Think that state-owned Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Corp (
The nation's largest alcohol-beverage producer yesterday showed its determination to change its stodgy image as it embarked on an attempt to capture more of the extensive youth market.
"We must pay attention to the younger generation by offering them healthy and fresh drinks," Taiwan Tobacco chairman Morgan Hwang (
The former state-run Taiwan Tobacco, corporatized in July 2002, is taking a vigorous approach to marketing its "Gold Medal Taiwan Beer," which was rolled out in April last year and targeted at young people.
Taiwan Beer products account for 82.7 percent of the nation's beer market, which was worth NT$27 billion last year, followed by China'sTsingtao Beer's with an 8 percent share, Taiwan Tobacco's vice president Martin Tsai (蔡木霖) said.
Its market share has recovered after dropping to a low of 74 percent when Tsingtao Beer entered the local market in 2002.
As the boom season for beer is approaching, the company is stepping up its promotion of Gold Medal, hoping to help raise its annual revenues by 10 percent to NT$24.5 billion.
"We're confident that we'll reach the goal," Tsai said.
One of its new strategies is to ally with Drinks Wines & Spirits Co (橡木桶洋酒), the nation's largest retailer of imported wines and spirits -- with 30 outlets nationwide -- to push Gold Medal.
"It's the first time that we have local beers displayed in our outlets," said the retailer's president Roger Chen (陳春安).
Until the end of August or -- depending on the weather -- September, a 0.6-liter bottle of Gold Medal will be given away free for each bottle of imported alcohol bought at a Drinks Wines & Spirits Co outlet.
Chen said his company is prepared to give out 100,000 bottles of Gold Medals.
In an effort to cash in on the charisma of pop idols, Taiwan Tobacco has approached a male singer to serve as Gold Medal's exclusive spokesman and new TV commercials will be released next month, Tsai said.
"But we'll still have rock star Wu Bai (伍佰) in our ad campaigns because half of our customers are aged between 35 and 49," Tsai said.
The company began dispatching 166 "Taiwan Beer Girls" to hawk Gold Medal beer in restaurants, starting last Saturday. It is also looking to break into the club market, where Heineken suppliers usually give good deals to pub owners.
CHIP RACE: Three years of overbroad export controls drove foreign competitors to pursue their own AI chips, and ‘cost US taxpayers billions of dollars,’ Nvidia said China has figured out the US strategy for allowing it to buy Nvidia Corp’s H200s and is rejecting the artificial intelligence (AI) chip in favor of domestically developed semiconductors, White House AI adviser David Sacks said, citing news reports. US President Donald Trump on Monday said that he would allow shipments of Nvidia’s H200 chips to China, part of an administration effort backed by Sacks to challenge Chinese tech champions such as Huawei Technologies Co (華為) by bringing US competition to their home market. On Friday, Sacks signaled that he was uncertain about whether that approach would work. “They’re rejecting our chips,” Sacks
NATIONAL SECURITY: Intel’s testing of ACM tools despite US government control ‘highlights egregious gaps in US technology protection policies,’ a former official said Chipmaker Intel Corp has tested chipmaking tools this year from a toolmaker with deep roots in China and two overseas units that were targeted by US sanctions, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the matter. Intel, which fended off calls for its CEO’s resignation from US President Donald Trump in August over his alleged ties to China, got the tools from ACM Research Inc, a Fremont, California-based producer of chipmaking equipment. Two of ACM’s units, based in Shanghai and South Korea, were among a number of firms barred last year from receiving US technology over claims they have
It is challenging to build infrastructure in much of Europe. Constrained budgets and polarized politics tend to undermine long-term projects, forcing officials to react to emergencies rather than plan for the future. Not in Austria. Today, the country is to officially open its Koralmbahn tunnel, the 5.9 billion euro (US$6.9 billion) centerpiece of a groundbreaking new railway that will eventually run from Poland’s Baltic coast to the Adriatic Sea, transforming travel within Austria and positioning the Alpine nation at the forefront of logistics in Europe. “It is Austria’s biggest socio-economic experiment in over a century,” said Eric Kirschner, an economist at Graz-based Joanneum
France is developing domestic production of electric vehicle (EV) batteries with an eye on industrial independence, but Asian experts are proving key in launching operations. In the Verkor factory outside the northern city of Dunkirk, which was inaugurated on Thursday, foreign specialists, notably from South Korea and Malaysia, are training the local staff. Verkor is the third battery gigafactory to open in northern France in a region that has become known as “Battery Valley.” At the Automotive Energy Supply Corp (AESC) factory near the city of Douai, where production has been under way for several months, Chinese engineers and technicians supervise French recruits. “They
RSS