Major retail store chains reported record revenues last month, as same-store sales grew by single to double-digit percentages from a year earlier, driven mainly by the recovery of customer traffic and higher demand for select products, such as cosmetics and skincare products, travel accessories and beverages, companies’ regulatory filings showed earlier this week.
President Chain Store Corp (統一超商), Taiwan FamilyMart Co (全家便利商店) and Poya International Co (寶雅國際) saw their same-store sales last month increase 4.5 percent, 9 percent and 16.3 percent respectively from a year earlier.
However, same-store sales growth this quarter could fall to a low-to-mid single-digit percentage due to a high comparison base last quarter, although the companies’ overall operations would remain firm, buoyed by peak-season demand and store expansions, Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co (元大投顧) said in a note on Monday.
Photo: David Chang, EPA-EFE
On Monday, President Chain Store reported that consolidated revenue last month grew 9.29 percent year-on-year to NT$26.18 billion (US$838.1 million), the best June sales in the company’s history.
Taiwan’s largest convenience store operator, which owned 6,757 7-Eleven stores as of June 30 across the nation, said that last month’s figure also represented the third highest on record, after NT$26.53 billion in May and NT$26.61 billion in January.
President Chain Store attributed the growth to rising convenience store sales in Taiwan, as well as contributions from its subsidiaries, including drugstore chain Cosmed (康是美), coffee shop operator President Starbucks Coffee Corp (統一星巴克), home-delivery service President Transnet Corp (統一速達), and convenience store operations in Shanghai and the Philippines.
In the first six months of the year, cumulative revenue increased 10.28 percent annually to NT$153.06 billion, it said.
FamilyMart, which operates the nation’s No. 2 convenience store chain with 4,182 stores nationwide as of the end of last month, reported that revenue last month increased 12.31 percent from a year earlier to a record NT$8.43 billion.
FamilyMart said in its filing on Monday that last month’s growth reflected its continued store expansion and robust sales of fresh food, beverages and iced products, while the development of its online-merge-offline, or OMO, business model also boosted sales.
In the first six months, revenue expanded 10.78 percent to NT$47.84 billion, compared with NT$43.19 billion during the same period last year, it said.
Beauty and daily merchandise retailer Poya International Co (寶雅國際) posted revenue of NT$1.81 billion last month, up 19.99 percent from a year earlier and marking the best June level in its history.
Cumulative revenue from January to last month totaled NT$10.57 billion, representing an annual increase of 16.38 percent, said the company, which had 328 namesake stores and 41 Poya Home hardware outlets as of June 30.
Meanwhile, e-commerce companies such as Momo.com Inc (富邦媒體) and PChome Online Inc (網路家庭) are expected to resume double-digit percentage growth in sales this quarter on the back of seasonal demand, following a weak performance in the first half of the year, Yuanta said.
Momo.com on Monday reported that revenue rose 4.64 percent annually last month to NT$9.28 billion, a record high for June, on the back of the mid-year “618 e-commerce shopping festival.”
In the first six months, revenue totaled NT$51.33 billion, an increase of 6.77 percent from a year earlier, it said in a statement.
By contrast, PChome’s revenue performance last month showed that it was still facing severe challenges across all of its business units, including e-commerce, online marketplaces, mobile payments and other Internet services, with consolidated revenue falling 20.29 percent year-on-year to NT$3.08 billion.
Its cumulative revenue in the first half dropped 16.18 percent to NT$19.19 billion.
Semiconductor shares in China surged yesterday after Reuters reported the US had ordered chipmaking giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to halt shipments of advanced chips to Chinese customers, which investors believe could accelerate Beijing’s self-reliance efforts. TSMC yesterday started to suspend shipments of certain sophisticated chips to some Chinese clients after receiving a letter from the US Department of Commerce imposing export restrictions on those products, Reuters reported on Sunday, citing an unnamed source. The US imposed export restrictions on TSMC’s 7-nanometer or more advanced designs, Reuters reported. Investors figured that would encourage authorities to support China’s industry and bought shares
FLEXIBLE: Taiwan can develop its own ground station equipment, and has highly competitive manufacturers and suppliers with diversified production, the MOEA said The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) yesterday disputed reports that suppliers to US-based Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) had been asked to move production out of Taiwan. Reuters had reported on Tuesday last week that Elon Musk-owned SpaceX had asked their manufacturers to produce outside of Taiwan given geopolitical risks and that at least one Taiwanese supplier had been pushed to relocate production to Vietnam. SpaceX’s requests place a renewed focus on the contentious relationship Musk has had with Taiwan, especially after he said last year that Taiwan is an “integral part” of China, sparking sharp criticism from Taiwanese authorities. The ministry said
CHANGING JAPAN: Nvidia-powered AI services over cellular networks ‘will result in an artificial intelligence grid that runs across Japan,’ Nvidia’s Jensen Huang said Softbank Group Corp would be the first to build a supercomputer with chips using Nvidia Corp’s new Blackwell design, a demonstration of the Japanese company’s ambitions to catch up on artificial intelligence (AI). The group’s telecom unit, Softbank Corp, plans to build Japan’s most powerful AI supercomputer to support local services, it said. That computer would be based on Nvidia’s DGX B200 product, which combines computer processors with so-called AI accelerator chips. A follow-up effort will feature Grace Blackwell, a more advanced version, the company said. The announcement indicates that Softbank Group, which until early 2019 owned 4.9 percent of Nvidia, has secured a
TECH SECURITY: The deal assures that ‘some of the most sought-after technology on the planet’ returns to the US, US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said The administration of US President Joe Biden finalized its CHIPS Act incentive awards for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), marking a major milestone for a program meant to bring semiconductor production back to US soil. TSMC would get US$6.6 billion in grants as part of the contract, the US Department of Commerce said in a statement yesterday. Though the amount was disclosed earlier this year as part of a preliminary agreement, the deal is now legally binding — making it the first major CHIPS Act award to reach this stage. The chipmaker, which is also taking up to US$5 billion
RSS