With six up and running, Tesco plans to open three new megastores in 2006

April 16, 2005

British retail giant Tesco plans to invest a total of NTD 1.1 billion to NTD 1.2 billion in order to open three additional megastores in Taiwan in 2006. To be opened in Sanchung City (in Taipei County), Taichung City and Kaohsiung City, these new stores will bring the total number of Tesco outlets in Taiwan to nine.

For its new Taichung City superstore, Tesco is participating on a BOT (build-operate-transfer) project with the Taichung City Government and Civil Asset Management Consulting Co. in order to build a massive shopping complex on land owned by the city government. The city government says that in addition to becoming a major landmark, the complex will bring prosperity to the area by creating thousands of jobs. Significantly, this is the first BOT project between the Taichung City Government and a private enterprise. The complex, called London City Shopping Center, is scheduled to open at the end of 2006.

Tesco is already operating one store in Taichung City. It is leasing building space from a local enterprise for this branch.

Tesco is also cooperating with a local enterprise in opening its outlet in Kaohsiung City. Using its own land, China Steel is constructing a building in which Tesco will lease a number of floors for its shopping center. There are reports that Tesco has plans to open a second store in Kaohsiung, giving it a one store in the north part of the city and one in the south.

Superstores are all the rage in Taiwan these days. In addition to Tesco, France's Carrefour, Britain's hardware giant B&Q, Costo of the United States, Sweden's furniture store Ikea and Taiwan's own RT-Mart are also taking advantage of Taiwan's retail consumer market. Taiwan's shoppers enjoy the fun atmosphere and convenience of on-stop mega-shopping. As a reflection of the magnitude of this market, Tesco's two Taichung City outlets are both positioned near the existing superstores of other retailers, as is its Sanchung City store.

Tesco is the world's fourth largest superstore and is second only to Carrefour in Europe. It runs 2,318 stores in twelve countries, employing 326,000 people. The retail giant has taken over the market leader position in six of the twelve countries in which it operates. There are 1,878 Tesco stores in the United Kingdom, 261 in Europe and 179 throughout Asia.

(United Daily News)

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