Ten Brands That Won't Be Around In 2012
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  6-23-11, 7:46am | Post
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10 Brands That Won't Be Around In 2012
Products that have stood the test of time for decades are falling by the wayside at an alarming rate 1. Sony Pictures Sony has a studio production arm which has nothing to do with its core businesses of consumer electronics and gaming. Sony bought what was Columbia Tri-Star Picture in 1989 for $3.4 billion. This entertainment operation has done poorly recently. Sony’s fiscal year ends in March, and for the period revenue for the group dropped 15 percent to $7.2 billion and operating income fell by 10 percent to $466 million. Sony is in trouble. It lost $3.1 billion in its latest fiscal on revenue of $86.5 billion. Sony’s gaming system group is under siege by Microsoft and Nintendo. Its consumer electronics group faces an overwhelming challenge from Apple. The company’s future prospects have been further damaged by the Japan earthquake and the hack of its large PlayStation Network. CEO Howard Stringer is under pressure to do something to increase the value of Sony’s shares. The only valuable asset with which he can easily part is Columbia which would attract interest from a number of large media operations. Sony Entertainment will disappear with the sale of its assets. 2. A&W All–American Food Restaurants. A&W Restaurants is owned by fast food holding company giant Yum! Brands, which has had the firm for sale since January. There have been no buyers. The chain was founded in 1919. The size of company grew rapidly, and immediately after WWII 450 franchises were opened. The firm pioneered the “drive in” fast food format. A&W began to sell canned versions of its sodas in 1971 — the part of the business that will survive as a container beverage business which is now owned by Dr. Pepper/Snapple. The A&W Restaurant business is too small to be viable now. It had 322 outlets in the U.S and 317 outside the U.S at the end of last year. All were operated by franchisees. By contrast, Yum!’s flagship KFC had 5,055 stories in the U.S. and 11,798 overseas. Two massive global fast food chains are even larger. Subway has 35,000 locations worldwide, and McDonald’s has nearly as many. A&W does not have the ability to market itself against these chains and at least a dozen other fast food operators like Burger King. And, A&W does not have the size to efficiently handle food purchase, logistics, and transportation cost compared to competitors many times as large. 3. Saab The first Saab car was launched in 1949 by Swedish industrial firm Svenska Aeroplan. The firm produced a series of sedans and coups, the flagship of which was the 900 series, released in 1978. About one million of these would eventually be sold. Saab’s engineering reputation and the rise in its international sales attracted GM to buy half the company in 1989 and the balance in 2000. Saab’s problem, which grew under the management of the world’s No.1 automobile manufacturer, was that it was never more than a niche brand in an industry dominated by very large players such as Ford and Chevrolet. It did not build very inexpensive cars like VW did, or expensive sports cars as Porsche did. Saab’s models were, in price and features, up against models from the world’s largest car companies that sold hundreds of thousands of units each year. Saab also did not have a wide number of models to suit different budgets and driver tastes. GM decided to jettison the brand in late 2008, and the small company quickly became insolvent. Saab finally found a buyer in high-end car maker Spyker which took control of the company last year. Spyker quickly ran low on money because only 32,000 Saabs were sold in 2010. Spyker turned to Chinese industrial investors for money. Pang Da Automobile agreed to take an equity stake in the company. But, the agreement is not binding, and with a potential of global sales which are still below 50,000 a year based on manufacturing and marketing operations and demand, Saab is no longer a financially viable brand. 4. American Apparel The once-hip retailer reached the brink of bankruptcy earlier this year, and there is no indication that it has gained anything more than a little time with its latest financing. It currently trades as a penny stock. The company had three stores and $82 million in revenue in 2003. Those numbers reached 260 stores and $545 million in 2008. For the first quarter of this year, the retailer had net sales for the quarter of $116.1 million, a 4.7 percent decline over sales of $121.8 million in the same period a year ago. Comparable store sales declined 8 percent on a constant currency basis. American Apparel posted a net loss for the period of $21 million. Comparable store sales have flattened, which means the firm likely will continue to post losses. American Apparel is also almost certainly under gross margin pressure because of the rise in cotton prices. The retailer raised $14.9 million in April by selling shares at a discount of 43 percent to a group of private investors led by Canadian financier Michael Serruya and Delavaco Capital. According to Reuters, the 15.8 million shares sold represented 20.3 percent of the company's outstanding stock on March 31. That sum is not nearly enough to keep American Apparel from going the way of Borders. It is a small, under-funded player in a market with very large competitors with healthy balance sheets. It does not help matters that the company's founder and CEO, Dov Charney, has been a defendant in several lawsuits filed by former employees alleging sexual harassment. 5. Sears The parent of Sears and Kmart — Sears Holdings — is in a lot of trouble. Total revenue dropped $341 million to $9.7 billion for the quarter which closed April 30, 2011. The company had a net loss of $170 million. Sears Holdings was created by a merger of the parents of the two chains on March 24, 2005. The operation has been a disaster ever since. The company has tried to run 4,000 stores which operate across the US and Canada. Neither Sears nor Kmart have done well recently, but Sears' domestic locations same store numbers were off 5.2 percent in the first quarter and Kmart’s were down 1.6 percent. Last year domestic comparable store sales declined 1.6 percent in the total, with an increase at Kmart of .7 percent and a decline at Sears Domestic of 3.6 percent. New CEO Lou D'Ambrosio recently said of the last quarter that, “we also fell short on executing with excellence. We cannot control the weather or economy or government spending. But we can control how we execute and leverage the potent set of assets we have.” D'Ambrosio needs to pull a rabbit out of his hat soon. Sharex are down 55 percent during the last five years. D'Ambrosio only reasonable solution to the firm’s financial problems is to stop supporting two brands which compete with one another and larger rivals such as Walmart and Target. The cost to market two brands and maintain stores which overlap one another geographically must be in the hundreds of millions of dollars each year. Employee and supply chain costs are also gigantic. The path D'Ambrosio is likely to take is to consolidate two brand into one — keeping the better performing Kmart and shuttering Sears. 6. Sony Ericsson Sony Ericsson was formed by the two large consumer electronics companies to market the handset offerings each had handled separately. The venture started in 2001, before the rise of the smartphone. Early in its history, it was one of the biggest handset manufacturers along with Nokia, Samsung, LG, and Motorola. Sales of Sony Ericsson phones were originally helped by the popularity of other Sony portable devices like the Walkman. Sony Ericsson’s product development lagged behind those of companies like Apple and Research In Motion, which dominated the high end smartphone industry early. Sony Ericsson also relied on the Symbian operating system which was championed by market leader Nokia, but which it has abandoned in favor of Microsoft’s Windows mobile operating because of licence costs and difficulty with programmers. In a period when smartphone sales worldwide are rising in the double digits and sales of the iPhone double year over year, Sony Ericsson’s unit sales dropped from 97 million in 2008 to 43 million last year. New competitors like HTC now outsell Sony Ericsson by widening numbers. Sony Ericsson management expects several more quarters of falling sales and the company has laid off thousands of people. There have been rumors, backed by logic, that Sony will take over the operation, rebrand the handsets with its name, and market them in tandem with its PS3 consoles and VAIO PCs. 7. Kellogg’s Corn Pops The cereal business is not what is used to be, at least for products that are not considered “healthy.” Among those is Kellogg’s Corn Pops ready-to-eat cereal. Sales of the brand dropped 18 percent over the year that ended in April, down to $74 million. That puts it well behind brands like Cheerios and Frosted Flakes each which have sales of over $200 million a year. Private label sales have also hurt sales of branded cereals. Revenues in this category were $637 million over the same April-end period. There is also profit margin pressure on Corn Pops because of the sharp increase in corn prices. Kellogg’s describes the product as being “Crispy, glazed, crunchy, sweet.” Corn Pops also contain mono- and diglycerides, used to bind saturated fat, and BHT for freshness, which is also used in embalming fluid.None of these are likely to be what mothers want to serve their children in an age in which a healthy breakfast is more likely to be egg whites and a bowl of fresh fruit. 8. MySpace MySpace, once the world’s largest social network, died a long time ago. It will get buried soon. News Corp. bought MySpace and its parent in 2005 for $580 million which was considered inexpensive at the time based on the web property’s size. MySpace held the top spot among social networks based on visitors from mid-2006 until mid-2008 according to several online research services. It was overtaken by Facebook at that point. Facebook has 700 million members worldwide now and recently passed Yahoo! as the largest website for display advertising based on revenue. News Corp. was able to get an exclusive advertising deal worth $900 million shortly after it bought the property, but that was its sales high-water mark. Its audience is currently estimated to be less that 20 million visitors in the US. Why did MySpace fall so far behind Facebook? No one knows for certain. It may be that Facebook had more attractive features for people who wanted to share their identities online. It may have been that it appealed to a younger audience which tends to spend more time online. News Corp. announced in February that it would sell MySpace. There were no serious bids. Rumors surfaced recently that a buyer may take the website for $100 million. The brand is worth little if anything. A buyer is likely to kill the name and fold the subscriber base into another brand. News Corp. has hinted it will close MySpace if it does not find a buyer. 9. Soap Opera Digest The magazine’s future has been ruined by two trends. The first is the number of cancellations of soap operas. Long-lived shows which include "All My Children" and "One Life to Live" have been canceled and replaced by talk shows, which are less expensive to air. The other insurmountable challenge is the wide availability of details on soap operas online. Some of the shows even have their own fan sites. News about the industry, in other words, is now distributed and not longer in one place. Soap Opera Digest’s first quarter advertising pages fell 21 percent in the first quarter and revenue was down 18 percent to $4 million. In 2000, the magazine’s circulation was in excess of 1.1 million readers. By 2005 it fell below 500,000 where it has remained for the last 5 years. Source Interlink Media, the magazine’s parent, which also owns automotive, truck, and motorcycle publications, has little reason to support a product based on a dying industry. 10. Nokia Nokia is dead. Shareholders are just waiting for an undertaker. The world’s largest handset company has one asset. Nokia sold 25 percent of the global total of 428 million units sold in the first quarter. Its problems is that in the industry the company is viewed as a falling knife. Its market share in the same quarter of 2010 was nearly 31 percent. The arguments that Nokia will not stay independent are numerous. It has a very modest presence in the rapidly growing smartphone industry which is dominated by Apple, Research In Motion’s Blackberry, HTC, and Samsung. Nokia runs the outdated Symbian operating system and is in the process of changing to Microsoft Window mobile OS which has a tiny share of the market. Nokia would be an attractive takeover target to a large extent because the cost to “buy” 25 percent of the global handset market would only be $22 billion based on Nokia’s current market cap. Obviously, a buyer would need to pay a premium, but even $30 billion is within reach of several companies. Potential buyers would start with HTC, the fourth largest smartphone maker in the world. Its sales have doubled in both the last quarter and the last year. HTC will sell as many as 80 million handsets in 2011. The Taiwan-based company’s challenge would be whether it could finance such a large deal. The other three likely bidders do not have that problem. Microsoft, which is Nokia’s primary software partner, could easily buy the company and is often mentioned as a suitor. The world’s largest software company recently moved further into the telecom industry though its purchase of VoIP giant Skype which has 170 million active customers. Two other large firms have many reasons to buy Nokia. Samsung, part of one of the largest conglomerates in Korea, has publicly set a goal to be the No.1 handset company in the world by 2014. The parent company is the largest in South Korea with revenue in 2010 of $134 billion. A buyout of Nokia would launch Samsung into the position as the world’s handset leader. LG Electronics, the seventh largest company in South Korea, with sales of $48 billion, is by most measures the third largest smartphone company. It has the scale and balance sheet to takeover Nokia. The only question about the Finland-based company is whether a buyer would maintain the Microsoft relationship or change to the popular Android OS to power Nokia phones. The only one that I would miss would be A&W... |
Nana Bargainshare  
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12-21-11, 11:29am | Post
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Kind of the same old, same old...Sears & Barnes & Noble are regulars
7 Companies On The Ropes In 2012 Saab filed for bankruptcy a few days ago...posts went poof during the server crash... Saab Bankruptcy: How GM's Missteps Let Down the Iconic Brand |
Nana Bargainshare
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12-21-11, 1:14pm | Post
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William Durant and Alfred Sloan are shaking their heads in the Great Beyond. Neither gentleman, when alive, would have tolerate current GM managemnt, union leadership or the buffoon in the White House.
Saab North America to be run by outside administrator QUOTE Colbeck acknowledged that Saab North America could be forced by creditors into bankruptcy -- or it could opt to file for court protection down the road -- if a buyer for the parent company does not come forward.
"We've basically stopped our business in an effort to not occur any additional debt or develop any additional receivables," Colbeck. "At this moment in time we have stopped business with dealers and we look to restore that business very shortly." |
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12-21-11, 1:20pm | Post
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Certain law firms are probably busy like beaver building dams.
Saab suspends warranty coverage on all North American vehicles |
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12-23-11, 8:53pm | Post
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Nana Bargainshare
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12-27-11, 6:42am | Post
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Sears To Close 100 To 120 Kmart, Sears Stores
Retailer blames terrible holiday season, especially for big-ticket items There are 2 KMarts in Davenport...just about 6 miles apart...I wonder if one of them will be on the list... |
Nana Bargainshare
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12-27-11, 7:00am | Post
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QUOTE (kar522 @ 12-27-11, 8:42am)  Sears To Close 100 To 120 Kmart, Sears Stores Retailer blames terrible holiday season, especially for big-ticket items There are 2 KMarts in Davenport...just about 6 miles apart...I wonder if one of them will be on the list... Location, location, location and your customer base can drive the business into the crapper. It was mentioned this morning on Fox and Friends that the current owners of Sears Holdings took over with intent to sell off properties. Two local closed Kmart stores have been turned into storage businesses. A friend leased out the auto service section of one still open store and seem to constantly have vehicles on the racks. What he pays to Sear Holdings probably don't cover what the local two legged Obama luvers are walking out the front door with. |
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12-29-11, 3:16pm | Post
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The list with the first 79 KMart/Sears closing stores is out...none in Illinois, but my favorite Davenport store is doomed...I guess I'll just have to drive 6 miles further east...
List |
Nana Bargainshare
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12-29-11, 3:37pm | Post
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This one hasn't been on any of the lists...
Payless Parent Company To Close 475 Stores, Exploring Options Collective Brands plans to close stores with low sales volume in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico. More than 300 will be shuttered by the end of the year, including about 275 Payless and 75 Stride Ride children's stores. |
Nana Bargainshare
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12-29-11, 4:10pm | Post
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Before she founded Build-A-Bear, Maxine Clark was President of Payless ShoeSource, Inc. from 1992 until 1996.
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1-5-12, 7:03am | Post
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QUOTE (kar522 @ 12-23-11, 10:53pm) Discussed earlier on FNC, since the company is back in the news. The legacy pension costs were brought up, which probably be modified in bankrupty court. Too bad 99% type losers in WI, OH and other states believe government workers, e.g. school administrators and Philly city official, can't also see their bloated pensions cut back. Kodak working on bankruptcy filing -- report |
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1-9-12, 10:23am | Post
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One Last Kodak Moment For Consumers?
As the iconic company nears bankruptcy, watch for the prices of its low-end cameras to drop. |
Nana Bargainshare
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1-10-12, 6:48am | Post
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I'll give Best Buy management points for closing down stores when they became too urban. However, the chain has adopted the policy of a 'cheap' workforce that lack professionalism; but are adapted at upselling the customer.
Why Best Buy is destined to fail |
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1-17-12, 1:44pm | Post
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Nana Bargainshare
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1-18-12, 9:46am | Post
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Same old, same old...
The Big Box Graveyard Is Expanding Three familiar names in retail are fast approaching their day of reckoning. This post has been edited by kar522: 1-18-12, 9:46am |
Nana Bargainshare
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1-18-12, 6:32pm | Post
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Upfront, it doesn't help your rep if FNC keeps running a video of one your employee chucking a package over the fence. Given the front yard being fenced in, I must wait for more details. Lets just say, being a mail carrier or a NYC janitor or the Givernment Motor union drone installing a wheel on a Volt doesn't require a college degree and why should a teacher put in years with one school district, along with completing an MS in Education, before achieiving salary parity. So we know major companies are bad and which one are ugly.
So which are the good or promising companies. Forbes has came up with a list and highlighted the top #20. Honestly, the vast majority could be considered 'unknown' and many of them more known for its business clientele. A quick count finds only 4 of the 20 companies actually do business with the public. Recent trends indicate once a successful start-up matures to a certain point it's larger business partner makes an offer that can't be refuse. This post has been edited by kas: 1-18-12, 6:36pm |
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1-19-12, 1:15am | Post
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Nana Bargainshare
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1-19-12, 9:30am | Post
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Going beyond the concept that employees are only clogs in the machine, here are Forbes 100 companies that folks want to work for. A quick review showed me that the ten on the 'graveyard' list are more duds, than studs.
100 Best Companies to Work For |
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1-23-12, 2:22pm | Post
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Must be that 'hot' double MQ promo.
QUOTE Sears' stock price keeps climbing Sears Holdings has been an oddball stock for a long time, but this January it's just gone bonkers. Look at what's happened in the last trading day. Shares shot up more than 10% Monday in morning trading, and finally fell back to a 3.3% loss to close at $47.39. Why? No one knows. But this action is just a normal trading day with Sears. Shares are up more than 50% so far this year. The thing is, there's nothing going on with the company itself to justify such a rally. Sears is in the middle of closing down more than 100 stores, and the company's own financials show little investment in its future. Some suppliers aren't getting paid. The credit rating has been downgraded. Cash is dwindling. So you get the real sense that there are other plays at work here. Manipulation. Investors trading on fear and opportunity. Short covering. One analyst explains why she sees a short squeeze in the stock in the following video. It all revolves around Chairman Eddie Lampert, who already owns about 60% of the company. He's been on a massive shopping binge for Sears shares, personally buying $159 million in stock this month from his own hedge firm. Sears has been buying back huge amounts of its own shares for years, reducing the float for everyone else. Lampert's actions helped ignite a rumor that the company might get taken private. Finally, you have to consider that Sears might be in what The Wall Street Journal suggests is "the mother of all short squeezes." There are very few shares to short, and Sears shares are among the most expensive to borrow, the Journal reported. Short sellers borrow shares and sell them, hoping that the stock price drops enough that they can buy back the shares at a lower price and return them. If the stock price doesn't drop -- as we're seeing with Sears this month -- some short sellers just buy back the shares and get out. And then the stock price climbs a little more. "You gotta get out of the way of this thing now," a hedge fund manager with Rosecliff Capital told CNBC. Lampert will "do anything to keep the run going, even sell the company." Goldman Sachs (GS -0.51%) really wants this run to continue. The Journal reported that Goldman's clients invested $3.5 billion in Lampert's hedge fund about four years ago. But after Sears shares fell 57% last year, the fund -- and the Goldman investment -- has taken a huge hit. But Goldman's clients can't withdraw their money until the end of this year, the Journal reports, so the firm is extremely interested in keeping the stock price high. Just a little added pressure on Lampert there. http://money.msn.com/top-stocks/post.aspx?...a6-16ef446dc2ef |
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1-31-12, 8:00am | Post
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Want to guess what three sistas are going top less for Sears? My money is their knickers came from that shop, which Big Mama didn't spend a big wad buying lingerie.
Click |
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2-2-12, 6:17pm | Post
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2-9-12, 10:36am | Post
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2-13-12, 5:57pm | Post
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5 Retailers Shuttering Stores
These chains are battling to avoid the fate of Borders, Circuit City and other well-known retailers that went bust. Blockbuster Stores closing: 405 Percent of total: 24% Takeaway: The beleaguered movie rental chain, bought out of bankruptcy last spring by pay-TV provider Dish Network (DISH), keeps shrinking. Still, it will manage to keep some 1,300 stores going, at least for the time being. But, Davidowitz says, the dynamics of the movie rental industry would make it a surprise if Blockbuster is still operating in five years Gap Stores closing: 189 Percent of total: 21% Takeaway: Inconsistent merchandising has plagued Gap (GPS). The San Francisco company announced last fall that it would shutter more than one-fifth of its flagship locations, the latest segment of a downsizing that began in 2007 and is expected to be fully implemented by 2013. Gap is shifting more merchandise to its outlet stores, which are increasing in number. Talbots Stores closing: 100 Percent of total: 18% Takeaway: Declining same-store sales have the women's apparel seller cutting back. A strategy aimed at drawing younger women was less successful than hoped. The company said the last of the store closings would occur by the end of 2013. Friendly's Stores closing: 63 Percent of total: 13% Takeaway: Casual-dining restaurants took a hit during the recent recession, and one of the victims was Friendly's, which emerged from bankruptcy protection last month. Perhaps Friendly's biggest problem stemmed from hanging on to the same menu for years as creative competitors like Panera Bread (PNRA) hit the scene. The owner of Friendly's, private-equity firm Sun Capital Partners, is reportedly looking to sell the company. Abercrombie & Fitch Stores closing: 49 Percent of total: 16% Takeaway: Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF) is doing well overall but has decided to rid itself of underperforming outlets. "In this case, the closings are a sign of strength," says Davidowitz. "You should always be culling your good stores and closing your bad ones." |
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2-17-12, 1:35am | Post
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2-23-12, 8:48am | Post
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Sears To Spin Off Hardware Outlets, Sell Stores
The retailer's shares soared Thursday despite a fourth-quarter loss, as it announced moves to cut costs and inventory |
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3-3-12, 8:20am | Post
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3-7-12, 2:23pm | Post
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Tattoo shouting, "De plane!, De plane!" come to mind.
 Sears boss buys island home as company tries to stay afloat This post has been edited by kas: 3-7-12, 2:23pm |
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3-13-12, 6:48pm | Post
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To be honest, I'm picky about which big box locations I shop. If the first word that come to my mind is 'ghetto', I might drive elsewhere next time. Some of us aren't in love with Apple toys and a coffee stop in the morning means QT. Actually, if the price of gasoline keeps rising, I can see Quike Marts having a decline in business, especially during the drive hours.
Can tracking shoppers save Sears? |
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3-15-12, 4:04pm | Post
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My older sister first job was at a Target, which even had a (local chain) grocery store on one end of the building. Over time the area change and like other places to shop around St. Louis, folks wonder if the some two legged animals would mug 'em in the parking lot. Like other merchant, Target built elsewhere, close that location and that store will in time be shutter due to declining traffic and the buffoon faithfukl stealing whatever ain't nail down.
Sears Holding big problem is that the clueless in Chicago can't see the handwriting on the wall. If a store can't show a certain profit at the end of the year and the local slam your store, close the fraking doors. There s good chance the customers you really want have flee the area and probably now shopping at Target and Walmart. QUOTE Sears to close 62 more stores Sears Holdings (SHLD +4.34%) already said it would close as many as 120 Sears and Kmart stores this year in an effort to turn the business around. But that wasn't enough. The struggling retailer said Thursday it will have to tighten its belt even more. Sears is now planning to close 43 Hometown stores, 10 Sears Hardware stores and all nine stores in the Great Indoors chain. Hometown stores are independently operated, and sell hardware in mostly rural areas. Sears is also getting rid of clothing in 10 Sears stores -- perhaps in a test run for a chain-wide initiative in the future. Instead, those stores will sell more household items such as mattresses and furniture, the Associated Press reports. Shoppers have requested more choices in those areas, the company told the AP. Sears has been busy with a number of moves designed to stem the bleeding from its bottom line. It's been trying to spin off its Hometown and Outlet stores, but the closure of 43 of those may show how well that's going. It's also selling 11 locations to General Growth Properties (GGP -1.07%). Scratching clothing from its lineup could be a very good move for Sears. Most people don't shop there for clothes. They might pick up some clothing as an afterthought, but they visit Sears stores for appliances and hardware. Sears is going to have a harder time competing in clothing and other areas as JCPenney (JCP +0.96%) completes its transformation into a trendier, more compelling chain. Target (TGT +0.26%) continues to press forward in clothing, bringing in designer names like Jason Wu and adding in-store boutiques. Sears also has Macy's (M -0.35%) and Kohls to contend with. After years of just coasting on "good enough," Sears is finally making some drastic and necessary moves. http://money.msn.com/top-stocks/post.aspx?...2c-bd6c7a88fa90 |
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3-29-12, 5:33am | Post
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Nana Bargainshare
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