BDS success

[yankeedoodle]

Israel-linked boycotts hurting US brands in Middle East – Bloomberg
Consumers in Muslim-majority countries have shunned Starbucks, McDonald's, and Coca-Cola over the Gaza conflict
https://www.rt.com/business/591314-israel-boycotts-western-firms/

Numerous major Western brands have shed customers and seen profits dented due to boycott campaigns in the Middle East targeting companies seen as supporting Israel in the war in Gaza, Bloomberg reported on Friday.

Israel declared war on Hamas after the latter's October 7 surprise attack that killed an estimated 1,200 Israelis. An Israeli offensive that followed has resulted in the reported deaths of over 30,000 Palestinians in the enclave, and sparked a wave of anti-Israel boycott movements in majority-Muslim countries of the region.

According to Bloomberg, the shares of Americana Restaurants International, which operates KFC, Pizza Hut, Krispy Kreme, and Hardee's franchises in the Middle East, have dropped by 27% on the Saudi stock exchange in the past three months. Analysts expect the companies' first-quarter profits to plunge on account of the boycotts.

Coca-Cola's Turkish distributor saw sales volumes drop by 22% in the fourth quarter of 2023 against the previous three months, after the country's parliament joined the boycott movement in November and said it would remove the soft drink from its cafeterias.

McDonald's franchises in the region have experienced a "meaningful business impact" from boycotts, according to the fast-food giant's CEO Chris Kempczinski, although he did not disclose the exact scope of the losses. The company has been in hot water among Middle Eastern customers since mid-October, when its franchisee in Israel boasted on social media that it was giving free meals to Israeli soldiers. Other Western corporations, including Starbucks, IBM and Nestle, have also faced boycotts.

"So far, whether McDonald's or Starbucks, they're hurting. [The perception that Washington favors Israel] really affects these corporations because America is implicated," Fawaz Gerges, professor of Middle Eastern politics at the London School of Economics, told Bloomberg, commenting on the trend.

Meanwhile, local brands have seen a boost in business due to the boycotts. According to Bloomberg, in Kuwait, homegrown coffee stores saw earnings soar over the past three months, as customers largely stopped visiting Starbucks. Jordanian coffee chain Astrolabe saw sales jump by 30%, according to founder Moath Fauri. He noted that the chain has dropped American and French products across its branches and instead buys from local sources. In Egypt, the local soda brand Spiro Spathis has seen sales skyrocket, according to commercial director Youssef Atwan.

"Suddenly we were bombarded with orders from supermarkets, restaurants, we were trying hard to cope with the demand. Clients would go to restaurants and either ask for our brand or at least refuse to drink those on the boycott list," he stated.

[yankeedoodle]

Influential left-wing Brazilian politician expresses interest in boycott of 'certain Jewish companies'
story here: https://www.jta.org/2024/01/24/global/influential-left-wing-brazilian-politician-expresses-interest-in-boycott-of-certain-jewish-companies

Iceland threatens to boycott Eurovision over Israel's participation
story here:  https://www.thejc.com/news/world/iceland-threatens-to-boycott-eurovision-over-israels-participation-iyf0vwsn

[yankeedoodle]

Unilever takes sales hit in Indonesia over anti-Israel boycott   https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20240208-unilever-takes-sales-hit-in-indonesia-over-anti-israel-boycott/

Britain's Unilever said on Thursday that fourth-quarter sales growth in south-east Asia had been hurt by shoppers in Indonesia boycotting brands of multinational companies "in response to the geopolitical situation in the Middle East," Reuters has reported.

The maker of Dove soap, Knorr stock cubes and Ben & Jerry's ice cream is among several Western brands that have seen protests and boycott campaigns against them — particularly in countries with large Muslim populations — over their perceived pro-Israel stance.

McDonald's this week posted its first quarterly sales miss in nearly four years, partly due to the Israeli offensive against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and occupied West Bank. The company said that the situation had "meaningfully impacted" performance in some overseas markets.

In Indonesia, home to more than 200 million Muslims, Unilever's fourth-quarter sales declined by double-digits, the company said. "There has since been some improvement to customer and consumer uptake in January," it added.

Unilever CEO Hein Schumacher said the company was otherwise "not seeing material impacts to our supply chain" as a result of the Israel-Palestinian issue and related attacks on vessels linked to Israel in the Red Sea.

"There are some small interruptions obviously for some key ingredients and on shipping and so forth, so there's some delay but I wouldn't call it material," Schumacher said on a call with journalists. "We are working with big forwarders and carriers and I'm aware of them taking longer routes." He pointed out that much of Unilever's products and materials are sourced locally and regionally to where they're sold.

Unilever's Ben & Jerry's board last month called for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza. The brand announced in July 2021 that it would stop sales in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and parts of East Jerusalem, saying selling ice cream in the occupied Palestinian territories was "inconsistent with our values."