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PUMA Transforms Product Campaign Development with Google Cloud’s Generative AI

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Launching thousands of new products on its e-commerce site every year, PUMA is using Imagen on Vertex AI to create customized product imagery and improve time-to-market of campaigns

HERZOGENAURACH, Germany and SUNNYVALE, Calif., Sept. 24, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Sports company PUMA and Google Cloud today announced an expanded partnership that is enhancing the digital shopping experience for millions of PUMA consumers worldwide using generative AI (gen AI). PUMA was the first in its industry to use AI imagery in its online shop at scale. Using Imagen 2 on Vertex AI, PUMA can now create dynamic and personalized product imagery that is improving click-through rates and accelerating the time-to-market for PUMA’s digital campaigns globally.

Using Imagen 2 on Vertex AI, PUMA has the ability to generate relevant imagery, such as new background images that are tailored to the product, customer, and region. While the technology is available globally, Imagen on Vertex AI empowers marketers in individual PUMA regions to tailor content to their specific market needs. For example, while shopping online, customers from Japan may see a lifestyle shoe worn on the streets of Ginza or a trail running shoe on the foothills of Mt. Fuji. Beyond image generation, Imagen on Vertex AI also becomes a powerful tool for image editing, aiding PUMA content editors with time-consuming editing tasks, such as shadowing, composition and color accuracy, resolution, and product positioning.

Since migrating its e-commerce ecosystem, including PUMA.com, to Google Cloud earlier this year, PUMA has experienced significant benefits across its online shopping portfolio. In addition to increasing average order value (AOV) thanks to better personalized content with Google Cloud’s data and AI tools, PUMA’s retail teams have also drastically reduced the time needed to take products to market – enabling teams to make products shoppable the moment they reach the warehouse.

“At PUMA, all product creations always starts with the consumer first in mind and we have the ambition to be as personal as possible in each interaction with our consumers. Google Cloud’s generative AI has allowed us to create an immersive experience that is tailored to each consumer, and we are already seeing the benefits,” said Arne Freundt, CEO of PUMA.

PUMA will soon explore Imagen 3, Google Cloud’s latest and highest quality text-to-image model, as it continues to advance and scale campaign creation in the future. The sports company also plans to expand the implementation of Google Cloud’s Vertex AI Search for Retail to more subsidiaries to further improve AOV and overall shopper conversion rate.

“Google Cloud is helping companies in every industry improve the customer experience with gen AI-powered agents, and our partnership with PUMA is an excellent example of this. The creative agent Puma has built with our leading Imagen technology is taking personalization to a new level – and driving real business results,” said Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud.

About PUMA
PUMA is one of the world’s leading sports brands, designing, developing, selling and marketing footwear, apparel and accessories. For more than 75 years, PUMA has relentlessly pushed sport and culture forward by creating fast products for the world’s fastest athletes. PUMA offers performance and sport-inspired lifestyle products in categories such as Football, Running and Training, Basketball, Golf, and Motorsports. It collaborates with renowned designers and brands to bring sport influences into street culture and fashion. The PUMA Group owns the brands PUMA, Cobra Golf and stichd. The company distributes its products in more than 120 countries, employs about 20,000 people worldwide, and is headquartered in Herzogenaurach/Germany.

About Google Cloud
Google Cloud is the new way to the cloud, providing AI, infrastructure, developer, data, security, and collaboration tools built for today and tomorrow. Google Cloud offers a powerful, fully integrated and optimized AI stack with its own planet-scale infrastructure, custom-built chips, generative AI models and development platform, as well as AI-powered applications, to help organizations transform. Customers in more than 200 countries and territories turn to Google Cloud as their trusted technology partner.

 

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/puma-transforms-product-campaign-development-with-google-clouds-generative-ai-302256616.html

SOURCE Google Cloud

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Link Engineering Company (LINK) Receives VCA Authorization for Euro 7 Brake Emissions Type-Approval Testing

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LIMBURG, Germany, July 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Link Engineering Company (LINK) announced that its laboratory in Limburg, Germany, has been authorized by the United Kingdom’s Vehicle Certification Agency (VCA) to conduct witnessed brake emissions testing for vehicle type-approval programs.

This authorization enables LINK to support manufacturers pursuing Euro 7 compliance while expanding its brake emissions testing capabilities. Building on its ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation, LINK was among the first organizations to receive accreditation from DAkkS (Deutsche Akkreditierungsstelle) for brake emissions testing.

As Euro 7 regulations introduce brake particle emissions limits for the first time, vehicle and brake manufacturers require specialized facilities, technical expertise, and accredited testing capabilities to achieve certification. Only a limited number of organizations worldwide possess the equipment, expertise, and recognized accreditations needed to support these programs.

The addition of witnessed type-approval testing capabilities positions LINK as a comprehensive partner for the global automotive and brake industries, offering customers an end-to-end solution from development testing through regulatory certification.

“Achieving VCA approval is a major milestone that underscores LINK’s leadership in brake emissions testing,” said Marco Zessinger, Managing Director, Link Engineering Company GmbH. “Manufacturers are facing new regulatory demands under Euro 7, and they need testing partners with both technical expertise and recognized accreditation. Our Limburg laboratory can now support witnessed type-approval testing, providing customers with a streamlined path to certification while further strengthening LINK’s position as a trusted industry partner.”

About LINK
Link Group, Inc. (LINK), parent to Link Engineering Company, Link Industries, and Tescor, consists of businesses that offer customized solutions, with a focus on delivering high value to each of their customers. Offerings consist of the design and manufacture of customized, high-precision test, research, simulation, quality control, and thermal solution equipment; comprehensive test services; and in the case of Link Industries, customized, high-precision cutting tools. LINK’s corporate headquarters are in Plymouth, Michigan (US), with manufacturing and design facilities, laboratory and vehicle test operations, and support teams around the world.

Established in 1935, LINK prides itself on being family-owned, currently led by the second and third generations of the Link family. As many of our team members have been with LINK for a generation or more, the LINK team is equipped with a wealth of knowledge, providing decades of hands-on experience, creativity, and care, supporting our global customer base with highly-technical solutions.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/link-engineering-company-link-receives-vca-authorization-for-euro-7-brake-emissions-type-approval-testing-302832635.html

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BrighterBalance Named a Gold Friend of CASE in Support of Special Education Leaders Nationwide

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BrighterBalance, a real-time behavioral data documentation platform for K-12 special education and MTSS, has been named a Gold Friend of CASE, the Council of Administrators of Special Education. The designation for companies that support CASE’s work advancing leadership and professional development for special education administrators nationwide.

DULUTH, Ga., July 22, 2026 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — BrighterBalance, a real-time behavioral data documentation platform built for K-12 special education and MTSS environments, today announced it has joined the Council of Administrators of Special Education (CASE) as a Gold Friend of CASE. The designation recognizes companies that support CASE’s mission of advancing leadership, advocacy, and professional development for special education administrators nationwide.

“It was like having a second memory, and it made her feel less burned out and more confident in her work with students.” Tania Amerson, Bartow County Schools, Executive Director Special Education

BrighterBalance was built to address a gap that special education leaders know well: the 20 minutes before escalation, the behavior a teacher witnessed and tried to redirect, the patterns that live in notebooks and memory rather than in structured, defensible records. The platform enables educators to log behavioral data in under 10 seconds, captures real-time patterns across the school day, and generates progress monitoring reports ready for IEP and BIP review, without adding burden to already stretched teachers and support staff.

“We are pleased to welcome BrighterBalance as a Gold Friend of CASE. The documentation burden on special education teachers is real, and it is contributing to burnout at a time when we can least afford to lose them. Tools that make real-time behavior capture frictionless and that produce records teachers and administrators can rely on are exactly the kind of innovation our members need. We look forward to seeing BrighterBalance’s impact in CASE member districts.”

Brigid Bright, Associate Executive Director, CASE

Early results from districts reflect the impact at the classroom level. Tania Amerson, executive director of exceptional education, Bartow County Schools, shared what she heard after one semester: “What we heard using BrighterBalance surprised me. It wasn’t just about documentation. It was about feeling supported in the moment. One teacher told me it was like having a second memory, and that it made her feel less burned out and more confident in her work with students. That kind of impact on teacher wellbeing and retention is what we are always looking for.”

“Special education leaders are navigating increasing documentation requirements, growing legal pressure, and a student population with more complex needs than ever before,” said Melissa Cook, Co-Founder of BrighterBalance. “Being a Gold Friend of CASE means we are committed to building tools that serve their teachers and their students.”

The platform’s approach mirrors lessons from academic MTSS, where continuous real-time data has replaced periodic snapshots as the standard for intervention decision-making. BrighterBalance brings that same philosophy to behavioral documentation, giving teachers a mobile-first capture tool that works with the methods they already use and feeds directly into their district’s MTSS infrastructure.

BrighterBalance is currently available to individual teachers and school districts, with enterprise pricing designed to support district-wide adoption. The platform integrates with MTSS platforms including Panorama Education and Branching Minds, and exports structured data compatible with major student information systems.

About BrighterBalance

BrighterBalance is a K-12 behavioral data documentation platform purpose-built for special education and MTSS contexts. Faster than paper and smarter than memory, BrighterBalance gives educators a real-time capture layer that produces defensible, structured records at the classroom level before behavior escalates to the office. BrighterBalance is available at brighterbalance.app.

About CASE

The Council of Administrators of Special Education (CASE) is an international nonprofit professional organization providing leadership, advocacy, and professional development to more than 6,200 administrators responsible for the implementation of IDEA and Section 504. CASE is a division of the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC).

Media Contact

Melissa Cook, BrighterBalance, 1 6784479600, melissa.cook@brighterbalance.app, https://brighterbalance.app/

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prweb.com/releases/brighterbalance-named-a-gold-friend-of-case-in-support-of-special-education-leaders-nationwide-302831692.html

SOURCE BrighterBalance

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K-Bro Announces Release Date, Conference Call and Webcast for Q2 2026 Financial Results

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(TSX: KBL)

EDMONTON, AB, July 22, 2026 /CNW/ — K-Bro Linen Inc. (the “Corporation”) will release its financial results for the quarter ended June 30, 2026 on Tuesday, August 4, 2026 after market close. The Corporation will hold a conference call and webcast to discuss the results on Wednesday, August 5, 2026 at 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time (7:00 a.m. Mountain Time).

The conference call will include prepared remarks from Linda McCurdy, President and CEO, and Kristie Plaquin, Chief Financial Officer.  After the prepared remarks, the Corporation will accept questions from analysts and institutional investors.

Date:  Wednesday, August 5, 2026
Time:  9:00 a.m. ET (7:00 a.m. MT)
Call:    1-888-510-2154 (Canada and USA)
            437-900-0527 (International)

To join the conference call without operator assistance, you may register and enter your phone number at  https://emportal.ink/4wAkiCY to receive an instant automated call back. 

Participants are asked to call at least 10 minutes prior to the start of the call.  For those unable to participate on the live call, a replay will be made available until August 12, 2026 by dialing 1.888.660.6345 (Canada and USA), passcode 36338.  The public is invited to listen to the live conference call or the replay.

This conference call will be webcast live over the internet and can be accessed by all interested parties at the following https://app.webinar.net/WpVkGB4wN7E 

To listen to the live webcast, visit the Corporation’s website at least 10 minutes early to register, download and install any necessary audio software. For those unable to listen during the live webcast, an audio replay will be available shortly after the conclusion of the conference call for a period of 90 days.

CORPORATE PROFILE

K-Bro is the largest owner and operator of laundry and linen processing facilities in Canada. K-Bro provides a comprehensive range of general linen and operating room linen processing, management and distribution services to healthcare institutions, hotels and other commercial accounts.  K-Bro currently operates eleven processing facilities in eight Canadian cities: Québec City, Montréal, Toronto, Regina, Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver and Victoria.

Fishers was established in 1900 and is an operator of laundry and linen processing facilities in Scotland, providing linen rental, workwear hire and cleanroom garment services to the hospitality, healthcare, manufacturing and pharmaceutical sectors. Fishers’ client base includes major hotel chains and prestigious venues across Scotland and the North East of England. The company operates five sites in Scotland and the North East of England with facilities in Cupar, Perth, Newcastle, Livingston and Coatbridge.

Shortridge has operated as a family run business since the 1990s and is based in Cumbria, with plants in Lillyhall, Dumfries and a distribution depot in Darlington. It specializes in providing high quality laundry services to local independent hospitality businesses, including hotels, B&Bs, self-catering units and restaurants.

Stellar Mayan (previously known as Star Mayan) is a holding company that owns 100% interests in three operating businesses: Synergy, Grosvenor Contracts and AeroServe. Stellar Mayan is a leading commercial laundry business in England, serving the healthcare and hospitality markets. Typical services offered include processing, management and distribution of healthcare and hospitality linens, including sheets, blankets, towels, surgical gowns and other linen. Star Mayan has seven operating facilities strategically located across England: Bermondsey, Derby, Dunstable, Sheffield, Slough (2), and St. Helens, in addition to a distribution depot in Manchester.

Additional information regarding the Corporation including required securities filings are available on our website at www.k-brolinen.com and on the Canadian Securities Administrators’ website at www.sedar.com; the System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval (“SEDAR”).

K‑Bro est le plus important propriétaire et exploitant de buanderies au Canada. K‑Bro fournit une gamme étendue de services de buanderie aux établissements de soins de santé, hôtels et autres clients commerciaux. K‑Bro exploite actuellement dix usines dans huit villes canadiennes: Québec, Montréal, Toronto, Regina, Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver et Victoria.

Vous pouvez obtenir des renseignements supplémentaires sur la Société, y compris les documents déposés auprès des autorités de réglementation, sur notre site Web, au www.k-brolinen.com et sur le site Web des autorités canadiennes en valeurs mobilières au www.sedar.com, le site Web du Système électronique de données, d’analyse et de recherche (« SEDAR »).

SOURCE K-Bro Linen Inc.

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