Taiwan FamilyMart Co (全家便利商店), the nation’s second-largest convenience store operator, is scheduled to launch operations at its seventh logistics center in Yunlin County on Thursday next week.
With an investment of NT$400 million (US$13.33 million), construction of the center in Huwei Township (虎尾) — which has an area of 9,045 ping (29,900m2) — was completed yesterday, under Taiwan Distribution Center Co Ltd (全台物流), a logistics affiliate of FamilyMart.
“The new center will become the company’s logistics base in central Taiwan,” FamilyMart chairman Pan Chin-ting (潘進丁) said in a statement.
The center, which has a temperature control warehouse inside, may help accelerate the pace of the company’s distribution for stores located in central Taiwan, following rising demand for drinks, vegetables and fruit after recent hot and humid weather.
In addition, the warehousing space in the new logistics center is able to supply 500 FamilyMart stores in central and southern Taiwan, increasing the company’s ability to supply its products, the statement said.
Eyeing the growing momentum in the fresh food sector, Taiwan Distribution said the center will launch a second phase of construction at the center to enable vegetable and fruit processing.
Earlier this year, FamilyMart said it expected the fresh food sector’s contribution to company revenue this year to increase to 15 percent. Revenue from sales of fresh food last year reached more than NT$8 billion, accounting for 14.8 percent of overall sales, company data showed.
The firm also expects to increase the total number of stores to 2,900 by the end of the year, from 2,864 as of the end of June, with 90 percent expected to have seating areas to boost sales of fresh food.
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