Nutella Takeover 🍫
This Week in Review ☕️ : Golfers dominate the Sports Industry in 2021 | The Wealthiest Family in Italy and their Dessert Empire | Hazelnut domination | New Artist on the block | Final days of summer
Quick Bites:
Food 🍫 : Intensive hazelnut farming in Italy to make Nutella is hurting the country's environment, Financial Times reports.
Ofcourse, Nutella is killing Italy. The most intense combo of sugar and fat ever devised, masqueraded as BREAKFAST!! 🙈
And we wonder how its maker- the Ferrero group has grown to be Italy's richest family with a $35bn confectionary empire..
Ferrero's decision to reshore part of its hazelnut production from Turkey to Italy has raised concerns.
While the idea behind it is to shorten the supply chain (which also reduces carbon footprint), some farmers are warning that the production of a single crop threatens Italy's biodiversity, leaving future generations with "nothing... but dessert", FT reports.
Our Thoughts💡: Say what you want, but gotta give it to Ferrero for somehow convincing everyone that chocolate is perfectly acceptable for breakfast.
Marketing👏at👏its👏best👏
PS. We're still thinking about the cannoli smothered in Nutella we had in Capri 👇🏻
Sports ️ ⛳️ : When you’re fabulously wealthy, you don’t sweat it out on the football field or the baseball diamond; you play Golf.
Golf has long been known as a 'rich man's sport'. The fees are high, the clubs are pricey, and skill comes only with practice or professional lessons which can cost an arm and a leg.
While Covid-19 had no silver linings (unless you're Bezos, Musk or Eric Yuan), it did lead golf companies to enjoy a pandemic-fueled comeback.
Golf behemoth Callaway reported a record Q4 2020, with net sales of $375mn + a 20% increase, compared to Q4 2019, Bloomberg reports.
The National Golf Foundation estimates that a record 3 million people played golf for the 1st time in 2020.
“The industry saw a turnaround that no one could possibly see coming”
Naturally socially-distanced on lush green lawns, the game has become the 'Perfect Pandemic Sport.' Here's why:
💡Be in Nature
💡Zero crowds
💡The on-course snacks! As Tiger Woods says "eat as much as you can- every 2-3 holes.” Don't look at us; Any advice from Tiger is solid; dude's got the resume to prove it 🍔 🍺 💡Most importantly, if you're within a few feet of someone, you can dome them with your club
Our Thoughts💡: Joined a Country Club over the weekend. Got our first 9 today on a beautiful sunny afternoon. Zero lost balls. Sank a birdie putt and picked up a couple pars.
Ordered a McChicken & Fries on the way home.
Our spirit needed it. Finally, some good vibes after a LONG a** year 🙏
Art 🖼 : Calling all art fanatics! New artist alert!🚨
Artemisia Gentileschi- an Italian Baroque painter, sells her most expensive works at auction.
A 17-century artist, Gentileschi specializes in strong images of pain and suffering- much to portray the horrors she endured in her own life from rape to injustice.
The female artist who has been overlooked in a male-dominated field is finally getting long overdue recognition, ARTNews reports.
Key Highlights from ARTNews:
💡Gentileschi’s painting Lucretia sold for $6.1mn in Paris in 2019- more than 8 times its pre-sale estimate. (shown below)
In April 2021, the Getty Museum in Los Angeles bought it for an undisclosed amount.
💡Self-Portrait as Saint Catherine of Alexandria (ca. 1615–17) sold for $4.8mn to The National Gallery in London. The gallery added it to a list of works that may have been “improperly acquired” during World War II.
💡Triumph ofGalatea sold at a Christie’s Old Masters sale in November 2020 for $2.1mn, against an estimate of $1mn. (shown below)
It was the 2nd-most expensive Old Masters lot of the year and signalled Gentileschi’s rise in a male-dominated category.
Travel ✈️ : As of August 30, the UK has expanded its green travel list to include 7 new countries.
Green means GET ON A DAMN PLANE! Ah how we've missed you London, even with your gloomy weather and love for tea over coffee. See you soon! Cheerio! 🇬🇧
The countries added to the Green List:
💡Canada
💡Denmark
💡The Azores
💡Finland
💡Switzerland
💡 Liechtenstein
💡Lithuania
Thailand and Montenegro were added to the red list.
This move will determine where tourists spend the final days of their summer holiday.
Even though the tourism industry has welcomed the changes, many are calling for more stability in regards for their businesses.
"We need to urgently end the uncertainty caused by the constant threat of changes to countries' traffic light status.”
-British Airways CEO Sean Doyle
Quicker Bites:
US withdraws all troops, ending 20-year military mission in Afghanistan.
Ronaldo releases statement about Manchester United move; dedicates return to Sir Alex.
Moderna creates twice as many antibodies as Pfizer, Bloomberg reports.
Real Madrid have made a £137mn bid for PSG forward Kylian Mbappé, reports say.
Hurricane Ida downgraded to tropical storm after wiping out power in New Orleans.
Afghan athletes arrive in Tokyo ready to compete in the Paralympics.
Japan withholds 1.63mn doses of the Moderna vaccine due to contamination.
Biden says the Taliban are 'not good guys.'
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