“During the three years under the influence of COVID-19, the market has changed dramatically. In both the retail market business and the food service business, dressings are becoming more polarised and diversified, with salads appearing a little less often on the table”
Health & Medical
“The consumer remains highly amendable to their health and wellness, even despite the economic backdrop” Harry Konstantinou, CEO, Viva Leisure Ltd
“The original hype phase, that AI would take over [from radiologists]and there wouldn’t be a job, clearly hasn’t occurred. There will always be, I think, a role for radiologists, for the way a human thinks and the way they perceive multiple issues” Simon Hupert, CEO, Pro Medicus Ltd
Entertainment & Leisure
“Consistent with many operators in the consumer discretionary sector, worsening economic conditions have started to reduce discretionary spending and the high inflationary environment has introduced some additional cost pressures for the business” Market Statement, Ardent Leisure Group Ltd
Global Consumer
“We continue to see relatively robust consumer demand with the exception of China” Kristian Tear, CEO, Bang & Olufsen
“I think that moderate to lower income consumer is definitely under pressure” Charles Bergh, CEO, Levi Strauss & Co.
Weather
“Kathmandu has so far experienced a slower start to its winter trading period, cycling its best-ever winter season performance last year. Sales and retail footfall have been impacted by a warmer start to winter in Australia, and softening consumer sentiment overall” Market Statement, KMD Brands Ltd
“The northern hemisphere summer is haymaking season for airlines” Tim Jordan, CEO, Bonza Airlines
Housing & D.I.Y
“For the housing industry, the clouds of a rude awakening seemingly echo from the lips of every economist and industry commentator, yet we [at Bowens] continue to witness the continuation of healthy activity” John Bowen, MD, Bowens [large Victorian hardware company]
“Partially offsetting these sales increase in Asia Pacific was a decline in sales in Australia, where sales declined 14% in the third quarter. This decline was due to a decrease in sales volume of both homecare and cleaning products and maintenance products [partially] driven by weaker market and economic conditions” Steven Brass, CEO, WD-40 Co.
Technology
“There are more software engineers and developers in Australia today than solicitors, plumbers or hairdressers” Robyn Denholm, Chair, Tesla Inc / Tech Council of Australia
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Financial System & Scams
“Secondly, through the era of instant payments and the emergence of crypto currencies the system has prioritised speed of payments, customer convenience, and innovation. Across the board safety needs to be better prioritised. It is clear that to reduce scams and improve customer safety, we need to slow down some types of payments” Matt Comyn, CEO, Commonwealth Bank of Australia Ltd
Food & Beverage
“During the three years under the influence of COVID-19, the market has changed dramatically. In both the retail market business and the food service business, dressings are becoming more polarised and diversified, with salads appearing a little less often on the table” Mitsuru Takamiya, CEO, Kewpie Corp [multinational mayonnaise & dressing maker]
Shipping Industry
“We are again seeing in recent weeks, that it's a bit of [price] leveling off. The fundamental remains the same. There's no additional ships [bulk liquid tankers] coming into this segment for the next 2 years” Niels Stolt-Nielsen, CEO, Stolt-Nielsen Ltd [world’s largest bulk liquid shipping company]
“It’s quite staggering: three years ago, there were zero of these ships on order. Not a single one. Two years ago, there was one…sailing on green methanol. One year ago, there were around 30 ships on order. Now, there are more than 100” Morten Bo Christiansen, Head of Energy Transition, A.P. Moller–Maersk
Post-COVID
“This [railway] traffic is on the increase. There are differences, for instance, in Asia, for the urban transport, the level is back before the COVID. In Europe is 90%, 95% and in the states, it's only 60% of the pre-COVID level” Henri Poupart-Lafarge, CEO, Alstom Group [one of the world's largest train manufacturers]
“[The] big impact that we're having right now is the strong run-up in sales when everybody was home and now we're seeing a major shift in preferences by the consumer... A home theatre system or a speaker system or some of our bigger products are not something that you buy every 2 years. So there was a pull forward to buy forward as we say, when everybody was home” Patrick Lavelle, CEO, VOXX International Corp [major audio & consumer electronics manufacturer]
Aviation
“The dynamic at play in aviation is [and] has always been the same, which is you have ups and downs, and the downs are pretty punishing. And the ups are always moderated and fleeting, so I don’t really buy into the notion [of super profits]” Jayne Hrdlicka, CEO, Virgin Australia
Commodities
“We believe hydrogen has the potential to be a new industry for Australia that could contribute to a cleaner future for manufacturing, transport, and heavy industry” Frank Calabria, CEO, Origin Energy
Domestic Economy
“If you think about the magnitude of the increases in the cash rate since last year, we would have expected more softening of the economy” Matt Comyn, CEO, Commonwealth Bank of Australia Ltd
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