Watsons, the nation’s largest cosmetics and drugstore operator, said yesterday it would spend NT$500 million (US$15.6 million) to open 30 new stores and refurbish 220 existing stores next year, as it expects the economy to pick up steam.
The company plans to increase its number of outlets from the current 400 to 500 by 2012, Watson’s Personal Care Stores (Taiwan) Co managing director Krish Iyer told a media briefing.
The investment target for next year is one of the highest in recent years, compared with the company’s budget of between NT$200 million and NT$300 million for the Taiwanese market during the past three years, he said.
Watsons, which entered the Taiwanese market in 1987, opened eight new outlets and remodeled 180 this year.
“We want to offer a better shopping experience and launch new product lines to the customers,” Iyer said.
Although the domestic economy is expected to recover gradually next year, consumer spending sentiment is expected to be similar to this year — people tend to shop around for value-added deals and want their money’s worth, he said.
Watsons is confident it would be able to enlarge its customer base by opening more outlets next year, Iyer said.
Revenues are forecast to grow by double digits next year, while this year’s sales should show single-digit growth from last year, he said.
Competition in the cosmetics and drugstore market is heating up as more convenience stores and hypermarkets are offering similar product lines at cheaper prices to lure consumers, which has been lackluster during the financial crisis.
Data released by the Ministry of Economic Affairs on Nov. 23 showed that October revenues for sales of pharmaceutical, medical and cosmetics goods had grown 10.9 percent year-on-year to NT$15.2 billion.
However, total sales for the first 10 months of the year were down 0.2 percent to NT$130.7 billion, the data show.
Meanwhile, smaller player Cosmed (康是美), owned by President Drugstore Business Corp (統一生活事業), said it opened 25 outlets this year, bringing its number of stores to 300.
The company expected to have double-digit growth in sales this year, Cosmed public relation official Clare Liu (劉琬怡) said.
Cosmed sells 236 own-brand products, and its healthcare products, which make up 40 percent of the own-brand items, are its core strength, as they are hard to imitate, she said.
One of its biggest sellers is My Health Diary (我的健康日記), a vitamin brand co-developed with local drug firm Yung Shin Group (永信藥品).
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last