Nikomart competes by changing image

Taiwan Nikomart Co (福客多), the nation's fifth-largest convenience store chain, yesterday unveiled its new corporate identity in an effort to give the 15-year-old business a new image.

The new corporate identity features a smiling face in bright yellow, green and orange colors to replace the old sign originally used by Japan's Nikomart, the company's joint venture partner.

It also vowed to re-position itself as a metropolitan convenience store operator, specializing in tailor-made services and a product-mix aimed at urban consumers to compete with larger rivals.

"Taiwan's convenience store sector is too competitive, and therefore we need to achieve a better market segmentation. Nikomart is small but beautiful," said Chan Jen-tao (詹仁道), chairman of Taisun Enterprise Co (泰山企業), on the sidelines of a press conference yesterday.

The food manufacturing giant Taisun Enterprise and its affiliates currently hold a stake of around 80 percent in the company.

Beginning two years ago, Taiwan Nikomart started to introduce a compound-store idea by integrating bakeries or coffee shops inside its outlets.

It has found that the nine stores which combine with either bread or coffee -- or even both -- report 20 to 30 percent growth in sales, said Fred Chan (詹景超), general manager of Taiwan Nikomart.