Wowprime Corp (王品集團), a leading restaurant chain operator, plans to hire 1,500 employees next year as it extends its local footprint, company chairman Park Chen (陳正輝) said yesterday.
The company is to accelerate its expansion, as its restructuring of local outlets has begun to bear fruit, Chen told reporters, adding that three new brands would be launched next year.
Wowprime began adjusting its operating strategy after a string of food safety issues in 2014, including a case involving one of its suppliers. It closed 35 inefficient restaurants in Taiwan last year.
Photo: CNA
Opening more restaurants offering Chinese cuisine would be its next focus, a company official said.
Wowprime hopes to increase the presence of its brands featuring Chinese cuisine in Taiwan, especially Madam Goose (鵝夫人), which in September was named a Michelin recommended restaurant.
Chen said the company has developed key management strategies for expanding Madam Goose in China and plans to duplicate its success there in Taiwan.
From January through September the company saw its sales drop 4.45 percent to NT$12.32 billion (US$390.3 million) from the same period a year earlier, dragged down by weak sales in Taiwan.
Wowprime operates 258 restaurants in Taiwan, where sales totaled NT$7.21 billion in the first nine months, a drop of 9.24 percent from the same period a year earlier.
Revenue from its operations in China picked up 3.26 percent to NT$5.11 billion from the same period the previous year, accounting for nearly 41 percent of overall sales, company data showed.
Wowprime said it is upbeat about the sales outlook through the end of this year, mainly supported by its expansion in China and the traditional high season for restaurant operators.
Wowprime shares gained 1.3 percent to close at NT$117 in Taipei trading yesterday, outperforming the benchmark TAIEX, which dropped 0.19 percent to 9,272.70 points.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) last week recorded an increase in the number of shareholders to the highest in almost eight months, despite its share price falling 3.38 percent from the previous week, Taiwan Stock Exchange data released on Saturday showed. As of Friday, TSMC had 1.88 million shareholders, the most since the week of April 25 and an increase of 31,870 from the previous week, the data showed. The number of shareholders jumped despite a drop of NT$50 (US$1.59), or 3.38 percent, in TSMC’s share price from a week earlier to NT$1,430, as investors took profits from their earlier gains
In a high-security Shenzhen laboratory, Chinese scientists have built what Washington has spent years trying to prevent: a prototype of a machine capable of producing the cutting-edge semiconductor chips that power artificial intelligence (AI), smartphones and weapons central to Western military dominance, Reuters has learned. Completed early this year and undergoing testing, the prototype fills nearly an entire factory floor. It was built by a team of former engineers from Dutch semiconductor giant ASML who reverse-engineered the company’s extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) machines, according to two people with knowledge of the project. EUV machines sit at the heart of a technological Cold
TAIWAN VALUE CHAIN: Foxtron is to fully own Luxgen following the transaction and it plans to launch a new electric model, the Foxtron Bria, in Taiwan next year Yulon Motor Co (裕隆汽車) yesterday said that its board of directors approved the disposal of its electric vehicle (EV) unit, Luxgen Motor Co (納智捷汽車), to Foxtron Vehicle Technologies Co (鴻華先進) for NT$787.6 million (US$24.98 million). Foxtron, a half-half joint venture between Yulon affiliate Hua-Chuang Automobile Information Technical Center Co (華創車電) and Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), expects to wrap up the deal in the first quarter of next year. Foxtron would fully own Luxgen following the transaction, including five car distributing companies, outlets and all employees. The deal is subject to the approval of the Fair Trade Commission, Foxtron said. “Foxtron will be
INFLATION CONSIDERATION: The BOJ governor said that it would ‘keep making appropriate decisions’ and would adjust depending on the economy and prices The Bank of Japan (BOJ) yesterday raised its benchmark interest rate to the highest in 30 years and said more increases are in the pipeline if conditions allow, in a sign of growing conviction that it can attain the stable inflation target it has pursued for more than a decade. Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda’s policy board increased the rate by 0.2 percentage points to 0.75 percent, in a unanimous decision, the bank said in a statement. The central bank cited the rising likelihood of its economic outlook being realized. The rate change was expected by all 50 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. The
RSS