Teresa Ooi August 28, 2012 The Australian CONSUMERS still have an appetite for Four’N Twenty meat pies, with manufacturer Patties Foods increasing full-year net profit 6 per cent to $19.5 million. Revenue was up 8.8 per cent to $235.8m, while earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation rose 5.6 per cent to $38.7m. This was marginally above average market expectations of $38.5m, based on a survey by Bloomberg. “In a trading environment where consumers continue to shop for value, strong revenue growth of 8.8 per cent has been achieved through product innovation, new contracts and growth in branded products,” managing director Greg Bourke said. The company will pay a fully franked final dividend of 4.4c per share, up from 4.2c previously. Patties said that automated packing technology had improved manufacturing efficiency and it had launched 17 new product lines, with another 20 to be introduced next year. Patties brands include…

Brian Robins August 28, 2012 The Age AVERSION to ethanol fuels is driving a fatter bottom line for Caltex as it increases its marketing push before the closure of Sydney’s only remaining oil refinery, at Kurnell. The company posted a net profit of $167 million for the six months to June 30, down from $270 million a year earlier, although by stripping out oil price movements, the profit surged to $197 million from $113 million. Caltex enjoyed strong growth in sales of premium fuels – both petrol and diesel – profiting from driver aversion to ethanol, as well as car maker demands that it not be used. Impressive margins and profit growth have prompted Caltex to raise capital spending as it prepares for life after Kurnell, planned for 2014. Caltex is to nearly double capital spending to as much as $450 million this year from $242 million spent last year,…

John Dagge August 27, 2012 Herald Sun CALTEX Australia has reported a 38 per cent drop in net profit after being hit with $30 million in crude and inventory losses. Net profit after tax fell from $270 million to $167 million in the year to June on the back of lower oil prices, the company announced today. Profits on a replacement cost basis, which strips out the effect of changes in the world oil price, rose from $113 million to $197 million over the same period due to better margins from its refinery and transport fuel operations as well as marketing of petrol. The result was in line with Caltex’s recent forecast of a first-half net profit of between $185 million and $205 million. The company declared a fully franked interim dividend of 17 cents per share. In July Caltex announced it would transform its Sydney oil refinery at Kurnell…

Eli Greenblat August 27, 2012 The Age Petrol pumps are regular features of Costco’s American stores. US RETAILER Costco is seeking to break into Australia’s $15 billion-plus discount petrol business, currently dominated by Woolworths and Coles, by selling its own heavily reduced fuel at prices below those offered via popular supermarket shopper-docket schemes. Costco, which operates a warehouse store in each of Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra, has requested room to build petrol stations at a second store slated for Sydney and for its first in Brisbane, and is awaiting council approval on both. If the petrol outlets are approved, it will be the first time Costco can offer petrol to its local members along with its range of drastically discounted food, liquor, clothing and electrical products that has made its warehouse-style outlets so popular since they arrived in Australia three years ago. ”If you can sell vegemite at a cheaper…

Laura Speranza August 26, 2012 The Sunday Telegraph TAKE a closer look at your bottle of “pure” water: it’s probably sourced from the tap. Millions of unsuspecting customers are buying filtered tap water and boiled rainwater at massive mark-ups of more than 180,000 per cent. Several manufacturers admit they fill their bottles from the Sydney Water mains after applying filtration and purification procedures – but they insist customers know their water is not sourced from a mineral spring, and are happy to pay for the convenience of having it in a plastic bottle. The major brands that describe themselves as “spring” or “mineral” water are genuine natural spring water, including Mount Franklin, Fiji Water, Pump and the Coles and Woolworths homebrands. But supermarket and convenience stores stock brands that describe themselves as “purified” or “organic” and are in fact the same water available in every home for less than one…

CSD Staff Aug 24, 2012 FDA “failed to present any data” showing that the proposed graphic warnings “will accomplish the agency’s stated objective of reducing smoking rates,” says U.S. Circuit Judge. Tobacco companies won a challenge to U.S. rules requiring that cigarette packaging and advertisements display graphic images, Businessweek reported. Commonwealth Brands Inc., Liggett Group LLC and Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Co. sued the FDA last year, saying the mandate for graphic cigarette packages, cartons and advertising violated the First Amendment. In a 2-1 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington today ruled that Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations mandating visual-image warnings of smoking’s health risks violate the tobacco companies’ free speech rights. FDA “failed to present any data” showing that the proposed graphic warnings “will accomplish the agency’s stated objective of reducing smoking rates,” U.S. Circuit Judge Janice Rogers Brown wrote in her majority opinion.“The First Amendment…