Food and retail conglomerate Uni-President Group (統一集團) is set to transform Eslite Spectrum Corp’s (誠品生活) 24-hour bookstore in Taipei’s upscale Xinyi District (信義) into a shopping mall called “Dream Plaza,” adjacent to the group’s existing Uni-President Department Store (統一時代百貨).
Shirley Kao (高秀玲), head of Uni-President’s beauty business, which runs the group’s department stores and the Cosmed (康是美) health and beauty chain, said during a Christmas light switch-on event in Taipei on Friday that the group is to focus on having unique brands stationed in Dream Plaza to give the mall an edge in the already crowded department store scene in Xinyi District.
Kao, the wife of Uni-President Group chairman Alex Lo (羅智先) and the only daughter of the group’s late founder, Kao Ching-yuan (高清愿), said that part of Dream Plaza could be open around the clock, all week, including a flagship Starbucks store — the franchise in Taiwan is owned by the conglomerate — but that this would depend on consumer demand.
Photo: CNA
Xinyi Eslite is scheduled to bid farewell to fans on Christmas Eve after failing to convince Uni-President, the current landlord, to extend its lease.
The Xinyi store began opening 24 hours a day in mid-2020 after the Eslite Dunnan store was closed following the expiration of its lease at the end of May that year. After the closure of the Xinyi branch, the Songyan outlet, in Songshan Cultural and Creative Park, is to succeed the outlet and be open around the clock, all week.
The newly refurbished Songyan store would open no later than January next year, Eslite said.
Commenting on the group’s beauty business, Kao said that the existing Dream Mall in southern Taiwan has more than 800 vendors, while the Cosmed chain owns 100 pharmacies around Taiwan and is set on turning more of its outlets into 600m2 mini-department stores.
Uni-President Group has also acquired hypermarket operator Carrefour Taiwan after completing an acquisition earlier this year.
In the first nine months of this year, Carrefour Taiwan incurred a loss of NT$1 billion (US$31.4 million). Lo said new management would try to ensure the hypermarket chain improves its bottom line by streamlining operations.
The group would continue to expand its logistics business by setting up large logistics compounds around Taiwan, he added.
Regarding the 7-Eleven convenience store chain, Lo said there are plans to open more than 300 stores in Taiwan next year, boosting the total number to 7,111 branches.
Meanwhile, there are around 3,500 7-Eleven outlets in the Philippines, which is an 84 percent share of the convenience store market in the Southeast Asian country, with the number of shops expected to rise to 4,000 next year.
The Eurovision Song Contest has seen a surge in punter interest at the bookmakers, becoming a major betting event, experts said ahead of last night’s giant glamfest in Basel. “Eurovision has quietly become one of the biggest betting events of the year,” said Tomi Huttunen, senior manager of the Online Computer Finland (OCS) betting and casino platform. Betting sites have long been used to gauge which way voters might be leaning ahead of the world’s biggest televised live music event. However, bookmakers highlight a huge increase in engagement in recent years — and this year in particular. “We’ve already passed 2023’s total activity and
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) today announced that his company has selected "Beitou Shilin" in Taipei for its new Taiwan office, called Nvidia Constellation, putting an end to months of speculation. Industry sources have said that the tech giant has been eyeing the Beitou Shilin Science Park as the site of its new overseas headquarters, and speculated that the new headquarters would be built on two plots of land designated as "T17" and "T18," which span 3.89 hectares in the park. "I think it's time for us to reveal one of the largest products we've ever built," Huang said near the
China yesterday announced anti-dumping duties as high as 74.9 percent on imports of polyoxymethylene (POM) copolymers, a type of engineering plastic, from Taiwan, the US, the EU and Japan. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce’s findings conclude a probe launched in May last year, shortly after the US sharply increased tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, computer chips and other imports. POM copolymers can partially replace metals such as copper and zinc, and have various applications, including in auto parts, electronics and medical equipment, the Chinese ministry has said. In January, it said initial investigations had determined that dumping was taking place, and implemented preliminary
Intel Corp yesterday reinforced its determination to strengthen its partnerships with Taiwan’s ecosystem partners including original-electronic-manufacturing (OEM) companies such as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and chipmaker United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電). “Tonight marks a new beginning. We renew our new partnership with Taiwan ecosystem,” Intel new chief executive officer Tan Lip-bu (陳立武) said at a dinner with representatives from the company’s local partners, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the US chip giant’s presence in Taiwan. Tan took the reins at Intel six weeks ago aiming to reform the chipmaker and revive its past glory. This is the first time Tan
RSS