Taipei Times: What major product lines will Boots offer Taiwanese consumers?
Martin Waters: Our company already has 1,400 chain stores in the UK with 2,500 products in three different categories that nobody else has, which is the first thing that we can offer to our customers.
We will import five exclusive brands of cosmetics under the Boots brandname, including No. 7 -- the number one brand of cosmetics in the UK, No. 17 which targets younger consumers, Natural Collection brand and the Kyusu label.
PHOTO: CHEN CHENG-CHANG, TAIPEI TIMES
In addition to that, we will compete with Boots products in the other core categories of skincare, hair care, body care, foot care and dental care -- anything to do with looking after your body is our business.
The other product line is health care, which includes 150 product supplements, from vitamins to a whole range of food supplements.
These products will take time to get in as they must be registered with and and approved by the Department of Health (
To begin with, we will probably only bring in about 100 to 150 products in the health care area. But we take a very long-term view of this market and plan to register far more products than that. We spent about a year to understand the health food and drug classifications in Taiwan.
TT: How will Boots present their products to customers?
Waters: First, we are experts in products, and second we are experts in people. We invest more money than any other retailer in the world on training. Our staff undergo intensive training programs before they meet customers. We do believe in having some staff who have more specialized knowledge than others -- specifically pharmacists.
We will have a pharmacist on duty in every shop, and I don't think anybody else does that. The second area of staff is the beauty section, where we will have specially trained make-up experts. The remaining staff will be for general assistance.
TT: Who are the competition in Taiwan?
Waters: Our business is split into three areas: beauty, personal care and health, so we compete with operators that dominate each of these specialized markets. In the health business we see ourselves competing with independent pharmacists. In the beauty market we recognize department stores as our competitors. In the personal care sector, grocers, hypermarts and convenience stores are the competition.
TT: Are there any unique marketing methods used by Boots?
Waters: Inside the shops our people will provide information customers can trust. We will explain ways to look after yourself, supplemented by a whole series of information leaflets on different subjects ranging from nail care to asthma.
TT: What products do you expect to be your strong suit in Taiwan?
Waters: We believe make-up will be especially popular here, due to the fact that Taiwan consumers are a bit more sophisticated when it comes to using the world's leading edge brands than other Asian markets.
We also expect some of our designer shampoos to be popular here as they bring a little more flair and expertise to the traditional shampoos customers have been using.
TT: When will the first store open and how many are planned?
Waters: The first Boots will be opening in September in Taipei, with another four to be set up by the end of this year. Meanwhile, the company plans to set up 100 outlets in five years.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day