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Business News in Brief: Epitomising the milk of human kindness

Ben Hamilton
September 3rd, 2018


This article is more than 6 years old.

In other news, Nordea has aroused the height of customer dissatisfaction and Richard Branson looks set to intrigue the Danish business community

Arla looking after its own (photo: Jacob Bøtter, Flickr)

In an unprecedented move, Arla Foods will divide its 2018 profit with its 11,000 dairy farmer members in light of the problems they have encountered due to the summer drought.

In total, 2.3 billion kroner will be shared by the farmer shareholders in 2018 – around 1.3 billion more than they normally get, as they tend to divide up 1 billion kroner at the beginning of each year.

Unusual circumstances
“As a farmer-owned company, we are very concerned about our shareholders, and we recognise that this summer’s drought in Europe has been unusual,” stated Arla Foods chair Jan Toft Nørgaaard.

“We therefore propose that this extraordinary action be taken in this situation.”

A quarter are Danish
The farmer shareholders are located in seven different countries: Denmark, Sweden, Britain, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.

Some 2,675 are located in Denmark and they produce an estimated 40 percent of Arla’s milk.


New journey planner launched for travellers who like to improvise
A new version of Rejseplanen, which for years has been helping journey planners in Denmark work out the best route from A to B – whether it’s by foot, train, bus or Metro, or invariably a combination of all four – has been launched. Min Rejseplan factors in additional modes of transport such as taxis, city bikes and even carpooling, which in most cases can significantly speed up the journey time, albeit at a slightly bigger expense.

Richard Branson confirms March date in Copenhagen
Awaken Business Summit 2019 has confirmed that British entrepreneur  Richard Branson will be among its keynote speakers at the Tivoli Hotel & Congress Centre from March 21-22. The airline-owning yet environmentally-conscious businessman is among a strong line-up that organisers promise will “empower you to become the best version of yourself”.

Bestseller to take stake in UK loan operator
Bestseller owner Anders Holch Povlsen has acquired a 10 percent stake in UK company Funding Circle, which specialises in providing loans to small and medium-sized businesses, reports Sky News. The stake could end up costing Povlsen 13.7 billion kroner when Funding Circle floats on the London Stock Exchange in October in what is anticipated to be one of the biggest IPOs of the year.

Big banks remain the worst as far as customers are concerned
Nordea is the worst bank operating in Denmark, according to a Voxmeter survey of 39,000 customers. It finished bottom of a list of 20 banks, two places above Danske Bank. Topping the rankings was Ringkjøbing Landbobank, which ended Arbejdernes Landsbank’s nine-year stretch as the most popular.

Pack your bags for Sweden … again
The Swedish krona has never been cheaper to buy for Danes. Just six years ago, it was nearly on parity at 0.91 kroner, but it has since fallen heavily, and in late August it slipped below 0.7 – its lowest point since 2009. Experts blame a slowdown in the Swedish housing market and pessimism about the Swedish general election on September 9.


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A survey carried out by Megafon for TV2 has found that 71 percent of parents have handed over children to daycare in spite of them being sick.

Moreover, 21 percent of those surveyed admitted to medicating their kids with paracetamol, such as Panodil, before sending them to school.

The FOLA parents’ organisation is shocked by the findings.

“I think it is absolutely crazy. It simply cannot be that a child goes to school sick and plays with lots of other children. Then we are faced with the fact that they will infect the whole institution,” said FOLA chair Signe Nielsen.

Pill pushers
At the Børnehuset daycare institution in Silkeborg a meeting was called where parents were implored not to bring their sick children to school.

At Børnehuset there are fears that parents prefer to pack their kids off with a pill without informing teachers.

“We occasionally have children who that they have had a pill for breakfast,” said headteacher Susanne Bødker. “You might think that it is a Panodil more than a vitamin pill, if it is a child who has just been sick, for example.”

Parents sick and tired
Parents, when confronted, often cite pressure at work as a reason for not being able to stay at home with their children.

Many declare that they simply cannot take another day off, as they are afraid of being fired.

Allan Randrup Thomsen, a professor of virology at KU, has heavily criticised the parents’ actions, describing the current situation as a “vicious circle”.

“It promotes the spread of viruses, and it adds momentum to a cycle where parents are pressured by high levels of sick-leave. If they then choose to send the children to daycare while they are still recovering, they keep the epidemic going in daycares, and this in turn puts a greater burden on the parents.”