AmorePacific Group, the biggest skincare and cosmetics company in terms of sales in South Korea, is accelerating its expansion in Taiwan this year, focusing on boosting its organic skincare and cosmetics brand, Innisfree, in Taipei.
The group on Friday launched its second outlet in Taiwan under the Innisfree brand, in Taipei’s east district shopping zone, with the group investing about NT$10 million (US$332,780).
The new store is the brand’s flagship outlet in Taiwan, opened about two months after the group opened its first Innisfree outlet in the nation.
“The sales performance of the first outlet has been stronger than expected, leading the group to speed up its expansion in Taiwan,” the brand said in a statement on Thursday.
Innisfree saw daily sales at its first outlet average between NT$180,000 and NT$250,000 over the past two months, 50 percent higher than the parent company had expectated, the statement said.
SECOND BEST
The average was the second-highest average sales per unit area among the brand’s nearly 1,000 outlets globally, it said.
Average customer spending was between NT$800 and NT$1,000, which translates to three or four products purchased by each customer, the statement said.
The group expects the brand’s total sales in Taiwan to double or triple from current levels following the launch of the flagship store.
In addition, AmorePacific is set to open the brand’s third Innisfree outlet in the nation by the end of this year in Taipei, with an aim to make Innisfree the biggest South Korean skincare and cosmetics brand in Taiwan in terms of market share.
Innisfree made NT$9.5 billion in revenue last year, accounting for about 7 percent of the overall sales AmorePacific made, company data showed.
AmorePacific aims to grow Innisfree revenue by 47 percent this year to NT$14 billion, as it plans to launch a total of 60 new outlets outside South Korea, including in Taiwan, China, Hong Kong and Singapore.
Currently, overseas sales account for about 20 percent of overall revenue, according to company statistics.
1989 ENTRY
AmorePacific made its entry in Taiwan in 1989 selling products through a joint venture under two brands — Laneige and Iope. Iope is a cosmeceutical brand that targets customers in their mid-20s to mid-30s.
As a result of Laneige’s great success, the group established a separate, wholly owned subsidiary in Taiwan in 2004 and introduced various brands in the market in succession, including a herbal medicinal brand, Sulwhasoo.
Laneige currently operates 22 counters in major department stores in the nation, including Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Department Store Co (新光三越百貨), Pacific Sogo Department Stores Co (太平洋崇光百貨) and Far Eastern Department Stores (遠東百貨).
The Sulwhasoon brand has three counters nationwide.
This story has been updated on June 3 since it was first published.
READJUSTMENT? Despite the rumors, a senior Google official said that the company plans to expand its AI research center in Taipei’s Shilin District Google Taiwan is reducing its workforce as the company continues to adjust operations to improve efficiency and focus resources on core goals, the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) reported yesterday. The Alphabet Inc unit said the organizational adjustments have begun and would continue, even though it did not put a figure on the number of potential job cuts or specify the affected departments in its Taiwan operations. The company’s response came after rumors circulated on social media about major job cuts at Google Taiwan. Some posts said the downsizing would target the company’s consumer electronics-related departments
Taiwanese aircraft maker Aerospace Industrial Development Corp (AIDC, 漢翔航空) yesterday announced that it has secured a 20-year partnership agreement with Canada-based Bombardier Inc. The two companies held a ceremony in Taipei yesterday to exchange signed copies of the agreement, launching the 20-year partnership under which AIDC would supply cockpit and forward fuselage structural components for Bombardier’s super-midsize Challenger 3500 business jets, the Taiwanese company said. The agreement represents a new milestone in cooperation between the two companies, which dates back to 1999, with the Taiwanese supplier having provided rear fuselage structural components for more than 1,000 Challenger 3500 aircraft, it
Global notebook computer shipments are expected to fall 8 percent year-on-year to 167.9 million units this year, dragged by weak demand, high component prices and supply constraints, the Market Intelligence and Consulting Institute (MIC) said on Tuesday. Next year, shipments are expected to decline by a further 4.7 percent to 160 million units as higher retail prices weigh on consumption, MIC deputy director-general Edward Lin (林柏齊) told a news conference in Taipei. The downtrend is expected to extend into 2028, with replacement demand unlikely to recover before supplies of key components rebound and costs decline, Lin said. Surging demand for artificial intelligence (AI)
Taiwan should avoid becoming overly dependent on semiconductors and preserve resources for other industries while expanding chip production with trusted overseas partners, a US academic said yesterday. Glenn D. Tiffert, distinguished research fellow and cochair of the Program on the US, China and the World at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, made the remarks during a panel discussion on trusted supply chains at a forum hosted by the Research Institute for Democracy, Society and Emerging Technology (DSET) and SEMI in Taipei. “The semiconductor industry has been fabulous for Taiwan, but there is the danger that Taiwan devotes too much to being the one-trick