President Starbucks Coffee Corp (統一星巴克), the firm in charge of the Taiwan operations of Seattle-based Starbucks, will speed up its franchise development across the Taiwan Strait, as China is slated to open up its retail market next month in accordance with WTO regulations.
"We're optimistic about the business prospects there, because the opening up of its market can stimulate consumption," said John Hsu (徐光宇), president of the coffee operator, at a press conference yesterday to launch its Christmas products.
"We'll be more aggressive in launching outlets in China," he said, refusing to elaborate.
In a 50-50 joint venture with Starbucks, President Starbucks has set up 51 coffee shops in seven major cities in China's eastern provinces of Zhejiang and Jiangsu since May 2000.
In addition to the Taiwanese company, the US coffee giant has inked deals with two other partners to operate its business in northern China -- ?including Beijing and Tianjin -- and in the south -- such as in Hong Kong and Shenzhen.
Hsu said the next step is to move toward China's second-tier cities and open outlets at a faster pace.
In stark contrast to President Starbucks' smooth expansion across the Taiwan Strait, its sibling President Chain Store Corp (
Meanwhile, smaller rival Taiwan FamilyMart Co (
Faced with the fast expansion of his company's rivals, Kao Ching-yuan (高清愿), head of Uni-President Group (統一集團), parent of President Chain Store, said Monday that he has instructed employees to come up with other strategies, rather than "naively waiting for authorization from the US," according to Chinese-language daily the Liberty Times.
Kao said if India's Modi Group can obtain the rights to run 7-Eleven stores in India, President Chain Store would not rule out the possibility of forming a strategic alliance with Modi to expand its territory to Southeast Asia.
Jason Lin (
Despite expansion setbacks in China, Kao expects the group to achieve revenues of NT$260 billion (US$8 billion) next year, up 4 percent from this year's estimated NT$250 billion.
MULTIFACETED: A task force has analyzed possible scenarios and created responses to assist domestic industries in dealing with US tariffs, the economics minister said The Executive Yuan is tomorrow to announce countermeasures to US President Donald Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs, although the details of the plan would not be made public until Monday next week, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. The Cabinet established an economic and trade task force in November last year to deal with US trade and tariff related issues, Kuo told reporters outside the legislature in Taipei. The task force has been analyzing and evaluating all kinds of scenarios to identify suitable responses and determine how best to assist domestic industries in managing the effects of Trump’s tariffs, he
In a small town in Paraguay, a showdown is brewing between traditional producers of yerba mate, a bitter herbal tea popular across South America, and miners of a shinier treasure: gold. A rush for the precious metal is pitting mate growers and indigenous groups against the expanding operations of small-scale miners who, until recently, were their neighbors, not nemeses. “They [the miners] have destroyed everything... The canals, springs, swamps,” said Vidal Britez, president of the Yerba Mate Producers’ Association of the town of Paso Yobai, about 210km east of capital Asuncion. “You can see the pollution from the dead fish.
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