Dutch cash-and-carry wholesaler Makro shuttered its remaining six megastores in Taiwan without notice yesterday, due to declining sales from the slow economy.
Hundreds of employees showed up for work yesterday to read a notice posted on the door of each location stating the store will close for taking of inventory between Feb. 12 and 18 and hold a final clearance sale between Feb. 19 and Feb. 25.
"Early this morning our general manager announced that Makro Taiwan would suspend operations and around 7am he instructed store managers to put up the notices," said Jenny Hsu (許淑娥), a manager of Makro Taiwan Ltd (萬客隆).
She added that all 640 Makro store employees as well as 90 office workers would be laid off by March 5.
Makro will honor all gift certificates during the final clearance sale, official said.
Makro opened Taiwan's first hypermarket in 1988 and subsequently opened another eight stores around the island through 1999.
Netherland's SHV Holdings NV is the venture's major shareholder controlling a 55 percent stake, while Holmsgreen Holdings of Taiwan (豐群) owns 35 percent and Thailand-based Charoen Pokphand Enterprises (Taiwan) Co controls the remaining 10 percent.
Makro sold its Nankan store in Taoyuan County in 2000 and shut one store in Tainan and another in Kaohsiung in last December, laying off 200 workers.
Yesterday's six closures were in Taoyuan, Neihu, Taichung, Chiayi, Tainan and Kaohsiung.
Disappointing sales forced the Dutch company to close its doors.
"The economic slump as well as heavy retail-market competition has undermined our sales for a couple of years," Makro's Hsu said.
The company began experiencing negative sales growth in 2001. Last year, Makro Taiwan reported NT$7 billion in sales, a 20 percent decrease from the previous year, according to Hsu.
Poor geographic locations were a major problem for the chain.
"Most of our stores were far from residential areas and therefore inconvenient," Hsu said. "Therefore, we decided to suspend operations and to re-evaluate our business model." The company doesn't rule out the possibility of cooperating with other market players in the future, Hsu added.
Meanwhile, competitor chain Tesco Taiwan yesterday said they welcome Makro workers to join their team.
"We will open a new Tesco store in Taipei this summer," said Sarah Wu (吳明君), a public relations official of Tesco Stores (Taiwan) Co.
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