Posts by theo.foukkare@bigpond.com

New Zealand has scrapped its world-leading smoking “generation ban”, which would have stopped anyone born after 2008 from ever legally buying cigarettes. The world-first legislation was introduced just last year along with several other hard-line measures that aimed to stop younger generations from taking up the unhealthy habit. Under the laws, New Zealand’s smoking age would have been steadily lowered to stop those born after 2008 from ever buying cigarettes. Tobacco products would have been removed from 90 per cent of New Zealand retailers currently selling them and the amount of nicotine allowed in cigarettes would have also been reduced. Public health modelling suggested the legislation, which was due to be implemented from July 2024, would save up to 5000 lives each year. But on Saturday, New Zealand’s new finance minister Nicola Willis announced the measures will be axed in order to fund tax cuts. Ms Willis said that the…

Convenience and petrol retailer 7-Eleven’s Australian arm has been sold to its Japanese parent company after a hard-fought auction run by Azure Capital and Ashurst, Street Talk can reveal. 7-Eleven posted $220 million EBITDA in for the 2022 financial year, per the sale flyer.  It is understood Japan’s Seven & I Holdings, which owns the 7-Eleven global licence and collects licence fees from the Australian business, will pay $1.71 billion to own the Australian business in full on Wednesday. 7-Eleven owns about 750 stores across the country and forecast $220 million EBITDA for the 2023 financial year.  Seven & I fought off competition from ASX-listed fuel distributor and refiner Ampol and US private equity firm Platinum Equity to win the auction. 7-Eleven’s shareholders, the Withers and Barlow families, will exit the convenience and petrol retailer after acquiring the Australian licence in 1977. The Withers family had a $2.08 billion estimated net worth on this year’s Financial Review Rich…

Viva Energy has unveiled a target of doubling its annual revenues from its convenience and petrol station business, as it incorporates recent takeovers and moves to accelerate its transition from a pure-play fuel business to a broad retail and energy company. The fuels retailer is moving to reshape its business as the global energy transition is expected to drive a number of Australians towards electric vehicles, a trend that uproots the traditional fuel business model. To broaden the company, Viva recently completed the $300m acquisition of the Coles Express fuel and convenience retailing network, and is hoping to secure regulatory approval to close the acquisition of the 205-strong network of On the Run outlets from Peregrine Corporation’s OTR Group for $1.15bn. Offering investors the first details of how it expects to profit from those acquisitions, Viva Energy chief executive Scott Wyatt said the company was targeting a doubling of annual…

Petrol stations are turning to high-tech artificial intelligence to put the brakes on a surge in fuel theft sweeping the country.  The technology – already in operation at more than 400 sites nationally – has prevented or recovered $15 million worth of petrol drive-offs, according to SenSen Artificial Intelligence. SenSen’s Director of Clients and Markets Nathan Rogers said the system linked up to service stations’ existing CCTV network and automatically scanned number plates when cars pulled up to the pump.  He said an alarm notified attendants inside when vehicles had previously been flagged as having stolen fuel from another site also using the technology.  The bowser would then be disabled.  “What the operator would do if one of them turned red is they would get on the intercom and they would ask that driver to come in and give them a card which will allow them to clear any debt,”…