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Monday, 01 July

For the culture: Soweto streetwear brand Thesis celebrates 19 years of consistency, evolution

As we wrap up Youth Month in the country, streetwear brand Thesis Lifestyle marked 19 years since its inception. 

In the 2000s, streetwear was popular in big cities and townships, and the music on high rotation made it famous.

Brands like Magents and Loxion Kulca were on the frontlines of local streetwear fashion then.

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Monday, 01 July

Business spotlight: Thesis Lifestyle

What started as an exercise to keep friends motivated and busy blew up to become the Thesis Lifestyle that you know today. Together with a few friends, Wandile started it in 2005 after first testing the market through the second-hand recycled clothing. Spotting an opportunity through a vacant space in 2007, the Thesis concept store was born. Through the years, the brand has grown to encompass events and social impact components.

We speak to the pulse of the community (Soweto) in a way that most brands don’t. We seek to pay homage while inspiring the next generation of people to go out and define themselves.   

Fifteen years in the business is a highlight on its own because streetwear and street culture in South Africa are still young. To be a part of that for all these years is a constant highlight. Another one is being able to develop different entities that keep the business afloat – from Thesis Social Jam Sessions and Thesis Run Cru to Cycling, Gin + Wax and Define Yourself Sessions – the constant innovation is awesome.

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European Union accuses Facebook owner Meta of breaking digital rules with paid ad-free option

FILE - European Commissioner for Europe fit for the Digital Age, Margrethe Vestager speaks during a media conference regarding the Digital Markets Act at EU headquarters in Brussels, on March 25, 2024. European Union regulators accused social media company Meta Platforms on Monday, July 1, 2024 of breaching the bloc’s new digital competition rulebook by forcing Facebook and Instagram users to choose between seeing ads or paying to avoid them. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

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LONDON (AP) — European Union regulators accused social media company Meta Platforms on Monday of breaching the bloc’s new digital competition rulebook by forcing Facebook and Instagram users to choose between seeing ads or paying to avoid them.

Meta began giving European users the option in November of paying for ad-free versions of Facebook and Instagram as a way to comply with the continent’s strict data privacy rules .

Users can pay at least 10 euros ($10.75) a month to avoid being targeted by ads based on their personal data. The U.S. tech giant rolled out the option after the European Union’s top court ruled Meta must first get consent before showing ads to users, in a decision that threatened its business model of tailoring ads based on individual users’ online interests and digital activity.

The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, said preliminary findings of its investigation show that Meta’s “pay or consent” advertising model was in breach of the 27-nation bloc’s Digital Markets Act.

Meta’s model doesn’t allow users to exercise their right to “freely consent” to allowing their personal data from its various services, including Facebook, Instagram, Marketplace, WhatsApp, and Messenger, to be combined to target them with personalized online ads, the commission said.

Meta’s model also doesn’t give users the option of a service that’s less personalized but still equivalent to its social networks, it said.

“Subscription for no ads follows the direction of the highest court in Europe and complies with the DMA,” Meta said in a statement. “We look forward to further constructive dialogue with the European Commission to bring this investigation to a close.”

The commission had opened its investigation shortly after the rulebook, also known as the DMA, took effect in March. It’s a sweeping set of regulations aimed at preventing tech “gatekeepers” from cornering digital markets under threat of heavy financial penalties.

One of the DMA’s goals is to rein in the power of Big Tech companies that have collected vast amounts of personal data on their users, giving them an edge on rivals competing in online ad or social media services. The commission indicated that in order for Meta to comply, it would like to see an option that doesn’t rely on a user’s full personal information being shared for advertising.

“The DMA is there to give back to the users the power to decide how their data is used and ensure innovative companies can compete on equal footing with tech giants on data access,” European Commissioner Thierry Breton, who oversees the bloc’s digital policy, said in a statement.

Meta now has a chance to respond to the commission, which must wrap up its investigation by March 2025. The company could face fines worth 10% of its annual global revenues, which could run into the billions of euros.

Under the Digital Markets Act, Meta is classed as one of seven online gatekeepers while Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger and its online ad business are among two dozen “core platform services” that need the highest level of scrutiny.

Monday’s decision is the latest in flurry of regulatory activity by Brussels targeting Big Tech companies. The EU leveled its first charges under the DMA a week ago, accusing Apple of of preventing app makers from pointing users to cheaper options outside its App Store. It also recently charged Microsoft with violating the bloc’s antitrust laws by by bundling its Teams messaging and videoconferencing app with its widely used Office business software.

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• What Is Cinema?

I Taught the Taylor Swift Class at Harvard. Here’s My Thesis

L ast fall I told Harvard’s English Department that I planned to offer a class this spring on Taylor Swift . No one objected; Harvard professors like me get lots of latitude in confecting electives as long as we also offer the bread-and-butter material our majors need. (Most of my work is poetry-related; I also teach our regular undergrad course about literary form, from Beowulf on.) I’d call my new class Taylor Swift and Her World , as in: We’d read and listen to other artists and authors (part of her world). But also as in: It’s her world; we just live in it.

I’ve been living in it ever since. I thought I’d be teaching a quiet seminar: 20-odd Swifties around a big oak table, examining and appreciating her career, from her debut to Midnights , alongside her influences, from Carole King (see her Rock & Roll Hall of Fame speech) to William Wordsworth (see “The Lakes” from Folklore ). We would track her echoes and half rhymes, her arrangements and collaborations and allusions, her hooks and her choruses. We might sing along. We’d learn why “You Belong With Me” relies so much on its with ( you don’t belong to me, nor I to you ). We’d learn how the unease in “Tolerate It” speaks to its time signature (5/4). Maybe some English majors would get into songwriting. Maybe some Swifties would leave with old poems in their heads.

To be fair, almost all those things have now happened. We did sing along. Some undergrads learned to love the 18th-century poet and satirist Alexander Pope, or at least to pretend they did: Pope’s “Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot” depicts his exasperation with superfans, false friends, and haters in ways rarely equaled until Reputation. We cracked open Easter eggs, and we studied her rhythms. But we couldn’t fit around a table. At one point 300 students signed up for the class; almost 200 ended up taking it. We met in a concert hall on campus, with a grand piano at center stage. I gave what I hope were engaging lectures, with pauses for questions, and stage props: a melodica, or a cuddly stuffed snake (for the snake motifs on Reputation ). We had theater lights, and balcony seats, and the kind of big screen few humanities classrooms now need.

Harvard English Professor Stephanie Burt teaches the course “Taylor Swift and Her World.”

And we had eyes on us from outside the room. One user on Twitter (now officially X) “leaked” our syllabus as if we had kept a Hollywood secret. Students put clips (with our okay) on TikTok. And we had reporters—daily, for weeks—asking to visit. We ended up inviting the Today show, whose camera-ready journalist Emilie Ikeda listened admirably to our undergrads. My teaching assistants, our students, and I spoke with the BBC. And with TMZ. And with Australian public radio. And with broadcast TV news in Boston, and Boise, and Sacramento, and NPR and RTE (Irish public broadcasting), and with journalists from Brazil, Chile, the People’s Republic of China, Ecuador, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, India, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, and Sweden.

We learned, in other words, that Swift attracts attention: That attention amplifies things about her, even without her. Teaching the class sometimes felt like one more of Swift’s vaunted collaborations, another multimedia performance involving reporters, and students, and her. Journalists asked if Swift would visit. (She’d be welcome, but she’s got a lot going on.) They asked what I wanted students to learn. (How to think about works of art.) And they asked if Harvard resisted a course on a celebrity. (We read dead people too, like Pope and James Weldon Johnson and Willa Cather. Who were, in their own time, celebrities.)

If I had—and have—a thesis about Swift’s work as a whole, here it is: She’s excelled as a songwriter and as a performer by staying both aspirational and relatable. Swifties and casual fans see parts of ourselves in her, but we also see someone we wish we could be. Her first few albums made the pairing clear: Songs like “Fifteen” and “You Belong With Me” spoke to common high school crushes and heartbreaks. At the same time, they let listeners look up to her. Not only did she put into words what so many fans felt but could not express so crisply, she seemed lucky, even enviable, while doing it. She sang about senior boys who might stop you in hallways, “wink at you and say, ‘You know, I haven’t seen you around before,’ ” not about bullies who might shove you in bins; she wrote about feeling excluded by classmates, but also about her attentive, affectionate mother, who took her to “drive until we found a town far enough away / And we talk and window shop till I’ve forgotten all their names.” No wonder so many people—especially girls her age and younger—saw in her both a peer and an ideal.

When our class entered her pop era, her post-teenage stardom from 1989 on, my thesis hit a snag. We saw how the woman who clearly enjoyed the lights, who sang “we never go out of style” and dated Harry Styles, remained aspirational. But what made these versions of Swift relatable? One answer: Like any great writer in any medium, she has a talent for framing common emotions, for crystallizing nostalgia, lust, and regret. If we’ve felt them, she lets us feel them anew.

Another answer, though, arose on the classroom’s wood floor, or perhaps at its grand piano. Swift sings about life onstage, about her wish and even need to sparkle, bejeweled, whether or not she likes her dating life. Even when she tries to find some privacy, she can’t stop thinking that other people are watching, “drama queens taking swings” (“Call It What You Want”). Some nights she feels like a giant, or a monster, as she put it in “Anti-Hero.” She can look at the crowd but never in the mirror and knows she has to perform. She knows she needs us even more than we need her, even when she gets “tired of being known” (“Dorothea”): She’ll do many things not to feel alone. She can even do it with a broken heart.

So could we, I realized. So could I. At a college famous for being famous, in front of what—for most humanities teachers—counts as a crowd, I could layer my own need for approval, my wish that students would choose me (or my favorite writers), and my own impostor syndrome over Swift’s, and see that my dreams weren’t rare. I saw myself, not in her talents but in her anxieties, one more child for whom, as she put it lately, “growing up precocious sometimes means not growing up at all.” Some of our students, I think, could sympathize too, in the pressure chambers and dens of precocity that make up Harvard: They too might think—as songs like “Nothing New,” like “Castles Crumbling,” like “ Clara Bow ” imply—that no kudos would suffice, no A+ would be enough.

Fortunately I did not have to feel that way—much less to study Swift—on my own. Though I devised the syllabus with help from head teaching assistant MJ Cunniff, the teaching itself was a team affair: myself and MJ and nine discussion section leaders, from Harvard’s Music and American Studies departments and Harvard Law School and from Northeastern and Tufts and Brown universities. MJ gave a lecture that tied Swift to Sylvia Plath, prompting a passel of essays about her verse. Other discussion leaders explicated chord changes on guitar; explained the dialectology in “country” and “pop” voices; and unpacked the Swift–Kanye–Kim Kardashian spat, with videos.

As Swift does on her songs, we brought in guest stars too. The critic and songwriter Franklin Bruno explained why pop songs often (and folk songs almost never) have bridges. Bryan West, USA Today ’s Swift beat reporter, flew to Boston to meet us. Dani and Olivia from the great fan podcast Taylearning conducted a survey for students, then visited us in person to break down the data. Fashion historian Chloe Chapin analyzed Swift’s outfits; law school prof Rebecca Tushnet demystified copyright.

Ours was hardly this year’s sole college class on Swift: If I teach it again—and I hope I can—I’ll compare notes first with professors of English, communication, economics, music, and more, from Ghent University in Belgium, the University of Texas at Austin, TCU, Westfield State, and the University of Kansas. I’ll also learn from the mixed reviews students gave me: A few dozen (to quote Swift’s “Cardigan”) said I was their favorite and they would gladly come back to (more courses with) me. A few dozen more students found me hard to follow (I could have used, should have used, bullet points on slides). In our final week we asked students to tell us—anonymously—their favorite and least favorite aspects of class. What did they consider the course’s best parts? Our out-of-town guests, and teaching assistants’ guest lectures. Apparently Taylor Swift and Her World reached its new heights when I sat down, shut up, and just listened. Like all classes, it didn’t belong to me; it belonged with the students who chose to be there. The artist who wrote “Long Live” for her band, who encouraged fans to make friendship bracelets, who knows how we need one another, might have approved.

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Meta’s ‘pay or consent’ model fails EU competition rules, Commission finds

An investigation conducted by the European Commission has found that Meta’s “pay or consent” offer to Facebook and Instagram users in Europe does not comply with the bloc’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), according to preliminary findings reported by the regulator on Monday.

The Commission wrote in a press release  that the binary choice Meta offers “forces users to consent to the combination of their personal data and fails to provide them a less personalised but equivalent version of Meta’s social networks.”

Failure to abide by the ex-ante market contestability regulation, which applied on Meta and other so called “gatekeepers” since March 7, could be extremely costly for the adtech giant. Penalties for confirmed breaches can reach up to 10% of global annual turnover, and even 20% for repeat offences.

More saliently, Meta could finally be forced to abandon a business model that demands users agree to surveillance advertising as the entry “price” for using its social networks.

The EU in March opened a formal DMA investigation into Meta’s “pay or consent” offer, following months of lobbying from privacy advocacy and consumer protection groups. The groups also argued that a subscription to not see ads does not comply with the bloc’s data protection or consumer protection rules either.

Back in March, the Commission said it was concerned Meta’s binary choice may not provide “a real alternative” for users who do not consent to its tracking. Meta was essentially asking users to either agree to being tracked so it could continue serving targeted advertising, or fork out almost €13 per month (per account) to access ad-free versions of the services.

The EU’s goal with the DMA is to level the playing field by targeting various advantages that gatekeepers can exploit using their dominance.

In Meta’s case, the Commission thinks the company’s dominant position in social networking lets it extract more data from users to profile them, which gives its ad business an unfair advantage versus its competitors. To reset the dynamic, the EC introduced a requirement in the DMA that gatekeepers must obtain people’s permission before they can be tracked for ads.

The regulator’s case against Meta contends the adtech giant is failing to provide people with a free and fair choice to deny tracking.

In a briefing with journalists ahead of the announcement, senior Commission officials emphasized that as long as Meta’s social networking services are free, the equivalent versions it offers to users who do not wish to consent to tracking must also be free.

The relevant DMA article here is Article 5(2), which requires gatekeepers to seek users’ consent for combining their personal data between designated core platform services (CPS) and other services. Facebook, Instagram and Meta’s ads business have been designated as CPS since September 2023 , so the company needs users’ permission to track and profile their activity and run “personalized” ads.

Users who refuse Meta’s tracking have the right to access a less-personalized but equivalent alternative, and the Commission’s preliminary view after around three months of investigations is that Meta is breaching this requirement, as a paid subscription is not a valid equivalent to free access.

The regulation also stipulates gatekeepers cannot make use of a service or certain functionalities conditional on users’ consent.

Meta spokesman Matthew Pollard responded to the EU’s findings by sending a statement attributed to a company spokesperson. Meta repeated a defense of the approach by citing an earlier EU court judgment, writing: “Subscription for no ads follows the direction of the highest court in Europe and complies with the DMA. We look forward to further constructive dialogue with the European Commission to bring this investigation to a close.”

When asked about this defense, senior Commission officials pointed out that the judgement Meta is referring to involved the Court of Justice caveating the suggestion that a paid version of a service may be offered as an alternative to tracking ads, saying that only “if necessary” could an “appropriate fee” be charged.

In the DMA context, the bloc’s enforcers say a gatekeeper would therefore have to argue why a fee is necessary. The EU pointed out that Meta could offer an alternative service with ads that do not rely on any personal data for targeting — such as contextual advertising.

Meta has never explained why it has not offered users a free, contextual ads option.

The EU looks to be on a road to forcing Meta to provide a non-binary, privacy-safe choice in the coming months.

“To ensure compliance with the DMA, users who do not consent should still get access to an equivalent service which uses less of their personal data, in this case for the personalisation of advertising,” the Commission noted in the press release.

Commission officials noted that Meta could still offer a subscription option, but any paid choice would need to be an additional offer (i.e., a third choice) on top of a free equivalent that does not demand users consent to being tracked.

The EU’s investigation isn’t over yet, and Meta will have a chance to respond formally to the preliminary findings. But there’s a limited window for things to play out here: The bloc has set itself a 12-month timeline to complete the probe, which suggests it needs to finish the job by or before March 2025.

BEUC, the European consumer organization, welcomed the preliminary findings, urging the EU to push through to speedy enforcement.

“It’s good news that the Commission is taking enforcement action based on the Digital Markets Act against Meta’s pay-or-consent model. It comes on top of the complaints against Meta’s model for breaches of consumer law and data protection law, which consumer organisations have raised in the last few months . We now urge Meta to comply with laws meant to protect consumers,” said Agustin Reyna, BEUC’s director general, in a statement.

Meta’s ‘consent or pay’ data grab in Europe faces new complaints

Apple, Google and Meta face first formal investigations under EU’s DMA

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Living with Solar: Examining Visuals in Newspapers and Social Media About Utility-Scale Solar

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7 Growth Stocks That Will Outperform the Markets Through 2028

InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips

If we look at high-quality growth stocks , the revenue and EBITDA upside is not just for a year or two. Companies continue to grow at a CAGR of 20% to 30% in the long term. Of course, industry factors must be supportive and coupled with good execution. Identifying these long-term growth stocks can translate into massive wealth creation.

This column focuses on growth stocks that represent companies with strong fundamentals and an attractive business. A few of the ideas discussed have been depressed and undervalued due to temporary headwinds. However, there is little doubt about the long-term growth potential.

I would therefore consider exposure to these growth stocks for multibagger returns. Over a horizon of five years, these ideas are likely to witness multi-fold growth in revenue and cash flows. Let’s discuss the business and financial factors that support the bullish thesis.

Miniso Group (MNSO)

Miniso Group (NYSE: MNSO ) seems to be trading at a deep valuation gap considering a forward P/E of 15.9x. Revenue and earnings growth for the lifestyle retailer is likely to remain robust and I expect a strong reversal rally. It’s worth adding here that MNSO stock offers an attractive dividend yield of 2%.

An important point to note is that Miniso has been growing at a stellar pace even amidst macroeconomic headwinds. With rate cuts likely globally in the coming quarters, there is a strong case for growth acceleration. For Q1 2024, the lifestyle retailer reported revenue growth of 26% on a year-on-year basis to $515.7 million. Further, adjusted EBITDA margin swelled by 200 basis points to 25.9%.

Miniso is also planning to pursue aggressive store expansion. Between 2024 and 2028, the company plans to open 900 to 1,100 new stores globally . The target is to deliver revenue growth at a CAGR of more than 20%. With operating leverage, margin expansion will likely continue. Miniso therefore looks attractive on all fronts and the stock is a likely value creator.

Li Auto (LI)

If an investor is bullish on the long-term outlook for electric vehicles, the best time to buy EV stocks is now. Sentiments are over bearish and some of the best EV stocks trade at undervalued levels.

Once sentiments reverse, the upside in quality names is likely to be steep. Li Auto (NASDAQ: LI ) is among the undervalued EV stocks to buy with millionaire-maker potential. LI stock trades at a forward P/E of 16.2 after a deep correction of 50% for year-to-date.

Moderation of growth is one reason for the steep correction. In March, Li announced that the company would focus on “creating value for users and driving operating efficiency” rather than emphasizing sales volume and competition. While this has caused pain, it’s the right strategy for the long term.

LI stock has also been impacted due to tariffs by the European Union on Chinese cars. It’s however worth noting that Li Auto is focused exclusively on China. Further, the Middle East is the likely market for expansion . Overall, with a strong cash buffer, healthy vehicle margin, and focus on technology, LI stock is a potential multi-bagger.

DraftKings (DKNG)

DraftKings (NASDAQ: DKNG ) stock has witnessed a healthy rally of 50% in the last 12 months. This has been on the back of margin expansion coupled with a presence in a big addressable market. For the same reasons, I expect DKNG stock to remain in an uptrend.

As an overview, DraftKings is a provider of online sports betting (OSB) and iGaming in the United States. Currently, the market (existing states) for OSB and iGaming is $20 billion. It’s expected that the market size will swell to $30 billion by 2028. As more states legalize online gaming, the addressable market will continue to swell. I must add that Europe is another big market and DraftKings is likely to pursue expansion outside the U.S. in the coming years.

A big change for DraftKings in the last 12 months has been a move toward profitability. For the current year, the gaming company has provided an adjusted EBITDA guidance of $500 million. The target is to achieve EBITDA of $1.4 billion by 2026 and $2.1 billion by 2028. EBITDA can be potentially higher if the company enters new states in the U.S. DraftKings therefore has the potential to be a cash flow machine.

Cronos (CRON)

For years, there have been expectations related to the cannabis industry growing at a stellar pace. However, the key headwind to growth has been tight regulations. There seems to be positivity on that front and I am bullish on high-quality cannabis stocks delivering multi-fold returns.

Cronos (NASDAQ: CRON ) is among the best names to consider in the industry. It’s worth noting that amidst tight regulations, Cronos had remained conservative in terms of expansion. This has translated into a strong cash buffer of $855 million .

With regulatory headwinds waning, the company seems to be preparing for aggressive investments. In the last few quarters, Cronos has entered new geographies of Germany, Australia, and the United Kingdom. Considering the financial flexibility, it’s likely that the cannabis company will continue to enter new regions.

Recently, Cronos announced that it will provide $51 million in secured non-revolving credit to GrowCo (resulting in 50% ownership) to fund facility expansion. The objective is to capitalize on the global market demand for high-quality cannabis flowers. These initiatives will support revenue growth acceleration and I expect CRON stock to surge higher.

PACS Group (PACS)

PACS Group (NYSE: PACS ) had launched an IPO at $21. The stock has gradually trended higher to $28.6 and remains attractive at a forward P/E of 20x. As an overview, PACS is a provider of skilled nursing and assisted living facilities in the United States. Currently, the company has 218 facilities in nine states.

The first point to note is that PACS Group has ample headroom for facility expansion in the U.S. Aggressive acquisition of new facilities is likely in the coming years, which will support revenue growth. Further, adjusted EBITDA increased by 34% in Q1 2024 on a year-on-year basis. I expect sustained upside in EBITDA and potential margin expansion as new facilities mature.

In terms of competitive advantage, the company’s skilled nursing facility has an average cost of care per day of $550. In comparison, hospitals and inpatient rehabilitation facilities have an average cost of care per day of $2,914 and $1,850 respectively. It’s the cost factor that’s likely to drive growth and healthy utilization of facilities. With the stock still under the radar, it’s a good time to consider exposure.

First Solar (FSLR)

First Solar (NASDAQ: FSLR ) stock has witnessed a sharp rally of 50% year-to-date. This has however come after an extended period of price and time correction. FSLR stock therefore remains attractively valued at a forward P/E of 19.2x.

As of Q1 2024, First Solar reported a total bookings backlog of 78.3 GW. The backlog extends through 2030 and provides the renewable energy company with clear revenue visibility. Further, First Solar has a total bookings opportunity of 72.8GW. Even if 50% of the potential opportunity turns into a backlog, the growth outlook is bright.

As the order backlog swells, the company is also boosting its manufacturing capacity . By the end of 2026, the solar player expects to have 4GW of U.S. solar capacity and 11GW internationally. This will translate into healthy revenue growth as production increases on a year-on-year basis. Therefore, with industry tailwinds and a robust backlog, First Solar is positioned to create value.

Riot Platforms (RIOT)

Among Bitcoin ( BTC-USD ) mining stocks, Riot Platforms (NASDAQ: RIOT ) seems to be a steal below $10. If the execution of growth plans is right, I expect multi-bagger returns from RIOT stock in the next few years. Coming to valuations, RIOT stock trades at a forward P/E of 13.5. For a company that’s on a high-growth trajectory, the valuation gap is significant.

An important point to note is that as of Q1 2024, Riot reported a zero-debt balance sheet. Further, a cash buffer of $1.3 billion (including digital assets), provides high financial flexibility for pursuing aggressive growth and Riot has some big plans.

To put things into perspective, Riot reported a hash rate capacity of 12.5EH/s as of Q1 2024. The company plans to increase capacity to 31.5EH/s by the end of the year. Further, the long-term plan is to boost capacity to 100EH/s by 2027. This is likely to translate into multi-fold growth in revenue and cash flows in the next five years.

On the date of publication, Faisal Humayun did not hold (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com  Publishing Guidelines .

Faisal Humayun is a senior research analyst with 12 years of industry experience in the field of credit research, equity research and financial modeling. Faisal has authored over 1,500 stock specific articles with focus on the technology, energy and commodities sector.

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This is one great plate for grating

The Grate Plate can make a great host gift if you’re invited to a dinner party. It comes as a three-piece set in a small box: a hexagon-shaped ceramic stoneware dish with a grating surface for garlic, ginger, nutmeg, parmesan, and more. The texture is gentler than a metal grater and won’t scrape your fingers or knuckles but gets the job done. A bonus in the box are a silicone garlic peeler and a wood-handled gathering brush to sweep the ingredient off the plate. Raised sides allow it to double as a serving dish. For example, you can grate garlic and fill the plate with olive oil for dipping bread. Use it also as a spoon rest. Deborah Murphy and Hillary Melcher, a mother-daughter team from Lake Oswego, Ore., redesigned the shape of the standard grating dish and softened its sharp teeth, starting the company about nine years ago. Initially the duo sold their product at local farmers’ markets. The Grate Plate gained popularity over the years and was spotlighted on QVC and recently on “Good Morning America.” Made with lead-free food-safe glazes, it now comes in 18 colors. “It’s been the funniest thing to sell,” says Murphy ($30 to $32). Available in teal and pearl at Sur la Table locations. For all colors, visit their website, grateplate.com .

ANN TIREGER KURLAND

Ann Trieger Kurland can be reached at [email protected] .

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