Cold Stone Creamery (酷聖石冰淇淋), a wholly owned unit of President Chain Store Corp (PCSC, 統一超商), expects the launch of two new-format stores to help its revenue return to growth.
The company also hopes its offering of more products besides ice cream will raise average customer spending.
“The company’s sales have shown higher volatility with a focus on single-type products,” Cold Stone vice president Tina Cheng (鄭婷婷) told a media briefing yesterday.
Concentrating on ice cream products has led the company’s sales to show a double-digit drop in the first six months of this year, compared with the same period last year, Cheng said.
Cheng made the remark as the firm opened its first new-format outlet at the Dream Mall (夢時代購物中心) in Greater Kaohsiung.
The company is to launch its second new-format store at the Art Museum Parkway in Greater Taichung on Saturday.
Unlike the current stores, which are small and only offer take-out services, the new stores are larger than 8 ping (26.4m2), allowing customers to spend more time eating in the store and to gather with family and friends.
Cold Stone expects its new-format stores to see revenue 10 to 20 percent greater than its older outlets, and plans to continuously adjust some of its larger outlets into new-format stores in the near term.
The company has also decided to launch sales of so-called “light food,” such as sandwiches and pies, to offer customers more choices, Cheng said.
Introduced to Taiwan by Uni-President Group (統一集團) in 2007, Cold Stone reported profits in 2011 and 2012, but saw losses of NT$20.1 million (US$670,537) for its parent company last year.
Including the two new stores, the company has a total of 37 outlets in the nation.
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