The Tai Tong Food & Beverage Group (TTFB, 瓦城泰統集團), a major Taiwanese restaurant operator, yesterday said it aims to increase its number of outlets this year at a pace similar with last year.
TTFB opened 19 new outlets in Taiwan and China last year.
The New Taipei City-based company operates 95 outlets and plans to increase the number to 114 by the end of this year.
The group plans to open five new outlets in the first half of the year and the remaining outlets in the second half in second-tier cities in Taiwan, company chairman Charles Hsu (徐承義) said.
Hsu said he is positive about business growth this year after achieving a net profit of NT$279.21 million (US$8.58 million) last year, an increase of 10.16 percent from 2014.
The group, which operates five restaurant chains, including Thai and Hunan cuisine, is known for its signature brand, Thai Town Cuisine (瓦城泰式料理).
A new Thai Town Cuisine might be launched in the Shanghai Tower this year, becoming the chain’s sixth store abroad, Hsu said.
Tai Tong’s board on March 10 approved plans to distribute cash dividends of NT$10.6 per share.
The cash dividend plan would translate into a yield of 4.49 percent, based on TTFB’s closing price of NT$236 in Taipei trading yesterday.
TTFB shares gained 0.85 percent to NT$236 yesterday, outperforming the TAIEX’s 0.02 percent rise.
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
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”