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Costco set for record Australian sales

American discount retailer Costco looks set to post record sales in Australia, as it considers setting up shop in sites once occupied by Woolworths' failed hardware chain, Masters.

Costco Australia managing director Patrick Noone said this year's results would be better than last year's, suggesting revenue of more than $1.32 billion.

"It will be higher than last year, for sure," Mr Noone told Fairfax Media.

For the 2015 year, Costco generated a 50 per cent rise in revenue to $1.32 billion, and swung to a pretax profit of $22.7 million.

Costco opened its first warehouse in Australia in 2009, and now has eight. It makes most of its money from selling memberships to an estimated hundreds of households and businesses for between $55 and $60 a year.

Mr Noone declined to name Costco's market share in Australia's $90 billion-odd grocery market but said the company did not plan to rev up store openings in the near term.

"We're going to grow the business organically," Mr Noone said. "As opportunities come up we'll grow."

"We're hoping to open one [store] in Marsden Park in Sydney next year, in July. And [the northern Melbourne suburb] Epping is probably going to be [20]18, I think. That's the horizon right now. There are a number of other opportunities around the country but those are the two that we have in the works."

Still, Mr Noone suggested Costco might pick up some of the land now up for grabs from the collapse of Masters. "I don't think there's any definites there yet," he said. "We're always interested in new sites but right now it's pretty confusing so I don't know how it's going to work out."

The comments come after Aldi veteran Paul Foley estimated Costco would end up with 5 per cent market share, while German discount supermarket Aldi would get 15 per cent share.

This would leave big chains Woolworths and Coles and independents supermarkets such as IGA, FoodWorks and Foodland with a combined 80 per cent market share – albeit in a market that is much less lucrative for retailers, but cheaper for shoppers.

Mr Foley, who helped the German discount supermarket set up in Australia, said international retailers had been attracted to the country by its high profit margins, its high wages, its lack of discounters, and the dominant supermarkets being listed and therefore slow to react.

"If you have someone earning pretty much double what the rest of the world is able to earn, it's much easier for a discounter. So that is basically the Aldi story [in Australia], and pretty much the Costco story too," Mr Foley said.

Costco is expected to release its 2016 financial year accounts in December.

1960 Panhard PL 17 - Jay Leno's Garage
Jay Leno's Garage

Published on Oct 2, 2016
Half the size and twice the power of a Volkswagen! John Peterson, president of America’s Panhard club, has a lot to say about Jay's 60-hp PL 17.

Thriller songwriter Rod Temperton has died

Rod Temperton, the songwriter behind Michael Jackson's Thriller and Rock With You, has died aged 66, his music publisher says.

Temperton died of cancer last week, according to Jon Platt, chairman and chief executive Warner/Chappell.

"His family is devastated and request total privacy at this, the saddest of sad times," said Mr Platt, adding that the funeral was private.

Temperton, also a record producer and keyboard player, began his career as a member of the disco band Heatwave.

For the group, he wrote the 1970s hits Always And Forever and Boogie Nights.

Over the course of a career that spanned decades, he worked with the likes of Anita Baker, George Benson, Herbie Hancock, Aretha Franklin and the Brothers Johnson, among others.

He was often referred to as the "Invisible Man", said Mr Platt.

But he was best known for his work with Jackson.

He wrote songs for Off The Wall, the critically acclaimed album from 1979, and later for the album Thriller, including the title track.

Thriller, released in 1982, remains the best-selling album of all time.

Other highlights include Give Me The Night and Sweet Freedom.

Temperton also received an Oscar nomination with Lionel Richie and Quincy Jones for a song, called Miss Celie's Blues, they co-wrote for the Steven Spielberg movie The Color Purple.

The last Australian-made Ford Falcon will come off the production line on Friday.

DATES HAVE BEEN ANNOUNCED! DISCOVERY CHANNEL TO PREMIERE THE ALL NEW SEASON OF STREET OUTLAWS

OKC’s most popular street racers are hitting the streets in an all new season, Street Outlaws officially returns to Discovery Channel Monday, October 31 at 9 PM ET/PT. The top 10 list is getting more and more competitive this season with Daddy Dave in Goliath 2.0, Jeff Lutz in Mad Maxx and Big Chief in the CrowMod! But the current list isn’t going to let them in easily.

If you’re anything like us, you can’t get enough of all of the action that happens on your television screen when it’s Street Outlaws time of year once again.

The show can’t come soon enough and in season eight, we can expect to see even more of the action that we know and love on an all-new level.

The cars are faster, the list racing is more intense, and the competition from around the country that is gunning for the 405 is on a higher platform as well!

When you mix all of that combustible action with all of the strong personalities and sprinkle in a couple of antics here and there, you have yourself one bona fide stunner of a television show.

After her husband forgot his lunch at their high-rise apartment, this wife saved herself a trek down to the lobby, and instead tossed a sandwich from the balcony down to her husband’s open sunroof. With a quick “heeya!” she launched the sandwich into the open air and by way of magic, luck or extreme skill, the sandwich landed in the passenger seat next to her husband, who drove away seemingly as if this is something that happens on the daily.

Junkyard Jewel Power Bolt-Ons! - Engine Masters Ep. 14
Motor Trend Channel

Published on Oct 3, 2016
In this episode of Engine Masters presented by AMSOIL and sponsored by Mr. Gasket and Earl’s Vapor Guard, we show you why the age-old concept of pulling a used engine from a running car and slapping some speed parts on itmight not always be the best idea. Our special guest engine is the Mopar 360 small-block V8 from Episodes 3 and 4 of Roadkill Garage, where we plucked it from a 1975 Dodge truck and slapped it into a 1970 Dodge Challenger. For this show, we set up the 360 with all-stock parts, ran it on the dyno for a baseline, and then added a bunch of speed parts. We gained 140 horsepower! That’s the good news. For the bad news…well, you’ll have to watch the episode to find out.

I have no idea about diesel engines, however this weekend I will be owning my first ever diesel. Lets hope it goes well

Kingswood Country star Ross Higgins dies


Ross Higgins, the former star of Kingswood Country, who died today aged 86, has been remembered as a "vast talent".

Family friend and former colleague Tony Sattler said he died in hospital and had been unwell for sometime.

"He has been in hospital for the past few weeks," he said

Mr Sattler said the actor had been committed to his craft.

"He was totally committed to comedy and in his early years he had worked in radio," he said.

Higgins' co-star and colleague Lex Marinos, who played Bruno in Kingswood Country, described the actor as a "vast talent" who in life was very different to his greatly loved character.

"He was the complete antithesis to Ted Bullpitt," he said.

"He would get so embarrassed about some of the things he had to say and do that he would apologise before, during and after he was saying them."

Marinos told the ABC Higgins' career started as "Ross Higgins, the boy singer" and "he had perfect pitch, he was a wonderful singer".

"Ross was unique — he was part of that generation who moved from vaudeville and the golden years of radio," he said.

"Television destroyed many of those careers, but Ross was one of the few who made it through and transferred those extraordinary skills to TV."

Marinos said Kingswood Country strayed into areas not explored on television at the time.

"It started to show that not all Australians were from Anglo Celtic backgrounds," he said "It exposed sexism, religious bigotry and racism that were firmly held attitudes by many Australians at the time.

"Somehow he was a character that was ludicrous, but it became so popular some people would say, go Ted."

Laurel McGowan, who played Ted Bullpitt's daughter Greta in the series, told the ABC her screen father's character was "a bit of a dinosaur being dragged into the 20th century".

"He was however a person who was tolerant — not a bigoted, ocker character — he was very much more urbane and a lovely gentleman," she said.

Ms McGowan said Higgins was unaffected by his own fame and did "not [get] caught up with egos and publicity".

Higgins is survived by his wife Nadine and four adult children.

Mad Mike Formula Drift Round 5 Montreal, Canada 2016
Mad Mike Whiddett

Published on Oct 3, 2016
MadMike and the Red Bull, Nitto Tire Mazda MX5 make their first appearance in Montreal, Canada.

With no engine in the car after the previous round of Formula Drift, Warren from Pulse Performance in New Zealand arrived in early to install the engine back into the MX5. During the previous round of Formula Drift in New Jersey the engine let go just prior to qualifying leaving the team with a disappointing finish.

With the finishing touches done the Mazda MX5 was fired up and was soon out on track for testing and set up.

The car felt great during the shake down but connected with the bump in the wall ride which saw the entire side of Mikes car requiring replacement parts fitted. The team did an amazing job to get the car ready again for competition.

Mike paired off against Odi in his first battle once again connecting with the same spot on the wall which greatly affected his line handing the win over the Odi.

The next round moves on to Seattle, WA.

Teaser: Conquer The Cape Releasing Oct 10th
Mad Mike Whiddett

Published on Oct 6, 2016
Full Clip releasing October 10th

Mad Mike Whiddett made his way across to South Africa for one of the drives of his life, to take on Franschhoek Pass & 'Conquer The Cape'

When you’re a driver like ‘Mad’ Mike, drifting can take you to some amazing parts of the world.

Check out www.redbull.co.za/madmike to discover more about Mad Mike's trip in South Africa and the local car scene along with other content on 'Conquer The Cape'

they make good tractor engines, just make sure you don't put unleaded into it. :thumbsup:

Meet Doctor Who's New Companion - NYCC 2016
IGN

Published on Oct 7, 2016
Pearl Mackie talks to IGN about joining the Doctor Who universe, replacing Clara, and what to expect from the tenth season of the iconic show.

Even though it is a Mercedes, it still sounds like a tractor. At least it makes turbo sounds. Excited for Grand Tour

On the surface, this looks like a pretty big screw-up, an accident that’s going to have someone facing the can and having one less paycheck to worry about.

However, from what we’re told, this isn’t an accident at all, but rather the best way that they can think of to unload ltimber from a ship up in Canada.

We’re not sure how widespread this practice actually is, but it looks to us like someone still has a lot of work ahead of them to collect all of that wood!

Check out the video below that shows the art of nearly capsizing a ship in order to dump its load. It’s pretty neat how they figured this all out.