Catch up on this week's editions
Good morning. Earlier this week we saw hackers take over supermarket fridges in Europe. It turns out the hackers tried to push the plasma freezers at three French blood banks from -30°C to as high as 110°C.
Alarms flagged the change and staff moved the plasma, which is used for transfusions and to make medicines, into fridges that weren't connected before any of it was lost.
The same attack on supermarkets last month is expected to cut Dutch grocer Ahold Delhaize's sales by up to €250 million this quarter.
All the headlines and more below...
DAVID JONES CUSTOMERS RACE TO SPEND GIFT CARDS AS 188-YEAR-OLD RETAILER ENTERS ADMINISTRATION
David Jones customers are rushing to stores to redeem gift cards before the department store chain's future is decided, with the retailer entering voluntary administration and receivership this morning. Physical and online stores are continuing to trade while administrators and receivers from FTI Consulting review operations.
The collapse comes amid reports the retailer struggled to pay rent and failed to file accounts on time.There is a massive risk that giftcards won't be honoured if the business doesn't survive or changes hands. Shoppers were already clearing stock at the Highpoint store in Melbourne's west, with some shelves short of stock.
Retail consultant Dean Salakas said profit is no longer the concern for administrators, whose job is to recoup as much cash as possible for creditors. The focus will be solely on sales, which means heavy discounting is expected as administrators disregard cost price and chase maximum income. If David Jones changes ownership, the new owner has no obligation to accept refunds on purchases made before the sale, as the contract was with the previous company.
AUSTRALIAN NEWS
Education ministers approved a revamped kindergarten to year 2 maths curriculum that brings fractions into year 1, embeds basic financial literacy from kindergarten and simplifies language for teachers. LINK
Federal government employee expenses rose 7.2% last financial year as average public service salaries increased 6.2% and the total wages bill climbed 35% over 4 years to $43.8B. LINK
A NSW parliamentary committee warned that $50B of planned data centres could consume more than twice greater Sydney households’ electricity, recommended curbs on phantom demand and tighter renewable energy rules. LINK
The federal government committed $71M to expand genomic profiling and targeted cancer treatments, enabling 25,000 more Australians to access personalised therapies and supporting Omico’s program for another 3 years. LINK
Victorian Government has outlined a 10-year economic plan for small businesses with payroll and land tax cuts, red-tape reductions, toll caps and a $115M apprenticeships fund if elected. LINK
SMALL FLAT WHITE HITS $5.17 AS ONE IN FIVE CAFES LIFT PRICES IN OCTOBER
One in five cafes raised prices in October, the first month of the Reserve Bank's ban on card surcharges, though not necessarily because of the ban alone. The average small flat white rose from $5.11 in September to $5.17.
Analysis by Small Flat White, which tracks prices at thousands of Australian cafes, found 20% raised prices in October. Cafe owners told the tracker they delay increases where possible, then raise prices once to absorb multiple cost pressures including wages, super, rent, milk, beans and freight. When cafes do raise prices, 70% charge round figures, so increases typically jump by 50 cents - roughly 10% of the coffee price. Nearly 40% of all increases recorded were 50 cents.
Online payment company Tyro found 12% of businesses that previously charged card surcharges raised their prices during October, compared to 2.7% of businesses that never surcharged. More than half of the businesses that did raise prices increased them by more than 3 times the amount they previously charged as a surcharge.
THE INSIDE TRACK
Bupa is carrying out layoffs as part of a massive restructure impacting whole teams across Melbourne Sydney Brisbane Adelaide and Perth with 20% of the digital team predicted to be affected. LINK
Acenda is making cuts across the business with some teams given only a couple of days for consultation and changes expected to take effect by the end of November. LINK
Bendigo Bank is undertaking a "spill and fill" of second line risk and compliance roles, with people being made redundant from mid December. LINK
Clifford Chance suffered a major cybersecurity breach in which client data was accessed and downloaded and has notified affected clients. LINK
Deloitte restructured its National Sales Office function, making 26% of roles redundant, with 40% of those redundancies at Director level and a few newly created roles available. LINK
ING is running a major restructure of its wholesale banking business with 400 people or 3% of wholesale banking expected to go globally and the department rebranded as Corporate and Insto banking. LINK
KPMG is planning more cuts of about 400 roles over the next 2 to 3 weeks. LINK
Woodside announced a 10% workforce reduction and some leadership changes at vice president level with further cascading organisational adjustments. LINK
Heard something at work? Redundancies, offshoring, an email that should not have gone out. Tell us what’s happening at your company.
COMPANY NEWS
Myer’s market value neared $400M after its shares rose to 26c as investors bet it will gain sales, sites and customers from David Jones’ potential liquidation. LINK
NAB deployed an Anthropic-based AI tool called Ruby to 40,000 staff and set up around 50 AI squads, while reporting full-year net profit of $6.14B. LINK
Qantas will add about 10,000 Classic Rewards seats next year with 10 new points planes on routes including Paris, Tokyo, Los Angeles, Hong Kong, Vancouver and Hobart-mainland services. LINK
Bega Group accelerated a $110M investment program including a $50M Morwell yoghurt plant expansion to lift output 25% as protein-driven yoghurt demand pushed capacity near its limit. LINK
Slater and Gordon almost doubled profit to $46M and paid a $10M dividend as revenue rose 12.8% to $286.3M, driven by $1.4B in client compensation in FY26. LINK
The Iconic reported a 3% rise in first-half revenue to $270M and a 53% lift in adjusted EBITDA to $13.6M as it launched a month-long ‘Hack Friday’ sales campaign. LINK
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ONE MORE SCROLL
Odd Pick: Brazilian youth match descends into chaos with record-breaking 53 red cards.
Editor’s Pick: Zoom is turning your meetings into automated tasks that run without you leaving the app.
Draft Pick: Scotland brings back a full-strength team to face the All Blacks at Murrayfield this Saturday.
Doctor’s Pick: This is how fast you should walk to help lower your risk of death.
TRIVIA
Which bird can sleep while flying?
Answer below
ANSWER
The albatross
