Breeze Development Co Ltd (微風廣場實業), which operates three department stores and two shopping malls in Taipei, is to launch its first department store in the city’s Xinyi District (信義) on Friday, hoping to generate NT$3 billion (US$98.64 million) in sales next year.
The upcoming Breeze Song Gao (微風松高) department store is aimed at customers between 15 and 30 years old, and the company has said that more than 80 percent of the new venture’s tenant stores are to be “exclusive,” either with no other outlets in Xinyi or across the nation.
“Instead of cannibalizing the current market in the district, we hope the launch of this new department store will bring in new customers with new demand, leading to a bigger market for the area’s department store sector as a whole,” Breeze Development chief executive Henry Liao (廖鎮漢) told a media briefing yesterday.
The company’s new store is to introduce more than 20 South Korean brands in the apparel, skincare, and food and beverage sectors, hoping to capitalize on young customers’ interest in South Korean pop culture and fashion, Liao said.
Breeze Song Gao is also to include the nation’s first Hennes & Mauritz AB (H&M) store, Europe’s second-largest clothing retailer, with the three-floor outlet expected to be launched officially in January next year.
The company has invested between NT$1.5 billion and NT$2 billion in the new department store over the past 11 months, Liao said, adding that it expects the venture to break even in its second year of operation.
Breeze Development is also planning to open a second department store in Xinyi in October next year, forecasting that the two stores will raise the company’s total sales to between NT$23 billion and NT$25 billion in 2016, compared with its sales target of NT$13 billion this year.
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