The athleisure revolution is having an unexpected impact
Vets and the UK's biggest arena are on the menu this week.
Good morning,
If you own a Samsung washing machine you are no doubt familiar with the bizarre little jingle that seems to go on forever when a cycle finishes.
The tune is from a song called The Trout by Franz Schubert which is based on a poem by Christian Scubart warning young women to stay away from young men which he wrote in prison, as you do.
Samsung claims to have installed this feature as they believe appliances should “blend naturally into consumers” lifestyles. As if drawn-out jingles are a normal feature of our day-to-day lives. If you ask me it’s going to be used to activate the Android owners when the robots take over.
I’ll be back,
Hugo
Chief Human
The Business of Stuff
The Stuff
Private equity is hoovering up vets 🐕 - it was dentists a couple of years ago but the latest rollup is veterinary practices that have seen the business flourish as everyone bought a puppy in lockdown. People’s dedication to their pooches means they will literally go into debt to get them patched up. Both PE and corporations are pouring in money to buy up practices. The largest owner in the US is weirdly Mars, the food manufacturer.
Clothing brands focus on D2C 👖 - Nike made a big move in this direction a couple of years ago and now a number of brands are following suit to improve margins by cutting out department stores where possible. Levi Strauss previously sold most of its jeans through department stores but now sells 48% directly to consumers.
Manchester’s new arena isn’t going so well 🏟️ - Co-op Live is Britain’s biggest arena with a maximum capacity of 23,500 but is struggling to open. Peter Kay has had gigs delayed twice and a test event didn’t go so well. It always seems a bit gross selling the naming rights of venues to companies but the deal with Co-op is allegedly worth £100m so you can’t really blame the developers (it cost £350m to build).
Indonesia is moving its capital because Jakarta is sinking 🇮🇩 - construction of the new city is well underway on the island of Java and influencers have been recruited to tempt people to the new city, playing down fears around deforestation. The new city will be called Nusantara and follows in the footsteps of Brasilia which was built to replace Rio De Janeiro in the 1950s.
Anglo-American rejects deal with a rival ⛏️ - BHP offered them £31.1bn to merge the two companies which was described as “highly unattractive” and “opportunistic”. BHP are primarily after their copper mining operations and would look to spin off their platinum and iron divisions. BHP is said to be considering a revised proposal.
The machines are taking over warehouse work 🤖 - supermarkets are increasingly using robots in their warehouses to fulfil orders. Ocado is at the vanguard with cameras mounted on the robotic arms that can identify objects and work out how to pick them up. Currently, robotic arms manage about 15% of fulfilment (they struggle with bottles of vino) but they expect this to reach 70% in a couple of years.
Darktrace to be sold to US PE firm 🕶️ - the great British sell off continues as the Cambridge-based cybersecurity company is being bought for £4.3bn. The buyout will end a turbulent period on the stock market and help it expand into the US market. This was bad news for the people who have shorted Darktrace recently.
Scott Farquhar exiting role as CEO of Atlassian 👪 - the billionaire founder of the Australian software behemoth is calling it a day at 44 to spend more time with his family and focus on philanthropic work. His co-founder and co-CEO wished him a touching Aussie farewell with on X: “Mate. Thank you. It’s been one hell of a ride. Couldn’t be prouder.”
Atheleisure revolution is leading to lots of smelly clothes 🧺 - laundry detergent manufacturers are having to pivot from focusing on stain removal to stench removal. People are wearing far more athleisure whilst they WFH and thanks to its design it is hydrophobic, meaning it retains more body oil. Nice. Thankfully Persil’s Wonder Wash is here to the rescue.
Microsoft and Alphabet coin it in 💸 - despite the scepticism of investors, revenues continue to grow as cloud computing resources get hoovered up to develop AI applications. Both companies reported double-digit revenue growth in the previous quarter. Google’s advertising business is still doing well, suggesting that the use of chatbots is yet to impact search.
Quote of the week
“What the world really needs is more love and less paperwork” - Pearl Bailey