Product makers at Bang Chan industrial estate are taking steps to prevent a shortage of goods on retail shelves.

Nestle (Thailand) Co plans a series of flood-prevention measures for its ice-cream factory, ranging from building barriers around the site to sealing machines and shutting down in the worst case.

“We have flood experience from our drinking water plant in Bang Prahan district in Ayutthaya,” said corporate affairs director Noppadol Siwabutr. “We have had more time to prepare ourselves and build up an ice-cream inventory.”

The floodwater at the drinking water plant has receded, and the company is in the process of restarting operations.

“We’re very concerned about our drinking water quality,” Mr Noppadol said.

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Doing business abroad is a lucrative career option, especially when you know that a foreign economy is booming and there is demand for certain type of products and services, that you can provide. But, doing business overseas never came without its obstacles. Let’s assess the challenges of doing business abroad. With the economic disparity prevailing in the United States post-recession, it may seem like a brilliant idea to start a business in promising overseas markets such as India and China. However, entering and sustaining in the global business scenario is a lot more complicated than selling products and services in your home country. Read more…

Attorney General George Jepsen said Thursday he is asking all providers of telephone, cable TV, satellite TV and Internet access to waive charges for the days when their Connecticut customers were without service following the October snowstorm.

AT&T immediately agreed to the request.

Jepsen said the request holds whether the lack of service was due to a customer not having power at all, or a problem with the telecom system. He’s also asking that those credits be given automatically, without customers having to call and ask for a refund.

Telecom companies, including AT&T, Comcast and Cox Communications, have had varying policies in place on refunds or waivers of charges during the outage.

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Trading under the symbol GRPN, the stock closed at $26.11. Shares opened at $29.15 and briefly touched a high of $31.14.

Related story: Groupon closes up 30% after jumping 50% at open

Groupon sold 35 million shares Thursday at $20 to investment banks that sold them to clients. Nearly 50 million shares were traded Friday, indicating early investors flipped the stock for quick profits, common with hot IPOs.

The online daily-deal pioneer sold only 6% of its stock, the smallest “float” of any IPO this year, according to researcher Dealogic PLC.

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THE Roewe E50 electric vehicle debuted by SAIC uses the carmakers most advanced green technologies and aims to take on the Nissan Leaf electric car.

The nations largest auto group said the subcompact Roewe E50 is powered by a lithium ion battery, which allows a maximum mileage of 190 kilometers with a top speed of 130 kilometers per hour. It took the model only 15 seconds to accelerate to 100kmph.

Compared to the bigger Nissan Leaf, the Roewe E50 has longer mileage but lags in top speed.

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Google, Microsoft and Cisco may have abandoned their home energy management products earlier this year, but Best Buy is betting that its customers’ curiosity of emerging technology space will only grow as a wave of new technologies hit the market.

Best Buy is pilot testing home energy efficiency departments in San Carlos, Calif., Houston and Chicago, the retailer said Friday. Through these in-store departments, the company hopes to help consumers draw up efficiency road maps and navigate the growing suite of home energy management products and utility incentives.

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Perhaps as early as next week, Highmark and the West Penn Allegheny Health System plan to announce an agreement in which the region’s largest insurer will acquire the region’s second-largest health provider network. Friday’s release of West Penn Allegheny’s unaudited financial report for this past fiscal year shows the deal can’t come soon enough for the financially ailing health system.

WPAHS had a $51.8 million operating loss in the fiscal year ending June 30, although a $50 million infusion from insurer Highmark did help West Penn Allegheny finish the year $20.4 million in the black overall.

By comparison, WPAHS ended fiscal 2010 with a $63.1 million loss overall, including a $70.3 million loss in the fourth quarter.

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