Organic food store franchises sprouting up all over Taiwan

Organic food store franchises sprouting up all over Taiwan
:::April 26, 2005

Despite prices of organic fruits and vegetables ranging as high as two-times those of non-organic alternatives, industry estimates place the current number of organic food store franchises in Taiwan at over 500. The most successful among these are Kang Ti, Uni-President Group's Santa Cruz, Cotton Fields, Green Village and Organic Garden.

Originally established in 1993, Santa Cruz was purchased by Uni-President Group in 1999 due to the business group's belief that organic foods were the wave of the future. Uni-President ultimately took over direct management in 2002.

Santa Cruz operates ten stores at present, eight in Taipei and one each in Kaohsiung and Tainan. While Uni-President manages these stores directly at present, its plans to adopt a franchise system in the second half of the year at the earliest or in 2006 at the latest. The group aims to have a total of 100 franchises within three years.

In preparation for the franchising of its stores, Santa Cruz, which has hundreds of domestic and overseas suppliers, is currently working with Uni-President's 7-Eleven Chain Stores in order to develop a comprehensive distribution system.

Santa Cruz began turning a profit at the end of 2004. A single store brings in monthly revenues of over NTD 1 million, with the best stores generating NTD 2.5 million to 3 million.

Although it only has a relatively small number of outlets, the backing of Uni-President alone makes Santa Cruz a major player in Taiwan organic foods market. However, Kang Ti, with 126 stores globally, is the standing market leader.

Kang Ti was established in Vancouver, Canada, in 1999 by the head of a successful Taiwanese pharmaceutical company that had immigrated to Canada. The organic store operates 126 franchises in Asia and Canada, with 105 in Taiwan. The others Asian outlets are located in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. It expects to have a total of 200 stores running by the end of 2005.

(United Daily News)