A video has emerged purportedly showing a Panda Express employee stepping around food while cleaning a frying station, as meals were being prepared. 

Paul Elisha Finger, who captured the footage, told Storyful that he “noticed the gentleman jump on the fryer that the lady had just put food into” when he visited a Panda Express location in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in early July. 

The worker then “started spraying the chemical and wiping [while] standing right over the food,” according to Finger. 

“I could not believe my eyes,” Finger told Storyful. 

POPULAR BEER BRAND TO CUT 220 JOBS AS PRODUCTION SHIFTS

A Panda Express spokesperson told FOX Business on Tuesday that “We acted immediately when the video was first brought to our attention.”

“The behavior shown does not meet our food safety or workplace safety standards. We took corrective action, conducted retraining, and reinforced safety procedures with the restaurant team and in the region. The safety of our guests and associates remains our top priority,” the spokesperson added.

The video shows a female employee reaching through the cleaner’s legs to drop a bowl of food into one of the fry baskets, as the male worker apparently was cleaning the exhaust hood area of the fry station. 

E COLI AND SALMONELLA OUTBREAK LINKED TO ALFALFA SPROUTS SICKENS DOZENS ACROSS MULTIPLE STATES

Panda Express says on its website that its food is a “flavorful combination of Chinese regional cuisine and technique with bold American tastes.” 

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“Panda Express, the nation’s largest Asian restaurant chain, has revolutionized American Chinese cuisine. Founded in 1983, the family-owned business has grown into a culinary powerhouse, seamlessly marrying authentic Chinese flavors with American tastes,” adds Panda Restaurant Group, Inc., on its website. “With over 2,600 locations worldwide, Panda Express has played a pivotal role in popularizing American Chinese cuisine to millions around the world.”

Motilal Oswal Financial Services remains bullish on Vedanta Aluminium Metal, citing favourable industry dynamics, company-specific structural drivers and a valuation gap with peers. The brokerage expects the company to enter a strong earnings inflection point.

The domestic brokerage reiterated its ‘Buy’ call on Vedanta Aluminium Metal shares with a target price of Rs 540 apiece, implying around 21% upside from the stock’s previous closing price of Rs 448 apiece. The stock gained over 1% to trade at nearly Rs 454 apiece on Wednesday morning.

Vedanta Aluminium at strong earnings inflexion point

In its latest report, Motilal Oswal said the company that demerged from parent Vedanta earlier this year is entering a strong earnings inflection point, with EBITDA projected to expand at around 18% CAGR over FY26-28. This is supported by a multi-year earnings growth runway, which is largely driven by three levers, including volume scale, integration-led structural cost reductions, and a rising value-added mix.

The global aluminium market is structurally tightening due to China’s production cap, supply disruptions in Europe and Russia, and years of underinvestment outside China, Motilal Oswal noted. This, coupled with India’s robust demand growth and significant import substitution opportunities, creates a favourable outlook for Vedanta Aluminium Metal, according to the brokerage.

It added that India offers an equally compelling long-term opportunity as domestic aluminium demand is expected to grow at an 8-9% CAGR and reach 8-8.5MT by FY30, driven by infrastructure development, electrification, automotive demand, renewable energy investments, and manufacturing growth. The country’s persistent aluminium import dependence further creates a sizeable import substitution opportunity for domestic producers, it further said.

In Motilal Oswal’s view, Vedanta Aluminium’s ongoing backward integration, rising contribution from VAP, and robust domestic demand outlook provide strong visibility on earnings growth and cash flow generation over the medium term. The brokerage forecasts the company’s consolidated revenue, EBITDA and PAT to expand at around 11%, 18% and 23% CAGR respectively over FY26-28, aided by volume growth, margin expansion, and increasing downstream contribution.
Also read | Vedanta Aluminium shares in a sweet spot, says ICICI Securities; initiates coverage with Buy rating

Vedanta Aluminium Metal share price

Vedanta Aluminium was the only large-cap stock among the four companies spun off from Vedanta under its mega demerger. It debuted at Rs 522 apiece on the NSE on June 15, surpassing its parent company in terms of market capitalisation.

After the market debut, the stock lost around 19% in a little over a month to hit a record low of Rs 423.15 apiece in late July. The stock has so far recovered over 7% since then.

Also read | Vedanta Aluminium Q1 Results: Net profit soars 3x YoY to Rs 5,629 crore; Rs 8/share dividend declared

(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)

The Sunderland was bought by Poltronesofà S.p.A for nearly £100m in 2024

The company behind North East furniture chain SCS largely maintained revenues despite closing many of its stores for refurbishments after a takeover by an Italian firm.

Sunderland-based A Share and Sons has released accounts for 2025 in which revenues came in at £239.1m. That compares to £344.8m in the previous accounting period, but that was a 17-month span after the company’s takeover by Poltronesofà S.p.A in January 2024 led to a change in accounting periods.

The accounts show that the previous period’s operating loss of £36.5m was reduced to £22.9m.

SCS’ new owner – which took the company off the London Stock Exchange in a near £100m deal – refurbished 60 stores after its takeover, to improve the look of its showrooms and bring them into line with its international business. Each closure lasted around five weeks, impacting financial results.

The accounts detail how the company’s headcount fell significantly during the year, from 1,565 previously to 1,133. Office and managerial staff more than halved following the Poltronesofà takeover.

The company added a new store in Carlisle, Cumbria, and moved its shop in Warrington, Cheshire, to a better retail park location.

Directors said: “Gross revenue of £253.5m, which represents revenue stated prior to accounting adjustments for interest-free credit fees, was broadly in line with £253.6m achieved on a like for like basis in FY24 (being the 12 month result to 31 December 2024). The revenue performance represents a strong result when considering the impact of FY24 store closures for refurbishments on order bookings for early FY25, the closures within FY25 itself, and with a backdrop of continued cautious consumer spending and confidence.

“Gross margin in FY25 improved to 49.4% compared to 47.4% in FY24. This improvement is a result of the enhancements made to the product range partially offset by an increase in the cost of finance, with an increasing number of customers choosing interest free credit options to finance their purchases, on an increasing average loan tenure. The operating loss, before adjusting items, in FY25 of £22.9m was significantly less than the loss incurred in FY24 of £36.5m. The loss reflects the planned impact of the period of closure of the stores in FY24 and FY25 for refurbishment and alignment of the UK business with the wider Poltronesofà product offering and store look and feel.

“FY25 remained, as planned, a year of transition under the company’s new ownership with the completion of the store refurbishment programme and other activities ongoing to enhance the customer experience. If the FY25 result were to be adjusted to remove the effect of the store closures and also adjusted for a number of one-off costs incurred as part of the transition, the operating loss, before adjusting items, would have been significantly lower at approximately £13.8m.”

In March, the company announced that the Poltronesofà name would be officially introduced to the UK market, and it said its focus in 2026 would be on building recognition of the Poltronesofà name in the UK.

Shares of Cyient gained as much as 8% to their day’s high of Rs 1,055 on the BSE on Wednesday after the IT services company laid out its growth and margin priorities at its investor day, with brokerages differing on the pace and strength of its recovery.

Cyient said its immediate focus is to reignite growth, targeting double-digit year-on-year revenue growth and steady quarter-on-quarter growth through FY28-29. In the near term, the company is targeting EBIT margins of more than 15%, while its medium- to long-term goal is to deliver industry-leading growth with EBIT margins above 16%.

The company said its go-to-market (GTM) team is now fully in place to pursue larger deals and gradually move the business from project-based work towards annuity-based contracts, which provide greater revenue predictability. Project-based work currently makes up around 40% of the business.

Management said Cyient’s large-deal pipeline has reached a record high, with nine qualified deals carrying a combined total contract value of around $300 million.

Cyient described FY26 as a year of stabilisation after several strategic interventions. It expects FY27 and FY28 to mark the start of a recovery driven by its revamped strategy.

The company has also made progress on margins, with EBIT margin rising to 13.2% in Q1 FY27 from around 12.2%. Management aims to reach the 15% medium-term target through AI-led revenue leverage and operating cost efficiencies.

Motilal Oswal on Cyient

Motilal Oswal reiterated its Sell rating on Cyient with a target price of Rs 740, 24% downside, saying the recovery remains back-ended and that FY27 organic growth is expected to remain broadly flat. The brokerage said it is encouraged by the semiconductor opportunity but would wait for proof of concept before assigning considerable valuation to the business.The domestic brokerage continues to value the Digital, Engineering and Technology (DET) business at 9x FY28E EPS. This reflects gradual margin improvement, a muted organic growth outlook and continued execution risk. The brokerage also continues to apply a holding company discount to the value of the DLM stake.

Nuvama on Cyient

Nuvama retained its Hold rating on Cyient while raising its target price to Rs 1,050 (7.5% upside) from Rs 900. The brokerage said the company’s total addressable market (TAM) has expanded significantly, from around $100 billion to $2.4-3.2 trillion, creating a larger long-term growth opportunity.

Nuvama highlighted Cyient’s three-year roadmap, which envisages stabilisation in FY26, transformation in FY27 and scaling in FY28. The company has set an FY31 objective of achieving industry-leading growth alongside a 16% EBIT margin. Cyient Semiconductors, meanwhile, is targeting nearly 4X revenue growth, a gross margin of more than 40% and an EBIT margin above 20% by FY31.

The company has also introduced CYINGINE, a platform designed to help clients scale AI adoption and deliver measurable engineering outcomes.

PL Capital on Cyient

PL Capital said the key monitorables remain the success rate and execution within Cyient’s marquee accounts. The brokerage has not incorporated Tao Digital’s financials as the acquisition is yet to be completed.

It has largely retained its FY27E and FY28E DET USD revenue growth estimates while marginally raising its EBIT margin estimates to 13.5% and 14.0%, respectively, from 13.2% and 13.7% earlier. PL Capital maintained its Hold rating with a target price of Rs 1,040, an upside of 6.5% from the last closing price.

(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times.)

Shares of Welspun Corp fell more than 6% on Wednesday after 63 lakh shares worth Rs 1,433 crore changed hands in a block deal, with a promoter group entity and the company’s managing director and chief executive officer likely among the sellers.

The block deal was done at Rs 2,275.30 apiece, marking around a 3% discount to Welspun Corp’s previous closing price of Rs 2,345.50 apiece on NSE. The shares of the company dropped more than 6% after the block deal to Rs 2,203.70 apiece on Wednesday morning.

Welspun Investments and Commercials, part of the promoter group, was set to sell up to 60 lakh shares, while Vipul Mathur, managing director and CEO of Welspun Corp, was set to sell up to 3 lakh shares, according to deal terms seen by ET Markets.

The stake that changed hands in the block deal represents about 2.4% of Welspun Corp’s existing outstanding shares. The transaction was fully secondary, which means the company will not receive any proceeds from the sale. IIFL Capital Services is the sole broker and placement agent for the transaction.

Also read | Welspun Corp promoter group, CEO to sell up to Rs 1,417 crore stake via block deal

The block deal comes after a sharp run-up in Welspun Corp shares, which are up over 40% in just one month. The multibagger stock of 2026 has been one of the stronger performers in the industrial and pipe manufacturing space, helped by order visibility, energy infrastructure demand and investor interest in capital goods-linked themes. Promoter or management stake sales are closely watched closely by the market as they can affect near-term sentiment.

Welspun Corp share price

Welspun Corp shares have gained over 13% in a week and 180% in 2026 so far, delivering sharp returns for its shareholders. After hitting a 52-week low of Rs 710 apiece in February this year, the stock skyrocketed 243% in less than seven months to hit a 52-week high of Rs 2,434 apiece yesterday.In the longer term, Welspun Corp shares have delivered stellar returns of 156% over one year, 604% in three years and a whopping 1,805% in five years.

Also read | Multibagger stocks: Ather Energy, Hind Copper, MCX among stocks which surged up to 250% in one year

(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)

Constantin Baack
Chief Executive Officer

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for MPC Container Ships’ Second Quarter Earnings Call. This is Constantin Baack speaking, and I’m joined today by my colleague and Co-CEO and CFO, Moritz Fuhrmann.

Before we begin, please note that today’s discussion includes forward-looking statements as well as indicative figures. Actual results may differ materially due to risks and uncertainties inherent in our business. I would like to open today’s presentation with a very short reflection. We are pleased to report another solid quarter, both financially and operationally. What stands out to us is the continued modernization and transformation of our fleet, together with the visibility we now have over our backlog and cash flows for the years ahead. This is not by chance, but by design, the result of a series of deliberate steps we have taken over recent quarters and years.

With a contract revenue backlog of $2.2 billion and coverage extending well into 2029 and beyond, we believe this visibility leaves us very well positioned for the future. Even as the broader market remains volatile and hard to predict, conditions in our segment have stayed firm.

With that backdrop, let me hand over to Moritz to walk us through the highlights of the quarter.

Moritz Fuhrmann
Co-CEO & CFO

Thank you, Constantin. Also good morning from my side. And let’s start with the agenda for today. First, our business update, the quarter’s operational highlights, the fleet transaction and our balance sheet position; second, the market update; and thirdly, we’ll close with our company outlook.