Raphael Stevens

The United Auto Workers union will expand strikes against General Motors and Ford Motor.
UAW President Shawn Fain said Chrysler parent Stellantis was spared from additional strikes because of recent progress in negotiations with that company.
About 6,900 autoworkers will take part in the latest wave of work stoppages, joining roughly 18,300 workers who are currently on strike for the union.

DETROIT – The United Auto Workers union will expand strikes against General Motors and Ford Motor to two U.S. assembly plants at noon ET, UAW President Shawn Fain said Friday.
The additional strikes will target Ford’s Chicago Assembly Plant in Illinois, which produces the Ford Explorer and Lincoln Aviator SUVs, and GM’s Lansing Delta Township plant in mid-Michigan that produces the Buick Enclave and Chevrolet Traverse crossovers.

The plants are important ones for the companies, however not as profitable or crucial as facilities that produce the automakers’ pickup trucks.
Fain said Chrysler parent Stellantis was spared from additional strikes because of recent progress in negotiations with that company.
“Moments before this broadcast, Stellantis made significant progress on the 2009 cost-of-living allowance, the right not to cross a picket line, as well as the right to strike over product commitments and plant closures and outsourcing moratoriums,” said Fain, who was delayed nearly 30 minutes in making the online announcement. “We are excited about this momentum at Stellantis and hope it continues.”
About 6,900 autoworkers will take part in the latest wave of work stoppages, joining roughly 18,300 workers who are currently on strike for the union. That means about 25,200 employees, or roughly 17% of UAW members covered by the expired contracts with the Detroit automakers, will be on strike as of noon.
“To restore the balance of power, we have to restore the strike,” Fain said Friday, citing several other UAW strikes aside from the Detroit automakers.

GM in a statement Friday said it had yet to receive a “comprehensive counteroffer” from union leadership to a contract proposal made last week.
“Calling more strikes is just for the headlines, not real progress. The number of people negatively impacted by these strikes is growing and includes our customers who buy and love the products we build,” Gerald Johnson, GM’s head of global manufacturing, said in the statement. “We’re here to reach an agreement so we can all get back to work, and that remains our 100% focus.”
Stellantis, in a statement, said while negotiators have made progress, “gaps remain.” The company said it is “committed to continue working through these issues in an expeditious manner to reach a fair and responsible agreement that gets everyone back to work as soon as possible.”
Ford CEO Jim Farley said mid-Friday afternoon the UAW is “holding the deal hostage over battery plants,” calling the additional strike “grossly irresponsible.” He also criticized the union for its targeted strike strategy, saying he feels the actions were “premediated” and insinuating the union was never interested in reaching a deal before a Sept. 14 deadline.
Fain fired back at Farley, saying the CEO hasn’t been present at the bargaining table and that he’s “lying about the state of negotiations.”
The additional strikes come one week after a similar strike expansion. The UAW originally initiated work stoppages on Sept. 15 at three assembly plants — one each for the Detroit automakers. Last week, the union targeted a further 38 parts and distribution locations operated by GM and Stellantis. At that time, the UAW spared Ford from expanded strikes, citing progress in those negotiations.

Members of the Writers Guild of America West (WGAW) join striking United Auto Workers (UAW) at a rally in front of the Stellantis Mopar facility on September 26, 2023 in Ontario, California. 
Gina Ferazzi | Los Angeles Times | Getty Images

Fain previously said the union would increase the work stoppages, based on progress in the contract negotiations. The talks have spurred frustrations and accusations from both sides of the bargaining table.
Before the Friday announcement, GM and Stellantis in particular had grown increasingly frustrated by a lack of participation from Fain and what they said were delays in receiving counterproposals from the union, people familiar with the negotiations told CNBC.
Unlike past strikes, UAW leaders opted for targeted strikes at select plants instead of initiating national walkouts. It’s calling the work stoppages “stand-up strikes,” a nod to historic “sit-down” strikes by the UAW in the 1930s.
The strategy is in an effort to keep the automakers on edge in an effort to pit them against one another to achieve better contracts, according to private messages leaked last week involving the UAW’s communications director.
The messages, which described a strategy to cause “recurring reputations damage and operational chaos” for the companies, were heavily criticized by the automakers. More

Meal kit business Blue Apron announced Friday it has agreed to sell itself to food and restaurant company Wonder Group, founded by entrepreneur Marc Lore, for $103 million.
The sale caps years of ups and downs for Blue Apron, once a leader in at-home meal deliveries.
In recent months, the company has transitioned to become a more asset-light business, selling its operational infrastructure and laying off significant swaths of its workforce.

Scott Eisen | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Meal kit business Blue Apron announced Friday it has agreed to sell itself to food and restaurant company Wonder Group, founded by entrepreneur Marc Lore, for $103 million.
The deal, at $13 per share, represents a significant premium from Blue Apron’s per-share price at Thursday’s close of $5.49.

The sale caps years of ups and downs for Blue Apron, once a leader in at-home meal deliveries. In recent months, the company has transitioned to become a more asset-light business, selling its operational infrastructure to California-based meal provider FreshRealm for $50 million and laying off significant swaths of its workforce.
“The Blue Apron brand and products that our customers know and love will stay the same, with more opportunity for product expansion in the future,” Blue Apron CEO Linda Findley said in a statement Friday.

A checkered past

Blue Apron has long been mired in strategic difficulties since its mid-2010s heyday.
The company was founded in 2012, billing itself as an easier way to prepare home-cooked meals. Boxes arrived at the customer’s doorstep with pre-portioned ingredients and recipes to create their chosen dishes. The company specifically targeted working professionals in large cities who may have less time to grocery shop and cook.
In 2015, the company secured $135 million in funding from big name backers including Fidelity Investments at a valuation of $2 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported at the time. The company even turned a profit in the first two quarters of 2016, wowing potential investors ahead of an eventual IPO.

Blue Apron went public in June 2017 at $10 a share and a valuation of about $1.89 billion. The company initially forecasted a range of $15 to $17 per share, but lowered its projected per-share price following Amazon’s acquisition of Whole Foods Market, announced just weeks before the IPO.
Blue Apron stock gained little ground on its opening day.
By then, the tide had already begun to turn for the meal kit business. Blue Apron reported a loss of $52 million in the first quarter of 2017 on $245 million in revenue. That single quarter of losses rivaled the company’s full-year deficit from 2016 of $54.9 million.
Competition intensified for Blue Apron, as other meal kit businesses popped up on the scene like HelloFresh and Home Chef. Blue Apron still dominated 40.3% of the market, Verge reported at the time, but had lost 17% of its share since September 2016. HelloFresh trailed behind at 28% market share.
Shortly after the IPO, a number of shakeups took place within the company’s top executives. Co-founder and then-Chief Operating Officer Matthew Wadiak stepped down from his post less than a month after the IPO, and CEO Matt Salzberg was replaced by chief financial officer Brad Dickerson later that year, while Salzberg became executive chairman.
By the end of 2017, the situation looked bleak: The company said in its 2017 year-end report that it had lost 15% of its customer base year over year, citing decreased marketing spend. Net losses in 2017 amounted to $210 million.
By December of the following year, shares of Blue Apron had dipped below $1 per share, and the company was at risk of getting delisted from the New York Stock Exchange. Investors were reportedly spooked by Amazon’s acquisition of Whole Foods, high marketing expenses, and fulfillment center issues.

Rescue plan

In early 2020, reports surfaced that Blue Apron was considering going private.
Soon after, the company announced the closure of its Arlington, Texas, facility and the furlough of 240 employees as part of an effort to build “operational optimization and fiscal discipline to support our strategy and return to growth.”
CEO Linda Findley acknowledged during the company’s fourth quarter 2019 earnings call that the board was evaluating several strategic options to “maximize shareholder value.” Shares of Blue Apron traded for less than $4 apiece at the time, even after a reverse stock split to boost the per-share price.
But shortly thereafter, the Covid pandemic took hold and lockdowns kept people at home, breathing new life into the company. Blue Apron shares rallied from mid-March to mid-April 2020, jumping 400%.
But as the pandemic waned and demand for at-home meals slumped, Blue Apron sought out third-party partnerships to capture new customers. It began offering its meal kits on Walmart.com and opened up its preexisting Amazon partnership to include those without a Prime subscription.
Even so, the company continued to struggle, reporting a net loss of $109.7 million for 2022.
Enter, Wonder Group.
The company began making waves in May 2021, operating a fleet of faceless vans in Westfield, New Jersey. Wonder’s goal was to deliver fine dining options to residents of the New York City suburb. Vans were retrofitted as kitchens to cook and deliver the food to the customer.
The company partnered with restaurants to recreate their menu in an effort to save affluent suburbanites from having to go into the city to eat their favorite fine dining options.
By 2023, Wonder had abandoned the food truck concept, instead opting for a food hall restaurant concept that offers several menus within the same store. Similar to the food truck concept, Wonder has licensing deals with other well-known restaurants to prepare their foods in Wonder locations.
Last year, Wonder raised $350 million at a $3.5 billion valuation, according to the Wall Street Journal.
For now, Wonder has indicated that Blue Apron will operate more or less the same.
“Wonder plans to continue Blue Apron’s current operations serving customers nationwide under the Blue Apron brand, with expected new synergies between consumer-facing apps and delivery logistics,” Blue Apron said Friday.
“At home meals play a key role in this vision,” Wonder CEO Marc Lore said on Friday. “When the opportunity presented itself to unite with Blue Apron, pioneers in the meal kit industry, we knew it would accelerate our strategic position.” More

United Airlines pilots approved a contract with raises that could top 40% over four years.
American Airlines and Delta pilots also approved new labor deals this year with big pay increases.
Pilot shortages and a rebound in travel demand have given unions more power in labor talks.

Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner, from United Airlines, taking off from Barcelona Airport in Barcelona on March 28, 2023.
JanValls | Nurphoto | Getty Images

United Airlines pilots approved a new contract with compensation increases of as much as 40.2% over the four-year contract, making the carrier the last of the three largest U.S. airlines to seal a deal with its aviators during an industry shortage.
The deal is worth about $10 billion, according to the Air Line Pilots Association, the pilots’ union. ALPA said on Friday that the new contract won 82% approval from the more than 97% of United pilots that voted on it.

Delta Air Lines and American Airlines pilots approved new contracts earlier this year, also with big raises. The Covid-19 pandemic derailed negotiations across airlines but pilot and other labor unions in the industry have been pushing hard for increased compensation and better work rules since travel demand bounced back and inflation surged.
Other unions are also pushing for improved pay and benefits, calling for strikes or potential strikes when negotiations fall short of demands. The United Auto Workers union is planning on expanding strikes against General Motors and Ford Motor to two U.S. assembly plants on Friday, UAW President Shawn Fain said.
Earlier this week, Hollywood writers and studios finalized the language of a deal that ended a nearly 150-day labor strike. More

Toys R Us’ parent company, WHP Global, announced plans to open as many as 24 new stores in the U.S. as early as next year.
The toy company previously opened a flagship store at American Dream mall in New Jersey in 2021, marking its return to malls.
Toys R Us will open shops in airport and on cruise ships, with the first store set to open in time for this holiday season inside Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.

Courtesy: ToysRus

Toys R Us is plotting a bold comeback in the U.S., as it plans to expand its brick-and-mortar presence with as many as 24 new flagship stores and a separate rollout at airports and on cruise ships starting this holiday season.
The toy retailer’s parent company, WHP Global, announced what it called the “Air, Land and Sea” expansion on Friday. Toys R Us aims to start opening the up to two dozen flagship stores as early as next year in partnership with Go! Retail Group. The company plans to roll out the locations in “prime cities” that complement its current retail footprint, WHP said.

The first airport store is set to open in November, in time for the holiday season, in Terminal A of Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, the world’s second-busiest airport.
“The Toys R Us brand is growing fast and our expansion into air, land and sea is a testament to the brand’s strength,” said Yehuda Shmidman, chairman and CEO of WHP, in a statement.
The expansion plan continues a slow revival of the once ubiquitous brand.
Toys R Us filed for bankruptcy in 2017, though it could not come out of it on its own, pushing it into liquidation. In January of that year, the company operated 1,691 stores and licensed 257 stores across 38 countries, according to an SEC filing. WHP acquired a controlling interest in Toys R Us’ parent company, Tru Kids, in 2021. The company planned to open more Toys R Us stores across the country, after the brand’s only two remaining locations in the U.S. closed earlier in 2021.
At the time, Shmidman said he hoped to open a combination of flagship, pop-up and airport stores as the country emerged into a post-Covid retail landscape. In summer 2021, WHP announced a rollout of more than 400 new Toys R Us stores at Macy’s locations across the country.

In a Friday statement, Shmidman said the company has increased Toys R Us’ global footprint by more than 50% since the acquisition, with upward of 1,400 stores and e-commerce sites across 31 countries.
One of those stores is its current flagship two-level store at the American Dream megamall in New Jersey. The 20,000 square foot location includes experiences for kids such as a two-story slide, café and ice cream shop.
WHP told CNBC the new flagship stores will be modeled after the American Dream location with “immersive” shopping experiences. But the New Jersey store will likely remain the largest location.
The expansion also will bring stores to airports and cruise lines as the company looks to keep up with the rise of travel retail. The first-of-its-kind store at the Dallas airport, in a partnership with Duty Free Americas, will allow customers to shop for their favorite toys and regional merchandise before hopping on a flight, and the company also plans to offer a range of toys and cruise-themed merchandise for that industry.
The Toys R Us brand generates more than $2 billion in global retail sales annually, WHP said. More

Shares of Structure Therapeutics surged after the biotech company’s experimental obesity pill succeeded in a small early-stage trial. 
The once-daily pill helped overweight or obese participants reduce up to 10 pounds of weight on average after four weeks of treatment, according to a release from the company.
Structure’s pill is part of the same class of drugs as Novo Nordisk’s blockbuster diabetes drug Ozempic and weight loss counterpart Wegovy. 

Aykut Karahan | Istock | Getty Images

Shares of Structure Therapeutics rose more than 30% on Friday after the biotech startup’s experimental obesity pill succeeded in a small early-stage trial. 
The once-daily drug helped overweight or obese participants reduce up to 10 pounds of weight on average after four weeks of treatment, according to a release from the company. Structure said it plans to test its pill in two longer midstage trials as a treatment for diabetes and obesity.

Structure’s pill is part of the same class of drugs as Novo Nordisk’s blockbuster diabetes drug Ozempic and weight loss counterpart Wegovy. 
Those treatments, known as GLP-1s, have soared in popularity this year due to their ability to help patients lose unwanted pounds. GLP-1s mimic a hormone produced in the gut to suppress a person’s appetite. 
Companies like Structure are trying to capitalize on the booming obesity drug industry, which analysts say could be a $100 billion global market by the end of the decade. 
Structure’s pill could potentially compete with oral obesity drugs from Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk and Pfizer, which are not approved in the U.S. yet. Analysts say the arrival of cheaper, more convenient pill versions of the GLP-1s could increase access for patients and expand the market for obesity drugs.
Pills are easier to manufacture than injections, making them less likely to run into the supply shortages plaguing injectable drugs such as Ozempic, Wegovy and Eli Lilly’s diabetes drug Mounjaro. Pills are also typically cheaper than injections, though it’s unclear if that will be the case with the obesity treatments. 
Wegovy’s list price tops $1,300 per monthly package, and Ozempic’s is about $935. Novo Nordisk has a diabetes pill called Rybelsus, which has the same list price as Ozempic for a monthly package of 30 tablets. More

Drugmakers spent nearly $500 million on advertisements for obesity and diabetes treatments in the U.S. during the first seven months of this year, according to new data.
That’s up 20% from the same period a year ago, said advertising analytics firm MediaRadar.
The increase demonstrates the rush by companies to capture new customers after months of hype around Novo Nordisk’s diabetes drug Ozempic and weight loss counterpart Wegovy. 

A view of a plastic model of a stomach during an interview with Doctor Thomas Horbach, specialist in surgery, visceral surgery and nutritional medicine on Novo Nordisk, which will start selling its hugely popular obesity drug Wegovy in Germany later this month, in Munich, Germany, July 17, 2023.
Christine Uyanik | Reuters

Drugmakers spent nearly $500 million on advertisements for obesity and diabetes treatments in the U.S. during the first seven months of this year, up 20% from the same period a year ago, according to new data released Friday. 
The data, from advertising analytics firm MediaRadar, demonstrates the rush by companies to capture new customers after months of hype around Novo Nordisk’s diabetes drug Ozempic and weight loss counterpart Wegovy. 

Those drugs and similar treatments have soared in demand this year for their ability to help patients lose unwanted pounds. The medicines, known as GLP-1s, mimic a hormone produced in the gut to suppress a person’s appetite. 
U.S. health care providers wrote more than 9 million prescriptions for Ozempic, Wegovy and other obesity and diabetes drugs during the last three months of 2022, up 300% from early 2020.
MediaRadar compiled ad spending from national TV broadcasts, print publications, newspapers and websites and social media platforms from Jan. 1, 2022 to July 31, 2023. 
The top four drugs advertised were Ozempic, Wegovy, Novo Nordisk’s diabetes pill Rybelsus and Boehringer Ingelheim’s own diabetes treatment Jardiance, which is set to face drug price negotiations with the federal Medicare program. 
Together, those treatments accounted for $358 million, or about three-quarters, of total ad spending for obesity and diabetes drugs during the first seven months of this year, according to the data. 

Spending on Ozempic ads was $120 million during that time period, up 23% from the same period last year.
MediaRadar said in a statement that Ozempic’s rise in popularity has had a “positive impact on similar medications.” 
“It’s a classic case of ‘a rising tide lifts all boats,'” MediaRadar CEO Todd Krizelman said in the statement. “As Ozempic’s popularity grows, so does the demand for other weight loss and diabetes drugs, especially Wegovy, which has made a significant mark this year, particularly from Q2 onwards.”
Wegovy accounted for more than $20 million in ad spending during the first seven months of the year, primarily due to a spike in spending from April to July, according to MediaRadar. 
But MediaRadar noted that Novo Nordisk in May paused some key promotional advertising for Wegovy, specifically local and national TV advertising. 
MediaRadar said most of the spending on the drug was for digital advertising, such as online video.  More