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Tag: Eslite

  • Eslite to open 100 small-format stores in Taiwan

    Eslite to open 100 small-format stores in Taiwan

    Taiwanese bookseller Eslite is shifting its focus into smaller community stores in its home market after struggling due to Covid-19 last year.

    According to Eslite’s chairwoman, Mercy Wu, 100 small-format stores will be rolled out within the next three years and one store is set to open in China in 2024. Eslite’s decision to change its focus from giant destination stores to smaller, corner-store style outlets follows a drop in tourists due to Covid-19 restrictions, which has made the large shops unviable.

    Meanwhile, small stores will help the bookstore chain to pick up customers in smaller communities it could not reach before.

    Eslite will continue to operate its largest store in the New Taipei City district of Xindian in late next year or early 2023.

    The brand closed nine outlets in Taiwan last year including its first 24-hour bookshop. Its mega store plan in Kuala Lumpur, which is set to open next year, has been delayed and is likely to launch in 2023 given the ongoing pandemic situation in Malaysia.

    Eslite’s stores outside Taiwan include outlets in Hong Kong, Tokyo and Suzhou.

  • Eslite opening mega store in KL, Malaysia

    Eslite opening mega store in KL, Malaysia

    Eslite Spectrum Corp (誠品生活), which runs the Eslite bookstore chain in Taiwan and abroad, yesterday inked an agreement with Malaysia’s YTL Corp Bhd to open a branch in downtown Kuala Lumpur in 2022.

    The two sides signed the partnership via a teleconference to launch the Taiwanese bookstore brand in YTL’s mixed-use property The Starhill in Bukit Bintang, a central business district in the Malaysian capital.

    Despite the company’s aim to grow its business abroad, Eslite Spectrum chairwoman Mercy Wu (吳旻潔) said that she was initially hesitant about expanding to Malaysia when the world was in the grip of a pandemic.

    “I decided to take the step at the urging of YTL Corp, the largest conglomerate in Malaysia whose founder, Yeoh Tiong Lay (楊忠禮), was an immigrant from Kinmen and had long supported Chinese culture and education,” Wu told a news conference in Taipei.

    Joseph Yeoh (楊恭賢), vice president of YTL hotels and property wing, said from Kuala Lumpur he was confident that Eslite would succeed in Malaysia, as many people there would still prefer in-person shopping once the COVID-19 pandemic is over.

    YTL has a global footprint with nine shopping malls in different parts of the world and the collaboration with Eslite could lead to other partnerships in the future, Joseph Yeoh said.

    “We will first focus on the current project,” he said.

    The upcoming flagship Eslite branch at The Starhill would be a 2,000 ping (6,600m2) space featuring a bookstore, as well as retail, food and beverage sections, Wu said.

    A Taiwanese team is in charge of its interior design, in line with the company’s mission to integrate the humanities, arts and creativity into life, Wu said.

    “Our initial hesitation stemmed from our insistence on doing the best we can to live up to a reputation of being the top cultural brand across Chinese societies,” Wu said.

    Kuala Lumpur, dubbed the World Book Capital City by the UN, is an ideal destination for expansion, as Malaysia has topped the list of foreign visitors from Southeast Asia for the past 10 years, she said.

    Malaysians have long embraced cultural diversity, with Chinese constituting the second-largest ethnic group, making Malaysia a major export market for Taiwanese books, she added.

    The new Eslite branch is expected to help drive cultural tourism in Malaysia and benefit the two partners, Wu and Yeoh said.

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  • Taiwan’s Eslite to make Southeast Asian debut in Malaysia

    Taiwan’s Eslite to make Southeast Asian debut in Malaysia

    Taiwanese bookstore chain Eslite is preparing to launch in Kuala Lumpur.

    Although final details have yet to be released, the new 3300–6600sqm store will likely trade in downtown Kuala Lumpur. The opening, scheduled for next year and potentially delayed due to Covid-19 concerns, will see Taiwan’s largest bookseller opening its first store in Malaysia. Earlier reports have suggested the firm has been seeking a partner in the territory for some time.

    The 30-year-old chain is well known for its unique fusion retail business model as a bookstore, mall and cultural creative platform. It operates 48 stores in Taiwan as well as overseas outlets in Hong Kong, Mainland China and Japan. The Malaysian store will be the first Eslite outlet in Southeast Asia.

    Despite the expansion, Eslite’s business has struggled in its home territory, prompting a series of high-profile store closures, including its flagship location in Dunnan where it famously traded 24 hours.

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  • Eslite Bookstore to open outlet in Tokyo

    Eslite Bookstore to open outlet in Tokyo

    Taiwan’s Eslite bookstore chain is set to launch its first outlet in Tokyo this week.

    The store opening marks Eslite Spectrum Corp’s 30th anniversary as well as the first time for the firm to start-up business in a territory where Chinese is not spoken. The 50th Eslite location, it will trade in books and other merchandise sourced from Taiwan and Japan.

    The late Robert C.Y. Wu, who founded the bookstore, is on record as hoping the store would become a “warm venue for people to meet and connect”.

    Eslite has stores in Hong Kong.

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  • Eslite Taipei bookstore closing down

    Eslite Taipei bookstore closing down

    Eslite Taipei, the world’s first 24-hour bookstore, is scheduled to shut down next year.

    The popular Taiwanese bookstore chain will discontinue its flagship location in Dunnan, upon the expiry of its lease next year after 19 years of trading.

    The firm’s chairwoman Mercy Wu has admitted that no plans for the store are in the works following closure. She had previously stated that another Eslite location could have its hours extended to offer a 24-hour service to replace the Dunnan store.

    However, the firm’s previous experiments in round-the-clock bookstore service – including a trial in Hysan Place, Hong Kong – have proved not to be viable due to low customer turnout.

    Wu has been quoted as expressing hopes that Eslite stores will maintain their independence and “remain the first and last stop of book lovers in the next 10 years”.

  • Eslite to open in Japan with partner

    Eslite to open in Japan with partner

    Taiwanese bookstore chain Eslite is planning to expand into Japan. The prominent bookstore business is using the move to build its international profile, and has announced its plans as amounting to a “new starting point for cross-culture ventures”. Eslite’s Japanese partner has yet to be named.

    The firm’s long-term plan is to expand into Southeast Asia, and it has been contacted by multiple potential partners, according to chairperson Mercy Wu. It is currently considering potential different modes of partnership.

    Eslite is a prominent name in the books industry in Taiwan, with 42 stores nationwide, as well as an additional three in Hong Kong and one in Suzhou.

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  • Eslite China makes debut in Suzhou

    Eslite China makes debut in Suzhou

    Taiwanese bookstore operator Eslite Corporation has opened its first shop in Mainland China.

    The Eslite China store has opened in Suzhou in a high profile event featuring some of China’s most famous writers and artists, including Lin Hwai-min.

    Eslite has opened two stores in Hong Kong, redefining the nature of the bookshop in the territory.

    Featuring prominently in the store – which merges art and books with exhibitions and curated collections of gift lines, is a painting by Cai Guo-Qiang in Taipei in 2009, titled Day and Night.

    The Eslite Corporation operates 43 retail bookstores in Taiwan. The Chinese store is its third overseas.

    Despite the brand being new to the mainland, there is a surprisingly high level of local awareness, in part due to Chinese visiting the Hong Kong flagship stores.

  • Eslite Hong Kong adds second store

    Eslite Hong Kong adds second store

    The ranks of English language bookshops in Hong Kong may be dwindling, but someone forgot to tell Taiwanese retailer Eslite.

    The second store will be themed ‘Travellers, Taiwan, Diversity and Culture’, spread over two floors of Star City at 3 Salisbury Rd. It will feature more than 25,000 titles in Chinese and English and trade 12 hours a day, from 10am to 10pm.

    The doors will open on October 1 with an official launch planned for October 9.

    Eslite has enjoyed huge success with its Hysan Place store, a multi-storey venue which is as much a place to dwell as to buy books. While it cut back its trading hours from 24-seven to a late night closing, its customer numbers and sales turnover have clearly proven there remains a place for the megastore format. Reports suggest the store sold 706,000 books last year and on average its customers buy three books per visit.

    Smaller rivals like Australian chain Dymocks have closed the doors of at least three stores since 2014 and the iconic design and arts-focused Page One closed its Times Square branch last February after 18 years.

    Eslite, which has 48 stores in Taiwan, has a strategy in overseas markets of building a small number of large format stores with broad selection in major cities. It opened in Causeway Bay in August 2012. Besides books, it sells stationery and gift wares created by Taiwanese artists, and includes a cafe.

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  • Chinese bookstores rank among ‘world’s coolest’

    Chinese bookstores rank among ‘world’s coolest’

    Three Greater Chinese bookstores have been ranked amongst ‘the world’s coolest’ by US-based global news organisation CNN.

    In a newly-released selection posted online CNN observes that old or new, all of the stores round the world its editors selected for the “World’s Coolest” list have fascinating stories, serving as “historic sites, sanctuaries, salons of culture and must-visit entries in any travel itinerary”.

    The three Asian stores making the list are Eslite Bookstore in Taipei, Librairie Avant-Garde in Nanjing, China and 1200 Bookshop in Guangzhou, China.

    The 17,000 sqm Eslite store, which opened in 1999, trades 24-seven and stocks books and magazines in a multitude of languages. Its success has been followed with more stores in Taipei and another in Hong Kong’s Hysan Place.

    The Librairie Avant-Garde is described by CNN as “China’s most beautiful bookstore”, located in a massive underground parking lot once used as a bomb shelter.

    “The 4000 sqm store’s unusual features include large crosses, a copy of Rodin’s ‘The Thinker’ and a checkout counter built out of thousands of old books,” writes CNN.

    “A good bookshop should provide space, vision and nurture the city with its humanitarian spirit,” owner Qian Xiaohua told CNN. “It’s a place for people to have dreams in the city.”

    And the 1200 Bookshop, which also trades around the clock, has earned a reputation for great books and coffee as well as a haven for travellers, with backpackers invited to stay in a private room in-store.

    “We are doing business at the store during daytime but making friends at night,” says founder Liu Erxi.

     

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