Taipei Times (TT): Gourmet Master Co (美食達人) underwent a year of expansion last year. Under your leadership, what will be the company’s major goal for this year?
James Hsieh (謝健南): Last year was definitely an important year for Gourmet Master, given that the company launched more than 100 85°C (85度C) outlets in China and created two new brands in Taiwan: a high-level bakery named Better Simple (麵包同話) and hot pot chain called Top One Pot (這一鍋).
Compared with last year, this year will be more like a period of adjustment for us as we endeavor to make the 85°C chain the No. 1 Taiwanese food-and-beverage brand.
I hope to spend the first half of the year evaluating the size and potential of every market Gourmet Master could enter, and also focus on expanding further in markets that are showing high potential, while dropping out of markets were we cannot develop further.
TT: What kind of qualities does the 85°C chain need to develop to become a world-class brand?
Hsieh: In my opinion, a world-class brand has to meet three criteria: it must well-known in at least 10 countries, own more than 2,000 outlets worldwide and enjoy popularity in interdisciplinary markets.
The 85°C chain has a great opportunity to become a globally renowned brand because of its simple product line, which makes outlets more easy to replicate and operate in markets around the world.
That is to say, the chain — which already has 737 outlets in Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, the US and Australia as of the end of last year — has to keep expanding into more countries and change its status from “a brand for the Chinese,” to “a brand for all.”
Therefore, I am aiming to see some positive results by the end of this year after confirming the development objective for each market in the following months and hope to establish a company model for sustainable growth in three years.
TT: Which market will be the core driver of the 85°C chain’s aim to become a global brand?
Hsieh: The US will be a key market, since revenue from the company’s three outlets in that country has been showing strong growth since their establishment.
Therefore, Gourmet Master plans to increase its 85°C outlets in the US to seven or eight this year.
In the long run, I hope that the coffee and bakery chain will be seen in major shopping malls across the US, which I think is a perfect venue for the chain because its business model is conducive to the mall setting.
The company also plans to open between 60 and 80 new outlets in China to be more economically efficient by cutting operating costs.
TT: What is the company’s strategy for the Taiwanese market?
Hsieh: We aim to refurbish the major 85°C outlets in Taiwan to make them second-generation outlets outfitted with new hardware equipment, a revamped product mix and a new franchise system.
Currently, we sell dozens of types of bread in the 85°C outlets, but only 10 of them are posting strong sales. This led me to consider adjusting the product mix by concentrating production on the popular products, simplifying the product line and raising cost efficiency.
TT: Could you elaborate on the company’s proposed new franchise system?
Hsieh: More than 80 percent of 85°C outlets in Taiwan are licensed stores, meaning that Gourmet Master only only plays the role of manufacturer.
However, we want to ensure a high standard of hardware and software qualities in each store from this year, in line with the plan to upgrade the major outlets.
Therefore, the company may change its current license chain system to a franchise chain model, which would give us more managerial power over the outlets.
TT: Will Gourmet Master develop more brands in the future?
Hsieh: Definitely, the company aims to be a food group with multiple brands in the future, but this will not be the main mission for the company in the short term.
As for the brands currently operated by Gourmet Master, we are ready to launch four or five new outlets this year for both Better Simple and Top One Pot.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
MAJOR BENEFICIARY: The company benefits from TSMC’s advanced packaging scarcity, given robust demand for Nvidia AI chips, analysts said ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip packaging and testing service provider, yesterday said it is raising its equipment capital expenditure budget by 10 percent this year to expand leading-edge and advanced packing and testing capacity amid strong artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing chip demand. This is on top of the 40 to 50 percent annual increase in its capital spending budget to more than the US$1.7 billion to announced in February. About half of the equipment capital expenditure would be spent on leading-edge and advanced packaging and testing technology, the company said. ASE is considered by analysts