Car sales administrator arrested for theft

A woman was arrested and charged by members of the Fraud Squad after she reportedly stole several motor vehicles from a popular car dealership, where she was employed.

Charged is 55-year-old Hauva Davis, car sales administrator of Cedar Grove, Portmore, St Catherine.

Reports are that between 2005 and 2014, Davis, who had responsibility for logging all motor vehicles taken into the company’s warehouse, sold a number of vehicles and failed to either account for the sales of the motor vehicles in the company’s records, or for the proceeds of the sales. Allegations are that she advertised some of these vehicles privately, thereafter negotiated the sale of the cars, which she sold to various individuals, including persons who operate car dealerships.

audit exercise

The matter was brought to light during an audit exercise by the company and when certain documents were requested of Miss Davis, she instead abandoned her job and left the country. The matter was subsequently reported to the police in July, 2014.

On Saturday, September 13, the suspect was intercepted at the Sangster International Airport on an inbound flight and taken into custody.

The accused was later charged with six counts of the offence of larceny of motor vehicles, valued at $6,000,000, and was offered bail in the sum of $300,000. She is to reappear in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate’s Court on September 24.

She is also being investigated for the disappearance of 80 other motor vehicles valued over $80 million.

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Car sales administrator arrested for theft

Sales boost after Chronixx performance

Chronixx – File

Shereita Grizzle, STAR Writer

Based on the hype surrounding his United States television debut, it was clear that Chronixx’s appearance on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon would be something historic in the singer’s career.

Following his performance on Tuesday where host Jimmy Fallon lauded his recent album, the Dread and Terrible, the 10-track compilation has seen a boost in sales.

Dread and Terrible currently holds the number one spot on the iTunes chart, while the single, Here Comes Trouble, is standing firm at number three. A boost in sales has also contributed to the EP making its way back on to the Billboard’s Digital Reggae Singles chart. It is holding the number 19 spot.

Since its April 1 release, the work has sold just over 6,000 copies and in its release month it topped the Billboard Reggae Album Chart before dropping as far back as number 10. However, following his Tonight Show performance, the album has made its way back towards the top once more holding the number three spot this week taking over from Ziggy Marley’s Fly Rasta.

Since his appearance on the late night show many Jamaicans, including fellow entertainers, Tessanne Chin, who also had an appearance on the Tonight Show earlier this year, took to her Facebook page to beam about Chronixx’s performance.

Her post read “OMG just got a chance to see this. LOVE IT !!! Gwan Tru @chronixxmusic !!! So proud and so happy to see you waving our flag high in a BIG way.”

Maxi Priest also used Facebook to congratulate the entertainer, “Chronixx you did a good job King. I enjoyed the performance on the Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon. You did us proud!”

Reggae band Inner Circle also used social media to talk about the performance, “Big up to Jimmy Fallon we could tell he’s a real reggae fan! Early this week he featured the new rising star out of Jamaica, Chronixx.”

Social media has been abuzz since Tuesday with many users posting videos of Chronixx’s performance, with even the host himself using his Twitter account to share his views. His tweet read “@IamChronixx made his US TV debut on the show last night. So good.”

shereita.grizzle@gleanerjm.com

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Sales boost after Chronixx performance

Local book industry points to drop in sales

Financial losses are set to escalate for the local book industry as dealers have seen a drop in sales due to the Ministry of  Education’s new textbook policy.

The Ministry yesterday reported that book lists distributed by schools for the next academic year have been significantly reduced when compared to previous years. It said this resulted from the recent decision to restrict supplementary textbooks to those it approved in order to ease the burden on parents.

The Book Industry Association of  Jamaica, BIAJ, last night confirmed that sales have nose-dived. President, Norman Marshall, told our news centre that the Association’s members are bracing for a major fallout.

The BIAJ says its members, made up of 31 associates are bracing for millions of  dollars in losses from the decline in sales.

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Local book industry points to drop in sales

US PR firm expands to travel sales

Jennifer Sena

NEW JERSEY, United States, Monday July 14, 2014 - Marketplace Excellence (MPE), a full service public relations, marketing and media company, is expanding its services to provide sales support to travel-related companies.

MPE President Bevan Springer said in addition to core public relations services currently being provided to an array of clients – from destinations and hotels to airlines and small businesses – MPE would now provide sales and marketing services for travel-related clients.

“In these rapidly evolving travel and tourism markets, we are witnessing a strong demand for effective representation not only in the marketplace but also in local markets where businesses ply their trade,” he asserted.

Springer reported MPE was partnering with sales executive Jennifer Sena, of SENA Sales and Marketing, who will interface with travel agents, tour operators and meeting and event planners, providing specialized support for clients at trade shows and other events.

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“Jennifer, whose sales and marketing experience flourished in the New Jersey, New York, and Philadelphia markets where she promoted a wide-range of hotel products – from airport hotels to large convention properties, is a respected and goal-oriented sales executive and we welcome her to the MPE family,” said Springer.

He noted Sena added to MPE offerings her award-winning sales experience from major hospitality brands, including Marriott International where she was named the 2004 Northeast Sales Rookie of the Year.

In 2010, the Puerto Rico Convention Bureau recruited Jennifer as a National Sales Manager, representing hotels with more than 14,000 rooms and Destination Management Companies (DMCs) focused on clients in New Jersey, the West Coast market, and Canada.

MPE specializes in converting the gifts, talents and abilities of clients and team members into excellence and value in the marketplace; and delivers outstanding products and services to markets in the Caribbean, North America and across the globe.

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US PR firm expands to travel sales

Bill express, sumfest partner for ticket sales

Bill Express has partnered with Reggae Sumfest to create an introductory ticket sales system for the annual premier Jamaican music festival.

Patrons who want to purchase Reggae Sumfest tickets will now have easy access at more than 100 Bill Express outlets islandwide, marked by the Reggae Sumfest stickers, including Western Union agents, post offices and Jamaica Public Service (JPS) locations across the country.

All patrons have to do is bring their ID to any of the participating locations, say what ticket they need and what night, and they will receive coupons that they can redeem for the actual ticket at a booth on the Reggae Sumfest grounds.

GraceKennedy Money Services has developed a reputation for providing quick and efficient financial transactions over the years, and Bill Express is the premier choice for bill payment solutions representing over 40 companies in Jamaica, and a network of more than 300 locations islandwide.

Business Development Manager, Steven Livingston, said he was thrilled to deliver a new service that allows ease of access for patrons who are anticipating another momentous staging of the prominent reggae festival.

“Reggae Sumfest has brought to patrons some of the world’s most renowned talents in the entertainment industry, backed by world class standards in production and delivery. This standard is parallel to what the Bill Express brand represents,” said Livingston.”We thought it only fitting that we partner with Reggae Sumfest to extend top-notch delivery of a convenient and seamless ticketing solution to our patrons.”

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Bill express, sumfest partner for ticket sales

Bill express, sumfest partner for ticket sales

Bill Express has partnered with Reggae Sumfest to create an introductory ticket sales system for the annual premier Jamaican music festival.

Patrons who want to purchase Reggae Sumfest tickets will now have easy access at more than 100 Bill Express outlets islandwide, marked by the Reggae Sumfest stickers, including Western Union agents, post offices and Jamaica Public Service (JPS) locations across the country.

All patrons have to do is bring their ID to any of the participating locations, say what ticket they need and what night, and they will receive coupons that they can redeem for the actual ticket at a booth on the Reggae Sumfest grounds.

GraceKennedy Money Services has developed a reputation for providing quick and efficient financial transactions over the years, and Bill Express is the premier choice for bill payment solutions representing over 40 companies in Jamaica, and a network of more than 300 locations islandwide.

Business Development Manager, Steven Livingston, said he was thrilled to deliver a new service that allows ease of access for patrons who are anticipating another momentous staging of the prominent reggae festival.

“Reggae Sumfest has brought to patrons some of the world’s most renowned talents in the entertainment industry, backed by world class standards in production and delivery. This standard is parallel to what the Bill Express brand represents,” said Livingston.”We thought it only fitting that we partner with Reggae Sumfest to extend top-notch delivery of a convenient and seamless ticketing solution to our patrons.”

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Bill express, sumfest partner for ticket sales

Ford says retail sales up 15% through November

Latest News

Monday, December 30, 2013 | 3:48 PM

DEARBORN, Michigan (AP) — Ford says retail sales have risen 15 per cent through November of this year.The automaker says it expects to sell at least 2.4 million Ford-brand vehicles this year, enough to make it North America’s top-selling brand. It says it expects December sales to “grow substantially” compared to last December.The automaker says the strongest growth this year was in the US west and southeast. It says it will sell more than 600,000 passenger cars this year, the most since 2000.Like our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/jamaicaobserverFollow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/JamaicaObserver

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Ford says retail sales up 15% through November

Jump in mortgage rates hurts new home sales

WASHINGTON, USA — Americans cut back sharply in July on their purchases of new homes, a sign that higher mortgage rates may slow the housing recovery.

US sales of newly built homes dropped 13.4 per cent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 394,000, the Commerce Department said Friday. That’s the lowest in nine months. And sales fell from a rate of 455,000 in June, which was revised down from a previously reported 497,000.The housing rebound that began last year has helped drive economic growth and create more construction jobs. But mortgage rates have climbed a full percentage point since May. The increase has begun to steal some momentum from the market.Sales of new homes are still up seven per cent in the 12 months ending in July. Yet the annual pace remains well below the 700,000 that is consistent with a healthy market.July’s drop “may mark an uh-oh kind of moment for the housing recovery,” said Mark Vitner, an economist at Wells Fargo Securities.Homebuilder stocks declined sharply Friday, even as overall market indexes rose. Shares of Toll Brothers Inc, DR Horton Inc and Lennar Corp. — three of the largest US builders — all fell more than three per cent in afternoon trading.And major homebuilders’ shares have been dropping steadily since late May. The slide began after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke first signalled that the Fed might reduce its bond purchases later this year. The bond purchases have helped keep mortgage rates and other borrowing costs low.The average rate on a 30-year mortgage reached 4.58 per cent this week, according to Freddie Mac. That’s up from 3.35 per cent in early May and the highest in two years.The impact on would-be buyers’ finances is significant.Take someone who locked in the early May rate on a US$200,000 mortgage. They would have a monthly payment of around US$875. But the same mortgage at last week’s average rate would cost US$1,025 a month.The difference adds up to US$150 more each month — or US$54,000 over the lifetime of a 30-year loan. The monthly figures don’t include taxes, insurance or initial down payments.Potential buyers appear to have noticed that financing a home purchase has become more expensive. The number of Americans applying for mortgages to buy homes has plummeted 16 per cent since the end of April. And builders began work on the fewest single-family homes in eight months in July.Still, mortgage rates remain low by historical standards. The same US$200,000 loan would cost a buyer US$1,330 a month at a seven per cent rate, the average since 1985.Most economists expect the housing recovery will continue, albeit at a slower pace.

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Jump in mortgage rates hurts new home sales

Mercedes sales still banned in France

Business

Friday, July 26, 2013

EARLIER this month, France banned the sale of many of Mercedes latest models, complaining that the car maker, whose parent is Daimler, used a polluting air-conditioning refrigerant that emits excessive greenhouse gases.Daimler has refused to stop using the air-conditioning refrigerant R134a prompting France to halt registrations of Mercedes A-class, B-class and SL cars built after June 12.However in a bout of fortune for Mercedes, a French court yesterday (Thursday) declared that the French environment ministry must now re-examine the government’s decision.R134a is a global warming agent more than 1400 times more potent than carbon dioxide. The French environment ministry has 10 days to decide whether to continue or abandon the ban on Mercedes models. If the French continue with the ban, it will affect two per cent of Mercedes global sales, equating to about 29,000 cars annually.Since January 1,2013, European Union official demand that car makers use a cleaner R1234yf refrigerant, which is less polluting than older products.But Daimler is sticking to R134a, an older coolant, as it claims studies have shown that the new gas catches fire more easily and puts cars at a greater risk of explosion in cases of a crash.In Germany, Daimler was given special permission to keep using the older gas. It is sticking to its guns, hoping that in the next few years, a safer version of the coolant will be available.Although the car giant points out France is the only country to ban Mercedes sales because of the objection to the continued use of R134a, nevertheless, last month the European Commission threatened sanctions against car makers using the refrigerant.A Daimler spokesman said: We welcome the positive decision of the French court, which clearly rejected the French registration authority (decision) to prevent the registration of our cars.”A car is being assembled in the manufacturing plant of Mercedes-Benz Manufacturing Hungary. (PHOTO: AP)

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Mercedes sales still banned in France

BlackBerry 10 sales flop, fails to put RIM in the black

TORONTO, Canda – SHARES of BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM) plunged nearly 30 per cent Friday after the company posted a loss and warned of future losses despite releasing its make-or-break new smartphones this year.

RIM also announced that it will stop developing new versions of its slow-selling tablet computer called the Playbook.Analysts were looking for insight into how phones running RIM’s new BlackBerry 10 operating system are selling. It wasn’t good.RIM said it sold 6.8 million phones overall versus 7.8 million last year. That includes older models. In wasn’t until well into a conference call with analysts that RIM announced that 2.7 million of the devices sold in the quarter were BlackBerry 10 models.RIM’s BlackBerry 10 operating system is critical to the company’s comeback. New phones running the BlackBerry 10 software began selling around the world this year. The BlackBerry Z10, a touchscreen model, and the Q10, which sports a keyboard, have received positive reviews, but there was a delay in getting them to the market in the US.The first quarter, however, included a substantial period of sales of the Z10 phone in the US It didn’t include sales numbers for the Q10 in the US The Q10 just went on sale in the US earlier this month.Sales results and RIM’s projections, however, signal that the new BlackBerry 10 phones are not selling well. The company said it anticipates it will generate an operating loss in the second quarter, too.Mike Walkley, an analyst with Canaccord Genuity, said it’s clear the new operating system has not turned the company around.“With Z10, Q10, and Q5 all shipping in the August quarter and BlackBerry still guiding to a loss we believe that is strong evidence BB10 has not turned around BlackBerry in an extremely competitive smartphone market,” Walkley said.Chief Executive Thorsten Heins said on a conference call with analysts that the “transition takes time” and noted things are better compared to last year when “we were told the company was finished”.Shares of Research in Motion Ltd dropped US$3.93, or 27 per cent, to US$10.30 in morning trading Friday.The BlackBerry, introduced in 1999, was once the dominant smartphone for on-the-go business people. But it lost its cachet not long after Apple released the first iPhone in 2007. Apple’s device reset expectations for what a smartphone can do. RIM promised to catch up while developing new a software system called BlackBerry 10, which uses technology it got through its 2010 purchase of QNX Software Systems. But the company took more than two years to unveil new phones that were redesigned for the multimedia, Internet browsing and apps experience that customers now demand. During that time, RIM cut more than 5,000 jobs and saw shareholder wealth of more than US$70 billion vanish.The Canadian company said it lost US$84 million, or 16 cents a share, in the three months ended June 1 on revenue of US$3.1 billion. It lost US$518 million, or 99 cents per share, on revenue of US$2.8 billion a year ago.Analysts expected RIM to earn five cents a share on revenue of US$3.37 billion.The number of BlackBerry users in the world also fell by four million to 72 million. RIM also said it anticipates it will generate an operating loss in the second quarter. Heins noted the highly competitive smartphone market makes it difficult to estimate revenue and levels of profitability.Heins also announced on the call that he has halted further development of RIM’s failed tablet offering, the Playbook. The Playbook has not sold well.“Our teams have spent a great deal of time and energy looking at solutions that could move the BlackBerry 10 experience to Playbook, but unfortunately I am not satisfied with the level of performance and user experience and I made the difficult decision to stop these efforts and focus on our core hardware portfolio,” Heins said.Heins said they’ll continue to support the PlayBook on the existing software platforms and configurations. Asked if RIM will continue to make the Playbook, a RIM spokeswoman said the company is evaluating its hardware strategy.Colin Gillis, an analyst at BGC Partners, said it’s tough for RIM because it’s hard to make money on handsets now.“There are a lot of people that haven’t been able to make it happen. For all the talk about Apple and Samsung, there are companies like Nokia and HTC,” Gillis said.Gillis said things look bleaker for the company and it’s going to continue to be a struggle.Jefferies & Co analyst Peter Misek said the high-end global smartphone market is saturated and brutally competitive.“Everybody is coming to this reality. You talk to HTC, Samsung and even Apple, the high-end is saturated. That’s a fact,” Misek said. “Anybody in the high-end who wants a smartphone in the world has one, so you have to knock somebody away from another platform. That is a brutal, brutal market.”RIM has unveiled a lower-cost BlackBerry aimed at consumers in emerging markets, but hasn’t said if the device will be available in North America.Misek was expecting the company to sell four million BlackBerry 10 phones. He said the sale of 2.7 million new BlackBerry 10 phones was the most disappointing news Friday.Thorsten Heins, CEO of Research in Motion, introduces the BlackBerry Z10, in New York in January. (PHOTO: AP)

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BlackBerry 10 sales flop, fails to put RIM in the black