People in Germany are now able to have a sip of authentic Taiwanese tea and enjoy its famed bubble milk tea, a local teashop chain said yesterday.
With a stated goal of becoming “the Eastern Starbucks,” the Taipei-based Comebuy teashop chain has almost achieved its aim of extending its reach to six countries outside Taiwan, with outlets in China, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia in addition to the imminent Berlin opening, and with plans for a Japanese presence approaching the final stages.
The grand opening of its first German store in Berlin on Sunday last week made it the first Taiwanese teashop chain to set up in Europe.
“We’d like to introduce good Taiwanese tea to our foreign friends,” said Sam Lin, executive director of Comebuy International Co (長沅國際實業).
Many similar local businesses have expressed interest in the European market, but so far only Comebuy has set up a store after meeting strict EU standards, he said.
Besides strengthening training and tightening quality control, Lin said his company had to rebuild its “tea espresso machine,” which cost NT$120,000 (US$4,134), to allow it to get the “Conformite Europende” mark.
As is the case with other overseas shops, there will also be subtle changes to the flavors and packaging of many of its products to suit German consumers.
“For our Berlin store, we’ll have products specially flavored with yogurt,” Lin said.
Established in 2001, Comebuy opened its first teashop in Taiwan in 2002, but has since switched its business focus to overseas markets.
Besides setting up in Germany’s largest city, the teashop chain is planning to gain footholds in the UK, France and the Czech Republic, Lin said.
“In fact, India is also one of our extension options,” Lin added.
Comebuy currently has 92 stores in Taiwan and 59 outlets overseas.
HIGHLAND TEA ORDER
In related news, an order for 2,326.8kg of Taiwan highland tea was shipped to retailers in Jiangsu Province, China, yesterday, marking the largest sale to China for Lishan (梨山) tea farmers.
The Taichung City Agriculture Bureau said that Chinese people are quite taken with Taiwan’s highland tea, especially the fragrant variety from Lishan in central Taiwan.
After having tasted Taiwan’s highland tea, Chinese retailers in Jiangsu placed an order for NT$11 million (US$379,250), the bureau said.
Tea trees have better soil and water conservation attributes than fruit trees.
Therefore, if the sale to China is a success, the bureau will start assisting fruit farmers in the Lishan area to switch to tea, the bureau said.
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) is expected to share his views about the artificial intelligence (AI) industry’s prospects during his speech at the company’s 37th anniversary ceremony, as AI servers have become a new growth engine for the equipment manufacturing service provider. Lam’s speech is much anticipated, as Quanta has risen as one of the world’s major AI server suppliers. The company reported a 30 percent year-on-year growth in consolidated revenue to NT$1.41 trillion (US$43.35 billion) last year, thanks to fast-growing demand for servers, especially those with AI capabilities. The company told investors in November last year that
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said it plans to ship its new 1 megawatt charging systems for electric trucks and buses in the first half of next year at the earliest. The new charging piles, which deliver up to 1 megawatt of charging power, are designed for heavy-duty electric vehicles, and support a maximum current of 1,500 amperes and output of 1,250 volts, Delta said in a news release. “If everything goes smoothly, we could begin shipping those new charging systems as early as in the first half of next year,” a company official said. The new
RSS