Hong Kong's largest consumer electronics and home appliance retailer, Fortress, is set to open its first "concept store" in Taiwan this weekend in a bid to boost the scale of its business, a company executive said yesterday.
"The booming market here, driven by an abundant need for state-of-the-art digital devices -- especially among young customers with high purchasing power -- encouraged us to open our first new concept outlet in Taiwan to push forward our business," said Joseph Lo (
Fortress, founded in 1975, is a member of the AS Watson Group, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. The company commenced renovation in June last year of its 66 outlets in Hong Kong, re-categorized into three major formats -- Fortress World, Fortress Vision and Fortress Digital.
"The anchor products of the two-story Fortress Vision and Digital store, with a 140-ping sales area, will include a wide selection of 42-inch to 60-inch plasma TVs, as well as 20-inch to 40-inch LCD-TVs," Lo said.
The features of the store are customer assistance before purchase, such as measuring entertainment areas or arranging entertainment systems at customers' homes, and professional advice offered after purchase, as well as the unbeatable prices and a pay-the-difference guarantee, Lo said.
Fortress entered Taiwan's market in 1998 with five stores in the greater Taipei area. The company expects to increase the number of outlets to 10 by the end of this year, with new outlets to be opened in high-profile commercial areas, including Hsinyi or Tienmu, as well as closing existing stores or changing their format.
"We hope to achieve over 100 percent growth in sales this year through expansion and innovation," Lo said. He declined to reveal the targeted sales figures or market share.
While the company is upbeat about the market, its major rival, E-life Mall Co (
"The size of Taiwan's consumer electronics and home appliance retail market, worth around NT$200 billion, is virtually fixed, with little space for growth," said Hsieh Wei-hsiung (謝維雄), E-life's assistant vice president of merchandise and marketing.
"The competition in this market is extremely keen," Hsieh added. "One player's gain is usually other players' losses."
E-life had annual sales of NT$9.5 billion last year, an increase of over 35 percent compared to the previous year. The company is scheduled to be listed on the stock market this September and expand its outlet number to around 260 by the end of this year.
"Later participants need to offer new service value to customers. Fortress' adoption of a new operating model hinted the old one was not so successful. Whether or not the new model can be a success has yet to be determined," Hsieh said.
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