Speaker 1: This is what the Flux I'm brand and I'm justin
Speaker 1: ads Monday to third of February, does it boy.
Speaker 2: The government got a bit of a shock when it
Speaker 2: released the taxes received from tobacco had dropped to a
Speaker 2: nine year low. And no it's not because of a
Speaker 2: dramatic drop in smokers here in Australia, but because smokers
Speaker 2: are turning to the black market for cheaper cigarettes. And
Speaker 2: just get this, in the last financial year the government
Speaker 2: pocketed nine point seven billion dollars from the tobacco tax, down.
Speaker 1: From over sixteen billion the year before. Very very interesting man,
Speaker 1: Flux man. It's the beginning of a brand new month,
Speaker 1: which means it is a brand new opportunity to check
Speaker 1: whether your credit score has gone up, whether it's gone down,
Speaker 1: and how it's changed over the past month. We have
Speaker 1: it all covered in the Flux app with a very
Speaker 1: simple and easy to understand credit score is all to
Speaker 1: make sure to download the Flux app and check your
Speaker 1: credit score. February three.
Speaker 2: Refreshing stories today, Dozy boy, Let's do it for our
Speaker 2: first Levisa. The jewelry chain is facing a class action
Speaker 2: from its employees after allegedly forced staff to work for
Speaker 2: free outside rosted hours.
Speaker 1: Jeez, Lavisa's team sparkle may be losing its shine. Be man,
Speaker 1: so tell me more well, Juzyboit.
Speaker 2: Lavisa started in twenty ten as a fast fashioned jewelry
Speaker 2: chain with budget friendly bullying. Yeah, they release hundreds of
Speaker 2: new styles of jewelry every single week, and over the
Speaker 2: past fourteen years, the company has grown to over six
Speaker 2: hundred stores around the world.
Speaker 1: Including listing on the ASEX in twenty fourteen, and now
Speaker 1: worth a casual three point two billion dollars.
Speaker 2: But behind the glitz of Lavisa, things might not be
Speaker 2: so golden.
Speaker 1: Lavisa's facing a class action lawsuit from its employees for
Speaker 1: allegedly breaching workers' rights That includes paying them the wrong
Speaker 1: base rate. That includes not paying staff for attending training,
Speaker 1: as well.
Speaker 2: As forcing staff to perform duties before or after they're rosted.
Speaker 1: Chiff and the man, we are just talking about five
Speaker 1: employees or fifty employees alleging this behavior. Wow, how many
Speaker 1: are we talking? We're talking three hundred employees, most of
Speaker 1: who are young women in high school, in university and Joseboit.
Speaker 2: If this lawsuit is successful, it could have a significant
Speaker 2: impact on Lavisa's financial results and its reputation.
Speaker 1: So what is the key learning here?
Speaker 2: When a company is hit with a workplace lawsuit, the
Speaker 2: implications can extend far beyond legal fees.
Speaker 1: We often see class actions result in in pretty hefty
Speaker 1: settlements that can drain companies resources.
Speaker 2: For example, in twenty twenty one, Woolworth's was forced to
Speaker 2: repay five hundred and seventy one million dollars after underpaying
Speaker 2: Star and that had.
Speaker 1: A significant impact on its profit for the year.
Speaker 2: But jus boyd, there are also serious implications beyond direct
Speaker 2: financial losses.
Speaker 1: These type of lawsuits can also erode brand trust, particularly
Speaker 1: if it's so public in the.
Speaker 2: Media like this is Yeah, we know that consumers today
Speaker 2: are more socially conscious, so any negative press can drive
Speaker 2: customers away.
Speaker 1: And be man. It seems like this lawsuit isn't the
Speaker 1: first time Levisa has been criticized for its workplace practices.
Speaker 2: Nope, its employer rating on SEK is two point seven
Speaker 2: out of five, two point four out of five on Glassdoor,
Speaker 2: and one point six out of five on Product Review.
Speaker 1: Yikes, So be man, Levisa might need more than a
Speaker 1: quick polish to fix it. Class action.
Speaker 2: For our second story, Bunnings has begun rolling out three
Speaker 2: hundred large in store LED screens throughout its hardware stores
Speaker 2: to build a retail media behemoth.
Speaker 1: It's only a matter of time that the partnerships moved
Speaker 1: from the ads on TV to the ads in the stores.
Speaker 1: Tell me more, b Man, Well we know.
Speaker 2: Bunnings is the iconic Australian hardware store with the so
Speaker 2: bare they're kind of good, jingle heavy ads and.
Speaker 1: The iconic snags that haven't changed in years.
Speaker 2: The place where you walk in for a pack of
Speaker 2: screws and somehow leave with a trolley full of power tools.
Speaker 1: Yilty and be Man. Bunnings has grown into an absolute
Speaker 1: behemoth over the past decade.
Speaker 2: In fact, its revenue has topped nineteen billion dollars in
Speaker 2: the last financial year.
Speaker 1: But Bunnings isn't just about hammers and host fittings anymore,
Speaker 1: b Man, It's building a retail media empire.
Speaker 2: Bannings has started to roll out LED screens across its stores,
Speaker 2: sprooking products of its hardware suppliers.
Speaker 1: In exchange for a very tasty fee, of course, and.
Speaker 2: These screens will be placed in strategic positions around their stores,
Speaker 2: a bit.
Speaker 1: Like how Woollies, Coals and Chemists Warehouse do it as well,
Speaker 1: and the retail media intr is growing rapidly. In Bunnings
Speaker 1: wants a little slash enormous piece of the pie. Yep,
Speaker 1: So what is the key learning here?
Speaker 2: Retail media has become the latest shiny new tool in
Speaker 2: the retail shed to expand revenue out of existing stores.
Speaker 1: It's all about using data to target shoppers right when
Speaker 1: they shop.
Speaker 2: Whether that's a cheeky digital billboard in Bunnings for a
Speaker 2: Reobi drill just as you're shopping in the drill section, or.
Speaker 1: An instore radio ad for Telfast when you're shopping at
Speaker 1: Chemist Warehouse and Juzyboy analysts reckon.
Speaker 2: This retail media industry is already worth more than one
Speaker 2: point six billion dollars in Australia.
Speaker 1: Will Worth already makes five hundred and fifty mil from it.
Speaker 2: And just for the record, Juzzi Boy Woolly's digital media
Speaker 2: business has grown at thirty four percent over the past
Speaker 2: four years.
Speaker 1: So Bunnings is own our West Farmers be thinking let's
Speaker 1: get in there, starting with trusty old Bunnings.
Speaker 2: For our third and final story, Microsoft has seen its
Speaker 2: profit jump by more than ten percent from a year before.
Speaker 2: But not all is as good as meets the AI
Speaker 2: very good.
Speaker 1: I say what you did there, be man, so tell
Speaker 1: me more. Well.
Speaker 2: Microsoft is one of the great eight success stories of
Speaker 2: the past couple of decades.
Speaker 1: Juzzy boy. Yeah, it's always been a behemoth, but in
Speaker 1: the early two thousands, Microsoft kind of lost its way.
Speaker 1: Back in twenty fourteen, it pivoted the business to have
Speaker 1: a much bigger focus on cloud computing, which has now
Speaker 1: become a core part of its revenue and now b man.
Speaker 1: Microsoft has said its revenue is jumped by twelve percent
Speaker 1: to nearly seventy billion US dollars for the last twelve months,
Speaker 1: and profits up ten percent as well, both of which
Speaker 1: beat Microsoft and the investor markets expectations.
Speaker 2: But Microsoft also flagged that it would spend about eighty
Speaker 2: billion US dollars on data centers this financial year, not.
Speaker 1: What investors want to hear just a few days after
Speaker 1: they hear about deep Zeek. Oh interesting, juzzy boy. So
Speaker 1: what is the key learning here? For big tech companies?
Speaker 1: Balancing high growth with high spending is an ongoing challenge.
Speaker 1: On one hand, investors cheer when revenue beats expectations like
Speaker 1: Microsoft did right here. But on the other hand, investors
Speaker 1: also get nervous when a company hints at massive spending
Speaker 1: like Microsoft's eighty billion dollar data center investment. It's a
Speaker 1: classic case of you got to spend money to make money.
Speaker 2: The good news for Microsoft is that it's AI business
Speaker 2: generated an annual revenue run rate of thirteen billion US dollars.
Speaker 1: But b Man investors are worried about when they'll start
Speaker 1: to see an actual return on the AI investment, which
Speaker 1: keeps getting higher and higher each year, particularly since the
Speaker 1: announcement of Deep Seek creating very very cheap AI models. FLUXPAM.
Speaker 1: Your credit score is one of the key attributes that
Speaker 1: a banged or a lender, or even your mobile phone
Speaker 1: provider will looked at before you apply for a product,
Speaker 1: so make sure you see what they can see about
Speaker 1: you in the Flux app. This month, we've got it
Speaker 1: all covered with easy to understand explainers and highlighting what's changed.
Speaker 1: It's hunt, so make sure to download the Flux app
Speaker 1: and check out your credit score.
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening, and we'll see you on Wednesday.