Taiwan FamilyMart Co (全家便利商店) said it plans to offer indoor dining spaces in 67 percent of its stores by the end of this year, with a total seating capacity of about 40,000.
The expansion is expected to help raise revenue from fresh food items to 20 percent of total sales for the year, compared with the firm’s 17 percent seen last year, FamilyMart said.
The nation’s second-largest convenience store operator, with 2,915 outlets, is eyeing the strong potential in the dining out market, especially at lunchtime, and has accordingly paid more attention to food that is suitable for these customers.
“Sales of products for this market have shown 20 to 30 percent year-on-year growth over the past few years, becoming a steady driver for our fresh food business,” FamilyMart’s fast-food department manager Jenny Lin (林純如) told a media briefing on Monday.
Sales in the fresh food sector rose more than 25 percent year-on-year in the first six months of this year, Lin said.
Overall, the company posted NT$27.31 billion (US$909.21 million) in consolidated sales in the first half of the year, up 5 percent from the same period last year, company data show.
SUMMER VACATION
FamilyMart yesterday launched sales of various curry rice products at a time when young customers’ demand for readymade meals is increasing during the summer vacation.
Based on statistics offered by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the production value of the nation’s dining out market totaled NT$500 billion last year, up from the NT$436.6 billion posted in 2012.
President Chain Store Corp (PCSC, 統一超商) — operator of the nation’s largest convenience store chain, 7-Eleven — also plans to expand its fresh food business by raising sales of chilled farm produce.
PCSC, which operates more than 5,000 7-Eleven stores in Taiwan, has a special section for sales of chilled farm produce at about 20 percent of its stores, where customers can buy vegetables, fruit and meat.
The company posted NT$101.44 billion in consolidated revenue in the first half of the year, up 3.59 percent from a year earlier, with sales of fresh food accounting for 25 percent of the total, the company said.
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