Eslite Spectrum Corp (誠品生活) yesterday held a grand opening for a new department store in New Taipei City’s Sindian District (新店) that is the largest in Asia by floor space and would help the leisure lifestyle services provider swing into profit next year.
The new outlet, Eslite Spectrum Sindian, has almost 20,000 ping (66,000m2) of floor space that might generate annual revenue of NT$4 billion to NT$5 billion (US$123.96 million to US$154.95 million) by housing 250 retail brands including 20 themed restaurants to meet the entertainment needs of people in neighboring areas, Eslite Spectrum chairwoman Mercy Wu (吳旻潔) said.
The number of visits turned out higher than expected during the soft opening, giving Eslite Spectrum the confidence to aim high, Wu said.
Photo: CNA
Eslite Spectrum, which operates Eslite Bookstore (誠品書局) and Eslite Hotel (誠品行旅), as well as supplies kitchen equipment and wines, has not yet emerged from COVID-19 pandemic-related losses.
Things should improve next quarter and turn a new page next year with help of the Sindian property and forthcoming outlets in Kaohsiung and Taichung, Wu told reporters.
The Sindian branch takes up partial floors of Yes, Life Yulon City (裕隆城), a mixed-use complex owned by Yulon Motor Co (裕隆汽車).
Photo: CNA
Wu said Yulon invited Eslite to help convert the massive plot of land into a mixed-use complex in 2013, and she was in talks with more than 2,000 retail brands and restaurants to make a presence in the property.
The department store’s location in New Taipei City made luxury brands impractical partners, and Eslite Spectrum had to focus on community-minded shops and eateries instead, Wu said.
“We have to adjust and drop our past preference for lesser-known brands and collaborate with Uniqlo, Niko, Nike and other popular fashion and sports brands to satisfy the needs of different customer groups,” Wu said.
Toward the end, the company also believed there must be sufficient dining options that could account for up to 40 percent of the space, she said.
Still, Eslite Spectrum has set aside generous space for book collections that are as large and diverse as in the Eslite bookstore across from National Taiwan University, Wu said, adding that the bookstore would organize exhibitions and events to entertain customers.
In addition, Vieshow movie theaters are occupying the sixth to eighth floors and could seat 2400 people, according to Yes, Life Yulon City data.
The Yulon Group is seeking to add high-rise residential buildings in the complex to make the best use of its space.
Merida Industry Co (美利達) has seen signs of recovery in the US and European markets this year, as customers are gradually depleting their inventories, the bicycle maker told shareholders yesterday. Given robust growth in new orders at its Taiwanese factory, coupled with its subsidiaries’ improving performance, Merida said it remains confident about the bicycle market’s prospects and expects steady growth in its core business this year. CAUTION ON CHINA However, the company must handle the Chinese market with great caution, as sales of road bikes there have declined significantly, affecting its revenue and profitability, Merida said in a statement, adding that it would
MARKET LEADERSHIP: Investors are flocking to Nvidia, drawn by the company’s long-term fundamntals, dominant position in the AI sector, and pricing and margin power Two years after Nvidia Corp made history by becoming the first chipmaker to achieve a US$1 trillion market capitalization, an even more remarkable milestone is within its grasp: becoming the first company to reach US$4 trillion. After the emergence of China’s DeepSeek (深度求索) sent the stock plunging earlier this year and stoked concerns that outlays on artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure were set to slow, Nvidia shares have rallied back to a record. The company’s biggest customers remain full steam ahead on spending, much of which is flowing to its computing systems. Microsoft Corp, Meta Platforms Inc, Amazon.com Inc and Alphabet Inc are
RISING: Strong exports, and life insurance companies’ efforts to manage currency risks indicates the NT dollar would eventually pass the 29 level, an expert said The New Taiwan dollar yesterday rallied to its strongest in three years amid inflows to the nation’s stock market and broad-based weakness in the US dollar. Exporter sales of the US currency and a repatriation of funds from local asset managers also played a role, said two traders, who asked not to be identified as they were not authorized to speak publicly. State-owned banks were seen buying the greenback yesterday, but only at a moderate scale, the traders said. The local currency gained 0.77 percent, outperforming almost all of its Asian peers, to close at NT$29.165 per US dollar in Taipei trading yesterday. The
The US overtaking China as Taiwan’s top export destination could boost industrial development and wage growth, given the US is a high-income economy, an economist said yesterday. However, Taiwan still needs to diversify its export markets due to the unpredictability of US President Donald Trump’s administration, said Chiou Jiunn-rong (邱俊榮), an economics professor at National Central University. Taiwan’s exports soared to a record US$51.74 billion last month, driven by strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) products and continued orders, with information and communication technology (ICT) and audio/video products leading all sectors. The US reclaimed its position as Taiwan’s top export market, accounting for
RSS