Elevator maker Golden Friends Corp (崇友實業) is to increase product prices by 2 to 3 percent next month to reflect mounting raw material and maintenance costs, unfazed by softening property transactions.
The Taipei-based company, which supplies elevators under the GFC and Genesis brands, and distributes Japan’s Toshiba elevators, on Monday said that the price hikes would add to a cumulative 10 percent increase after two previous adjustments last year for similar reasons.
Golden Friends Corp said at the company’s annual general meeting in Taipei that it is upbeat about its business for the rest of this year with NT$7.8 billion (US$252.26 million) of backlog on hand.
Photo courtesy of Golden Friends Corp
In particular, the company is to benefit from a newly opened mixed-use complex in Taipei’s Dazhi (大直) area, the forthcoming Forward Hotel (馥華酒店) in New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋) and a luxury residential building in Taichung, it said.
The company’s consolidated revenue in the first five months of this year rose by 11.94 percent year-on-year to NT$2.03 billion. Revenue last year increased 2.92 percent to NT$4.74 billion, while net profit increased 8.99 percent to NT$847.81 million, a company record.
The company said new office buildings and urban renewal projects across Taiwan, in addition to the government’s public works projects, would imply demand for new elevators and regular maintenance services.
Golden Friends Corp expects sales of new elevators this year to be flat due to subdued property transactions, it told shareholders.
The company’s maintenance business would grow 3 percent this year, as it has secured contracts to service 41,000 elevators, and the number might rise by another 1,600 to 2,000 by the end of the year, it said.
Its replacement arm is emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic with sales of 310 elevators for the year to last month, compared with 496 for the whole of last year, the company said.
Shareholders on Monday approved a company proposal to distribute a NT$3.4 per share cash dividend based on last year’s earnings per share of NT$4.79.
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