Raphael Stevens

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    in Business

    QVC to add USA Pickleball to its home shopping experience

    QVC is becoming the exclusive broadcaster of USA Pickleball as the home shopping network owner looks to experiment with sports and bulk up its streaming platform.
    QVC will also be the exclusive retail industry partner of USA Pickleball as part of the multiyear partnership.
    The streaming platform of QVC will exclusively stream the 2024 Biofreeze USA Pickleball National Championships in November.

    Thomas Wilson prepares to hit a shot from Ross Whittaker and Christopher Haworth during the first round of the Pro Mens Doubles at the 2023 BioFreeze USA Pickleball National Championships held at the Brookhaven Country Club on November 8, 2023 in Dallas, Texas.
    Bruce Yeung | Getty Images Sport | Getty Images

    QVC, the owner of home shopping networks on TV and streaming, has signed a deal with USA Pickleball to bring the sport to its platforms.
    In a multiyear partnership, QVC has acquired the exclusive broadcast rights of USA Pickleball, the national governing body of the sport. The deal begins with USA Pickleball’s 2024 Biofreeze USA Pickleball National Championships in November, which will be featured on QVC’s free streaming platform, QVC+/HSN+.

    QVC, a subsidiary of John Malone’s Qurate Retail Group, will mix the shopping experience with the live matchups. As part of the partnership, QVC will also be the exclusive retail industry partner of USA Pickleball.
    The deal showcases the media industry’s continued gravitation toward live sports, which attract some of the biggest audiences on both traditional TV and streaming.
    In QVC’s case, the choice to bring on pickleball was intentional.
    Earlier this year QVC launched a new brand platform called “Age of Possibility,” geared to women over 50, said Annette Dunleavy, QVC’s vice president of brand marketing.
    “Pickleball is the fastest-growing sport in America and really resonates with that demographic,” said Dunleavy. “We thought, what two perfect partners to come together. We wanted to partner with them to sort of bring the sport to life in a different and unique way for our audience.”

    Pickleball has been booming in the U.S. and has been called the country’s fastest-growing sport. More than 5 million women over the age of 45 actively play the sport, according to QVC and USA Pickleball.
    Pickleball courts have been popping up across major cities in the U.S. Meanwhile, the sport has been signing big media rights deals, such as the partnership of the Professional Pickleball Association Tour and The Tennis Channel.
    As QVC builds out its streaming platform it has been experimenting with live shows and events, including its “The Ultimate Gift Wrapping Challenge” series and actress Busy Philipps’ late-night talk show, “Busy This Week.”
    “As you look at what those relevant, highly successful examples of media have been, it’s live sports,” said Stacie Tedesco, vice president of streaming at Qurate Retail Group. “It was really that perfect next place to go.”

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    Can Andrea Orcel, Europe’s star banker, create a super-bank?

    The career of Andrea Orcel vividly encapsulates the recent history of European banking. At Merrill Lynch, now part of Bank of America, Mr Orcel advised on deals that formed part of the wave of mergers that crested in 2007, when a pan-European troika bought ABN AMRO, a Dutch lender. After the financial crisis of 2007-09, grand cross-border ambitions were ditched. Mr Orcel’s next job was to run the investment-banking arm of UBS, a Swiss champion. More

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    Why economic warfare nearly always misses its target

    Between August and October 1943 American warplanes repeatedly bombed Schweinfurt, in southern Germany. The Bavarian town did not host army HQs or a major garrison. But it produced half of the Third Reich’s supply of ball bearings, used to keep axles rotating in everything from aircraft and tank engines to automatic rifles. To Allied planners, who had spent months studying the input-output tables of German industry, the minuscule manufacturing part had the trappings of a strategic commodity. Knock away Germany’s ability to make them, the thinking went, and its military-industrial complex would come crashing down. More

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    Starbucks invests in two innovation farms to help climate-proof its coffee

    Starbucks is investing in two new farms in Central America to get closer to a goal of protecting its coffee supply from climate change.
    The coffee giant buys 3% of the world’s coffee supply, which has been pressured in recent years due to extreme weather.
    At the two new farms, Starbucks will study how its hybrid coffee varieties perform at different elevations and soil conditions.

    A sign outside of the Starbucks headquarters is seen at Starbucks Center on July 3, 2024 in Seattle, Washington.
    David Ryder | Getty Images

    More than a decade ago, Starbucks bought its first coffee farm, in Costa Rica. Now the coffee giant has added two more to its portfolio.
    The Seattle-based company said Thursday that it’s invested in another farm in Costa Rica and its first in Guatemala in the hopes of getting closer to its goal of protecting its coffee supply from climate change.

    Rising temperatures, frosts in Brazil, three consecutive years of La Nina and other extreme weather have been hurting coffee production in recent years, putting pressure on supply. For Starbucks, which buys 3% of the world’s coffee, the shortages can mean scrambling to find Arabica beans — and higher prices for its customers. Consumer coffee prices have risen 18% over the last five years as of August, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
    “Frosts in Brazil have already impacted volumes of up to 50%, so we can have really severe impact in terms of product availability, and that is more and more regular in the whole Coffee Belt,” said Roberto Vega, Starbucks vice president of global coffee agronomy, research and development and sustainability.
    The Coffee Belt refers to the equatorial region with the ideal conditions to grow coffee beans.

    A worker cuts and collects coffee fruits in a coffee plantation in Heredia, Costa Rica, on February 3, 2023. 
    Ezequiel Becerra | AFP | Getty Images

    At the two new farms, Starbucks will study how hybrid coffee varieties perform at different elevations and soil conditions. The hybrid plants’ attributes include higher productivity and resistance against coffee leaf rust, a fungus that thrives in higher temperatures and rainfall.
    “We can develop new hybrids, but the fact that a hybrid works in one country and under certain conditions doesn’t mean that it’s going to be working everywhere,” Vega said.

    Vega’s team is also hoping to tackle other challenges faced by its coffee farmers that aren’t the direct result of climate change.
    For example, the company’s new Guatemalan farm is small, with depleted soil and low productivity. Starbucks is hoping to stage a turnaround by recovering its soil and then will use those learnings to teach other farmers how to do the same.
    “The farm is not necessarily in good shape, and that’s exactly what we were looking for. We wanted a farm that really mirrors the challenges that farmers are having today,” Vega said.
    At the second farm in Costa Rica, which is located next to its existing Hacienda Alsacia, Starbucks plans to use drones, mechanization and other tech to address the labor shortages faced by many Latin American farmers.
    Starbucks eventually plans to buy two more farms in Africa and Asia, stretching its agricultural portfolio across the Coffee Belt. More

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    Klarna CEO says a European tech brain drain is ‘number one risk’ for company ahead of IPO

    Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski told CNBC that unfavorable share-based compensation rules in Europe could lead to Klarna losing talent to tech giants in the U.S. such as Google, Apple and Meta.
    In a wide-ranging interview, he said that the lack of attractiveness of Europe for tech talent is the “number one risk” facing the company as it prepares for a much-anticipated IPO.
    The Swedish fintech firm offers only a fifth of the equity as a share of revenue compared to a basket of its peers, according to a Klarna-commissioned study obtained by CNBC.

    Sebastian Siemiatkowski, CEO of Klarna, speaking at a fintech event in London on Monday, April 4, 2022.
    Chris Ratcliffe | Bloomberg via Getty Images

    A European technology talent brain drain is the biggest risk factor facing Klarna as the Swedish payments company gets closer to its upcoming initial public offering, according to CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski.
    In a wide-ranging interview with CNBC this week, Siemiatkowski said that unfavorable rules in Europe on employee stock options — a common form of equity compensation tech firms offer to their staff — could lead to Klarna losing talent to technology giants in the U.S. such as Google, Apple and Meta.

    As Klarna — which is known for its popular buy now, pay later installment plans — prepares for its IPO, the lack of attractiveness of Europe as a place for the best and brightest to work has become a much more prominent fear, Siemiatkowski told CNBC.
    “When we looked at the risks of the IPO, which is a number one risk in my opinion? Our compensation,” said Siemiatkowski, who is approaching his 20th year as CEO of the financial technology firm. He was referring to company risk factors, which are a common element of IPO prospectus filings.
    Compared to a basket of its publicly-listed peers, Klarna offers only a fifth of its equity as a share of its revenue, according to a study obtained by CNBC which the company paid consulting firm Compensia to produce. However, the study also showed that Klarna’s publicly-listed peers offer six times the amount of equity that it does.

    ‘Lack of predictability’

    Siemiatkowski said there a number of hurdles blocking Klarna and its European tech peers from offering employees in the region more favorable employee stock option plans, including costs that erode the value of shares they are granted when they join.

    In the U.K. and Sweden, he explained that employee social security payments deducted from their stock rewards are “uncapped,” meaning that staff at companies in these countries stand to lose more than people at firms in, say, Germany and Italy where there are concrete caps in place.

    The higher a firm’s stock price, the more it must pay toward employees’ social benefits, making it difficult for companies to plan expenses effectively. Britain and Sweden also calculate social benefits on the actual value of employees’ equity upon sale in liquidity events like an IPO.
    “It’s not that companies are not willing to pay that,” Siemiatkowski said. “The biggest issue is the lack of predictability. If a staff cost is entirely associated with my stock price, and that has implications on my PNL [profit and loss] … it has cost implications for the company. It makes it impossible to plan.”
    In the past year, Siemiatkowski has more clearly signalled Klarna’s ambitions to go public soon. In an interview with CNBC’s “Closing Bell,” he said that a 2024 listing was “not impossible.” In August, Bloomberg reported Klarna was close to selecting Goldman Sachs as the lead underwriter for its IPO in 2025.
    Siemiatkowski declined to comment on where the company will go public and said nothing has been confirmed yet on timing. Still, when it does go public, Klarna will be among the first major fintech names to successfully debut on a stock exchange in several years.

    Affirm, one of Klarna’s closest competitors in the U.S., went public in 2021. Afterpay, another Klarna competitor, was acquired by Jack Dorsey’s payments company Block in 2021 for $29 billion.

    Klarna brain drain a ‘risk’

    A study by venture capital firm Index Ventures last year found that, on average, employees at late-stage European startups own around 10% of the companies they work for, compared to 20% in the U.S.
    Out of a selection of 24 countries, the U.K. ranks highly overall. However, it does a poorer job when it comes to the administration burdens associated with treatment of these plans. Sweden, meanwhile, fares worse, performing badly on factors such as the scope of the plans and strike price, the Index study said.
    Asked whether he’s worried Klarna employees may look to leave the company for an American tech firm instead, Siemiakowski said it’s a “risk,” particularly as the firm is expanding aggressively in the U.S.
    “The more prominent we become in the U.S market, the more people see us and recognize us — and the more their LinkedIn inbox is going to be pinged by offers from others,” Siemiatkowski told CNBC.
    He added that, in Europe, there’s “unfortunately a sentiment that you shouldn’t pay that much to really talented people,” especially when it comes to people working in the financial services industry.
    “There is more of that sentiment than in the U.S., and that is unfortunately hurting competitiveness,” Klarna’s co-founder said. “If you get approached by Google, they will fix your visa. They will transfer you to the U.S. These issues that used to be there, they’re not there anymore.”
    “The most talented pool is very mobile today,” he added, noting that its now easier for staff to work remotely from a region that’s outside a company’s physical office space. More

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    A tonne of public debt is never made public

    How much money has Senegal borrowed? More than previously thought, according to Ousmane Sonko, who became its prime minister in April. At a press conference on September 26th he said the previous government had “lied to the people” by hiding loans worth 10% of GDP, enough to push the country’s public debt to 83% of national income. Since a full audit has not yet been published, it is hard to know what numbers to believe. The IMF, which has a $1.9bn bail-out programme with Senegal, is not pleased. More

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    Levi Strauss trims guidance as it weighs sale of Dockers business

    Levi Strauss delivered mixed quarterly results and said it was looking to sell its Dockers business.
    The denim maker is seeing strong gains in its namesake brand and Beyond Yoga but sales at Dockers plunged 15% during the quarter.
    Levi’s focus on direct selling, plus lower cotton costs, led its gross margin to grow by 4.4 percentage points.

    Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

    Denim-crazed consumers are turning to Levi Strauss & Co for new jeans, but the company’s overall business is being dragged down by its Dockers brand, which the company is now considering selling off, it announced Wednesday. 
    Sales at Levi’s brand were up 5% during its fiscal third quarter — the biggest gain in two years — but overall revenue came in flat and lower than Wall Street had expected. 

    Shares of Levi’s fell more than 8% in extended trading Wednesday.
    Here’s how the denim-maker performed compared with what Wall Street was anticipating, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:

    Earnings per share: 33 cents adjusted vs. 31 cents expected 
    Revenue: $1.52 billion vs. $1.55 billion expected

    The company’s reported net income for the three-month period that ended Aug. 25 was $20.7 million, or 5 cents per share, compared with $9.6 million, or 2 cents per share, a year earlier. Excluding one-time items, Levi’s posted earnings of $132 million, or 33 cents per share. 
    Sales came in at $1.52 billion, up slightly from $1.51 billion a year earlier. 
    With one quarter left to go in the fiscal year, Levi reaffirmed its full-year adjusted earnings per share guidance of $1.17 to $1.27, in line with expectations of $1.25, according to LSEG. It expects earnings per share to come in at the midpoint of that range.

    It trimmed its revenue guidance and is now expecting sales to grow 1%, compared to a previous range of between 1% and 3%. That’s below the 2.3% growth that analysts had expected, according to LSEG.

    So long, Dockers

    Levi’s, which owns its namesake brand, as well as Dockers and Beyond Yoga, would have printed quite a different set of results had it not been for Dockers. It started that brand in 1986 to offer consumers an alternative to denim: khakis. 
    Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, khakis were a mainstay in most consumers’ closets but these days, it has fallen out of fashion. The efforts that Levi’s has made to differentiate Dockers led to too much overlap with the Levi’s brand, which has expanded into a lifestyle brand that offers a lot more products than jeans.
    During the quarter, sales at Dockers were down 15% to $73.7 million while Beyond Yoga, the buzzy athleisure brand it acquired in 2021, saw sales grow 19% to $32.2 million. 
    “Over the last couple of years, the brand has underperformed. … We felt this was the right decision for the long term. Our view financially is the exit of Dockers will improve the company’s overall margins and also minimize volatility in top line growth,” Levi’s finance chief Harmit Singh told CNBC in an interview. “We believe the exit of Dockers will allow both Dockers and Levi’s to independently operate and maximize each other’s value independently.” 
    Levi’s has tapped Bank of America to lead the sale process. 

    Direct gains

    Beyond Docker’s, Levi’s is making gains in growing its profitability as it continues to shift its focus to selling directly to consumers.
    During the quarter, its gross margin rose by 4.4 percentage points, which Singh attributed to the direct-selling strategy, lower cotton costs and better products that didn’t need to be marked down to be sold. 
    Like other brands, Levi’s has been working to carve out its direct selling strategy and reach more customers through its own stores and websites rather than through wholesalers like Macy’s. The strategy is a boon to profits because the margins are higher and it also allows brands to get closer to their customers through data collection.
    During the quarter, Levi’s direct channel was up about 10%, driven by strength in the U.S. and 16% growth in e-commerce. Overall, direct sales comprised 44% of total revenue and Levi’s wants to get that number closer to 55%.
    Behind those numbers are a slew of splashy marketing campaigns, which include a new partnership the jeans brand announced with Beyoncé on Monday after the pop star released a song titled “LEVII’S JEANS” earlier this year on her country album.
    “Our strategic decision was to actually have Beyoncé represent some of our core product. So in the first ad, chapter one, she’s in … 501s and an essential white t-shirt and it doesn’t get more Levi’s than that,” CEO Michelle Gass told CNBC. “Part of the success recipe for Levi’s has been and will continue to be us living in the center of culture and bringing together the icon of Beyoncé with the icon of Levi’s, I don’t think there’s any better example of that.”

    Global woes

    Sales in Levi’s Europe business came in higher than expected at $406.6 million, ahead of StreetAccount estimates of $392 million, but sales in the Americas and Asia came in lower. Levi’s posted $757.2 million in sales in the Americas, below the the $789.2 million that StreetAccount analysts had expected. In Asia, Levi’s saw revenue of $247.1 million, below StreetAccount estimates of $258 million. 
    “China was a drag,” Singh said of the region, which represents about 2% of Levi’s overall business. “It’s got this macro headwinds, and we had some execution issues. We’ve just changed the leadership in China and over time we still believe in the long-term potential of China.”
    In the Americas, beyond a slowdown at Docker’s, sales were also impacted by one of Levi’s largest wholesale customers in Mexico, Singh said. During the quarter, the partner had a cybersecurity breach, which constrained shipping times and impacted sales. The region is also working through some “execution issues,” said Singh. More

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    Xi Jinping’s belated stimulus has reset the mood in Chinese markets

    If Chinese retail investors had their way they would forgo the seven-day National Day holiday that ends on October 7th. An aggressive stimulus package, announced in Beijing on September 24th, has unleashed the biggest stockmarket rally the country has witnessed in more than 15 years. Major indices have soared more than 25%; the Shanghai stock exchange has suffered glitches under the volume of buying activity. The prospect of halting for a full week has made netizens anxious: “We must keep trading; we must cancel National Day,” one young investor screamed into a video widely shared on WeChat, a social-media platform. More