<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?><?xml-stylesheet href="http://www.blogger.com/styles/atom.css" type="text/css"?><feed xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom' xmlns:openSearch='http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearchrss/1.0/' xmlns:georss='http://www.georss.org/georss'><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1806827819447923064</id><updated>2009-12-30T02:04:36.859Z</updated><title type='text'>Positive Churn</title><subtitle type='html'>Tales From An MBO Turnaround Start Up,  by Clive Birnie MD / CEO of Severn Delta</subtitle><link rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#feed' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://positivechurn.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1806827819447923064/posts/default'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://positivechurn.blogspot.com/'/><link rel='hub' href='http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/'/><link rel='next' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1806827819447923064/posts/default?start-index=26&amp;max-results=25'/><author><name>Clive Birnie, UK</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16925119713535626088</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email></author><generator version='7.00' uri='http://www.blogger.com'>Blogger</generator><openSearch:totalResults>189</openSearch:totalResults><openSearch:startIndex>1</openSearch:startIndex><openSearch:itemsPerPage>25</openSearch:itemsPerPage><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1806827819447923064.post-1346689458236186297</id><published>2009-12-22T10:16:00.003Z</published><updated>2009-12-22T10:26:58.211Z</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Eurostar fail'/><title type='text'>Know What You Are</title><content type='html'>It is a common mistake in business. Having a quite different idea of what your business is,  to that held by the most important people you deal with: your customers.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Borders failed because they neglected the core reason people walked through their doors: books.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Railtrack lost its way because it thought it was a property company and outsourced what should have been its core competence: managing the rail network to ensure safety and efficiency.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Eurostar has fallen on its face in public because it sees its core purpose as running trains back and forth. Its unhappy customers see it as a way of safely and quickly getting from A to B in comfort.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Over the past few days they would have settled for being put on a coach and then a ferry and conveyed not so quickly from A to B smothered with apologies and information but at least in moderate comfort.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Wouldn't have been so hard to organise were the top brass no so single mindedly obsessed with the damn tricky technical science stuff which is apparently more important that customer service and reputation!&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/1806827819447923064-1346689458236186297?l=positivechurn.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1806827819447923064/posts/default/1346689458236186297'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1806827819447923064/posts/default/1346689458236186297'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://positivechurn.blogspot.com/2009/12/know-what-you-are.html' title='Know What You Are'/><author><name>Clive Birnie, UK</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16925119713535626088</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='13256942874243909900'/></author></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1806827819447923064.post-6149127186182127383</id><published>2009-12-15T09:24:00.004Z</published><updated>2009-12-15T10:18:03.096Z</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='inventory manufacturing turnaround MBO cash flow turnover reduction losses profit'/><title type='text'>If In Doubt, Act Like A Receiver</title><content type='html'>The recent demise of Borders UK brought back memories of February 2003 when our once parent Plc. went under and on the morning of Feb 6th a car rolled up the drive and out stepped "The Receiver".&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Within a few hours many colleagues were heading in the opposite direction for the last time. The Receiver doesn't mess about.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;He gets on with his job. No sentiment.  No procrastination. No "well Janis has been with us a long time..." or "we need to get this low margin delivery out on time they are a long standing customer". It is black and white to The Receiver. He deals in quantum and maths.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The clue is in the name. He does not come to give but to receive.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In a time of crisis, turnaround and survival it is worth remembering his role and doing his work before he has to come and do it for you.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Every piece of resource that is not focused 100% on turning inventory and debtors into cash is resource you don't need in a crisis.  Harsh but true.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;OK. He has the advantage that all contracts are broken so he has more freedom of movement than you but my point is the principle. Stop giving. Stop spending. Focus on generating and receiving cash.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Everything on your premises is inventory. Anything not in current use can be sold.  Even things that are in use can be sold. We sold two production lines within 9 months of acquiring what is now Severn Delta. Both had residual levels of business on them. Both unprofitable. Both we exited in a jiffy because the cash win from selling the asset was greater than the cash generation from crewing and running the lines.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Slash all discretionary spending. Stop cash flowing out. And of course get on the phone and hound every pound until it is paid on time or early.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;We had  one year where we pulled in several hundred thousand pounds early at our year end. Only took one person focusing on it.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This is not just a lesson for hard times. We have had a pretty good 2009 but a focus on cash is to the fore because we are investing in new manufacturing capacity and we want to be sure this does not exert unnecessary pressure on cash flow.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;But if times are tough and your business is struggling my message is act like the receiver before once is appointed to do it for you.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/1806827819447923064-6149127186182127383?l=positivechurn.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1806827819447923064/posts/default/6149127186182127383'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1806827819447923064/posts/default/6149127186182127383'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://positivechurn.blogspot.com/2009/12/if-in-doubt-act-like-receiver.html' title='If In Doubt, Act Like A Receiver'/><author><name>Clive Birnie, UK</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16925119713535626088</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='13256942874243909900'/></author></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1806827819447923064.post-434052810373571302</id><published>2009-12-03T15:05:00.006Z</published><updated>2009-12-03T15:44:42.583Z</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Eco Refills Kenco'/><title type='text'>The Return Of And The Problem With Eco Refills</title><content type='html'>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images.icnetwork.co.uk/upl/icwales2/oct2009/2/0/amanda-holden-kenco-945831106.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 530px;" src="http://images.icnetwork.co.uk/upl/icwales2/oct2009/2/0/amanda-holden-kenco-945831106.jpg" border="0" alt="" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;I am intrigued to see the return of eco-refills to the consumer goods market in the form of &lt;a href="http://www.kenco.co.uk/kenco2/page?siteid=kenco2-prd&amp;amp;locale=uken1&amp;amp;PagecRef=633"&gt;Kenco Eco Refills&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;The concept is simple. Instead of a heavy (and expensive) glass jar you can now buy a flexible pouch refill which you can empty into either an empty coffee jar or other receptacle of your choice. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Trumpeted as "Eco" because it "reduces the amount of waste going to landfill".&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;It is of course not such a new idea. Refills were a familiar feature in the laundry aisle a few years back . This was until  until some bright spark at Unilever uncovered the amazing "insight" (sorry for using this term) that &lt;a href="http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/home/persil-pulls-plug-on-liquid-refills/2047173.article"&gt;80% of people&lt;/a&gt; who bought a refill poured it into a bottle they had bought previously. So the refills were dropped in favour of heavier plastic bottles! &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;I remember at the time thinking this was low brow work to be ashamed of. If genuinely believed, the guilty parties at Unilever missed the point that it was the act of refilling that helped assuage the buyers' middle-class eco-guilt, an act of brand choice with a hard to mine "feel good about yourself" factor built in. Far from being about listening to your public the light weight research was of course no more than a smoke screen for a cost saving manufacturing rationalisation, but I digress! &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;I am not against the concept. We work hard round here to wrap our goods in the very minimum of packaging. Any more than this is a waste of money for one and yes is environmentally irresponsible. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;My wrinkled brow moment with the Kenco concept is that although the weight (and cost) of the packaging is reduced (as is one assumes the retail price?)  the consumer is faced with a choice between an easily recycled jar and a not so easily recycled plastic pouch. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;My hunch is that the very consumer to whom the concept of an "eco-refill" appeals will most likely be one who recycles their empty coffee jars. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;If switching to "Eco Refills" however, they will find themselves sending the empty packet to landfill. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/1806827819447923064-434052810373571302?l=positivechurn.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1806827819447923064/posts/default/434052810373571302'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1806827819447923064/posts/default/434052810373571302'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://positivechurn.blogspot.com/2009/12/return-of-and-problem-with-eco-refills.html' title='The Return Of And The Problem With Eco Refills'/><author><name>Clive Birnie, UK</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16925119713535626088</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='13256942874243909900'/></author></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1806827819447923064.post-3143985271811896912</id><published>2009-11-26T19:48:00.005Z</published><updated>2009-11-27T08:58:03.596Z</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='borders turnaround cash'/><title type='text'>When A Turnaround Fails: What Went Wrong At Borders</title><content type='html'>Troubled bookseller Borders UK made true many a prediction today by &lt;a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8380268.stm"&gt;entering administration&lt;/a&gt;. There is little doubt now that the Borders name will follow The Pier, Woolworth's and Adams (to name but three) on to the list of household names that will have disappeared from the UK during this recession.&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;But as with The Pier and Woolworth's (I admit I know little of Adams) Borders was a business in trouble long before the bitter winds of recession blew hard. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Sold by former US parent in 2007 and sold on again this year Borders has long been in turnaround territory although to the eyes of this turnaround veteran there have been few signs of a turnaround strategy in execution.  &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Having long been a patron of Borders Bristol it has been clear to me for some time that rather than focusing in on their core trade the team at the helm of Borders were making the cardinal turnaround error of being distracted.  &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Many a turnaround has failed by trying to grow turnover by diversification when the order of the day should have been a tight focus, slimming down, cost cutting, cash flow management, and diligent inventory control. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;My reading of the situation at Borders is that crucial turnaround errors have been made. The stores are cluttered with non core peripheral products (things that are not books) that will have been tying up precious cash, churning margins down and either tying up key personnel who should have been concentrating on the books market or even worse driving overhead growth.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Many reports will blame loss of trade to internet retailers and supermarkets. Don't believe the hype. Like The Pier and Woollies before them Borders was killed from the inside not from without.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;As I have said before, you can't grow your way out of a hole. The rule is shrink to survive and manage for cash, cash, cash and cash.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/1806827819447923064-3143985271811896912?l=positivechurn.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1806827819447923064/posts/default/3143985271811896912'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1806827819447923064/posts/default/3143985271811896912'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://positivechurn.blogspot.com/2009/11/what-went-wrong-at-borders_26.html' title='When A Turnaround Fails: What Went Wrong At Borders'/><author><name>Clive Birnie, UK</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16925119713535626088</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='13256942874243909900'/></author></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1806827819447923064.post-1170433349949060663</id><published>2009-11-04T11:48:00.001Z</published><updated>2009-11-04T11:55:52.534Z</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Open Source ERP'/><title type='text'>The Windows Free Business Experiment</title><content type='html'>&lt;p class="mobile-photo"&gt;&lt;a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_UBUxxynFk0o/SvFqL6yRYrI/AAAAAAAAAW8/bIxqQCgHmBs/s1600-h/IMAG0047-743575.jpg"&gt;&lt;img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_UBUxxynFk0o/SvFqL6yRYrI/AAAAAAAAAW8/bIxqQCgHmBs/s320/IMAG0047-743575.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5400214181185151666" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;At the start of this year my businesses partner &lt;a href="http://twitter.com/martynshiner"&gt;@martynshiner&lt;/a&gt; &amp;amp; I started an experiment to see if we could run Severn Delta using free open source software.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;In place of Microsoft  outlook we have been using &lt;a href="http://roundcube.net/"&gt;Roundcube&lt;/a&gt; Webmail. Instead of Word, Excel and Powerpoint we have used Open Office. Our servers are likewise Microsoft Free-zones.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;To be really bonkers we have both been using 9 inch Eee pcs running Eeebuntu! As you can see above. &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;We of course run the day to day business of the company with our own ERP software built with open source tools and our in house IT crew of 2.  This runs in a browser. FireFox usually although I am using Chrome.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;After eleven months the only glitch is my forecast model which still resides in a spreadsheet (I know I know - we are working on it!). This has a tendency to crash Open Office, but this is the weedy processor in the Eeepc falling down so a hardware issue. Otherwise it's no looking back. We are overdue an overhaul of our desktop hardware and so will be rolling Microsoft Free desktops across the company replacing our remaining XP running hardware. &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;The conclusion on the Eee pc is that it is great for traveling as ludicrously light but just a little too light on processing power. Martyn is already playing with an old Toshiba laptop with Karmic Koala...&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;I sent this blog post from my Android running HTC Hero. Maybe not as achingly trendy as an iPhone but it is Open so we can write apps to hook up with our ERP if we want.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And as for Windows7...&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/1806827819447923064-1170433349949060663?l=positivechurn.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1806827819447923064/posts/default/1170433349949060663'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1806827819447923064/posts/default/1170433349949060663'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://positivechurn.blogspot.com/2009/11/windows-free-business-experiment.html' title='The Windows Free Business Experiment'/><author><name>Clive Birnie, UK</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16925119713535626088</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='13256942874243909900'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_UBUxxynFk0o/SvFqL6yRYrI/AAAAAAAAAW8/bIxqQCgHmBs/s72-c/IMAG0047-743575.jpg' height='72' width='72'/></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1806827819447923064.post-363013508636410010</id><published>2009-10-30T13:49:00.003Z</published><updated>2009-10-30T13:58:11.998Z</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Twitter'/><title type='text'>If You Work For Me You Can Twitter All You Like</title><content type='html'>Great response from TechCrunch Europe &lt;a href="http://eu.techcrunch.com/2009/10/26/breaking-twitter-costs-british-economy-less-than-people-who-gaze-out-the-window/"&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to the "We don't understand what the kids are up to so we'd better try and put a stop to it!" story in the &lt;a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/twitter/6418567/Twitter-costs-British-economy-1.38bn.html"&gt;Telegraph&lt;/a&gt; this week. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If you work here at Severn Delta you can tweet all you like. I don't care. As long as your performance is good I am not going to micro manage you and fret that you have just had another cup of coffee! We believe in managing performance not behaviour. Simple as that. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I am confident that the cost to Severn Delta of our employees using Twitter or Facebook is ZERO English Pounds Sterling.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I am in any case very confident that when it come to all this new fangled social media time wasting blogtastic webby stuff that round here I am  very much the time waster in chief! &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So who am I to criticise?&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/1806827819447923064-363013508636410010?l=positivechurn.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1806827819447923064/posts/default/363013508636410010'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1806827819447923064/posts/default/363013508636410010'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://positivechurn.blogspot.com/2009/10/if-you-work-for-me-you-can-twitter-all.html' title='If You Work For Me You Can Twitter All You Like'/><author><name>Clive Birnie, UK</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16925119713535626088</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='13256942874243909900'/></author></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1806827819447923064.post-9193226649839880499</id><published>2009-10-23T18:48:00.005Z</published><updated>2009-10-24T09:10:05.432Z</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Nielsen Sarah Smith'/><title type='text'>Its Official Sarah Smith "Ultra Absorbent" Cleaning Cloths Are Britain's Favorite!</title><content type='html'>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.sarah-smith.co.uk/data/tmp/4672-9266-220-220.JPG"&gt;&lt;img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 138px; height: 220px;" src="http://www.sarah-smith.co.uk/data/tmp/4672-9266-220-220.JPG" border="0" alt="" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;According to those clever chaps at &lt;a href="http://uk.nielsen.com/site/index.shtml"&gt;Nielsen&lt;/a&gt; our &lt;a href="http://www.sarahsmith.co.uk"&gt;Sarah Smith&lt;/a&gt; "Ultra Absorbent" &lt;a href="http://www.dooyoo.co.uk/household-products/sarah-smith-cleaning-cloths/1201445/"&gt;Cleaning Cloths&lt;/a&gt; are Britain's number one selling branded cleaning cloth!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Available in a range of kooky British designs they outsell:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Every one of 23 &lt;a href="http://www.spontex.co.uk/"&gt;Spontex&lt;/a&gt; branded cloths (owned by Total - T/O 143bn Euros)&lt;br /&gt;Every one of 26 &lt;a href="http://www.vileda.co.uk/"&gt;Vileda&lt;/a&gt; branded cloths (owned by Freudenberg - T/O 4.8bn Euros)&lt;br /&gt;The total sales of all 8 &lt;a href="http://www.3mselect.co.uk/c-251-scotch-brite-cleaning-products.aspx"&gt;Scotch Brite&lt;/a&gt; cloths (owned by 3M - T/O $23bn)&lt;br /&gt;The total sales of all 26 &lt;a href="http://www.minky.co.uk/"&gt;Minky&lt;/a&gt; branded cloths (owned by Vale Mill - T/O £30m)&lt;br /&gt;And outselling &lt;a href="http://www.e-cloth.com/"&gt;E cloth&lt;/a&gt;'s 8 products by a more than 50%&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Not bad considering we have a fraction of the distribution of this lot, indeed for most of the last 12 months we have had only 2 shelf facings (one in &lt;a href="http://www.sainsburys.co.uk/sol/index.jsp"&gt;Sainsbury's&lt;/a&gt;, one in &lt;a href="http://www.sainsburys.co.uk/sol/index.jsp"&gt;Waitrose&lt;/a&gt;) and a "clip strip" merchandised unit in less than 50% of &lt;a href="http://www.tesco.com/"&gt;Tesco&lt;/a&gt; stores. Not to mention of course that we are a small, privately owned company employing about 40 people in the depths of rural Somerset, UK!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A good example of where focus and &lt;a href="http://gapingvoid.com/"&gt;Ignoring Everybody&lt;/a&gt; and the big company marketing industry straight jacket of conventional thinking will get you. The world has changed so you have to think different and be different or you will die. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-style:italic;"&gt;Data source: Nielsen UK Grocery Multiples Value Sales 52wks ending 22Aug2009&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/1806827819447923064-9193226649839880499?l=positivechurn.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1806827819447923064/posts/default/9193226649839880499'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1806827819447923064/posts/default/9193226649839880499'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://positivechurn.blogspot.com/2009/10/its-official-sarah-smith-ultra.html' title='Its Official Sarah Smith &quot;Ultra Absorbent&quot; Cleaning Cloths Are Britain&apos;s Favorite!'/><author><name>Clive Birnie, UK</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16925119713535626088</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='13256942874243909900'/></author></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1806827819447923064.post-7325126066970899714</id><published>2009-10-22T10:52:00.002Z</published><updated>2009-10-22T11:06:32.022Z</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Cadbury Kraft'/><title type='text'>Cadbury, Kraft, Unilever and La Fromagerie Bel</title><content type='html'>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_UBUxxynFk0o/SuA5q9PiY3I/AAAAAAAAAW0/ObT7Z4M6evQ/s1600-h/kraftcadbury.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 256px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_UBUxxynFk0o/SuA5q9PiY3I/AAAAAAAAAW0/ObT7Z4M6evQ/s320/kraftcadbury.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5395375763746874226" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I posted this snapshot of &lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/"&gt;the Guardian&lt;/a&gt; homepage on &lt;a href="http://twitpic.com/mcvys"&gt;Twitpic&lt;/a&gt; yesterday and asked if anyone could tell me the obvious error.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Answer:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I assume the chocolate on the left is &lt;a href="http://www.cadbury.co.uk"&gt;Cadbury's&lt;/a&gt;. The Cheese in the centre looks uncannily like Baby Bel which is owned by La Fromagerie Bel / &lt;a href="http://www.groupe-bel.com/bebel/en/finance/shareholders.html"&gt;Unibel&lt;/a&gt; and the Mayonnaise is &lt;a href="http://www.hellmanns.co.uk/"&gt;Hellmann'&lt;/a&gt;s which is of course a &lt;a href="http://www.unilever.co.uk/"&gt;Unilever&lt;/a&gt; brand.  &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So who are these Kraft fellows?&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/1806827819447923064-7325126066970899714?l=positivechurn.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1806827819447923064/posts/default/7325126066970899714'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1806827819447923064/posts/default/7325126066970899714'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://positivechurn.blogspot.com/2009/10/cadbury-kraft-unilever-and-la.html' title='Cadbury, Kraft, Unilever and La Fromagerie Bel'/><author><name>Clive Birnie, UK</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16925119713535626088</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='13256942874243909900'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_UBUxxynFk0o/SuA5q9PiY3I/AAAAAAAAAW0/ObT7Z4M6evQ/s72-c/kraftcadbury.jpg' height='72' width='72'/></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1806827819447923064.post-1211373925074284294</id><published>2009-10-20T16:17:00.004Z</published><updated>2009-10-20T16:44:43.381Z</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Weak Currency BAD'/><title type='text'>Why A Weak Currency Is Bad For Manufacturers</title><content type='html'>I get frustrated when I see articles like &lt;a href="http://bit.ly/g68tz"&gt;this one&lt;/a&gt; in The Observer trotting out the cod wisdom that weak sterling will help the UK ride the recessionary storm. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The view from the small to medium sized manufacturing enterprise is different for two reasons:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;1. The collapse of sterling has caused a vertical lift off in raw material costs. The modest manufacturing base here in the UK is wholly dependent on imported raw materials. If from the Eurozone or the Dollar-zone the increase in prices resulting directly from weakness of sterling. The weakening in Sterling has cost my company an amount equivalent to 75% of our 2008 pre tax profits. Just the currency shift alone. It is the equivalent to the salaries of 8 shop floor jobs. Am I sitting here comfortably reaping the export boom and not worrying? No. Actually our export business is down. Well down. Here is why:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;2. Demand in the UK's biggest export markets is on its knees. Italy, Germany, Spain, a little better in France but where is the demand for my cheap sterling exports made with my now 25% more expensive raw materials? Hello? Hello? Anybody there? &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;My outlook for demand recovery on the continent is sceptical. I am not holding out for an export demand surge because by the time it arrives (if ever) the preceding wave of cost increase may well have finished me off and so rather than be the saviour of UK manufacturing a weak currency is simply exacerbating the problems.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/1806827819447923064-1211373925074284294?l=positivechurn.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1806827819447923064/posts/default/1211373925074284294'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1806827819447923064/posts/default/1211373925074284294'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://positivechurn.blogspot.com/2009/10/why-weak-currency-is-bad-for.html' title='Why A Weak Currency Is Bad For Manufacturers'/><author><name>Clive Birnie, UK</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16925119713535626088</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='13256942874243909900'/></author></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1806827819447923064.post-8406397266657823890</id><published>2009-09-07T12:44:00.003Z</published><updated>2009-09-07T13:09:18.129Z</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Procter Gamble Pampers Simply Clean'/><title type='text'>Pampers Simply Clean: The Jury Is Out!</title><content type='html'>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://media.pampers.co.uk/en_GB/products/images/wp_sc_uk_116_128_a.gif"&gt;&lt;img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 116px; height: 101px;" src="http://media.pampers.co.uk/en_GB/products/images/wp_sc_uk_116_128_a.gif" border="0" alt="" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I have to admit this launch from P&amp;G has me stumped. I have spent most of my professional life watching P&amp;G and frankly for the most part learning from them. Back in my Unilever days we had a book of advertising guidelines called UPGA which we on the detergents team I worked in referred to as "Use Procter &amp; Gamble's Advertising" rather than the Unlever Plan For Great Advertising that was the official title. Even now here at Severn Delta P&amp;G brands are market leaders in many of our important own label categories so we benchmark them pretty thoroughly and follow where they go.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;With Pampers Simply Clean however they seem to have torn up convention and may well have succumbed to recession panic. Esentially Pampers Simply Clean is a lower specification, cut price alternative to Pampers. I see three potential problems with this:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;1. Range extensions up and down the price ladder rarely work. If you are value brand and you try to extend up the price/value matrix you better have a mighty fine reinvention of yourself up your sleeve. If you are a premium brand, and Pampers is a premium brand in the diapers and baby wipes market you risk hemaoraging value as your existing buyers trade down into your new cut price variant. Much better to extend the brand into adjacent categories at similar price points. Given the importance P&amp;G have placed on personal care and their positions generally in skin care and hair care I would have thought extending their marketing leading baby care brand Pampers into infant skin and hair care would be more logical. The lessons from P&amp;Gs successful dominance in laundy detergents is also worth considering. If you want to go for a different value sector of a market: use a different brand e.g. Daz &amp; Ariel.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;2. Margin attrition is inevitable. In walking into the value end of the market you stray into the territory of Supermarket own label. A tough and agressive place to live where prices only go down. If you want to maintain a value prce point vs ownl label your margins are going to get squeezed, and once margins go down they are damned hard to get back up.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;3. You run the risk of trashing your hard built brand for good and all. It should be of paramount concern that only a few weeks after launch the &lt;a href="http://www.pampers.co.uk/en_GB/proddetail/baby-products/simply-dry/id/13/sectionid/0"&gt;first comments&lt;/a&gt; that consumer have posted on the Pampers website are overwhelmingly negative!&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/1806827819447923064-8406397266657823890?l=positivechurn.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1806827819447923064/posts/default/8406397266657823890'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1806827819447923064/posts/default/8406397266657823890'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://positivechurn.blogspot.com/2009/09/pampers-simply-clean-jury-is-out.html' title='Pampers Simply Clean: The Jury Is Out!'/><author><name>Clive Birnie, UK</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16925119713535626088</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='13256942874243909900'/></author></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1806827819447923064.post-5987837798757342297</id><published>2009-07-05T12:39:00.003Z</published><updated>2009-07-05T13:05:53.927Z</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Cash Invoices getting paid'/><title type='text'>Doh! If You Don't Send An Invoice You Won't Get Paid!</title><content type='html'>Seems obvious, but it is an all too common failing in all too many businesses. A devil may care attitude to actually billing customer for the work, goods and services that have been supplied. In these credit starved times a punctual, nay, obsessive approach to invoicing is called for.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Here at Severn Delta we issue invoices daily for all goods shipped that day, like most FMCG companies. But our suppliers are not so sharp. Our financial year is Jan to Dec so we have just passed the half year mark in 2009, and we have a substantial chunk of accruals outstanding for goods and services which we received BEFORE the end of December 2008, but for which we have to receive an invoice.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Now I don't know how long it typically takes you to issue an invoice to your customers but I put it to you that six months is a little extreme.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;We will be happy to pay the suppliers in question. No problem. We ordered the goods and services and we received the goods and services. BUT if you don't send us an invoice you just ain't gonna get paid!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;To give you an idea of the scale of this slackers approach to the fundamental act of invoicing, the value involved totals £30,000. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;And that is just Severn Delta, a £6million turnover company. Scale it up across the UK economy and how large is the big black hole of un-invoiced value?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So if you are reading this and are wondering if there is anything you haven't billed your customers for, go and check now. Get the invoice/s out today.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The sooner you do, the sooner you will get paid.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;And that is what you are in business for... isn't it?&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/1806827819447923064-5987837798757342297?l=positivechurn.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1806827819447923064/posts/default/5987837798757342297'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1806827819447923064/posts/default/5987837798757342297'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://positivechurn.blogspot.com/2009/07/doh-if-you-dont-send-invoice-you-wont.html' title='Doh! If You Don&apos;t Send An Invoice You Won&apos;t Get Paid!'/><author><name>Clive Birnie, UK</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16925119713535626088</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='13256942874243909900'/></author></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1806827819447923064.post-8189080872723170379</id><published>2009-06-09T14:56:00.000Z</published><updated>2009-06-09T14:58:41.295Z</updated><title type='text'>Assets, Competencies &amp; Positive Churn</title><content type='html'>&lt;p class="mobile-photo"&gt;&lt;a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_UBUxxynFk0o/Si54oc2NyPI/AAAAAAAAAV0/gNY6hhNmbd0/s1600-h/IMAGE_396-721296.jpg"&gt;&lt;img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_UBUxxynFk0o/Si54oc2NyPI/AAAAAAAAAV0/gNY6hhNmbd0/s320/IMAGE_396-721296.jpg"  border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5345342444069046514" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;We have a million pound asset in our factory, at least that is what it would cost to replicate. &lt;p&gt;My Technical Director is a chemist and all round R&amp;amp;D dynamo. &lt;p&gt;We have a supplier base whose abilities we like to stretch.&lt;p&gt;We have a Brand which continues to grow rapidly. IP is an asset. &lt;p&gt;The first is a fully automated wet wipes production line. The second conjured a new cleaning formulation with Lemon Tea Tree &amp;amp; Thyme to Put on a bespoke fabric from the third to create a product to be sold as part of our Sarah Smith brand.&lt;p&gt;It goes on shelf in Waitrose this month replacing one of our slower selling lines. &lt;p&gt;Assets, competencies &amp;amp; Positive Churn. &lt;p&gt;Here endeth the lesson.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/1806827819447923064-8189080872723170379?l=positivechurn.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1806827819447923064/posts/default/8189080872723170379'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1806827819447923064/posts/default/8189080872723170379'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://positivechurn.blogspot.com/2009/06/assets-competencies-positive-churn.html' title='Assets, Competencies &amp; Positive Churn'/><author><name>Clive Birnie, UK</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16925119713535626088</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='13256942874243909900'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_UBUxxynFk0o/Si54oc2NyPI/AAAAAAAAAV0/gNY6hhNmbd0/s72-c/IMAGE_396-721296.jpg' height='72' width='72'/></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1806827819447923064.post-2613480611399683750</id><published>2009-05-15T16:26:00.002Z</published><updated>2009-05-15T16:28:00.291Z</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='gapingvoid Hugh Ignore Everybody'/><title type='text'>Where Ignoring Everybody gets you....</title><content type='html'>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_UBUxxynFk0o/Sg2X33COC4I/AAAAAAAAAVs/m3NWoLhdfXc/s1600-h/SarahSmithMap.JPG"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 246px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_UBUxxynFk0o/Sg2X33COC4I/AAAAAAAAAVs/m3NWoLhdfXc/s400/SarahSmithMap.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5336088119425764226" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/1806827819447923064-2613480611399683750?l=positivechurn.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1806827819447923064/posts/default/2613480611399683750'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1806827819447923064/posts/default/2613480611399683750'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://positivechurn.blogspot.com/2009/05/where-ignoring-everybody-gets-you.html' title='Where Ignoring Everybody gets you....'/><author><name>Clive Birnie, UK</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16925119713535626088</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='13256942874243909900'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_UBUxxynFk0o/Sg2X33COC4I/AAAAAAAAAVs/m3NWoLhdfXc/s72-c/SarahSmithMap.JPG' height='72' width='72'/></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1806827819447923064.post-1516419382174082333</id><published>2009-05-05T09:27:00.002Z</published><updated>2009-05-05T09:56:14.377Z</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Inventory Correction'/><title type='text'>The Great Inventory Correction (Again)</title><content type='html'>Back at the very end of 2008 I pondered what seemed to be a &lt;a href="http://positivechurn.blogspot.com/2008/12/great-inventory-correction-of-20089.html"&gt;huge Inventory Correction&lt;/a&gt;. Four months on it is clear I was right and economic activity across many industries has been hit hard by inventory slashing of pandemic proportions as discussed in two Financial Times articles today which can be read &lt;a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ad5805b6-38d0-11de-8cfe-00144feabdc0.html?nclick_check=1"&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c045af6c-38ca-11de-8cfe-00144feabdc0.html"&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;We have not been immune from this trend and have seen sales hit in particular parts of the business. Oddly the very ones that the economists will tell me should be prospering in a downturn. You know,  the kind of things that people trade down to rather than the other way.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I think there are three reasons why this has happened.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The first is the great inventory correction effect. When inventory is being managed at sub replenishment levels (i.e. being driven down) your sales fall even if your customer's sales are steady.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The second is the reaction of others whose sales are being hit for the reason stated above. For example if I supply a value for money equivalent of a leading brand (as say, a supermarket own brand for example) and the leading brand in question moves £10million from TV into price slashing promotions to buy some volume there is very little I can do about it. The effects may be short term but they hit my sales all the same.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The third is  miscellaneous other factors outside of my control. These effect demand for the kind of products that the contract manufacturing part of my business make and supply. For example: if  my customer pushed their prices up to insure their cash margins against falling demand this may drive my sales down further whilst delivering an acceptable amount of cash to my customer. By attempting to insure against falling volume they guarantee a fall in volume but compensate themselves for this regardless of the impact on us.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;We have encountered examples of all three so far in 2009 but are nonetheless holding our own. We have widened our distribution base steadily over the past 2 years and this is serving us well. Growth of our flagship Sarah Smith brand remains strong with annualised growth of 26% despite a set back or two along the way!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;But if the tide turns in the inventory correction it will be welcome all the same!&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/1806827819447923064-1516419382174082333?l=positivechurn.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1806827819447923064/posts/default/1516419382174082333'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1806827819447923064/posts/default/1516419382174082333'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://positivechurn.blogspot.com/2009/05/great-inventory-correction-again.html' title='The Great Inventory Correction (Again)'/><author><name>Clive Birnie, UK</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16925119713535626088</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='13256942874243909900'/></author></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1806827819447923064.post-3547283839399208015</id><published>2009-05-01T14:43:00.004Z</published><updated>2009-05-01T15:21:28.828Z</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='PitRok Acquisition Weather Forecast'/><title type='text'>Here Comes The Sun: Boo / Hiss / Hooray!</title><content type='html'>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_UBUxxynFk0o/SfsTaTW20GI/AAAAAAAAAVk/BBh2wbjQN1M/s1600-h/IMG_1816-1.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 274px; height: 400px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_UBUxxynFk0o/SfsTaTW20GI/AAAAAAAAAVk/BBh2wbjQN1M/s400/IMG_1816-1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5330875926516781154" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Met Office &lt;a href="http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/science/creating/monthsahead/seasonal/2009/summer.html"&gt;Summer Forecast 2009&lt;/a&gt; predicts an antidote to the the washed out summers of 2007 and 2008.  Damn and Blast!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Back in 2007  in my post &lt;a href="http://positivechurn.blogspot.com/2007/08/no-alarms-and-no-surprises.html"&gt;No Alarms and No Surprises&lt;/a&gt;  I mentioned my obsessive reading of such things and have posted on more than one occasion that we have a &lt;a href="http://positivechurn.blogspot.com/2007/05/happy-when-it-rains.html"&gt;Happy When it Rains&lt;/a&gt; approach because a decent % of our revenue comes from a product with a &lt;a href="http://positivechurn.blogspot.com/2007/06/im-only-happy-when-it-rains-again.html"&gt;rainy sales trigger&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So a long hot summer though perhaps a welcome boost for UK business (e.g. Sterling has tanked so holiday in Blighty, enjoying the sun and spending what money you spend here at British tills rather than Jonny Foreigner's) is not, generally greeted with a cheer round here!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;But, consider the post below about our recent acquisition of PitRok. You won't be surprised to hear that the seasonality is counter to my business as it stood before the acquisition.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Another reason why the acquisition made sense.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So,&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Though I will admit to commenting as the rain falls down, "&lt;a href="http://positivechurn.blogspot.com/2007/06/monsoon-monday.html"&gt;nice weather for us&lt;/a&gt;!", I shall have to get used to saying "Here comes the Sun... Hooray!?"&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/1806827819447923064-3547283839399208015?l=positivechurn.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1806827819447923064/posts/default/3547283839399208015'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1806827819447923064/posts/default/3547283839399208015'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://positivechurn.blogspot.com/2009/05/here-comes-sun-boo-hiss-hooray.html' title='Here Comes The Sun: Boo / Hiss / Hooray!'/><author><name>Clive Birnie, UK</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16925119713535626088</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='13256942874243909900'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_UBUxxynFk0o/SfsTaTW20GI/AAAAAAAAAVk/BBh2wbjQN1M/s72-c/IMG_1816-1.jpg' height='72' width='72'/></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1806827819447923064.post-1666854868717491826</id><published>2009-04-27T15:35:00.005Z</published><updated>2009-04-28T07:57:51.515Z</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Acquisition PitRok'/><title type='text'>Making An Acquisition In A Recession</title><content type='html'>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_UBUxxynFk0o/SfXYwdpnC8I/AAAAAAAAAVc/q-MXV4txdIo/s1600-h/9489_HRrgb_3deos.JPG"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 376px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_UBUxxynFk0o/SfXYwdpnC8I/AAAAAAAAAVc/q-MXV4txdIo/s400/9489_HRrgb_3deos.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5329404061167324098" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-family:arial;"&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:medium;"&gt;Last Wednesday 22nd April my company Severn Delta acquired the business of PitRok Ltd. and in particular ownership of the PitRok brand of natural deodorants.  Given that at a glance this has looked like something of leap for Severn Delta, not to mention that we have made the acquisition in the teeth of a recession, I thought a few words on the subject were in order.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-family:arial;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:medium;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-family:arial;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:medium;"&gt;1. How does this make sense for Severn Delta?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-family:arial;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:medium;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-family:arial;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:medium;"&gt;The logic is three fold: &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-family:arial;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:medium;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-family:arial;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:medium;"&gt;a) The distribution fit is good. Both Severn Delta and PitRok sell fast moving consumer goods into UK multiple retail. The overlap is strong with three exceptions - one where we are stronger by a long way and two where PitRok is stronger. The net effect is the opportunity to broaden the distribution base in both directions. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-family:arial;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:medium;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-family:arial;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:medium;"&gt;b). We have acquired the PitRok brand and this will increase the % concentration of branded business vs contract manufacturing. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-family:arial;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:medium;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-family:arial;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:medium;"&gt;c)  Price and ease of absorption are attractive. We have bought at a reasonable price a small business with strong cash flow and a low level of complexity that makes it straight forward for us to take over and absorb administratively into Severn Delta. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-family:arial;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:medium;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-family:arial;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:medium;"&gt;That caveat is of course that any acquisition features some  of &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Rumsfeld"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-family:arial;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:medium;"&gt;Mr &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Rumsfeld"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-family:arial;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:medium;"&gt;Rumsfeld's&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-family:arial;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:medium;"&gt; "unknown unknowns" or as &lt;a href="http://thingamy.typepad.com/"&gt;Sig&lt;/a&gt; put it me that in any acquisition you are:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-family:arial;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:medium;"&gt;"&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-family:arial;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:medium;"&gt; walking out into the dark night and there is no flashlight strong enough". &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-family:arial;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:medium;"&gt;So we will see how we get on!&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-family:arial;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:medium;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-family:arial;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:medium;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-family:arial;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:medium;"&gt;2. Don't you know there is a recession on?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-family:arial;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:medium;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-family:arial;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:medium;"&gt;Yes. But this is a factor in favour of the acquisition rather than against. Firstly because this makes the price perhaps more favorable than at other times (although we have paid a fair valuation of the business) and secondly because even though the bank margin may be higher than in previous years it is some of the cheapest money we have ever borrowed and our total borrowings are still low compared with our early history! &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-family:arial;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:medium;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-family:arial;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:medium;"&gt;A third point is that it strengthens the business as a whole. It gives us greater market breadth, additional cash flow, distribution reach and a new brand in the stable with range extension possibilities that lie within our competency reach.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-family:arial;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:medium;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-family:arial;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:medium;"&gt;3. But aren't you a textile company?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-family:arial;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:medium;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-family:arial;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:medium;"&gt;Yes and no. We manufacture textile consumer goods but many of these are in the form of moistened wipes with personal care formulations, so we already have a number of skin care products in the portfolio that are not so far from a deodorant. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-family:arial;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:medium;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-family:arial;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:medium;"&gt;We work under the regulation of the European Cosmetics Directive already, and our preference for natural and organic components rather than petrochemical alternatives is again a good fit. Our new &lt;a href="http://positivechurn.blogspot.com/2009/04/absolution-by-sarah-smith.html"&gt;"ABSOLUTION" by Sarah Smith&lt;/a&gt; is an example.  &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-family:arial;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:medium;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-family:arial;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span"  style="font-size:medium;"&gt;More importantly we have grown our Sarah Smith brand from zero to a level where it is twice the size of the PitRok brand, doubling sales twice since launch in late 2005. We will aim to apply the same methodology to PitRok to ensure its longevity as a strong, if niche brand and hopefully delivery some growth into the bargain.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;font-family:arial;" &gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/1806827819447923064-1666854868717491826?l=positivechurn.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1806827819447923064/posts/default/1666854868717491826'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1806827819447923064/posts/default/1666854868717491826'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://positivechurn.blogspot.com/2009/04/making-acquisition-in-recession.html' title='Making An Acquisition In A Recession'/><author><name>Clive Birnie, UK</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16925119713535626088</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='13256942874243909900'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_UBUxxynFk0o/SfXYwdpnC8I/AAAAAAAAAVc/q-MXV4txdIo/s72-c/9489_HRrgb_3deos.JPG' height='72' width='72'/></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1806827819447923064.post-4001157600992096350</id><published>2009-04-17T08:52:00.002Z</published><updated>2009-04-17T09:01:26.354Z</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Cash  Cash Cash Cash Cash'/><title type='text'>Ambushed!</title><content type='html'>Yesterday afternoon I was ambushed by three members of my staff. To be precise three of the four most senior members of my staff!&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Before departing for the USA almost a month ago I had refused to sign off a purchase order that required my authorsiation. It doesn't matter what it was for but at the time I felt we were jumping the gun. We didn't need the goods or in this case service in question at the time. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;A month on the deadline from the customer has come forward and we now need to press the go button. Hence the ambush. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;The lesson: by stalling to the last possible moment the cash in question will have had an extra 30 days reclining in my bank account before being paid to the supplier in question.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Don't spend it unless you have to.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Don't spend it until you have to.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;And,&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Pay when you have to and not before.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/1806827819447923064-4001157600992096350?l=positivechurn.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1806827819447923064/posts/default/4001157600992096350'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1806827819447923064/posts/default/4001157600992096350'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://positivechurn.blogspot.com/2009/04/ambushed.html' title='Ambushed!'/><author><name>Clive Birnie, UK</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16925119713535626088</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='13256942874243909900'/></author></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1806827819447923064.post-437209037660172625</id><published>2009-04-09T11:31:00.005Z</published><updated>2009-04-09T11:59:38.173Z</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Thursday Arthur Dent Accman'/><title type='text'>7 Thursday Thoughts By Way Of A Catch All Catch Up Post</title><content type='html'>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_UBUxxynFk0o/Sd3hIsV55tI/AAAAAAAAAVU/yRPGkH0CQPw/s1600-h/SS+KITCH+CLASS+PINK+DOT+%28S%29.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_UBUxxynFk0o/Sd3hIsV55tI/AAAAAAAAAVU/yRPGkH0CQPw/s400/SS+KITCH+CLASS+PINK+DOT+%28S%29.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5322657874080032466" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;1. The recent trip to Chicago to exhibit at the International Home &amp;amp; Housewares Show 2009 was a good, worthwhile. We came away with a greater quantity of leads than three European shows provided collectively. A big thank you is due to everyone we met. We had a great trip.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;2. While in Chicago we had dinner with a friendly competitor (we compete next to each other rather than head to head - same market different niches if you like although there are areas of cross over). It was a good evening. Worthwhile kicking around the same issues and seeing how two similar (although they are 5 times our size!) businesses tackle the same issues. E.g. They installed SAP last year, we &lt;a href="http://www.accmanpro.com/2009/04/08/rolling-your-own-erp/"&gt;"rolled our own" &lt;span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0"&gt;ERP&lt;/span&gt; software with open source tools&lt;/a&gt;!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;3. Oddly I have a sense, despite all the warnings to the contrary from "export-experts" that it may well be more straightforward for us to build business in the USA than it is in some of our closer to home European neighbours. Our open, straight, keep-it-simple approach seemed quite at home.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;4. Sarah Smith Kitchen Classics, a new product we launched this Spring is already selling as well as the Original Sarah Smith "Ultra Cloth". GOAL!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;5. The parts of my business that are suffering from recessionary demand decline are the exact opposite to the ones that the economists tell me should be suffering. For the sake of clarity: the sexy pricey stuff is doing very well thank you, the low price value end is looking a little soft. Make of that what you will.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;6. Innocent have sold a stake to Coca-Cola because &lt;span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1"&gt;Pepsico&lt;/span&gt; tore a chunk off their business last year with Tropicana Smoothies. Up until then their &lt;span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2"&gt;flim&lt;/span&gt;-flam heavy cuddly marketing2.0 with added antioxidant aren't we lovely &lt;span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3"&gt;healthyisms&lt;/span&gt; (but just don't ask us to substantiate our claims) has served them very well indeed BUT once the big guns come to town a big chum with big guns is worth having around. My opinion. Nothing added. Nothing taken away. :-)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;7. &lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/g20-police-assault-ian-tomlinson"&gt;Ian &lt;span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4"&gt;Tomlinson&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt; was a friend of my brother.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/1806827819447923064-437209037660172625?l=positivechurn.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1806827819447923064/posts/default/437209037660172625'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1806827819447923064/posts/default/437209037660172625'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://positivechurn.blogspot.com/2009/04/7-thursday-thoughts-by-way-of-catch-all.html' title='7 Thursday Thoughts By Way Of A Catch All Catch Up Post'/><author><name>Clive Birnie, UK</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16925119713535626088</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='13256942874243909900'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_UBUxxynFk0o/Sd3hIsV55tI/AAAAAAAAAVU/yRPGkH0CQPw/s72-c/SS+KITCH+CLASS+PINK+DOT+%28S%29.jpg' height='72' width='72'/></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1806827819447923064.post-7579809138662171564</id><published>2009-04-08T16:26:00.002Z</published><updated>2009-04-08T16:34:00.653Z</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Absolution bodywash baby cleansing sarah smith organic cotton'/><title type='text'>ABSOLUTION by Sarah Smith</title><content type='html'>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_UBUxxynFk0o/SdzRTSoapKI/AAAAAAAAAVE/l7bQHZUn6-g/s1600-h/SS+ABSO+FACE+(S).jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 400px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_UBUxxynFk0o/SdzRTSoapKI/AAAAAAAAAVE/l7bQHZUn6-g/s400/SS+ABSO+FACE+(S).jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5322358988994159778" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Pleased with this new product which we launched just last weekend at  Natural &amp;amp; Organic Products Europe.  &lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;ABSOLUTION&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;by&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;Sarah Smith&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Body Wash. Facial Cleansing Cloths and Baby Wash Cloths.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;All Organic Cotton.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;All with preservative free cleansing formulas.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;All using an absolute minimium of ingredients rather than the long long list that you will find on theback of most personal care products. Check your shampoo bottle tonight/tomorrow morning.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;We worked on this for more than two years before we were happy with the product.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Initial feedback from the show was very positive and the first few orders are in.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/1806827819447923064-7579809138662171564?l=positivechurn.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1806827819447923064/posts/default/7579809138662171564'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1806827819447923064/posts/default/7579809138662171564'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://positivechurn.blogspot.com/2009/04/absolution-by-sarah-smith.html' title='ABSOLUTION by Sarah Smith'/><author><name>Clive Birnie, UK</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16925119713535626088</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='13256942874243909900'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_UBUxxynFk0o/SdzRTSoapKI/AAAAAAAAAVE/l7bQHZUn6-g/s72-c/SS+ABSO+FACE+(S).jpg' height='72' width='72'/></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1806827819447923064.post-4854366307100869757</id><published>2009-03-19T10:38:00.005Z</published><updated>2009-03-19T10:52:57.887Z</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='IHHA Chicago Sarah Smith'/><title type='text'>International Home &amp; Housewares Show 2009, Chicago</title><content type='html'>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.housewares.org/images/logo_Show_wDates.gif"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 220px; height: 142px;" src="http://www.housewares.org/images/logo_Show_wDates.gif" alt="" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A little over a month ago I wrote this post: &lt;a href="http://positivechurn.blogspot.com/2009/02/go-where-people-meet-and-get-among-them.html"&gt;Go Where The People Meet And Get Among Them&lt;/a&gt; detailing the schedule of ten shows both trade and consumer focused that we were attending in the first half of 2009.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Tomorrow I head to Chicago for number 5,  The International Home &amp;amp; Housewares Show 2009. This mission to test how our Sarah Smith brand may go down across the Atlantic.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;25% of our web &amp;amp; blog traffic comes from the USA already and yet there is not one location in the whole nation that you can buy a single Sarah Smith product. I have a small number of leads clutched in my palm. We shall see where we get.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.naturalproducts.co.uk/NPE09/custom/images/interface/NPE_logo_date.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 125px; height: 236px;" src="http://www.naturalproducts.co.uk/NPE09/custom/images/interface/NPE_logo_date.jpg" alt="" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Following that in the first half of April we are launching a new product at  Natural and Organic Products Europe in London.  I will write separately on that subject closer to the time.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/1806827819447923064-4854366307100869757?l=positivechurn.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1806827819447923064/posts/default/4854366307100869757'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1806827819447923064/posts/default/4854366307100869757'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://positivechurn.blogspot.com/2009/03/international-home-housewares-show-2009.html' title='International Home &amp; Housewares Show 2009, Chicago'/><author><name>Clive Birnie, UK</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16925119713535626088</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='13256942874243909900'/></author></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1806827819447923064.post-6446853741523108244</id><published>2009-02-21T10:36:00.002Z</published><updated>2009-02-21T10:43:24.488Z</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Economy Tax Gordon'/><title type='text'>Tax Rebates Are A BAD Idea ? or Economic Musings on a Saturday Morning</title><content type='html'>I'll relay a conversation I had over breakfast with two of my team in Frankfurt about ten days ago.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;"Gordy has said he thinks Tax rebates to stimulate the economy are a bad idea." I said (reading the FT)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;"Why?" no. 1 asks&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;"I guess he doesn't trust us to spend it wisely."&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;"What would you do with a tax rebate?" No 2. asks.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;"I'd pay off some debts." No. 1 replies&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;"I'd replace our 15 year old boiler or have the house painted." I add.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;"I think we'd save it." No 2. said "for a rainy day."&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;My simple brain cannot see where this is bad. Two out of the three sends cash in the direction of  banks. The third adds demand in a local economy...&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/1806827819447923064-6446853741523108244?l=positivechurn.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1806827819447923064/posts/default/6446853741523108244'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1806827819447923064/posts/default/6446853741523108244'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://positivechurn.blogspot.com/2009/02/tax-rebates-are-bad-idea-or-economic.html' title='Tax Rebates Are A BAD Idea ? or Economic Musings on a Saturday Morning'/><author><name>Clive Birnie, UK</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16925119713535626088</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='13256942874243909900'/></author></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1806827819447923064.post-3128116535156053356</id><published>2009-02-18T09:53:00.004Z</published><updated>2009-02-18T10:21:34.196Z</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Seven Severn Delta Birnie'/><title type='text'>Seven Thoughts On A Wednesday Morning</title><content type='html'>1. Go &lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/feb/18/peter-mandelson-starbucks"&gt;Mandy!&lt;/a&gt; Well said Sir.&lt;br /&gt;2. Me thinks the &lt;a href="http://twitter.com/yojibee"&gt;lady&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/weblogs?blog=/pub/wlg/13239"&gt;rocks&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;3. I have no problem with banks paying gerzillion pound bonuses. Bonuses get spent. On cars. In restaurants. On flights. On chauffeurs. On dudes who paint houses, fix gutters, mow lawns. On Stuff I make. On stuff you sell. Lets have more of them. BUT...&lt;br /&gt;4. The govt. cocked it up.&lt;br /&gt;5. Should have let the banks go bust one by one. Buy em for a quid. All contracts broken. Bonus what bonus? Much cheaper. Just needed to go live on all comms channels saying loudly: Don't panic all your cash is protected.  Instead they had a bonfire. [sigh]&lt;br /&gt;6. &lt;a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9f93fcdc-f3c0-11dd-9c4b-0000779fd2ac.html"&gt;Mr Wolf&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;7. &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/jemimakiss/status/1222335533"&gt;Ho ho.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/1806827819447923064-3128116535156053356?l=positivechurn.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1806827819447923064/posts/default/3128116535156053356'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1806827819447923064/posts/default/3128116535156053356'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://positivechurn.blogspot.com/2009/02/seven-thoughts-on-wednesday-morning.html' title='Seven Thoughts On A Wednesday Morning'/><author><name>Clive Birnie, UK</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16925119713535626088</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='13256942874243909900'/></author></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1806827819447923064.post-4294275023666289662</id><published>2009-02-17T09:41:00.004Z</published><updated>2009-02-17T09:46:46.158Z</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Kitchen Critic Fairtrade Sarah Smith'/><title type='text'>Fairtrade Write Up At Kitchen Critic</title><content type='html'>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_UBUxxynFk0o/SZqG3qJGqtI/AAAAAAAAAUk/yKwubsVcosg/s1600-h/Kcrit.JPG"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 282px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_UBUxxynFk0o/SZqG3qJGqtI/AAAAAAAAAUk/yKwubsVcosg/s400/Kcrit.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303699801945582290" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;We have had a rather kind write up on our Sarah Smith range of &lt;span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0"&gt;Fairtrade&lt;/span&gt; Cotton Kitchen Textiles &lt;a href="http://www.kitchencritic.co.uk/2009/02/sarah_smith_fairtrade_textiles.html"&gt;here at Kitchen Critic.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/1806827819447923064-4294275023666289662?l=positivechurn.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1806827819447923064/posts/default/4294275023666289662'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1806827819447923064/posts/default/4294275023666289662'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://positivechurn.blogspot.com/2009/02/fairtrade-write-up-at-kitchen-critic.html' title='Fairtrade Write Up At Kitchen Critic'/><author><name>Clive Birnie, UK</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16925119713535626088</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='13256942874243909900'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_UBUxxynFk0o/SZqG3qJGqtI/AAAAAAAAAUk/yKwubsVcosg/s72-c/Kcrit.JPG' height='72' width='72'/></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1806827819447923064.post-906552758090645465</id><published>2009-02-16T12:34:00.003Z</published><updated>2009-02-16T12:35:31.673Z</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Sarah Smith'/><title type='text'>Growth of Sarah Smith 2005-2008</title><content type='html'>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_UBUxxynFk0o/SZldc8drUWI/AAAAAAAAAUc/ESkkCerzK0s/s1600-h/g2.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 387px; height: 400px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_UBUxxynFk0o/SZldc8drUWI/AAAAAAAAAUc/ESkkCerzK0s/s400/g2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303372788053791074" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/1806827819447923064-906552758090645465?l=positivechurn.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1806827819447923064/posts/default/906552758090645465'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1806827819447923064/posts/default/906552758090645465'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://positivechurn.blogspot.com/2009/02/growth-of-sarah-smith-2005-2008.html' title='Growth of Sarah Smith 2005-2008'/><author><name>Clive Birnie, UK</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16925119713535626088</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='13256942874243909900'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_UBUxxynFk0o/SZldc8drUWI/AAAAAAAAAUc/ESkkCerzK0s/s72-c/g2.jpg' height='72' width='72'/></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1806827819447923064.post-3211654317857233124</id><published>2009-02-14T14:37:00.004Z</published><updated>2009-02-14T14:42:43.473Z</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Sarah Smith Ambiente 2009'/><title type='text'>A Few Pics From Ambiente 09 in Frankfurt</title><content type='html'>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_UBUxxynFk0o/SZbXkY_Az2I/AAAAAAAAAUU/iPLMz9Z3uJk/s1600-h/IMG_4334.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_UBUxxynFk0o/SZbXkY_Az2I/AAAAAAAAAUU/iPLMz9Z3uJk/s400/IMG_4334.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5302662631457345378" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_UBUxxynFk0o/SZbXkLGVgZI/AAAAAAAAAUM/NIt5bpddQwI/s1600-h/IMG_4331.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_UBUxxynFk0o/SZbXkLGVgZI/AAAAAAAAAUM/NIt5bpddQwI/s400/IMG_4331.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5302662627729965458" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_UBUxxynFk0o/SZbXjyMi38I/AAAAAAAAAUE/_R3kg5kbBYM/s1600-h/IMG_4327.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_UBUxxynFk0o/SZbXjyMi38I/AAAAAAAAAUE/_R3kg5kbBYM/s400/IMG_4327.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5302662621045120962" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_UBUxxynFk0o/SZbXjhP_LwI/AAAAAAAAAT8/8SrpAHy_cFM/s1600-h/IMG_4324.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_UBUxxynFk0o/SZbXjhP_LwI/AAAAAAAAAT8/8SrpAHy_cFM/s400/IMG_4324.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5302662616496156418" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/1806827819447923064-3211654317857233124?l=positivechurn.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1806827819447923064/posts/default/3211654317857233124'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/1806827819447923064/posts/default/3211654317857233124'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://positivechurn.blogspot.com/2009/02/few-pics-from-ambiente-09-in-frankfurt.html' title='A Few Pics From Ambiente 09 in Frankfurt'/><author><name>Clive Birnie, UK</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/16925119713535626088</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:extendedProperty xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' name='OpenSocialUserId' value='13256942874243909900'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_UBUxxynFk0o/SZbXkY_Az2I/AAAAAAAAAUU/iPLMz9Z3uJk/s72-c/IMG_4334.jpg' height='72' width='72'/></entry></feed>