FT : Pot boom prompts US marijuana industry to go on recruitment drive

Colorado’s budding legal marijuana businesses are starting to sprout jobs and hundreds of people hoping to work in the weed business are lining up for the industry’s first employment fair.
Fifteen companies looking to recruit about 100 workers will attend the event in Denver on Thursday, says Todd Mitchem of OpenVape, the company organising the fair.

Would-be applicants are travelling from as far as Georgia and Illinois to deliver their CVs for jobs ranging from “budtenders” and store managers to book-keepers and customer service representatives.
The pot boom is reverberating from Denver to Florida as a wave of companies rush to meet demand following the legalisation of recreational marijuana in Colorado and Washington.
Colorado raised its forecast for 2014 tax revenue from recreational and medical pot to $134m, well above the previous estimate of $67m. On Monday, the state said it collected $2m in taxes on recreational sales in January.
Washington, where sales are set to begin in the coming months, is expecting to take in $129m in taxes this year. Arcview, a cannabis investor network, projects that the national legal market will reach $2.6bn in sales this year.
The jobs fair is the latest bid for legitimacy by an industry still emerging from the shadows. Twenty US states and the District of Columbia allow medical marijuana, but Colorado and Washington are so far the only two to permit “adult use” sales.
“We know job seekers will be pleasantly surprised at the number of well-paying, mainstream positions with comparable compensation that are available,” Mr Mitchem says.
OpenVape, which sells vaporiser pens that heat cannabis oil, using technology similar to electronic cigarettes, employs 125 people and is looking to hire more than 100 additionally this year.

The company is staking out a prominent role in Colorado. It recently moved into a 6,000 sq ft space in downtown Denver formerly occupied by an advertising company. Exposed brick, skylights and walls painted purple, orange and green – the colours used to market its different strains of cannabis – make it feel more like a start-up tech company’s headquarters than the industrial spaces that house many of the state’s marijuana businesses.
In August, OpenVape is sponsoring the annual Denver County Fair, alongside Whole Foods, the grocery chain, the Telemundo Denver television station and the local chapter of 4-H, a US government-backed youth development group.
“The opportunity to be a sponsor allows us to demonstrate to the public how responsible this industry truly is,” Mr Mitchem says.
The company knows its target market – it sent representatives to the X Games extreme sports competition in Aspen, Colorado, although Mr Mitchem says it is no longer allowed to give away sample products – but is also working to change the stereotypes associated with pot smokers.
It is introducing new products, including skin creams, to appeal to consumers who are not interested in lighting up a joint.
Interest in alternatives to smoking marijuana is growing among recreational and medical users alike. Arcview’s research has found new customers are flocking to products like vaporisers, edibles, infused lotions and even pills that dissolve in the mouth, and in turn, companies that extract cannabis oil and make accessories and equipment are seeing surging demand.
“The most profitable business is accessories,” says Garyn Angel, a Florida-based entrepreneur behind Magical Butter, an $175 appliance that infuses liquids with botanical ingredients such as marijuana. The company sold three months worth of inventory in the first 12 days of this year after shipping 10,000 units in 2013, he says, and is raising a new round of funding to boost production.
The cannabis oil that is OpenVape’s key ingredient is produced across town at Organa Labs, in a 2,000 sq ft building where the smell of marijuana is overpowering. Several employees are 20-somethings sporting dreadlocks.
Organa Labs was founded in 2010 by Ralph and Heidi Morgan, a married couple with medical backgrounds, and started off making medical marijuana products.
Inside, a worker uses a handheld blowtorch to heat balloon flasks filled with a dark, syrupy liquid. Through another doorway is a room echoing with the drones and bangs of air compressors feeding an extractor that pushes liquid carbon dioxide through cannabis trimmings, forcing out the potent oil.
It takes 1,000 pounds of trim to produce six beakers of a waxy brown substance that will be turned into a lotion users can rub into their skin for pain relief and a mild high.
Production of cartridges for OpenVape pens grew 1,600 per cent in 2013 – and Mr Morgan estimates it jumped another 1,000 per cent in the first two months of legal sales. In January, the lab was running 24 hours a day to keep up.
Soon, Organa Labs will expand its production line in a much larger space in a 160,000 sq ft facility OpenVape is building on 12 acres in northern Denver. “We’re in uncharted territory,” Mr Morgan says

(BFW) Altice Responds to Minister With SFR Jobs, Investment Pledge

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BN 03/11 14:11 *ALTICE IS WILLING TO PUT JOB, INVESTMENT PLEDGES IN LICENSE BN 03/11 14:10 *ALTICE PLEDGES TO CONTINUE INVESTING IN VERY HIGH-SPEED SVCS BN 03/11 14:10 *ALTICE SAYS WON'T CUT ANY JOBS AT SFR OR NUMERICABLE BN 03/11 14:09 *ALTICE GIVES GUARANTEES ON SFR JOBS, INVESTMENTS

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Altice Responds to Minister With SFR Jobs, Investment Pledge 2014-03-11 14:14:16.595 GMT

By David Whitehouse March 11 (Bloomberg) -- Co. responds to demand for formal promise from French Digital Economy Minister Fleur Pellerin. * Co. says no jobs would be cut at SFR or Numericable; co. is willing to put commitments on jobs and investments into SFR operating license.

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(NY Post) Deal spotlights popularity of used Tiffany, Louis Vuitton items

Penny-pinching luxury shoppers are coming out of the closet — and cleaning out each other’s closets.
Circa — a privately held firm that buys estate jewelry and other used baubles and sells them through its own stores and through upscale retailers — has acquired Portero.com, a growing e-tailer that hawks pre-owned Tiffany engagement rings, Cartier watches and Birkin bags to wallet-conscious luxury junkies, The Post has learned
The idea is to create a two-way marketplace in the lucrative secondhand luxury business, which has been losing its stigma among the well-heeled since the Great Recession, according to Circa execs.
“It has become very socially hip to buy in the pre-owned space,” according to Circa Marketing Director Natasha Cornstein. “I can’t give the names, but yes, we have a celebrity clientele for both businesses.”
Founded in 2001, Circa last year added shops in Beverly Hills, Las Vegas, Madrid and Geneva, bringing its total to 14 locations. This year, it will add shops in Short Hills, NJ, and Boca Raton, Fla., and on Long Island.
Clientele at Circa shops typically are over 40 with a net worth of $2 million or more — but still not above selling the family heirlooms, Cornstein said.
“The next generation doesn’t want the stuff from the previous generation,” Cornstein told The Post.
New York-based Circa is likewise discreet in moving one-of-a-kind gifts received on the charity circuit. “No one will see it in an auction catalog,” she said.
With its operations joined to Portero, Circa will now give its clients privileged access to deep discounts on handbags, watches and accessories, execs said.

(BN) *CHEVRON TO SELL $10 BILLION IN ASSETS DURING NEXT THREE YEARS

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BN 03/11 13:22 *CHEVRON TO SELL $10 BILLION IN ASSETS DURING NEXT THREE YEARS BN 03/11 13:20 *CHEVRON INCREASES PLANNED SALES OF OIL, GAS ASSETS BN 03/11 13:13 *CHEVRON SAYS WHEATSTONE LNG PROJECT IS 30 PERCENT COMPLETE BN 03/11 13:12 *CHEVRON: GORGON LNG COMPLEX IN AUSTRALIA IS 78% COMPLETE BN 03/11 13:11 *CHEVRON CEO JOHN WATSON COMMENTS ON LNG DURING ANALYST EVENT BN 03/11 13:11 *CHEVRON SEES GLOBAL LNG DEMAND DOUBLING BY 2025 BN 03/11 13:09 *CHEVRON PLANS TO DRILL 140 ARGENTINA SHALE WELLS THIS YEAR BN 03/11 13:08 *CHEVRON TO ALMOST DOUBLE PERMIAN PRODUCTION BY END OF 2020 BN 03/11 13:08 *CHEVRON TO INCREASE PERMIAN BASIN DRILLING BY 8.6% THIS YEAR BN 03/11 13:06 *CHEVRON TO DRILL 505 WELLS IN U.S. PERMIAN BASIN THIS YEAR BFW 03/11 13:03 *CHEVRON TO DIVEST EGYPT, PAKISTAN FUEL BUSINESSES BY END OF ’16 BN 03/11 13:02 *CHEVRON TO DIVEST EGYPT, PAKISTAN FUEL BUSINESSES BY END OF '16 BN 03/11 13:01 *CHEVRON TO SELL U.S. PIPELINES AND TERMINALS BY END OF 2016 BN 03/11 12:50 *CHEVRON'S 2017 PRODUCTION OUTLOOK ASSUMES $110/BBL CRUDE PRICE BN 03/11 12:49 *CHEVRON CITES REDUCED U.S. GAS DRILLING, HIGHER CRUDE FOR CUT BN 03/11 12:48 *CHEVRON CUTS 2017 OUTPUT ESTIMATE BY 6.1 % TO 3.1 MLN BOE/DAY BN 03/11 12:47 *CHEVRON DISCLOSES 2017 OUTPUT FORECAST IN SLIDE PRESENTATION BN 03/11 12:46 *CHEVRON'S ASIA OIL, GAS OUTPUT TO SURPASS N. AMERICA BY 2017

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Chevron Cuts Long-Term Production Target as Gas Drilling Slows 2014-03-11 12:57:42.61 GMT

By Joe Carroll March 11 (Bloomberg) -- Chevron Corp., the world’s third- largest non-state energy producer by market value, reduced its 2017 output estimate by 6.1 percent as it slows drilling for U.S. natural gas and higher crude prices lower the company’s share of production in some nations. Chevron will produce the equivalent of 3.1 million barrels of oil daily in 2017, rather than the 3.3 million it previously forecast, the San Ramon, California-based company said in a presentation on its website today. The target assumes crude prices will average about $110 a barrel during 2017, Chevron said. That compares with the $79 price assumption that underlaid the prior forecast. When prices rise, international oil companies receive fewer barrels from jointly-owned wells in some countries where they hold production-sharing agreements.

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