Gourmet Master Co Ltd (美食達人), which operates the popular 85oC (85度C) bakery and coffee chain in Taiwan, China, Australia and the US, posted record sales last month on the back of robust demand, particularly in China.
Gourmet Master’s sales rose 28.08 percent from a month earlier to NT$1.2 billion (US$39.47 million) last month. The figure was also up 41 percent from a year earlier.
It was the second consecutive month that revenue at the cafe chain set a record high, Gourmet Master said.
The company also attributed the strong showing last month to the opening of 17 new outlets in China.
In the first nine months of this year, Gourmet Master posted NT$8.28 billion in sales, up 30.13 percent from a year earlier.
As of the end of the second quarter, China had become the largest contributor to Gourmet Master’s revenue, accounting for 61 percent of the company’s total sales, while Taiwan made up 35 percent.
So far this year, Gourmet Master said, it has opened 65 new cafes in China, and the number is expected to reach 100 by the end of the year.
Currently, Gourmet Master operates 234 cafes in China, 320 in Taiwan, two in the US and four in Australia.
Sales for the fourth quarter are expected to continue to grow, as the bakery business in China enters its peak season, the company said.
Market analysts said Gourmet Master sales for this year were expected to top NT$10 billion, compared with NT$8.35 billion last year.
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
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
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