Uni-President Enterprises Corp (UPE, 統一企業) yesterday confirmed that founder and honorary chairman Kao Ching-yuan (高清愿) died last week at the age of 88.
A private funeral was held in Tainan’s Yongkang District (永康) yesterday, attended only by Kao’s family and friends, as well as Uni-President employees.
Born in Tainan on May 24, 1929, Kao was from a poor family and was not formally educated beyond elementary school. He founded UPE in 1967 and served as its chairman until 2013.
Photo: Yang Ya-min, Taipei Times
The company grew to become a conglomerate encompassing food manufacturing, retail, leisure and express-delivery services. It also operates the Starbucks coffee chain in Taiwan via a joint venture with the Seattle-based group.
The conglomerate is also known for operating 7-Eleven, the nation’s largest convenience store chain, through its affiliate President Chain Store Corp (PCSC, 統一超商).
Kao launched the convenience store chain in the 1980s, aiming to expand retail channels available for UPE products.
Photo: Wu Chun-feng, Taipei Times
UPE’s footprint expanded in the 1990s, with manufacturing bases set up in China, Indonesia, Thailand and other countries.
Kao, who had only one child, handed over the business to his son-in-law, Alex Lo (羅智先), in November 2013. Since then, the company has continued to grow under Lo’s leadership, weathering a series of food-safety crises in Taiwan while expanding its presence in China.
Lo’s management style and strategy of focusing on improving margins over sales growth has been well received by the market, with foreign institutional investors raising their holdings in UPE from about 44 percent to 52 percent in the past decade.
However, a potential succession challenge is on the horizon, as Lo had established a rule stipulating that key executives must retire at the age of 60 to make way for new talent.
Lo’s 60th birthday is this year.
Lo is expected to conform to the rule he has set, but major stakeholders in the company are likely to try to convince him to stay to avoid disruptions in leadership, industry observers said.
In addition, the company’s triennial board elections are to take place this year.
UPE’s net income rose 26.8 percent annually to NT$14.11 billion (US$435.79 million) last year, with earnings per share (EPS) of NT$2.48. Consolidated sales dipped 0.5 percent year-on-year to NT$416.15 billion.
PCSC’s net income decreased 9.8 percent to NT$8.24 billion last year, with EPS of NT$7.92, while consolidated sales grew 2.52 percent to NT$205.5 billion.
Despite a tepid consumption environment, UPE is expected to see continued solid growth and market share gains in all segments, driven by new product launches and contributions from its Chinese subsidiary, Uni-President China Holdings Ltd (UPC, 統一中國控股), Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co (元大投顧) said in a note this week.
Uni-President China last year saw net income rise 192 percent annually to 835 million yuan (US$129.18 million) as it continued its high-end product focus, coupled with a strong pipeline of new products, Yuanta said.
Taiwan is projected to lose a working-age population of about 6.67 million people in two waves of retirement in the coming years, as the nation confronts accelerating demographic decline and a shortage of younger workers to take their place, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan experienced its largest baby boom between 1958 and 1966, when the population grew by 3.78 million, followed by a second surge of 2.89 million between 1976 and 1982, ministry data showed. In 2023, the first of those baby boom generations — those born in the late 1950s and early 1960s — began to enter retirement, triggering
One of two tropical depressions that formed off Taiwan yesterday morning could turn into a moderate typhoon by the weekend, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Tropical Depression No. 21 formed at 8am about 1,850km off the southeast coast, CWA forecaster Lee Meng-hsuan (李孟軒) said. The weather system is expected to move northwest as it builds momentum, possibly intensifying this weekend into a typhoon, which would be called Mitag, Lee said. The radius of the storm is expected to reach almost 200km, she said. It is forecast to approach the southeast of Taiwan on Monday next week and pass through the Bashi Channel
NO CHANGE: The TRA makes clear that the US does not consider the status of Taiwan to have been determined by WWII-era documents, a former AIT deputy director said The American Institute in Taiwan’s (AIT) comments that World War-II era documents do not determine Taiwan’s political status accurately conveyed the US’ stance, the US Department of State said. An AIT spokesperson on Saturday said that a Chinese official mischaracterized World War II-era documents as stating that Taiwan was ceded to the China. The remarks from the US’ de facto embassy in Taiwan drew criticism from the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation, whose director said the comments put Taiwan in danger. The Chinese-language United Daily News yesterday reported that a US State Department spokesperson confirmed the AIT’s position. They added that the US would continue to
The number of Chinese spouses applying for dependent residency as well as long-term residency in Taiwan has decreased, the Mainland Affairs Council said yesterday, adding that the reduction of Chinese spouses staying or living in Taiwan is only one facet reflecting the general decrease in the number of people willing to get married in Taiwan. The number of Chinese spouses applying for dependent residency last year was 7,123, down by 2,931, or 29.15 percent, from the previous year. The same census showed that the number of Chinese spouses applying for long-term residency and receiving approval last year stood at 2,973, down 1,520,
RSS