Taiwan’s two largest convenience store operators have launched a wider ranges of cakes and gifts ahead of Mother’s Day on May 11, seeking a bigger slice of the NT$1 billion (US$33.02 million) snack market associated with the day.
President Chain Store Corp (PCSC, 統一超商) and Taiwan FamilyMart Co (全家便利商店), launched their presale campaigns for Mother’s Day on March 5, which will be in place for two months, and focus exclusively on snacks and gift boxes for targeted consumers.
PCSC, which operates Taiwan’s largest convenience store chain, 7-Eleven, said it has more than 100 products in the presale drive, including cakes, snacks, health-food gift boxes and beauty care products.
Citing product diversification, PCSC decided to focus more on boosting sales of non-cake products in its presale event this year.
Last year, the convenience store operator added skincare products to the offering for Mother’s Day items for the first time, and those products received good feedback from female customers, encouraging the company to expand the range this year, it said.
This year, PCSC has cooperated with more brands, aiming to boost revenue in the beauty sector by 20 percent over the same period last year.
FamilyMart, the nation’s second-largest convenience store operator with about 2,900 stores nationwide, said it would continue to focus on offering different kinds of cakes this year, and broaden the selection.
The convenience store operator introduced various premium cakes, with prices ranging from NT$800 to NT$1,200, including a cake designed by Regis Douysset, who runs two Michelin-starred restaurants in Europe.
FamilyMart expected sales during the presale period from cakes to grow 10 percent to 20 percent compared with a year earlier.
For the first two months of the year, the two convenience store chain operators saw their consolidated sales rise slightly from a year ago.
PCSC posted NT$33.05 billion in consolidated revenue in the first two months, up 1.38 percent from a year ago, according to a company stock exchange filing.
Consolidated revenue for FamilyMart rose 4.36 percent to NT$8.58 billion in the first two months of the year, up from NT$8.22 billion recorded a year earlier, the company said in a statement.
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