UK Only Article: 
UK article only

Issue: 

Dirty secrets

Fly Title: 

Nuclear energy

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Britain’s nuclear plans look over-expensive and over-reliant on China

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20150926_BRP002_0.jpg

POLITICIANS were cleverer back in 1953. When Britain set out to build its first nuclear power station at Calder Hall in Sellafield, the government refused to reveal either how much it would cost or when it would be ready. A mere three-and-a-half years later, at a cost of £35m (equivalent to £780m, or .2 billion, at today’s prices), it opened. It didn’t matter that it generated only a trickle of power. It was hailed around the country as the dawn of an “atomic age”.
George Osborne, the chancellor, should have learned a lesson from that. Already the £24.5 billion project to build a nuclear power station called Hinkley Point C in Somerset is expected to finish over-budget and beyond the projected start date of 2023, if it ever starts at all. But on September 21st, after unveiling in Beijing a £2 billion …
Source: Utilities
Nuclear energy: The China syndrome

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standard article

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Backwards, comrades!

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A Tuscan tussle

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A row over geothermal energy plants disturbs a holiday spot

Location: 

MONTENERO D’ORCIA

Main image: 

Paradise potentially lost

Paradise potentially lost

THE view from the roof terrace of Giorgio Franci’s olive mill in Tuscany is sublime. It takes in the entire undulation of the Val d’Orcia. Just discernible to the east are the walls of Pienza, a UNESCO world heritage site. Scattered across the valley—a UNESCO world cultural landscape—are medieval castles, Etruscan hill villages and the vineyards that yield one of Italy’s great wines, Brunello di Montalcino.
If Mr Franci’s fears are confirmed, however, this glorious vista will soon be pockmarked with drilling rigs and, in a few years, dotted with geothermal power stations. The Val d’Orcia is the arena for an impassioned struggle in which the adversaries of conservationists are not …
Source: Utilities
A Tuscan tussle: Mercury and Brunello

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standard article

Issue: 

Exodus

Fly Title: 

E-commerce in India

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Urban Ladder’s rise shows the potential for online selling in India

Location: 

BANGALORE

ASHISH GOEL, a founder of Urban Ladder, an online furniture retailer, is fond of the story of Rose Blumkin, who in 1983 sold a big stake in her furniture store to Warren Buffett, a fellow resident of Omaha, Nebraska. Mr Buffett’s deal with “Mrs B” was set out on a single piece of paper, notes Mr Goel with admiration. The term-sheets of the four rounds of capital-raising Urban Ladder has been through in its short life were probably not so simple. Mr Goel is struck by another contrast. The Omaha Furniture Mart that Mrs B started has more floorspace than all of India’s registered furniture retailers combined.
Retailing of the bricks-and-mortar sort is a highly fragmented business in India. Only around 2% of the grocery trade, for instance, is carried out in supermarkets with wide aisles and tiled floors. Grocery shopping is …
Source: Retailing
E-commerce in India: Stack and deliver

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standard article

Fly Title: 

Luxury e-commerce

Byline: 

K.S.C.

THE resignation of Natalie Massenet, the executive chairman of the Net-a-Porter group, was revealed to the public on September 2nd. The colourful founder and boss of the luxury online fashion firm that dared to mix editorial and advertising together to sell its wares came as a surprise to many. The announcement came in the middle of a merger with Yoox Spa, an Italian e-commerce rival, which is due to be completed in October.

The merger suits the two firms, if not Ms Massenet perhaps. Both companies were founded in 2000, at a time when few believed the luxury industry had an online future, but have since taken different directions. From the beginning Net-a-Porter has specialised in luxury retail coupled with an emphasis on editorial content—both online and in print. Porter, the company’s glossy print magazine, launched at the beginning of 2014; Net Set, an app intended to bridge the gap between e-commerce and social media, went live in May. It announced record sales in its final full-year results in June, with revenues of £654m ( billion).
Yoox, …
Source: Retailing
Luxury e-commerce: Natalie Massenet resigns from Net-a-Porter ahead of its merger with Yoox