Tay: Running supermarkets here in Taiwan is a tougher job for business operators than in other countries because Taiwan's retailing took a different path of development from other countries. In most countries, traditional groceries appear at the early stages, followed by mini shops and supermarkets, hypermarkets and then convenience stores. Singapore and Hong Kong's retailing matched this pattern but Taiwan's did not.
In Taiwan, all these retailers sprang up at the same time after the opening-up of society following the end of martial law [in 1987]. Retailers here thus faced harsher competition than did those in other countries, and the survivors include Wellcome Taiwan, Carrefour Taiwan Co and President Chain Store Corp's (
TT: How do you distinguish Wellcome from your competitors, such as Sungching (
Tay: In the face of keen competition, only retailers like 7-Eleven, which are able to create added value based on convenience, can achieve success.
The establishment of brand value is also a priority. Only branding makes us stand out from our competitors. We also launched an e-shop service in March this year. This is expected to help extend our service to customers because we will be able to provide more choices of goods online.
Fresh food is another area that we have been managing to perfection. With economy of scale, we are able to provide quality fresh produce at lower prices, which differentiates us from rivals.
But the secret of successful service lies in action and determination. People working in the supermarket sector are all hard workers but limitations on their quality still exist. To make up for this, we put a lot of effort into staff training.
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