Eslite Spectrum Corp (誠品生活), which runs the Eslite bookstore chain (誠品書局) and other businesses at home and abroad, is mulling opening new outlets in Southeast Asia, although bookstore operations remain unprofitable, chairwoman Mercy Wu (吳旻潔) said yesterday.
The Taipei-based conglomerate is studying the possibility of making inroads in Southeast Asia in line with plans to strengthen its cultural innovation business, including 50 bookstores in Taiwan, Hong Kong, China and Japan, Wu said.
“Today, profitability continues to pose the biggest challenge for Eslite as it turns 30 years old this year,” Wu told a news conference in Taipei, while announcing the bookstore chain’s annual report on reading behaviors and market trends.
Photo: CNA
Wu, who took over the company’s reins in 2017 after the sudden death of her father, Robert Wu (吳清友), said that the bookstores had to increase capital by NT$2 billion (US$65.56 million) over the years to stay in business.
The company has identified 100 sources of losses, but has yet to find a profitable business model, she said, adding that no enterprise in the world can live off running bookstores as its core operation.
Eslite Spectrum also runs department stores and restaurants, and sells appliances and equipment for hotels, restaurants, kitchens and wine cellars.
Malaysia appears the most likely venue, as 25 percent of its population is ethnic Chinese, making expansion easier, Mercy Wu said.
Hopefully, the bookstore chain can cast off its “unprofitable” shackles to prolong its existence, Mercy Wu said, adding that she is to keep the passion for cultural business alive.
Eslite Spectrum reported that consolidated revenue increased 18.14 percent year-on-year to NT$4.31 billion in the first 10 months of this year.
In the first three quarters, net income fell 29.31 percent to NT$184.01 million, or earnings per share of NT$3.88, company data showed.
Gogoro Inc (睿能創意) yesterday launched its first electric bicycle, the Gogoro Eeyo 1, in Taiwan, after unveiling the bike in New York in late May and in France on Tuesday. The company said it would also introduce the series in other European countries such as Germany and the Netherlands. The “Eeyo project” is the fourth of Gogoro’s eight projects that concentrate on smart transportation, which includes Gogoro’s electric scooter, battery swap system and electric scooter sharing service, company founder and chief executive officer Horace Luke (陸學森) told a media briefing in Taipei. “There are various types of city commuters. We will not
BAD RAP: The exchange said Tatung had seriously breached shareholders’ rights and failed to give a satisfactory explanation of its board election dispute Tatung Co (大同) shares yesterday plunged by the maximum daily limit of 10 percent to NT$18.90, the lowest in three months, after the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) on Tuesday evening changed the company’s classification to a full-delivery stock effective tomorrow. The TWSE’s move follows the company’s failure to give a clear and satisfactory explanation of why it deprived dozens of shareholders of their voting rights during a board election at the annual shareholders’ meeting on Tuesday morning. Under the exchange’s regulations, investors are not allowed to engage in margin trading of a full-delivery stock, TWSE spokeswoman Rebecca Chen (陳麗卿) told
SIZE MATTERS: Medium-sized hotels that do not have the support of parent groups are more vulnerable and are forced to take action, a REPro Knight Frank researcher said About 50 hotels across Taiwan are seeking to exit the market as they succumb to the bleak business outlook amid international travel restrictions imposed to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. Yomi Hotel (優美飯店) on Minsheng E Road, Sec 1, in Taipei is seeking to transfer ownership with an asking price of NT$950 million (US$32.15 million) and a pledge for a lease contract that guarantees a 3 percent return. The budget hotel, with room rates that start from NT$1,400 per night, maintains normal operations, but has been struggling since March, when the government placed restrictions on inbound and outbound travel. Occupancy rates for hotels in
With the US dollar expected to weaken in the next 12 months due to near-zero interest rates, investors should consider purchasing US corporate bonds, Standard Chartered Bank Taiwan Ltd (渣打台灣銀行) said on Thursday. The bank said that the US Federal Reserve since last month has been buying bonds issued by US companies to curb default rates. The US dollar is forecast to be weaker against the pound, the euro and the yen, as well as the Canadian dollar, the Swedish krona and the Swiss franc, as the greenback lacks high investment returns after the Fed in March slashed the benchmark interest rate
RSS