Business advice

Italy: Firms shake lockdown using shortcut in coronavirus law The government last week extended non-essential business closures to May 3. But more than 100,000 mainly small- and medium-sized companies have applied to keep going or partially reopen. In principle, a key hurdle for companies to do business should be that they can prove they are part of a supply chain to businesses that are deemed “essential” in a government decree, such as food, energy or pharmaceutical companies. But the government, facing a backlog of applications, has clarified Italy’s lockdown laws to say no companies need to wait for government approval to go ahead. More than 105,000 firms have applied to be considered part of essential supply chains, the interior minister said on Wednesday, in a guideline on its website to clarify the lockdown rules. Of those, just over 2,000 have been turned down and told to suspend their business. More than 38,000 are being investigated and the rest are waiting to be...

Italy: Wine sales sour from virus With Italy's restaurants and bars closed for another month and global trade snuffed out by the coronavirus, the world's top wine producing country is experiencing an existential crisis. Italy's 47.5 million hectoliters edged out France's 42.1 million for last year's global wine production title, although France's 9.8 billion euros ($10.7 billion) in exports beat out Italy's 6.4 billion euros. Making nearly a fifth of all the world's wine and selling more than half of it at home, Italy's two-month lockdown has hit the Mediterranean country's winegrowers especially hard. High end hurting Some of Italy's most prestigious wines are suffering from the worldwide lockdown. For decades, Barolo has focused on "maximum quality," earning a place on the wine lists of some of the world's best restaurants, said Paolo Boffa, president of the Terre del Barolo cooperative. See more: https...

Italy’s small businesses scrap for survival Three years ago, this owner of a small business in Italy’s industrial Veneto region lost his life savings, when two regional banks failed after the European debt crisis and were wound down, wiping out shareholders. Today, he is struggling with a new torment: the outbreak of coronavirus in northern Italy that has devastated lives and shut businesses across the region since mid-March. His company’s revenues have dried up even as his overheads remain unchanged. “I am scared for the future,” he said. Many companies rely on local banks for funds and do not have bonds or investors to draw on Northern Italy is home to more than 2m businesses, according to Prometeia, a research and consulting firm. Lombardy, the region around Milan that has been in lockdown since mid-March, has more than 900,000 of them. Andrea Guerra, a former chief executive of Italian eyewear multinational Luxottica and government adviser who is advising small bus...

What with retail in Germany? Sort of satisfied, fear of discount battles, hope for the opening of all stores–this is how the mood in the fashion industry can be described after the first week with the partial opening of the stores in Germany. Almost two-thirds of the fashion retailers were satisfied with the restart. This is one of the results of an online survey carried out by our sister publication TextilWirtschaft among more than 200 managers in the retailing sector this Monday. The result is somewhat put into perspective, as most of them had not set the bar very high for this first week of partial opening. Only 30% said they expected more from this new opening week. At just under half, sales were significantly lower than in a "normal" April week. The situation was similar in terms of frequency. The picture in terms of customers' buying behavior is completely mixed. Every second retailer said that his customers were more reserved than usual. However, this w...

German government overreacted on COVID-19 Christian Drosten, director of Berlin's Institute of Virology at the Charité Hospital, spoke to The Guardian on Sunday, days after the country began lifting some lockdown restrictions. Germany's lockdown started to lift on April 20, with the opening of smaller businesses like car dealerships, bike shops, and book stores. The country plans to start reopening schools on May 4. Drosten said he felt like the government was being pressured to reopen, and that he feared that a blasé attitude toward the relatively tame outbreak in Germany could lead to a new burst of infections.  The basic reproduction number, also known as R0, represents the average number of people a single patient is expected to infect and is a key figure to measuring countries' outbreak. You can read Business Insider's explainer to it here. More: https://www.businessinsider.com/germany-coronavirus-restrictions-so-effective-people-think-overreaction...

Volkswagen factory just reopened The world's largest carmaker has made 100 changes to the way its plants operate as it tries to restart business without risking the health of hundreds of thousands of workers. Its experience underscores the daunting task ahead for manufacturers as they resume work in a world still reeling from the pandemic. "We have never developed, produced and sold vehicles under these conditions before," said Bernd Osterloh, the top labor representative at Volkswagen (VLKAF). The gigantic Wolfsburg plant is located on the banks of an equally impressive feat of human engineering, the 200-mile long Mittelland Canal connecting sea and inland ports in Europe. Originally built in 1938 to house workers for Volkswagen's factories, Wolfsburg is still home to the group's headquarters and has produced more than 45 million cars since 1945. It's where the iconic Beetle was produced for more than three decades and where the automaker's be...

Italy: Social distancing rules for restaurants Thousands of restaurants, bars and clubs in Italy are protesting against post-lockdown social distancing measures that could cause the closure of 50% of all businesses in the hospitality sector. Check the source to know about new rules: https://www.dw.com/en/italys-restaurants-worry-about-social-distancing-rules/av-53277216

France is latest to unveil lockdown exit More than half of humanity is under some sort of lockdown to stem the spread of the deadly pandemic, which has tipped economies toward a bruising global downturn. Over three million people are now infected worldwide and more than 211,000 have been killed since the virus first emerged in China late last year.  France said on Tuesday that shops, markets and some schools could reopen next month, the latest country to ease coronavirus restrictions as nations tread a fine line between allowing stalled economies to recover while staving off a new contagion. In France, Prime Minister Edouard Phillipe said would begin to be eased from May 11 -- some shops and markets could resume business, and primary schools and daycare centres would reopen gradually.  Face masks will be required on public transport, he said, and work-from-home orders will stay in place for several more weeks.  Meanwhile, Russia will consider a gradual e...

Germany Presented $160 Billion Coronavirus Bill to China Fox Business host Stuart Varney falsely told both Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich that Germany had presented China with a $160 billion coronavirus bill, Tuesday, before asking them if the United States should do the same. “I don’t know whether you saw this or not, Mr. Senator, but earlier this morning in Germany the Germans presented the Chinese with an invoice — as in a bill — for 160 billion dollars worth of damage that they say China did to Germany,” Varney told Scott on Varney & Company. “So it’s not just us, this is worldwide I think.” “Absolutely,” responded Scott, adding, “Let’s look at the dollars we’ve spent to take care of people and try to get this economy going. We should send a bill to communist China for those dollars. They caused this problem because they were not transparent.” The story Varney appeared to be referencing, however, was not from Tuesday morning and was ...

thechronicleherald.ca: France to tighten controls on non-EU foreign investment Currently non-European investments in French companies do not need government approval as long as the stake is 25% or less. PARIS (Reuters) - The French government will tighten restrictions on foreign investments from outside Europe in French companies to limit foreign control over strategic sectors and technologies, the finance minister said on Wednesday. The government already at the start of the year tightened controls on non-European foreign investments, in particular by lowering the threshold for state-vetting to 25% from 33% previously. Le Maire also said that he would add biotechnology companies to a list of sectors that requires government approval for an investment from outside Europe to go ahead. "In this period of crisis, some companies are vulnerable, some technologies are fragile and could be bought by foreign competitors at a low cost. I won't let it happen," Le Mai...

Italy’s small stores reopen after virus lockdown Italy’s legion of booksellers, stationers and artisan businesses have started to re-open their doors after a bruising period of lockdown in the country. There is a sense of both trepidation, and hope, that business can get back to normal. Nationwide restrictions on public life and businesses have been tough on many small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) in Italy, many of which are family-owned and passed down the generations, often weathering turbulent periods in the economy. After Covid-19, business owners know it could take a long time for their businesses, and shopping habits, to get back to normal. Aside from their importance as family enterprises, Italy’s SMEs are seen by many as the economic backbone of the country.  Italian SMEs generate 66.9% of the overall value added in the Italian “non-financial business economy,” exceeding the EU average of 56.4%, according to EU data from last year. The share of employm...

France Cancels All Sports Leagues Until September According to the French Government, the country’s lockdown has saved 62,000 lives. In light of the promising numbers, Philippe said it was time to ease some quarantine restrictions to avoid an economic collapse. But sports will not be a part of the country’s recovery effort. On Tuesday, French Prime Minister, Édouard Philippe, said that all French professional sporting events will be banned until September. Around Europe, other leagues are making decisions about their season’s salvageability. Holland’s top soccer league has been canceled. Additionally, Belgium and Scotland plan to shut their soccer leagues down soon. Germany’s Bundesliga, England’s Premier League and Italy’s Serie A, however, will reportedly resume their seasons in the coming months. No fans in stadiums, no players playing, no pro sports for the rest of the summer in France. But, for France, sports are not an essential business. That’s not the case in Am...

Coca-Cola European Partners plc (CCEP) Q1 2020 Earnings Call Transcript by fool.com Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to the CCEP Q1 2020 Trading Update Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speakers' presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today Sarah Willett, VP, Investor Relations. Thank you. Please go ahead. Sarah Willett -- VP, Investor Relations Thank you and good afternoon in Europe or good morning in the US. Thank you all for joining us today. I'm here with our CEO Damian Gammell; and Nik Jhangiani, our CFO. Before we begin with our opening remarks on our first quarter trading alongside a COVID-19 update, I would like to remind you of our cautionary statements. This call will contain forward-looking management comments and other statements reflecting our outlook. These comments shoul...

datacenterknowledge.com: Europe Fiber Network Operators Shrug Off Pandemic to Seek Buyers GTT Communications Inc. has kicked off a sale process of its infrastructure division, which could fetch as much as $2.5 billion, people with knowledge of the matter said. The McLean, Virginia-based company has sent out marketing materials to potential buyers of the assets, which include a high-speed network across Europe as well as data centers, according to the people. The sale process is mostly attracting infrastructure-focused investment firms, the people said. Some of the assets were acquired by GTT through its $2.3 billion purchase of London-based Interoute in 2018. Separately, London-focused internet service provider Community Fibre Ltd. asked for first-round bids this month, the people said. A sale could value the company at about 200 million pounds ($248 million), the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private. The company, based in Somerset...

Europe reopens - slowly The outbreak of the coronavirus has dealt a shock to the global economy with unprecedented speed. Following are developments Monday related to the global economy, the work place and the spread of the virus. GOVERNMENTS & CENTRAL BANKS: National economies hammered by the pandemic are coming back on line to varying degrees, largely based on how recently peak infections arrived. More than 10 million are receiving payments as part of a French program to keep shuttered companies from firing workers. Half of France’s private sector workforce is on temporary unemployment. Switzerland is allowing hair salons, tattoo parlors, veterinarians’ offices and garden shops to reopen as part of a multi-tiered plan. Social distancing is still mandated. The Czech Republic is allowing smaller stores to reopen in its latest phased return to normalcy. Stores up to 2,500 sq. meters (26,900 sq. feet) can operate, with social distancing measures in place. Three Czech pla...

How Europe easing lockdown? Europe is taking more cautious steps toward reopening their shuttered, and battered, economies as data show the growth in coronavirus cases has ebbed. So far the tentative steps taken haven’t led to a resurgence of the virus — one of the big fears. The latest data show new cases of the coronavirus-borne disease COVID-19 growing at low-single-digit percentages across Europe, though the head of a German group warned the virus reproduction rate has edged higher from earlier in the month. France and Spain on Tuesday were announcing their latest easing steps. French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said the lockdown for most shops will lift on May 11, but not for restaurants, bars and beaches, as he urged that work-from-home measures continue. Each phase of lockdown measures will last for three weeks, he said. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez outlined a four-phase easing plan, with each phase lasting two weeks, that is intended to conclude at the...