Far Eastern Group (遠東集團), which operates Far Eastern Department Stores (遠東百貨) and Pacific Sogo Department Stores (太平洋崇光百貨) across the Taiwan Strait, is planning to open up to three department stores a year in second and third-tier cities in China.
The group has been searching for development opportunities in Wuhan (武漢), Far Eastern Group chairman Douglas Hsu (徐旭東) said.
“The pace of development in China’s second and third-tier cities is accelerating,” Hsu told a media briefing after holding a press conference to promote annual sales at its three Sogo stores in the east of Taipei.
After the Chinese Communist Party’s 18th Party Congress, Far Eastern will speed up its expansion into these emerging cities with the aim of opening two or three department stores a year, Hsu said.
However, Hsu said it would not be a good time for the group to deepen their business in some first-tier Chinese cities such as Beijing, at least for the near future.
The group is also looking to purchase plots of land in China for the development of hotels or for other uses, Hsu added.
Currently, the group operates seven Sogo stores and four Far Eastern stores in China.
The group also owns eight Sogo stores in Taiwan that are expected to generate revenue of NT$8.74 billion (US$300 million) during this year’s year-end annual sales, up about 4 percent from a year earlier.
Hsu said sales at the three Sogo stores in Taipei — the Zhongxiao (忠孝), Fuxing (復興) and Dunhua (敦化) branches — have shown year-on-year growth of 2 percent since the annual sales period was launched on Thursday last week.
“That sounds quite satisfying to me,” Hsu said.
Based on prior experience, the revenue generated by the discount period usually accounts for more than 20 percent of full-year sales, which indicated that Sogo store sales may still reach the target of NT$42.5 billion set early this year.
Hsu said customer flow remained strong during the first week of annual sales, but that some customers maintained a cautious attitude while shopping because of the impact of sluggish global economic sentiment.
A total of 70 percent of revenue generated during the annual sales is contributed by the regular customers of the three department stores, which account for approximately 30 percent of overall customers, company statistics showed.
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
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last