February 19, 2014 The Age Royal Dutch Shell has sold its downstream Australian assets to Dutch-owned oil trader Vitol and the Abu Dhabi Investment Council for about $2.4 billion, The Australian Financial Review has reported. The sale would mean Australia’s Macquarie Group and its partner Glencore Xstrata were not successful in their efforts to buy the assets, the newspaper said without attributing sources. Shell has been planning to sell the business, which includes a refinery, import terminals and 900 service stations, as part of a reported worldwide divestment program under CEO Ben Van Beurden, worth about $15 billion. A Shell spokesman in Australia said he would not comment on “speculation”. A Glencore Xstrata spokesman declined to comment.

FEBRUARY 19, 2014 News.com.au COCA-Cola — the world’s ubiquitous brown fizzy drink — is staying afloat as the soda market shrinks, and many point to a marketing strategy around the so-called “secret recipe” as key to its resilience in a struggling industry. The Coca-Cola Company, which published its full year result Tuesday, recorded a 5 per cent drop in net income to $US8.6 billion last year, down from $US9 billion in 2012, as it faced “ongoing global macroeconomic challenges,” according to its chief executive Muhtar Kent. Volume grew 2 per cent for the year, which it said was “below our expectations and long-term growth target,” with sparkling beverages recording a slight increase of 1 per cent — led by Coca-Cola. Globally, soda drink sales have been shrinking as consumers turn to water, fruit drinks and healthier alternatives. The trend has hit Coke and other market players such as PepsiCo and…

February 19, 2014 NACS Online The new proposal would tack on a penny-per-ounce tax on sugared drinks. ​SPRINGFIELD – A state senator wants to promote healthy living in Illinois by taxing sugary beverages sold in sealed containers, the Herald & Review reports. The tax would also apply to powders and syrups that flavor drinks. State Sen. Mattie Hunter from Chicago sponsored the bill that would tax sugared beverages at a penny per ounce. Revenue from the soda tax would fund a variety of education initiatives and health services. “Numerous studies have linked excessive consumption of sugary soft drinks to obesity,” said Hunter. “We as a state need to do a better job of educating the public and children in particular about this issue and the health risks.” Already, the Illinois Coalition Against Beverage Taxes, a group of union workers, manufacturers and retailers, has come out in opposition against such a…

AARON LANE FEBRUARY 20, 2014 THE AUSTRALIAN THE nanny state’s experiment with behavioural taxation has failed. Such taxes are causing countless unintended consequences without achieving their original policy aim. The primary objective of such taxation is to artificially increase the price of a product and thus persuade individuals to consume less of it. But it is operating under a flawed “government knows best” assumption. The motivation is, in principle, completely illiberal; the government interferes with the rights and freedoms of individuals to make choices about their own consumption. And the efficacy of behavioural taxes is questionable. Although the taxes can change consumer behaviour, they also contribute to perverse and unintended consequences. The taxation of alcohol is the obvious example. Australia has a complicated and inconsistent form of behavioural tax in the form of an alcohol excise, with three separate taxing regimes: differing rates of excise for different beverage types; the…

TERRY MCCRANN FEBRUARY 19, 2014 HERALD SUN WHEN relatively new Wesfarmers CEO Richard Goyder decided to turn Melbourne retail entrepreneur Solomon Lew from a paper into a real-cash billionaire, with his monumental $20 billion takeover of the Coles retail group back in 2005, he almost certainly did not appreciate just how totally he was committing both his personal and the company’s future to the great Down Under war in the aisles and between the bowsers. Fortunately, in 2008 he found Ian Macleod — probably better suited by both character and experience, than any other possible candidate — to wage that war for Wesfarmers/Coles; and wage it, most assertively and successfully as he has, almost from the moment he touched down, Down Under. Although in a somewhat bizarre outcome, BOTH of the central parties to the war — Coles and Woolworths — have come out winners. It’s everyone else, aside of…

Max Mason February 20, 2014 The Age Competition in the supermarket sector is tough and will only get more competitive in the years ahead, Wesfarmers chief executive Richard Goyder said. Overseas competitors are increasingly looking to Australia as a new source of revenue growth, and despite Wesfarmers’ Coles sharing a near stranglehold on the grocery market with rival Woolworths, the threat is very real, Mr Goyder said. ”The competitive threat from Aldi and Costco is greater now that it’s ever been. Both those business have aggressive store rollout plans, and of course we’ve got a much larger competitor in Woolworths,” Mr Goyder told ABC Radio National. ”It is, I think, a very competitive sector and will only get more competitive in the years ahead.” The German-owned supermarket Aldi has grown rapidly since launching in Australia in 2000. Aldi originally planned for a modest 100 stores, but has now 340 stores…