When protected by ‘the evil one’
Great style, well put together, or just someone who catches our eye. Every week reporter Carly Gooch gets out and about to discover the people behind the clothes in Canterbury.
One of these women doesn’t wear an item of clothing inside out any more, not with an evil eye ring to protect her. Denise Faraco, 46, is a designer living in Cashmere, Christchurch.
Originally from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, she left the country “decades ago” and met her Kiwi husband in Amsterdam before they settled down in New Zealand.
She’s been a designer since she graduated at 21, and ended up working in many big design agencies in Europe and Brazil.
She says she recently finished a course at the Milan Design School on olfaction design, which amalgamates smell in displays.
It’s how to apply a sense of smell in spaces like museums or shops, she says.
“I would love to work with the scent of native plants,” she says, which is something she’s looking into.
Pre-loved shopping is one of her passions, seeing her buy her Ganni bag and Hereu shoes second hand. The top and pants set is Monki and the trench is from H&M.
Kara Halloumis, 30, is a fashion supervisor living in St Martins, Christchurch.
“My family is everything” she says, especially because she’s Greek Cypriotic. She’s close to her parents, brothers and sisters, and has a strong relationship with her god family.
One of the three Swarovski rings she wears is from her god family and depicts the evil eye, which is worn as protection and to guide you, she says.
It’s just one of many Greek superstitions she has, including wearing an article of clothing inside-out for protection.
She laughs that she used to wear her socks inside out, but now feels “adequately protected” by her ring.
Kara is a “proud trans woman”, but says she doesn’t let it define her.
She wears Dr Martens boots – one of four pairs she owns because she’s a “boot girl all the way”. Her bag is also Dr Martens and her dress is from Boohoo.
Allanah Lovelady ,31,isa policy analyst living in Mt Pleasant, Christchurch. After moving back to this city a year ago “for family and grounding”, she’s been getting into activities that were “too hard to do” while living in Wellington.
“I’m into knitting, pottery, rock climbing and I recently learned how to fish.”
Back in her home town, her goal is to access “all the little corners of joy in life”.
She says knitting grounds her at home, pottery is a good creative outlet, rock climbing lets her explore the joy of moving her body, and fishing fosters mindfulness and being present.
Her move to Wellington was to help progress her career in government, but turning 30 made her take stock and consider what she wants her life to be full of.
She wears Ganni boots, Ruby pants, a Damson Madder shirt her flatmate gave her, and a vest she knitted herself.
Fast-food operator Restaurant Brands made an after tax profit of $16.3 million in the year to December 31, despite a jump in sales.
The company behind Pizza Hut, Carl’s Jr, Taco Bell and KFC’s annual profit was down 49% or $15.8m when compared to $32m profit recorded in the previous year.
Restaurant Brands said the decrease in earnings could be attributed to inflationary pressures on ingredient and wages, and an under performance of stores in California and New Zealand.
Store sales for the group hit a record high of $1.3 billion in the year, up 6.7% or by $83m.
Restaurant Brands said the group was starting to see “steady signs” of recovery in its margins after inflation pressures eased in most of its operating markets, and it implemented a “strategic programme of price increases and cost control measures” in the second half of the financial year.
While inflationary pressures continued to eat into profit, Restaurant Brands chairman José Parés said group sales had remained strong, with growth delivered across New Zealand, Australia, California and Hawaii.
“All divisions experienced ingredient inflation and minimum wage increases, with New Zealand stores impacted the most,” Parés said. “The implementation of a strategic programme of price increases and cost control measures to relieve margin pressures proved to be successful with margin gains in the second half of the 2023 financial year.”
Parés said Restaurant Brands’ pricing strategy “carefully balanced the need to mitigate inflation while protecting sales volume and brand health”.
He said the delivery of record revenue growth demonstrated the strategy was working.
Despite this, no dividend will be paid out. Restaurant Brands told the market it believed it was “in the best interests of the group to retain cash in order to support growth and maintain funding flexibility”.
Company shares were trading around $3.49 yesterday, down more than 75% from a high of $16 in 2021, and down from $7.60 mid-last year.
Restaurant Brands shares have been declining since July 2021, with the company hit by impacts of the Covid pandemic, including rising ingredient costs and staff shortages.
Devon Funds head of retail Greg Smith said Restaurant Brands annual result was in line with the upper end of guidance, and was overall a “good” and “slightly better” result than some in the market had expected.
Smith said the company would prioritise store development and would not pay a dividend in favour of store expansion, which signalled some confidence in the market.
“QSR companies including Restaurant Brands were hit, particularly in the first year of the war in the Ukraine. We saw ingredient prices shoot up; wheat was a big one, soft commodities pushed up, and they have been grappling with that for quite some time with rising prices,” Smith said.
“In the past year or so we’ve also had a very tight labour market and wage bills going up as well. There’s been a double whammy of rising ingredients and rising wages.
“The good news is some of those pressures seem to be abating.”
Smith said cost of living pressures had, for some, benefited the quick service restaurant sector, with people trading down on their dining out.
“As far as the retail spend in the quick service restaurant area, potentially it might be a bit more resilient than many other consumer-facing categories.”