RETAIL
L.L. Bean, Flowfold team up to sell outdoor gear
Two outdoor gear companies from Maine are partnering up for the holiday season. Flowfold, an outdoor retail brand, and L.L. Bean have created a line of everyday gear featuring totes, duffels, and wallets. L.L. Bean has been selling Flowfold products over the last year. The exclusive line will be available in its signature olive green color and made with the same lightweight material. The products are backed by Flowfold’s lifetime warranty and will be available on L.L. Bean’s website and at its flagship store in Freeport, Maine. — HAE YOUNG YOO
AUTOMOTIVE
Toyota to test system that unlocks shared cars with smartphones
DETROIT — Toyota will test a new car-sharing system next year that lets users unlock doors and start cars with their smartphones. The Smart Key Box system eliminates the need for a physical key. Toyota will test the system in San Francisco with the Getaround car-sharing service starting in January. A Toyota investment fund put money into Getaround last month. Toyota says a user’s phone will get codes to access the smart key box inside car-sharing vehicles. When the phone gets close to the vehicle, the codes are verified through the Bluetooth system. If the experiment is successful, Toyota may use the system in Japan for an unmanned car rental business. Keyless car-sharing is not totally new. General Motors’ Maven car-sharing system uses a mobile app to unlock cars and allow them to be started with the push-button ignition. Maven is in nine US cities. — ASSOCIATED PRESS
INTERNATIONAL
Eurozone sees continued growth, despite Brexit
FRANKFURT — Amid myriad battles over trade agreements, concerns about the impending negotiations for Britain’s exit from the European Union, and political instability across the region, the eurozone continued to grow steadily but slowly in the third quarter. Gross domestic product in the 19-nation currency union rose 0.3 percent in the three months through September, compared to the previous quarter, Eurostat, the office that compiles statistics for the European Union, announced Monday. That was an unchanged growth rate from the previous quarter and corresponds to an annual rate of 1.4 percent. Consumer prices in the 12 months through October rose 0.5 percent, up from 0.4 percent in the 12 months through September. Economic growth and inflation were in line with analysts’ forecasts. — NEW YORK TIMES
STAFFING
Blackstone to take Team Health Holdings private
NEW YORK — Blackstone is spending $3.4 billion for Team Health Holdings and will take the staffing company private. The private equity firm will pay $43.50 in cash for each share. That more than a 30 percent premium to the stock’s price in early October before reports of a possible sale began to surface. Counting debt, the detail totals $6.1 billion. The deal is expected to close in next year’s first quarter, but Team Health shareholders still need to approve it. The offer includes a 40-day window in which Team Health can shop for a better deal. Team Health Holdings Inc., based in Knoxville, Tenn., provides staffing and administrative services for health care companies in 47 states. — ASSOCIATED PRESS
RETIREMENT
Small business owners behind on retirement savings
WASHINGTON — Small business owners are just as unprepared for retirement as the rest of us, it turns out. Maybe more so. According to a new report from BMO Wealth Management, only a fraction of the nation’s 28 million small business owners are prepared for retirement. BMO called the report ‘‘startling.’’ According to the survey, 75 percent of small business owners have saved less than $100,000 in retirement funds. In the upper age bracket (ages 45-64) the entrepreneurs were only slightly more prepared — 68 percent have saved less than $100,000. Only 8 percent had saved more than $500,000, which is still not considered enough for retirement for many people. — WASHINGTON POST
CONSUMERS
September spending at fastest pace in three months
WASHINGTON — Consumers boosted their spending in September at the fastest pace in three months, while their incomes grew by a modest amount. Consumer spending increased 0.5 percent, a significant rebound from August when spending fell 0.1 percent, the Commerce Department said Monday. The increase was led by a 1.3 percent surge in spending on autos and other durable goods. Incomes increased 0.3 percent in September, slightly faster than the 0.2 percent gain in August. The overall economy grew at a 2.9 percent rate in the July-September quarter, more than double the 1.4 percent increase in the second quarter. — ASSOCIATED PRESS
FAST FOOD
McDonald’s to pay $3.75 million to settle wage-cheating suit
SAN FRANCISCO — McDonald’s has agreed to pay $3.75 million to settle a federal lawsuit that sought to hold the company liable for allegations that a franchise owner in the San Francisco Bay Area cheated hundreds of workers out of wages and overtime. A lawyer for the workers on Monday called the settlement agreement filed in court Friday a historic victory for hundreds of workers but the company said it settled to avoid ongoing legal costs. The lawsuit filed in 2014 in federal court in San Francisco is among several suits in recent years that have sought a court order designating McDonald’s as the joint employer of workers at its franchise restaurants. Franchised locations account for the vast majority of McDonald’s more than 14,000 US restaurants. — ASSOCIATED PRESS
INTERNATIONAL
Bank of England governor to stay on the job
LONDON — Mark Carney, the Bank of England governor, said Monday that he would serve an additional year as head of the central bank and step down in June 2019. The decision dispels suggestions in the British press that Carney would step down in 2018, his original five-year time frame. Carney has been called upon to resign by some politicians who support an exit from the European Union, or Brexit. They argued that Carney politicized the bank ahead of the June 23 vote on whether to leave. An early departure by Carney could have been unsettling for the markets. Concerns over the impact of Brexit have sent the British pound to its lowest level since the mid-1980s. — NEW YORK TIMES
