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Spring Sheep chief executive Nick Hammond at the Children, Baby and Maternity Expo in Shanghai, China. Photo: Supplied / Spring Sheep A New Zealand sheep milk company has scored a big win in China - gaining brand registration for its infant milk formula. It is only the second international sheep milk brand in the world to achieve this direct market access. The deal allows Waikato-based Spring Sheep to directly import and distribute infant formula to China - which long term will increase export volumes - and following two very challenging seasons, chief executive Nick Hammon said this deal was "highly significant and exciting". Spring Sheep has 15 suppliers milking 15,500 ewes and 25,000 lambs are expected to be born over the next month. Hammond has been in Shanghai at the country's larg...

First Retail Group managing director Chris Wilkinson said that a takeover with The Warehouse founder Sir Stephen Tindall at the helm could help restore the fortunes of the once dominant retail chain. Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon An Australian private equity firm has made a bid of up to $590 million for The Warehouse retail group, with backing from the group's founder. The company said a fund run by Adamantem Capital had made an unsolicited, non-binding, indicative offer to takeover The Warehouse Group of $1.50 to $1.70 a share, compared to The Warehouse's closing price of $1.45 on Monday. It said The Warehouse founder Sir Stephen Tindall and interests associated with him, which control close to half the group's shares, supported the bid, but wanted to stay invested in the new company. "Si...

The woman had no other way to go home. Photo: 123rf / Katarzyna Bialasiewicz Photographee.eu A woman who was picked up from her home by a car dealer and driven an hour-and-a-half to see a vehicle - but not offered a lift home again, has had her loan balance wiped. The woman complained to Financial Services Complaints Ltd, a financial ombudsman service that deals with complaints that cannot be resolved directly between consumers and financial services providers. She had seen a car for sale in Auckland online but lived an hour-and-a-half away. She contacted the dealership and was told one of the staff could pick her and her daughter up and drive them into the city so she could look at the car. She had thought she would be driven back again but was told that the staff member would not. She...

Paywave's surcharges are catching the eye of the Commerce Commission. Photo: RNZ / Leonard Powell The Commerce Commission estimates Paywave is taking hundreds of millions of dollars out of New Zealanders' pockets each year. It is just a fraction of the one billion dollars a year Kiwis spend on merchant service fees using the Mastercard and Visa payment networks. The commission said Paywave's 2 percent surcharge is particularly high and it has a plan to slash fees. Commerce Commission chairperson John Small told Checkpoint there was a fee inside Visa and Mastercard networks. "It gets transferred from the merchant who sells you something, the merchants bank then passes this fee across to the cardholder's bank. "The effect of that is the merchant gets charged for it and it inflates the fee...

Ponsonby Road businesses say the amount of foot traffic is a fraction of what it once was. Photo: Google Maps Auckland's Ponsonby Road is the quietest it has been in decades, with a lack of foot traffic and high rents putting off new businesses, according to local retailers. One shop owner told First Up that turning a profit now was harder than it was through Covid, while another said if things did not change, he would have to shut shop as early as next year. Anna Lim had been running her Garden Party gift store on Ponsonby Rd for 30 years. She said retailers were not as busy as they used to be. "This is more severe for us than Covid. I think people are being really hard hit by the cost of living and then Covid. "We had very quiet times, but we had relief from landlords and we had rel...