“What's really interesting about our business is that we get really busy before all the driving holidays. So it's not that customers all recognise that they need an oil change, but they want to make sure that their car is ready for the road” Samuel Mitchell, CEO, Valvoline Inc
Cryptocurrency
“Anything could happen, obviously, but as far as I know, we’ve seen most of the contagion already flushed out of the system” Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO, FTX Trading Ltd [world's 3rd biggest crypto exchange]
Financial Markets
“When you’re in a high-growth phase, the market rewards you, and when the growth slows down, at a time when there are, you know, other pressures on the sector, they compound to put the pressure on” Mark Brayan, CEO, Appen Ltd
Superannuation Industry
“If we do this right [industry superfund consolidation], we’ll have half a dozen massively capitalised, competent bodies picking up international opportunities all over the place, funding this back into Australia through the superannuation system” Paul Keating, Former P.M / Introducer of Guaranteed Superannuation Scheme
Retail
“Clearly there are some headwinds in the market, but what we are seeing is customers are returning to stores, which is great…We’ve actually seen that continue through July and August, which is really encouraging” Scott Fyfe, CEO, David Jones
“[We’ve] seen a continuation of a trend back towards local shopping. We believe that our shoppers have rediscovered their local neighbourhood stores. They've liked what they've found, and they started to develop new habits” Douglas Jones, CEO, Metcash Ltd
Surgeries & Procedures
“So the demand side is quite high and even in a recessionary environment, even if that has some impact, we still think demand is very strong” Michael Mahoney, CEO, Boston Scientific Corp
Supply Chain
“Whilst early days it appears that supply constraints and shipping times out of Europe are improving, which is a positive sign for the industry. China shipping times remain challenging” Neville Crichton, Chairman, Ateco [major automotive distributor]
“Everyone assumes that the first thing we talk about with our retail customers is pricing. That's actually not true. The very first thing we talk about is supply. I would tell you that most of our retail customers are more concerned about can they get product and can they get it delivered on time all the time, then they are about pricing” Jeffrey Harmening, CEO, General Mills Inc [one of the world’s largest packaged foods companies]
Commodities
“Imported timber is coming off from the peak, so we are seeing declines in imported timber prices” Mike Barry, Chairman, Natbuild [the nation’s leading independent hardware buying group]
“I think the price of paper will inevitably have to go up if energy remains at these levels” Adrian Marsh, CFO, DS Smith plc [major international paper packaging business]
Macro & Inflation
“When it comes to the macroeconomic pressure…one has to assume that at a certain point in time, the degradation of the economic environment will have some impact on the consumption or on down-trading. I'm not sure that we see it for the time being” Emmanuel Babeau, CFO, Philip Morris International Inc
“The Bank's central forecast is for CPI inflation to be around 7¾ per cent over 2022, a little above 4 per cent over 2023 and around 3 per cent over 2024” Philip Lowe, Governor, Reserve Bank of Australia
Sustainable Clothing & Textiles
“I think the industry has done a lot over the last 30 years, especially our suppliers, and we have changed a lot. But when we see this species [digital generation consumers], we all know we need to do more” Bjorn Gulden, CEO, Puma SE
“The only way we're going to do that [become a more sustainable industry] is by working in partnership with our competitors” Colin Browne, CEO, Under Armour Inc
Travel
If you look at the last 20 years, 30 years, 40 years, you have passenger growth. The last 10 years before the COVID crisis was a CAGR [compound annual growth rate] of 6% increase on passengers…it's estimated that only 10% to 20% of the global population has ever taken a flight” Xavier Rossinyol, CEO, Dufry AG [owner of the Duty Free Stores]
“Discount economy airfares in August were at their highest point in almost two years” Gina Cass-Gottlieb, Chairwoman, ACCC
“What's really interesting about our business is that we get really busy before all the driving holidays. So it's not that customers all recognise that they need an oil change, but they want to make sure that their car is ready for the road” Samuel Mitchell, CEO, Valvoline Inc
Housing Market
“One of the mistakes commentators make, particularly in periods of rising interest rates, is confusing the vexed issue of affordability with the equally vexed issue of undersupply in housing stock. Interest rates and affordability are issues for property ownership; they are not issues that the underlying need for housing” Andrew Schwartz, CEO, Qualitas Ltd
Renewables
“I’m not sure my shareholders, including my Australian ones, will approve me putting a lot of money – $7 billion for a nuclear power plant – for a megawatt when I can build the same thing as offshore wind for half this price” Ignacio Galan, CEO, Iberdrola [one of the world’s largest renewable energy companies]
Reinsurance
“You can get to the point [due to extreme weather risks] that the reinsurance market [is] no longer responding” Andrew Hall, CEO, Insurance Council of Australia
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