February 20, 2014 CSNews BENTONVILLE, Ark. — More Walmart Express and Neighborhood Market locations will be popping up across the country as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. steps up its capital plan for U.S. small-store format openings for the current fiscal year. The company is expanding its original capital forecast, provided in October, and now expects to add approximately 270 to 300 small stores during this fiscal year, doubling its initial forecast of 120 to 150 stores. Walmart U.S. will maintain its plan to open approximately 115 new supercenters this year, according to the Bentonville-based retailer. Walmart currently operates 346 Neighborhood Markets and 20 Walmart Express stores. According to the company, Express units will be expanded beyond the initial three-market pilot program. “Customers’ needs and expectations are changing. They want to shop when they want and how they want, and we are transforming our business to meet their expectations,” said Bill Simon,…

SABRINA TAVERNISE FEB 22, 2014 The New York Times Dr. Michael Siegel, a hard-charging public health researcher at Boston University, argues that e-cigarettes could be the beginning of the end of smoking in America. He sees them as a disruptive innovation that could make cigarettes obsolete, like the computer did to the typewriter. But his former teacher and mentor, Stanton A. Glantz, a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, is convinced that e-cigarettes may erase the hard-won progress achieved over the last half-century in reducing smoking. He predicts that the modern gadgetry will be a glittering gateway to the deadly, old-fashioned habit for children, and that adult smokers will stay hooked longer now that they can get a nicotine fix at their desks. These experts represent the two camps now at war over the public health implications of e-cigarettes. The devices, intended to feed nicotine addiction…

Angela Macdonald-Smith February 24, 2014 Caltex Australia has reported a 27.5 per cent fall in benchmark full-year profit to $332 million, in line with its December forecast of $320 million-$340 million. Bottom line net income, which includes the impact of changing oil prices on the value of crude oil stockpiles, surged more than nine-fold to $530 million from $57 million the previous year, when Caltex took $309 million of charges connected with the conversion of its Kurnell refinery in Sydney to an import terminal. Caltex’s underlying earnings were lifted by growth in fuels marketing thanks to rising demand for premium fuels. But the refining business dragged down earnings, posting losses of $171 million and supporting the company’s decision to rationalise its refining business. “Whilst marketing has delivered another record result, refining & supply losses have been driven by the negative impact of key externalities, including the significant deterioration in the…

ELIZABETH REDMAN AND MITCHELL NEEMS FEBRUARY 24, 2014 BUSINESS SPECTATOR CALTEX Australia expects the transport fuels market to continue to become more competitive, saying it plans to grow its marketing business and make its Lytton refinery more efficient. On a replacement-cost basis, the group’s profit after tax fell by 28 per cent to $332 million in the year to December 2013, compared with $458 million in the prior year. The results are in line with a forecast the group issued in December, saying it expected a fall of up to 30 per cent to $320 million to $340 million. On a historical-cost basis, profit after tax surged by 830 per cent to $530 million in the year, compared with $57 million in the previous year, largely on the back of its Sydney bitumen business sale. Caltex said the figure included significant gains of around $26 million after tax, particularly from…

February 24, 2014 NACS Online The FDA has ordered a stop to the sale of four cigarette products made by Jash International, marking the first time the agency has exercised this type of authority under the Tobacco Control Act. WASHINGTON – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued orders on Friday to stop the further sale and distribution of four tobacco products currently on the market. According to a press release, the action marks the first time the FDA has used its authority under the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act to order a manufacturer of currently available tobacco products to stop selling and distributing them. The products — Sutra Bidis Red, Sutra Bidis Menthol, Sutra Bidis Red Cone and Sutra Bidis Menthol Cone — were found to be not substantially equivalent to tobacco products commercially marketed as of February 15, 2007, also known as predicate products, says the…

Angela Macdonald-Smith February 25, 2014 The Age The Caltex Australia Ltd. Lytton refinery is silhouetted against a sunset in Brisbane, Australia, on Tuesday, Dec. 21, 2010. The refining industry is in upheaval. Caltex Australia chief executive Julian Segal has dismissed concerns that tough new rivals in fuels retailing will eat into the company’s market share and margins, despite pointing to a likely step-up in competition in specific areas. After reporting a 27.5 per cent drop in benchmark full-year profit to $332 million, in line with guidance, Mr Segal retained Caltex’s forecast for 5 per cent annual growth in earnings before interest and tax for the marketing business. Marketing EBIT in 2013 rose 4 per cent to a record $764 million, a stark contrast to the $171 million deficit for the refining business, which is being restructured to stem losses. Australia’s refining and marketing industry is in upheaval, with refinery closures,…