Industry News

NAB trials new tap-on-phone payments to support small business. By Business View 9 Sep 2019 More people are choosing to tap and go and, soon, even the smallest businesses will be able to take advantage of it. With easy-to-use new technology being trialled by NAB, soon you’ll be able to accept cashless payments using nothing but your phone.  Australians love electronic payments – over the decade to 2017 to 18, the number more than doubled to around 480 electronic transactions per person per year. As the tap-and-go option has also grown in popularity, particularly for smaller purchases, people are choosing to carry and use less cash. “This can impact sales and growth for small businesses and sole traders with limited options other than cash,” says Andy Kerr, NAB Executive General Manager, Transaction Banking. “We’ve heard loud and clear from our customers that they want access to payment technology without the additional…

BBC News “Terrible. [They] stick in one’s throat.” That was one smoker’s dismissal of Camel cigarettes, just before taking a blind taste test in 1920s America. His usual brand, Lucky Strike, “go down easy and smooth” he said. And that’s how he know he must be smoking a Lucky. As Allan M. Brandt recounts in The Cigarette Century, the man was – of course – unwittingly smoking a Camel. Nowadays, the awesome power of branding is hardly news. Back then, it was only just beginning to become apparent. Early big-name brands included Kellogg’s cereal, Campbell’s soup and Colgate toothpaste. But nowhere was branding more crucial than with cigarettes. Unprecedented sums had gone into launching Camels, for instance. In 1914, day after day, newspaper adverts built excitement. “The Camels are coming!” ran the tease, followed by another advert promising: “Tomorrow there’ll be more Camels in this town than in all Asia…

MEDIA RELEASE AGENCY 29TH OCTOBER 2019 Australian Food News Nexba, Australia’s leading naturally sugar free beverage brand, has announced the release of a convenience drinks range, designed specifically for 7-Eleven, Coles Express and Caltex. The bespoke 450ml PET bottles will finish rolling out in stores across Australia next week. With Australians looking for more alternatives in the beverage market, away from traditional sugar-laden soft drinks, the range is designed specifically for consumer convenience and easy accessibility to healthy options. Nexba’s new convenience range includes Nexba’s Watermelon Cucumber & Mint Sparkling Water, Strawberry Raspberry Sparkling Water, Lychee Lemon Sparkling Water, Mixed Berry Kombucha, Pineapple Coconut Tepache, Rose Lemonade Kombucha and Apple Pear and Ginger Kombucha. The entire range will be available at 7-Eleven and Coles Express, with Caltex stocking a slightly smaller selection, all with a RRP of $4.50. The beverage pioneers and major players in the fight against sugar, diabetes…

EWIN HANNAN OCTOBER 30, 2019 The Australian Negligent bosses could face up to 20 years in jail or multi-million-dollar fines over the suicide of their employees under workplace manslaughter laws proposed by the Victorian government. Under the tough new laws, an employer could be held liable if a worker committed suicide as a ­result of sustained workplace bullying and the employer, aware of the abuse, did not take action to reasonably guard against or ­respond to the conduct. The new workplace manslaughter offence, if legislated, will apply to all workplace fatalities, including those resulting from mental as well as physical injuries. Victorian Attorney-General Jill Hennessy said an employer could face liability for a suicide where an employee’s mental health had been “brutalised” at work, and the employer had ­rejected the worker’s requests for assistance. She said the criminal standard of negligence would have to be met and causation established. “The…

Dominic Powell October 30, 2019 The Age Supermarket giant and one of Australia’s largest employers Woolworths has underpaid nearly 6000 of its employees as much as $300 million dollars due to non-compliance with the industry award. In a statement released this morning, the retailer revealed it had failed to pay approximately 5700 of its salaried workers across its supermarkets and metro stores in compliance with the General Retail Industry Award. The underpayment was identified after the company reviewed its workers’ salaries prior to implementing the company’s newest enterprise bargaining agreement. Inconsistencies were identified between the workers’ contractual salary obligations and what they were entitled to be paid under the award. “The review has found the number of hours worked, and when they were worked, were not adequately factored into the individual salary settings for some salaried store team members,” the company said. Underpayments could track back as far as 2010,…

By jmhargreaves October 29, 2019 C&I The Australasian Association of Convenience Stores (AACS) has has slammed the Government’s continued refusal to properly address the scourge of illegal tobacco at street level around Australia. “Despite the proclamations of the well-funded health lobby, the current response to tobacco reduction, which has been lazily focused on taxation, has not worked,” said AACS CEO Jeff Rogut. “Tobacco consumption has not deviated from long term trends, but the sources from which consumers are buying tobacco have shifted significantly,” Rogut said. Rogut argued that Australia is internationally recognised as one of the world’s most lucrative markets for illegal tobacco smugglers. “Consistent seizures at the border, as recently as today, prove the point,” said Rogut. Last week, the Australian Border Force announced the seizure of 1,094,000 illegal cigarettes in an air cargo shipment from Korea, weighing over a tonne and representing more than $1.1 million in evaded…