Breeze Center (
"Parco is a retail industry veteran with strong ties to Japanese brands," said Henry Liao (廖鎮漢), executive director of Breeze. "Under the partnership, Parco is to help Breeze solicit Japanese tenants."
The Breeze-Parco alliance will bring new retailers and perhaps displace others.
"We plan to make a 15 percent tenant adjustment in March of next year," Breeze spokesman Jason Tsai (
More than 10 Japanese tenants will start to enter and set up shops in Breeze Center at that time, he added. With limited floor space, the same number of existing brands will be asked to leave.
Interior design, home collections, and kitchenware provider MUJI (無印良品) and several women's clothing brands are to join Breeze. Tsai declined to specify exactly which retailers are going to close shop.
Meanwhile, one market professional said Breeze's pact with Parco shows that the one-year old Breeze's sales may not have been as favorable as expected.
"For a shopping center which has been in operation for one year, a 15 percent turnover of stores is significant," said a senior official at Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Department Store (
"To some degree, the adjustment shows that [Breeze's] originally plan is not well designed," said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Taiwan's department stores normally conduct a sales review every six-months, with those tenants listed at the bottom of the sales ladder facing the possibility of being asked to leave.
Pundits have said a major problem with Breeze's product line up is a lack of strong cosmetic brands.
"Having competitive cosmetic brands is very important ... not only do they account for more than 10 percent of a mall's sales but they also generate traffic," the source at Shin Kong Mitsukoshi said.
In October of last year, Sogo Pacific Department Store (太平洋崇光百貨), fearing tough competition from the new market entrant, asked its vendors to sign a contract promising not to set up retail outlets within 2km of its department store -- a zone which just happens to include Breeze Center.
More than 95 percent of Sogo's 766 vendors accepted the terms, and that made Breeze unable to attract major brands to its store.
But Breeze's problem may be more or less eased following yesterday's announcement of collaboration with Parco.
Yang Shih-ming (
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