With all bottled water companies now getting the green light to start bottling and selling their water again, the figures are in and some companies took a bath.

According to Globes: “Bottled water company Eden Springs Ltd. (Maayanot Eden) (TASE: MEYD) today notified the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) that it expects NIS 22-25 million in lost revenue and NIS 10 million in lower earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) due to the temporary halt in pumping of water from the company’s spring. The company added that future financial losses could be greater, but that it cannot estimate them at this time. Last month, the company stopped pumping water, after a routine test discovered levels of microbial contaminants exceeded the permitted standard. Rival bottled water company Neviot - Nature of Galilee Ltd. (TASE: NVIO) also suspending pumping from its well for the same reason. The Ministry of Health has now ruled that Eden Springs’ spring water is compliant with the standards, and has allowed it to resume pumping and marketing of its water.”

As a customer of Neviot, it was tough over the last month as the company barely had any water to bring the office. Heaven forbid we could drink water from the tap!

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Good news for travelers to and from Israel. Israel’s Ben-Gurion airport was named buy the Airport’s Council Inetrnational, as the best airport in the Mideast. Ben-Gurion easily beat the airport in Abu Dhabi, which came in second place.

According to Ynet: ” The Airports Council International (ACI) released its ranking of the world’s top performing airports in 2008 on Tuesday. Israel’s national Ben Gurion Airport was named the best performing airport in the Middle East for the second year in a row, followed by the airports in Abu Dhabi and Doha. It was also ranked second in the category of terminals serving between 5-15 million passengers annually, after Central Japan Airport. The Israel Airports Authority (IAA) said that Ben Gurion regularly ranks very high on other international survey. For the fourth year in a row, the top three performing airports in the world were in the Asia-Pacific Region, with Incheon International Airport in South Korea winning the coveted Best Airport Award. Passenger satisfaction with the new Terminal 3 promoted Singapore Changi Airport into 2nd place this year, with Hong Kong International Airport coming in at a close 3rd place.”

Anyone who has been through Ben-Gurion airport knows that there is a very wide array of retail shops, food courts, and you are actually met with very good service.

Congratulations.

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With most Israeli M&A involving hi-tech, it was interesting to note that an old brick and mortar retailer, Sears Holdings, decided to ante up for an Israeli company.  Sears basically saved the Israeli start-up Delver Ltd. by purchasing the company. Delver has had trouble raining new money and was on the verge of collapse.

According to Globes: “Delver co-founder and CEO Liad Agmon will move to the US and become a VP at Sears. Delver’s employees will continue to work in Israel and the company will operate as a Sears’ development center. Delver will continue development of its search engine that improves the relevancy of web search results by prioritizing these results based upon the searcher’s social network, as well as new products.The acquisition fits in with Sears’ policy to get into online services. As part of the retailer’s restructuring in early 2008, it reorganized into five relatively independent units: operating businesses, support, brands, e-commerce, and real estate. Sears chairman Edward Lampert is the owner of hedge fund ESL Investments Inc., which controls the company. ”

Nice to know that even old brand names like Sears, like to go shopping in Israel.

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Joining many Israeli firms in trying to grow internationally, the clothing store chain Honigman, has opened a store in Moscow. According to Globes: “Israeli fashion brand Honigman has expanded beyond the country and opened its first store in a Moscow mall. The new, large mall is located on the Moscow Ring Road and is currently only half occupied. The Honigman group has already opened two stores of its TNT brand in Siberia, which are run by local franchisee. Honigman first went international when it opened a TNT brand store in Romania in June 2007.”

With a saturated domestic market, this global push comes as no surprise. The big question is whether local Israeli management can adapt to running a global business. Until now the evidence is sketchy at best. Let’s see over time how this develops.

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