The advent of New Year's Eve in Taiwan saw another cause for celebration for Taipei's book lovers. The event heralded the debut of the newest outlet of Taiwan's popular bookstore chain -- Eslite Corp (誠品) -- in the vicinity of the Taipei 101 skyscraper in the upscale Xinyi District.
Designed to be another source of pride for the Taiwanese, the new flagship Xinyi store is a domestic record-setting colossus of a bookstore and is expected to add new significance to the so-called "Eslite phenomenon."
Occupying a spacious 7,500 pings (24,750m2) with six stories above ground and two basement floors, it is home to the nation's largest bookstore and a wide array of lifestyle brands, offering consumers a brand-new shopping experience.
TAIPEI TIMES FILE PHOTO
"We want to provide the public with a place where they can rest. We also expect this store to open a cultural window for Taiwan to the world," said Robert Wu (吳清友), Eslite's chairman, at the opening ceremony.
What he said might sound like a breeze, but this store has pushed bookstore operations to another level, exploring various possibilities and possibly ushering in another revolutionary wave.
Established in 1989, Eslite took the lead in using wooden bookshelves that incorporate artistic designs, spurring its rivals to follow suit. Its headquarters at the intersection of Taipei's Jenai Road and Dunhua South Road has been operating 24 hours a day since 1999 to serve thousands of Taipei's sleepless bookworms.
Now another landmark has been created.
With an investment of NT$1 billion (US$31 million), the Xinyi store, which took six months to construct, is the product of Wu and his team's imagination and efforts, said Liao Mei-li (廖美立), the company's executive vice president.
In this branch, the bookstore areas occupy 3,000 pings from the second to the fifth floors, with the fifth story exclusively designed for children.
The size is three times its 24-hour headquarters.
The new store houses over 300,000 titles and more than a million books, covering publications in Mandarin, simplified Chinese, English, Japanese and European languages.
Wu said this task is like opening 40 bookstores with annual revenues of NT$30 million, that is, the flagship outlet is expected to bring in book sales of NT$1.2 billion per annum. Five million books and magazines are expected to be sold and 10 million visits to be recorded every year.
Just 40 hours from when the branch opened during New Year's Eve, the new store's book sales hit an astounding NT$40 million with 250,000 visitors recorded, said Lee Yu-hwa (李玉華), assistant manager of Eslite's public relations division.
"We believe that reading can be inspired. These days we've seen many elderly people and kids, new groups seldom seen in bookstores, coming into our branch. Even taxi drivers I talked to all know about its existence," she said.
Store within a store
One of the highlights of the new outlet is its concept of "a store within a store" with the interior and bookshelf arrangements designed to create the corresponding atmosphere.
In the mystery book area, for instance, mirrors -- typically viewed as an important element in creating a sense of mystery -- are set up vertically on top of the low-lying shelves. And when one steps into the art section, it is hard to ignore the ceilings that are made of giant color mixing trays placed upside down.
As the leading designer Ray Chen (陳瑞憲) said, every corner is proof of the ingenuity and care that went into designing this place in hopes of making bookstore shopping an interesting and unique experience.
Additionally, the new Xinyi branch is a hybrid of book retailing and activity management. It has function rooms for forums, halls suitable for various performances and exhibitions, as well as cooking studios for book launches and art-related activities.
"We want to establish a museum of reading and living," Wu said, adding that this branch is by no means Eslite's ultimate version, hinting at another big surprise in the years to come.
As exciting as it might sound, the bookstore chain has trodden a bumpy road since its establishment in 1989. In fact, it was in the red for 15 years before it started to make profits two years ago when Taiwan's reading trend turned mature.
Solid support
What's more important is the shareholders' solid support.
In addition to the Wu family's over 50 percent shareholding, Acer Inc's founder Stan Shih (施振榮), Taiwan High-Speed Rail Corp (台灣高鐵) chairwoman Nita Ing (殷琪), and Asustek Computer Inc (華碩電腦) vice chairman Tung Tsu-hsien (童子賢) are among its distinguished shareholders.
Non-shareholder Lin Cheng-yi (林誠一), former chairman of Macoto Bank (誠泰銀行), which has been merged with Shin Kong Commercial Bank (新光銀行), also extended a hand in making loans to Eslite when it experienced financial difficulties in the aftermath of Typhoon Nari in 2001 and the SARS epidemic in 2003.
Now the Eslite group has expanded to 47 bookstores, seven department stores and six record shops nationwide.
Its total revenues last year were estimated to reach NT$9 billion, growing by 17 percent from 2004, with book sales accounting for one-third, or NT$3.1 billion, and making up 10 percent of the local market share.
With the mega branch opening doors for business, Wu is confident that the group can achieve NT$12 billion in sales by the end of this year. Net profits are forecast to double to NT$3 billion.
However, the company still has no plans to go public, as there is no need to raise capital, the chairman said.
Further expansion
An optimist by nature, Wu sees a rosy future for Taiwan's publishing industry although some express worry over the industry's decline, which has been adversely affected in part by the rise of the Internet.
"Buying books is not like consuming luxury goods; it would be less affected by economic variables, like the credit and cash-advance card storm," Wu said.
"The opening of the Xinyi branch would further drive growth in the industry as readers are growing as well," he said.
The company plans to extend its territory overseas by 2008, duplicating its successful experience to Chinese markets in Hong Kong, China or Singapore.
What's the momentum behind their long-time dedication?
Wu quoted what his colleagues said, "If you love yourself, you must love reading. If you love reading, you must love Eslite. If you love Eslite, then it's loving Taiwan!"
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