Issues Facing Businesses

8/6/2019 Issues Facing Businesses

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Commonwealth Bank continues to face a backlash among home loan customers, with the banking major seeing its satisfaction banks, undermining their efforts last year to win over customers througratings slipfurther during January.

The moved capped off further losses for most of the major h a series of cuts to fees.National Australia Bank managed to hold its ground in terms of customer satisfaction during January. While

NAB continues to lag its rivals on satisfaction, it has made the most gains over the past 12 monthsmostly on the back of using discounted mortgages to win over customers. The latest customer

satisfaction figures don't take into account NAB's recent aggressive marketing push, where the bank said it was ´breaking-upµ with its rivals.ANZ led the major banks lower falling 1.2 percentage points, outpacing CBA's 0.8 percentage point fall,

figures complied by Roy Morgan Research show.For ANZ most of the fall came from non-home loan customers while the CBA fell further with their home loan

customers.CBA came under fire in November when it lifted its standard mortgage rate by 45 basis points, almost

double the increase in the cash rate announced by the Reserve Bank.The drop in satisfaction means more than a loss of pride for CBA. About half its executives have long-term

bonuses worth millions of dollars linked to improved ratings.

ANZ continues to lead the major banks on satisfaction with a rating of 75.4 per cent at the end of January.Westpac, which last year overtook CBA for the second spot in satisfaction, dropped 0.2 percentage points

in January to 74.1 per cent.CBA is third at 72.7 per cent, while NAB which rose 0.1 percentage points during January is 71.8 per cent.Bendigo Bank and Members Equity are equal highest ranked of the banks both on 87.1 per cent.CBA's decision on interest rates is clearly starting to bite with home loan customers, where satisfaction is

down 7.5 percentage points since October.The reaction of the other major banks' home loan customers has been far less severe with the ANZ down 1.1

percentage points over the same period. Westpac's ranking among mortgage customers is down 1percentage points while NAB is up 0.2 percentage points.



The loss of polularity can seriously affect salesand profit, especially with banks as anincredibly large number of people are with

a bank and opinions on popularity cantravel extremely quickly throughout alot ofpeople. This issue is both internal andexternal, in the fact that the popularity dropis an external cause, however the reason

that the popularity dropped is an internalone. The loss of customers due to popularityis quite a hurtful loss as the competingbusinesses usually gain these loses, feedingthem more profit and you less.



NAB customers who made purchases or moved money between accounts during the bank's computer system failure late lastyear may still have errors in their accounts, according to a document obtained by BusinessDay.

Although NAB has fixed dupl icate transactions caused by its own error, the internal document shows customers who reacted tothe computer breakdown in November by repeating transactions may still need to inform the bank of any unintendedtransactions. ´We are unable to clearly identify where customers have tried to correct their own account,µ according to adocument called Interest and Fee Refunds Processing Issue.

The statement is in answers to an internal question: ´My customer moved money around between their accounts in an attempt tocorrect - how are we ensuring they are not out of pocket?µ

NAB suffered a failure of its mainframe computer system for customer transactions ² known as its core banking system ² fromNovember 24 to December 7.The failure, triggered largely by human error, made NAB customer accounts inaccessible for days and forced the bank to open

branches beyond normal hours in order to give customers access to their funds.A spokesman for NAB today said the current issue is only for customers who haven't yet come forward to explain intentions behind

their purchases or money transfers made at the time of the outage.´Where a customer has initiated mul tiple payments or transactions, it is only the customer who is able to advise us if they intended

for the payments to be made mul tiple times or only once,µ said spokesman George Wright.In some instances customers repeated transactions because they real ised that the first transaction was not processed correctly,

Mr Wright said. ´Where customers have advised us that this has occurred, we have worked with them to rectify it,µ he said.Since December NAB has ´reimbursed the vast majority of customers who have suffered any financial loss as a result of the

processing issue,µ said Mr Wright.Progress reportThe internal document, updating customer service workers on the latest progress of the computer problem saga, was dated

February 25, and marked ´for internal use onlyµ. It also outlined NAB criteria for repayment rates.The bank said it would use a 20 per cent per year interest rate refund rate on most consumer accounts.´Interest is being determined based on transactions, rather than the customer's account balance,µ the document said. ´We will

be refunding reference fees incurred on impacted business accounts between 24 November and 7 December 2010.µThe bank said a minimum interest adjustment payment of $1.00 will be credited.´We will not be recouping any favourable interest credited to customers or where debit interest was less due to a favourable

account position,µ the document stated.NAB said, however, no interest adjustments have been made to accounts where customers have financially benefited from the

processing issues.Separately, sources close to the bank said NAB had formed an internal task force called La Renaissance to investigate on the

cause of the outage late last year.The document says NAB is ´reviewing all events related to this incident and are committed to taking all necessary actions to

prevent this from happening again.µ



This glitch cost NAB quite alotin many different aspectsover the period that their atm machines were faulty.One of the main costs was that instead of simplyhaving atm machines for after hours, NAB had toemploy more staff after hours in order to keep thecustomers happy. This cost them more money whiletheir competitors continued without a problem. Thisevent may have also lead to some distrust andnegative feedback or popularity from their customers, which would also hurt their sales. This issuewas internal however it was somewhat unavoidableas technology has a tendancy to fail if notimplemented correctly



QBE Insurance Group Ltd has posted a 17 per cent drop in ful l year net profit but expects a higher insuranceprofit margin in 2011.

QBE said net profit for the year to December 31 was $US1.28 billion, down from $US1.53 billion in calendar 2009.

There was a substantial reduction in net investment income in 2010 due to under-performance of its equityportfolios and lower interest yields on its cash and fixed interest portfolios, the company said.

The full year insurance profit margin was 15 per cent, outsideQBE's target range of 16 to 18 per cent.

That was because of lower investment yields on lower insurance funds, increased premium taxes and thehigh frequency of weather related and earthquake catastrophe claims, the company said.

QBE has forecast an insurance profit margin of 15 to 18 per cent in 2011.It declared a final dividend of 66 cents per security, 10 per cent franked.Net earned premium in 2010 was $US11.4 billion, down 20 per cent from the previous corresponding period.QBE has forecast net earned premium growth of between 22 per cent and 25 per cent, based on

profitability from acquisitions and new reinsurance arrangements.Gross earned premium is forecast to grow by 19 to 22 per cent.The gross investment yield was 2.9 per cent in 2010, down from 4.5 per cent in the previous year.

QBE has forecast a gross investment yield of 3.3 per cent to 3.5 per cent in 2011."We have upgraded our premium growth targets following a further review of recent acquisitions and newdistribution channels," chief executive Frank O'Halloran said.

"The acquisitions and other initiatives in place to increase profitability are likely to see our insurance profitincrease by a minimum 22 per cent in 2011.

"Our targets are subject to the usual caveats relating to claims, interest rates, equity markets and foreignexchange as well as receipt of regulatory approvals for recent acquisitions."



Insurance is a risky business, and thebusinesses are still expected to pay outeven if they have lost a considerableamount of money. The many external issuesthat threaten australian businesses haverecently unleashed their powers uponAustralia, causing many to claim their

insurance, costing QBE quite alot of money.This could however be good in the long run,as it could attract more customers due to itsloss in profit to help its customers



SUPERMARKET giants Woolworths and Coles are pushingcorner shops, milk bars and cafes out of the market byselling milk at $1 a litre, an opposition backbencher says.

Queensland Liberal MP Scott Buchholz told parliament small

businesses in his electorate had suffered a 30 per centdrop in trade since milk became available for $1 a litre inthe big supermarkets.

He said dairy farmers were also suffering and the nationneeded to ensure big business did not destroy smallbusiness, including dairy farmers.

"We operate in a free market and it's the right of anycompany to turn a profit ... but not at the hands of smaller business," Mr Buchholz said.

He said farmers were struggling to make ends meet and theyneeded to be protected along with corner shops, milk bars and cafes.



Big businesses such as Woolworths and Colesare hurting other businesses with their lowprices on products compared to their

competitors and will eventually push themout of business. While these low prices mightbe good for the customers now, ultimatelywe will lose the small businesses that keepthis competition, because if these smaller

business go the larger companies willbecome a monopoly, giving us no choicein the prices they set, and no lower prices tofind.



COMPLAINTS about phone and internet companies jumped by 9 per cent latelast year despite promises that telcos would improve customer service.

The increase has been attributed mainly to frustrated Vodafone customers.The Melbourne suburb of Doreen inexplicably has the country's worst service,

with nearly 13 complaints per 1000 compared with seven complaints per

1000 residents in Docklands and Chippendale, Sydney, the next mostcomplained-about suburbs.Of 83 complaints by Doreen residents between last July and December, most

were about mobile phone bills and mobile coverage, followed bycomplaints about landline connections, faults and billing. TheTelecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) says the area's populationhas grown rapidly in the past four years.

Around the country, 87,264 individual complaints were made in the six months,

6957 more than in the first half of the year, according to the TIO's latestupdate. Of these, 5370 were from Vodafone customers complaining aboutpoor reception, long waits, broken promises and difficulty contacting thecompany.

''I am frankly disappointed with the increase,'' Ombudsman Simon Cohen said.''While there have been some specific issues with « Vodafone, we haven'tcontinued to see a decrease from our other providers.''



These complaints are largely Vodafone's fault,as they haven't done anything about the

poor reception. This issue causes Vodafoneto lose customers and as a result, profit.Since Phone manufacturers generally selltheir phones with the Service provider,

Vodafone's loss of customers also affectsthem. This could caus them to stop sellingtheir phones to Vodafone, hurting their business even more



PENNY-PINCHING on its cost base, from energy use to the number of times staff handle fruit and vegetables, has notbeen enough to stop Woolworths recording its slowest rate of profit growth in more than a decade.

Hampered by rapid falls in the price of food, electronics, liquor and apparel, Woolworths yesterday posted a 6 per cent rise in first-half net profit to $1.16 billion as group revenue rose 4 per cent to $28.3 billion.

This marked the softest profit growth for Woolworths in 12 years and ended its decade-long record of double-digitearnings increases.

Woolworths yesterday reaffirmed its guidance of 5 to 8 per cent profit growth for this financial year.

As it awaits a shift in the fortunes of the national economy and a return to the historic inflation trend, Woolworths haswidened its growth options by paying $340 million for leading mail-order wine business Cellarmasters andstepped up activity in its growing hardware chain, due to open this year.

Woolworths shares initially retreated on news of the interim earnings result, but closed 35¢, or 1.3 per cent, higher at$26.85 as chief executive Michael Luscombe painted a more positive picture of trading over the first two monthsof this year.

''So the first eight weeks in all of our businesses we've improved our sales running rate, except for one, over the ratethat we were achieving for the half and in December in particular,'' he said.

Despite the positive momentum since the Christmas sales period, Mr Luscombe said growth would be hampered byunprecedented price deflation combined with a greater than expected drag on discretionary spendingcaused by higher interest rates and weak consumer confidence.

''Deflation, quite frankly, is something I can't remember the last time I experienced it in my retail career,'' Mr Luscombe

said.''The deflation effect has been intensified by a sustained strong Australian dollar and high levels of price competition.''He said that overlaying these extraordinary economic conditions was unseasonal weather in the December quarter.Woolworths' flagship apparel and merchandise business, Big W, recorded a 17.1 per cent fall in earnings before tax

and interest to $125 million.Sales for the division were down 2.8 per cent to $2.39 billion.Woolworths declared a 7.5 per cent increase in interim dividend to 57¢ a share - with a record date of March 25 -

payable on April 29.





THE worst fears of the nation's leading bricks-and-mortar retailers - that customers are increasingly deserting them for the internet - have beenrealised after the world's biggest online retailer pinpointed Australia as one of its fastest-growing regions.

eBay chief executive John Donahoe has singled out Australia as one of the United States-based online auction website's high-growth markets,trouncing the average turnover for the company's operations.

In a briefing with analysts to discuss eBay's fourth-quarter earnings performance, the CEO of eBay nominated Australia as a standout businessamong its sprawling retail activities. eBay has nearly 100 million online users and shoppers.

Mr Donahoe said that in 2010 eBay lifted its global revenue by 9 per cent and gross merchandise volume by 11 per cent.But he added that Australia, along with Britain and South Korea, had grown faster than that.eBay chief financial officer Robert Swan also mentioned Australia as generating premium sales growth when discussing the online internet

retailer's international performance for the quarter.The acknowledgment at eBay headquarters about the booming Australian business is certain to feed into the ire of local retailers who believe

their sales are leaking to popular online sites such as eBay, Amazon and others.Last month a coalition of traditional retailers led by businessmen Gerry Harvey, Solomon Lew and department store owners Myer and David

Jones launched a public campaign to clamp down on what they view as a loophole that allows GST-free purchases on the web to avalue below $1000.

They blame the tax-free threshold in part for accelerating the exodus of shoppers from their bricks-and-mortar shopfronts to the internet, sayingthe $1000 tax-free threshold available on the net - from overseas retailers - puts them at an unfair disadvantage.

The Retail Coalition, taking in Mr Harvey's Harvey Norman business, Mr Lew's family and public companies such as Just Jeans, Portmans andSmiggle, Jacqui E, and stores Myer, David Jones and Borders, has taken out full-page newspaper ads drawing attention to the tax issueand has called for reform.

Some of the retailers have also blamed online retail sites for gutting their business and threatening the jobs of Australian retail workers. The anger peaked in the lead-up to Chri stmas with Mr Harvey singling out internet sales as swamping the gi ft-giving season.

A better picture of how retailers performed over December will begin to emerge today when Woolworths, the nation's biggest supermarket

chain, releases its second-quarter sales figures. Apart from its flagship food and grocery supermarkets, it also sells electronics and homeentertainment through Dick Smith and a range of merchandise through its Big W chain.

RBS analyst Daniel Broeren said his survey of retailers showed that the apparel, electronic and hardware segment reported December li ke-for-like growth of minus 3.6 per cent, minus 4.2 per cent and minus 3.8 per cent respectively.

As expected, the fashion apparel and audio-visual categories proved the most challenging over December and the second quarter.''The apparel segment, in particular, had a notable inventory build-up post Christmas - a concern given its short lifecycle. However, while

December sales have been soft, gross margins across all segments have been surprisingly robust, particularly in the electrical segment,which has seen a positive margin trend,'' Mr Broeren said.

''Woolworths' exposure to di scretionary spending remains comparatively low. However, we lower our earnings slightly, reflecting the challengingapparel market and the li kelihood that Dick Smith will underperform what was a reasonably challenging market «''

Investors will also look to Woolworths for guidance on increases in fruit and vegetable prices caused by the Queensland floods.



Even though internet shoping saves us all timeand money, it is hurting the brick andmortar businesses that do not have the

technology or funds to advance to internetshopping. Internet shopping couldpotentially run these local retailers out ofbusiness, and larger businesses wont have aneed for actual shops, leaving us with only

internet shopping, and even thoughinternet shopping is good, we still need theactual stores that we can walk in, anddecide for ourselves what we want.



The flood-stricken coal industry is facing lengthy disruptions, with one miner saying it could take weeks to drain its pits of water and coal ports stopping exportshipments.

Floods swamped coking coal mines in Queensland in December, paralysing operations that produce 35 per cent of Australia's estimated 259 million tonnes ofexportable coal. Australia accounts for two-thirds of global coking coal exports, which are needed to make steel.

About 200,000 people scattered across an area the size of France and Germany combined have been affected by the flooding in Queensland. Damage fromthe floods, the worst in the state in 50 years, has been est imated at $5 billion.

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Floods hit coal terminals

Gladstone, one ofQueensland·s largest coal terminals, has stopped exports and the largest in the state is at just 60 per cent capacity, ripping nearly two milliontonnes of coal a week from the global supply.

About 40 mines in Queensland have been affected by flooding and several have said they cannot meet their contracts.

The Blackwater coal rail system is inundated, cutting off the major supply line to the port of Gladstone in central Queensland, the fourth-largest coal exportterminal in the world.

¶¶We are not getting any coal from the Blackwater line, so we are not receiving any coal at the moment,·· a spokeswoman for Gladstone port said today. ¶¶Wecan·t ship coal out.··

The terminal normally exports 1.3 million tonnes of coal a week. Staffing has dropped by 50 per cent and others are being encouraged to take leave and helpfamilies that may have been affected by floods. Other coal terminals have also been hit hard.

The Dalrymple Bay coal terminal, Queensland·s largest, has been running at between 60 and 70 per cent capacity since January 1, spokesman Andrew Garrattsaid. ¶¶It·s certainly an impact to global supply and an impact on miners,·· he said.

Difficult to asses damage

London-listed Anglo American, one of the nation's top four miners of steel-making coal, said it was preparing to pump water out of its flooded mines but that itwas too early to say when its collieries could resume operation.

"Our focus is currently on mobilising our people and other resources and de-watering flooded coal pits, which we estimate will take some weeks," Seamus French,head of the group's metallurgical coal div ision, said in a statement.

Anglo has about seven coal mines in Queensland, which accounts for most of Australia's coking-coal exports.

Anglo's major rivals, Rio Tinto, Xstrata and BHP Billiton, have also been hit by the floods, and all have made force majeure declarations, which companies canevoke to temporarily release them from delivery obligations.

The flooding is already receding in some coal fields, but all four major producers still face supply disruptions and cannot say when operations would return tonormal.

"It's impossible to say at present (how long coal operations will be down). If there are no further weather events, things could be back to normal within a month,however we are only at the start of the wet season," Colin Hamilton of Macquarie Commodities Research in London told Reuters in an email.

In 2008, flooding kept some mines out of action for as much as six months, but others were able to start producing within four to six weeks, said Andrew Harrington,an analyst at Patersons Securities in Sydney.



Mines then turned up output to recoup losses and ended the year about 10 per cent below where they otherwise would have been.

"This time around, it's happening a lot earlier, it looks a lot worse, and we're still seeing more rainfall," said Harrington.Camels, horses and snakesFloodwaters have begun to slowly recede in some districts in Queensland, but were still rising in some areas further south, including around the town of St George.

In Rockhampton, a cattle town of 75,000, muddy flood waters had dropped a few inches overnight despite more heavy rains but it will take days beforea cleanup can begin. On pockets of higher land, camels and horses grazed on people's front lawns, while residents relied on boats to fetch supplies.

The majority of homes are built on stilts in the flood-prone area, so water had not entered living spaces in most cases and generators were providing power.Hospitals in centralQueensland have also been stockpiling anti-venom, media reported, after snakes sought refuge in homes, including the deadly brown snake.Economic cost put at $5 billionThree people have been killed in the floods and hundreds left homeless. The economic cost of the inundation, which some scientists are linking to global warming

and rising sea temperatures, is already estimated at around $5 billion.Roads, rail lines and bridges have been submerged, and authorities are waiting for the waters to recede before they can assess how much vital infrastructure

needs rebuilding.Australian stocks have been trading flat over the past days, undermined in part by worries about the impact of flooding on mining profits.Dalrymple Bay Coal Terminal, in the country's largest coal export port, was getting coal from inland mines today, but warned future deliver ies could dry up unless

mines started reopening by the weekend."If there is an issue with mine production and we are drawing down our stockpiles, it's only a matter of time before we exhaust those," said Dalrymple spokesman

Greg Smith."It will be Friday or so before we would start to get an indication - if the trains we send up to mines are cancelled," he added. Typically the port receives about

230,000-240,000 tonnes of coal daily from mines."If we can't get it in, we can't ship it out."QR National , the country's biggest coal freight business, said on Thursday it was ramping up operations on a reopened rail line, enabling more coal to reach the

coast, but problems remained elsewhere on its flood-hit network.AQR National spokesman said more tonnage was reaching Gladstone port on its Moura line, which serv ices Anglo-American's Callide and Dawson mines as well

as Cockatoo Coal's Baralaba operation.ButQR National's Blackwater line remained closed, impacting operations for Wesfarmers , BHP Billiton, Xstrata and Rio Tinto."The Blackwater coal system remains closed and we are currently waiting for the flood waters to recede. That's expected to go well into next week," the

spokesman said.Higher pricesMeanwhile, Asian steelmakers are bracing for higher coking coal prices.Prices may increase by up to 33 per cent to between $US270 and $US300 a metric tonne, analysts from Macquarie Group, Morgan Stanley and Daiwa Capital

Markets said.Mills agreed to pay $US225 a tonne for the three months starting January 1, Bank of America Merrill Lynch analysts said last month.

´Queensland accounts for the majority of the premium hard coking coal supply on a global seaborne basis,µ Alex Tonks, a commodity strategist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in Sydney said. ´A lot of operations have been impacted. It certainly looks pretty bad at this stage.µ



Floods are an external threat to businesseseverywhere that have their stock on site.The floods threaten to destroy this stock and

the property used by the business, makingfloods a serious hazard for any shop.However the unpredictability of thesefloods (and of course other naturaldisasters) forces the business to buy

insurance for the given disaster, costingthem more money. Either way they still losetheir stock for a period and therefore someprofit is also lost.



FLIGHT CENTRE expects margins from its retail travel businesses to remain under pressure for the rest of thisfinancial year as consumers hunt for bargains.

Australia's largest travel agency boosted net profit by 38 per cent to almost $71 million for the six months toDecember 31 but warned it would be a near impossible task to achieve the growth of last financialyear, when demand rebounded after a slowdown caused by the global financial crisis.

Echoing comments from airlines and other travel companies, Flight Centre said the leisure travel market wasnot experiencing the same level of optimism as it did in the last quarter of 2009-10.

Flight Centre's chief financial officer, Andrew Flannery, said its retail business had suffered a contraction ingross margins in the first half, and he conceded that it would struggle to match the strong growth lastyear.

''People are still prepared to spend but they are very much looking for value,'' he said. ''The leisure market isstill generating very good profits « but we are seeing a more discerning and value-seeking consumer.''

Mr Flannery said the compression in retail margins was largely due to Flight Centre not being able toincrease ticket prices substantially because of strong competition in the travel industry.

In contrast, he said the corporate travel market had experienced a strong recovery and Flight Centreexpected that to continue in the second half of this financial year.

Flight Centre has kept its guidance for pre-tax profit for the full year at $220 mil lion to $240 million, a rise of

between 10 and 20 per cent on the previous year.Despite the flooding in Queensland and a revolution in Egypt, Flight Centre said it had largely beenunaffected by those events because travellers postponed holidays or booked alternative destinationsrather than cancel their trips altogether.

Its total transaction value, the price at which travel products and services are sold, rose 12 per cent to $5.7billion in the first half. Flight Centre's biggest market, Australia, was again its strongest performer, thanksin part to a strong Australian dollar encouraging people to take overseas trips.

The company again called for fuel surcharges to be included in the base fares of tickets following a slew ofincreases in the levies from airlines including Qantas and Virgin Blue in the past month.

Shares in Fl ight Centre fell as much as 3 per cent in early trading yesterday but later recovered to close 23chigher at $23.65.



Constant pressure from competing businessescan severely hurt a company, especially if itis focused on leisure, not value. Although

some customers are still looking for thisleisure, many are looking for a bargain. Thisforces businesses like Flight centre to try tomake a compromise between lower priceand less luxury, without completely

changing itself, as this would confusecustomers and probably lose more. This isquite uncontrollable and unavoidable bythe company on the recieving end of acompetitor lowering its prices



OUTDOOR clothing retailer Kathmandu says it has achieved sales ahead of expectations since mid-January,with year-on-year same-store growth in Australia and New Zealand.

Kathmandu, which is based in Christchurch, issued a market update yesterday, following the earthquake,which affected a number of company facilities in the area.

Two damaged stores would remain closed indefinitely, Kathmandu said, which meant it would not be ableto assess the overall recovery of losses there yet.

The company says it has business interruption insurance that provides cover for loss of profits, overall trade,

increased cost of working and claims recovery."Currently, the company is not aware of any reason why its insurance would not cover all material costs or

loss of profits in the current financial year that may be incurred as a result of the earthquake," thecompany said.

Start of sidebar. Skip to end of sidebar.End of sidebar. Return to start of sidebar.The group's head office was operational but its New Zealand distribution centre required some remedial

work, which was expected to be completed on Monday, the company said.The company's largest Christchurch store, Tower Junction, had reopened on Friday, but its Riccarton store

and the central city store in Cashel St remained closed.

Kathmandu's chief executive officer Peter Halkett said he anticipated the Cashel St store to remain closedfor "an extended period"."We have been unable to have our Cashel St and Riccarton stores inspected so far and we can't therefore

comment specifically on the degree of damage they have sustained," he said. All other stores remainopen and unaffected except for some delivery delays.

Kathmandu said it had experienced total group sales "ahead of management expectations" betweenJanuary 19 and February 27.

There had been "positive year-on-year same store sales growth...in both NZ and Australia". Kathmanduexpects to release first-half results for the six months to January 31 on March 17.

Shares in the company closed flat at $1.50 after moving between $1.48 and $1.52.



Even though this Business didn't sustain allot ofdamage, the topic of earthquakes is still avalid one. Unlike floods, earthquakes have

a smaller chance of ruining stock (however there is still a chance), however they havea higher chance of destroying propertyowned by the business. Like floods they areunpredictable and demand insurance. The

Aftershock of an earthquake and manyother natural disasters, can also cause thelocal public to stop buying completelyunessential goods, which could hurt somebusinesses



CBA slips down satisfaction ratings -http://www.smh.com.au/business/cba-s lips-down-satisfaction-ratings-20110228-1bb9o.html

NAB glitch may still dog customers -http://www.smh.com.au/business/nab-g litch-may-still-dog-customers-20110228-1bb2b.html

QBE profit eroded by disasters - http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-business/qbe-profit-down-17pc-20110228-1bak8.htm l

Coles, Woolies 'push out small business' -

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/news/co

les-woo

lies-push-out-small-business/story-e6frg90f-1226013670562

Anger at Vodafone - http://www.smh.com.au/business/anger-at-vodafone-20110225-1b8ou.html

Pace slows at Woolies - http://www.smh.com.au/business/pace-slows-at-woolies-20110225-1b8oo.html



Online shopping has clicked in Australia -http://www.smh.com.au/business/on line-shopping-has-clicked-in-australia-20110123-1a19w.html

Flood damage grows for coal industry -

http://www.smh.com.au/business/f lood-damage-grows-for-coal-industry-20110106-19haw.html

Strong competition squeezes margins at Flight Centre -http://www.smh.com.au/business/strong-competition-squeezes-margins-at-flight-centre-20110221-1b2if.htm l

Kathmandu sales ahead of expectations Despite New Zea

landsEarthquake- http://www.news.com.au/business/retailer-takes-

quake-in-its-stride/story-e6frfm1i-1226013896570

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Issues Facing Businesses