Eslite targets mainland and HK with bookshop-anchored lifestyle centres
Mixed merchandising in its bookshop-anchored lifestyle centres is Taiwan firm's key to success
The chain that created a bookshop culture in Taiwan is studying plans for more shops in Hong Kong and as many as four on the mainland.
Its management expects its unusual mix of merchandise to be a hit with customers from across the strait as well.
Eslite, which was founded in Taiwan 23 years ago and now operates 40 often packed shops around the island, opened an outlet on August 10 in Causeway Bay and hoped to open three more in Hong Kong, general manager Jack Lee said.
Lee said that by 2014 it hoped to open a twin-tower entertainment city in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, and would be looking to Beijing and Shanghai for as many as three future properties.
Eslite's books, a million of which are sold in Taiwan each year, account for just 30 per cent of the chain's NT$12 billion (HK$3.1 billion) in revenue.
Taiwanese readers don't always buy what they read but instead order drinks at a shop's sideshow coffee houses. More find their ways to Eslite's malls of concessionaire-run bakeries, and clothes, cosmetics and soap outlets. The same mixed-merchandising formula would appeal to the mainland and Hong Kong as reading and lifestyle habits changed, Lee said.