Hands Tailung Creative Life Store (台隆手創館) has seen its sales in Taiwan grow in the first eight months of the year despite a sluggish domestic economy, the houseware retailer said yesterday.
Hands Tailung Creative Life Store is the sole agent of Japan-based Tokyo Hands in Taiwan.
Its chairman, Huang Chiao-chang (黃教漳), said the chain store’s sales rose 10 percent in the January-to-August period from a year earlier.
Hands Tailung did not reveal sales data for the eight-month period, but forecast that sales for the full year would be NT$1.1 billion (US$37.55 million).
Huang said the home and living products the company specializes in are flourishing in Japan because they are low-priced but offer value to people’s daily lives.
Japanese consumers are more willing to spend money on such items if they have interesting design elements and the same is true in Taiwan, he said.
Huang also attributed the company’s sales growth this year to the opening of new branches last year and the growing number of visitors to Taiwan.
According to government statistics, Taiwan welcomed a record 6 million foreign visitors last year, of which 3.6 million came to Taiwan for pleasure.
“Tourists come shopping in the stores during their visits in Taiwan,” Huang said.
Sales have also been helped by the company’s continuing introduction of new products, Huang said, adding that Tokyo Hands and Hands Tailung put considerable effort into rolling out products that are designed to attract buying.
Japanese products used around the home form the bulk of the items currently sold in Hands Tailung, but Huang said the company is thinking of adding more European brands in the future.
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