TT: What is the background of the Breeze Center and the people behind the venture?
Jason Tsai (蔡明澤): This project started seven years ago, in 1995. Hey-Song Corp (黑松) is the land owner and also a partner with a 25 percent interest of the Breeze Development Co Ltd (三僑實業). Breeze Development has been the main facilitator of the project from the beginning and will manage the center for the next 50 years. Hey-song isn't involved in the planning, leasing or management.
The owner and chairman of Breeze Development is Paul Liao (
I serve as special assistant to the chairman and am the spokesman for the center. I am very familiar with mall tenants because I have been involved in planning and leasing for many years. So, I am essentially a trouble shooter -- I take care of whatever needs taking care of for my boss. It can be quite difficult, but its my job.
TT: Are there any plans to have Taiwan Fixed Network Group invest in Breeze?
Tsai: Not yet, but it is going to happen in the near future. Nobody knows what the exact amount will be.
TT: What kind of retail experience does the management team have?
Tsai: There are four main managers: chairman Paul Liao, executive director Henry Liao, our Japanese general manager Okaichiro (
Paul is in charge of financial and personnel management. He's never run a shopping mall before; his background is in international trade.
But our general manager Okaichiro has 35 years of experience in the department store field and used to be the head of Taipei Sogo. He's also run department stores in Japan and Thailand.
As for myself, I have been in the business for 20 years -- 10 years of which were spent in the US. I joined this company when it was founded in 1995.
TT: What was the size of the initial investment and how deep are the pockets of the backers of the Breeze Center?
Tsai: Our financial background is very strong. We haven't borrowed a penny from banks and we have no debt. Since the land came from Hey-Song Corp, there are no land costs. The total investment in the mall is NT$5 billion. The land was previously used for a Hey-Song factory.
TT: Two weeks after opening your doors, how has the public's response been?
Tsai: Business has been very strong for the past 11 days, with sales so far totaling NT$350 million, or an average of NT$32 million a day. We have already had 1.85 million customers visit our center. These results -- especially in the poor economic climate -- are beyond our expectations. Our original projection was only NT$229 million.
TT: How do you get beyond the initial customer curiosity and attract customers in the long term?
Tsai: We do that with a clear-cut, 4-part strategy. First, we have created a mall environment similar to what you see in the West here in Taipei -- that is really something. Land is a serious consideration because most of it's too expensive in Taipei. So instead of building the mall vertically [like most Taiwan department stores] we designed the center horizontally, with lots of open space and a very pleasant environment. It is not a box like most department stores, where the customers can do nothing but shop.
That was never our idea -- we sought to create something different. We acquired this land years ago, and the cost is almost zero. That allowed us [the financial flexibility] to develop the idea. We're very proud of the of environment we've created.
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