State-run Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Corp (TTL,台灣菸酒公司) yesterday installed a business professor and the head of a farmer's bank to take on the mammoth task of competing in Taiwan's open markets.
The new two-man team -- Hwang Ing-san (
Neither has much real market experience, with Hwang serving a stint in the electronics field and Lai reigning over a state-run bank that as of June had a 13.9 percent non-performing loan ratio.
A confident Hwang boasted that he has a plan to increase the company's profit by 20 percent in his first year.
His three-point strategy is to clear out the corporation's NT$17 billion inventory, extend the operating hours of the company's outlet stores in line with market standards, and begin producing OEM liquor for foreign businesses.
The 61-year-old Hwang is a native of Changhua County and has a doctorate in business management from National Cheng Chi University.
He has 32 years' experience teaching and 20 years' overlapping experience in the private sector.
Hwang was formally sworn in yesterday, taking over the chairmanship from acting TTL chairman, Vice Minister of Finance Sam Wang (
As the head of a government-controlled business with an estimated NT$64 billion in annual revenue, NT$121 billion in assets and 7,800 employees, Hwang vowed to improve profit margins and sales volumes in the competitive liquor and tobacco market by restructuring of the company.
Questioned over the company's inability to manufacture to match market demand, Hwang said that the TTL's NT$17 million inventory needed to be sold off as soon as possible.
As for operating hours, TTL outlets close at 3pm every day, hurting the competitiveness of the corporation.
Hwang vowed to extend operating hours -- "which are currently the same as for banks" -- for an undisclosed period of time.
In addition, TTL also plans to expand its international market by utilizing its manufacturing ability to custom-made liquor for foreign businesses who target other international markets rather than Taiwan.
Hwang said that, so far, the company has no plan to enter the China market because of the stronghold counterfeit liquor and tobacco has in the market there.
"We will enter the market only when we clearly understand the situation and then we will take advantage of the distribution channels of other international corporations to take a share in China's market," he said.
According to Hwang, privatization should stay on schedule for 2004 and the EPS will be set at NT$1.5.
He promised not to lay off any workers in the company's move toward privatization.
"If we can make our profit targets, it won't be necessary for us to lay off employees," he said.
"We have some 7,000 employees who will play a role as marketers to help us to achieve our goals," he said.
At the ceremony, Hwang said the main reason he decided to take up the position was because he owed it to the government.
"When I was young, I was too poor to study at a university. The government gave me a three-year scholarship and helped me with my college education," said a teary-eyed Hwang.
Hwang said that he was unable to pay back the government then and now it was time for him to give something back to the government.
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],”
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
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained