Eslite Spectrum Corp (誠品生活) yesterday held a grand opening for a new department store in New Taipei City’s Sindian District (新店) that is the largest in Asia by floor space and would help the leisure lifestyle services provider swing into profit next year.
The new outlet, Eslite Spectrum Sindian, has almost 20,000 ping (66,000m2) of floor space that might generate annual revenue of NT$4 billion to NT$5 billion (US$123.96 million to US$154.95 million) by housing 250 retail brands including 20 themed restaurants to meet the entertainment needs of people in neighboring areas, Eslite Spectrum chairwoman Mercy Wu (吳旻潔) said.
The number of visits turned out higher than expected during the soft opening, giving Eslite Spectrum the confidence to aim high, Wu said.
Photo: CNA
Eslite Spectrum, which operates Eslite Bookstore (誠品書局) and Eslite Hotel (誠品行旅), as well as supplies kitchen equipment and wines, has not yet emerged from COVID-19 pandemic-related losses.
Things should improve next quarter and turn a new page next year with help of the Sindian property and forthcoming outlets in Kaohsiung and Taichung, Wu told reporters.
The Sindian branch takes up partial floors of Yes, Life Yulon City (裕隆城), a mixed-use complex owned by Yulon Motor Co (裕隆汽車).
Photo: CNA
Wu said Yulon invited Eslite to help convert the massive plot of land into a mixed-use complex in 2013, and she was in talks with more than 2,000 retail brands and restaurants to make a presence in the property.
The department store’s location in New Taipei City made luxury brands impractical partners, and Eslite Spectrum had to focus on community-minded shops and eateries instead, Wu said.
“We have to adjust and drop our past preference for lesser-known brands and collaborate with Uniqlo, Niko, Nike and other popular fashion and sports brands to satisfy the needs of different customer groups,” Wu said.
Toward the end, the company also believed there must be sufficient dining options that could account for up to 40 percent of the space, she said.
Still, Eslite Spectrum has set aside generous space for book collections that are as large and diverse as in the Eslite bookstore across from National Taiwan University, Wu said, adding that the bookstore would organize exhibitions and events to entertain customers.
In addition, Vieshow movie theaters are occupying the sixth to eighth floors and could seat 2400 people, according to Yes, Life Yulon City data.
The Yulon Group is seeking to add high-rise residential buildings in the complex to make the best use of its space.
Taiwanese suppliers to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC, 台積電) are expected to follow the contract chipmaker’s step to invest in the US, but their relocation may be seven to eight years away, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. When asked by opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Niu Hsu-ting (牛煦庭) in the legislature about growing concerns that TSMC’s huge investments in the US will prompt its suppliers to follow suit, Kuo said based on the chipmaker’s current limited production volume, it is unlikely to lead its supply chain to go there for now. “Unless TSMC completes its planned six
Intel Corp has named Tasha Chuang (莊蓓瑜) to lead Intel Taiwan in a bid to reinforce relations between the company and its Taiwanese partners. The appointment of Chuang as general manager for Intel Taiwan takes effect on Thursday, the firm said in a statement yesterday. Chuang is to lead her team in Taiwan to pursue product development and sales growth in an effort to reinforce the company’s ties with its partners and clients, Intel said. Chuang was previously in charge of managing Intel’s ties with leading Taiwanese PC brand Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), which included helping Asustek strengthen its global businesses, the company
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said second-quarter revenue is expected to surpass the first quarter, which rose 30 percent year-on-year to NT$118.92 billion (US$3.71 billion). Revenue this quarter is likely to grow, as US clients have front-loaded orders ahead of US President Donald Trump’s planned tariffs on Taiwanese goods, Delta chairman Ping Cheng (鄭平) said at an earnings conference in Taipei, referring to the 90-day pause in tariff implementation Trump announced on April 9. While situations in the third and fourth quarters remain unclear, “We will not halt our long-term deployments and do not plan to
The New Taiwan dollar and Taiwanese stocks surged on signs that trade tensions between the world’s top two economies might start easing and as US tech earnings boosted the outlook of the nation’s semiconductor exports. The NT dollar strengthened as much as 3.8 percent versus the US dollar to 30.815, the biggest intraday gain since January 2011, closing at NT$31.064. The benchmark TAIEX jumped 2.73 percent to outperform the region’s equity gauges. Outlook for global trade improved after China said it is assessing possible trade talks with the US, providing a boost for the nation’s currency and shares. As the NT dollar
RSS