Swire Hotels

Swire Hotels is a division of Swire Properties Limited, a subsidiary of Swire Pacific Limited, a blue chip company quoted on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
Swire Hotels was formed in 2008 to create and manage small luxury hotels in Hong Kong and Mainland China. It manages two hotel brands – the "House Collective" and EAST.
Hotels.
The Opposite House, Beijing.
The Opposite House is Swire Hotels' first hotel which opened in March 2008 in Beijing's Sanlitun district. The hotel is an integral part of Sanlitun Village, an open-plan shopping center also developed by Swire Properties. Designed by the Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, the hotel has 99 rooms, including a two-floor penthouse, two restaurants and two bars.
The ground floor lobby houses rotating art exhibits, while other sculptures and installations are permanently on display in the public areas.
The name of the hotel comes from the translation of a Chinese word, which historically is used to describe the building located opposite the main house in a courtyard where esteemed guests would stay.
The Upper House, Hong Kong.
The Upper House is located above Pacific Place in Admiralty, Hong Kong Opened in 2009, the hotel features 117 rooms including 21 suites and two penthouses.
The hotel was designed by Hong Kong-based architect Andre Fu. Art appears prominently in the hotel interior; 350 original artworks are showcased within the premises, including Hiroshiwata Sawada’s 40-metre tall “Rise” steel sculpture.
The Upper House is also home to Café Gray Deluxe.
The Temple House, Chengdu.
The Temple House is the third property by The House Collective. Opened in 2015, it is situated in Sino-Ocean Taikoo Li Chengdu in the heart of Jinjiang District.
Bitieshi at The Temple House is a restored Qing dynasty courtyard that houses a library and gallery. There are 100 rooms and 42 residences designed by UK-based Make Architects.<ref name="forbes.com/sites/douggollan"></ref> The hotel has an urban day spa MI XUN and TEAHOUSE.
EAST, Hong Kong.
EAST, Hong Kong is located at Island East, a development by Swire Properties. Opened in early 2010, it was the first of Swire Hotels' EAST brand.
The hotel features 346 rooms and suites, one restaurant and a rooftop bar. It was designed by Hong Kong-based architect Wong Tung & Partners and interior design studio CL3 Architects Ltd.
EAST, Hong Kong houses a number of art pieces by local and international artists including Sui Jianguo from China, Lincoln Seligman from London and Danny Lee from Hong Kong.
EAST, Beijing.
EAST, Beijing is a business hotel located in the Chaoyang district of Beijing, China.<ref name="telegraph.co.uk/travel"></ref> Opened in September 2012, it is situated within INDIGO in Jiangtai – a mixed-use property developed by Swire Properties Limited and Sino-Ocean Land Holdings Limited. The brand's name refers back to the hotels' location in the eastern districts of Beijing and Hong Kong. The hotel was designed by the British architecture firm Benoy, which also designed INDIGO.
The hotel is a member of Summit Hotels & Resorts, and has 369 rooms.
EAST, Miami.
This is the first hotel in the United States under the EAST brand.<ref name="hospitalitynet.org/news/4064988"></ref> Located in downtown Miami, the hotel is part of Swire Properties' Brickell City Centre. Designed by Miami-based architects Arquitectonica, with interiors by New York's Clodagh Design,<ref name="hospitalitydesign.com/projects/hotels-resorts-wellness/east-miami/"></ref> this hotel has 263 guest rooms and 89 residence suites.<ref name="forbes.com/sites/larryolmsted/2016/08/09/"></ref>
EAST, Miami has 3 restaurants designed by Los Angeles-based firm Studio Collective including Uruguayan restaurant Quinto La Huella, rooftop bar Sugar and café and bar Domain.<ref name="miaminewtimes.com/restaurants/sugar"></ref>
Swire Restaurants.
Swire Restaurants was founded in 2013 to manage standalone restaurants. Restaurants in their portfolio include The Continental, Plat du Jour, PUBLIC and Mr & Mrs Fox. The group also operates a centralised kitchen called S.H.A.R.K..


Blacklers

Blacklers was a large department store on the corner of Elliot Street and Great Charlotte Street in Liverpool, England. The store was famous for its lavish Christmas grotto and its rocking horse, Blackie, which is now on display in the Museum of Liverpool. The store, which at its peak employed a thousand people, also has connections to The Beatles: George Harrison worked as an apprentice electrician at Blacklers in 1959, and Pete Best's mother Mona bought his drum kit from the Blacklers music department.
Blacklers was founded by partners Richard John Blackler and A.B. Wallis in the early twentieth century. Blackler died in 1919 and was succeeded as a partner in the business by his wife Margaret.
Despite the building being severely damaged in The Blitz of May 1941 during World War II, the business survived. Temporary outlets were created in Bold Street and Church Street and the first part of the new store opened on 29 March 1953.
Margaret Blackler died in 1957 without children, at which point the store became the property of several individuals, of which the major shareholder was the sportswoman Vera Kingston (Margaret's god-daughter). In 1983 following Vera's death the store was sold on once again, and all links to the original owners disappeared. The store remained open only a few years more, closing in April 1988.
The site now includes a Wetherspoons chain pub, named Richard John Blackler in honour of the store's founder.
See also.
The shop also boasted a large warehouse on Strand Road Bootle, which serviced the store daily.
Deliveries were also dispatched from there for customers throughout the northwest and an art department that built displays throughout the year.


Knob Hill Farms

Knob Hill Farms was a supermarket chain in the Greater Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by Steve Stavro, and operated from 1951 to 2001.
Community grocery stores.
Stavro's father operated Louis Meat Market in Toronto from the 1930s to the 1950s. By 1954, Stavro had gone off on his own, managing outdoor markets and grocery stores under the Knob Hill Farms name. By the late 1950s, he was operating at nine sites in Toronto.
Food terminals.
In 1963, Stavro changed direction and opened his first "food terminal"—a forerunner of the big-box store with 65,000 square feet (6,000 square-metres) of space just north of Toronto at Woodbine Avenue and Highway 7 in Markham.
In 1971, Knob Hill Farms expanded into Pickering with its second terminal. A third location — the first within Toronto, at Lansdowne Avenue and Dundas Street West on the site previously occupied by a National Cash Register (NCR) plant — followed in 1975. A second Toronto terminal opened in 1977 at Cherry Street and the Gardiner Expressway. The fifth store, billed as the largest food store in North America, opened in 1978 at Dixie Road and the Queen Elizabeth Way in Mississauga. This was the first store in the chain to sell some non-food products and was initially two storeys. The second storey was later closed to customers and used for storage. A restaurant, drug store, and wine shop all rented space within the building.
In 1981, the company opened a location in Oshawa, Ontario in the former Ontario Malleable Iron Company Limited's factory. The building had been used as an iron foundry since 1898, although the company had operated at that site since 1872. The 226,000 square foot (21,000 square-metre) store opened in June 1983. It had spurs for both Canadian Pacific and Canadian National Railway lines running right to the store. A pharmacy, bakery (RH Bakery—the RH stood for Richmond Hill), dentist's office, video rental store, as well as a wine store (Wine Rack), and a card shop were among the other businesses initially located within the terminal.
The Ontario Municipal Board and the Ontario government approved a site in 1982 for the seventh Knob Hill Farms terminal, this one at Weston Road and Highway 401 in the Weston community of Toronto. The 325,000 square foot (7.45 acres, or 30,200 square-metre) store opened in the fall of 1985.
The company proposed to convert an abandoned Canadian General Electric plant in Scarborough, Ontario into a store, but Scarborough City Council voted against the project in 1985 and that decision was upheld by the Ontario Municipal Board in 1987.
In 1988, the Ontario Labor Relations Board found that Knob Hill Farms had acted improperly two years earlier when it fired 14 employees who were trying to organize workers in Oshawa under the United Food and Commercial Workers union. The Oshawa store became the first in the Knob Hill Farms chain to be unionized.
The same year, construction began on a terminal in Cambridge, Ontario, the first outside the Greater Toronto Area. Construction was delayed repeatedly, resulting in penalties of about $2.4 million paid to the City of Cambridge. The 31,500 square-metre store finally opened in August 1991. The store began laying off workers less than two months after it opened. In 1999, the company proposed redeveloping the site into a convention centre.
The 10,000 square-metre, two-storey Riverdale food terminal at Carlaw Avenue and Gerrard Street in Toronto opened in 1992 and was the company's ninth location. A wholesale warehouse opened in Scarborough the following year.
In the 90's Knob Hill Farms was easily recognized in local newspapers with their one or two page ads printed in black and blue. Advertised on the air they used the jingle "You know you get good value when you shop, at Knob Hill Farms."
Weston store.
The store in Weston was considered the largest supermarket in the Greater Toronto Area for 15 years. The site was an industrial building dating back to the 1930s which was used for the construction and assembly of airplanes (de Havilland Mosquito) by Massey Harris during World War II. Features around the supermarket included a man-made waterfall with three structures to the northwest side which stopped running after its closing. This was featured at the end of its commercials. The area was about 250 to 300m (800 to 1,000 ft) from south to north and about 50 m (150 ft) from west to east, with an extra 50 m to the northern part featuring parking lots and another 50 m with shipping sectors.
The south side featured several shops, rides and a photo shop near the west exit. A mural by artist John Richmond and a team of assistants depicted a history of food, from Prometheus stealing fire for cooking to Canadian astronaut Marc Garneau eating in space. Another mural facing the south side featuring Southern Ontario from downtown Toronto, with a street written as "Baloor" instead of Bloor Street and the Don Valley Parkway, the western suburbs, the Hamilton Mountain, Niagara Falls and near Fort Erie. The supermarket also featured two doorways in the east and the west sides. The walkway featured streetlights that looked liked a promenade or a walkway.
Closure.
In August 2000, Stavro announced that all stores would close. At the time, the company had about 800 employees at 10 locations. Knob Hill Farms had lost market share to new competitors, including Costco and large Loblaws stores, and had racked up significant debts. The final store — the Weston site — closed in February 2001.
The Markham site was sold for $11.5 million to Michael-Angelo's Market Place Incorporated (supermarket closed and now LA Fitness). Loblaw Companies paid $34.2 million for three properties (Lansdowne & Dundas, Mississauga, and Carlaw & Gerrard) and reopened as No Frills stores. It subsequently purchased the Weston site, demolished the Knob Hill site and redeveloped as a Real Canadian Superstore, which opened in 2006. The Cambridge site is now occupied by Home Depot and Canadian Tire. The site in Scarborough became a Wal-Mart Supercentre. The Pickering store at 1630 Kingston Road was occupied by DOT Patio and T-Phat Supermarket, but now lays abandoned after the building was demolished. The Cherry Street site became a T & T Supermarket in 2007 and now part of Loblaws chain but has since been torn down. The Knob Hill Farms building, at 500 Howard Street in Oshawa, became a discount/liquidation outlet and a flea market for a brief period of time before finally closing its doors. In July 2014, the Oshawa location was expropriated for the new Oshawa Central GO Station.


Dehomag

Dehomag was a German subsidiary of IBM with monopoly in the German market before and during World War II. The word was an acronym for Deutsche Hollerith-Maschinen GmbH (). "Hollerith" refers to the German-American inventor of the technology of punched cards, Herman Hollerith. In April 1949 the company name was changed to IBM Deutschland.
Background.
The technology of punched cards dates back to the 18th century when it was used for mass production of woven textiles and later used as a recording and playback system in player pianos. The use of punched cards for recording and tabulating data was first proposed and used by Semyon Korsakov around 1805. In 1832 Charles Babbage proposed using similar cards to program and to store computations for his calculating engine. Punched card technology was further developed for data-processing by Herman Hollerith from the 1880s. It was used for the 1890 United States Census and for the census work of several foreign governments.
History.
Willy Heidinger, an acquaintance of Hollerith, licensed all of Hollerith’s The Tabulating Machine Company patents in 1910, and created Dehomag in Germany. In 1911 The Tabulating Machine Company was amalgamated (via stock acquisition) with three others, creating a fifth company, the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (CTR). In 1923 CTR acquired 90% ownership of Dehomag, thus acquiring patents developed by them. In 1924 CTR was renamed IBM.
Holocaust.
As an IBM subsidiary, Dehomag became the main provider of computing expertise and equipment in Nazi Germany. Dehomag gave the German government the means for two official censuses of the population after 1933 and for searching its data. It gave the Nazis a way of tracing Jews and dissidents using the powerful automated search tools using the IBM machines. It enabled them to search databases rapidly and efficiently, and the methods were used throughout occupied Europe by the Gestapo and others to locate and arrest its victims, so contributing to the Holocaust.
Dehomag leased and maintained the German government's punched card machines. Dehomag general manager for Germany, Hermann Rottke, reported to IBM President Thomas J. Watson in New York. It was legal for IBM to conduct business with Germany directly until the United States entered the war in December 1941.
IBM New York established a special subsidiary in the occupied General Government territory, Watson Business Machines, to deal with railway traffic there during the Holocaust in Poland. The German Transport Ministry used IBM machines under the New York-controlled subsidiary in Warsaw, not the German subsidiary. Watson Business Machines operated a punch card printing shop near the Warsaw Ghetto. The punch cards bore the indicia of the German subsidiary Dehomag.
Leon Krzemieniecki, the last surviving person involved in the administration of the rail transportation to Auschwitz and Treblinka, stated he knew the punched card machines were not German machines, because the labels were in English. Income from the machines leased in General Government was sent through Geneva to IBM in New York.


Anna Henriette Gossler

Anna Henriette Gossler (7 November 1771 – 2 August 1836) was a Hamburg banker, heiress and socialite.
Biography.
Gossler was born in Hamburg. Anna Henriette Gossler, who went by the name of Henriette, was a member of the Hanseatic Berenberg/Gossler banking family, arguably the most prominent family of the then independent city-state of Hamburg alongside the related Amsinck family. She was the oldest daughter of the bankers Johann Hinrich Gossler and Elisabeth Berenberg, owners of Berenberg Bank, which had been founded by her family in 1590. On 20 May 1788, she married her father's employee Ludwig Erdwin Seyler, who immediately was made a partner in the bank and remained so until his death nearly half a century later. After the death of her father in 1790 her husband became head of the company. Particularly in the years around the Napoleonic Wars she and her husband played prominent roles in Hamburg high society and politics, and Berenberg Bank was headquartered in their private home.
She was the older sister of Hamburg senator Johann Heinrich Gossler and the aunt of Hamburg First Mayor (head of state) Hermann Gossler. Her father-in-law was the theatre principal Abel Seyler, the leading patron of German theatre in the late 18th century. Her youngest daughter Henriette Seyler was married to the Norwegian industrialist Benjamin Wegner.


Ruth Milkman

Ruth Milkman (born December 18, 1954) is an American sociologist of labor, Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the Graduate Center, CUNY and the director of research at CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies.
Education and career.
Milkman's grandparents emigrated to the United States around 1910, and the family's last name was allegedly bestowed on them by an immigration official at Ellis Island. (In reality, the family itself must have initiated the name change, since Ellis Island officials never changed names.) While both of Milkman's parents were born and raised in Brooklyn, and eventually attended Brooklyn College, Milkman was raised in Annapolis, Maryland where her father was an instructor at the United States Naval Academy. Milkman attributes her interest in labor to an incident in her childhood, where, when shopping with her mother in New York City, the two encountered an International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union picket line, which her mother refused to cross. Milkman obtained a bachelor's degree in 1975 from Brown University, where created her own major with an emphasis in women's studies. She was awarded a Master of Arts in sociology in 1977 and a Ph.D. in sociology in 1981, both from the University of California, Berkeley. Milkman was drawn to Berkeley because of the left-wing political activity of the 1960s that had taken place there. While at Berkeley, Milkman was an editor of "Socialist Review", which later became "Radical Society".
In 1981, Milkman was appointed an assistant professor, then associate professor, of sociology at Queens College and the CUNY Graduate Center in New York City. In 1986, she was a visiting lecturer in American labor history at the University of Warwick in Coventry, United Kingdom, a visiting professor at the University of São Paulo in São Paulo, Brazil in 1990, a visiting research scholar at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia in 1991, and a visiting research associate at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in Paris in 1993. She won an appointment as an associate professor at UCLA in 1988, where she became a full professor of sociology.
She was appointed director of the UCLA Institute of Industrial Relations in 2001. From 2001 to 2004, Milkman also was director of the University of California Institute for Labor and Employment prior to its restructuring as a research fund. In 2009, Milkman returned to the CUNY Graduate Center, and took up her present position of Research Director at the Joseph S. Murphy Institute for Worker Education and Labor Studies.
Research.
Milkman's research focus is on the sociology of work. She has a strong interest in the American labor movement and labor history. She has also published extensively on low-wage workers and the sociology of gender in the U.S. Milkman writes from a "new labor history" perspective.
One of Milkman's earliest published works, "Women, Work and Protest: A Century of U.S. Women's Labor History", was widely praised for its cross-disciplinary focus and for highlighting the important role women played in the American labor movement. The book was cited for being "rich in the variety of detailed case material offered in exploring the experiences of women employed in many occupations and industries around the country. Also included are two excellent chapters on the role of on women's auxiliaries in strike initiatives of male unions." It is now considered a "classic work" in the field of labor studies. Her second major work, "Farewell to the Factory: Autoworkers in the Late Twentieth Century," questioned the common assumption that technological changes are almost always negative for skilled and unskilled blue-collar workers, and was well-reviewed within the industrial relations and labor history academic communities.
In 2004, Milkman co-edited "Rebuilding Labor: Organizing and Organizers in the New Union Movement" with Kim Voss. The book was highly influential within the American labor movement for its empirical nature and focus. As one reviewer noted, ""Rebuilding Labor" breaks new ground in providing rich empirical material and careful analysis for understanding the dynamics of contemporary labor organizing. The book as a whole is a very persuasive demonstration of the crucial value of systematic empirical research for the labor movement." Labor union activists pointed to the chapters by Bronfenbrenner and Hickey, DiNardo and Lee, Sharpe, Penney and Lopez as important in improving organizing practices. The chapter by Daisy Rooks on the nature and culture of organizing work has also generated much discussion.
In 2006, Milkman released "L.A. Story", a case study of four organizing campaigns in Los Angeles, California, which drew some remarkable conclusions. First, Milkman argues that emergence of relatively innovative unions such as the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), UNITE HERE and the United Food and Commercial Workers from the conservative AFL-CIO is as noteworthy as the creation of the Congress of Industrial Organizations in 1935. Second, Milkman's analysis of four SEIU Los Angeles-area organizing campaigns concludes that the most effective organizing strategy is a top-down one. Milkman doesn't discount extensive worker involvement, but argues that it is less important than other studies have found. Third, Milkman argues that the primary factor in the failure of union organizing campaigns is lack of resources (money and staff) rather than employer opposition, legal factors or the failure to use or improper implementation of good organizing tactics.
"L.A. Story" elicited debate in the academic community and labor movement for two reasons. First, Milkman's conclusion about the top-down nature of effective union organizing flies in the face of the "new labor history", which argues that workers should not only be the focus of academic research but in fact are the most important facet of the labor movement. In some ways, Milkman's conclusions are reminiscent of the institutionalist and Hegelian historicist perspective of older labor theorists such as Selig Perlman, Philip Taft and John R. Commons. Milkman's findings also contradict to a significant degree the conclusions of other scholars such as Bronfenbrenner and Juravich, who find that greater levels of worker involvement in union organizing can be equated with a higher degree of union success. For labor activists, Milkman's book is controversial because it seems to suggest that union democracy is not an important factor in either union organizing success or in the revitalization of the labor movement.
Milkman co-authored a 2009 study of low-wage workers in New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago which found that these laborers are routinely denied overtime pay and often illegally paid less than the minimum wage.
Memberships and awards.
Milkman has received a number of honors in her career.
She has served on the editorial board for a number of scholarly journals, including "Feminist Studies," "Politics and Society," the "American Journal of Sociology," "Gender and Society," "International Labor and Working-Class History," "Contemporary Sociology," the "British Journal of Industrial Relations," "Industrial Relations" and "Work and Occupations."
Her book, "Gender at Work: The Dynamics of Job Segregation by Sex during World War II," won the 1987 Joan Kelly Memorial Prize in Women's History from the American Historical Association (AHA). The Joan Kelly Memorial Prize draws more submissions than most other AHA competitions, with an estimated 45 to 70 books competing in any given year.


List of retailers affected by the retail apocalypse

The following retailers have all either closed or announced plans to close large numbers of retail locations during the time period known as the retail apocalypse and in some cases gone out of business entirely.


Schofields (department store)

Schofields was a department store that operated on the Headrow in Leeds, England, from 1901 to 1996. For much of the 20th century Schofields was regarded as being the pinnacle of shopping in Leeds city centre.
The site is now home to The Core, formerly The Headrow Centre. Schofields also had department stores in Harrogate (an acquisition of a former Debenhams department store, named Cresta House, on James Street), Skipton (an acquisition of the former Ledgard & Wynn department store) (closed 1986) and Sheffield (a 1972 acquisition of the Cockaynes department store on Angel Street). The Sheffield store closed in 1982 and now trades as Argos on the ground floor with offices on the upper floors and the Harrogate branch now trades as Hoopers. The only visible evidence pointing to the existence of Schofields in Leeds was a NCP multi-storey car park, located near to the former department store premises, on Albion Street that continued to use the name of 'Schofields Car Park' despite the demise of this department store (but was rebranded in 2009 as "The Core" car park).
History.
The store was founded by Snowden Schofield on Saturday 4 May 1901 in a single unit as a "fancy drapers and milliners" with a staff of two then expanded in the following years into other units. The premises were originally a mixture of Victorian era buildings which included a shopping arcade, called the Victoria Arcade, running through the store.
The Leeds store was rebuilt in 1962 in a modernist style typical of the era. In September 1984 the business was sold to Clayform Properties Ltd who had intended to redevelop the site but planning permission was not granted. In 1988 the store was sold to the Al Fayed brothers who also owned Harrods and were then owners of House of Fraser. Following this, the store, whilst retaining the Schofields name, became part of the House of Fraser chain . This led to the 1987 reconstruction of the 1960s store which included reducing the size of the actual store and creating an adjoining shopping centre which became known as the "Schofields Centre". During the construction work Schofields was located on Briggate in a former Woolworths store. With the opening of the new Schofields in 1990 it was decided that the temporary store on Briggate would be retained by the company and be known as Rackhams, another trading name used by House of Fraser. The new Schofields on the Headrow closed down on 27 July 1996 due to competition from the other House of Fraser store on Briggate and as a result of consolidation by House of Fraser as a whole. This Briggate store is now known simply as House of Fraser.
Schofield Centre.
The new Schofields Centre opened with other retailers renting retail units. These included HMV and Marks & Spencer. Marks & Spencer later closed this outlet due to the expansion of their premises on nearby Briggate and HMV moved into the former M&S in about 1996.
The former Schofields premises which had become the Schofields Centre subsequently became known as "The Headrow Centre". This centre had been occupied by Lillywhites sportswear retailer between 1996 and 2001 and was later occupied by several chain stores including Sports Direct, New Look and HMV. The Headrow Centre management has recently let most of the tenancy agreements run out in order to redevelop the premises in the hope of attracting more business. The decision to let tenancy agreements expire, whilst only giving the shops 28 days notice of the closure in most cases, has caused negative media comments to be directed towards the centre. Many of the stores that have been in the centre for up to 15 years are being forced to close down and the staff are being given very little time to find new jobs. It is also seen as the centre 'killing' off the small businesses in order to attract more chain stores. The renovations are estimated to take 18 months to complete and 10 stores will be remaining open while the work is going on.
The new centre has been finished in late 2009 and now trades as "The Core" due to its place in the core of the city centre. The Core is home to new stores including a Bank and JD Sports combined store, a Cotswold Outdoor Clothing, and a USC. A new food court seating 500 people was intended to be located above New Look. The design features include the extensive use of glass. The developer, the Propinvest Group, has described the Leeds development as its flagship centre.
However, as of July 2011 many interior retail units within The Core remain vacant and the proposed food court has since been occupied by a gymnasium.


Joseph R. Harris Co.

Joseph R. Harris Co. was a Washington, D.C.-based chain of women's apparel stores.
History.
The chain was founded in 1916 in Washington, D.C. by Joseph R. Harris. By the time of its sale in 1971, to the retail conglomerate Garfinckel, Brooks Brothers, Miller & Rhoads, Inc., it had grown to nine locations in the Washington, D.C. area, and branches in Atlanta, Georgia and Charlotte, North Carolina. The company's founder retired as board chairman that same year.
In 1978, the Minneapolis, Minnesota-based retailer Gamble-Skogmo, Inc. purchased a 20-percent share of the Garfinckel conglomerate from the Joseph R. Harris family, thereby gaining a controlling interest in it. A court suit resulted in an agreement that Gamble-Skogmo would not acquire any more stock in Garfinckel. The following year, Garfinckel sold the Joseph R. Harris Co., then renamed Harris & Friends, to the Petrie Stores Corp. of Cleveland, Ohio. At the time, Harris had 26 stores in Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and the District of Columbia.
Flagship store.
The original location was at 1212 F Street, NW, in the downtown core shopping district of Washington, D.C. In 1929, they moved to 1224 F Street, NW. The chains final flagship store opened in 1965, and was located at 1336 F Street, NW; a store located in space formerly occupied by Capitol Theater in the National Press Building. The site is now occupied by The Shops at National Place.


InkStop

InkStop, Inc. was an office supply retailer founded in 2005 and most recently headquartered in Warrensville Heights, Ohio. On October 1, 2009, operations were stopped until further notice by the Board of Directors. On November 5, 2009, InkStop filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
History.
Beginnings.
In 2004, InkStop founder and CEO, Dirk Kettlewell, was Vice President of Technology at OfficeMax, but decided to leave based on the impending move of the company headquarters to Chicago by Boise Cascade, which acquired OfficeMax in 2003.
He took with him his eventual wife, Dawn (Callahan) Kettlewell, who was Vice President of Merchandising at OfficeMax, and several others to create InkStop, which was to be focused on profiting from mainly ink and toner sales in smaller stores giving convenience and better customer service than the competition.
Fast growth.
After its first location opened up in Independence, Ohio in 2006, InkStop grew to operate as many as 162 stores in 14 states. In April 2009, RBC Global Capital Markets ranked the company one of the 30 fastest-growing retailers nationwide.
Abrupt end.
On October 1, 2009, after calls were made and a memo was sent out at the end of the day of business, all operations were ceased immediately by the Board of Directors,
which includes former NFL quarterback Boomer Esiason.
The employees were not given their last two paychecks following this action.
On November 5, 2009, InkStop filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. The filing states the company owes $48.3 million to more than a 1,000 creditors. The company also owes $1.1 million to its former employees for wages not paid for the last 3 weeks worked as well as vacation pay and unpaid expenses.
At the December 5, 2009 bankruptcy hearing, it was learned that several investors were paid nearly $5.3 million to its directors and senior managers, including "$109,268 to Norman "Boomer" Esiason."
Legal actions.
"Warren et al. v. Inkstop, Inc. et al.".
On October 4, 2009, a class action suit was filed in Ohio Northern District Court against InkStop as well as Dirk and Dawn Kettlewell for unpaid wages and benefits.


Min Jibalina

Min Jibalina is one of the best-known songs of the Algerian War of Independence (1954–62).


Zhao Feng (art historian)

Zhao Feng (; born 1961) is a Chinese textile specialist with a special interest in Silk Road textiles. He is Director of the China National Silk Museum, the largest silk museum in the world.
Education.
Born in 1961, Zhao studied at the Zhejiang Institute of Silk Textile (now Zhejiang Sci-Tech University), earning a BA in Dyeing and Finishing (1978–82) and MA in Chinese Silk History (1982–84). He did his PhD in Textile History of China, at the China Textile University (now Donghua University) (1995-1997), a student of Zhu Xinyu 朱新予 and Jiang Youlong 蒋猷龙.
Career.
Zhao remained at the Zhejiang Institute of Silk Textile as an assistant researcher. In 1991, he became curator and researcher at the China National Silk Museum, and has remained with this museum since, with long periods overseas as a visiting researcher, studying Chinese textiles in museums around the world: at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (1997–98), Royal Ontario Museum (1999), and British Museum (2006). He also holds the following positions in Chinese and international organisations: Director of Chinese Textiles Identification Protection Center; professor and PhD supervisor of Donghua University; member of the National Committee of Cultural Relics; council member of Centre International d'Etude des Textiles Anciens (CIETA); director of Dunhuang Studies of Zhejiang province; representative of 11th National People's Congress; one of Zhejiang Provincial “Super Experts”; director of Key Scientific Research Base of Textile Conservation, SACH. In 2015 he proposed the founding of the International Association for the Study of Silk Road Textiles, and became its first President.
Research.
Zhao's research is in the history of Chinese silk; identification and conservation of textile relics; cultural communication between China and the world along the Silk Road. He has published extensively in both Chinese and English.


Barrows (department store)

Barrow Stores was an upmarket department store located in Bull Street, Birmingham.
History.
Barrow Stores was originally started by Richard Cadbury, of the Cadbury chocolate family. Richard opened a small drapery store in 1794 in Bull Street. By 1824 the Cadbury family opened a new shop next door selling tea, coffee and cocoa.
However, in 1849 John Cadbury transferred the business to his cousin Richard Cadbury Barrow so they could concentrate on the manufacture of chocolate. The business was renamed Barrow Stores.
By 1905 the store had been rebuilt with a new cafe on the first floor for the customers to try the companies products, and had numerous departments from glass & china to food. The business use to provide Christmas lists with lists of good available for customers to purchase, while their fleet of vehicles use to deliver goods across Birmingham and to areas such as Wolverhampton & Lichfield.
In the 1960s Barrow Stores moved from their location on the corner of Bull Street and Corporation Street to a smaller store on Corporation Street opposite Lewis', where the new store concentrated on food. The business was purchased by Fitch Lovell in 1964, and in December 1973 merged Barrow Stores into its supermarket chain Key Markets.
His fascination for Barrow Stores led J.R.R. Tolkien to name his legendary student club T.C.B.S. (acronym for: Tea Club Barrovian Society) in a latinised version after the store.


2020 New Caledonian independence referendum

An independence referendum was held in New Caledonia on 4 October 2020. The poll was the second to be held under the terms of the Nouméa Accord, following a similar referendum in 2018.
Independence was rejected, with 53.26 percent of voters opposing such a change, a slight drop from the 2018 result in which 56.7 percent voted "no". Turnout was 85.69 percent. The Nouméa Accord permits one further referendum to be held, should the Congress of New Caledonia vote for it. The third referendum must be held by 2022.
Background.
New Caledonia was formally annexed by France in 1853, and Europeans and Polynesians, as well as other settlers, have since made the indigenous Kanaks a minority (27%, 11% and 39% respectively in the 2014 census). The territory was used as a penal colony from 1864 to 1897, and the Kanaks were excluded from the French economy and from mining work, and ultimately confined to reservations. Between 1976 and 1988, conflicts between the French government and the independence movement saw periods of serious violence and disorder (culminating in the Ouvéa cave hostage taking in 1988), with the emerging Kanak independence movement gaining support from many Kanaks frustrated with their lower socio-economic status and lack of involvement in the economy, seen as problems caused by the French exploitation. Though GDP per capita (nominal) is high at $38,921 and though New Caledonia is a major producer of nickel, there is significant inequality in income distribution, with many claiming that the mining revenue benefits people outside the territory and its (declining) mining communities.
Since 1986, the United Nations Committee on Decolonization has included New Caledonia on the United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories. The 1987 New Caledonia independence referendum, the first referendum on independence, was held the following year on 13 September 1987, but independence was rejected by a large majority, with 842 people (1.7%) voting for independence and 48,611 people (98.3%) voting to remain a part of France. Many pro-independence groups, such as the Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS), boycotted the vote.
The Matignon Agreements, signed on 26 June 1988 by Jean-Marie Tjibaou and Jacques Lafleur, set up a ten-year period of stability and made certain provisions for the Kanak population. The Nouméa Accord, signed 5 May 1998 by the French government and the main independence and anti-independence parties, set in motion a 20-year transition period that transferred certain powers to the local government and laid the groundwork for an independence referendum in 2018.
In accordance with the Nouméa Accord, New Caledonians are allowed up to three referendums on independence; the first in 2018, then two more in 2020 and 2022 if the previous ones had not resulted in independence, but one-third of members of the Congress of New Caledonia voted for another one. The first was held in November 2018, with voters rejecting independence by 56.7 percent.
In 2019, members of the Caledonian Union, Future with Confidence, the Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS) and the National Union for Independence requested another referendum be held.
Franchise.
The referendum was held using a special electoral roll. Potential voters had to be registered on the general electoral roll, and also meet one of the secondary criteria:
As a consequence of these restrictions, in the 2018 referendum 35,948 registered voters on the general list were thus excluded from the vote, equating to 17.11% out of a total of 210,105 registered voters on the general electoral roll. Vote restriction restricts the voting power of recent inhabitants—derogatively known as "Zoreilles"—and enlarges the voting power of native Kanaks, and was long sought after by FLNKS.
Campaign and voting.
Campaigns were run by the "Front de libération nationale kanak et socialiste" (FLNKS) and the "Mouvement nationaliste pour la souveraineté de Kanaky" (Nationalist Movement for the Sovereignty of Kanaky), representing parties who supported independence, and the "loyalistes" who wanted the territory to remain French. Les Loyalistes included the political parties L'Avenir en confiance and the National Rally, while the secessionists were led by the Labour Party.
Campaign issues included rights to the exploitation of nickel in New Caledonia, The French government and loyalists regarded the nickel as one of its strategic assets, as well as an important source of income and employment for the islanders, while separatists were sceptical of the benefits to them with foreign companies operating the plants, as well as criticising pollution from the industry and its effect on the vital local sectors of agriculture and fisheries.
After abstaining from participating in the 2018 referendum, in July 2020 the anti-globalisation Labour Party announced it would call for its supporters to vote for independence in the upcoming referendum.
The referendum was held on 4 October 2020. Voting on the day was largely held peacefully, although Loyalists alleged that there was some intimidation and racist targeting of European Caledonian voters by Kanaks in a few localities.
Results and aftermath.
With a turnout of 85.6 percent, 53.26 percent of voters opted for "no", with the result that the islands remain French. This was a lower figure than the 2018 poll, in which 56.7 percent voted "no". Results were strongly polarised geographically, with 71 percent of South Province residents rejecting independence, while the smaller other two provinces, North Province and Loyalty Islands Province, voted "yes" by 76 percent and 82 percent respectively. In almost every commune, the share of "yes" votes increased.
As this was the second of three permitted independence referenda, there may be a third and final referendum at some point before 2022. Daniel Goa, of the pro-independence party Caledonian Union, expressed a hope that the shift in vote share towards the "yes" camp would lead to a successful third referendum. Meanwhile Sonia Backès, leader of Les Loyalistes, called for dialogue between the two sides although she acknowledged that it might be necessary to hold the third referendum before such a dialogue could commence.
French president Emmanuel Macron expressed gratitude for the result, thanking New Caledonians for their "vote of confidence" in the Republic. He also acknowledged those who had backed independence, calling for dialogue between all sides to map out the future of the region.


Grupo Banistmo

Grupo Banistmo was a Panamanian financial services company, and the largest in Central America. It was founded in 1984. In 1999 it began an expansion strategy that has resulted in the acquisition of banks in several Central American countries, as well as Colombia and the Bahamas. It was the holding company of Primer Banco del Istmo, S.A. or Banistmo, the largest bank in Panama. Its President and Chief Executive Officer was Alberto Vallarino. In November 2006 it was acquired by HSBC Holdings plc, and merged with HSBC Bank (Panama) S.A., the bank’s existing subsidiary in 2007. In 2013 Bancolombia Group acquired HSBC Panama and renamed it Banistmo.


Dalys

Dalys was one of the 11 department stores of Glasgow, located on what was the grand Sauchiehall Street.
History.
Daly's started out as James Daly, Son & Niven in 1846 as a drapers based in Argyll Street (known as Daly's Tron House). By 1880 the "son" was dropped from the name of the business, however only four years later the partnership was dissolved and the business continued to trade as James Daly & Co.
At the same time as the partnership broke up the store moved from 32 Argyll Street to 60-62 Trongate, however this was a short term move as 8 years later the store again moved to its final home at 199 Sauchiehall Street. The store expanded from a drapery business into a full blown department store, taking over properties next door right up to number 217 Sauchiehall Street (1928), home to the former Willow Tea Rooms.
In 1934 the business was purchased by the Scottish Drapery Corporation whom renamed the store Daly & Sons. The business stayed as an independent company run by the Daly family under the corporation's wing, until 1952 when the Scottish Drapery Corporation was purchased by House of Fraser. The company Daly & Sons was liquidated, however the store continued to operate under the Daly's brand until 1979 when the store was closed and redeveloped as retail space.


Aghurubw

Aghurubw (Pronounced "A-GA-BU-RU") was a Carolinian (Refaluwasch) Chief and master navigator who led his people from Satawal to what is now Saipan in the early 19th century.
Journey to Saipan and settlement.
After an 1815 typhoon destroyed life on their home island, Chief Aghurubw of the Ghatoliyool clan and Chief Nguschul (Pronounced "NU"-"GU"-"SCHUL") of Elato asked permission from the Spanish Governor Farallon de Medinilla for their people to settle on Saipan. The Spaniards allowed them to move there to manage their cattle herds, turning the island into a ranch or cattle plantation They were also allowed to go to Tinian which neighbors Saipan. Aghurubw received a legal certificate and traditional symbols of a leader. He was given a cane in addition to a tall black hat. Due to the tall hat he was called "parúng." This made him a paramount chief.
To get to the island he used an ancient sea route called "metawal wool." The island of Satawal is five hundred miles from Saipan. They landed on a beach called Micro Beach. After bringing his people there the Carolinians built a village called Arabwal. He gave the village that name.
Legacy.
After his death, Chief Aghurubw was buried on Managaha (Ghalaghal) island. The man was buried upright which was a request of his so that he could see Micro Beach.
On the island there is statue of him. Due to him being buried there the place is sacred to Refaluwasch people in CNMI. People come to the island every year to celebrate him.
More Carolinians came after the two leaders brought their people and setup villages. The Carolinians' who setup settlements on Saipan were successful after the chiefs brought their people.
The Chief has his own holiday called Chief Aghurubw Day. This holiday is considered a big part of the Refaluwasch culture on the CNMI. In addition to this there is a foundation named after him called Chief Aghurubw Foundation. It was formed by the Ghatoliyool Clan.


Somerfield

Somerfield (originally Gateway) was a chain of small to medium-sized supermarkets operating in the United Kingdom. The company also previously owned the Kwik Save chain of discount food stores. The company was taken over by the Co-operative Group on 2 March 2009 in a £1.57 billion deal, creating the UK's fifth-largest food retailer. The Somerfield name was replaced by the Co-operative brand in a rolling programme of store conversions ending in summer 2011.
Gateway history.
The early years.
The company has its origins in a Bristol-based grocer known as J.H. Mills which was founded in 1875 and which developed a self-service supermarket chain named Gateway Foodmarkets in 1960. During the early 1970s, Gateway operated primarily in the southwest of England with a few stores elsewhere. Ford and Lock stores and S&H Pink Stamp acquisitions took place during the period when loyalty stamps were prevalent and the first freezer centres were opened. Gateway Foodmarkets was taken over by Linfood Holdings, a consortium which already owned the Frank Dee Supermarkets which operated over the north and east of England. At the time Frank Dee Supermarkets and the larger DEE Discount stores were a business larger than Gateway and had a chain of 79 supermarkets, in 1977. In 1983, Linfood Holdings was renamed the Dee Corporation. Initial plans were proposed to utilise the distribution depots on three main sites; the thriving Frank Dee's purpose built facilities in Anlaby and Billingham, and the existing Gateway warehousing site in Bristol.
Acquisitions.
Alec Monk, chief executive of the Dee Corporation, having escaped a takeover bid from Argyll Foods in 1981, decided to create his own supermarket empire. Three of the biggest acquisitions were of Key Markets from Fitch Lovell, International Stores, bought from British American Tobacco in 1984, and Fine Fare, bought from Associated British Foods the following year. The company also purchased the UK arm of the French retailer, Carrefour when the French retailer exited Britain in the late 1980s. By this time, the Dee Corporation had over 1,100 stores and nearly 12% of the market, not far behind Sainsbury's and Tesco. Most of the Dee Corporation’s outlets were small, high-street stores. Monk argued that there was a future for well-run conventional supermarkets as well as the large out-of-town stores.
However, by 1987 the Dee Corporation ran into problems, mainly because of the difficulty of integrating so many disparate businesses. Some disposals were made in that year, including the Linfood wholesaling operation. In 1988, the Dee Corporation changed its name to the Gateway Corporation, and a new retailing chief was recruited from the US. Investors remained sceptical, and in 1989 the Company was the subject of a £2bn takeover bid from a newly formed company, Isosceles; the deal was partly financed by a pre-arranged sale of 61 Gateway stores to Asda.
Isosceles era.
When Isosceles, a newly created financial group led by David Smith and backed by several big investment institutions, bid successfully for Gateway in 1989 and took the company private, the plan was to restructure the business and refocus it on what were called "middle ground" outlets, falling between the larger out of town superstores and smaller, inner-city neighbourhood shops; the average size of the stores was between and . The promoters of the Isosceles bid believed that, after this disposal and extensive restructuring of the rest of the portfolio, Gateway could become a viable competitor; the intention was to re-float the company on the stock market within three to five years. However, the bid was highly leveraged, and it was not clear that the new company would be able to fund the necessary modernisation of the business.
Some of the planned disposals of non-core businesses took longer than expected to complete. Financial strains led to the enforced departure of David Smith and other executives in 1991.
Somerfield history.
In the following year, a new chief executive, Bob Willett, was appointed and a decision was taken to rebrand the company's operations as Somerfield after a successful pilot scheme in 1990 with a new store and the first Somerfield store in the country being built in Burnham on Sea, Somerset, and the company then built its success upon the new brand alongside the existing Gateway and Food Giant chains. A small number of stores were also relaunched under a new Food Giant discount brand, with the first store opening in Nottingham in 1991.
Two years later, yet another chief executive, David Simons, was in command. In May 1994 the company changed its name to Somerfield plc.
According to "The Guardian" newspaper, the holding company almost collapsed in the 1990s under a "mountain of debt". In 1996, Somerfield plc was floated on the stock market in an initial public offering, after the recovery had reached the point where flotation became feasible with a market value of around £600m, and the proceeds were used to repay banks that had lent to Isosceles. At the time of the flotation the company’s market share had fallen to 5.3%, its lowest level for two years, but Simons claimed that the company was now clearly positioned in the market, and that the business would benefit from what he saw as the trend back towards high-street shopping. The aim was to become the UK’s strongest neighbourhood food retailer.
Questions remained about whether, at a time of intense competition both from discounters and from the bigger chains, Somerfield could generate adequate growth in sales and profits.
In 1997 the Somerfield website was launched, which gave customers access to viewing online content such as offers, services and recipes, as well as online shopping via the chain's free Home Delivery service.
Kwik Save purchase.
In 1998, the company took over the rival Kwik Save in a £473 million transaction. Although the deal was billed as a merger of equals, Somerfield investors owned 62.5% of the enlarged group.
Observers questioned whether putting together two very different businesses would solve either’s problems. The initial plan was to convert most of the Kwik Save stores to the Somerfield fascia, but the group continued to suffer from a disparate store portfolio, the result of numerous ill digested acquisitions by Kwik Save prior to the Somerfield takeover. At the end of 1999 Simons, facing strong criticism from the City, announced plans to sell a third of the company’s 1,400 stores. He admitted that the group had underestimated the difference between Somerfield and Kwik Save, and had failed to support and maintain the Kwik Save brand, and a few months later Simons resigned.
The original plan to transfer all Kwik Save stores to the Somerfield fascia was quickly abandoned after it became clear that many outlets were not suitable for conversion, either due to size or location. Also, the downmarket wooden shelving and poor quality fittings used by Kwik Save meant that every conversion required a full refurbishment of the store - simply changing the signage and uniforms would have risked dragging the carefully developed Somerfield brand downmarket. Instead, the larger Kwik Save stores were converted, some were sold or closed and the chain became a trading division of Somerfield Stores Ltd, sharing its supply chain and back office systems with Somerfield. For some years, the own brand products in Kwik Save stores were Somerfield, although this policy was reversed once it was decided to keep the brand.
It was clear that more than a hundred Somerfield and Kwik Save stores were within a mile of each other and directly competing: also customers were switching from high street to out of town shopping.
Somerfield Direct.
Somerfield launched a home shopping pilot in the Bristol area under the name Somerfield Direct in early 1999. As a call centre operated service, customers would telephone the company to order Somerfield produce, which would be delivered direct from the warehouse.
After the launch, Somerfield bought Supermarket Direct in April 1999 for £3.25 million to extend the range of Somerfield Direct, and Supermarket Direct partners Dominick Scott-Flanagan and David Noble joined the Somerfield Direct board. At the time Somerfield Direct only covered the South West of England from its base in Bristol. With the incorporation of Supermarket Direct, Somerfield Direct extended its range to the London area.
While other home shopping services were providing internet ordering, at this point Somerfield Direct was a catalogue and call-centre operation, chief executive Simons expressing the view that "Mrs Smith in Stockport is more likely to use a handy catalogue from her supermarket than surf the Net in search for Fido's dog food". The operation launched internet ordering in July 1999, and was then rebranded as "Somerfield 24-7". At its peak the home shopping division employed 225 staff and operated from three distribution centres.
However, Somerfield suffered large losses in 2000, its home shopping venture was described as an "ill-fated foray", and development was halted that June.
John von Spreckelsen.
John von Spreckelsen, former chief executive of convenience food retailer Budgens, was brought in as chairman in April 2000.
The new strategy was to keep Somerfield and Kwik Save as separate businesses, while sharing common services in such areas as information technology and corporate finance. By mid-2002 – half way through what was seen as a five-year recovery programme – the company announced a return to the black, and dividends were resumed after a two-year break, although the positioning issues remained unsolved.
Somerfield was the product of opportunistic acquisitions, driven more by financial engineering than by any conception of where the company should be positioned. The focus on medium-sized high street supermarkets was largely a matter of making the best of a very difficult job; the main problem, which had not been solved by the end of the 1980s, was to make some sense of the heterogeneous collection of stores which it had acquired through its numerous takeovers.
New formats.
Somerfield changed its logo in 2002 from a rectangular shape to a more contemporary design and opened a number of store formats, including Somerfield Essentials and Somerfield Market Fresh. It further changed its brand image by introducing newer own-brand lines including the premium 'So Good' range, the low fat 'Good Intentions', and a new advertising strapline that was later introduced in 2004: "Somerthing Different". A low-price own brand label called 'Makes Sense' was introduced to compete with rival low-cost brands, such as Tesco Value. At some time in the mid-00s, some stores started selling products labelled under the German-based Tchibo brand, however this later ceased by 2009.
Safeway Compact.
In October 2004, Somerfield acquired 114 Safeway Compact stores from Morrisons, which were subsequently re branded under the Somerfield name. This deal was referred to the Competition Commission. After completing its investigation, the commission instructed Somerfield to sell 12 stores. In September 2005, Somerfield announced its intention to appeal against the decision, a process delayed by a takeover bid for the chain. The Competition Appeal Tribunal upheld the commission's decision in February 2006. Somerfield therefore had to proceed with sale of the 12 stores. However, the sale of Kwik Save in February 2006 is likely to have removed the potential clashes between some of the offending stores.
Acquired by private equity.
Retail entrepreneurs John Lovering and Bob Mackenzie made two failed bids to take over the Company in 2003. Then in 2005, Icelandic venture capital group Baugur made an approach, while United Co-operatives and London & Regional Properties also expressed an interest, but both groups dropped out of the running.
Then on 21 December 2005 Somerfield plc was acquired for £1.1 billion by a consortium consisting of Apax Partners, Barclays Capital and the Tchenguiz Family Trust, at which time the name of the group changed to Somerfield Ltd.
The aim of the new owners was to simplify the business and attract new customers. The first move was the end of the SaverCard loyalty scheme in May 2006 with promotional deals becoming available to all customers. A new point of sale was introduced to make promotions and price cuts more visible to customers. Somerfield's three own-label brands have also been overhauled; the budget 'Makes Sense' range became 'Simply Value', the low calories 'Good Intentions' range became 'Healthy Choice', and the premium 'So Good' range became 'Best Ever!'.
Kwik Save sale.
In 2005, Somerfield closed 22 of its 51 Scottish Kwik Save stores and re-branded the remainder under its own name, thus removing the Kwik Save brand from the marketplace north of the border.
After the group was taken over, it was reported that the new owners found the Kwik Save chain was losing £40m per year, effectively cancelling out around 40% of the profits generated by the Somerfield division. As a result, it sped up the conversion of stores from Kwik Save to Somerfield. On 27 February 2006, Somerfield Stores Ltd sold the Kwik Save brand and 171 stores to BTTF, an investment vehicle headed by Paul Niklas, for an undisclosed sum. Somerfield re-branded the 102 Kwik Save sites it had retained under its own name and a further 77 stores were sold to other retailers, thought to include Netto and Aldi, leaving the company to focus solely on the Somerfield brand.
Subsequent to the initial sale, a further 19 Kwik Save stores were acquired by BTTF, including some of those included in the Competition Commission investigation ruling into the Safeway Compact takeover.
Store rationalisation.
In August 2006, a series of store closures was announced as Somerfield's new owners continued their restructuring activity. Some of these were poorly performing Somerfield stores and some were former Kwik Save sites that had not proved successful after being converted to Somerfield stores in 2006.
Some stores were sold to other groups, including Sainsbury's, which bought five stores, while others were closed completely.
In October 2006, it was revealed that 40 Somerfield stores, including many retained Kwik Save branches, had been sold. These stores were mainly under-performing converted Kwik Save stores.
In November 2006, the company also sold a further 12 stores to Marks & Spencer to trade under the M&S Simply Food brand. This deal included stores in Blackheath in south east London, Broughty Ferry in Dundee, and Petersfield and Alton in Hampshire.
Having bought 140 Texaco petrol stations in 2007, Somerfield tripled the size of some of their shops, using a similar format to its convenience stores. Signage was replaced with the Somerfield brand.
Takeover by the Co-operative Group.
On 16 July 2008, it was announced that Somerfield would be acquired by the Co-operative Group for £1.57 billion, subject to approval from the Office of Fair Trading.
The build-up to this announcement began in late 2007, when the parent private equity consortium, that had acquired Somerfield in December 2005, put the chain up for sale. News reports valued the chain at over £1.5 billion.
Somerfield appointed Citigroup to manage the sale, and a preference to sell as a going concern rather than on a piecemeal basis was reported. It emerged that four provisional bids were made. Only the Co-operative Group, the UK's largest co-operative, publicly announced purchase talks, aiming to complete due diligence for the entire estate of 900 Somerfield stores in the third quarter, but would be expected to sell a minority of stores. On 24 June, a Thomson Reuters newswire reported sources indicating that the Co-operative Group's acquisition of Somerfield could be finalised at the start of July, in a final deal worth £1.7 billion. Earlier in June, Morrisons confirmed that it was not bidding for Somerfield, but would consider the purchase of any stores that are sold after the acquisition. Newspaper sources said that other major supermarket chains are also interested in such purchases. In July 2008, the Co-operative Group announced a deal to purchase Somerfield for £1.57 billion, creating the fifth largest supermarket chain in the UK. It was confirmed on 20 October 2008 that the Office of Fair Trading had approved the sale of Somerfield under the condition that 133 stores must be sold. This process continued into 2009 with many stores changing ownership, for example to Lidl.
In February 2009, it was announced that The Co-operative Group planned to close the Somerfield head office in Bristol and relocate all operations to its existing head office in Manchester. The Co-operative said that it would try to relocate as many staff as possible to other areas of the business or to its head office in Manchester, to try to avoid redundancies. The takeover was officially completed on 2 March 2009.
Operations.
As an independent entity, Somerfield was the sixth largest food retailer in the UK, according to TNS Worldpanel, following the sale of the Kwik Save unit and the closure or sale of unprofitable stores, with 977 stores (as of January 2007). Also the fifth largest private company in the UK, Somerfield had a 3.8% share of the UK grocery market in 2007, down from 4.5% in 2006.
The five larger retailers "(in descending order of size)" were Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury's, Morrisons and The Co-operative Group. The top four have specialities in larger superstores, while the Co-op has become the largest community retailer, with specialities in convenience stores and smaller supermarkets. At one point in early 2007, Somerfield was also briefly surpassed in size by Waitrose, and the independent grocers' distributor, Nisa, is comparable in size.
References in popular culture.
The branch of Somerfield in Wells, Somerset, England had featured prominently in the 2007 film "Hot Fuzz" and Somerfield branding was clearly visible. In the film, the manager of the supermarket Simon Skinner, played by Timothy Dalton; is a charming but sinister individual. The film includes a gun battle scene in the supermarket between police and staff members in full Somerfield uniforms, and a scene involving hand-to-hand combat. Simon Skinner was also injured after tripping on a miniature Somerfield lorry in a model village, landing on the model church and getting severely injured in the throat. The Somerfield shop also appeared on BBC's Top Gear, during an interview between actor Simon Pegg and host Jeremy Clarkson. The reason the store was chosen was due to the director of the film Edgar Wright having formerly worked at the store. Wright also made an amateur film called "Dead Right" that had scenes in the same store which is featured on the bonus DVD editions of "Hot Fuzz". The gameshow "Supermarket Sweep" for its 1993–2001 run on ITV had the supermarket set modelled and furnished after ASDA, between 1993–94, complete with their own brand products, then Somerfield of the era between 1995–97, and then the Co-op until the original series ended in 2001. The 2007 revival series had a similar look.
The store under its Gateway name, featured briefly in the 1990 Christmas Special of "Only Fools and Horses" ("Rodney Come Home"), in which a store can be seen behind the main characters Del Boy and Uncle Albert, while they are travelling up an escalator to reach the top floor of a shopping precinct, so Del Boy can sell a set of dolls that wet themselves and sing a lullaby in Chinese, while Albert acts as his "Lookout" (for police officers).
In the coming of age play and film Beautiful Thing written by Jonathan Harvey the main character Jamie asks Tony the new-age lover of his mother Sandra where they met to which he responds "Gateways".
Gateway was specifically mentioned by Victor Meldrew in "One Foot in the Grave" after the local newspaper erroneously reported that Victor had 'gone to ground', when in actual fact he had 'gone to Gateway'. In one episode a Gateway store can be seen in the background.


Hamady

Hamady was an American supermarket chain based in Flint, Michigan which at its peak had 37 stores and 1,300 employees. Given the chain's pervasiveness in the area, paper grocery bags were known as “Hamady sacks”. The family business is best remembered for sending truckloads of food to the strikers in the famous sit-down strike in 1937 of General Motors' Fisher Body plant that led to the recognition of the United Auto Workers by the auto industry. They are also the first grocery retailers to introduce self-service.
History.
Hamady Brothers was founded in 1911 by Michael and Kamol Hamady, who were immigrant cousins from Lebanon and referred to themselves as brothers. The first store was opened on East Dayton Street and Industrial Avenue, Flint.
Michael Hamady was the first CEO and was followed by his son Robert in 1954, his grand-nephew Jack in 1967, and by his grandson Robert Lee in 1969. Robert Lee restructured the company and sold it in 1974 to Alex Dandy.
The chain expanded through Michigan in 1980 by purchasing 21 closed Kroger stores, primarily on the west side of the state. In July and September 1985, Hamady bought two Hutch's supermarkets in Owosso, Michigan followed by in October with the purchase of Vescio's 5 stores in Saginaw County. The two acquisitions, which would be rebranded as Hamady stores, bringing the chain's store total to 30. As a result, an existing Hamady in Owosso was converted to a discount store called Price Rite. Price Rite was ran by a division of Durant Enterprises, Dandy's parent corporation.
The chain was hit with a seven-week strike in 1987. Dandy's company also acquires Chatham. Chatham and Hamady were embezzled from by Dandy. By 1988, the former Kroger locations, along with some former Vescio locations in Saginaw, Michigan, had closed. Hamady declared bankruptcy in 1988. In March 1989, a reorganization plan by M&B Distribution board chairman James McColgan Sr. for Hamady Bros. was approved by Federal bankruptcy Judge Arthur J. Spector. McColgan Investment Co., a M&B subsidiary, would purchase 21 Hamady Bros. supermarkets for about $17.9 million to which Dandy objected. By May 1989, Dandy had approved the sale of Hamady assets to McColgan Investment. McColgan became chairman and chief operating officer. The chain closed the last of its stores in 1991. 13 locations were sold to Kessel Food Markets, which was founded in 1981 by former Hamady vice president Al Kessel.
Jim McColgan (Jr) has announced that he is opening a Hamady Complete Food Center in a former Kroger location in August 2017 in Flint. However, after just three months, the store permanently liquidated after failure to meet financial objectives.


Festival Walk

Festival Walk is a shopping centre in Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong developed jointly by Swire Properties and CITIC Pacific between 1993 and 1998. At the time of its opening in November 1998, it was the biggest shopping mall in Hong Kong. Festival Walk is acquired by Mapletree North Asia Commercial Trust ("MNACT"). There are also four floors of offices on top of the mall.
Location.
Festival Walk is located in Yau Yat Chuen, Sham Shui Po District, and is directly linked to Kowloon Tong station, which is an interchange station of the East Rail line and the Kwun Tong line of Hong Kong's Mass Transit Railway. It also has a pedestrian link to the City University of Hong Kong.
History.
Construction of the mall commenced in 1994 and was completed in 1998. Significant challenges were faced in the creation of the 21,000 m² site due to its terraced land form as well as its narrow land shape. The tunnels for the Kwun Tong line of the MTR run through the full length of the site. During the construction of the building's four basement levels, 460,000 m³ of earth had to be removed.
Festival Walk was jointly owned by Swire Properties and CITIC Pacific until 2006, when Swire Properties bought out the 50% stake held by its partner. In July 2011, Mapletree Investments acquired the property for HK$18.8 billion (approximately US$2.4 billion), making it the world's largest retail real estate deal in 2011.
In 2015, it was announced that the AMC Cinema, a major anchor tenant, would move to Yuen Long due to a rent increase that the director of Broadway Circuit (operator of the AMC chain in Hong Kong) called "very astonishing". The AMC cineplex had been a tenant of Festival Walk for over 17 years. The cinema was replaced by an eight-screen Festival Grand Cinema in 2016.
Stores and restaurants.
Festival Walk has a variety of stores and restaurants on multiple levels.
Configuration and positioning.
Festival Walk comprises some one million square feet of retail space. It has approximately 220 shops and restaurants, a multiplex cinema and an ice rink. Located above the mall is an additional of office space. Festival Walk's three level car park can accommodate 830 cars.
Festival Walk is positioned as a "comfortable" middle-market mall with the emphasis on service rather than price. The relatively spacious stores are mid-range to high-end and include brands such as Agnes B flagship store, Calvin Klein Jeans, Hollister, H&M, Juicy Couture and Kate Spade New York. Like malls in many western countries, Festival Walk has information booths to assist shoppers.
Design and environmental features.
The seven-storey shopping mall occupies three lower-ground levels, a ground level and three levels above ground. A six-level atrium, some 120 m long and 30 m wide atrium cuts longitudinally through the interior of the mall. A glass skylight over the atrium provides natural light to the interior of the building. There is a food court on the mall's topmost floor, with a view of the indoor skating rink.
Festival Walk is equipped with a waste management system for all food service outlets within the mall. An organic food digester was installed to accelerate the decomposition of food waste into waste water and food residue which is then discharged harmlessly into the sewerage system. The developers also installed a water-cooled air-conditioning system in 2002 at a cost of HK$13 million. The developer claims the system's high energy efficiency has saved 5 million kWh each year.
Financial transactions.
The development was a 50:50 joint venture between Swire Properties and CITIC Pacific. The partners secured the plot in a Government land auction in 1993 with a HK$2.9 billion bid, and developed it at an estimated cost of $2.2 billion. In January 2006, in Hong Kong's biggest property deal, Swire Properties paid HK$6.18 billion to buy out its partner's half share. In July 2007, it was announced that Swire Pacific was contemplating listing the property as a real estate investment trust. In July 2011, Mapletree Investments acquired Festival Walk at a property value of HK$18.8 billion which was the largest global retail real estate deal in 2011 In 2013, Festival Walk was divested to Mapletree's fourth real estate investment trust, the Mapletree Greater China Commercial Trust, as one of its two seed assets in 2013. In 2018, Mapletree Greater China Commercial Trust renamed as Mapletree North Asia Commercial Trust upon completion of acquisition of Japan portfolio. The mall is now managed by Mapletree North Asia Property Management Limited.
2014 roof damage.
At approximately 9:00 pm (0800 GMT) on 30 March 2014 hailstones the size of golfballs shattered the ceiling windows of Festival Walk during a heavy thunderstorm, causing rain to pour straight into the interior of the mall. Some sections of interior ceiling collapsed and ankle-deep flooding was reported. Water from the shopping mall overflowed into the attached railway station. Mapletree Greater China Commercial Trust Management, the manager of Mapletree Greater China Commercial Trust, which owns Festival Walk, said its staff were on site to render assistance. However, mall management were criticized for failing to alert the public through the mall's website and via relevant social media networks. Evacuation of the public was also done poorly, as at 10:00 pm the public was still on scene sending live images to social media networks.


British Colonial Auxiliary Forces

This is a list of auxiliary regiments or units formed by the British in individual colonies of the British Empire. In some colonies, the units were led by officers seconded from the British Army. Especially in the case of units that recruited non-whites, even in colonies where the officers were primarily colonials, commissions were generally restricted to whites until after the Second World War. Non-white colonials, as well as non-whites from Britain itself (who were for a time assigned to British West Indian Regiments of the British Army as a matter of policy, even if enlisting in Britain) served primarily in the other ranks. Although militias operating on the same principle as the militia in England and Wales were established in many colonies during the 17th and 18th Centuries, from the 19th Century onwards colonial units were mostly voluntary, and supplied a reserve force either to be called up in war time to reinforce regular British Army garrisons for home defence, or in some cases were entirely responsible for home defence. Many units, however, took part in active campaigns outside of the role of home defence in various conflicts the British Empire was involved in, including the two world wars.
Some of the reserve colonial units, especially in the strategically-placed "Imperial Fortress" colonies (particularly Gibraltar, Bermuda and Malta), were funded by the War Department out of Army Funds and considered part of the British Army (by example, the Bermuda Militia Artillery was grouped with the Royal Artillery and the Bermuda Volunteer Engineers with the Royal Engineers in the official Army Lists, which also listed the Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps and Bermuda Militia Infantry officers, whereas most colonial units did not appear at all), whereas others that did not receive Army Funds were considered auxiliaries (British military units, but not part of the British Army). This had originally been true of various other military forces in the United Kingdom before the mid-Nineteenth Century, following which the Board of Ordnance was abolished and its military corps (the Royal Artillery, Royal Engineers, and Royal Sappers and Miners) and previously-civilian Commissariat, stores and transport departments were all absorbed by the British Army and the Militia, Yeomanry and Volunteer Forces were more closely integrated with the British Army through a succession of military reforms.
Many colonial units started out as auxiliaries and later became regular units and forerunners to the current militaries of those colonies which have become politically independent.
While most of the units listed here were army units, colonial marines were raised at various times, as were colonial naval and air force reserve units.
Today, only four British Overseas Territories regiments remain (not including cadet corps): the Royal Bermuda Regiment; the Royal Gibraltar Regiment; the Falkland Islands Defence Force; and the Royal Montserrat Defence Force. The British Government is currently (2020) working with the local governments of the Turks and Caicos Islands and the Cayman Islands to raise reserve military units in those territories, also, with recruitment for the new Cayman Islands Regiment starting in January, 2020.


Shops at West Seneca

The Shops at West Seneca is a 1 million square foot shopping plaza located in West Seneca, New York. Its anchor is Tops Friendly Markets. The second anchor Kmart closed in January 2019 and was demolished in February 2020.


The Sample

The Sample, also known as The Sample Dress Shop or The Sample Shop, was a family-owned, high end department store specializing in upscale ladies clothing and furnishings based in Buffalo, New York. The original store was established by Anne W. Bunis on Hertel Avenue in North Buffalo in 1928. The company started when Mrs. Bunis returned from a trip to New York City with a set of 48 "sample" dresses, which she in turn sold for $12.75 each. Expansion occurred during the early 1950s with stores at Lancaster, New York; Lockport, New York; Thruway Plaza (later Thruway Mall) in Cheektowaga, New York; South Buffalo at 2182 Seneca Street; and Downtown Buffalo at 554 Main Street, the former home of Flint & Kent. The Downtown Buffalo store closed in 1959. In 1961, a store opened in Amherst, New York and in 1969, a store opened at Seneca Mall in West Seneca, New York. In 1971, a store opened at Eastern Hills Mall, with another store opening up at the Summit Park Mall in 1972, and in 1985, a store opened in McKinley Mall in Hamburg, New York. The last store in the then 11-store chain opened in 1988 at Walden Galleria in Cheektowaga, New York. In 1990, following the death of company chairman Maer Bunis, the company began a rapid descent into bankruptcy. On January 13, 1991, the flagship Hertel Avenue store closed.
The Sample was famous for its "Pup Sale", the semi-annual clearance sale heralded in the newspapers by detailed very funny advertisements which blamed the excess merchandise on their buyer's whims, poor taste or their supposed temporary insanity. The "pups" referred to the excess merchandise which was sold at very low prices. The Pup Sales were quite crowded and generally thought of as the most popular clothing sale of the year in all of Buffalo by its shoppers. The buying frenzy at a Pup Sale was considerable to say the least.


Joseph William Drexel

Joseph William Drexel (January 24, 1833 – March 25, 1888) was a banker, philanthropist, and book collector.
Early life.
Joseph William Drexel was the son of Francis Martin Drexel (1792–1863) and Catherine Hookey (1795–1870). His siblings were Anthony Joseph Drexel (1826–1893) and Francis Anthony Drexel (1824–1885). Through his brother Francis, he was the uncle of Saint Katharine Drexel (1858–1955).
Drexel attended the Central High School in Philadelphia, and traveled through Spain, Egypt, Syria, Turkey, and Greece.
Career.
Joseph Drexel was a partner in the firm of Drexel, Morgan and Company, where his brother, Anthony, was senior partner. In 1876, tired of battling the brusque J. Pierpont Morgan, Joseph retired from the business and devoted his life to philanthropic and civic organizations.
He owned a farm near New York City, where people without work were housed, clothed, fed, and taught agriculture until they could find a job. He owned a large tract of land in Maryland, which was developed into Klej Grange, a planned community, where the lots are sold to poor people at cost. About 7,000 acres (28 km2) in Michigan were bought for the same purpose.
Society life.
He was chairman of New York Sanitary Commission, the commissioner of education, president of the New York Philharmonic Society, trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, founding trustee of the American Museum of Natural History, trustee of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and director of the Metropolitan Opera house.
In 1887, he donated a painting made by Edward Gay, that cost $2,000, to the State of New York to be placed in the Executive Mansion, which Governor David B. Hill was about to move into.
Collections.
Drexel was an avid collector of music, eventually amassing a collection of over 6,000 items. Upon his death, the Drexel Collection was accepted by the Lenox Library. When the Lenox Library was joined with those of John Jacob Astor and Samuel Tilden to form The New York Public Library, Drexel's collection became the basis for the Library's Music Division, housed today in the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.
The "Concordia Polka" composed by Theodore Gundlach was dedicated to Drexel.
Mount McGregor.
In 1881, Drexel acquired title to Mount McGregor near Saratoga Springs, New York. He constructed the Hotel Balmoral at the summit and built the Saratoga, Mount McGregor and Lake George Railroad narrow gauge railway from Saratoga Springs. In 1885, Drexel loaned his private summer cottage on Mount McGregor to ex-president Ulysses S. Grant. Grant lived there for six weeks until his death and completed his memoirs. The cottage is now the Grant Cottage State Historic Site.
Personal life.
He married Lucy Wharton (1841–1912), the daughter of Thomas Lloyd Wharton (1799–1869) and Sarah Ann Smith (b. 1800). Together, they had four children:
Drexel died at his home, 103 Madison Avenue in New York City, on March 25, 1888. He had been suffering from Bright's Disease for a year and a half before then. He was buried in The Woodlands Cemetery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.


Tweeter (store)

Tweeter, formerly Tweeter Etc. and Tweeter Home Entertainment, was a specialty consumer electronics retailer providing mid and high end electronic equipment, including flat panel TVs, plasma TVs, car radios, home theater systems, GPSs and more. It also focused much of its business on custom installation of electronics for homes and automobiles.
The company had more than 100 stores in 18 U.S. states, mostly along the east coast, but also including Illinois, Texas, California, Nevada and Arizona, operating under the names Tweeter, HiFi Buys, Showcase Home Entertainment and Sound Advice.
The company was founded by Sandy and Michael Bloomberg who opened the first store in the Boston area in 1972, and the company quickly expanded throughout New England.
Tweeter continued expanding largely through acquisitions, the first of these being Bryn Mawr Stereo in 1996. It then added Atlanta-based HiFi Buys in 1997, San Diego based DOW Stereo/Video in 1999, Chicago-based United Audio Center and Douglas TV stores in 2000 and Florida-based Sound Advice in 2001. These acquisitions gave Tweeter an instant presence in the Southeast and Midwest during a booming housing market.
In March 2007, Tweeter announced the closing of 49 stores and the layoffs of 650 employees, and shuttered all of its stores in California and most of its stores in the Southeast. In June 2007 Tweeter Home Entertainment filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and its assets were purchased by Schultze Asset Management at auction on July 13, 2007, after a failed reorganization plan. Schultze reformed the company as Tweeter Opco LLC.
After an attempt to revive the company, Tweeter Opco filed for Chapter 11 on November 5, 2008. Prior to filing the company had started going out of business sales in anticipation of the holiday season. However, a dispute among creditors regarding operating cash to continue the sales forced the closure of all stores on December 3, 2008, the firing of all 600 employees and the company filed a conversion of its Chapter 11 reorganization to a Chapter 7 liquidation. Customers reported paid goods and deposits were part of frozen assets which eventually forced them to file as creditors in the liquidation.
TWTR Inc..
Following the original 2007 Chapter 11 filing and sale of assets to Schultze, the original Tweeter company (now a shell company) remained active, having been renamed TWTR Inc..
On October 4, 2013, more than six years after selling its assets (and almost five years after the Tweeter chain shut down for good), shares of TWTR Inc. (at that point still listed under "TWTRQ") were trading for as much as 1500% above the previous day's closing price (US$0.15 vs $0.007). It ultimately closed at $0.051 (a gain of over 684%), after trading was halted at 12:42pm EDT. Twitter Inc. had released its preliminary initial public offering filings the previous day which revealed it was planning to use the ticker symbol "TWTR" (Tweeter's ticker symbol before its original bankruptcy filing), which apparently led to confusion among some investors. Shortly after the incident, the company's ticker symbol was changed to "THEGQ".


Warburg Pincus

Warburg Pincus LLC is a New York-based private equity firm focused on growth investing with offices in the United States, Europe, Brazil, China, Southeast Asia and India. It has been a private equity investor since 1966. The firm currently has approximately $62 billion in assets under management and invests in a range of sectors including retail, industrial manufacturing, energy, financial services, health care, technology, media, and real estate. Warburg Pincus is a growth investor. Warburg Pincus has raised 19 private equity funds which have invested $79 billion in over 880 companies in 40 countries.
Warburg Pincus invested in the information and communication technology sectors, including investments in Avaya, Bharti Tele-Ventures, Harbour Networks, NeuStar, PayScale, and Telcordia.
History.
Founding and early history.
In 1939, Eric Warburg of the Warburg banking family founded a company under the name E.M. Warburg & Co. Its first address was 52 William Street, New York, the Kuhn Loeb building. Throughout the early post-war period, the firm was a small office of 20 employees. In 1966, E.M. Warburg merged with Lionel I. Pincus & Co, forming a new company that eventually became known as E.M. Warburg, Pincus & Co. In 1965, when Eric Warburg retired to Germany, control was handed to Lionel Pincus, a partner in the Ladenburg Thalmann investment bank, and the working language of the office switched from German to English.
In 1967, John Vogelstein, a former partner at Lazard Freres, joined Pincus to build the firm. Together they developed a strategy of investing in diversified companies of various sizes rather than focusing on start-ups. Pincus was the founder and chairman while Vogelstein was vice chairman and then president. Pincus and Vogelstein ran the company until 2002, when they stepped down and appointed Charles Kaye and Joseph P. Landy as co-presidents. Pincus died in 2009.
Warburg Pincus began investing in Europe in 1983 and opened its first office in Asia in 1994. It has invested more than $5 billion in Europe; more than $3 billion in India and more than $3.3 billion in China. The firm is headquartered in New York and has offices in Beijing, Berlin, Hong Kong, Houston, London, Mumbai, San Francisco, São Paulo, Shanghai and Singapore, with administrative offices in Amsterdam, Luxembourg and Mauritius.
The firm is structured as a global partnership led by CEO, Charles Kaye, and President, Timothy Geithner.
Initial public offerings.
More than 140 Warburg Pincus companies have listed on exchanges, raising approximately $30 billion in public markets. In each of these IPOs, the firm was the principal financial investor in the portfolio company. The companies have listed on 13 exchanges, including at least 30 IPOs outside the U.S. In August 2010, a six-year partnership between management and Warburg Pincus led to MEG Energy's successful IPO.
Funds.
Warburg Pincus has a history of venture capital investing. The firm is a founding member of the venture capital associations in the U.S. and China, and offers a global entrepreneur in residence program to help start up new businesses.
In October 2014, "Reuters" reported that Warburg Pincus had raised $4 billion for its first energy-focused private equity fund. In late 2018, Warburg Pincus closed its Warburg Pincus Global Growth, L.P. fund at $14.8 billion, and in June 2019, closed its Warburg Pincus China-Southeast Asia II, L.P. fund at $4.25 billion.
Warburg Pincus has invested in companies such as Harbin Pharmaceutical, NIO, ZTO Express in China and South East Asia, Bharti Telecommunications, Apollo Tyres Ltd, Ecom Express, SBI Gneeral Insurance in India, AmRest in Poland and Nuance Communications in the U.S. In 2019, the firm acquired a majority stake in healthcare tech company WebPT from Battery Ventures.
Fight over the Warburg name.
During the post-war period, Eric Warburg vied with his cousin Siegmund Warburg, founder of S.G. Warburg, over the use of the Warburg name in New York. Siegmund wished to expand the S.G. Warburg franchise into New York but was blocked by the existence of E.M. Warburg & Co. Following the effective sale of the business to Pincus, Siegmund Warburg accused Eric of prostituting the Warburg name. "Complicating matters was that Siegmund thought Pincus the wrong kind of Jew—of Eastern European ancestry, with a garment-district background. Professionally, he thought Pincus well below "haute banque" stature in the venture capital world."
In January 1970, Siegmund finally got the name changed to E.M. Warburg, Pincus & Company to differentiate it from S.G. Warburg & Company. "In the end, however, Lionel Pincus had the last laugh on Siegmund. He expanded Eric's tiny firm into a giant, thriving business, with three and a half billion dollars of venture capital partnerships."
In 1999, they attempted to purchase English Premier League association football club Everton F.C.


Taikoo Shing

Taikoo Shing or Tai Koo Shing (), is a private residential development in Quarry Bay, in the eastern part of Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong. It is a part of Swire's property business, along with Taikoo Place, the adjacent Cityplaza retail and office complex and EAST, a lifestyle business hotel.
Etymology.
Taikoo is the Cantonese pronunciation of Swire's Chinese name, while Shing can be literally translated as City. Thus, Taikoo Shing can be loosely translated as Swire City. According to Swire, its Chinese name Taikoo was chosen by Thomas Taylor Meadow, the British Consul in Shanghai when Swire’s Shanghai office opened in 1866.
Area.
The entire Taikoo Shing estate covers 21.5 hectares (53 acres), and consists of 61 residential towers, with a total of 12,698 apartment flats that ranges anywhere between to .
History.
The Taikoo Shing estate was once the site of Taikoo Dockyard, whose foundation stone now lies beside Cityplaza. The dockyard moved to United Dockyards at the west shore of the Tsing Yi Island in the late 1970s, and Taikoo Shing was constructed over the site in stages, with constructions of all main residential buildings complete by the early 1990s.
As part of the business strategy, Swire Properties was established in 1972 immediately after the closing of the dockyard. Taikoo Shing became one of Hong Kong's first major private housing estates. Completing in 1986, Swire immediately became one of the largest property companies doing the construction themselves. The area was designed to maximise middle-class residential capacity.
Development of commercial areas still continues today. After the completion of Cityplaza 3 and 4 as office buildings, the original Cityplaza 1 was demolished in the mid-90s for redevelopment. As of 2007, the food market that was originally constructed was demolished to make room for a hotel.
Population and demographics.
In the 2011 census, Taikoo Shing recorded 36,796 residents. The median monthly rent among rental households was $18,000.
Apartment flats in Taikoo Shing are popular amongst buyers and speculators, and for a significant time in the 1980s and 1990s, Taikoo Shing's housing price is a general indicator of the Hong Kong's housing market health in general. Although in recent years, newer housing developments have eroded a bit of Taikoo Shing's once prominent status.
The estate is also a very sought-after place to live for the Japanese and Korean expatriate communities in Hong Kong, most of which are staffed in multinational corporations based in Hong Kong. As a result of this significant Korean and Japanese settlement, the area has many Korean and Japanese-themed service establishments.
Housing.
The housing in Taikoo Shing was developed in stages, with the Tsui Woo Terrace being the first ones constructed. In all, the estate's housing complexes are broken down into 6 terraces and 2 gardens, each with a special naming scheme.
It is important to note that those mansions under the "garden" group are considered to be premium housing, and more expensive than those that fall under the "terrace" category.
Tsui Woo Terrace.
Tsui Woo Terrace (, literally: "Terrace of the Jade Lake"); all of the mansions on this terrace are named after famous lakes in China. The terrace consists of three mansions.
Ko Shan Terrace.
Ko Shan Terrace (, literally: "Terrace of the High Mountain"); all of the mansions on this terrace have the Chinese word for "Mountain" (山) as the second character of the building's name. A couple of the mansion's names also corresponds to famous mountains in China. The terrace consists of 13 mansions.
Kam Din Terrace.
Kam Din Terrace (, literally: "Terrace of the Golden Palace"); all of the mansions on this terrace have the Chinese word for "Palace" (宮) as the second character of the building's name. In addition, all of the mansions names' first character corresponds to various political dynasties in Chinese history. The terrace consists of 8 mansions.
On Shing Terrace.
On Shing Terrace (, literally: "Terrace of Peace and Prosperity"); all of the mansions on this terrace have the Chinese word for "Peace" (安) as the second character of the building's name. The terrace consists of 6 mansions.
Harbour View Gardens.
Harbour View Gardens (); all of the mansions in this area are named after flora. The area consists of 11 mansions.
Kwun Hoi Terrace.
Kwun Hoi Terrace (, literally: "Terrace for Ocean Viewing"); all of the mansions on this terrace have the Chinese word for "Ocean" (海) as the second character of the building's name, and a cardinal direction as the first character of the building's name. The terrace consists of 3 mansions.
Sing Fai Terrace.
Sing Fai Terrace (, literally: "Terrace of the Stars"); all of the mansions on this terrace have the Chinese word for "star" (星) as the second character of the building's name. Some of the building names are similar to Chinese names for planets within the Solar System. The terrace consists of 8 mansions.
Horizon Garden.
Horizon Garden (); all of the mansions on this terrace have the Chinese word for "sky" (天) as the second character of the building's name. The area consists of 9 mansions.
Amenities.
Some terraces - Horizon Gardens, Kam Din Terrace, Sing Fai Terrace, and Kao Shan Terrace - have podiums that provide a public space for their residents, often including a children's playground. Elderly residents may practice t'ai chi in the mornings. There are also shops and learning centres on these podiums such as Kumon.
In addition, Harbour View Gardens, Horizon Gardens and Kwun Hoi Terrace all have access to swimming pools. In Kao Shan Terrace, there are badminton courts and tennis courts for residents to use.
Education.
There are a few kindergartens in the vicinity of Tai Koo Shing, as well as the international school Delia School of Canada.
Car parks.
All terraces have indoor car parks, providing parking spaces on monthly lease.
There are parking spaces available for visitors on hourly rate in the car parks at Cityplaza and Sing Fai Terrace.
Transportation.
The estate is served by MTR Tai Koo station of the Island line, as well as various bus lines, served by New World First Bus and the Kowloon Motor Bus to Shau Kei Wan, Admiralty, Sheung Wan, Tsim Sha Tsui and Jordan.
As it is a private estate, all roads were owned by Swire Properties. However, most roads were returned to the Government except for those near Cityplaza. In practice, public traffic is generally allowed to pass freely, but admission may be denied.
Archives.
The archives of the Taikoo Dockyard are held by SOAS Archives


Somerville Assembly

The Somerville Assembly was a Ford Motor Company factory in Somerville, Massachusetts which opened in 1926 as a replacement to the Cambridge Assembly. Following the failure of the Edsel, the plant, which had been one of the region’s largest employers, closed its doors in 1958. At that time it was the Edsel division's only Edsel-only assembly line as all other Edsel plants were shared with Mercury or Ford. Somerville built only the larger Corsair and Citation big series Edsels which shared chassis with Mercury. The closure created severe consequences for the local economy, as it paid the city over $1 million in annual taxes.
It was redeveloped into the Assembly Square Marketplace, as well as Assembly Square.


Lynch Road Assembly

Lynch Road Assembly was a Chrysler assembly plant located in Detroit, Michigan near Coleman A. Young International Airport. It is now the location of The Crown Group, a powdered coatings manufacturer which supports the automotive manufacturing industry.
Lynch Road was opened for DeSoto and Plymouth production in 1928 at 6334 Lynch Rd; production ended in April 1981, and production capacity was moved to the Newark Assembly in Delaware.
Automobiles.
Chrysler Corporation automobile divisions that were assembled here were:
Automobiles models assembled here include: