French retailer Carrefour (家樂福) says sales of its 3,000 private-label products, which are on average 10 percent to 30 percent cheaper than the leading brands, grew 30 percent year-on-year in the first half of this year .
Carrefour Taiwan’s private-label lines in daily necessities, such as toilet paper and cleaning products are already very complete so it will focus in the second half of the year on developing food products because food items have been directly affected by rising commodity prices, the company said yesterday.
“Carrefour will focus on fresh produce, which is currently lacking in our private-label products, because that is the most difficult area to save money on,” said Dream Lin (林夢紹), Carrefour’s public relations manager.
Carrefour, which operates 48 stores nationwide, said that its private-label products account for less than 10 percent of its sales in Taiwan, but it hopes to double that in the next three years.
“Unlike the UK and France, where private-label products began developing in the 1980, and penetration rates have now reached between 20 percent and 30 percent, the development of private-label products here in Taiwan has been more recent,” said Loic Percheron, Carrefour’s private brand manager.
Carrefour’s major local original equipment manufacturers (OEM) include the nation’s leading soy sauce manufacturer, Kimlan Foods Co (金蘭食品), and paper manufacturer Cheng Loong Corp (正隆).
Carrefour plans to open 10 more stores in Ilan, Touliu City, Yunlin County, Taitung and other areas in the second half of this year, which will give it a total of 57 stores and leave local rivals RT-Mart (大潤發) and Far Eastern Geant (愛買) lagging far behind.
Carrefour’s revenues in the second quarter grew 2.3 percent from the same period a year ago, slightly down from the first quarter’s 4 percent growth, but company officials said they were confident of expanded growth in the second half of the year.
In related developments, Far Eastern Geant — the nation’s third-largest hypermarket chain with 14 stores nationwide — said that the establishment of “fair price areas” in its outlets on June 5, which offer discounts of up to 43 percent off normal prices, have helped it boost its overall sales by 20 percent, while sales of its “fair price” toilet papers, salad oil and milk powder have grown by nearly 100 percent.
WEAKER ACTIVITY: The sharpest deterioration was seen in the electronics and optical components sector, with the production index falling 13.2 points to 44.5 Taiwan’s manufacturing sector last month contracted for a second consecutive month, with the purchasing managers’ index (PMI) slipping to 48, reflecting ongoing caution over trade uncertainties, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The decline reflects growing caution among companies amid uncertainty surrounding US tariffs, semiconductor duties and automotive import levies, and it is also likely linked to fading front-loading activity, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said. “Some clients have started shifting orders to Southeast Asian countries where tariff regimes are already clear,” Lien told a news conference. Firms across the supply chain are also lowering stock levels to mitigate
Six Taiwanese companies, including contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), made the 2025 Fortune Global 500 list of the world’s largest firms by revenue. In a report published by New York-based Fortune magazine on Tuesday, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), ranked highest among Taiwanese firms, placing 28th with revenue of US$213.69 billion. Up 60 spots from last year, TSMC rose to No. 126 with US$90.16 billion in revenue, followed by Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) at 348th, Pegatron Corp (和碩) at 461st, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) at 494th and Wistron Corp (緯創) at
NEGOTIATIONS: Semiconductors play an outsized role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development and are a major driver of the Taiwan-US trade imbalance With US President Donald Trump threatening to impose tariffs on semiconductors, Taiwan is expected to face a significant challenge, as information and communications technology (ICT) products account for more than 70 percent of its exports to the US, Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said on Friday. Compared with other countries, semiconductors play a disproportionately large role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development, Lien said. As the sixth-largest contributor to the US trade deficit, Taiwan recorded a US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US last year — up from US$47.8 billion in 2023 — driven by strong
ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip assembly and testing service provider, yesterday said it would boost equipment capital expenditure by up to 16 percent for this year to cope with strong customer demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications. Aside from AI, a growing demand for semiconductors used in the automotive and industrial sectors is to drive ASE’s capacity next year, the Kaohsiung-based company said. “We do see the disparity between AI and other general sectors, and that pretty much aligns the scenario in the first half of this year,” ASE chief operating officer Tien Wu (吳田玉) told an
RSS