...Corporate Capers Unless you’re an avid reader of the Financial Review the changes in the Australian wine industry might have passed you by. In recent years Australian wine companies have spread their wings and come of age on the world stage. Companies have expanded and increased their brand portfolio, as well as aligning themselves with other international companies. Takeovers have been rife; in fact with foreign ownership on the increase, it might well be high time for Dick Smith to start bottling Chardonnay! The big four wine companies in Australia are: Southcorp, Beringer Blass, BRL Hardy and Orlando Wyndham. Each company has grown in the past five years on the back of the continued success of Australian wine in the major overseas markets of the United Kingdom and the United State of America. The major four now produce over 70% of Australia’s wine, even though there are a staggering 1424 wineries to be found on our shores. For foreign ownership look no further than the company who sells Australia’s iconic ‘Top Drop’ - Jacob’s Creek, Orlando Wyndham is owned by the French Pernod-Ricard Group. The newest player in the industry, Lion Nathan, remains local but only by the skin of it’s teeth with 46% of the company being owned by the Japanese brewing company Kirin and the majority shareholder in the small Wingara Group which owns Katnook Estate, Deakin Estate and Riddoch labels, is the Spanish sparkling giant Freixenet. In Tasmania Pipers Brook Vineyards was taken over...
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...Call of Duty: Ghosts is a 2013 first-person shooter video game developed by Infinity Ward, with assistance from Raven Software, Neversoft and Certain Affinity. Published by Activision, it is the tenth primary installment in the Call of Duty series and the sixth developed by Infinity Ward. The video game was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Wii U on November 5, 2013, with Treyarch handling the port for the Wii U. The game was released with the launch of next-generation consoles PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. According to review score aggregator Metacritic, Ghosts received "generally favorable" reviews from critics, with most praising its multiplayer gameplay and introduction of the new game mode Extinction. It was criticized, however, for its single-player campaign, rehashing of familiar concepts, and general lack of innovation.Setup and characters The game's main protagonists are the Ghosts, a force of U.S. Special Operations personnel trained to conduct clandestine missions behind enemy lines. The unit is led by retired U.S. Army Captain Elias Walker (Stephen Lang). He is joined by his sons Logan and David "Hesh" Walker (Brandon Routh), along with a trained German Shepherd named Riley, Captain Thomas A. Merrick (Jeffrey Pierce), and Sergeant Keegan P. Russ (Brian Bloom).[7] Call of Duty: Ghosts is set in an alternate timeline that follows the nuclear destruction of the Middle East. The oil-producing nations of South America form "the Federation"...
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...The fast food industry has become a common part of life in most cultures around the world today. With America being the key element to the industries birth we see today how it flourished from a handful of hot dog and hamburger stands in southern California to being prevalent in every day life for people all over the country and in many other countries. For example the short span of the fast food industry has changed so much in recent 3 decades that “In 1970, Americans spent around $6 billion dollars on fast food; in 2000, they spent more than $110 billion.” (Schlosser, E. p.1) It is for this reason, a rapid increase with reference to diversity of fast food restaurants occurred in the U.S. One of the restaurants to come into play and benefit from the huge increase in popularity was Taco Bell. A potential new market for Taco Bell could be in Scotland. Currently there are only 4 choices of fast food restaurant in Scotland; these are McDonalds, Burger King, Subway and KFC. As these restaurants have been very successful in Scotland we can assume more could be just as successful. With a population of roughly five million Scotland is a large country by any means, however the success of other fast food chains gives the impression that it is a strategy that could work. This could particularly be effective due to Scotland’s lack of Mexican restaurants in general. Currently there is really only one Mexican Chain restaurant in Scotland which is Chiquitos; and even Chiquitos is closer...
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...Table of Contents 1. Introduction 1 2. Wine Manufacturing Industry and External Environment 2 2.1 Wine Manufacturing Industry 2 2.2 External Environment 6 3. Porter’s 5 Forces Analysis 10 3.1 Threat of New Entrants 11 3.2 Bargaining Power of Buyers 12 3.3 Threat of Substitutes 14 3.4 Bargaining Power of Suppliers 16 3.5 Rivalry within the Competitive Arena 17 4. Conclusion 19 Reference 21 1. Introduction Captain Arthur Phillip brought grape vines from Brazil and the Cape of Good Hope to Australia when his fleet arrived in Botany Bay, located in Sydney, in 1788, according to Wine Australian which is one department of Australian government. Since that Australia had made a history of producing and exporting wine. In 1854, a barrel of fortified wine was exported to London, which is the first reported Australian wine export (Wine Australia, 2012). Subsequently, Australian exports in wine have boosted at an extraordinary rate especially in recent years, reaching the record level in 2007. Today, Wine Australian also point out that Australia is the fourth largest wine exporter in the world, constituting about 4% of total world wine production, and export over 800 million liters to international wine market and as a result, it produces a contribution of around A$3 billion per year to Australian economy. Australian wine exports to more than 100 countries; mainly two biggest markets are United Kingdom and United State. Besides, there are other significant markets...
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...Developing the use of Information and Communication Technology with Adult Literacies Learners in Scotland A overview of the E-learning Support Project August 2007 – March 2008 Scottish Government Peter Lanigan Development Co-ordinator Learning Connections [pic] Background to the Project During the period 2004 to 2007, funding was provided by Learning Connections for some 26 innovative projects around Scotland using ICT in adult literacies learning. The funding provided small grants of up to £6000 to support developments and has encouraged the use of ICT / e-learning in various different context and locations. In reviewing this programme in 2007, we decided to adopt a different approach for 2007/8 which would encourage and support local integration of e-learning into literacies learning. We engaging the services of Sheerface Ltd. to work with individual literacies partnerships across Scotland. Project Aims The contractor appointed worked with Learning Connections to develop and support local initiatives for integrating ICT / e-learning into adult literacies learning in their particular area. Funding was available to support local initiatives to try out ideas for using ICT which were new to their literacies partnership. The aims were • to raise awareness of the lessons learned from the ICT Innovations projects undertaken 2004 to 2007, and other work undertakes by Learning Connections during that period • to promote...
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