FOOD & BEVERAGE
85°C store expands in US
Gourmet Master Co (美食達人), which owns the bakery and coffee chain 85°C, opened a new store in South Pasadena, California, on Friday that is its 13th outlet in the US. At the opening ceremony of the store, chief operating officer Chris Lin (林明哲) said the cafe chain is scheduled to open another store in San Diego, California, next month.
FINANCE
Chailease’s income surges
Chailease Holding Co (中租控股), the nation’s top leasing services provider, on Friday reported a net income of NT$600 million (US$20 million) for last month, representing a 22 percent rise from a year earlier. The figures elevated the firm’s cumulative profits for the first nine months of the year to NT$5.12 billion, or earnings per share of NT$4.68 for a 20 percent annual increase, it said in a statement. Third-quarter net income rose 15 percent from the second to NT$1.91 billion, Chialease said in the statement, attributing the strong performance to stable business growth and forecasting sustained momentum this quarter.
AVIATION
EVA sweetens select flights
EVA Airways Corp (EVA, 長榮航空), the nation’s second-largest airline, has partnered with an upscale Taipei dessert maker to provide limited edition hand-made cakes on flights to Paris and New York starting on Saturday. Only 39 tiny “Pollock cakes” will be offered per day to business-class passengers on each of the routes, EVA said. The 5cm-wide treats are downsized versions of the signature 15cm Pollock cake sold by SEASON Artisan Patissier. By offering the Pollock, the carrier is aiming to showcase the nation’s dessert prowess to travelers, EVA chairman Chang Kuo-wei (張國煒) said.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
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
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last