Golden Gaytime fan back with new product suggestions; Quickflix in another trading halt: Midday Roundup

The ice cream fan who took credit for the introduction of Golden Gaytime tubs of ice cream has launched another campaign to lobby Streets to make two new Golden Gaytime-themed products.

Sydney television commercial director Jesse James McElroy made headlines at the start of August, when he took credit for Streets’ decision to put 1.25L tubs of Golden Gaytime ice cream on some supermarket shelves.

The ice cream giant said it was already working on the product but McElroy’s claims led to speculation his Golden Gaytime Ice Cream Tub Project Facebook page was part of a guerrilla marketing stunt.

McElroy is now pushing for Streets to offer Golden Gaytime ‘Biscuit Crumb’, a small container of extra biscuit pieces that could be added to the ice-cream tubs, as well as a ‘Golden Gaytime Cornetto’, reports news.com.au.

Streets said its team “are always listening to what our fans tell us and keep this in consideration when developing new launches to the Streets Ice Cream portfolio”.

Quickflix enters another trading halt

Quickflix has been suspended from trading on the Australian Securities Exchange after the company’s shares were placed in a trading halt yesterday.

It is the third time the Perth-based streaming provider has entered a trading halt in as many months.

In a statement to shareholders yesterday, the company said it was requesting a voluntary suspension in trading pending a “restructure program”.

“The objective of the program is to enable Quickflix to become a viable and sustainable business in which losses from its existing consumer businesses are significantly curtailed or eliminated whilst new revenue-generating opportunities, including enterprise platform licensing and integration services targeting larger international markets, such as Asia, are developed,” Quickflix said.

The company said the restructure is expected to take “at least a month” and will also involve “cost-saving initiatives and securing of additional funding”.

“Quickflix will continue to service its streaming and DVD customers as well as execute campaign activity swiftly for acquiring new customers,” the company said.

Data driving fall in shares

Local shares had a shaky start to the day following moderate losses in overnight trading in the US and discouraging manufacturing data coming out of China.

CMC Markets chief market strategist Michael McCarthy said this morning nervous investors are selling down shares.

“Moderate losses in overnight trading in the US are turning to substantial selling in after-hours trading as futures markets treble the drop during the US session. Naturally, this is weighing on the opening in Asia Pacific markets today,” McCarthy said.

McCarthy said local data will be just as important to Australian investors today.

“Modest lifts in consumer confidence and manufacturing reported this morning helped shares climb off their lows. Balance of payments data and building approvals will hit the market just before mid-session, and these volatile series are often influential,” he said.

The S&P/ASX200 benchmark was down 1.4%, falling 71.5 points to 5135.5 points at 12.18pm AEST. On Monday, the Dow Jones closed down 0.69%, falling 114.98 points to 16528.0 points.