What was once the nation's biggest fitness-center chain, the bankrupt Youth Camp Health Group (佳姿健康集團) yesterday announced its intentions to suspend business operations entirely, including its last hope in the Taipei 101 skyscraper.
Chairwoman Pure Tsai (
Since its decision to close down all locations except the premium Taipei 101 Oxy Gym on Tuesday last week, Tsai pledged to look for potential buyers to rescue her 29-year-old firm, which has accumulated debts of NT$1.3 billion (US$42 million).
PHOTO: FENG PIN-CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES
But scores of employees, unsatisfied with the company's delays in salary payments for months, filed a complaint with Taipei City Government's Department of Labor the next day, which ordered Youth Camp to pay off workers' wages in one week.
On Thursday, the operator admitted that one of Tsai's good friends, who had promised to lend NT$30 million to bail it out, retracted his helping hand, throwing Youth Camp back into despair.
It was later revealed that the businessperson is Huang He-nan (
On Thursday night, hundreds of furious employees stormed into Taipei 101 Oxy Gym to stage a large-scale protest and demand that Tsai meet with them. The situation nearly spun out of control when one of the protesters attempted to strangle Hung Ting-chieh (
Tsai finally showed up at 4am, bowing, offering apologies and pleading that they give her more time.
But her landlord finds the financial situation intolerable. Taipei Financial Center Corp (
Michael Liu (
As Youth Camp employees' protest Thursday night raised safety concerns, Taipei Financial Center yesterday cut off water and power supplies to Taipei 101 Oxy Gym, which occupies the fifth and sixth floors of the world's tallest building.
"We have to answer to our hundreds of tenants in the adjacent mall as well. I don't think this decision will tarnish our image," Liu said.
However, as the skyscraper only started operation in January last year and has an occupancy rate currently at 35 percent, the first case of foreclosure might cast a shadow on its office-leasing process.
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