Taiwan FamilyMart Co (全家便利商店), the nation’s second-largest convenience-store chain, reported NT$39.2 billion (US$1.22 billion) in revenues for last year on a consolidated basis, up 3.63 percent from the previous year, the company said on its Web site.
The company’s sales for last month dropped 1.36 percent to NT$3.18 billion from last January.
Shares of Taiwan FamilyMart rose 3.4 percent to NT$60.80 on the over-the-counter market yesterday, outperforming a 0.71 percent rise on the GRETAI Securities Market index.
The operator of 2,425 convenience stores in Taiwan opened 137 stores last year, but shut down 66 outlets because of poor business and bad location. The company said earlier it expected to open 200 stores this year.
In March last year, FamilyMart said it planned to invest NT$5 billion to open 500 new stores through next year. The company also said at the time it aimed to reach NT$50 billion in annual sales within three years.
Separately, FamilyMart yesterday began allowing customers to book and purchase high-speed rail tickets its the stores’ FamiPort electronic kiosks, FamilyMart and Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp (THSRC, 台灣高鐵) said on their Web sites.
FamilyMart said customers could buy up to 10 train tickets at a time, for a fee of NT$10 per ticket. As of 7pm, FamilyMart had sold 3,000 rail tickets nationwide, THSRC said.
FamilyMart’s rail ticket service came ahead of bigger rival President Chain Store Corp’s (統一超商) plan to offer a similar service at its 7-Eleven iBon machines later this year.
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