Daily Archives: November 24, 2017

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Majid Al Futtaim: American Girl opens brand new store at City Centre Mirdif

Majid Al Futtaim: American Girl opens brand new store at City Centre Mirdif

Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 2017-Nov-24 — /EPR Retail News/ — Majid Al Futtaim, the leading shopping mall, communities, retail and leisure pioneer across the Middle East, Africa, and Asia, today announced that American Girl, the premium brand loved by girls everywhere, has officially opened its doors in the UAE! The brand new store at City Centre Mirdif is American Girl’s first location in the region and first to open outside of North America.

The new American Girl will offer all of the store’s fan-favourites. This includes a complete assortment of the popular historical and contemporary dolls, along with a selection of doll outfits, accessories, Dress Like Your Doll® clothing, and the company’s best-selling books. Also, for fashionable youngsters, the store features a “Creativi-tees” boutique, where girls can create stylish T-shirts for themselves and their dolls. The store is also equipped with unbeatable party packages, making it the perfect destination to celebrate birthdays and other special occasions.

Commenting on the launch, Cameron Mitchell, Interim Chief Executive Officer, Majid Al Futtaim – Leisure & Entertainment, said: “We are delighted to have partnered with American Girl and be part of launching their very first store in the region! With its strong ideals, personality, and retailtainment elements, the iconic brand provides engaging and immersive retail experiences, making it the perfect addition to the Majid Al Futtaim – Leisure & Entertainment family. We continue to encourage our guests to share great moments together, and we are very excited to bring the befitting American Girl experience to residents in the UAE. We look forward to spreading American Girl values that inspire and empower young girls across the GCC!”

Katy Dickson, president of American Girl, American Girl, said: “For over thirty years, American Girl has been inspiring young girls to be strong, confident, and proud of who they are. Through our unique characters, publications, and retail experiences, we hope to instill strong values in women from a young age. This is something we are thrilled to expand into the Middle East. Over the years, we have attracted a dedicated international audience and we are excited to better cater to them, with the help of Majid Al Futtaim – Leisure & Entertainment!”

To celebrate this key milestone, American Girl will be hosting a spectacular launch event on Friday, November 24th at the City Centre Mirdif store location. The event will feature exclusive experiences, tasty treats, and pampering perfection for all guests and their little ones!

For more information on the new American Girl store, please go to www.americangirlmena.com.

SOURCE: MAJID AL FUTTAIM

Media Contact:
Taylyn Bush
Weber Shandwick
04 445 4222/050 644 4843
MAFLeisure@webershandwick.com

Note to the Editor: The legal name of this company is “Majid Al Futtaim” and should not be shortened or replaced by an acronym to avoid confusion with another business entity.

Disclaimer: All facts and figures in this release are accurate at the time of issuance.

About Majid Al Futtaim Leisure & Entertainment
Majid Al Futtaim- Leisure & Entertainment is the dedicated recreational and leisure arm of Majid Al Futtaim- Ventures. It currently operates Ski Dubai, the region’s first indoor ski resort at Mall of the Emirates, and has recently opened Ski Egypt at the Mall of Egypt in March 2017. It also operates 31 Magic Planet family entertainment centres across the Middle East, Africa and Asia and has given the region its first temperature controlled indoor/outdoor water park Wahooo! at City Centre Bahrain. Majid Al Futtaim – Leisure & Entertainment also partnered with the LEGO® Group in 2014 and has since opened 9 LEGO® Certified Stores in the Middle East. It also operates Little Explorers, the advanced edutainment centre, which opened its second location at Dubai Marina Mall in 2016, and iFLY Dubai, the one-of-a-kind indoor skydiving facility at City Centre Mirdif.

For more Information about our brands, please visit www.theplaymania.com

About Majid Al Futtaim
Founded in 1992, Majid Al Futtaim is the leading shopping mall, communities, retail and leisure pioneer across the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

A remarkable business success story, Majid Al Futtaim started from one man’s vision to transform the face of shopping, entertainment and leisure to ‘create great moments for everyone, every day’. It has since grown into one of the United Arab Emirates’ most respected and successful businesses spanning 15 international markets, employing more than 39,000 people, and obtaining the highest credit rating (BBB) among privately-held corporates in the region.

Majid Al Futtaim owns and operates 21 shopping malls, 12 hotels and three mixed-use communities, with further developments underway in the region. The shopping malls portfolio includes Mall of the Emirates, Mall of Egypt, City Centre malls, My City Centre neighbourhood centres, and four community malls which are in joint venture with the Government of Sharjah. The Company is the exclusive franchisee for Carrefour in 38 markets across Middle East, Africa and Asia, and operates a portfolio of more than 210 outlets in 15 countries.

Majid Al Futtaim operates 284 VOX Cinema screens and 31 Magic Planet family entertainment centres across the region, in addition to iconic leisure and entertainment facilities such as Ski Dubai, Orbi Dubai and Ski Egypt, among others. The Company is parent to the consumer finance company ‘Najm’, a fashion retail business representing international brands such as Abercrombie & Fitch, AllSaints, lululemon athletica, Crate & Barrel and Maison du Monde; and a healthcare business that operates City Centre Clinics. In addition, Majid Al Futtaim operates Enova, a facility and energy management company, through a joint venture operation with Veolia, a global leader in optimised environment resource management. The Company also owns the rights to The LEGO Store and American Girl in the Middle East and operates in the food and beverage industry through a partnership with Gourmet Gulf. www.majidalfuttaim.com

 

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Alibaba Cloud as Presenting Partner of the FIFA Club World Cup until 2022

Leon Xie, General Manager, Sports Marketing of Alibaba Group, and Iain Downie, FIFA’s Director Marketing Sales and Strategy, launched the partnership.

Guangzhou, 2017-Nov-24 — /EPR Retail News/ — Alibaba Group and FIFA announced today Alibaba Cloud – the cloud computing arm of Alibaba Group – as Presenting Partner of the FIFA Club World Cup until 2022. The announcement was made on the occasion of the Computing Conference held by Alibaba Group in Guangzhou.

Commenting on the agreement, FIFA’s Director Marketing Sales and Strategy, Iain Downie said: “We are aware of the substantial value that Alibaba Cloud provides to business in terms of technical support and global reaching services. We can only see great potential in this fresh collaboration related to the FIFA Club World Cup.”

Beginning at this year’s edition of the tournament, which will be hosted in the UAE from 6 to 16 December, as the Presenting Partner, Alibaba Cloud will design and provide the MVP (most valuable player) award. In additional celebration of the partnership, the FIFA Club World Cup Winner’s Trophy was exhibited during the announcement and at the Computing Conference.

The FIFA Club World Cup is a FIFA-organised international football tournament, featuring the current champion football clubs from each of the six football confederations, as well as the national league champion from the host country. In previous tournaments some of the biggest footballing stars in the world have participated, including global superstars such as Lionel Messi, Luis Suárez and Cristiano Ronaldo, who had all been named tournament best players in past editions of the tournament.

Simon Hu, Senior Vice President of Alibaba Group and President of Alibaba Cloud said: “As one of the world’s leading cloud computing providers, we are striving to make technology more inclusive to benefit more people’s day-to-day life and well-being. By becoming a major partner of the FIFA Club World Cup, we hope to show how our technology can bring new aspects of fun and enjoyment to fans of sports, including those people who might have had barriers to access or participate before. For Alibaba Cloud, this is the true meaning of inclusive technology.”

Alibaba Cloud’s powerful cloud computing infrastructure has proven its value proposition by supporting massive spikes in traffic and transactions during peak events such as Alibaba Group’s Global Shopping Festival. Within the sports industry, Alibaba Cloud works towards providing cloud computing infrastructure and cloud services to support operation efficiency in a secure manner, including by supporting big data analytics requirements.

About Alibaba Cloud

Established in 2009, Alibaba Cloud (www.alibabacloud.com), the cloud computing arm of Alibaba Group, is among the world’s top 3 IaaS providers according to Gartner, and the largest provider of public cloud services in China, according to IDC. Alibaba Cloud provides a comprehensive suite of cloud computing services to businesses worldwide, including merchants doing business on Alibaba Group marketplaces, start-ups, corporations and government organizations.

SOURCE:  Alibaba Group Holding Limited

Media Contacts

Sindy Shi
Alibaba Group
+86 150 2192 5635
ruoyun.sry@alibaba-inc.com

Yinan Qian
Alibaba Group
+86 186 0004 0770
yinan.qyn@alibaba-inc.com

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Yum! Brands announces the appointment of Tanya L. Domier to its Board of Directors

Louisville, KY, 2017-Nov-24 — /EPR Retail News/ — Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE: YUM) today announced the appointment of Tanya L. Domier to its Board of Directors, effective January 1, 2018. Ms. Domier is Chief Executive Officer of Advantage Solutions (Advantage), a leading North American provider of outsourced sales, marketing and business solutions to consumer goods manufacturers and retailers.

“Tanya’s extensive sales and marketing background, along with her leadership experience successfully running a customer-driven business, make her an excellent addition to the Yum! Brands Board,” said Robert Walter, Non-Executive Chairman of Yum! Brands. “We’re thrilled to have Tanya join us during this exciting and transformative time for our company as we continue to evolve as the restaurant industry’s leading global franchisor.”Greg Creed, Chief Executive Officer of Yum! Brands, said, “Tanya is a talented executive with a customer-focused and growth mindset. We look forward to the insights she will bring as we rapidly transform into a more focused, more franchised and more efficient company in order to strengthen and grow KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell globally and deliver more growth to our shareholders.”

Ms. Domier, 51, was named Advantage’s CEO in January 2013 after serving as its President and Chief Operating Officer since 2010. Under Ms. Domier’s leadership, Advantage is developing digital technology solutions to help support brands and retailers in addressing the challenges they face in today’s omni-channel world. After the recently announced, pending acquisition of Daymon Worldwide, Advantage will constitute the only global solutions company with both brand-centric and retailer-centric services. Earlier in her career, Ms. Domier led the formation of Advantage’s marketing division, which has risen to become the top-ranked promotions and experiential agency in the U.S. according to Ad Age.

Ms. Domier joined Advantage in 1990 from The J.M. Smucker Company and has held a variety of executive-level positions in sales, marketing and operations. In addition to her duties as CEO, Ms. Domier is a member of the Board of Directors of Nordstrom, Inc. and of Enactus, an international nonprofit organization promoting entrepreneurship for college students.

Yum! Brands, Inc., based in Louisville, Kentucky, has over 44,000 restaurants in more than 135 countries and territories and is one of the Aon Hewitt Top Companies for Leaders in North America. In 2017, Yum! Brands was named to the Dow Jones Sustainability North America Index and among the top 100 Best Corporate Citizens by Corporate Responsibility Magazine. The company’s restaurant brands – KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell – are the global leaders of the chicken, pizza and Mexican-style food categories. Worldwide, the Yum! Brands system opens over six new restaurants per day on average, making it a leader in global retail development.

RELEASE NOTICE
The releases contained on this page may contain dated information. Readers are cautioned that the releases on this page are maintained here solely for the purposes of providing historical background about Yum! Brands, its business and product offerings. As the releases may contain dated information, they should not be relied upon as providing accurate or current information. Yum! Brands disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any of the information contained in any of the releases on this page, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

SOURCE: Yum! Brands RSC

For Yum! Media Inquiries, please call 502-874-8200

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Colorado Nut Company recalls Cashew Cranberry Cherry Jubilee, Oat Bran Nutty Crunch, Honey Nutty Granola, Peanut Delight, and Frontier Trail Mix that may contain undeclared Milk

Silver Spring, MD, 2017-Nov-24 — /EPR Retail News/ — Colorado Nut Company of Denver, CO is recalling Cashew Cranberry Cherry Jubilee, Oat Bran Nutty Crunch, Honey Nutty Granola, Peanut Delight, and Frontier Trail Mix, because they may contain undeclared Milk. People who have an allergy or severe sensitivity to Milk run the risk of serious or life-threatening allergic reaction if they consume these products.

The Trail Mixes were distributed from June 1, 2017 through November 7, 2017 with a sell by date range from December 1, 2017 through May 7, 2018 to AR, AZ, CA, CO, IA, IL, KS, MO, MT, NE, NM, OK, TX, UT, WA, WY, to car washes, hospitals, colleges, retail stores, national parks, and liquor stores via UPS, FedEx or direct deliveries.

The product can be identified as an 8oz. bag with either Colorado Nut Company label on the front of the bag or a private label with “Distributed by Colorado Nut Company” on the bottom right hand corner of the back label. The item name and numbers are: Cashew Cranberry Cherry Jubilee UPC 018142352161, Oat Bran Nutty Crunch UPC 018142352130, Honey Nutty Granola UPC 018142352147, Peanut Delight UPC 018142352512, and Frontier Trail Mix UPC 018142352987 (Frontier Trail Mix is sold on Frontier Airlines).

No illnesses have been reported to date in connection with this problem.

The recall was initiated after it was discovered that product containing “Milk” was distributed in packaging that did not reveal the presence of (Milk). Subsequent investigation indicates the problem was caused by a temporary breakdown in the company’s production and packaging processes.”

Consumers with questions may contact the company at 303-733-7311 (Burgess D. Goodman) Monday – Friday from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm MST.

SOURCE: U.S. Food and Drug Administration

CONTACT

Burgess D. Goodman
303-733-7311

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SPAR Albania further expands with plans to open two more stores

SPAR Albania now employs approximately 500 people across its SPAR Hypermarkets and Supermarkets

Tirana, Albania, 2017-Nov-24 — /EPR Retail News/ — Since its launch in October 2016, SPAR Albania now operates more than 30 stores in nine cities across the country – a very rapid pace of expansion in the space of just one year.

This rate of growth is set to continue with plans in place to open two more stores, which would bring the total retail sales space in the country to over 13,500m2 by the end of 2017.

Originally launched in the city of Tiranë, the expansion has seen the brand become available to shoppers in a number of other cities including: Durrës, Elbasan, Shkodër, Gjirokastër, Pogradec, Sarandë and Vlorë. SPAR Albania now serves an estimated 30,000 customers per day and employs approximately 500 people across its Hypermarkets and SPAR Supermarkets.

The broad range which SPAR Albania has available in its distribution centre of 40,000 items includes 3,000 own brand items trading under the SPAR and DESPAR labels, including a range of Western European products, sourced from partner countries such as Italy as well as from the SPAR International trading division in The Netherlands.

When it launched, SPAR Albania, through the Balfin Group, announced that it was planning to invest over €50 million in expanding its retail network and has the ambition to become the largest grocery retailer in the country.

To read more SPAR Albania news, follow this link.

About SPAR Albania
The licence for SPAR in Albania was granted in mid-2016 to Almark, a private company owned by the Balfin Group, one of the largest private investment groups in the country. After launching in October 2016, conversions have continued of company-owned stores whilst also sub-licensing independent retailers, expanding the brand’s reach. SPAR Albania operate two formats: INTERSPAR Hypermarkets and SPAR Supermarkets.

SOURCE: SPAR International

CONTACT
info@spar-international.com
+3120 626 6749

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RNB RETAIL AND BRANDS AB to hold Annual General Meeting on Thursday, December 21, 2017

STOCKHOLM, 2017-Nov-24 — /EPR Retail News/ — The shareholders of RNB RETAIL AND BRANDS AB (publ) are hereby summoned to the Annual General Meeting on Thursday, December 21, 2017 at 5:00 p.m. at Drottninggatan 33 in Stockholm.

Participation, etc
To be entitled to participate in the Meeting, the shareholders must

–        be recorded in the register of shareholders maintained by Euroclear Sweden AB no later than on Friday, December 15, 2017

–        notify the Company of their intention to attend the Meeting no later than Monday December 18, 2017, under the address RNB RETAIL AND BRANDS AB, Box 161 42, SE-103 23 Stockholm, or by calling +46 (0)8-410 520 00 or by emailing: ann-charlotte.rudels@rnb.se. When notifying the Company, information concerning the number of shares, name, personal registration number, address, telephone number and any attending advisors must be included.

Trustee-registered shares
Shareholders who have trustee-registered shares must temporarily register the shares in their own name to be entitled to attend the meeting. Such registration must be effected at Euroclear Sweden AB on Friday, December 15, 2017. Shareholders must, in good time before this date request their trustee to make such a re-registration.

Number of shares and votes
The Company has a total of 33 912 176 shares carrying one vote each.  

Proposed agenda

1 Opening of the Meeting.

2 Election of Chairman of the Meeting.

3 Preparation and approval of the voting list.

4 Approval of the agenda.

5 Election of one or two minute-checkers to sign the minutes.

6 Determination of whether the Meeting has been duly convened.

7 Address by the President.

8 Presentation of the Annual Report and the Auditors’ Report as well as the Consolidated Accounts and the Auditors’ Report on the Consolidated Accounts for the September 1, 2016 – August 31, 2017 fiscal year.

9 Adoption of the Income Statement and Balance Sheet and the Consolidated Income Statement and Consolidated Balance Sheet.

10 Resolution concerning disposition of the Company’s profits in accordance with the adopted balance sheet.

11 Resolution concerning discharge from liability of the Board of Directors and of the President.

12 Determination of the number of Board members and the number of auditors and deputy auditors.

13 Determination of the remuneration to be paid to the Board of Directors and auditors.

14 Election of the Board of Directors and Chairman of the Board.

15 Election of Auditors.

16 Proposal regarding principles for remuneration and other conditions of employment for company management.

17 Motion regarding resolution on the principles for appointing the Nomination Committee.

18 Closing of the Meeting.

Draft resolutions

Election of Chairman of the Meeting (Item 2)
The Annual General Meeting on December 21, 2016 passed a resolution on the principles for the appointment of the Nomination Committee, etc. The Nomination Committee’s proposal is supported by shareholders representing 47,3 percent of the share capital and votes in the company.
The Nomination Committee proposes that Laszlo Kriss be elected Chairman of the Meeting.

Resolution concerning the disposition of the Company’s profit/loss in accordance with the adopted balance sheet (Item 10)
The Board of Directors proposes a distribution of SEK 0.30 per share to be paid for the September 1, 2016 – August 31, 2017 fiscal year, and Wednesday, December 27, 2017 as the record day for distribution and that the remaining earnings be carried forward.

Election of Board members, remuneration, etc (Items 12, 13 and 14)
The Nomination Committee proposes:
– that the Board of Directors comprise six members,
– that the number of auditors be one without any deputy auditors,
– that fees totaling SEK 1,361,250 be paid to the Board of Directors as follows: SEK 376,250 to the Chairman of the Board, SEK 172,000 to each non-executive Board member, with a special fee of SEK 75,000 to be paid to the Chairman of the Audit Committee and SEK 25,000 to each of the other two members of the Audit Committee,
– that Auditor’s fees be paid in accordance with approved invoices,
– that Laszlo Kriss, Per Thunell, Monika Elling, Sara Wimmercranz and Michael Lemner be re-elected as Board members and that Joel Lindeman be elected as new member.

Election of Auditor (Item 15)
The Nomination Committee proposes that Ernst & Young be elected as the Company’s auditor for the period ending at the close of the 2017/2018 fiscal year. The auditing firm intends to appoint Authorized Public Accountant Johan Eklund as the Auditor in Charge.

Proposal regarding principles for remuneration and other conditions of employment for company management (Item 16)
The board proposes that the AGM resolves to follow the guidelines for remuneration and other conditions of employment for company management stipulated in the appended proposal.

Proposal concerning principles for appointing the Nomination Committee (Item 17)
The Board proposes that the AGM resolve to comply with the principles for appointing the Nomination Committee stipulated in the appended proposal.

The Annual Report documentation according to Item 8 above, including the Auditors’ Report pursuant to Chapter 8, Section 54 of the Swedish Companies Act, will be available at the company’s offices at Drottninggatan 33, Stockholm and on the Company’s website www.rnb.se no later than November 30, 2017 and will be sent to shareholders who so request and who submit their postal address. Shareholders are reminded of their right pursuant to Chapter 7, Section 32 of the Swedish Companies Act to request information from the Board of Directors and President. Information on all the members nominated to RNB’s Board of Directors and the Nomination Committee’s statement supporting the proposal concerning the election of Board members is available on the Company’s website as of November 23, 2017.

The form for power of attorney is available for downloading at: www.rnb.se.

SOURCE: RNB RETAIL AND BRANDS AB (publ)

CONTACT

Magnus Håkansson, by e-mail, magnus.hakansson@rnb.se or by phone, +46 8 410 520 02

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Kroger introduces new, premium and sustainable Our Brands floral line — BLOOM HAUS™

CINCINNATI, 2017-Nov-24 — /EPR Retail News/ — The Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR) today introduced BLOOM HAUS™, a new, premium and sustainable Our Brands floral line launching in Kroger’s family of stores just in time for the holidays. Enhancing and building Our Brands as a vibrant growth vehicle is a driver of the company’s Restock Kroger Plan.

“Customers can always count on our professional florists to help them find the perfect item from our broad assortment of unique floral offerings,” said Teri Rose, Kroger’s director of floral merchandising. “Whether for gifting, special occasions or just because, BLOOM HAUS™will provide our customers with an elegant, fresh and fabulous new floral line to choose from. Cultivated with care, your personal selection from our bountiful assortment is a wonderful way to elevate your day, brighten any moment or make someone’s day blossom.”

All BLOOM HAUS™ flowers will carry the Rainforest Alliance Certified™ seal ensuring the product is grown on farms that meet social and environmental standards designed to protect forests, soil, water, wildlife, and the communities and people who live and work in those forests and farms. The green frog seal assures customers the flowers they are purchasing have been grown and harvested using environmentally- and socially-responsible practices.

BLOOM HAUS™ is included in Kroger’s e-commerce assortment. The flowers can be conveniently ordered by customers and picked up curbside at nearly 1,000 ClickList stores, joining an extensive selection of flower choices, fresh food and everyday products at low prices. As Kroger’s home delivery service expands, BLOOM HAUS™ flowers will also be available for purchase, enabling customers to brighten their day or that of a family member or friend.

At The Kroger Co., we are dedicated to our purpose: to Feed the Human Spirit™. We are 450,000 associates who serve nearly nine million customers daily in 2,793 retail food stores under a variety of local banner names in 35 states and the District of Columbia. Our Family of Companies operates an expanding ClickList offering – a personalized order online service – in addition to 2,258 pharmacies, 783 convenience stores, 307 fine jewelry stores, 222 retail health clinics, 1,472 supermarket fuel centers and 38 food production plants in the United States. Our Company has been recognized as one of America’s most generous companies for our support of more than 100 Feeding America food bank partners, breast cancer research and awareness, the military and their families, and more than 145,000 community organizations including schools. As a leader in supplier diversity, we are a proud member of the Billion Dollar Roundtable.

SOURCE The Kroger Co.

The Kroger Co. – General Office

Kristal Howard
Head of Media Relations/Corporate Communications
Office: 513-762-1304
Email: kristal.howard@kroger.com

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LuLu Group International as exclusive retail sponsor of the Special Olympics World Games Abu Dhabi 2019

LuLu Group International as exclusive retail sponsor of the Special Olympics World Games Abu Dhabi 2019

Abu Dhabi, UAE, 2017-Nov-24 — /EPR Retail News/ — LuLu Group International today penned a deal with the local organizing committee of Special Olympics World Games Abu Dhabi 2019 to sign up as the Games’ sponsor, making it the first Special Olympics World Summer Games retail sponsor in the 21st century history, and the exclusive retail sponsor of the Games. The Special Olympics Abu Dhabi 2019 already has ADNOC and Etihad as sponsors, and is excited to welcome LuLu Group International.

His Excellency Mohamad Abdulla Al Junaibi, Chairman of the Abu Dhabi World Games Higher Committee, signed the agreement with Mr. Yussuf Ali MA, Chairman of LuLu Group International. As part of the agreement, LuLu will be working alongside Special Olympics’ local organizing committee on a series of in-store and mall activations ahead of the Games and will also be committee to employee volunteering and fundraising activities.

His Excellency Mohammed Abdulla Al Junaibi, comments: “We are grateful and excited to be working with LuLu Group International on the Games. LuLu Group embodies several of the values that the Games are based on, such as tolerance and living in harmony with one another. LuLu’s support will help ensure we put on the most unified Games in history and that we can spread our message of tolerance, unity and inclusivity far and wide.

“The Games are of huge significance to this region and I hope everyone will follow the example of Mr Yussuf Ali. I am so proud that even my own wife and daughter have signed up to volunteer and we are looking forward to everyone else to get involve”

Mr. Yussuf Ali MA, comments: “It is our proud privilege to associate with such a humanitarian international event which is going to further strengthen Abu Dhabi’s and UAE’s image as one of the most benevolent countries in the world. I look at this partnership not just as a sponsorship agreement, but as a concrete step towards making this world take note of people with special abilities and offers them greater role in life.”

The Special Olympics World Games is a global event that takes place once every two years catering to athletes of determination with intellectual disabilities. It represents the highlight event of the global Special Olympics movement. Abu Dhabi will become the first city in the Middle East and North Africa to host the prestigious Games. The event from 14 to 21 March 2019 will draw in more than 7,000 athletes from 170 nations, making it the world’s largest sporting and humanitarian event.

Thousands of overseas visitors are expected to fly into the UAE to watch the action, while Special Olympics’ estimates of 500,000 spectators would make the event the largest ever attended in the UAE capital.

SOURCE: LuLu Group International

CONTACT

+971 2 4182000
+971 2 6421716
headoffice@ae.lulumea.com

marketing@ae.lulumea.com

 

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Amazon Web Services becomes the strategic infrastructure provider for Symantec

Leading cyber security company builds next generation SaaS services and companywide data lake on top of AWS as part of its ‘cloud-first’ strategy

SEATTLE, 2017-Nov-24 — /EPR Retail News/ — Today (Nov. 22, 2017), Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS), an Amazon.com company (NASDAQ: AMZN), announced that Symantec has chosen AWS as its strategic infrastructure provider for the vast majority of its cloud workloads, leveraging AWS’s infrastructure scale and maturity to deliver cloud security to its global customers. With AWS’s breadth and depth of cloud capabilities, Symantechas transformed legacy applications into cloud-based solutions, and built innovative, cloud-native as well as hybrid offerings.

Symantec’s relationship with AWS is long-term and bi-directional, with Symantec not only making a major operational move to AWS, but also tapping the global footprint of the AWS Marketplace to deliver its security services. The company built a data lake on AWS that collects tens of terabytes of data every day from 175 million endpoints and more than 57 million attack sensors. Symantec chose AWS for its scale and comprehensive cloud capabilities, including data services, analytics, machine learning, and container management. Innovating on AWS has allowed Symantec to deliver new security software and tools to customers faster, while adhering to strict data protection requirements.

“Our cloud-first approach to engineering requires a highly scalable and reliable infrastructure that helps our team deliver faster time-to-market and ensure that security remains our top priority,” said Raj Patel, Vice President, Cloud Platform Engineering at Symantec. “Symantec is committed to protecting the cloud generation through our leading security products, as well as leveraging the cloud to deliver our services. AWS’s experience serving some of the most risk-sensitive enterprise customers was an important part of the decision to choose AWS as we execute on our enterprise Integrated Cyber Defense strategy.”

“Leading ISVs worldwide are moving core business applications to AWS for greater agility and efficiency, reduce costs, and to leverage the security, reliability, and global infrastructure we offer,” said Mike Clayville, Vice President, Worldwide Commercial Sales at AWS. “By taking advantage of the benefits of deploying their software on AWS, Symantec has been able to accelerate its pace of innovation, gain deeper insights through their companywide data lake, and use that knowledge to make better informed business decisions. We look forward to working withSymantec to deliver world-class security to global customers.”

About Amazon Web Services

For 11 years, Amazon Web Services has been the world’s most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud platform. AWS offers over 90 fully featured services for compute, storage, networking, database, analytics, application services, deployment, management, developer, mobile, Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), security, hybrid, and enterprise applications, from 44 Availability Zones (AZs) across 16 geographic regions in the U.S., Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, India, Ireland, Japan, Korea, Singapore, and the UK. AWS services are trusted by millions of active customers around the world — including the fastest growing startups, largest enterprises, and leading government agencies — to power their infrastructure, make them more agile, and lower costs. To learn more about AWS, visit https://aws.amazon.com.

About Amazon

Amazon is guided by four principles: customer obsession rather than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. Customer reviews, 1-Click shopping, personalized recommendations, Prime, Fulfillment by Amazon, AWS, Kindle Direct Publishing, Kindle, Fire tablets, Fire TV, Amazon Echo, and Alexa are some of the products and services pioneered by Amazon. For more information, visit www.amazon.com/about and follow @AmazonNews.

Source: Amazon Web Services, Inc.

Amazon.com, Inc.
Media Hotline
Amazon-pr@amazon.com
www.amazon.com/pr

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Amazon Web Services announces new program that connects machine learning experts with AWS customers

  • New collaboration and education program connects Amazon machine learning experts with AWS customers and partners to accelerate the application of machine learning within their organizations
  • Johnson & Johnson, Washington Post, and World Bank Group are the first customers to join the program

SEATTLE, 2017-Nov-24 — /EPR Retail News/ — Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS), an Amazon.com company (NASDAQ: AMZN), announced the Amazon ML Solutions Lab, a new program that connects machine learning experts from across Amazon with AWS customers to help identify practical uses of machine learning inside customers’ businesses, and guide them in developing new machine learning-enabled features, products, and processes. The Amazon ML Solutions Lab combines hands-on educational workshops with brainstorming sessions to help customers “work backwards” from business challenges, and then go step-by-step through the process of developing machine learning-based solutions. Customers will work with Amazon machine learning experts to prepare data, build and train models, and put models into production. At the end of the program, customers will be able to take what they have learned through the process and use it elsewhere in their organization. To get started with the Amazon ML Solutions Lab, visit https://aws.amazon.com/ml-solutions-lab.

While AWS customers across various industries are moving quickly to adopt machine learning, relatively few organizations have machine learning expertise, and many are challenged in taking the first steps to introduce machine learning and artificial intelligence into their products and processes. Amazon has been investing in machine learning for 20 years, using machine learning and deep learning to make product recommendations, optimize robotic picking routes in fulfillment centers, sharpen algorithms that inform Amazon’s supply chain, forecasting, and capacity planning, provide the intelligence in Amazon Alexa’s natural language understanding (NLU) and automated speech recognition (ASR), and support Amazon’s drone delivery initiative (Prime Air). Thousands of engineers across Amazon are working on machine learning. The Amazon ML Solutions Lab provides customers access to the same talent that built many of these machine learning-powered products and services. Amazon ML Solutions Lab engagements (which range from weeks to months depending on the nature of the solution) are designed to take customers through the full process of implementing machine learning, combining educational workshops and boot camps, advisory professional services, and hands-on help building custom models with a customer’s own data. For organizations who already have data prepared for machine learning, AWS offers the ML Solutions Lab Express. This four-week intensive program starts with a boot camp hosted at Amazon, and is followed by three weeks of intensive problem-solving and machine learning model building with Amazon machine learning experts.

“We can’t wait for developers to start their journeys into machine learning with the Amazon ML Solutions Lab,” said Swami Sivasubramanian, Vice President of Amazon AI. “By combining the expertise of the best machine learning scientist and practitioners at Amazon with the deep business knowledge of our customers, the Amazon ML Solutions Lab will help customers get up to speed on machine learning quickly, and start putting machine learning to work inside their organizations.”

Janssen, the pharmaceutical companies of Johnson & Johnson, is committed to collaborating with the world for the health of everyone in it. “We recently reached out to the Amazon ML Solutions Lab to collaborate with our data scientists on a deep learning initiative,” said Jesse Heap, Senior IT Manager, Data Sciences at Janssen Inc. “We are pleased to state that the Amazon ML Solutions Lab quickly kicked off a deep learning workshop through which machine learning experts from Amazon have been brainstorming with and training our data scientists on applying deep learning to pharma-related use cases.”

The Washington Post is one of the leading daily newspapers in the United States. “At The Washington Post, we are continually working to improve the experience of our readers using machine learning algorithms,” said Dr. Sam Han (PhD), director of data science at The Washington Post. “We are pleased to collaborate with the Amazon ML Solutions Lab to build models in application areas such as comment moderation, keyword tagging, and headline generation. Through our joint sessions, we have already developed a much better understanding of the challenges involved, and a path to solution, and we look forward to partnering with the Amazon ML Solutions Lab to build out cutting-edge machine learning models to improve the accuracy of our existing models.”

With 189 member countries, staff from more 170 countries, and offices in over 130 locations, the World Bank Group is a unique global partnership. “We are excited to collaborate with Amazon ML Solutions Lab folks to leverage machine learning in our mission to end extreme poverty and promote shared prosperity, ” Misha Lokshin, World Bank, Development Economics Group.

Amazon ML Solutions Lab engagements are available to all AWS customers with AWS Business Support today. Customers can learn more at https://aws.amazon.com/ml-solutions-lab.

About Amazon Web Services
For 11 years, Amazon Web Services has been the world’s most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud platform. AWS offers over 90 fully featured services for compute, storage, networking, database, analytics, application services, deployment, management, developer, mobile, Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), security, hybrid, and enterprise applications, from 44 Availability Zones (AZs) across 16 geographic regions in the U.S., Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, India, Ireland, Japan, Korea, Singapore, and the UK. AWS services are trusted by millions of active customers around the world — including the fastest growing startups, largest enterprises, and leading government agencies — to power their infrastructure, make them more agile, and lower costs. To learn more about AWS, visit https://aws.amazon.com.

About Amazon

Amazon is guided by four principles: customer obsession rather than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. Customer reviews, 1-Click shopping, personalized recommendations, Prime, Fulfillment by Amazon, AWS, Kindle Direct Publishing, Kindle, Fire tablets, Fire TV, Amazon Echo, and Alexa are some of the products and services pioneered by Amazon. For more information, visit www.amazon.com/about and follow @AmazonNews.

Source: Amazon.com, Inc.

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