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Roche Bobois is needed abroad

Roche Bobois this year hopes to become more international than French. "We should exceed the threshold in 2012 for 50% of our revenues generated outside our home market," states Gilles Bonan, CEO of Roche Bobois. Look outside the borders, nothing is more natural for this family company whose reputation has been built from 1960 on the distribution of Scandinavian furniture. Today, it was his Mah Jong sofa that draws customers Italians, Americans and Chinese.

"We continue to open this year a store per month, with many more applications for candidacy for the franchise a few years ago, says Gilles Bonan. Philippines, Argentina, Seoul, Abidjan, Indonesia at the end of the year, Roche Bobois, accompanied by the word "Paris" out of France, succeeds in distant lands.

In this context, Roche Bobois is looking for a new shareholder. While the group has lost one of its founders, Philippe Roche, a sale of a majority is no longer on the agenda, ensures Gilles Bonan. Three years ago, families and Roche Chouan had sought to organize a "transmission process more meaningful capital", having already sold a 15% share to funds and Azulis Siparex in 2001. Both funds "are intended to come out and be replaced by a new minority shareholder," according to the leader, and it likely this year.

Manhattan, Harrods and Printemps

2012 will also be marked by the reworking of the upcoming flagship store in Manhattan low fee cash advance. "We are in the Americas since 1974, but sales have nevertheless increased by about 20% in 2010 and 2011," Bonan said Gilles. Another success for the premium brand, which is not to be perceived as luxury, his corner at Harrods in London. Opened in 2010, he became the fourth store in its turnover. Even the more mature markets are reservoirs of growth. Germany is thus in the viewfinder of the sign: a third store has just opened there, but the potential is estimated at thirty.

In its home market, Roche Bobois returned last September to Spring Boulevard Haussmann. "In France, while the market is stagnating, sales rose 3% in 2011," says Gilles Bonan. An increase similar to that of total turnover, from 3.8% in constant number of stores. "These past five years, with the exception of 2009, growth was more than 3%," added the leader. Three years ago, sales were down 4%, and Roche Bobois had given Colonial House, House and renamed Co. This year, priority will be to the continued recovery of another sign of the group, Natuzzi, which saw its sales drop 12% last year. Five stores brand Italian sofas come close. Moreover, the sign Leather Center was "repositioned", with sales growth of 7% in 2011 to the key.

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The French retailer is accelerating its expansion Kusmi

Champs-Elysees, Fifth Avenue … This is the new playground for Kusmi, the French retailer of tea bobo to conquer the urban working women and 30-50 years. Bought in 2005 by Sylvain Orebi, former dealer in cocoa and coffee, this old brand founded in the nineteenth century Russian wants to move up a gear. "We want to be the first premium tea brand in the world, and we give ourselves the means, the goal being to exceed 100 million by 2015", against 17 million in 2011, said Sylvain Orebi.

Kusmi, which covers over 25 million euros this year, intends to dethrone Mariage Freres, which has emerged as the champion French high-end tea. His credo: to succeed in the tea brands that Illy or Lavazza coffee in the. "There is no comparable success in the tea sector, said Sylvain Orebi, which imposed its colored metal boxes and does his decaffeinated tea Detox a bestseller. We very much rejuvenated the image of tea, with an affordable brand and shops where they can enter easily. "Positioning different from Mariage Freres with its servers in white gloves.

Kusmi now accelerating the creation of its network, focusing on the development of its own boutiques, alongside corners in department stores (BHV, Galeries Lafayette …) and selling fine foods and Monoprix. It has thus, according to our information, to rob the beard of his main competitor's future location on the Champs Elysees to open in July. Located at No. 71, between Nike and Ladurée, it will bring international visibility.  

Drinking tea

Her store of 250 m2 will include a tasting area called "tea bar" with pies, cakes and cookies made on site. "This will be the flagship for Kusmi foreshadowing what could be our shops in the future," said Sylvain Orebi. A concept that will also declined in the new shop on Avenue de l'Opera, which will open this summer.

His ambitions do not stop at uptown Paris. Kusmi also landed in malls, Saint-Lazare in Confluence (opening today) through Beaugrenelle, inaugurated next year. After Bordeaux, Toulouse and Strasbourg, it also provides a twenty openings in the province by 2013. Finally, he put on the outside the home to establish its reputation. It has just been chosen by the Barrière group to appear in the map of his breakfast. The international not currently represents only 30% of its turnover. But Kusmi goes fast. It could open this year in London and Milan. After New York, where he will open a second store this summer at the Plaza, it targets California.

The crisis has not dried up its funding sources. Sylvain Orebi, whose company has been profitable since two years, has raised € 7 million over three years via Audacia, the investment fund chaired by Charles Beigbeder, who owns 31% of Kusmi. After taking a 50% Laura Todd cookies via Orientis, the holding company co-owned with his brother, he wants to continue investing. He is looking for acquisitions in the fields of sweet delicacies, ice cream or cakes.

Fuel: rising employment pummel

What relationship between soaring pump prices and unemployment? According to economist Etienne Wasmer, Professor at Sciences Po Paris, of high fuel prices could deter some French to take a job: "Rising fuel prices, draping in the cost of traveling between home and work, could have a negative effect on employment. "

Difficult to say how many people are in this case. But it is possible to draw a sketch of the ideal victim of rising fuel prices. "It affects rather low wages, those who have little hope of earning more by working away," says Régis Bigot, Research Center for the Study and Observation of Living Conditions (documentary credit). In sum, the French low-skilled, paid at minimum wage, usually working part time.

World Bank: Obama wants Dr. Jim Kim

This choice is a surprise. A native of Korea, physician training, graduate of Harvard and Brown, Jim Yong Kim is not known in international financial circles. However it is in the world of health and development, particularly for his efforts against AIDS and tuberculosis. He specifically directed the Department to Fight against AIDS of the World Health Organization.

The management of the development institution is traditionally an American, while the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has always been attributed to a European. The odds of Jim Yong Kim selection by the board of directors of the bank amounted to the extent that the United States, the largest shareholder of the World Bank, has the support of European countries, Japan and many countries emerging.

Hours before the announcement by President Obama, South Africa had formally proposed that Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Nigerian Finance Minister, and former World Bank director, succeeds Robert Zoellick, whose term as U payday lenders.S. President the bank comes to an end in late June. As at the choice of Christine Lagarde last June to head the IMF, rich countries have promised an emerging open and transparent process of selection that results in the designation of the most qualified candidate. Despite this commitment, developing countries find that their chances to win one of them are tiny. Their inability to agree on a single candidate is indeed an enormous handicap.

Jim Yong Kim is expected in the coming days begin a journey in the great capitals of the world to present his candidacy and convince shareholders of the World Bank of the correctness of its strategy to fight poverty and underdevelopment.

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Recession: Greece wants to believe she sees the end of the tunnel

The plight of Greece will not last more than two additional years. This is at least the promise of the Greek prime minister, Lucas Papademos. "I am convinced that we made more than half way to economic recovery, even if the fiscal consolidation process will take longer. Of positive growth rates should be achieved by less than two years, "suggests he in an interview with Financial Times.

This statement comes as Greece is to receive on Monday from the European Union an additional EUR 5.9 billion. This is the first installment of the second aid package of 130 billion euros granted to Greece in early March. This loan comes new monumental adjustment efforts on the part of Greece, such as lowering the minimum wage by 20% as the country had adopted earlier this year to convince its European partners to help new .  

Mea culpa European

For its part, the President of the Eurogroup Jean-Claude Juncker, made his mea culpa in the Greek press. "I think we did not sufficiently focused on the dimension of growth to the general problem of Greece. We especially emphasized the consolidation of public finances without giving alternative or leave the choice to Greece, the official said center-right daily Kathimerini. We have been hard towards fiscal consolidation, but very low in relation to the other important parameter, that of growth. "

Same story on the side of specialists missioned to Athens to recover the Greek state cheap credit report. "Greece has achieved something unique by testing the limits of what could accept and support people, said this weekend the head of the technical mission of the European Commission, Germany's Handelsblatt Horst Reichenbach. We will not forget. "These statements by European officials" let dawn a change of tone, "Analysis Jesus Castillo, an economist at Natixis:" Even if the strategy is led by the North, led by Germany, one can rejoice that growth is better taken into account to support structural measures very hard ".

Five years of recession

Greece entered its fifth consecutive year of recession. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has revised downwards its growth forecast last week. He believes the country should emerge from recession in 2013, but he is expected to grow anywhere that year. Meanwhile, business is expected to decline by 4.8% in 2012 (after -6.9% in 2011) and the Greek State should continue its efforts to reform itself. According to the latest European Commission report on Greece, published last Friday, Athens has not made sufficient efforts to combat tax evasion and privatize public enterprises.

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Suicides: Post freezes its reorganization

Unions of La Poste have been heard. Rocked by three suicides in six months, the postal group has taken the measure of social malaise that reigns within its walls. According to the Journal du Dimanche, its CEO, Jean-Paul Bailly, is expected to announce Monday a suspension until September of the reorganization of the branch e. A break of nearly six months during which discussions will be held with employees to improve their working conditions. At the local level, first, the regional offices of the Post Office will begin negotiations on the reduction of work patterns in post offices. At the national level, then, Jean-Paul Bailly launch the establishment of a "social warning unit" and could also release a budget to support the weakest agents, specify the sources cited by the weekly Sunday. Contacted by The Figaro.fr, the group was not immediately available for comment.

La Poste has accelerated its timetable for ending the crisis, after the suicide last Sunday as part of a group in Britain. In a folder left behind, this forty, who had been off long illness since November and was found hanged at his place of work in Brittany, had denounced a hard three years from its hierarchy. This was the second suicide in Breton Post in ten days. February 29, Jeremy Buan, a senior of 28 years, had committed suicide by jumping from the top floor of La Poste in Rennes, in the Ille-et-Vilaine. He too had reported his "outstanding work" in a letter released by his partner. Immediately, the Post Office had opened on Tuesday for talks with the unions on "health and welfare at work", promising that "proposals" would be made "before summer".

The bracketing, albeit provisional, of the restructuring of the business mail should satisfy the unions who denounced social climate "anxiety" since the suicide last September of a 52-year employee who was, also, défenestrée the fourth floor of the financial center of the 15th arrondissement in Paris payday loans. "This situation is unfortunately not unique to the post office," said Antoine Le Séguillon this week, a union representative GSC in Figaro.fr. "And it is not unique to Britain," he said hoping that the leadership would engage quickly "concrete actions".

Action plan against erosion mail

Faced with the erosion of its mail business, which it considered that the volumes would collapse by 30% over 2008-2015, the Post Office had drawn a new plan in 2009. Jean-Paul Bailly had emphasized that this branch should "reinvent themselves" by offering new services. Gradually, the schedules of post offices have been extended throughout France, robots have been installed to reduce waiting times for customers and, last September, The Post has completely redesigned its line of mail.

A strategy that has "paid off", welcomed the group during the presentation of its annual results on March 8. While lower volumes continued with a decrease of 3%, after falling 3.3% in 2010, the mail business recorded a turnover stable at EUR 11.5 billion (+ 0.3%), more than half of the total activity of La Poste. But for the unions, these good results have been costly to employees. According to the CGT, it was obtained "at a price of 10,091 job cuts" and an increase in sick leave.

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These American rappers become entrepreneurs

"I'm not a businessman, I'm a business, man! *". This sentence from Jay-Z – the title Diamonds From Sierra Leone Remix by Kanye West – sums up the prevailing situation in the world of American rap. At the head of a fortune respective $ 450 million and $ 100 million, the two artists will be performing in Paris-Bercy in June, are real business men. And they are not alone. P.Diddy, 50 Cent, Dr. Dre or Pharrell Williams, these rappers are also producers, composers, actors sometimes but mostly contractors.

For most self-made men, from disadvantaged backgrounds, the American rap stars today are wealthy. In addition to the income they derive from the music is by increasing business partnerships, equity investments or launching their own brands that they have become real cash machines. The latest example, Snoop Dogg released in April his trademark cigars Executive Branch. P.Diddy expected him to launch his own tequila.

Jay-Z, entrepreneur model

Investing turns to alcohol, clothing or food, these artists have become multimillionaires. Thus, the famed producer Dr. Dre has seen the brand of headphones he had founded in 2008, Beats by Dr Dre, being acquired last year by the Taiwan-based HTC for a whopping $ 300 million.

Thanks to its partnership with Diageo, the world of spirits, P. Diddy could become the first billionaire rapper dollars if we are to believe Forbes magazine. Ambassador of the Ciroc vodka brand, it also supports its development. Marketing, management, the rapper takes care of everything and receives 50% of profits. His fortune is now estimated at $ 475 million.  

But he who is cited as an example is Jay-Z. Author of a biography of the rapper from Brooklyn, Empire State Of Mind, the reporter Zack O'Malley Greenburg of Forbes sees in him a model for ambitious of any contractor to build a business empire. In 2007, the sale of his Rocawear clothing line, had allowed him to pocket $ 204 million. Label boss, he is also a minority shareholder of a NBA basketball team, the New Jersey Nets and co-founder of the chain of clubs 40/40.

French rappers go at it too

To advertise their own brands, they can rely on themselves for long references in their rap songs. They also benefit from their address books thick and artists they produce to make a perfect product placement in their videos. The ambition and the cult of success are perfectly claimed. They are even in the heart of their brand. The rappers are betting on the fact that in addition to consuming their music, fans will adopt, and therefore buy, their lifestyle. "My brands are an extension of myself, Jay-Z told the magazine Men's Health. All my things are a part of my culture. " His music is inseparable from his business.

American rappers are not the only ones to diversify their incomes, French rappers go at it too. Like Booba who launched his clothing brand streetwear Unkut in 2004. Precursor, was created in 1998 JoeyStarr brand Com8 (Come-Eight) with two partners. It has benefited in its early stages of the promotion by both members of NTM.

Some fans will blame these rappers emblematic of a new kind of move away from the original message of the rap genre protest denouncing the inequalities and injustices. Still, in 2010, Jay-Z was the one of Forbes magazine along with the American billionaire Warren Buffett. A form of consecration.

* "I'm not a businessman, I'ma business"

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The final closure of Florange looms

"We will put patterns Florange unemployed by taking control of the plant." Edward Martin, representative of the CFDT EWC ArcelorMittal, wants offensive. The occupation of the site, scheduled for tomorrow, is a direct consequence of the extension until 30 June of the closure of two blast furnaces Florange, the last of Lorraine. "The direction we to understand that, barring a miracle, this closure would last all year," says Edward Martin.

For several months, the largest producer of steel has many announcements to reduce its production capacity. Spain, Belgium and France but also Romania and Czech Republic were affected. Today, only the blast furnaces in Liege never reopen. Other closures are for the moment, temporary.

A temporary measure reaffirmed to the minister, Eric Besson

Bourrier Hervé, President of ArcelorMittal France, reaffirmed that "temporary" to Eric Besson, Minister of Industry, last week. Employees such as trade unionists fear yet more than this closing becomes final. The clues that point in this direction are beginning to be numerous.

"A blast furnace is designed to run continuously, says an industry expert. It degrades when it is not the case. "The first blast furnace Florange is closed since June. The second since October. Investment and maintenance are reduced. Some were made late last year but "there is nothing for a month and a half" notes François Pagano, CFE-CGC delegate. "The industrial base is deteriorating, laments Edward Martin. With the cold, some lines broken. "Worse:" The founders began to be reclassified in the group. Leaders do not take it otherwise if they had close Florange. "

The recovery of orders has not changed all that

The recovery of orders failed to revive the plant. Aditya Mittal, CFO of ArcelorMittal, said on publication of results in 2011 that "shipments are much better than the fourth quarter of 2011, but we are still far volumes 2006, 2007 and 2008." What does surprisingly, these years being excellent.

Francois Pagano explains that "the business unit North, including Dunkirk, Florange, Benelux and Germany, recorded 3.7 million tons of orders for the second quarter of 2012 while its production capacity is 3.8 million . So the plants are running at 97% capacity. At this level, it would be possible to reopen Florange to avoid a potential bottleneck. "

Finally, the closure would be consistent with the group's strategy to focus on very large production units in coastline at Dunkirk and Fos sur mer in France and Bremen in Germany Same day payday loans. The justifications for the closure of Liege seem perfectly applicable to Florange. "ArcelorMittal is considering a gain of 56 euros per tonne, which would be credited to the closure of Liege and transfer the production of slabs (Note: raw material for the manufacture of sheet metal) to Dunkirk," says the firm Laplace Council A study commissioned by the Walloon region. The forward gain is identical to Florange: "The leaders explain that ArcelorMittal bring slabs from Dunkirk saves 50 euros per tonne," confirms Francois Pagano.

With increased action "punch", although some have put Florange in the heart of the current election campaign. "Getting a formal commitment of a private company seems complicated," admits to the entourage of Eric Besson. A conclusion which adheres Francois Pagano whose only solution is to "convince Lakshmi Mittal's economic interest Florange".

"Ulcos" or last resort

All actors in the Lorraine steel cite Ulcos project, the acronym for "steel making process at very low CO2 emissions," as salvation for Florange. Launched in 2004, this is a program to find new techniques to produce steel with less carbon dioxide (CO2). Investments for carrying out are huge: 650 million euros! The French government has already pledged 150 million euros of funding. And Brussels could bring 250 million additional. ArcelorMittal leaders have vowed to launch Ulcos, and bring the balance of funding, if EU subsidies are granted.

Except that many obstacles have arisen in recent months. First techniques. The processes developed by Ulcos involve capturing and storing carbon. But experts are beginning to question this technique both for environmental reasons and efficiency.

Then the price of CO2 allowances collapsed in recent months, making plans to reduce CO2 emissions less urgent to implement. And nothing suggests that prices will go up quickly. In difficult economic times, as is currently the case, companies may be reluctant to invest in such technologies if there is no immediate financial implications.

Finally, there is little doubt that ArcelorMittal will decide to raise, or not, Florange on the basis of the only economic criteria. "The management of ArcelorMittal has told us clearly that Florange restarted if the market justifies it, and not only if Ulcos born," stated Michel Liebgott recently, area MP Florange.

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In one day, the U.S. national debt has grown from 55.8 billion. Results on Tuesday it reached 15,033.6 billion, according to the U.S. Treasury Department. She is now 99% of GDP forecast by the White House for all of 2011.

This debt had crossed upwards the threshold of 10 000 billion in September 2008. Since then, the United States earn one trillion additional debt every seven and a half months on average. Pace violently denounced by the Republican opposition accusing President Obama of being solely responsible.If nothing comes of these discussions before November 23, the law provides for the automatic implementation, from 2013, cuts in government spending, divided equally between defense spending and the remaining costs.

Pessimistic, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said in its latest "monitor public finances" dated September, the public debt of the United States would reach 100% of GDP at the end of the year, 105% in 2012, and continue to increase up to 115% in 2016.

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