American hardware giant ACE Hardware Corp is planning to expand into the northern Taiwan market with one or two new Taipei stores by the end of the year, according to company representatives who are in the process of revamping existing stores in Taichung and Chiayi.
Officials from ACE Home Center Taiwan Corp (雅適國際流通事業), a venture between Chicago-based ACE and the Taichung-based Sakura Group (櫻花企業集團), are planning to officially unveil the company's revamped "Vision 21" Taichung branch tomorrow, even as plans are underway to branch out to the Taipei area.
PHOTO: DOUGLAS HABECKER, TAIPEI TIMES
General Manager Nelson Fang (方鋐昌) said that at least one Taipei store would be open by the end of the year, with an average of three to five stores expected to open per year in the future. The goal is to establish 15 to 30 stores nationwide.
The next three to five stores will be located in northern Taiwan and will join existing ACE branches in Chiayi and Taichung, which respectively opened in April, 1999 and February, 2000.
The new Taipei stores will average around 300 pings of sales space each, compared to the 550-ping Taichung store. Fang said that this was part of his company's goal of creating neighborhood stores that offer more interaction with customers than large-scale competitors like B&Q. Locations in Tienmu and other Taipei communities are already being investigated, he noted.
Using the experience it gained in the two existing stores, the company is in the process of implementing ACE's global "Vision 21" image upgrade which, according to general merchandising manager Andersen Shuai (
The changes include the addition of new lifestyle and decor products such as pottery, dishware, picture frames and scented candles -- and the elimination of obvious poor sellers like lawn mowers and power saws.
The company's old US slogan was "ACE is the place with the helpful hardware folks." In the new millennium, however, the company plans to be more retail-focused -- not just on hardware -- but on general shopping, Shuai said.
"We changed merchandising concepts to add more impulse-buy items."
Company officials said that their stores currently stocked 20,000 products, of which 40 percent were imported and 60 percent sourced domestically.
Shuai said that the biggest difference between ACE and local competitors was his company's ability to buy products directly from the world market, versus working through local dealers. This was accomplished via ACE's US retail support center, which stocks 60,000 products and provides quick access to the latest products and ideas on the market, he said.
ACE currently has about 6,000 stores in 62 countries and is the largest US home-center chain in terms of store numbers. In sales, the 75-year-old firm ranks among the top three in the US -- with Home Depot and True Value. Its local partner, Sakura Group, is a market leader in Taiwan and China for water heaters.
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