Author: Press Room

Lotto has announced a series of changes, as part of a “major” technology upgrade. The changes, announced by the organisation today, included new in-store features and “simplified” spend limits. Under the in-store changes, a single ticket will be printed when Lotto, Powerball and Strike are bought together, meaning triple dips will be on a single ticket. There will be a screen allowing customers to see what they’re buying and an easier way to scan tickets, coupons and MyLotto favourites. Lotto warns of ‘minor disruptions’ – watch on TVNZ+Spend limits will change to a seven-day rolling limit of up to $150…

Competing with massive foreign-owned rivals eventually proved too tough for Smiths City, a Dunedin commercial property investor says. Smiths City Dunedin, which moved to Crawford St this year, was among nine stores that temporarily closed yesterday after the company was placed into voluntary administration. Property investor Jason La Hood, who is also a director of the city’s Golden Centre mall, said the announcement was “very unfortunate” for staff. “If you are in a low-margin business with increasing fixed costs and your competitor is an Australian heavyweight such as Harvey Norman with immense buying power and a strong balance sheet then…

Home appliance and furniture retailer Smiths City has gone into voluntary administration.Administrators are calling for “urgent” expressions of interest for potential buyers of the business. The company was founded in Christchurch in 1918, and currently operates nine physical stores across New Zealand, along with an online store.In a statement, a spokesperson for administrators said Smiths City faced increasing financial pressure in a challenging economic environment.Christchurch-founded entity closes doors while administrators assess the books.  (Source: 1News)“Despite closures of some stores and further downsizing measures, declining sales meant that the director of the company took the decision that trading could no longer…

A police car crashed into a fence in Napier yesterday despite not being en route to an emergency at the time.Police said a single vehicle crash occurred on Geddis Ave at around 11am on Monday.”A police vehicle collided with a fence. Fortunately, no injuries were reported in the crash,” a spokesperson told 1News.Police also confirmed the vehicle was not responding to a job when it collided with the fence.Inquiries into the circumstances of the crash were ongoing, which included the damage to the vehicle.

Alliance Group’s board will reduce from nine to to five — three from Dawn Meats and two from Alliance — if shareholders vote to sell a 65% stake to the Irish company. The co-operative would maintain a board of three farmer-elected directors and up to two independents. Alliance’s board had agreed with Dawn Meats that Alliance would maintain decision-making controls “over a number of critical strategic and operational matters in the interests of farmers and staff”, the company said. Last month, Alliance announced the Irish would pay $250 million for a 65% stake in the company, subject to shareholder acceptances,…

Labour leader Chris Hipkins says Finance Minister Nicola Willis is “donkey deep” in the Reserve Bank’s leadership turmoil that led to chairperson Neil Quigley’s resignation. The central bank has been besieged for months since former governor Adrian Orr abruptly resigned in March for what was then termed a “personal decision”. Quigley’s resignation late on Friday afternoon came after the Ombudsman forced the institution to release more information about the circumstances around the departure. The former chairperson has been repeatedly accused of mischaracterising the reasons behind why Orr, who had been governor since 2018, left years before the end of his…

ADVERTISEMENT The European Union continues to resist decoupling the membership applications of Ukraine and Moldova, fearing that such a break-up would deal a heavy blow to Kyiv at a time when accession is seen in the context of security guarantees. The idea of splitting the two bids, which were filed almost simultaneously in the early days of Russia’s full-scale invasion and have since been treated in parallel, has gained traction in recent months due to Hungary’s unassailable veto on Ukraine’s ambitions. The parliamentary elections in Moldova, scheduled for 28 September, have further stimulated the debate, as making progress on membership…

Two Kinleith men from the same property have been charged after two separate incidents of anti-social road behaviour – one involving a car doing “donut” in front of a police patrol.The first of the two incidents occurred on August 22 outside a fast food restaurant in Tokoroa, Sergeant Matt Sillars said.”Several cars were involved, performing both sustained loss of traction and burnouts, flooding the area with smoke, and the drivers immediately scattered when police arrived.”Sillars said all of the cars had their license plates removed, “presumably to prevent us from identifying those involved”.”However, it did not take us long to…

ADVERTISEMENT In the EU, the number of healthy years of life from birth in 2023 was 63.3 years for women and 62.8 years for men.   According to the latest Eurostat data, this represented approximately three-quarters and four-fifths of the total life expectancy for women and men respectively. This data is important for understanding whether extra years of life gained through increased longevity are spent in good or poor health. However, these figures can be subjective to some extent as they depend on respondents’ perceptions of health as well as their social and cultural backgrounds.  Men in Malta, Italy and Sweden…

Health Minister Simeon Brown has left a defiant message for nurses demonstrating outside his office.More than 36,000 Nurses Organisation members were striking from 7am to 11pm on Tuesday and Thursday.Those outside the minister’s office were met by a large sign with A4 size letter plastered across his windows. The sign said the union’s strike was disrupting more than 13,000 surgeries and appointments.Health NZ estimated 2250 planned procedures, 3600 first specialist appointments and 8000 follow-up appointments would be postponed due to the strikes.The strikes followed nearly a year of deadlocked negotiations between the union and Health NZ, which culminated in a…