the mechanics and what it means for jobs and people.

Tim

Coles Altona Gate – Reduced Range

Tim — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 04:42:06 +0000

Coles are trialing their reduced range strategy at Coles Altona Gate.

Anyone heard any feedback, sales results etc?

Be very interested.

Tim