Eslite Spectrum Corp (誠品生活) — a subsidiary of department store and restaurant operator Eslite Group (誠品集團) — is to launch a cultural department store in Taipei’s Songshan Cultural and Creative Park on Aug. 15, which it expects will boost business in the second half of the year.
The department store will have a total area of 6,000 ping (19,835m2), which would account for about 10 percent of Eslite Spectrum’s total nationwide floor space of 64,900 ping. The store is to comprise one underground floor and three above ground.
The company said yesterday it would select retail tenants for the department store based on lifestyle brands created by local designers and with the aim of promoting “cultural and creative consumerism.”
In addition to the culture outlet, Eslite Spectrum is set to launch its first boutique hotel, with 104 rooms, in the same area of Taipei by the end of the year, the company said.
For the Chinese market, the firm is planning to open its first department store in Suzhou, China, in the fourth quarter of next year, which is to be followed by a bookstore and a department store in Shanghai in 2015.
For the first six months of the year, Eslite Spectrum posted NT$1.61 billion (US$53.62 million) in consolidated sales, up 11.64 percent from a year earlier, the company said in its stock exchange filing.
The company’s shares dropped by 3.34 percent to close at NT$188 yesterday, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
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