Eslite Spectrum Corp (誠品生活), which operates bookstores, restaurants, hotels and commercial centers in Taiwan, on Thursday said it aims to open four new bookstores over the coming quarters, as the company aims to extend its reach and attract more local readers.
The company, launched in 2005 and listed on the over-the-counter bourse in 2013, is 51 percent held by Eslite Corp (誠品), one of the largest retail bookstore chains in Taiwan. Shares closed 0.36 percent higher at NT$140.5 on Friday.
In the second quarter of next year, the company is to unveil its first bookstore in Hualien County, Eslite Spectrum vice president Lin Wan-ju (林婉如) told reporters after a media gathering in Taipei.
The company is to open another store in Taipei’s Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Department Store (新光三越百貨) in the third quarter and one in Kaohsiung in the fourth quarter, Lin said, adding that it also plans to open a new outlet in Taichung by the end of next year at the earliest.
The expansion plan is to catalyze the company’s growth momentum, but is not expected to start making significant revenue contribution until the final quarter of next year, Jih Sun Securities Investment Consulting Co (日盛投顧) said in a client note on Friday.
Brick-and-mortar stores have become less dominant as online bookstores gain popularity, but Lin gave a positive outlook for the local bookstore industry, citing an Eslite survey that showed that nearly 60 percent of local readers still visit physical bookstores every month.
“There is still room for the company [to open more bookstores in the nation],” she said.
The company is to deploy big data analytics to understand consumer behavior and provide better services, Lin said.
Eslite Spectrum operates 44 bookstores in Taiwan, Hong Kong and China’s Suzhou, with customer traffic of nearly 200 million people last year, according to a company statement.
It posted cumulative revenue of NT$3.86 billion (US$128.7 million) for the first 11 months of this year, edging up 0.01 percent from same period last year, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
Bookstores and commercial centers contribute nearly 78 percent of the company’s total sales, while restaurants and hotels account for 18 percent and 4 percent respectively.
Eslite Hotel (誠品行旅), which opened in 2015, remains unprofitable and is not expected to break even until 2019.
Overall, Eslite Spectrum reported NT$340 million in net income in the first three quarters of this year, down 3.2 percent year-on-year, with earnings per share (EPS) of NT$7.06.
Jih Sun forecast the company’s revenue for the entire year would increase 1 percent year-on-year to NT$4.31 billion, with net income rising 2 percent to NT$452 million, or EPS of NT$9.54.
Revenue next year is expected to grow 5.6 percent to NT$4.55 billion and net income is to reach NT$461 million, or NT$9.73 per share, Jih Sun said.
CHIP WAR: Tariffs on Taiwanese chips would prompt companies to move their factories, but not necessarily to the US, unleashing a ‘global cross-sector tariff war’ US President Donald Trump would “shoot himself in the foot” if he follows through on his recent pledge to impose higher tariffs on Taiwanese and other foreign semiconductors entering the US, analysts said. Trump’s plans to raise tariffs on chips manufactured in Taiwan to as high as 100 percent would backfire, macroeconomist Henry Wu (吳嘉隆) said. He would “shoot himself in the foot,” Wu said on Saturday, as such economic measures would lead Taiwanese chip suppliers to pass on additional costs to their US clients and consumers, and ultimately cause another wave of inflation. Trump has claimed that Taiwan took up to
A start-up in Mexico is trying to help get a handle on one coastal city’s plastic waste problem by converting it into gasoline, diesel and other fuels. With less than 10 percent of the world’s plastics being recycled, Petgas’ idea is that rather than letting discarded plastic become waste, it can become productive again as fuel. Petgas developed a machine in the port city of Boca del Rio that uses pyrolysis, a thermodynamic process that heats plastics in the absence of oxygen, breaking it down to produce gasoline, diesel, kerosene, paraffin and coke. Petgas chief technology officer Carlos Parraguirre Diaz said that in
Japan intends to closely monitor the impact on its currency of US President Donald Trump’s new tariffs and is worried about the international fallout from the trade imposts, Japanese Minister of Finance Katsunobu Kato said. “We need to carefully see how the exchange rate and other factors will be affected and what form US monetary policy will take in the future,” Kato said yesterday in an interview with Fuji Television. Japan is very concerned about how the tariffs might impact the global economy, he added. Kato spoke as nations and firms brace for potential repercussions after Trump unleashed the first salvo of
SUPPORT: The government said it would help firms deal with supply disruptions, after Trump signed orders imposing tariffs of 25 percent on imports from Canada and Mexico The government pledged to help companies with operations in Mexico, such as iPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), shift production lines and investment if needed to deal with higher US tariffs. The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday announced measures to help local firms cope with the US tariff increases on Canada, Mexico, China and other potential areas. The ministry said that it would establish an investment and trade service center in the US to help Taiwanese firms assess the investment environment in different US states, plan supply chain relocation strategies and
RSS