Taiwan’s top coffee shop operator, President Starbucks Coffee Corp (統一星巴克), said its newly launched brunch products might help increase the number of customers by 10 percent each year.
President Starbucks has provided breakfast offerings for 10 years, attracting about 7.18 million customers annually, the company said, adding that revenue from breakfast-related products accounts for 30 percent of total revenue.
The breakfast market is still booming and is expected to reach NT$200 billion (US$6.26 billion) per year, the company said.
According to the company’s market research, Taiwanese usually have breakfast between 8am and 9am, which is the traditional peak hour for coffee shops. However, an increasing number of customers have begun to prefer having breakfast at between 9am and 11am, especially on weekends.
Hoping to attract those customers, the company late last month launched five new brunch items aimed at housewives, office workers and single people.
The research also found that customers have varying needs for brunch, with some preferring take-away products for convenience, while others enjoy spending more time at coffee shops.
The company said its new products were developed with those varying needs in mind — one brunch set was designed for picnics, so customers could enjoy their salads and sandwiches where ever they wanted.
President Starbucks launched a concept store last month, as well as pop-up stores and exhibitions at Huashan 1914 Creative Park (華山文創園區) as part of its marketing efforts.
The concept store, which is to operate through the end of this month, includes a coffee bar, coffee farm and coffee room, where ustomers can enjoy limited-edition flavored drinks from branches all over the nation.
It is expected to draw more than 80,000 visitors before it closes.
President Starbucks, a joint venture by President Chain Store Corp (統一超商) and Uni-President Enterprises Corp (統一企業), reported revenue of NT$8.5 billion for last year, with net profit totaling NT$827 million, or earnings per share of NT$23.
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
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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