Top One Pot (這一鍋餐飲), a Taiwanese hot pot chain and affiliate of Gourmet Master Co Ltd (美食達人), aims to raise its annual sales to NT$1 billion (US$33.13 million) next year, ahead of its plan to launch an initial public offering (IPO) in three years.
Since it launched official operation in 2012, the hot pot chain has opened two outlets in Taipei and one in Greater Taichung, with its fourth outlet starting operation in Taoyuan County’s Jhongli City (中壢) on Sunday.
Top One is scheduled to launch its fifth outlet in Jhubei Township (竹北), Hsinchu County, in July, Lin said.
Photo courtesy of Top One Pot
“The company is set to expand its number of outlets in Taiwan to 20 in three years, which could lead its annual sales to continue its rising track in the future,” Top One general manager John Lin (林志鏞) told a media briefing yesterday.
Lin said Top One expects revenue this year to reach NT$500 million, up from the annual sales of NT$170 million it generated last year, driven by its plan to raise its total number of outlets to eight by the end of this year.
The hot pot chain’s sales could hit NT$1 billion next year, under a plan to boost total outlets in Taiwan to 15 by the end of next year, he added.
Lin said the company’s expansion plan will focus on northern and central Taiwan in the short term.
The hot pot chain will slow its expansion in Taiwan in three years, Lin said, adding that Top One plans to maintain the highest profit efficiency under the scale of 20 outlets.
Apart from in Taiwan, Lin said Top One is also to launch trial operations on its first outlet in China in September, which is to open in Shanghai.
Since rental costs in China’s first-tier cities are generally double or triple that of rental costs in Taiwan, the company will set its average customer spending at between 150 and 200 yuan (US$24 and US$32), Lin said, adding that expansion plan in China will focus on the country’s east.
Long-term expansion plan to more overseas markets, such as the US and Southeast Asia, inspired the company’s plan to launch an IPO in the future.
“The move may lead Top One Pot to be the first hot pot brand in Taiwan to be listed on the local bourse,” Lin said.
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
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six