Following their success at home, an increasing number of Taiwanese food and beverage operators are looking overseas in the hope of developing into global brands, the Association of Chain and Franchise Promotion Taiwan (台灣連鎖加盟促進協會) said yesterday.
“More Taiwanese chain and franchise players are expanding, with an eye on the global market,” association chairman Tom Hsu (許湘鋐) said at the opening ceremony of the Taipei International Chain and Franchise Spring Exhibition.
The four-day trade show features a record 250 brands occupying 620 booths, the association said.
Photo: CNA
Companies participating in the trade show range from breakfast stores and restaurants to tea shops and retail stores, with food and beverage operators accounting for more than half of the brands showcased.
Hsu said the fair, which runs through Sunday, offers an opportunity for Taiwanese chain and franchise companies to boost their international presence.
For example, OCOCO International Co Ltd (億可國際飲食), which operates bubble tea chain Coco Fresh Tea & Juice (都可茶飲), said it this year offers overseas franchise opportunities, while another bubble tea chain Chatime (日出茶太), managed by La Kaffa International Co Ltd (六角國際事業), said it would provide domestic franchise opportunities this year.
Vice President Wu Den-yih (吳敦義), who also attended yesterday’s opening ceremony, praised the chain and franchise sector for providing growth momentum for the economy.
“The industry generates about NT$800 billion in sales per year,” Wu said.
However, Hsu also advised caution for companies interested in branching out into chains or franchises, saying they should ensure they could generate enough gross profit to cover management costs.
These companies must also be capable of training employees quickly to keep pace with rapid store expansions, he said.
The association expects the show to attract 130,000 visitors, he added.
Meanwhile, speaking at a business forum on Wednesday, Walter Yeh (葉明水), an executive vice president at Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA), said that Taiwanese chain and franchise operators should think global and expand overseas to boost growth in the service sector.
Yeh said TAITRA had helped many local chain operators open new stores abroad last year, with 60 percent investing in China and others targeting markets such as Indonesia, the UK and Germany.
Taiwan has more than 2,000 franchise and chain operators, but only 140 of them conduct business abroad, he said.
Bureau of Foreign Trade Director-General Chang Chun-fu (張俊福) told the same forum that Taiwan’s franchise and chain sector, which has more operators than any country in the world except for South Korea, the US and China, has been a big contributor to the nation’s economy.
Domestic franchise and chain operators generated revenues of NT$1.75 trillion (US$58.6 billion) last year, accounting for 50 percent of the nation’s retail and food sector sales and 25 percent of the service sector’s sales as a whole, Chang said.
SMART MANUFACTURING: The company aims to have its production close to the market end, but attracting investment is still a challenge, the firm’s president said Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said its long-term global production plan would stay unchanged amid geopolitical and tariff policy uncertainties, citing its diversified global deployment. With operations in Taiwan, Thailand, China, India, Europe and the US, Delta follows a “produce at the market end” strategy and bases its production on customer demand, with major site plans unchanged, Delta president Simon Chang (張訓海) said on the sidelines of a company event yesterday. Thailand would remain Delta’s second headquarters, as stated in its first-quarter earnings conference, with its plant there adopting a full smart manufacturing system, Chang said. Thailand is the firm’s second-largest overseas
‘REMARKABLE SHOWING’: The economy likely grew 5 percent in the first half of the year, although it would likely taper off significantly, TIER economist Gordon Sun said The Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER) yesterday raised Taiwan’s GDP growth forecast for this year to 3.02 percent, citing robust export-driven expansion in the first half that is likely to give way to a notable slowdown later in the year as the front-loading of global shipments fades. The revised projection marks an upward adjustment of 0.11 percentage points from April’s estimate, driven by a surge in exports and corporate inventory buildup ahead of possible US tariff hikes, TIER economist Gordon Sun (孫明德) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy likely grew more than 5 percent in the first six months
SUPPLY RESILIENCE: The extra expense would be worth it, as the US firm is diversifying chip sourcing to avert disruptions similar to the one during the pandemic, the CEO said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) on Wednesday said that the chips her company gets from supplier Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) would cost more when they are produced in TSMC’s Arizona facilities. Compared with similar parts from factories in Taiwan, the US chips would be “more than 5 percent, but less than 20 percent” in terms of higher costs, she said at an artificial intelligence (AI) event in Washington. AMD expects its first chips from TSMC’s Arizona facilities by the end of the year, Su said. The extra expense is worth it, because the company is
The seizure of one of the largest known mercury shipments in history, moving from mines in Mexico to illegal Amazon gold mining zones, exposes the wide use of the toxic metal in the rainforest, according to authorities. Peru’s customs agency, SUNAT, found 4 tonnes of illegal mercury in Lima’s port district of Callao, according to a report by the non-profit Environmental Investigations Agency (EIA). “This SUNAT intervention has prevented this chemical from having a serious impact on people’s health and the environment, as can be seen in several areas of the country devastated by the illegal use of mercury and illicit activities,”