Tsann Kuen hopes to see 18% rise in profit this year

Tsann Kuen Enterprise Co (燦坤實業), the nation's largest home appliances and consumer electronics chain, is expecting to see profit rise 18 percent year-on-year to NT$1.45 billion (US$45 million) this year, a company executive said yesterday.

Revenue expected to grow 8 percent to NT$34 billion this year as a result of its optimistic outlook on the nation's consumer electronics market, Jack Chien (簡德榮), a general manager of Tsann Kuen in charge of the company's home appliance unit, said yesterday at a press briefing.

"Our decision in the fourth quarter of 2006 to shift the company's main focus to products with high added value helped Tsann Kuen to turn from loss to profit last year, after two consecutive years of losses in 2005 and 2006," said Chien, who is also the company's head of operations in Zhangzhou, China.

Tsann Kuen also plans to introduce green energy products in the second quarter of this year, he said, without giving further details.

Tsann Kuen's annual revenue last year increased by 17 percent year-on-year to NT$31.5 billion. The company also expanded its nationwide network to a total of 244 outlets, after adding 70 new stores, Jerry Yen (閻俊傑), a general manager in charge of channel business, said yesterday. The retailer opened only 12 new outlets in 2006, he said.

The company plans to increase its consumer electronics market shares in terms of sales this year. Sales of notebook computers are expected to increase 6 percent to 30 percent of domestic market this year.

The company sold 115,000 laptops last year, accounting for 24.1 percent of the total laptops sold domestically by all retailers in the year.

Sales desktop computers, meanwhile, are likely to pose a smaller increase of 2 percent to account for 47 percent of all desktops sold this year.

Tsann Kuen also is setting a target of bringing the sales of liquid-crystal-display TVs to around 25 percent of the market share this year, up from 22.2 percent last year, Yen said.

Shares Tsann Kuen rose 2.67 percent to NT$44.5 on the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday, underperforming a 3.13-percent rise in the TAIEX.

Apart its core business in home appliances and consumer electronics, Tsann Kuen's online travel agency unit, Star Travel Corp (燦星旅遊網), is expected to start trading its shares on the Emerging Stock Market (興櫃市場) on Jan. 28, Yen said.

Star Travel, the nation's second largest online travel ticketing company, reported NT$28 million profit on NT$4.7 billion revenue last year.

Star Travel is expecting a 2 percent growth rate in sales this year, said Yen, who declined to make a forecast on the online travel agency's profit this year.