NEWS

Around North America in seven stories…

TRANSPORT

TESLA TAKING TEXAS

ELECTRIC VEHICLE (EV) manufacturing giant Tesla is expanding its EV factory in Austin, Texas, after registering the request with the state earlier this year.

The factory manufactures some of the company’s Model Y crossover utility vehicles and also plans to manufacture the iconic Tesla Cybertruck.

According to the Texas Department of Licensing and Registration, the company intends to spend up to $770 million on building new facilities that include manufacturing and battery cell testing.

This is a significant development since the opening of the Austin factory in May 2022, when CEO Elon Musk described it, and another assembly plant outside Berlin, Germany, as “gigantic money furnaces”, due to supply chain disruption last year.

TECHNOLOGY

POST-PANDEMIC LAY OFF

AMERICAN CLOUD-BASED SOFTWARE company Salesforce is expected to lay off 10 percent of its workforce following rapid hiring during the COVID-19 pandemic that left a bloated workforce in a challenging period of economic downturn.

At the end of January 2022, Salesforce had over 70,500 employees, equating to a 30 percent increase from the year before.

The firm, which offers applications focused on sales, customer service, analytics, and more, joins the likes of Meta and Amazon which have cut thousands of jobs during 2022 in preparation for a recession and expected interest rate hikes.

RETAIL

PRIME TIME PURCHASING and fulfillment solutions; customers receive free, two-day delivery AMAZON HAS ANNOUNCED through using these retailers’ sites, that it is expanding its Buy with Prime a staple of Amazon’s brand. On top program, allowing merchants to add of this, Buy with Prime users will also the Prime logo to products on their have the option to display customer own websites, and visitors to check product reviews. out using personal Amazon accounts. For the retail giant, the Buy with

The benefits of such a service Prime program could represent an include using the company’s payment additional revenue stream.

ENERGY & UTILITIES

US’ MAINE SOLAR INVESTMENT TENSION IN TECH TRANSITION

UPHILL BURGER BATTLE

SOUTH KOREAN MULTINATIONAL energy service, petrochemical and real estate developer Hanwha Solutions Corp (Hanwha) has stated that it will invest approximately $2.5 billion overall into building a solar power manufacturing value chain in the US.

Hanwha’s board recently confirmed a $2.31 billion investment to build a solar power ingot, wafer, cell, and module factory in Maine according to the company’s regulatory filing with the state, with the expectation to grow its solar module production capacity from 1.7 gigawatts (2022) to 8.4 gigawatts by 2024.

The large-scale investment in the factory is responding well to the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the landmark federal law aimed to curb inflation by many means including domestic energy production and promoting clean energy in the US.

RETAIL

NO-NONSENSE TIME SAVING

IN A BID to free up time for employees, Canadian multinational e-commerce company Shopify has made the decision to scrap most meetings.

For Shopify, 2023 represents a new era and the company has said that around 76,500 hours previously put towards meetings will be saved and used for other work.

Those meetings that are recurring with three or more employees, all general meetings on Wednesdays, and those meeting with 50 or more employees (save Thursdays) from 11am to 5pm ET are to be cancelled.

This decision will remove approximately 10,000 events from employees’ schedules, granting them uninterrupted time and a ‘no judgement zone’ when it comes to rejecting meetings to focus on work.

TECHNOLOGY

APPLE IS IN the process of moving some of its production capacity away from China, with a percentage of the 24 million MacBooks made per year to be built in Vietnam as soon as May 2023.

This follows the company’s partial shift of manufacturing operations regarding iPhones and other flagship products out of China due to increasing US-China trade tensions as well as Chinese production disruption as a result of COVID-19 containment efforts.

Northern Vietnam represents a major hub of production for Apple’s products, with technology companies investing heavily in the region.

But Apple is not alone; other technology companies such as Dell and HP have also made plans to diversify their production locations away from China.

FOOD & DRINK

FAST-FOOD CHAIN BURGER King has hired a new Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) for the US and Canada in a bid to recover lost ground.

Patrick O’Toole joined the company from the multinational food, snack, and beverage corporation PepsiCo, where he held the position of CMO of Mountain Dew.

For decades, Burger King has taken second place in sales after McDonald’s Corp. But in 2020 Burger King fell to another player – Wendy’s Co. Executives said that this was due to outdated restaurants, complex menus, and slower operations.

Burger King’s two-year plan, “Reclaim the Flame”, including $120 million in advertising investment, will see O’Toole leading the chain’s marketing to grow traffic, sales, and customer communication.