The Park Hotels to invest
Rs 1,200 crore
By Jacob joseph
Hospitality
chain Apeejay Surrendra Park Hotels today said it will invest Rs 1,200 crore
over the next 4-5 years to set up four new properties that will add over 800
rooms.
The
company, which announced a new brand identity, also said in about the same period
of time, it would consider expanding its footprints into global markets.
The
other three new properties are at Pune, Kolkata and Jaipur, apart from Cochin.
Currently
the chain has 12 properties with over 1,200 rooms in total. While the Cochin
property will have 170 rooms, the Pune hotel will have 250 rooms. The company's
second hotel in Kolkata will have 350 rooms and the one at Jaipur will have 100
rooms.
Out
of the total of Rs 1,200 crore investments, Dewan said the biggest chunk will
go to the new Kolkata hotel at Rs 500 crore, followed by Pune at Rs 350
crore.
BlackBerry hits out at Apple Inc,
says iPhone under threat--- Mar 19 2013
By Sangeeta keni
BlackBerry's
chief executive Thorsten Heins has suggested that Apple Inc has not kept up
with the pace of innovation, saying the iPhone maker is 'five years out of date'.
Paying
tribute to Apple’s achievements with the original iPhone in 2007 Heins said
that the company’s market-leading reputation was vulnerable to newer ideas.
Apple
did a fantastic job in bringing touch devices, user interface and their design
icon to market. But the rate of innovation is so high in the mobile industry
that if you don’t innovate at that speed you can be replaced pretty quickly. The
user interface on the iPhone is now five years old.
According
to the Telegraph, Heins' remarks came while speaking at the launch of the new
BlackBerry mobile phones in Australia. He claimed that BlackBerry's multi-tasking
was superior to the iPhone's because it runs multiple apps on a smartphone as
they do on a laptop. Apple runs apps differently to reduce power consumption.
BlackBerry was making progress persuading more app developers to use its
platform, which has 70,000 native apps at launch and can also run some Google
apps.
Asian Paints to acquire
Sleek Group, foray into kitchen space
PTI: MUMBAI, MAR 19 2013,
17:03 IST
By Utsav Joshi
Asian Paints said it will acquire 51 per cent stake in Sleek
Group, an organised player in the modern kitchen space, to foray into home
improvement segment. The company, however, did not disclose the amount paid for
the acquisition.
"Sleek is well poised to be a meaningful and enriching
partner for Asian Paints' foray into modern kitchens. This acquisition will offer
significant opportunities and synergy for the company," Asian Paints
Managing Director and CEO K B S Anand
said.
Sleek Group is a major organised player in
the modern kitchen space and is engaged in the business of manufacturing,
selling and distributing kitchen components including wire baskets, cabinets,
appliances, accessories with a pan India presence.
The company has a retail network of more
than 30 showrooms and a network of over 250 dealers.
Asian Paints is a leading paint company and
ranked among the top 10 decorative coatings companies in the world with a
turnover of Rs 963.2 crore.
It, along with its subsidiaries, has
operations in 17 countries across the world with 24 paint manufacturing
facilities, servicing consumers in 65 countries through Berger
International, SCIB Paints Egypt, Asian
Paints, Apco Coatings and Taubmans.
Implications:
Asian Paints leading paint company is planning for inorganic growth. By acquiring 51
percent stake in Sleek India, it plans to venture into modern kitchen space.
Today diversification is the
strategy employed by companies to grow and sustain.
To
beat TV channels, newspapers to focus on entertainment-related pullouts:
Deloitte
Review:
- This article talks about the shift in the focus of newspapers
to entertainment-related supplements in
a bid to beat stiff competition from TV channels, consultancy as per deloitte
"By the time the
newspaper lands in the morning, the news is already six hours old and everybody
has watched it on television channels the previous evening," Deloitte
Touche Tohmatsu India director Sandip Biswas told reporters here. But still
India "wakes up" with a cup of
tea and the newspaper and the entertainment focused pullouts are the
differentiating factors which the newspapers may take out to fight the impact
of television on circulations, however, it is forecasted that the circulation
figures of newspapers would continue to rise at about 6 per cent average for
many years.
The domestic newspaper
industry, unlike in the developed world where newspapers are shutting down or
struggling to survive, will be driven primarily by the regional dailies.
However, it would be the magazines space which may face some headwinds in the
country.
"Magazines could have
a bumpy road ahead," as per Mr. Sandip biswas , adding circulation is on
the decline due to exposure of similar content on television and other medium.
The printing industry's focus will be on making investments in digital
printing, he said
Implication:-
The focus is shifting from hardcore news to entertainment so that the readers
don’t switch to other mediums since news is already old. The only leverage
print media has now is the traditional mindset of the target market once there
is a change in the mindset of the readers the print media will be in trouble.
So the media companies are moving towards digital printing rather than
traditional approach.
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