Two major convenience store chains are aiming for a 10 percent increase in their annual presales of New Year’s takeout dishes this year, as public acceptance of takeout New Year’s dishes from convenience stores and hypermarket chains is increasing.
President Chain Store Corp (PCSC, 統一超商), which operates the nation’s largest convenience store chain, 7-Eleven, yesterday started its takeout dish presale event for the Lunar New Year, which falls in the middle of February next year, eyeing its annual market scale of NT$2 billion (US$65.36 million).
“We sold a total of 500,000 sets of New Year’s dishes last year, which made it the largest presale event in a year, outperforming one before the Mid-Autumn Festival,” e-commerce department manager Tsai Hung-chi (蔡弘琦) told a press conference.
PCSC is targeting 10 percent growth, or total sales of NT$300 million, for its presale event compared with a year earlier, aiming to sell more than 600,000 set dishes during the period at its 5,029 stores nationwide.
Domestic rival Taiwan FamilyMart Co (全家便利商店), the nation’s second-largest convenience store operator with 2,929 stores, plans to launch its New Year’s takeout dish presale event on Nov. 26, with the event set to last nearly three months.
The company also expects a 10 percent year-on-year growth for its promotion, while expecting more consumers to pick dishes up before the holiday, instead of ordering them only for New Year’s meals.
Before unveiling the event, the two companies reported that their net incomes for the first three quarters of the year reached the highest levels in each company’s history.
President Chain posted NT$7.65 billion, or NT$7.35 per share, in net profit for the first nine months of the year, up 16.4 percent from the same period last year. The company sold its Muji (Taiwan) Co (台灣無印良品) shares to Japan-based retail giant Ryohin Keikaku Co in the first quarter, which generated NT$1.02 billion in one-time income.
In the third quarter, net income was NT$2.48 billion, or NT$2.39 per share, up from NT$2.24 billion, or NT$2.16 per share, recorded in the same period last year, President Chain said in a statement.
Taiwan FamilyMart saw net income in the first nine months of the year total NT$1.09 billion, or NT$4.88 per share, up 23.91 percent from a year earlier.
Net profit in the third quarter stood at NT$462.29 million, or NT$2.07 per share, compared with NT$422.19 million, or NT$1.89 per share, posted a year earlier, with the momentum maintaining resilient in the convenience store chain’s traditional peak period for sales.
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