Pxmart Co Ltd (全聯實業), which operates the nation’s largest supermarket chain, Pxmart (全聯福利中心), announced yesterday it had hired former President Chain Store Corp (PCSC, 統一超商) president Hsu Chung-jen (徐重仁) to be its new president and lead the company’s future expansion plans.
The company — which currently operates nearly 700 Pxmart outlets nationwide — aims to increase its outlets to 1,000 by the end of 2017 and boost annual sales to more than NT$100 billion (US$3.31 billion) from about NT$70 billion.
Hsu, who took up his new position on Wednesday last week, told a press conference that he aims to develop Pxmart into an internationally recognized supermarket chain.
However, the company would maintain its current approach of being a community supermarket that offers its customers a convenient shopping environment, he said.
Hsu, who is also the chairman of the Commerce Development Research Institute (CDRI, 財團法人商業發展研究院), is known for turning PCSC into the nation’s largest convenience store chain. He left PCSC in June 2012 after handing over control to Alex Lo (羅智先), son-in-law of Kao Ching-yuan (高清愿), the founder of the Uni-President Group (統一集團), which owns PCSC.
Meanwhile, the board of directors of Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大哥大), the country’s second-largest telecom, yesterday accepted the sudden resignation of president Cliff Lai (賴弦五), who cited personal reasons.
James Cheng (鄭俊卿), chairman of Taiwan Mobile’s multiple service operator unit Kbro Co (凱擘), will take over from Lai, who will remain with the company as a senior consultant, Taiwan Mobile said in a statement.
Before joining Kbro, Cheng had served from 2007 to 2011 as Taiwan Mobile’s chief technology officer and the chief operations officer of the company’s home business group.
Additional reporting by CNA
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