Shaking off the popular assumption that consumer spending slumps in times of economic uncertainty, Pacific Sogo Department Stores Co (太平洋崇光百貨) yesterday said revenue at its Fuxing outlet is set to beat the NT$10 billion (US$330 million) mark this year, making it the third department store in Taiwan to surpass that figure.
The company expects the Fuxing store to bring in receipts of NT$10.2 billion to NT$10.3 billion this year, compared with NT$9.3 billion last year.
After opening its doors to shoppers in December 2006, Sogo Fuxing’s revenue has gained momentum every year.
Revenue was NT$6 billion in 2007, NT$7 billion in 2008 and NT$7.9 billion in 2009, according to the company’s figures.
Surpassing the NT$10 billion sales mark would put the store on a par with Pacific Sogo’s Zhongxiao outlet, which is located across the street from Sogo Fuxing, as well as Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Department Store’s (新光三越) Taichung outlet, Pacific Sogo’s assistant sales promotion manager Janet Tsao (曹春輝) said.
Sogo Fuxing differentiates itself from its rivals in a number of ways: Instead of cosmetic brands — as is the norm — its first floor houses luxury designer brands and there is a garden on the ninth floor where shoppers can relax and enjoy the scenery and the views.
Pacific Sogo chairperson Sophia Huang (黃晴雯) said the Fuxing outlet has also seen a surge in business at its supermarket thanks to it being connected with Zhongxiao Fuxing MRT station.
“We see many office workers stopping by our supermarket [City Super] after work and purchasing groceries to cook at home [because they can] take advantage of the MRT,” Huang said.
The Fuxing store is the seventh branch of Pacific Sogo. An eighth is planned for Hsinchu next year.
Total revenue for the seven Sogo stores is expected to reach NT$42.35 billion this year, up from NT$39 billion last year, Tsao said.
While Sogo Fuxing was the first department store in Taipei to be dubbed an “MRT station mall,” the model has been mimicked by rivals Qsquare (京站時尚廣場) and Uni-President Hankyu Department Store (統一阪急百貨), which operate at the Taipei Railway Station and Taipei City Hall MRT Station respectively.
Like Sogo Fuxing, Qsquare, which celebrates its second anniversary this month, has not experienced Taiwanese consumers tightening their purse strings as much as expected.
“Our anniversary sale, ending this Sunday, is expected to see sales up 10 percent from last year to NT$880 million,” Qsquare public relations officer Kinna Li (李旻勳) said.
“Our mall is still new and appealing. It has a ‘cluster’ effect for commuting shoppers,” she said. “We are building a solid member base and offering attractive discounts for the anniversary promotion to boost sales.”
Qsquare forecast NT$5 billion in sales this year, up from last year’s NT$4.5 billion.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: The chipmaker last month raised its capital spending by 28 percent for this year to NT$32 billion from a previous estimate of NT$25 billion Contract chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電子) yesterday launched a new 12-inch fab, tapping into advanced chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging technology to support rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) devices. Powerchip is to offer interposers, one of three parts in CoWoS packaging technology, with shipments scheduled for the second half of this year, Powerchip chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁) told reporters on the sidelines of a fab inauguration ceremony in the Tongluo Science Park (銅鑼科學園區) in Miaoli County yesterday. “We are working with customers to supply CoWoS-related business, utilizing part of this new fab’s capacity,” Huang said, adding that Powerchip intended to bridge
Microsoft Corp yesterday said that it would create Thailand’s first data center region to boost cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, promising AI training to more than 100,000 people to develop tech. Bangkok is a key economic player in Southeast Asia, but it has lagged behind Indonesia and Singapore when it comes to the tech industry. Thailand has an “incredible opportunity to build a digital-first, AI-powered future,” Microsoft chairman and chief executive officer Satya Nadella said at an event in Bangkok. Data center regions are physical locations that store computing infrastructure, allowing secure and reliable access to cloud platforms. The global embrace of AI
Qualcomm Inc, the world’s biggest seller of smartphone processors, gave an upbeat forecast for sales and profit in the current period, suggesting demand for handsets is increasing after a two-year slump. Revenue in the three months ended in June will be US$8.8 billion to US$9.6 billion, the company said in a statement Wednesday. Excluding certain items, earnings will be US$2.15 to US$2.35 a share. Analysts had projected sales of US$9.08 billion and earnings of US$2.16 a share. The outlook signals that the smartphone market has begun to bounce back, tracking with Qualcomm’s forecast that demand would gradually recover this year. The San