Now that its vice-like control over the alcohol and cigarette markets has passed into history, the Taiwan Tobacco and Wine Board (
The bureau was reborn as the Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Corp(台灣菸酒公司) yesterday, with Chairman Sam Wang (王得山) vowing to raise annual business turnover to NT$110 billion within five years.
Wang, who also serves as vice finance minister, said that Taiwan Tobacco's operations would be significantly consolidated -- folding 15 local offices into eight sales outlets -- and be based on four basic principles, including satisfying consumer demand, modernizing sales outlets, implementing flexible pricing policies and expanding globally.
"Taiwan Tobacco will eventually become a renowned alcohol and tobacco company in the Asia-Pacific region," Wang said.
Minister of Finance Lee Yung-san (
The company has enjoyed guaranteed sales and profits for almost 55 years and is now facing a potential surge of competition from imports since the cigarette and alcohol market was liberalized earlier this year.
While the market was initially opened in the early 1990s, it was only after Taiwan entered the WTO in January this year that the government permitted private companies to join production and sale of all related products in the local market.
Taiwan Tobacco isn't overly concerned about being able to remain profitable, Wang said. When Japanese brewer Kirin entered the local market in 1994, Taiwan Tobacco's share of the beer market wasn't significantly impacted, he said.
According to Lin Kuo-min (林國民), head of the Taiwan Tobacco's business section, Kirin grabbed about 8 percent of the market when it first came to Taiwan. But increased marketing efforts by Taiwan Tobacco helped it to regain some of that share.
According to another Taiwan Tobacco executive who declined to be named, the company will try to pressure retailers to stock the company's products, even if consumers aren't buying them.
"We'll be pressuring convenience stores such as 7-Eleven to keep our products on the shelves regardless of whether sales are good or not," he said.
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