The century-old French bakery chain Paul opened its Taiwan flagship store at a spot on Renai Circle in Taipei on Saturday, despite the bad weather brought by Typhoon Sinlaku.
“Despite the typhoon last weekend, our flamand were completely sold out before 10am,” Daphne Lai (賴郁芬), chairperson of Bon Paul Co (邦保羅), who is in charge of the store’s operations, said by telephone yesterday.
SPECIAL EDITIONS
One of the bakery’s exclusive items — and its most expensive at NT$600 each — are the double cheese flamand, which weigh 400g and are only made on Saturday and Sunday, six per day.
Company officials say 95 percent of their ingredients are imported directly from France.
Only fresh vegetables are provided by Taiwanese suppliers, they said.
Paul will offer up to 104 types of bread, with prices ranging between NT$48 and NT$600. The breads are pre-baked in France and frozen immediately for shipment to Taiwan, where they are defrosted and baked at the store.
The Renai store combines a restaurant, bakery and tea room, and nearly NT$30 million (US$939,000) was spent on the decor.
EXPANSION PLANS
The company expects the store’s annual sales to reach NT$100 million, as it is rather upbeat about the strong spending power in the area.
In the next five years, the company plans to open up to 20 outlets at department stores and shopping malls.
Founded in 1889, Paul now owns 350 stores in France, with a total of 500 stores in 25 countries.
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
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
TIGHT-LIPPED: UMC said it had no merger plans at the moment, after Nikkei Asia reported that the firm and GlobalFoundries were considering restarting merger talks United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 4 contract chipmaker, yesterday launched a new US$5 billion 12-inch chip factory in Singapore as part of its latest effort to diversify its manufacturing footprint amid growing geopolitical risks. The new factory, adjacent to UMC’s existing Singapore fab in the Pasir Res Wafer Fab Park, is scheduled to enter volume production next year, utilizing mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer process technologies, UMC said in a statement. The company plans to invest US$5 billion during the first phase of the new fab, which would have an installed capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, it said. The
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort