“By the end of the decade, there will be 55,000 more 18-year old’s than there are today. On current policy settings, we will not have places to offer these budding students." Catriona Jackson, CEO, Universities Australia Industry Group
Food & Beverage
“Most carbonated soft drinks are in decline and have been in decline for the past five to seven years, and our sparkling water is seeing solid growth.” Mark Fenton, CEO, SodaStream Australia
"So the research that we have suggests that millennials in 2013 consumed about 24 alcohol drinks per month. In 2019, millennials consumed about 29 alcohol drinks a month." David Klein, CFO, Constellation Brands Inc
Agriculture
“A reduced price was largely factored in as likely, but the magnitude of what has occurred over the past three weeks is completely out of the thinking or predictions of nearly all, if not all." Company Announcement, Australian Wool Innovation
Automotive & Transport
“Customers who never would have any trouble getting finance are now having to jump through so many more hoops.” Martin Ward, CEO, AP Eagers Ltd
“It is well known that Australia is one of the most competitive markets in the world, and with the current economic environment, it is also one of the most difficult markets in the world.” Tony Weber, CEO, Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries
"My view is while the market is not without some challenges there are reasons to remain cautiously optimistic with the recent stimulus of combined tax and interest rate cuts still working through the system." Cameron McIntyre, CEO, Carsales Group
“Although it comes as no real surprise, Uber has now officially become the most popular private transport service among Australians, with a total of 4.7 million Australians utilising the ride-share app in an average three-month period." Michele Levine, CEO, Roy Morgan Research
“The data shows that while taxi usage has remained relatively stable over the past few years, it is the 35-64 year age group that is taxis’ largest consumer base. As this group continues to age, it is likely we’ll see the number of taxi users continue to fall." Michele Levine, CEO, Roy Morgan Research
Domestic Retail
“I’ve never seen an empty Apple store and I’ve never not had to wait in line to use the change rooms at a Uniqlo." Ruslan Kogan, CEO, Kogan.com Ltd
Global Economy
"And so as we look at that for the year and we look at the projection for the second half of the year, we feel very confident that those discretionary categories are holding up really well to levels that give us confidence that the consumer feels good about their economic situation because of their level of spend." Marvin Ellison, CEO, Lowe's Companies [world’s second largest hardware chain]
"On the demand side, global crude oil demand growth appears to be slowing due to a number of factors including trade tensions." Lorenzo Simonelli, CEO, Baker-Hughes Corp [world’s largest oil field services company]
Commodities & Energy
"As we look ahead to 2020, we expect U.S. production to grow and non-OPEC, non-U.S. production to also grow, driven by several large international projects scheduled to come on line." Lorenzo Simonelli, CEO, Baker-Hughes Corp [world’s largest oil field services company]
Infrastructure
"Internationally, infrastructure needs remain high." Olivier Roussat, Deputy CEO, Bouygues SA [multinational construction group]
Toys
"We are satisfied with our performance given the transformative shifts [to digital play experiences] which continue to reshape the global toy industry." Niels Christiansen, CEO, The Lego Group
Communications
“This [channel-based collaboration] is an entirely new category of software enabling a once-in-a-generation shift in the way people work together. We believe channel-based collaboration is so superior to email-based communication for work, that this shift is inevitable." Stewart Butterfield, CEO, Slack Technologies Inc