Latest news with #GrahamRichards
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
YULILY China Tour: Exploring New Frontiers in the Global Smart Cleaning Market with MINFU Group
Singapore, May 16, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- On May 12, 2025, the global short-video e-commerce platform YULILY officially launched the first stop of its 'China Tour,' beginning with a focus on consumer-grade smart appliances. The YULILY team visited Shenzhen Minfutech Industry and Trade Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as 'MINFU Group'), among other smart tech companies, to strengthen partnerships with China's high-quality supply chain, explore new export opportunities for smart home products, and help elevate 'Made in China' on the global stage. YULILY Chief Operating Officer (COO) with staff from Shenzhen Minfutech Industry and Trade Co., Ltd. I. YULILY China Tour: Building a Global Bridge to Activate the Power of Chinese Smart Manufacturing As a rising force in global short-video-driven digital commerce, YULILY adheres to its mission of 'Connecting Inspiration, Brightening Lives.' Through its innovative 'content + e-commerce" model, the company is building a comprehensive ecosystem integrating short videos, live streaming, and cross-border trade. The 15-day China Tour will span key manufacturing hubs such as Guangdong, Hubei, and Zhejiang, with in-depth visits to over 20 leading supply chain enterprises. The initiative focuses on aligning China's premium production capacity with global consumer demand, aiming to establish a two-way bridge between 'Chinese Manufacturing' and global markets. Graham Richards, Chief Operating Officer of YULILY, said: 'China's supply chain efficiency and innovation have captured worldwide attention. With our platform's traffic advantages, influencer ecosystem, and digital marketing capabilities, we aim to help local enterprises access incremental markets and showcase the true strength of Chinese smart manufacturing.' YULILY Chief Operating Officer (COO) in discussions with the head of Shenzhen Minfutech Industry and Trade Co., Ltd. II. MINFU Group: Deeply Rooted in Smart Cleaning, Setting a New Benchmark for 'Made in China' Located in Longhua District, Shenzhen, Shenzhen Minfutech Industry and Trade Co., Ltd. (MINFU Group) is a leading player in the home cleaning robotics sector. The company operates a 20,000-square-meter modern production base, employs over 100 R&D engineers, and has developed more than 100 self-developed products. MINFU Group's robotic vacuums and portable carpet cleaners are highly regarded for their cost-effectiveness and technological innovation, with products exported to Europe, the United States, and Southeast Asia. During discussions, the general manager revealed that the company has a monthly production capacity of over 100,000 units, with overseas markets accounting for 60% of total sales. However, limitations in global brand recognition and distribution channels have led to profit compression under the label of 'high quality at low prices.' The YULILY team visited MINFU Group's production lines and highly praised the company's automated assembly processes, strict quality control system, and modular product design. The flagship product, 'BR181 Basic Robotic Vacuum'—featuring 3000Pa suction power, intelligent sweeping-mopping-vacuuming functions, and automatic recharging—has obtained CE (EU) and ETL (US) certifications. With annual sales exceeding 1 million units, it matches the specifications of leading global brands. 'This type of product meets the strong demand for high-performance, cost-effective solutions in emerging overseas markets,' noted YULILY's Head of E-commerce Services. III. Bridging Supply-Demand Gaps: YULILY Empowers Chinese Manufacturing Globalization Currently, China's small home appliance industry faces overcapacity and slowing domestic demand, while demand for smart cleaning solutions continues to rise in emerging markets like Southeast Asia and the Middle East. YULILY and MINFU Group held in-depth discussions around three key areas: Precise Product Selection: Based on global user data, YULILY recommended enhancing product features tailored to overseas households, such as expanding water tank capacity to meet carpet cleaning needs. Traffic Empowerment: Leveraging the 'YLL-Star' influencer program, YULILY plans to engage local influencers in overseas markets for product testing and promotion, using platform algorithms to precisely target consumers. Channel Building: Through YULILY's cross-border e-commerce services, the platform offers integrated solutions for logistics, payments, and after-sales service, significantly lowering the barriers for companies entering global markets. The two sides reached a consensus on strategies for overseas marketing and brand expansion. YULILY proposed a 'Precision Demand Matching Model' leveraging global data, while MINFU Group shared insights into Southeast Asian household cleaning needs. Both parties initially agreed on a direct procurement plan covering categories such as robotic vacuums and portable carpet cleaners. They are now advancing discussions on onboarding MINFU Group's products to the YULILY platform. To meet demand for cost-effective, high-performance solutions, MINFU Group will collaborate with YULILY's influencer network to enhance product visibility through scenario-based content marketing, exploring a dual-track strategy combining technological differentiation with localized market operations. IV. From Supply Chain to Value Chain: A Strategic Leap for Chinese Smart Manufacturing Amid rising anti-globalization sentiments and growing trade tensions, the YULILY-MINFU Group collaboration carries strategic significance. YULILY's COO emphasized: 'Chinese manufacturing must go beyond global—it must also aim for the higher-end market. Through content-driven brand building, we can break free from price wars and realize sustainable growth.' MINFU Group also expressed its intention to collaborate with YULILY to develop customized product lines, including AI voice-interactive models targeting the high-end North American market—marking a transformation from OEM production to independent branding. V. Global Resonance: When Small Steps Lead to Giant Leaps YULILY's first stop on its China Tour demonstrates the feasibility of the 'China Supply Chain + Global Platform' model. As MINFU Group's robotic vacuums enter households worldwide, the journey reflects not only one company's growth, but the broader rise of Chinese smart manufacturing on the global value chain. Echoing YULILY's brand vision of 'Building a Digitally Connected Value Economy,' this collaboration charts a clear path for 'Made in China' to thrive on the global stage. In the coming days, the YULILY team will continue its tour through China's major industrial belts—including Zhongshan (lighting) and Yiwu (commerce)—driven by the twin engines of 'content + industry,' writing a new chapter in China's supply chain story as it resonates with global markets. Website: Website: Media contact Contact: Mazhe Company Name: YULILY Website: Email: Website: Company Name: Shenzhen Minfutech Industry and Trade Co., Ltd. Email:
The Herald
10-05-2025
- Politics
- The Herald
How the ANC lost Nelson Mandela Bay municipality
The ANC's downfall in Nelson Mandela Bay can be traced as far back as 2009. By then, the golden era of Nceba Faku's mayorship had faded and his legacy, once influential, was increasingly tainted by allegations of corruption. Alongside then-ANC regional secretary Zandisile Qupe, Faku turned on former mayor Nondumiso Maphazi, who had resisted political interference from Standard House (later Florence Matomela House). Maphazi's refusal to toe the line triggered a targeted campaign against her. At the centre of the controversy was municipal manager Graham Richards, suspended by the council on what Maphazi described as frivolous charges. This was widely seen as a strategic move to clear the way for political control of the city's administration. Enter Elias Ntoba, a virtually unknown figure parachuted in from the Northern Cape, appointed as acting municipal manager. His tenure marked the start of an exodus of respected senior managers, who left in droves, unwilling to work under increasing political pressure. Ntoba wasted no time consolidating control. He removed CFO Kevin Jacoby as chair of the bid adjudication committee and replaced him with Sithembele Vatala, head of the integrated development plan unit. He also placed communications director Roland Williams in charge of the tender evaluation committee. Both men were close allies of Faku and their appointments were widely viewed as a deliberate effort to secure ANC influence over municipal tenders. With Maphazi removed and Zanoxolo Wayile installed as mayor in November 2009, many believed the gates of patronage had fully opened. But Wayile proved unexpectedly independent, defending the role of a strong, non-partisan city administration. His tenure, however, was marked by fierce infighting within the ANC caucus, which saw him, deputy mayor Nancy Sihlwayi and speaker Maria Hermans as obstacles. In 2013, they were removed and 81-year-old Ben Fihla was brought in as a pliable replacement. It was during Fihla's tenure that corruption surged. Funds meant for the Integrated Public Transport System were shamelessly looted. The cases linked to that period are still before the courts today. Fihla, seen largely as a figurehead, followed the lead of his deputy Chippa Ngcolomba and regional secretary Qupe. Even the high-profile appointment of Danny Jordaan in 2015 couldn't reverse the rot in time for the 2016 local government elections. Jordaan, alongside acting city manager Johann Mettler, brought a measure of administrative competence and direction. But it was too little, too late. The damage had been done. The ANC's grip on the metro slipped and, in 2016, it lost the municipality for the first time since the first democratic municipal elections in 1995. That election redrew SA's political map and Nelson Mandela Bay was no exception. Like Ekurhuleni and the City of Joburg, the metro was thrust into the era of coalition politics. Key political figures emerged, including former DA MP-turned-ActionSA member Athol Trollip, ex-COPE MP-turned-DA leader Nqaba Bhanga and former ANC MP Litho Suka. But it was the UDM's Mongameli Bobani who embodied the chaos to come. With just two seats, Bobani rose from councillor to mayor, leveraging his 'kingmaker' status while outmanoeuvring opponents. Bobani and Trollip became bitter rivals, clashing on nearly every issue. Bobani, who died during the Covid-19 pandemic, was linked to serious allegations of multimillion-rand money laundering.
Yahoo
11-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Graham Richards, Oxford head of chemistry whose business flair earnt the university millions
Professor Graham Richards, who has died aged 85, was chairman of the chemistry department of Oxford University, a veteran fellow of Brasenose College and a pioneer in the commercialisation of science who advised would-be entrepreneurs to become millionaires without losing their souls. In 1988, with his former student Tony Marchington and others, Richards co-founded Oxford Molecular, a drug-design software house, oiling the wheels, as he recalled in a memoir, 50 Years at Oxford (2011), by entertaining investors in the Brasenose Senior Common Room, 'complete with candelabra, and especially snuff being an excellent public relations boost'. The company thrived, being floated in 1994 and earning £10 million for the university as it acquired the French company Biostructure and built partnerships with companies such as Glaxo Wellcome. Worth £450 million at the height of the biotech boom of the late 1990s, Oxford Molecular was sold for £70 million in 2000 to Pharmacopeia Inc, and is now part of Accelrys. In 2006 the Times Higher Education Supplement listed Richards among 12 academic 'super-earners' in the UK. Yet commercial success never went to his head, and as well as maintaining an impressive academic output – with 16 books and more than 350 papers in molecular spectroscopy, theoretical chemistry and biophysics – he remained an institution at Brasenose, where he had arrived in 1958 to do a BSc in chemistry and never really left. Described by one college principal as 'a convivial companion, combining a strong character with high administrative ability and a pleasant personality', Richards served as senior tutor from 1985 to 1990, and for a while as vice-principal. But he never neglected the teaching part of his role; the bioethicist Lady (Ruth) Deech observed that he represented 'the best of an older, more relaxed Oxford where colleges and tutors could spot potential in candidates and were not too hidebound by grades and scoring grids.' And he led by example: in 2018 it was reported that six staff in his department had become millionaires without giving up their academic work. At Brasenose, Richards played a central role in 1974 in the college becoming one of the first five in Oxford to admit women – a huge cultural shift from a few years before, when women were not allowed at high table, and a change that owed much to his skills of advocacy. He died during the celebrations of 50 years of women at the college. William Graham Richards was born on October 1 1939 in Hoylake on the Wirral, to Percy Richards and Gwendoline, née Evans. Both parents were of Welsh extraction, his mother, one of 14 children, having left school aged 11. Although he contracted polio as a child, Graham won a state scholarship to Birkenhead School. He originally applied to read physics at Brasenose but accepted an offer to read chemistry. In his memoir he recalled that he was 'not a particularly diligent student and spent most afternoons involved in some sport or another and much of my evenings at parties'. None the less he gained a Senior Hulme Scholarship and graduated with a First in 1961. After taking a DPhil in 1964, he moved to Balliol as a junior research fellow, but returned to Brasenose with a tutorial fellowship two years later. Richards's scientific interests included lasers and pharmacology, molecular orbital calculations and spin orbit coupling in diatomic-doubling. He was one of the first academics to spot the potential of computers, recalling in his memoir: 'I realised perhaps out of laziness that there was this new-fangled thing called a computer which could do integrals numerically.' There was, though, nothing lazy about Richards, and as well as his academic work, he stood unsuccessfully as a Conservative candidate in local council elections, campaigning in the Blackbird Leys estate in an open-top Triumph Herald. He served on the university General Board of Faculties and its successor, the University Council. Appointed professor in 1996, he was chairman of the chemistry department from 1997 to 2006 and raised £64.5 million, some of it from the Wellcome Trust, for a new chemistry building. As one of the first advocates for the commercialisation of academic science, Richards chaired the Oxford University Industry Committee and served on the board of Isis Innovation (now Oxford University Innovation) for 20 years. He was a non-executive director of several other Oxford spin-outs and was involved in Oxford Drug Design until just before his death. His publications included Spin-outs: Creating Business from University Intellectual Property (2009). Richards was a council member of the Royal Society of Chemistry and of the Royal Institution, and was appointed CBE in 2001. He received numerous awards, though he had to wait until 2018 to be elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, some speculating that his candidacy might have been held back by old-fashioned prejudice against the commercialisation of science. In 1970 Graham Richards married Jessamy Kershaw, who died in 1988, and in 1996 he married Mary Phillips. She survives him with his two sons, and two stepdaughters and a stepson. Graham Richards, born October 1 1939, died February 11 2025 Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
