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Business

Nike, IKEA close Russian stores as sanctions, trade restrictions bite

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March 3 (Reuters) – Sneaker maker Nike and home furnishings firm IKEA shut down stores in Russia on Thursday, as trade restrictions and supply shutdowns added to political pressure for companies to stop business in Russia because of its invasion of Ukraine.

French bank Societe Generale (SOGN.PA) said it was working to cut its risks in Russia, fearing a tit-for-tat response by Moscow to Western sanctions, as more companies from vodka maker Diageo (DGE.L) to IKEA suspended business in the country.

Globally known companies including Apple, Ford and Shell have condemned Russia’s attack, but some of the announcements on Thursday were more practical, focused on supplies and sanctions as shipping routes closes and governments banned exports to Russia.

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Boeing Chief Executive David Calhoun, in a note to staff, acknowledged the violence in Ukraine but avoided politics.

“Moving forward, Boeing will continue to follow the lead of the U.S. government and strictly adhere to the export controls and restrictions that have been announced governing work in Russia,” he said in the note seen by Reuters, which described suspension of work in Russia and Ukraine.

Brazilian plane-maker Embraer (EMBR3.SA) joined Airbus and Boeing in halting parts supplies to Russian airlines.

Home furnishings retailer IKEA (IKEA.UL) said it would close outlets in Russia and Russian ally Belarus, affecting 15,000 workers, and described its shutdowns in non-political terms.

“The war has both a huge human impact and is resulting in serious disruptions to supply chain and trading conditions, which is why the company groups have decided to temporarily pause IKEA operations in Russia,” IKEA said in a statement. read more

Nike Inc said it was “deeply troubled by the devastating crisis in Ukraine” and described its closing of stores in this way: “Given the rapidly evolving situation, and the increasing challenges of operating our business, Nike will be pausing operations in Russia.”

Some companies and investors added up the costs of their actions.

Norway’s $1.3 trillion wealth fund said its Russian assets, worth around $3 billion before the invasion, have now become effectively worthless. read more “They are pretty much written off,” CEO Nicolai Tangen told Reuters.

TJX Cos Inc (TJX.N) said on Thursday it would sell its 25% stake in Russian low-cost apparel retailer Familia, which cost it $225 million in 2019. Because of a decline in the rouble and TJX said it may take an impairment charge due to the sale.

SANCTIONS RISKS

A man wearing a protective face mask amid the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) walks past a Nike brand store in central Kyiv, Ukraine December 10, 2020. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko

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Underscoring the challenges global companies are facing as they comply with sanctions against Russia, Societe Generale said on Thursday it could see an “extreme scenario” where Russia strips the bank of its local operations. The lender has a $20 billion exposure to Russia. read more

Citigroup Inc (C.N) said on Wednesday it could face billions of dollars in losses on its exposure to Russia and was looking to exit Russian assets. Bank shares have taken a drubbing in recent days amid fears of possible writedowns and weaker economies. read more

Western sanctions, including shutting out some Russian banks from the SWIFT global financial network, new export controls, and closure of air space, have led dozens of global companies to pause operations in the country, hammered the rouble and forced the central bank to jack up interest rates. read more

Spanish fashion retailer Mango said on Thursday that it was temporarily closing its shops and its online sale website in Russia, and Spirits company Diageo (DGE.L), the maker of Smirnoff vodka and Guinness, said it had paused exports to Ukraine and Russia. read more

Accenture said it was discontinuing its Russian business, which had nearly 2,300 employees. read more

Britain said on Thursday it will ban Russian companies from the London insurance market, the world’s largest commercial and specialty insurance centre. read more

Hundreds of Russian soldiers and Ukrainian civilians have been killed and more than one million people have fled Ukraine in the week since President Vladimir Putin ordered the attack. read more

Russia calls its actions in Ukraine a “special operation” that it says is not designed to occupy territory but to destroy its southern neighbour’s military capabilities and capture what it regards as dangerous nationalists.

SCRAMBLED SUPPLIES

With a shortage of components, more carmakers are halting production at their factories in Russia, including Russia’s biggest carmaker, Avtovaz (AVAZI_p.MM) – controlled by France’s Renault (RENA.PA) – which said it would close two plants on Saturday and from March 9 to 10 due to shortage of electronic components. read more

Nissan Motor Co <7201.T > said on Thursday it has suspended vehicle exports to Russia, while Japanese peer Toyota (7203.T) said it would halt production at its Russian factory from Friday and indefinitely stop vehicle exports to the country.

The world’s biggest shipping lines, MSC and Maersk (MAERSKb.CO) have suspended container shipping to and from Russia, with Maersk saying food and medical supplies to Russia risk being damaged or spoiled due to delays at ports and customs. read more

Japan Airlines (9201.T) and ANA Holdings (9202.T), which normally use Russian airspace for their Europe flights, said they would cancel all flights to and from Europe on Thursday, joining other carriers that have canceled or rerouted flights between Europe and north Asia. read more

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Reporting by Tassilo Hummel in Paris, Jamie Freed in Sydney, Gwladys Fouche in Oslo, Illona Wissenbach in Frankfurt, Anna Ringstrom in Stockholm, Richa Naidu in London
Additional reporting by Tim Hepher in Paris, Satoshi Sugiyama in Tokyo, Mehr Bedi, Chavi Mehta, Praveen Paramasivam, Uday Sampath in Bengaluru, Megan Davies in New York, and in Madrid by Emma Pinedo
Writing by Peter Henderson, Sayantani Ghosh and John Revill
Editing by Lincoln Feast, Simon Cameron-Moore, Tomasz Janowski, Frances Kerry and Nick Zieminski

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Business

Marketplace suspends most NFT sales, citing ‘rampant’ fakes and plagiarism

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LONDON, Feb 11 (Reuters) – The platform which sold an NFT of Jack Dorsey’s first tweet for $2.9 million has halted most transactions because people were selling tokens of content that did not belong to them, its founder said, calling this a “fundamental problem” in the fast-growing digital assets market.

Sales of NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, soared to around $25 billion in 2021, leaving many baffled as to why so much money is being spent on items that do not physically exist and which anyone can view online for free.

NFTs are crypto assets that record the ownership of a digital file such as an image, video or text. Anyone can create, or “mint”, an NFT, and ownership of the token does not usually confer ownership of the underlying item. read more

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Reports of scams, counterfeits and “wash trading” have become commonplace.

The U.S.-based Cent executed one of the first known million-dollar NFT sales when it sold the former Twitter CEO’s tweet as an NFT last March. But as of Feb. 6, it has stopped allowing buying and selling, CEO and co-founder Cameron Hejazi told Reuters.

“There’s a spectrum of activity that is happening that basically shouldn’t be happening – like, legally” Hejazi said.

While the Cent marketplace “beta.cent.co” has paused NFT sales, the part specifically for selling NFTs of tweets, which is called “Valuables”, is still active.

Hejazi highlighted three main problems: people selling unauthorised copies of other NFTs, people making NFTs of content which does not belong to them, and people selling sets of NFTs which resemble a security.

He said these issues were “rampant”, with users “minting and minting and minting counterfeit digital assets”.

“It kept happening. We would ban offending accounts but it was like we’re playing a game of whack-a-mole… Every time we would ban one, another one would come up, or three more would come up.”

“MONEY CHASING MONEY”

Such problems may come into greater focus as major brands join the rush towards the so-called “metaverse”, or Web3. Coca-Cola (KO.N) and luxury brand Gucci are among companies to have sold NFTs, while YouTube said it will explore NFT features.

While Cent, with 150,000 users and revenue “in the millions”, is a relatively small NFT platform, Hejazi said the issue of fake and illegal content exists across the industry.

“I think this is a pretty fundamental problem with Web3,” he said.

The biggest NFT marketplace, OpenSea, valued at $13.3 billion after its latest round of venture funding, said last month more than 80% of the NFTs minted for free on its platform were “plagiarized works, fake collections and spam”.

OpenSea tried limiting the number of NFTs a user could mint for free, but then reversed this decision following a backlash from users, the company said in a Twitter thread, adding that it was “working through a number of solutions” to deter “bad actors” while supporting creators.

“It is against our policy to sell NFTs using plagiarized content,” an OpenSea spokesperson said.

“We are working around the clock to ship products, add features, and refine our processes to meet the moment.”

To many NFT-enthusiasts, the decentralised nature of blockchain technology is appealing, allowing users to create and trade digital assets without a central authority controlling the activity.

But Hejazi said his company was keen on protecting content-creators, and may introduce centralised controls as a short-term measure in order to re-open the marketplace, before exploring decentralised solutions.

It was after the Dorsey NFT sale that Cent started to get a sense of what was going on in NFT markets.

“We realized that a lot of it is just money chasing money.”

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Reporting by Elizabeth Howcroft, Editing by Louise Heavens and Andrew Heavens

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.



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Business

Treasury wants to stir up U.S. alcohol market to help smaller players

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  • Two biggest brewers control 65% of market
  • Outdated laws date back to end of Prohibition in 1933
  • Treasury will streamline tax reporting
  • States urged to review anticompetitive impacts of laws

WASHINGTON, Feb 9 (Reuters) – The U.S. Treasury Department on Wednesday flagged concerns about consolidation in the $250 billion annual U.S. alcohol market and outlined reforms it said could boost competition and save consumers hundreds of millions of dollars each year.

New merger and acquisition scrutiny, different tax rates and lifting regulatory burdens to new entrants in the wine, beer and spirits market would make the market fairer for new brewers and cheaper for consumers, Treasury said in a 63-page paper.

The long-awaited report is part of a July executive order on competitiveness. Its focus on the beer industry, in particular, marks the latest push by the Biden administration to fight what it calls excess consolidation in industries from meatpacking to shipping.

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Treasury, responding to over 800 public comments on the issue, suggested stiffer Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission oversight, tougher enforcement of existing rules and development of new ones in the report, which was first reported by Reuters.

“American consumers, small business owners, entrepreneurs, and workers should not have to suffer under the thumb of a highly concentrated beer industry,” said Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter. “Enforcement and regulatory authorities should have the courage to learn and the fortitude necessary to enforce the law and protect competition.”

The U.S. market for beer, wine and spirits has spawned thousands of new breweries, wineries and distilleries over the past decade.

But a web of complicated state and federal regulations, some dating back to the end of Prohibition in 1933, coupled with “exclusionary behavior” by massive producers, distributors and retailers means small entrants can struggle to compete and flourish, U.S. officials said.

The two largest brewers selling beer in the United States – Anheuser Busch InBev (ABI.BR) and Molson Coors (TAP.N) – account for 65% of U.S. beer revenues.

“We’re determined to protect what has been a successful, vibrant industry with a lot of small businesses entering it,” while tackling issues that “lead to excessive prices for consumers,” said one senior U.S. official.

So-called “post and hold” laws, which restrict price competition, mean beer consumers alone pay $487 million more a year than they should, and can drive up the cost of a bottle of wine by up to 18% and a bottle of spirits by over 30% the report said, citing studies.

The DOJ and FTC, who share the work of antitrust enforcement, should take a closer look at proposed acquisitions of smaller players by bigger ones, Treasury said, noting that price benefits promised in past deals had failed to materialize.

The report also called for the Treasury Department’s Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) to change labeling rules to protect public health and to limit the impact of lobbying. As of 2017, alcohol companies reported 303 lobbyists in Washington.

U.S. states – which control the bulk of oversight – should examine the anticompetitive impact of regulations and franchise rules on small producers, Treasury said.

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Reporting by Andrea Shalal and Diane Bartz; Editing by Heather Timmons, Aurora Ellis, Alexandra Hudson

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Business

U.S. grocery shortages deepen as pandemic dries supplies

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Jan 14 (Reuters) – High demand for groceries combined with soaring freight costs and Omicron-related labor shortages are creating a new round of backlogs at processed food and fresh produce companies, leading to empty supermarket shelves at major retailers across the United States.

Growers of perishable produce across the West Coast are paying nearly triple pre-pandemic trucking rates to ship things like lettuce and berries before they spoil. Shay Myers, CEO of Owyhee Produce, which grows onions, watermelons and asparagus along the border of Idaho and Oregon, said he has been holding off shipping onions to retail distributors until freight costs go down.

Myers said transportation disruptions in the last three weeks, caused by a lack of truck drivers and recent highway-blocking storms, have led to a doubling of freight costs for fruit and vegetable producers, on top of already-elevated pandemic prices. “We typically will ship, East Coast to West Coast – we used to do it for about $7,000,” he said. “Today it’s somewhere between $18,000 and $22,000.”

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Birds Eye frozen vegetables maker Conagra Brands’ (CAG.N) CEO Sean Connolly told investors last week that supplies from its U.S. plants could be constrained for at least the next month due to Omicron-related absences.

Earlier this week, Albertsons (ACI.N) CEO Vivek Sankaran said he expects the supermarket chain to confront more supply chain challenges over the next four to six weeks as Omicron has put a dent in its efforts to plug supply chain gaps.

Shoppers on social media complained of empty pasta and meat aisles at some Walmart (WMT.N) stores; a Meijer store in Indianapolis was swept bare of chicken; a Publix in Palm Beach, Florida was out of bath tissue and home hygiene products while Costco (COST.O) reinstated purchase limits on toilet paper at some stores in Washington state.

The situation is not expected to abate for at least a few more weeks, Katie Denis, vice president of communications and research at the Consumer Brands Association said, blaming the shortages on a scarcity of labor.

The consumer-packaged goods industry is missing around 120,000 workers out of which only 1,500 jobs were added last month, she said, while the National Grocer’s Association said that many of its grocery store members were operating with less than 50% of their workforce capacity.

Produce shelves are seen nearly empty at a Giant Food grocery store as the U.S. continues to experience supply chain disruptions in Washington, U.S., January 9, 2022. REUTERS/Sarah Silbiger

U.S. retailers are now facing roughly 12% out of stock levels on food, beverages, household cleaning and personal hygiene products compared to 7-10% in regular times.

The problem is more acute with food products where out of stock levels are running at 15%, the Consumer Brands Association said.

SpartanNash, a U.S. grocery distributor, last week said it has become harder to get supplies from food manufacturers, especially processed items like cereal and soup.

Consumers have continued to stock up on groceries as they hunker down at home to curb the spread of the Omicron-variant. Denis said demand over the last five months has been as high or higher than it had been in March 2020 at the beginning of the pandemic.
Similar issues are being seen in other parts of the world.

In Australia, grocery chain operator Woolworths Group , said last week that more than 20% of employees at its distribution centers are off work because of COVID-19. In the stores, the virus has put at least 10% of staff out of action.

The company, on Thursday, reinstated a limit of two packs per customer across toilet paper and painkillers nationwide both in-store and online to deal with the staffing shortage.

In the U.S., recent snow and ice storms that snared traffic for hours along the East Coast also hampered food deliveries bound for grocery stores and distribution hubs. Those delays rippled across the country, delaying shipment on fruit and vegetables with a limited shelf life.

While growers with perishable produce are forced to pay inflated shipping rates to attract limited trucking supplies, producers like Myers are choosing to wait for backlogs to ease.

“The canned goods, the sodas, the chips – those things sat, because they weren’t willing to pay double, triple the freight, and their stuff doesn’t go bad in four days,” he said.

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Additional reporting by Praveen Paramasivam; Editing by Vanessa O’Connell and Diane Craft

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Business

Asset bubbles? Champagne outfizzes Big Tech and bitcoin in 2021

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LONDON, Dec 24 (Reuters) – You might be tempted to pop corks if you’ve invested in vintage champagne this year – the most coveted bottles have outperformed all major financial market assets, from Big Tech to bitcoin.

Online platforms that allow you to trade desirable wine, champagne and spirit vintages, much like stocks or currencies, have seen record activity and bumper price movements this year.

Data from LiveTrade, which runs the “Bordeaux Index” of drinks, showed champagne accounted for 15 of the 20 top price rises on the platform in 2021.

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The charge was led by Salon le Mesnil’s 2002 vintage, described by its producer as “captivating like a samurai sword”. It has surged more than 80% in value in 2021 on both LiveTrade and another wine platform Liv-ex, and currently sells for roughly 11,700 pounds a bottle ($15,700).

That beats bitcoin’s 75% rise and is nearly five times more than the 18% made by the NYFANG+TM stocks index (.NYFANG) of Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, Google, Tesla and Microsoft which have powered world equity market gains of late.

Taittinger’s Comtes de Champagne 2006 also sparkled, along with Krug’s 2002 and 1996 vintages, with price rises of more than 70%, while the Krug 2000, Bollinger La Grande Année 2007, Cristal Rosé 2008 and Dom Pérignon P2 2002 have seen rises of 54%-55%.

LiveTrade CEO Matthew O’Connell said several factors had fuelled a boom in fine-wine trading this year – “from low interest rates and high levels of savings accumulated by the wealthy during numerous global lockdowns, to a growing focus on hard assets in the face of rising inflationary pressures”.

Champagne benefited early in the year as it was exempt from the 25% U.S. tariffs put on European wines by Donald Trump’s U.S. administration which were then suspended shortly after Joe Biden took over.

Cristal’s 2012 and 2013 champagnes were the most-traded bottles of the year overall, LiveTrade said, followed by leading fine wine, the 6,450-a-bottle Lafite Rothschild 2014.

The prized claret brand’s stellar performance was driven by normally less coveted “off” vintages – namely 2011, 2012, 2014 and 2017 – all of which enjoyed 25% plus sales growth.

A record 220,000 bottles were traded this year on LiveTrade at an average bottle price of about 230 pounds ($308.50) apiece. A tenth of all bottles traded saw their prices rise by over 30%.

The Champagne 50 index was the top-performing sub-index in the Liv-ex Fine Wine 1000, up 33.8% year-to-date.

($1 = 0.7455 pounds)

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Champagne outperforms big tech and bitcoin

Reporting by Marc Jones; Editing by Pravin Char

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World

UK vows to manage fallout from soaring gas prices

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  • Business minister says he will protect customers
  • Minister to continue to meet industry representatives
  • Lack of CO2 threatens meat supply
  • Small energy providers seen at risk

LONDON, Sept 18 (Reuters) – Britain said on Saturday it would work with the energy industry to try to stem the fallout from soaring gas prices after fears grew that more energy providers and food producers would struggle to operate with such high costs.

Business minister Kwasi Kwarteng said he had been reassured that the security of gas supply was not a cause for immediate concern but he would work with providers to “manage the wider implications of the global gas price increase”.

Kwarteng held emergency talks with executives from National Grid (NG.L), Centrica (CNA.L), EDF (EDF.PA) and the regulator Ofgem on Saturday and is due to hold further discussions with industry figures on Sunday and Monday.

A jump in gas prices has already forced several domestic energy suppliers out of business and has shut fertiliser plants that also produce carbon dioxide, used to stun animals before slaughter and prolong the shelf-life of food. read more

Consumer groups and opposition politicians have warned that some customers and businesses will struggle to pay higher bills. The BBC reported that at least four small British energy companies were expected to go bust next week.

The Business department said the pressures facing companies was discussed during the meeting. Kwarteng said no customer would go without gas or electricity because an alternative supplier would be found if one went bust.

“Protecting customers during a time of heightened global gas prices is an absolute priority,” he said on Twitter.

RENEWABLES

The government has been moved to act after low gas storage levels, decreased supplies from Russia, demand from Asia, low renewables output and nuclear maintenance outages combined to more than triple European gas prices this year, hitting record highs. read more

The impact was immediately felt in the UK food sector where the shortage of CO2, also used in beer, cider and soft drinks, compounded an acute shortage of truck drivers, which has been blamed on the impact of COVID-19 and Brexit.

Nick Allen of the British Meat Processors Association said on Saturday the pig sector was two weeks away from hitting the buffers, while the British Poultry Council said its members were on a “knife-edge” as suppliers could only guarantee deliveries up to 24-hours in advance.

“Doing nothing is not an option,” Allen told Reuters, adding that given the exceptional circumstances, the government needed to either subsidise the power supply to maintain fertiliser production or source CO2 from elsewhere.

Richard Walker, managing director of Iceland Foods, said a CO2 shortage would hit meat products, atmospheric packaged products such as cheese and salads, and long life bakery items.

“We need to sort it, quickly,” he said.

Dermot Nolan, former head of Ofgem, told the BBC he expected prices to stay high for up to four months and it was not clear what the government could do to affect market rates – meaning they will remain a focal point in the run-up to the COP26 climate conference in Scotland in November, where governments will seek to agree new rules to suppress emissions.

Reporting by Kate Holton; Editing by Edmund Blair, David Holmes and Gareth Jones

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Health

Light-to-moderate drinking tied to lower risk of heart attack and death in patients with heart disease

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Bottles of alcoholic beverages are seen for sale in a shop in Glasgow, Scotland, Britain, May 1, 2018. REUTERS/Russell Cheyne/File Photo

July 26 (Reuters) – EMBARGOED UNTIL 8:00 PM ET

Light-to-moderate alcohol consumption is linked to a reduced risk of heart attack, stroke and death among those with heart disease, according to a study published in the journal BMC Medicine on Monday.

The largest benefit – a 50% reduction in risk compared with non-drinkers – was seen in people with heart disease who drank an average of 6 grams of alcohol per day. (A standard “unit” of alcohol is 8 grams in the UK, whereas the average drink in the United States contains 14 grams.)

People who averaged 8 grams per day had a 27% lower risk of death from heart attack, stroke or angina, compared with those who did not drink. Those who drank 7 grams per day had a 21% lower risk of death due to any cause.

Drinking higher amounts, up to an average of 15 grams of alcohol daily, were linked with smaller reductions in risk. https://bit.ly/3kV2xN9

“Our findings suggest that people with CVD (cardiovascular disease) may not need to stop drinking in order to prevent additional heart attacks, strokes or angina, but that they may wish to consider lowering their weekly alcohol intake,” said study coauthor Chengyi Ding, a research student at University College London. She noted, however: “Alcohol consumption is associated with an increased risk of developing other illnesses.”

Ding cautioned that non-drinking individuals should not be encouraged to take up light drinking because of known adverse effects on other health outcomes, such as cancers.

The researchers, who assessed more than 48,000 patients with heart disease, found that higher alcohol consumption, up to 62 grams per day, was not associated with increased risks of recurrent heart attack or death compared with no alcohol consumption.

Overall, the alcohol amounts that were linked with benefit are lower than those recommended in most current guidelines. For example, the American Heart Association’s guidelines for heart patients recommend up to 2 U.S. drinks per day for men and 1 per day for women.

A 2019 study found older people with heart failure who consume up to seven drinks a week may live longer than those who completely avoid alcohol. (https://reut.rs/3y5VwwH)

However, researchers in the past have found that heavy drinking was associated with increased levels of blood biomarkers that indicate damage to the heart.

The new study analyzed data from the UK Biobank, the Health Survey for England, the Scottish Health Survey and from 12 previous studies.

The researchers caution that their findings may overestimate the reduction in risk for moderate drinkers with heart disease due to the under-representation of heavy drinkers and categorization of former drinkers who may have quit.

Reporting by Dania Nadeem in Bengaluru; Editing by Nancy Lapid and Dan Grebler

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Business

French champagne industry group fumes over new Russian champagne law

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PARIS/MOSCOW, July 5 (Reuters) – France’s champagne industry group on Monday blasted a new Russian law forcing foreign champagne producers to add a “sparkling wine” reference to their bottles and called for champagne exports to Russia to be halted.

The law, signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday, requires all foreign producers of sparkling wine to describe their product as such on the label on the back of the bottle — though not on the front — while makers of Russian “shampanskoye” may continue to use that term alone.

The French champagne industry group called on its members to halt all shipments to Russia for the time being and said the name “champagne”, which refers to the region in France the drink comes from, had legal protection in 120 countries.

“The Champagne Committee deplores the fact that this legislation does not ensure that Russian consumers have clear and transparent information about the origins and characteristics of wine,” group co-presidents Maxime Toubart and Jean-Marie Barillere said in a statement.

French Trade Minister Franck Riester said he was tracking the new Russian law closely, in contact with the wine industry and France’s European partners.

“We will unfailingly support our producers and French excellence,” he said on Twitter.

Moet Hennessy, the LVMH-owned French maker of Veuve Clicquot and Dom Perignon champagnes, said on Sunday it would begin adding the designation “sparkling wine” to the back of bottles destined for Russia to comply with the law.

LVMH (LVMH.PA) shares were down around 0.2% on Monday afternoon, underperforming the Paris bourse, which was up 0.34%.

Shares in Russian sparkling wine maker Abrau-Durso (ABRD.MM) were up more than 3% after rising as much 7.77% in early trade.

Abrau-Durso president Pavel Titov told Radio France Internationale on Saturday his firm does not have sparkling wines that would be called “champagne” in its portfolio and said he hoped the issue would be resolved in favor of global norms and standards.

“It is very important to protect the Russian wines on our market. But the legislation must be reasonable and not contradict common sense … I have no doubts that the real champagne is made in the Champagne region of France,” he said.

Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta and Leigh Thomas in Paris and Alexander Marrow in Moscow;
Writing by Geert De Clercq
Editing by Alison Williams, Andrea Ricci and Catherine Evans

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World

Hong Kong drinks company Vitasoy faces China netizen calls for boycott

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A policeman takes pictures at the site where a man allegedly stabbed a police officer in Causeway Bay, during the 24th anniversary of the former British colony’s return to Chinese rule and on the 100th founding anniversary of the Communist Party of China, in Hong Kong, China July 1, 2021. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu

HONG KONG, July 4 (Reuters) – Beverage maker Vitasoy (0345.HK) has become the latest target of Chinese netizens’ calls for a boycott after an employee circulated a memo online offering condolences to the family of a worker who had stabbed a Hong Kong police officer.

In a statement on the Chinese social media platform Weibo on Saturday, Vitasoy said a staff member had circulated a memo that it described as “extremely inappropriate” without authorisation, and the company reserved the right to take legal action.

The memo offered condolences to the family of a 50-year-old Vitasoy worker who had stabbed a police officer, 28, and then killed himself on Thursday, the anniversary the former British colony’s return to Chinese rule, media outlets reported.

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“What this employee wrote should not have been made public and should not have been published internally,” Vitasoy said.

“Vitasoy Group sincerely apologises for any troubles or grievances this has caused. We support Hong Kong’s long-term prosperity, stability and development.”

Police have described the stabbing as an attempted murder. The officer’s condition has improved from critical to serious.

The worker’s memo triggered a flood of online calls for a boycott of Vitasoy, which gets two-thirds of its revenue from mainland China.

The hashtag “#Vitasoygetoutofthemainland” has garnered almost 100 million views.

Hong Kong authorities warned on Sunday that advocating for people to mourn for the attacker was no different from “supporting terrorism” and criticised parents who took children to mourn him.

The Police National Security Department said it had taken over the case and initial investigations showed it was a “lone wolf-style act of domestic terrorism, in which the attacker was believed to be radicalised by myriad fake information.”

It warned members of the public “not to tolerate or glorify violence.”

A 20-year-old woman and a 26-year-old man were arrested on suspicion of inciting others to commit murder, as well as arson and seditious intention, said police Superintendent Wilson Tam.

Tam did not specify whether the arrests were related to the stabbing, telling a news conference only that the pair were suspected of posting messages on social media on Friday. One of the messages incited people to kill police, he said, adding that more arrests could not be ruled out.

On Friday, people went to the scene of the attack, some with children, to pay their respects to the attacker and lay flowers.

Mainland actor Gong Jun, who previously endorsed a Vitasoy lemon-flavoured drink, announced late on Friday he was ending commercial cooperation with the company, said Global Times, a tabloid published by the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s official People’s Daily newspaper.

His announcement followed that of another mainland Chinese actor, Ren Jialun, who said he was also ceasing co-operation with Vitasoy, the newspaper added.

Fashion retailer H&M (HMb.ST) said on Thursday its sales took a hit in China after its concerns over alleged human rights abuses in Xinjiang led to a social media-inspired boycott by shoppers. read more

Reporting By Anne Marie Roantree and Jessie Pang in Hong Kong and David Kirton in Shenzhen; Editing by William Mallard

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