Executives who use car hire services such as Town Cars could be exposed after the Company recently demanded that users of their service provide credit card details prior to being picked up.
David Richards
Westpac Tips Soft August For Retailers
Westpac is tipping a soft August for retail sales following good results between March and June. In a new report the banking group said that there has been some underlying ‘quickening’ in cyclical consumer demand – something that would be expected given recent improvements in the Australian Economy.
Retail sales rose 1.0% in May after a 0.3% rise in April and a 2.2% rise in March. Sales are up 7.1%yr. The May result was
above consensus forecasts of a 0.5% rise. However, there was a wide range on forecasts for the month reflecting uncertainty over the timing of fiscal payments.
See full report below.
Despite the continued strength of retail sales and hints of a revival in discretionary spending, the short term outlook is still for a wind back as the fiscal boost to spending ends. June sales should hold up but a ‘let down’ in the order of 1-2% is likely through July-August, beyond which a modest cyclical revival in spending should become more apparent.
Retail sales posted another solid 1% rise in May after a 0.3% gain in April and volatile swings in Feb-March. Sales are up 7.1% through the year, a further step up on the 6.3% pace in April and the strongest rate since 2007.
The result was above consensus expectations of a 0.5% rise although there was again a very wide range on forecasts going into the release.
Uncertainty surrounding the impact of the second round of fiscal payments on spending remains high.
The bulk of the payments went out in March-April ($10.3bn of the total $12.7bn) but clearly sales were still well supported in May. Anecdotally, sales have also held up in June. However, a sizeable ‘let-down’ in demand is likely once this support drops away (see our recent bulletin, Australian retail sales poised for sharp drop).
That said, the store type detail suggests there has been some underlying ‘quickening’ in cyclical consumer demand – something that would be expected given recent improvements in sentiment and unemployment expectations (i.e. job security).
Food retail rose 1%mth in May. More notably, department stores saw a strong 5.5% rebound in sales (confirming recent industry reports), while clothing retail rose 2.9% and cafes and restaurants saw a 1.4% gain in sales. Household goods retail sales fell 2% in the month but this followed strong gains in March-April – the fall may be an early sign of some wind-down in spending associated with the Govt’s cash payments.
Overall, we expect retail to again hold up well in June and July but with a significant ‘let down’ in sales coming through in August. Our estimates suggest this could see retail sales drop by as much as 1 to 2%. Any underlying cyclical improvement in sales should start to show through more fully in Q4. Unfortunately that means the uncertainty surrounding the strength of consumer demand will last for some time yet.
To download the full report see the PDF link below
New Mobile Phone Services
Mobile phone Companies are active this week launching new products among the big movers and shakers are Microsoft, Nokia and HP.
First it was Apple’s iPod. Now Microsoft’s taste in fruit has run to BlackBerries. The software giant will today announce several devices that link to mobile-phone services for messages on the go. Microsoft will build on upgrades announced in June to access new e-mail messages. The trick is to imitate Research In Motion’s push e-mail system.
Mobile phones running Microsoft’s software currently use a cumbersome and costly method to update e-mail inboxes. The first four devices with in-built push e-mail will come from phone and computer makers. The star is Hewlett-Packard’s new handheld iPaq hw6900. It’s been released as H-P moves to separate its handheld business from its notebook computers.
Other players include Vodafone and US carrier Cingular Wireless. Canada-based RIM has more than 4.3 million subscribers, the vast majority business users. There are probably about six to 10 million mobile e-mail users, a few hundred thousand using Microsoft software. But with more than a billion mobile users in the world, Microsoft is betting there’s a much bigger e-mail market to open up.
Nokia, which yesterday announced a new handset (See story on next page) has signalled its intentions by buying RIM rival Intellisync for $430 million.
Microsoft hopes to compete on price. For corporations that already have Microsoft’s Exchange Server 2003 software for managing e-mail accounts and its Windows Mobile 5.0 software for phones, the push e-mail upgrade is available at no additional cost. Other corporates need to pay several thousand dollars to purchase a mobile e-mail server and may have to pay an additional licence fee of up to $100.
Australia gets new BlackBerry
It might be in dire strife in the US. But in Australia, Research In Motion is now offering the BlackBerry 7130e for Telstra’s 1xEV-DO mobile broadband network.
The 7130e delivers e-mail and data using the well-known BlackBerry platform, but in a mobile phone design. It can also become a modem for notebook computers. The BlackBerry 7130e claims a bigger and high-resolution LCD screen, Bluetooth support for wireless headsets or hands-free car kits, 64MB of flash memory, dedicated “send” and “end” phone keys, an intuitive user interface and enhanced battery life. A Qwerty keyboard fits within a traditional wireless phone form.
Nokia who last week did not want to know technology writers were this week back sucking up to them to announce availability of the Nokia 9300 smartphone on Telstra’s mobile network using BlackBerry’s “push” e-mail technology. This connects to a corporate or private email service using the BlackBerry server, which is the same email platform deployed by a number of Australian companies.
EXCLUSIVE: Kleenmaid Director Tipped To Plead Guilty Trial Due Next Week
The Kleenmaid fraud trial that that was due to start next week in the Queensland District Court is tipped to be adjourned with insiders telling ChannelNews that one of the accused in the $100M appliance Company collapsed has this week cut a deal and is set to plead guilty.
Three former directors of the Queensland based Kleenmaid
Group were set to stand trial on Monday, they were facing 20 criminal charges,
including a $13 million fraud against Westpac following the collapse of Kleenmaid.
At the time Kleenmaid operated 22 stores (including 15
franchise stores), and employed over 200 staff, more than 10,000 people were
left with debts as a result of the collapse.
6000 Kleenmaid customers lost over $28.5 million alone,
among them were hundreds who had purchased faulty products and when they went
to claim on their warranty found that the warranty claims were worthless.
Police charged the directors Bradley Young, Andrew Young and
Gary Armstrong with 18 charges of insolvent trading.
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| Brad left and Andrew Young right,facing several years in jail if found guilty. |
ChannelNews understands that lawyers representing Armstrong
have made an offer to the Commonwealth Director Of Prosecutions, that is now
being assessed.
Shortly after the collapse of the Company the Australian
Securities and Investments Commission mounted a major investigation, they later
claimed that Andrew Young and Gary Armstrong, dishonestly withdrew more than $300,000
from the company’s bank accounts two days before it was placed in
administration.
Creditors of the company were angry about the collapse, and
in April 2009 a group confronted Andrew Young armed with a sledgehammer, in the
hours after it was placed in administration.
The mob at the time claimed that they had been robbed
of deposits that they had been placed on Kleenmaid products.
Kleenmaid was placed in administration in 2009, in 2012 the
directors were charged with 18 counts of insolvent trading the charges related
to debts of more than $4 million which occurred after the Company became funds deficient.
All of the directors were committed to stand trial in the
District Court on March 31, 2014 by the Maroochydore Magistrates Court,
Brothers Andrew and Bradley Young who members of the Mormon
Church told ChannelNews at the time of the collapse that they were confident
that they could rescue the business.
ChannelNews has since discovered that Brad Young via his
wife Shelly Young is now running a shoe business called Frau. The business has a
store in Chatswood Chase NSW selling what they claim is Italian shoes.
Back in 2010 Linda Young, the wife of Andrew Young,
registered as a director of four separate companies.
Company records show the four companies were registered to a
light commercial park at 127 Sugar Rd, Maroochydore.
According to ASIC records, Linda Young is the sole director
of Sunny Coast Holdings and Stockton Nominees, while Shelley Young the wife of
Bradley Young is the sole director of Randolf Holdings and Mortimer.
All four companies were registered on February 25 2010.
Each of the four businesses share the same shareholder,
Gayle Hanpson, who has a registered address on the NSW north coast.
The person involved in setting up these businesses for the
Young’s was Wayne John Wessels.
In April 2014 ASIC suspended the registration of Wayne John
Wessels, the former auditor Kleenmaid, following a successful application to
the disciplinary body, the Companies Auditors and Liquidators Disciplinary
Board (CALDB).
The suspension started on 29 November 2013 and is for three
years.
ASIC alleged, and the CALDB found, Mr Wessels failed to
carry out and perform adequately and properly his duties as lead auditor of
Kleenmaid’s financial report for the year ended 30 June 2008.
Specifically, the CALDB found, among other things, Mr
Wessels should have brought a higher degree of professional scepticism to his
consideration of Kleenmaid management’s assumption of the company’s going
concern and that there were deficiencies in the standard of his evidence and
documentation of audit work done.
The new business ventures come after Andrew and Linda Young
were forced to sell their luxury riverfront Maroochydore unit for $1.5 million some $275,000 less than what Linda Young paid for it in 2007.
Soon after the company’s collapse, the intellectual property
was bought by Sydney private equity firm Compass Capital Partners.
Both Bradley and Andrew Young face lengthy jail terms if
convicted of fraud and insolvent trading charges. Time in prison could stretch
to six years.
The Young’s have hired barrister John Rivett, who
represented jailed former Queensland MP Gordon Nuttall who was recently
released from prison.
Armstrong has separate legal representation.
Each of the criminal insolvent trading charges under section 588G(3) of the Corporations Act 2001 carries a maximum penalty of $200,000 or imprisonment for five years or both.
The two fraud charges under section 408C of the Queensland Criminal Code carry a maximum penalty of imprisonment for 12 years.
SanDisk Set To Go Back To School
SanDisk is evaluating the school market in Australia with a view to launching a smart new USB flash drive that replaces the need to lug school text books around.SanDisk is seeking to replace the shoulder crunching burden of school textbooks with a new USB flash drive with special content protection software for downloading and saving copyrighted material.
The Cruzer Freedom flash drive features SanDisk’s proprietary flash content processor (FlashCP) for securely downloading copy-protected material such as textbooks, novels and study aids. The drives can also store personalized, non-protected content.
The drive will be available in a single capacity (256MB)
The drive ships with a lanyard cap and a key ring cap for securing the drive to backpacks and key chains.
The first time a Cruzer Freedom drive is plugged into an Internet-connected PC, the device is initialized and can access the SanDisk Online Catalog of novels, textbooks and study aids.
In the US where the product has been launched the company is offering several free titles including Merriam-Webster’s Pocket Dictionary, a choice of one SparkNotesStudy Guide and classic literature. Students may also download a free 30-day trial of Microsoft Student Graphing Calculator software, specialized Web content such as HomeworkHub from Scholastic.com, and Web pages and learning modules created by educators. Content for sale includes textbooks and best-selling novels.
New Premium $400 Alcatel IDOL 4 Has Packaing That Becomes VR Goggles
Alcatel has revealed a premium $400 IDOL 4 series smartphone as well as packaging that becomes a pair of VR Goggles.
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Sandisk To Buy Lexar?
SanDisk which makes memory cards for electronics, is considering an option to buy Lexar Media industry insiders are saying.
SanDisk has hired Morgan Stanley to explore the bid, and a deal may include selling some of the combined company’s assets to Toshiba to avoid antitrust problems, a Morgan Stanley source has said. Lexar said March 8 that it had agreed to be bought by Micron Technology Inc. for $667 million, and the deal has been opposed by some Lexar shareholders, including Carl Icahn,said.
Representatives of SanDisk, Lexar and Toshiba didn’t return phone calls or declined to comment on the move. Shares of Lexar have rose 40 cents, or 4.6 percent, to $9.19 and traded as high as $9.33.
Dell Launch Duel Core
Dell is set to launch a new line of Duel Core computers .Specifically designed for the SMB market the systems are up to 79% faster than normal PC’s.
News Corp Pulls In Media Heavyweights To Lobby ACCC Over Proposed Foxtel Ten Deal
News Corporation who are a 50% owner of Foxtel shares are using their own publications to defend concerns by The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission over the aquisition of a stake in Channel Ten by the pay TV Company.
Dick Smith Receiver Struggles To Flog Assets As So Called “Sale” Flops
The National Australia Bank and HSBC who knocked back a $70M conditional offer for Dick Smith are struggling to sell remaining assets after Harvey Norman is believed to have walked away from buying the airport based Move Stores that were closed down late last week.
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Dick Smith $129 Radio Vs JB Hi Fi Radio Below



