Article content

NIAGARA-ON-THE-LAKE, Ontario — Diamond Estates Wines & Spirits Inc. (“Diamond Estates” or “the Company”) (DWS-TSX Venture) announced the results of voting at its annual general and special meeting of shareholders (“AGM”) held yesterday in Toronto.

The following matters were approved at the AGM by at least 95% of the votes cast thereon:

Article content

In the Board of Directors meeting immediately after the AGM, the following individuals were appointed officers of the Company:

About Diamond Estates Wines and Spirits Inc.

Diamond Estates Wines and Spirits Inc. is a producer of high-quality wines and ciders as well as a sales agent for over 120 beverage alcohol brands across Canada. The Company operates five production facilities, four in Ontario and one in British Columbia, that produce predominantly VQA wines under such well-known brand names as 20 Bees, Creekside, EastDell, Lakeview Cellars, Mindful, Queenston Mile, Shiny Apple Cider, Fresh, Proud Pour, Red Tractor, Seasons, Serenity and Backyard Vineyards.

Through its commercial division, Trajectory Beverage Partners, the Company is the sales agent for many leading international brands in all regions of the country as well as being a distributor in the western provinces. These recognizable brands include Josh wines from California, Fat Bastard, Meffre, Pierre Chavin and Andre Lurton wines from France, Brimincourt Champagne from France, Merlet and Larsen Cognacs from France, Kaiken wines from Argentina, Blue Nun and Erben wines from Germany, Calabria Family Estate Wines and McWilliams Wines from Australia, Saint Clair Family Estate Wines and Yealands Family Wines from New Zealand, Redemption Bourbon and Rye whiskies from the U.S., Gray Whale Gin from California, Storywood and Cofradia Tequilas from Mexico, Magnum Cream Liqueur from Scotland, Talamonti and Cielo wines from Italy, Catedral and Cabeca de Toiro wines from Portugal, Waterloo Beer & Radlers from Canada, Landshark Lager from the USA, Edinburgh Gin, Tamdhu, Glengoyne and Smokehead single- malt Scotch whiskies from Scotland, Islay Mist, Grand MacNish and Waterproof whiskies from Scotland, C. Mondavi & Family wines including C.K Mondavi & Charles Krug from Napa, Wize Spirits, Hounds Vodka and Valley of Mother of God Gins from Canada, Bols Vodka from Amsterdam, Koyle Family Wines from Chile and Pearse Lyons whiskies and gins from Ireland.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230906293293/en/

Contacts

For more information:

Andrew Howard
President & CEO
Diamond Estates Wines & Spirits Inc.
ahoward@diamondwines.com

Ryan Conte, CPA, CA, CBV
Chief Financial Officer
Diamond Estates Wines & Spirits Inc.
rconte@diamondwines.com

#distro

You can also listen to this podcast on iono.fm here.

JIMMY MOYAHA: Earlier today Rand Merchant Bank released their Business Confidence Index. They put this out quite often and it’s very insightful to see what it is that businesses are reporting on. We’ve got a similar report coming out from the South African Chamber of Commerce [and Industry] tomorrow, but for today I’m joined by the chief economist at Rand Merchant Bank, Isaah Mhlanga.

Good evening, Isaah. As always, thanks so much for your time. Where do we stand at the moment? Are businesses feeling confident?

ISAAH MHLANGA: Thanks for having me. I think if you look at business confidence, there was a marginal improvement in the third quarter. The survey was done among about 1 050 business executives across the five sub-sectors between August 16 and August 31.

Within that period, there have been some developments that we saw, and over the period preceding that we saw the strike in Cape Town and the burning of trucks that would have impacted the outcomes. Nonetheless, we saw an improvement [in the Business Confidence Index] to 33 points from 27 points previously.

Read: SA business confidence edges up after GDP surprise

What it means is just about 70% – or we could say two-thirds of business executives – remain dissatisfied with prevailing business conditions. So still very low levels of confidence, even though we have seen some improvements this quarter relative to the previous quarter

JIMMY MOYAHA: Isaah, what were some of the main reasons why 70% of the executives didn’t feel that we were where we should be? Did load shedding have anything to do with this and, if so, where do we now sit given that load shedding was relaxed and we saw slight improvements – and now we’re back at Stage 6 [load shedding]. Is this going to affect us going forward in further business confidence readings, because executives are seeing no light at the end of the tunnel? Sorry for the bad pun.

ISAAH MHLANGA: I think if we look at the sub-sectors, building contractors comprise the only sub-sector that saw a marginal decline from 43 points to 41, which means just about 60% of business executives are dissatisfied with business conditions currently. If we look at the other four sub-sectors which saw some improvement, the biggest improvement was in the retail sector, where we saw a 12-point increase from 20 to 32. But again, still two-thirds of executives are dissatisfied.

But if we just go a little bit deeper in the retail sector, what we see is the players in the non-durable sector saw an improvement, and we also saw players in the semi-durable sector seeing an improvement.

But the durable sector, which accounts for 21% of the total sector, saw a decline. The durable sector is really the big-ticket items, which normally tend to be financed by credit. The increase in interest rates will have weighed down there, particularly on furniture and hardware.

Outside of that, if you look at wholesalers, that also improved by six points. New vehicle dealers, which is also a very high interest-sensitive sector, saw an improvement of seven points. One would have expected this sector to underperform or to see its confidence moderate, given the high interest rates.

But I think the inflation that we saw falling to 4.7% might have provided some confidence, in the sense that the cost of financing going forward is not going to continue to increase. So it might have boosted confidence somewhat.

Read:
Too soon to celebrate the drop in inflation
Kganyago says job ‘not yet done’ on inflation
Sarb to kick off easing cycle early next year: economists

And then the manufacturing sector is quite dependent on electricity production. To your point, the less severe load shedding than what had initially been promised – we didn’t see Stage 8 load shedding, which would’ve contributed negatively – might have boosted confidence to 23 from 17. It’s quite important to note that this sector remained the lowest-performing sector across all the sub-sectors.

So the squeeze is still on, even though we have seen some building of resilience. And the GDP numbers that we saw yesterday also offend this performance. Manufacturing contributed positively, even though if we look over confidence remains quite low.

Read: GDP: Second-quarter growth beats forecasts

JIMMY MOYAHA: Isaah, I like that you brought up the inflationary picture, because I always get your inflationary expectations. The last time you and I spoke I think we were still north of 6%. We were at that 6.3% reading in May. We then did the 5.3%, and now 4.7%. Are we anticipating that this is under control, because the central bank governor certainly said it’s not?

And if we are to then assume that this will continue to moderate towards the end of the year, is there a realistic hope, again, of interest rates remaining at these levels or interest rates coming down? We still have that rand picture to contend with that could rear its ugly head in terms of keeping interest rates at these elevated levels with a weaker rand.

ISAAH MHLANGA: As far as inflation is concerned, we think that inflation is going to remain broadly contained within the Reserve Bank’s target. We might see some reversal from the previous trend of 4.7%. You would know if you went to fill up your petrol tank or diesel tank, that you’re paying a lot more this month than in the previous month. That is going to come through into the inflation numbers.

Read: Fuel prices to take the spring out of your step

But also oil prices. If you look, futures prices have breached $90 per barrel; that is going to come through again in the next month which means we might see some reversal. But still, we expect overall the CPI to be well contained, which then suggests that the Reserve Bank is unlikely to continue to hike rates.

We actually believe at 8.25%, the authority is at peak. But we don’t expect any cut anytime soon. So the concerns that come from these upside risks is that we are going to see last-for-longer interest rates, but not an increase.

It just means we expect cuts to come only in the second half of next year.

But there are many other sectors that will contribute to that, and one of those is the direction that the US Fed is going to take. If they cut earlier, then we might also see cuts earlier on, but that’s not our core view.

JIMMY MOYAHA: So then where does that put us from a business confidence point of view, Isaah? What are the scenarios that we’re looking at, going forward? I know it’s obviously very difficult to map things out because there are so many variables that are beyond our knowledge and our control. We could be up to Stage 10 by tomorrow morning. You and I don’t know this, but what are some of the permutations that could result in improved business confidence? Or what have some of the executives cited as things they would like to see improve in order for them to have more confidence in the South African picture, both locally and internationally in terms of factors?

ISAAH MHLANGA: I think some of the aspects that might have weighed or that continue to weigh down the pace of economic reforms [are that the rand] has been too low, but the continuation of the addition of electricity generation by the private sector will continue to play a positive role in a sense that the private sector is increasingly becoming less dependent on Eskom supply. That might improve business confidence.

But overall, I think we just need to see economic reforms being implemented. Look at bulk goods transporters from the mining sector, agribusinesses – we want to see the rail lines operating and much more efficient ports which will facilitate trade.

But more generally [it’s] the cost of fuel. If companies can’t get electricity, they burn diesel, which is much more costly.

So the sooner we end load shedding, the better business conditions can be. The faster we implement all these economic reforms that are being implemented at a very slow pace, the more we can see business confidence improve. That will bode well for private investment and growth going forward. But so far the pace remains [much slower] than we would want to see.

JIMMY MOYAHA: That’s quite interesting, Isaah. You’ve basically just said we need the government to do their part and [chuckling] I don’t know how much of that we’re going to get out of that. But we live in hope, and business also lives in hope. We adapt to the situations that we have and we hope that the next time you and I speak about this number, it’s a lot higher than where it’s sitting now.

Thanks so much, Isaah. Isaah Mhlanga, chief economist at Rand Merchant Bank, has been giving us a sense of the Business Confidence Index report that came out today, and what it all means for South Africa.

The Port of Dover wants to build out into the sea to avoid delays when the EU’s planned biometric border controls system starts.

The Port’s boss, Doug Bannister, said reclaiming some land would create more space to process passengers.

He has previously warned the new system could cause long queues.

The new controls, known as the Entry Exit Scheme, were first slated for introduction in 2022, but are now expected to start in autumn 2024.

After their introduction people entering the EU will have to register their fingerprints and a photograph alongside their passport.

Over the past few years the Port of Dover has seen repeated incidents of queuing at its busiest times, with post-Brexit checks adding to waiting times. Mr Bannister has insisted everything possible has now been done to minimise delays. This summer, with traffic numbers nearly back to pre-Covid levels, there no prolonged problems at the port.

However, Mr Bannister has previously warned that under the Entry Exit Scheme (EES), the time taken for non-EU citizens to comply with the new requirements could create bottlenecks.

Mr Bannister has said that working with the authorities on both sides of the Channel over the past year had made him more confident.

An app may be developed to handle part of the registration process before people arrive at the port, he suggested. However, he said the port needed a solution to prevent “unacceptable” queues materialising at the border.

Mr Bannister told the BBC that plans already existed to reclaim land in the port’s western docks, for cargo use. Now, he is looking to speed up the project so the new area can be used to hold passengers when EES starts.

This acceleration would cost an extra £2m, with the aim of finalising the design by the end of the year, and starting work in the spring. The port is hoping the government may be able to contribute financially.

The Dover boss said decisions needed to be made “imminently”.

Dover is not alone in trying to avoid difficulties as a result of EES.

Yann Leriche, chief executive of Eurotunnel’s owner Getlink, said the change was something the business “cannot mismanage”, with problems “not an option”.

Getlink is spending £100m to create a new area, where people will be able to register their data at 75 stands.

Eurotunnel is also seeing traffic recover, although it is still short of pre-pandemic levels.

Getlink has developed technology to process customs controls digitally. It says this now allows goods to cross the Channel as quickly as before Brexit – something it hopes will attract customers.

The Port of Dover says it had its busiest day since before the pandemic on Saturday 29th July, with 800 cars arriving every hour at peak times.

The average wait time over the summer was 41 minutes during busy periods, it said.

Over the the summer the port handled 1.14 million passengers travelling over to France, close to the 1.19 million in 2019.

A board member since 2010, Graham was named the board’s lead independent director in October 2022, a role considered to be pivotal in managing the relationship between a board, its chair, and their stakeholders. Stefano Pessina will remain Walgreens’ executive chairman. 

Graham ticks all the boxes for corporate America leadership: Harvard MBA (class of ’86), multiple CEO gigs, and prestigious board seats. She’s also a health care veteran with experiences across the notoriously complex industry, from developing new drugs at pharmaceutical companies to helming a global medical technology manufacturer to leading a health care consulting firm. 

“Ginger is the ideal person to serve as interim CEO, given her leadership experience across multiple segments of the health care industry, deep knowledge of WBA, and strong operational skills,” Pessina said in a statement announcing the leadership changes. 

Walgreens declined to comment beyond an already issued press release.

Graham’s health care experience comes at a pivotal time for Walgreens, as it tries to expand beyond its core pharmacy business. Under Brewer’s leadership the company made several multibillion-dollar acquisitions to expand into urgent care, primary care, and specialty pharmaceuticals. Wall Street, however, has been cool to the expansion push—so much so that on a January investor call, executives had to assure investors that M&A would take a backseat in the immediate future, as the company focused on integrating its new acquisitions into Walgreens. 

Brewer’s departure was sudden although not entirely unexpected, given she was the architect of Walgreens’ expansion strategy into health care. “With the increased focus on growing the Walgreens Healthcare segment…it makes sense to retrench and search for a new leadership team with more extensive backgrounds in health care services,” an Evercore analyst told Reuters. 

Most of Brewer’s experience is in retail; she previously held positions at Starbucks and Walmart. “Health care is not Ms. Brewer’s forte,” a managing director at consulting firm GlobalData told the New York Times. The company’s financial performance has also been lackluster, with its stock hitting an 11-year low in May. 

Graham said she will look to steady the company as it begins its search for a permanent CEO. “My focus will be on our people and our operations, working together to drive shareholder value creation and ensuring a smooth transition as soon as we identify the next CEO for the future,” she said in a statement. 

She’ll presumably have to find a permanent CFO as well, given that Kehoe left for fintech giant FIS Global just weeks before Brewer left the company.

Graham’s most recent experience prior to her new interim job was CEO of health care consultancy Two Trees Consulting, from 2007 to 2016. Before her almost decade-long stint as a consultant, she worked in drug development as the chief executive of Amylin Pharmaceuticals, which focuses on diabetes medication, from 2003 to 2007. One of the most prominent drugs that received FDA approval under Graham’s watch was blood sugar control medication Byetta. It became so popular that Amylin had to ask doctors not to start patients on the medication until a new manufacturing plant was completed, because it couldn’t meet demand, the New York Times reported at the time. 

Before she developed and sold diabetes drugs, Graham was group chairman at Guidant, one of the leading makers of cardiological medical devices, like pacemakers and stents. In her role she had a broad mandate, overseeing the company’s operations in the U.S., Europe, Japan, and emerging markets, according to documents filed with the SEC. Guidant was formed after Eli Lilly, where Graham got her first job after business school, divested its Advanced Cardiovascular Systems (ACS) division, which she led at the time. Graham was among the executives who spearheaded the move to take ACS public, in 1994 under the new name Guidant.  

In the early 2000s, she contributed several articles to the Harvard Business Review. One of which, published in 2002 and titled “If You Want Honesty, Break Some Rules,” appears a precursor to today’s trendy leadership style of empathy and transparency. When leaders focus on “top-down managerial control” they end up creating a “culture poisoned with speculation, blame shifting, and self-protective behavior,” she wrote. She went on to encourage executives to “break some of the rules of traditional management” to build better corporate cultures. During her time there, Guidant would be named one of Fortune’s “Best Companies to Work For in America” and one of IndustryWeek’s “100 Best Managed Companies in the World.” Another equally prescient, although perhaps more questionable, article extolled the importance of lobbying. 

Graham would eventually land a spot on the faculty at the Harvard Business School in 2008. While there, she taught classes at the Arthur Rock Center for Entrepreneurship.

Despite taking over as interim CEO, Graham will have to deal with a struggling stock price. Walgreens stock has fallen 36% since the start of the year, including 6.1% on Friday after the announcement about the CEO stepping down.

Receive free Northern Ireland updates

We’ll send you a myFT Daily Digest email rounding up the latest Northern Ireland news every morning.

Northern Ireland’s police chief has resisted demands to quit following a scandal engulfing his leadership, vowing after seven hours of grilling from the force’s oversight board that he would stay on in the job.

Chief Constable Simon Byrne was already under fire after a data breach in August posted the identities of all Police Service of Northern Ireland’s serving officers and staff on a public internet site.

But a High Court judicial review ruling this week has put his career on the line. The court found that the PSNI had unlawfully disciplined two officers in 2021 because of a “real or perceived” threat, which Sinn Féin has denied, that the nationalist party would remove support from the region’s police unless it did so.

Byrne on Thursday evening emerged defiant from questioning by the Northern Ireland Policing Board, the force’s 19-member oversight body which includes representatives from political parties.

He said the PSNI could yet appeal against Mr Justice Scoffield’s ruling.

“After consideration, the question of an appeal is live,” Byrne said, adding: “Further public commentary around the matter is not appropriate at this stage.”

Liam Kelly, chair of the Police Federation for Northern Ireland, which represents rank-and-file officers, condemned any appeal, saying he was “disgusted, disillusioned and extremely angry” that Byrne appeared to be U-turning. Byrne had said in a statement after the judicial review ruling this week: “I accept the findings of the court.”

The unexpected suggestion of an appeal following the High Court ruling that the PSNI’s decision to suspend one officer and transfer the other to different duties had been unlawful, had “infuriated and antagonised” officers and members had “expressed disbelief and anger”, Kelly said.

The disciplinary action had followed the 2021 arrest of a man during a commemoration of the victims of a 1992 loyalist paramilitary attack on a Belfast bookmaker’s in which five Catholics were killed. The man arrested had been wounded in the attack.

Asked on his way out of the policing board meeting if he would now be considering his position, Byrne said: “I’m not resigning.”

Byrne survived a grilling from the policing board earlier in August after an administrative blunder released the personal details of nearly 10,000 officers and staff on a public internet site. Many police feared their safety had been compromised as a result.

The chief constable, who rushed back from his holiday to deal with the fallout of the leak, admitted the information had fallen into the hands of republican groups who are opposed to Northern Ireland’s peace process and have a history of attacking police, but insisted he would not stand down.

However, the fresh controversy has intensified the pressure on him. The suggestion that senior police officers bowed to political pressure over the handling of the 2021 arrest, which happened when Covid-19 restrictions on gatherings were in force, has incensed unionist politicians.

Sinn Féin has denied it threatened or insinuated that it would withdraw support for policing over the PSNI’s handling of the incident.

Northern Ireland suffered a three-decades-long conflict involving republican paramilitaries fighting to reunite Ireland, loyalist paramilitaries seeking to keep the region in the UK, and British security forces.

Since a peace deal in 1998, political decisions require support from both unionist and nationalist politicians representing both communities in the still deeply divided region.

The Democratic Unionist party, the region’s largest pro-UK political grouping, the more moderate Ulster Unionist party and the hardline Traditional Unionist Voice have all called for Byrne to resign. The UUP called the 2021 incident a “car crash of policing”.

The Police Federation has called an extraordinary meeting of its executive central committee for next Wednesday and said a vote of confidence in Byrne’s leadership could take place.

Byrne will next Tuesday face questioning by the Northern Ireland affairs committee at Westminster over the data breach.