Breeze Development Co Ltd (微風廣場實業), which operates three department stores and two shopping complexes in Taipei, expects annual sales to reach NT$13 billion (US$433.74 million) this year, following a plan to launch its first department store in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) by the end of next month.
The forecast represents 16 percent growth from annual sales of NT$11.2 billion recorded last year.
“The company’s sales should climb gradually and steadily [over the next few years],” Breeze vice chairman and general manager Ichiro Oka said at a press conference for its upcoming annual sales event.
Breeze Development started its first luxury department store in eastern Taipei in 2001, and expanded its business in the following years. Now the company runs a smaller-scale department store nearby, and two food courts with shopping complexes in Taipei Main Station and National Taiwan University Hospital.
Last year, Fubon Group (富邦集團) sold its department store business to Breeze, including a department store on Nanjing E Road in Taipei and a project still under development on Songgao Road, set to be opened later this year.
Oka said the new department store would include a three-floor Hennes & Mauritz AB (H&M) store, Europe’s second-largest clothing retailer, and various well-known clothing brands from South Korea, with annual sales projected to reach NT$2.6 billion in the first year of operation.
The new department store should boost the company’s annual revenue next year to NT$16 billion, compared with a sales target of NT$13 billion for this year, Oka said.
When the company opens its second department store in Xinyi District in October next year, total sales could reach NT$23 billion in 2016, which would make Breeze the the third-largest department store operator in Taiwan, he added.
Oka said the company would continue expanding in the future, and was looking to launch department stores and shopping complexes of different sizes and in varying styles.
He said that the company aims to lead the industry in the long run.
At upcoming annual sales event for the company’s three department stores — which could start on Sep. 17 through to Oct. 13 — Oka said it should help generate NT$2.4 billion in revenue for the company, an increase of 9.1 percent from the level of NT$2.2 billion seen at last year’s event.
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