Business

Ford’s newest pickup is the F-150 Raptor R, a new high-performance pickup with a supercharged 5.2-liter V-8 engine that produces 700 horsepower and 640 foot-pounds of torque.
The new “R” version looks similar to the company’s F-150 Raptor, but it includes some design tweaks and offers a significant boost in performance and off-road parts.
Automakers have been adding performance variants to their lineups to beef up profit margins before they transition more to electric vehicles.

2023 Ford F-150 Raptor R

DETROIT — As Ford Motor ramps up production of its electric F-150 pickup, it’s not giving up on offering new, highly profitable performance models with gasoline engines.
The Detroit automaker Monday morning unveiled the F-150 Raptor R, a new version of its high-performance, off-road pickup with a supercharged 5.2-liter V-8 engine that produces 700 horsepower and 640 foot-pounds of torque. The truck will start at $109,145, including destination and delivery charges.

Amid pent-up demand and record high prices, automakers have been adding performance variants to their lineups to beef up profit margins before they transition more to electric vehicles, which can offer high performance but have lower margins than gas-powered vehicles.

2023 Ford F-150 Raptor R

The new “R” version looks similar to the company’s F-150 Raptor, but it includes some design tweaks and offers a significant boost in performance and off-road parts. For comparison, the regular 2022 F-150 Raptor is powered by a 3.5-liter EcoBoost V-6 engine that produces 450 horsepower and 510 foot-pounds of torque. Ford said the Raptor R’s top speed is 112 mph, limited by the vehicle’s 37-inch tires.
Ford has largely dominated the high-performance pickup truck market since launching the first Raptor model in 2009. But in recent years, Stellantis’ Ram Trucks brand has been grabbing headlines with its Ram 1500 TRX, a 702-horsepower pickup with supercharged 6.2-liter V-8 engine and 650 foot-pounds of torque.
The new Raptor falls just shy of the performance of the Ram TRX, but it offers different performance parts. It’s also the highest-powered engine Ford offers. The company previously used the engine for the Ford Mustang Shelby GT500.

2023 Ford F-150 Raptor R

Carl Widmann, chief engineer of Ford performance, said the vehicle is the result of customers “demanding the sound and power of a V8 back in Raptor.” Ford hasn’t offered a V-8 engine in a Raptor model since 2014.

Production of the F-150 Raptor R will start in the fall at Ford’s Dearborn Truck Plant in Michigan, the company said. Ordering for the vehicle opens Monday through franchised Ford dealers.
Current Raptor trucks start at about $70,000 — around $40,000 over a base F-150 but less expensive than the top luxury version of the F-150 that starts at roughly $77,000.

2023 Ford F-150 Raptor R

WATCH LIVEWATCH IN THE APP More

A seaside restaurant charges 30 euros ($30) for a burger.
A large sunbed at an upscale beach club can cost 500 euros in August.

And a table at a “VIP” nightclub can run into the thousands.
Though Spain is generally considered a reasonably priced travel destination, the Spanish island of Ibiza has long been known as a place for living the high life.
“The pricing is silly,” said Ben Pundole, a luxury hotel consultant and longtime Ibiza visitor, in an email to CNBC. “After 23 years in New York, I can only compare it to the Hamptons in the height of [the] season.”

Beachgoers and boaters at Cala Salada, Ibiza.
Alex Tihonov | Moment | Getty Images

Yet Ibiza’s visitors are happy to spend big, Pundole said.
“Ibiza is very expensive, it’s always been expensive,” he said. “But people are willing to pay.”

Rising prices

While hippies were drawn to Ibiza for its rumored “magnetic” vibrations in the 1960s, it was arguably British-Australian Tony Pike who put the island on the map when he opened the Pikes Hotel, now known as Pikes Ibiza, in 1980. The small hotel transformed a 500-year-old estate in the hills into a party haven.
Pike’s rich and famous friends, such as Freddie Mercury, George Michael and Kylie Minogue, stayed at the hotel — and it’s still a place that draws crowds to its rooms, restaurant, and dancefloor.
The 1980s also saw the rise of clubs such as Amnesia, Space (now home to Hi Ibiza) and Pacha, with the latter currently charging 13 euros ($13) for a regular can of Coca-Cola. More clubs have since opened, including Ushuaia, which was named the third best club in the world in 2019 by the International Nightlife Association.

A can of Coca-Cola at a VIP table at Ibiza’s Pacha nightclub costs $13, while full-size bottles of liquor start around $500.
Zowy Voeten | Getty Images

Restaurants, clubs, holiday rentals and taxis have all noticeably hiked prices this year, Pundole said.
“It’s an island, it’s seasonal, businesses are making up for two years of lost revenue, there’s supply chain issues and the pent-up demand is enormous,” he said.
Indeed, the number of tourists visiting the Balearic Islands was up 300% year over year in May, according to Spain’s National Institute of Statistics.

‘Established glamour’

Ibiza’s reputation as an upscale destination evolved over a few decades, said Carolyn Addison, head of product at luxury travel specialist Black Tomato. “It has this kind of … established glamour. So, there’s a lot on offer that is expensive,” she told CNBC by phone.
“You would have to trace it back to the ’60s when there was this sort of … hippie crowd that washed up,” she said. “As that crowd maybe got older, richer, more established, [it] defined the island in a new way.”
A six-night trip organized by Black Tomato starts from around £6,100 ($7,260) per person, including accommodations, breakfast and a one-day private yacht charter (the price excludes flights).

A six-night trip to Ibiza with travel company Black Tomato — with stays at places like the 7Pines Resort Ibiza (here) — starts at around £6,100 ($7,260) per person, excluding flights.
Source: Black Tomato

Six Senses Ibiza is popular with Black Tomato’s clients, said Addison. The luxury hotel announced the addition of 19 private residences and two “mansions” in June.
Mansions cost around $16,000 per night in the summer, according to the hotel’s website. Guests have access to a spa, kids’ club and daily activities such as kayaking and cliff jumping. Each comes with a “Guest Experience Maker” who can organize nightclub entry and boat trips, according to the hotel.
Also new at Six Senses this year is Beach Caves, a venue with a restaurant, live music space, recording studio and six suites with extra-large beds, near the town of Portinatx on Ibiza’s north coast.
Pundole, who is Beach Caves’ creative director, described the area as having “a different vibe,” and called it “curious, mystical, equally as hedonistic, and as bohemian as anywhere you could imagine.” Beach Caves suites start from 1,565 euros a night in the summer.

The Cave Royale suite at Beach Caves, Ibiza. Room rates at the hotel start at 1,565 euros ($1,582) per night in the summer season.
Source: Beach Caves

This year also saw luxury hotel group Mandarin Oriental take over management of Tagomago, a private island off Ibiza’s eastern coast. The entire island is available to rent for around 30,000 euros a night during the high season, which includes a private villa, chef, concierge, butler, villa host and yacht captain, according to a promotional brochure.
Luca Finardi, operations director of Mandarin Oriental Exclusive Homes, said Tagomago’s clientele comprise “a variety of high-end individuals from all over the world.”

Luxury demands

Asked why Ibiza is so expensive, Finardi said by email that the island is popular with upmarket travelers who want a combination of “beautiful scenery, high quality restaurants and bars, chic shopping experiences and lively nightlife.”
“It also provides lovely areas where guests can find quiet corners to escape the crowds,” he said. “It represents value for money to people seeking these experiences.”

The private island of Tagomago comes with a chef, butler, concierge, villa host and yacht access.
Source: Isla de Tagomago

At A.M.A Selections, a luxury home booking site that launched in June, the average cost of a 10-day villa stay on Ibiza is around 26,500 euros, according to co-founder Mariek Anselme. Most clients add services such as pop-up cinema experiences — which start from 500 euros per screening — as well as private chefs, yoga classes and spa treatments.
“The island is able to strike a balance of authentic, boho charm with upscale offerings popular amongst VIPs and wealthy travelers,” Anselme told CNBC by email.
“For decades it’s pulled in iconic names in the music industry, creating an elite and extravagant entertainment scene … In recent years we’ve seen more global leaders in luxury hospitality open in Ibiza, giving it a world-class status that is able to command high prices,” she added. More

Sweden’s Henrik Stenson during day two of The Open at the Old Course, St Andrews on July 15, 2022. Henrik Stenson is expected to be imminently stripped of his Ryder Cup captaincy and join the Saudi-backed LIV Golf Invitational Series.
David Davies | Pa Images | Getty Images

Henrik Stenson is expected to be imminently stripped of his Ryder Cup captaincy and join the Saudi-backed LIV Golf Invitational Series.
The 2016 Champion Golfer of the Year, who is set to lead Team Europe in next September’s edition of the biennial contest, has been regularly linked with the Greg Norman-fronted tour.

Stenson told reporters that his schedule for the remainder of the year was “undecided” after missing the cut on Friday at The Open in St Andrews, with the 46-year-old now set to commit to the breakaway circuit.
New Champion Golfer of the Year Cameron Smith has previously been rumored to be considering the breakaway circuit, with the Australian refusing to deny speculation about his golfing future in the media conference after his one-shot victory at St Andrews.
When asked about joining LIV Golf, immediately after his win at The Open, Smith said: “I just won the British Open, and you’re asking about that. I think that’s pretty not that good.

Smith, who is now exempt in all four majors until 2027, added: “I don’t know, mate. My team around me worries about all that stuff. I’m here to win golf tournaments.”

LIV Golf players considering Asian Tour appearances?

Players who joined the circuit are suspended indefinitely by the PGA Tour, while the DP World Tour issued £100,000 fines for those competing in the opening event of the inaugural season, leaving limited playing opportunities for LIV Golf members outside their own events.

The lack of world rankings points currently on offer on the Greg Norman-fronted tour means players are in danger of quickly falling down the standings, jeopardizing potential eligibility of playing in majors going forward for those not already holding an exemption, with Paul Casey confirming those involved are considering other options.
“There’s talk about guys sort of playing a couple [of Asian Tour events],” Casey said after his final round at The Open. “I don’t even know the schedule. I’m sorry, whether they go play something before Bangkok to get ready, or the break in August.
“Do they go play to be a bit sharper? There’s a lot of discussion, a lot of WhatsApp chat group feeds going around. I’m not part of most of them. I think the discussion was if guys turn up en masse, then it lifts the world ranking points. So if they’re going to go play an Asian Tour, they all go together.”

What next for the LIV Golf Invitational Series?

Trump National Golf Club Bedminster hosts the next event from July 29-31 and a further tournament takes place in Boston from September 2-4, the week after the PGA Tour’s season-ending Tour Championship.
Rich Harvest Farms in Chicago is the venue for the fifth event, taking place from September 16-18, while Stonehill Golf Club in Bangkok is the venue from October 7-9 and Royal Greens Golf Club — the site of the Saudi International in recent years — hosts the following week.
The season-ending Team Championship will be held at Trump National Doral Miami from October 27-30. LIV Golf then plans to have 10 events in its 2023 calendar before expanding to 14 tournaments from 2024, although dates and locations for those have not yet been confirmed.

WATCH LIVEWATCH IN THE APP More

SMALL BUSINESS PLAYBOOK 2022
Event Videos

A recent survey of small business owners found few who knew their business valuation.
Understanding a company’s dollar value is important to access capital, conduct a sale, as well as for estate and tax planning.
Entrepreneurs should have independent auditors value their businesses at least every few years.

Hispanolistic | E+ | Getty Images

Many small company owners don’t know what their enterprise is worth, a practice that can amount to risky business.
A whopping 98% of small businesses polled by M&T Bank over the past two years didn’t know the value of their companies. This is especially troubling, given that for most business owners, their company is their most valuable asset. 

“People whose home is their primary asset want to know what it is worth. If you open up a brokerage account, you want to know how much it’s worth. You’d never give your money to a financial advisor who told you to trust them while they invest it and never report back to you on what it’s worth,” said Travis W. Harms, who  leads Mercer Capital’s family business advisory services group. “Just because your business is not liquid wealth, doesn’t mean it’s not real wealth.”
Here are five points to help entrepreneurs understand the importance of valuing a business.
Valuation is critical to running a business, and selling it
Many business owners may be too overwhelmed with day-to-day operations to focus on having their company valued. Others don’t want to spend the money or simply don’t realize the importance of having an objective third-party measure of its worth. 
A valuation, however, can be critical for many reasons. These include an impending sale,  the issuance of stock options, succession planning, tax and estate planning, capital raising, implementing a buy-sell agreement, insurance needs or to obtain business funding, said Robert King, partner on the investment banking team at Crewe. 
Say, for instance, you want to gift company shares to a family member. Understanding the company’s valuation is important for tax and estate-planning purposes. Another reason to value the business is as a checkpoint so partners are all on the same page. Even if there’s a buy-sell agreement, there can be disputes over how a business is valued for the purposes of separation. Having realistic expectations for the business along the way can prevent a prolonged and messy fight over the company’s worth if the time does come for owners to part ways, Harms said.

Knowing your business’s up-to-date worth is also important because many owners don’t plan to sell their business until a suitor comes knocking, said Brett Dearing, partner and exit planning specialist with the wealth management firm Cerity Partners. If you don’t have a current valuation, you’ll be at a disadvantage from a negotiation standpoint. You could either have an overly rosy outlook for your business, or conversely, be grossly underestimating its potential. 
“A lot of business owners don’t understand the value of their business before they sit down with a buyer at the negotiating table,” Dearing said.
Certified experts exist to value your business
One of the best ways to find an expert to value your business is through one of three credentialing bodies.
The Accredited in Business Valuation credential is granted by The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants to CPAs and qualified valuation professionals who meet the requirements. There’s also a business valuation certification by the American Society of Appraisers. And the National Association of Certified Valuators and Analysts offers the Certified Valuation Analyst designation.
While having one of these certifications alone doesn’t guarantee an appraiser’s quality, it should be your baseline starting point given the level of expertise these designations require, business valuation professionals said.
The cost of calculating a valuation will vary 
There’s no single answer to the question of cost because it depends largely on the size and complexity of the business, the scope of work required, and the purpose and intended use of the valuation, Harms said.
Given these parameters, an appraisal could cost anywhere from around $5,000 to around $50,000, according to valuation professionals. Be sure to be specific with the appraiser about the reasons you are seeking a valuation so they deliver what you’re asking for. 
Some of the assumptions that go into a valuation for estate planning purposes or issuance of equity compensation could be decidedly different than for raising capital or selling a business, said King. “One size does not fit all,” he said.
Business owners should update this asset value regularly
Depending on what you need the valuation for, it can be something you do annually or every few years. 
It can also be done more frequently as you are trying to grow your business. M&T Bank offers a free digital platform that allows businesses to model how different outcomes would impact their valuation. It’s not an accredited valuation, but the service offers a baseline before you take that next step, said Jonathan Kolozsvary, director of new ventures at M&T Bank. 
Valuing the business regularly can help you determine weak spots and make improvements. “If you go through the valuation process and the value isn’t quite where you want it to be, you can improve the valuation based on the areas identified,” said Tami M. Bolder, director at CBIZ Valuation Group. “It’s also helpful for general planning purposes,” she said. More

Restaurants and diners alike are feeling the pinch from the industry’s labor shortage.
The industry is still down 750,000 jobs — roughly 6.1% of its workforce — from pre-pandemic levels as of May, according to the National Restaurant Association.
In the first quarter, customers mentioned short staffing three times more often in their Yelp reviews than in the year-ago period, according to the restaurant review site.

A waiter works at a restaurant in Alexandria, Virginia, on June 3, 2022.
Olivier Douliery | AFP | Getty Images

Jeff Rothenberg has grown accustomed to long wait times at restaurants, even when tables are visibly open.
“Another restaurant we went to had open seats outside, but when we went to the host, they mentioned that the kitchen was short-staffed,” Rothenberg, an operations director at a California-based fintech firm, told CNBC. “So although he had seating, he was going to put us on a 30-minute waitlist to be seated.”

Rothenberg was on the 30-minute waitlist for nearly an hour, he said. Then, after he was seated, he waited another 45 minutes for his food to arrive.
“It was the type of experience that makes me not want to eat out as much,” he said. “I felt bad for the servers, because they were trying, but they could only do so much, not having enough cooks.”
It’s a scenario that has been repeated across the food service industry since the Covid pandemic began in 2020, and it’s taking a toll on restaurants and their staff, as well.
Lockdowns in spring of that year led to layoffs and furloughs for many cooks and waitstaff, prompting the federal government to back billions of dollars in forgivable loans for small businesses. The disease ravaged the U.S. workforce, killing more than a million people over the course of two-plus years while sickening many millions more, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
As states relaxed their restrictions, restaurant employment recovered, although the industry is still down 750,000 jobs — roughly 6.1% of its workforce — from pre-pandemic levels as of May, according to the National Restaurant Association.

Customers are noticing the difference. In the first quarter of 2022, customers mentioned short staffing three times more often in their Yelp reviews than in the year-ago period, according to the restaurant review site. Mentions of long waits rose 23%.
“I think the experience has been different since Covid. I see that the restaurant industry has changed a lot,” Nev Wright, a health-care worker, told CNBC outside Firebirds Wood Fired Grill in Eatontown, New Jersey. “It wasn’t always like this — now it takes time, with expenses and shortages of staff and everything.”
The American Customer Satisfaction Index found that consumers were less happy with fast-food chains this year compared with 2021 — the sector’s score slipped to 76 out of 100, from 78. Customers were less satisfied about the speed and accuracy of their orders and about the cleanliness and layout of the restaurant.
The customer satisfaction scores for independent and small chain restaurants also dropped this year, to 80 out of 100, from 81, according to ACSI’s annual report. Some national full-service chains saw their scores fall even more year over year: Dine Brands’ Applebees dropped 5%, Darden Restaurants’ Olive Garden 4%, and Inspire Brands’ Buffalo Wild Wings 3%.

‘Everything is very weird’

Eatontown resident Theresa Berweiler said that over the past year she has been met consistently with early closing times and long waits at restaurants, even when they aren’t busy.
“I’m 64 years old, and I’ve never seen anything like this,” the receptionist told CNBC on Wednesday outside a local Chick-fil-A. “Everything is very weird. Covid has definitely changed the world, and I’m not sure for the better.”
Restaurants aren’t the only businesses seeing the labor crunch hit customer service. U.S. consumer complaints against airlines more than quadrupled over pre-pandemic levels in April, according to the Department of Transportation. Hotelier Hilton Worldwide isn’t satisfied with its own customer service and needs more workers, CEO Christopher Nassetta said on the company’s quarterly earnings call in May.
For restaurants, staffing challenges have put pressure on an industry already struggling with inflation and recovering lost sales from the pandemic. Alexandria Restaurant Partners, a group that owns and manages eight restaurants across Florida and Northern Virginia, has dramatically changed the way it does business.
“We’re not sure where all the workforce went, but a lot of them have disappeared, from managers to chefs to hourlies,” said Dave Nicholas, a founding member of ARP.

A chef prepares food in the kitchens of Café Tu Tu Tango, a popular restaurant in Orlanda, Florida.
Source: Alexandria Restaurant Partners

Now, Nicholas said, his focus is on hiring and retention. The group opened a recruitment position and now has two full-time recruiters working to bring much-needed employees into jobs with higher wages and better benefits than the group has ever had. 
“Before, you could hire them as fast as you needed them. These days, that’s not the case,” Nicholas said. “Our mission is to be the employer of choice. That comes with benefits we maybe didn’t have before, down to servers, busboys and dishwashers. The cost of that has been enormous, but the cost of turnover is enormous, so we weighed it.”
But not all workers are taking home more pay, even if their baseline wages increased. Saru Jayaraman, director of the Food Labor Research Center at the University of California Berkeley and president of One Fair Wage, which advocates abandoning the tipped wage, said frustration from understaffing often results in lower tips for workers. In turn, lower pay leads many restaurant employees to quit, exacerbating the issue.
“It’s a vicious cycle of people being unhappy with the service that may tip less, then they don’t come back, and sales are down,” she said.
The restaurant industry has historically struggled with high turnover. The issue has only intensified during the Covid pandemic as employees seek better pay and working conditions, worry about getting sick, and have difficulties finding child care. The accommodation and food service sectors had a quit rate of 5.7% in May, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Nicholas said that despite ARP’s recent rollouts of retention bonuses and partner programs, in addition to higher wages and better benefits, it’s been a “battle” to contend with the labor market.
Full-service restaurants have been hit harder than limited-service eateries by the labor crunch, with staffing down 11% from pre-pandemic levels.
And that means the experience of eating out likely won’t be the same anymore.
“Going to a restaurant and having them bring over bread with butter,” said Nicholas Harary, owner of Barrel & Roost, a restaurant in Red Bank, New Jersey, “those days are over.”

WATCH LIVEWATCH IN THE APP More

Air travel demand has surged despite an uptick in fares.
Some travelers are rethinking their travel plans as inflation rises.
Business travel generally picks up after the summer travel season, but the outlook is still uncertain.

Passengers are seen at the Delta Air Lines check-in counters at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport ahead of the Fourth of July holiday in Atlanta, Georgia, July 1, 2022.
Elijah Nouvelage | Reuters

Flights, believe it or not, are getting cheaper.
Airfares fell a seasonally-adjusted 1.8% from May to June, according to the latest U.S. inflation data, published last week. Fares were one of the few categories to decline at a time when consumer prices rose at the fastest clip in more than four decades.

The surge in spring and summer travel — even at sky-high prices — has been a boon to airlines, driving revenue above 2019 levels even as airlines fly less than they did before the pandemic, according to recent reports from major carriers like Delta Air Lines and American Airlines.
Now the question is: How resilient will demand be after the summer peak as carriers and travelers alike grapple with persistent inflation and worries about an economic slowdown?
CEOs from Delta to JPMorgan last week said consumers continue to spend voraciously on travel. But rising costs can affect household vacation budgets and companies’ appetite to send employees out on business trips.
A jump in costs is already weighing on airlines’ bottom lines and high fares are forcing some travelers to change their plans.
Ben Merens, a 62-year-old communications consultant, said he and his wife called off their summer vacation plans because of a family emergency that happened just before Fourth of July weekend.

The couple had their sights set on a trip to either Denver or Seattle, but aren’t going after a death in the family meant last-minute tickets from their home in Milwaukee to New York City to attend the funeral — which Merens said were about $980 apiece.
“The price is exorbitant,” Merens said before their return flight from New York’s LaGuardia Airport.

Less flying, more revenue

Ticket prices often dip when the peak summer travel season fades — children return to school and families wrap up vacations, though business travel often ramps back up. Airlines also adjust capacity for lower-demand periods so they aren’t flooding the market with seats they would need to offer at low fares to fill.
U.S. roundtrip flights as of July 14 averaged $375, down from a May peak of $413 but still up 13% from 2019, according to fare-tracker Hopper.
Airlines have nonetheless been upbeat about future sales, citing the pent-up desire to travel from both businesses and leisure travelers.
“People have not had access to our product for the better part of two years,” Delta CEO Ed Bastian said during the company’s quarterly earnings call last week. “We’re not going to satisfy … that thirst, in a space of a busy summer period.”
Delta posted a $735 million profit in the second quarter on $13.82 billion in revenue, a 10% sales increase from the same period of 2019. The airline said domestic corporate-travel sales, a laggard for much of the industry’s recovery, surged to 80% of 2019 levels.
Delta is projecting more muted revenue growth for the third-quarter, though. The carrier expects revenue to increase by 1% to 5% over 2019 levels, and said it will limit its schedule growth through year-end — a measure that could in turn keep fares elevated if travelers’ fierce demand for seats continues.
“We also acknowledge that our crystal ball is only about three to four months right now and it doesn’t go all the way as far as people would like us to think,” Bastian said. “But everything we see tells us that we’ve got to run.”
American and United Airlines have also been upbeat and are due to report second-quarter results and provide outlooks to investors on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively. American on Monday forecast second-quarter revenue growth of 22.5% over 2019 for the three months ended June 30, up from its previous estimate for an increase of 20%, on a slightly smaller schedule.

Smoothing operations

Still, airlines will have to navigate cracks in the red-hot job market and concerns about economic weakness as the peak travel season fades.
“Come the fall, the impact of cost inflation on consumers’ and corporate travelers’ discretionary income and budgets could lead to softening aggregate demand for air travel,” wrote Moody’s Investors Service transportation analyst Jonathan Root last month. “However, the current capacity constraints would protect the airlines from having too much capacity, should this occur.”
U.S. airlines have largely trimmed schedules after biting off more they could chew this spring and summer. Many carriers sold schedules to passengers only to curb flying later as staffing shortages and other challenges prompted them to dial back.
Delta, American, United, JetBlue Airways, Spirit Airlines and Alaska Airlines each capped flying.
The seasonal decline in flights could help airlines improve operations and offer more breathing room to train their thousands of new workers without the hoards of summer.
Delta’s Bastian said the carrier has hired 18,000 people since the start of 2021, which is around the number it lost during the pandemic when it urged staff to take buyouts.
“While we have over 95% of the employees needed to fully restore capacity, we have thousands in some phase of hiring and training process,” Bastian said on the company’s quarterly call.
Southwest Airlines, for its part, said this week it hired 10,000 people since January to bring its employee base to 61,000, more than during 2019.
Elizabeth Bryant, Southwest’s senior vice president of people, learning and development, added “hiring and training will remain a focus throughout 2022.”
Smoother operations could ease traveler concerns over delays and disruptions and keep demand high. But in the interim, flying less means higher costs, which are often passed along to consumers.
“We are largely carrying the full cost of the airline with only 85% of our flying restored,” Bastian said.
With demand strong, airlines can still charge relatively high fares — the reverse is true, which is why there were so many bargains early in the pandemic when most potential travelers stayed home.
In addition, a decline in consumer spending or a downturn in the labor market could drive fares and airline revenue lower.
“Right now people just have money to burn,” said Adam Thompson, founder of Lagniappe Aviation, a consulting firm. “Once people no longer have money to burn, you have to convince them they want to buy your product.”

WATCH LIVEWATCH IN THE APP More

A newly built cliff-side mansion overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Southern California comes with an ambitious $32.5 million asking price.
It’s only Las Vegas-based builder Blue Heron’s second home project outside of Sin City.
At nearly 8,900 square feet, the home includes five bedrooms, eight bathrooms and three kitchens.

Blue Heron’s cliffside spec house spans four levels in San Diego’s La Jolla neighborhood.
Blue Heron

This newly built cliff-side mansion overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Southern California comes with an ambitious $32.5 million asking price. It’s one of the most expensive homes for sale in San Diego County, and that price tag puts it in the running to break a local record in the picturesque beach-side community of La Jolla.

View from infinity pool and raised hot tub.
Blue Heron

Perhaps more interesting than its potentially record-breaking price is the fact that the home was designed and constructed by Las Vegas-based builder Blue Heron, which almost exclusively designs and builds luxury mansions in the Mojave desert.

Living area seamlessly flows into an outdoor deck.
Blue Heron

“I would consider us the authority and the experts in luxury real estate in all of Las Vegas without a doubt,” said Blue Heron’s founder, Tyler Jones, a fourth-generation Vegas native.
Building on the ocean is more similar to building in the desert than you’d imagine, according to Jones. In both environments, Blue Heron’s design is focused on blurring the lines between indoor and outdoor living.
“The Mojave Desert is a great place to do that,” he said. “But arguably, you know, La Jolla, San Diego, is actually a much better place to do that.”
Over the past 18 years, Blue Heron has built several hundred homes — every one of them (except for two in La Jolla) in the Las Vegas area, according to the CEO. Today, the starting price for one of the firm’s more affordable desert homes is about a million bucks, but the average sale price for one of the company’s newly constructed desert mansions is about $8 million. Just last year, Blue Heron made headlines when one of its Sin City spec mansions broke a record when it sold for $25 million to billionaire LoanDepot founder Anthony Hsieh.

The 15,000 sq. ft. Las Vegas mansion designed and built by Blue Heron which sold for a record-breaking $25 million.
Blue Heron

About 300 miles away from its core business in Vegas, Blue Heron’s new coastal spec mansion spans four levels with an expansive deck and infinity pool out back on the edge of the Pacific.

Ora House’s outdoor deck includes an infinity pool, fire feature and impressive views.
Blue Heron

A glass bridge floats above a lower lounge area and delivers visitors to the home’s second floor. At nearly 8,900 square feet, the home includes five bedrooms, eight bathrooms and three kitchens.

A stone and glass bridge appears to float above a seating area and fire feature on the lower level.
Blue Heron

The mansion, known as the Ora House, is the second residence Blue Heron has built outside of Vegas. The first one, also a spec house located in La Jolla, was on the market for about nine months before selling last year for $20 million. The median price of a single family home in La Jolla was $3.6 million in the second quarter this year, according to data provided by real estate brokerage firm Compass.
So why has a builder who’s been betting big on luxury real estate in Vegas turned his attention to shattering a local record on the edge of the Pacific?

Blue Heron’s Ora House perched on a cliff overlooking the ocean.
Blue Heron

Jones said he has a soft spot for La Jolla, and it’s filled with childhood memories of vacationing in the beachfront town with his family. That’s just one of the reasons he had his eye on the area in 2016, when he bought the $4.7 million oceanfront home at 5228 Chelsea Street. It was what developers call a “teardown.” Blue Heron was more interested in the site than the existing home that sat on it. The company tore down the old home and over six years developed a new $32.5 million spec house in its place.
That price puts the home at the very top of La Jolla’s ultra high-end market. Since 2018, the community has recorded 11 sales at $20 million or more, according to title records. One of the most publicized was back in 2018, when singer-songwriter Alicia Keys and her record-producing husband Swizz Beatz spent $20.8 million on the waterfront residence known as The Razor House.

The facade of the Razor House blends glass and concrete to deliver sharp lines and dramatic curves.
Gary Kasl – Douglas Elliman Realty

But La Jolla’s top sale price was achieved in 2019, when the oceanfront mansion located at 8466 El Paseo Grande sold for $24.7 million, according to public records.
And while Blue Heron’s Ora House is the most expensive home for sale in La Jolla at $3,660 price per square feet, it’s actually a relative bargain compared to the over $4,000 per square foot price achieved on the El Paseo Grande sale.
“People love the San Diego lifestyle,” said real estate broker Brett Dickinson of Compass, who was involved in six of the neighborhood’s transactions of $20 million and more. Dickinson is co-listing agent on Ora House with Deborah Greenspan of Sotheby’s. Dickinson told CNBC the attraction to the area is fueled by a tech boom that’s migrating from the northern part of the state southward.

One of Ora House’s five bedrooms with an ocean view.
Blue Heron

Jones told CNBC Ora House’s jumbo-sized price tag is partially a function of the cost of developing on the California coastline, which requires more time, more effort and a lot more money because development is complicated by heavy regulation.
“It’s not worth it for a smaller dollar project,” he said.

Rooftop bar and lounge area
Blue Heron

But a lot has changed since Blue Heron bought the site in 2016, and the company’s beachfront spec home is now facing a trifecta of headwinds: rising interest rates, diving equity markets and sky-rocketing inflation.
Dickinson told CNBC those are serious factors, but they are mitigated by La Jolla’s limited housing inventory. According to the broker, typically the number of homes available for sale in the neighborhood hovers around 150 to 200 units, but this month there are just 89 homes listed. The market is even tighter when you focus on the higher-end oceanfront inventory.

Ora House’s outdoor deck areas and balconies.
Blue Heron

“Inventory is extremely low,” he said. “And to build a waterfront property is a six-to-eight-year process.”
That’s likely one of the reasons the Vegas-based developer remains confident the odds in La Jolla are stacked in his favor.
“We have a great deal of confidence that we can deliver that exceptional experience that’s going to speak to people,” Jones said. “And I believe we’re going to find high net worth individuals that are willing to pay for that.”
In Vegas they say the house always wins, but only time will tell if that holds true in La Jolla.

WATCH LIVEWATCH IN THE APP More

EVOLVE GLOBAL SUMMIT 2022
Evolve Events

With consumers staying home amid the pandemic, many shifted to new, pricier alcohol brands and bigger bags of candy, Beam Suntory and Mars Wrigley execs said.
Those habits are sticking, along with a desire to buy more snacks and spirits online.
Ready-to-drink cocktails have also seen a boom as drinkers want that at-home bar experience without the work.

People visit the M&M store in Times Square on July in New York City.
Spencer Platt | Getty Images

The Covid-19 pandemic significantly changed consumer behavior from where they shopped to what they bought. That was felt throughout the snacks and spirits industries and some of those habits have hung on, senior executives from Beam Suntory and Mars Wrigley said at CNBC’s Evolve Global Summit.
Jessica Spence, brands president of Beam Suntory which produces a variety of spirits, from bourbon whiskeys like Jim Beam and Maker’s Mark to cognac Courvoisier and tequila Sauza, said that “all of a sudden when you couldn’t go out to your favorite restaurant or the holidays were out of balance, spending a little bit more on that bottle of whiskey or tequila became a bigger treat.”

Spence said that resulted in a lot of consumers moving to higher-priced brands or “premiumization,” a trend that has continued. She also noted the boom in e-commerce sales, especially in the U.S., where online shopping for alcohol has lagged in the past. Among online buyers of alcohol in the U.S., 54% said they made their first purchase during the pandemic, according to spirits industry market analysis firm IWSR.
Perhaps the biggest boom has come in the form of premixed and ready-to-drink cocktails and drinks.
“There were a lot of people experimenting and had the time to have fun with cocktails, and there were a lot of people who realized they were not the greatest bartender in the world,” Spence said. “When you want that cocktail, maybe you don’t want to do all the hard work.”
Premixed cocktails were the fastest growing spirits category last year with 42% year-over-year revenue growth to $1.6 billion, compared to 30% growth for tequila and mezcal and 16% for Irish whiskey, according to the Distilled Spirits Council of the U.S.

Arrows pointing outwards

Ready-to-drink cocktails were second only to vodka in terms of volume consumption in 2021, and several major spirits companies further invested in the category with expectations of further growth. For example, Anheuser-Busch InBev bought Cutwater Spirits, while Diageo has ready-to-drink cocktails using alcohol from its brands like Ketel One Botanical and Crown Royal.

Beam Suntory has several ready-to-drink options, including On The Rocks cocktails, which use several of the company’s other spirits such as Effen vodka and Hornitos tequila.
“That’s something that’s going to continue and the innovation in that space is going to continue to grow,” Spence said. “It’s a tough category already but I think there’s still space to push it more into the premium.”
The candy industry also saw shifts in consumer behavior, said Anton Vincent, Mars Wrigley North America president.
While some of that was premiumization as shoppers looked for different kinds of confections or chocolates, one of the main trends was around people buying bigger packs of candy while they were staying home, Vincent said.
Vincent said as the pandemic has waned, convenience store sales have returned to normal levels, but the company is still seeing strength in ecommerce and other types of sales channels, something he thinks points to a larger shift in viewpoint towards small snacks like candy bars.
“I think people really got back in touch with treating themselves… in very small inexpensive ways,” he said. More