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China set to become world’s biggest gold market
China as a country is slowly emerging as the new super power and is all set to compete with India for the very title; is all set to overtake India in one area soon by has becoming the world’s biggest gold market. As per the World Gold Council annual report for 2011, the amount of gold bought in China rose 20 percent in 2011 over the year before to 770 metric tons while the amount of gold bought in India was 933 metric tons. The council said it’s “likely that China will emerge” as the world’s largest gold market for the first time in 2012 as it has already moved into top place on a quarterly basis. The rise in inflation and weakening rupee which made gold more expensive, could be attributed as the main cause for India losing the title of the world’s largest gold market. Besides this, rising incomes in China have led to a surge in demand for luxury goods and gold jewelry.
A $100,000 around-the-world trip gets sold in 13 seconds in China
The Chinese luxury lovers wish to take a guided tour of the world too, as a 66-day around-the-world tour got sold out in 13 seconds flat after the reservation hotline was thrown open. Priced at US$104,654, the tips organised by Ctrip.com, one of China’s biggest online travel agencies has only 11 people onboard, as the 12th didn’t want to share accommodations. The visa process took about six months to complete as the group started from Shanghai on January 29. The group will stop over at Australia first, and proceed for a 24-day tour in South America, with a cruise onboard Silversea from Ushuaia to Antarctica in the offing. The trip also includes a stopover at mardi gras Brazilian carnival, a 10-day cruise in the Mediterranean, dining at Michelin-starred restaurants in Paris, a stay at the Burj Al Arab in Dubai and a visit to the Aurora Borealis in Finland’s glass-ceilinged Kakslauttanen hotel.
Hermes products will cost more
The economy is struggling and people are penny pinching, but that has does not seem to deter Hermes from raising their prices. Citing high cost of raw-materials like silk, cashmere and crocodile skin, the ridiculously expensive French luxury brand will proceed with the increases in early February. Anyone remotely interested in fashion knows Hermes’ Birkins & Kellys bags, accessories, scarves and shoes demand a huge price. With this price hike there will be an approximate 9% increase. On the other hand the residents of the United States are religiously counting their stars as the increase in prices has been inculcated in Europe and Asia.
Prince Alwaleed bin Talal invests $300 million in Twitter
Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, Saudi Arabia’s Prince has recently invested an amount of $300 million in Twitter. It has no apparent connection whatsoever with the recent activists using Twitter as a medium to express their opinions and bring together the masses in this year’s Arab uprisings.
According to analysts in October of this year Twitter was valued at about $8.4 billion, which means should be about 3.6% of the company. It so seems that this investment was made several months ago when existing Twitter shareholders sold $400 million of shares.
In an emailed statement from Prince Alwaleed’s talks about this transaction with San-Francisco based Twitter Inc., which he said was part of a drive “to invest in promising, high-growth businesses with a global impact.” Prince Alwaleed has focused his investments in several verticals including banks, hotels and media companies, such as Citigroup Inc., News Corp., Apple Inc. and Time Warner Inc. News Corp. owns Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal. He is also developing a new Arabic-language satellite-news channel with Bloomberg LP.
Prada’s Store in Lenox Square Mall Atlanta
The space is designed by the very famous Architect Roberto Baciocchi. It occupies about 450 square meters on a single level, and carries Prada ready-to-wear, bags, accessories and footwear collections for both women and men.
The new store also features an entrance, alternating windows and light boxes framed in polished steel profiles. The interior of the store is divided in rooms of varying sizes, defined by the elements that mark Prada’s brand identity worldwide: a black and white chequered marble floor and walls covered in pale green cloth.
The women’s rooms, are embellished by niches covered with saffiano leather, green cloth walls and large smoky mirrors. The furnishing is completed by lilac velvet sofas and steel and crystal counters.
The men’s area is defined by masculine materials and finishes: rosewood furniture and details in polished steel, castorino-coloured velvet sofas and display counters with shelves in black saffiano leather.
Luxury product makers eyeing India as their next destination
With the Western world facing the worst credit crunch ever, luxury goods makers are searching for the next location were they can sell their glitzy brands and luxury products. And it looks like India just fills the bill.
While India makes up just 0.4 percent of global luxury good sales, the market is growing at 25 percent a year, according to a recent Bain & Co. study. There are 1.5 million households in India who could afford luxury goods, compared with 1.6 million households in China, according to McKinsey. The numbers have prompted some luxury brand names to open retail stores in the largest cities in India in recent months, despite the economic downturn. New entrants say that gaining a foothold in India has not been easy, and doing business has been difficult.
Roberto Cavalli, a designer who also attended the conference, said he made his first trip to India more than 40 years ago and the country remains one of his biggest inspirations, and one of the first places he looks whenever he thinks of a new collection. A trip to Madras for one of his collections made entirely from leather remains “one of the most fabulous trips of my life,” he said.
Sabyasachi Mukherjee, an Indian designer, says “India is not brand obsessed like the rest of the world,” perhaps because Indians have much closer relationships with their families.
Scattered cash closes German Autobahn for half hour
Some people either have lots of money or have no brains. A 23 year-old man apparently failed to heed the words of caution sending a fat stack of hundred, two-hundred and five-hundred euro bills flying through the air and scattering all over the road near Hanover, Germany while he was driving on the Autobahn. Police arrived at the scene and spent half an hour helping the man recover 20,000 of the 23,000 euros that went airborne.
China expansion for Jimmy Choo
Jimmy Choo founder Tamara Mellon hopes to open up to 50 stores in China over the next five years in what she dubbed an “exciting” market for high-end goods. China is the world’s fastest-growing market for luxury products and an ongoing economic boom is creating new billionaires every year in a huge explosion in wealth.
Jimmy Choo currently has just two shops in China “” one in Beijing and another in Shanghai. A third will open at the end of the year in the eastern city of Nanjing.
According to Mellon, China business has increased 100 percent in the last year on the existing locations we have. The British firm would open at least 30 stores in China by 2016. But the potential over the next five years could be up to 50.
Jimmy Choo has just 40 stores across the United States. As per Forbes magazine, this month that China had a total of 146 billionaires this year “” up 14 percent from 2010, and second only to the United States with 413. The brokerage firm CLSA said that China would account for 44% of worldwide sales of luxury goods by 2020 “” bigger than the entire global market is now.
Pampered pooch feasts on diamonds worth $10,000
We have all heard of the excuse “the dog ate my homework”. However, Chuck Roberts of John Ross Jewelers had an altogether different excuse; it was “the dog ate the diamonds” The now infamous dog Honey Bun swallowed $10,000 worth of diamonds. Roberts, who was busy with a customer inadvertently left 4 pouches of diamonds on the desk he was working on. When he returned back he found the contents of one pouch empty and Honey Bun sitting near by. His suspicions were confirmed with an x-ray of Honey Bun. After waiting a day for the diamonds to pass through the digestive tract of dear Honey Bun (gross), Roberts was able to recover the diamonds. The diamonds were immediately cleaned and sent back to the supplier.
Qatar gets crowned as the richest nation
Qatar is the richest nation in the world! Boasting of a gross domestic product per capita was $88,221 in 2010; the nation beat Luxembourg for bag the top honors. If current trends are considered, the country can hit the $111,963 mark by 2016, beating Luxembourg’s $94,621 and Singapore’s $70,992, by a comfortable margin, reports the IMF.
The country is the largest exporter of liquefied natural gas in the world that has reached the 77 million tons mark in terms of annual production. A Reuters’ poll predicts that Qatar’s real GDP will grow by 16.7 percent in 2011.The nation will also play host to the 2022 soccer World Cup.
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