The freeway rest area in Sinying District (新營), Greater Tainan, was relaunched yesterday under the management of its new operator, Taiwan FamilyMart Co (全家便利商店), which is aiming for 25 percent growth in annual sales.
Facing rising competition in its convenience store business, FamilyMart — the second-largest convenience store operator in the nation — is continuing to expand its business operating commercial complexes and restaurants, aiming to maintain sales momentum in the long term.
The firm took over management of the area in March and invested nearly NT$10 million (US$334,000) to renovate the building and recruit tenants, with a focus on local food and beverage brands.
It was the company’s first move into the operation of freeway service stations.
FamilyMart has introduced an energy management system at the Sinying rest area, which is expected to save 20 percent of the rest area’s energy costs.
“We will make the rest area in Sinying the first in Taiwan with a smart, green energy concept,” FamilyMart president Chang Ren-dun (張仁敦) said in a press release.
Chang said he expects the rest area to generate about NT$150 million in sales per year, a 25 percent increase from the average of NT$120 million in annual sales previously.
FamilyMart operates a total of 16 commercial complexes in Taiwan, most located in colleges or transportation stations.
The convenience store operator’s strategy to diversify its business shows the challenging conditions in the convenience store sector.
Chang said the convenience store business has gradually become a saturated market, with the annual net expansion of FamilyMart expected to be fewer than 100 stores in the future.
Other than commercial complexes, FamilyMart has also been moving into the food and beverage sector in the past few years. The company — which owns two restaurant brands, Volks and Ootoya — has launched a subsidiary, Family International Gourmet Co (全家國際餐飲), to manage its restaurant business.
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
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
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