Starbucks Plan Big in Asia
The coffee giant revealed its plans to triple the number of its cafes in the coming years in China. By limiting new store openings, cutting costs including some jobs and closing hundreds of underperforming stores during the recession, traffic in its store has risen as well as revenue and profitability. It will consider offering more products in grocery stores and opening new kinds of stores to build on its recent recovery. It has already increased its presence in Canada, Japan and emerging markets in China, Brazil, India and Russia.
Mazda to Open Plant in Mexico
Mazda Motor Corp is planning to open a car plant in Mexico by 2013 by a joint venture with Sumitomo Corp to explore the emerging Brazilian and other Latin American markets. Mazda is aiming to build subcompacts and other vehicles to target annual output of more than 100,000 units. This is the first time that Mazda has decided to build partnership with another company in an overseas plant project other than Ford Motor Co., which was its largest shareholder before Ford sold the bulk of its Mazda shareholdings in November. Many carmakers, including Toyota Motor Corp., as well as auto parts suppliers have set up bases in Mexico.
Skymark to Hire Former JAL Employees
After Japan Airlines Corp. won court approval on Nov.30 for its rehabilitation plan, Japan’s low-fare Skymark Airlines said it would hire around 470 former Japan Airlines employees. It seems that Skymark is to expand its small domestic network into international routes since last month it planned to buy four Airbus A380 superjumbos, with an option to buy two more in a 2.8 billion dollar deal.
Tokyo Government to Buy Forests around Tamagawa
Tokyo metropolitan government is planning to purchase private forests surrounding the upper reaches of the Tamagawa river in an effort to conserve the river. According to a government official, this move is to keep Tokyo water tasty. Although the four landowners are willing to sell their property to the government, it still will be at least three years until official decisions. Almost 80% of the tap water is drawn from reservoirs along the Tonegawa and Arakawa rivers, and the rest is drawn from reservoirs along the Tamagawa river. It is the first time that government is to buy private land to keep tap water tasty.
Hotels Get More Business
Maggie Zhang joined iTV-Asia in September 2010. She is originally from Henan, China and is “Content Coordinator” for Japan. She is focused on a number of industries including advertising, energy, entertainment, finance, food & beverage, media and real estate. Maggie is new to Shanghai and is exploring and learning about this great city. She can be reached at maggie.zhang@itv-asia.com.
According to a recent Nikkei survey, tourism and business travel are up and hotels are enjoying more occupancy rates and less vacancy compared with last year. The average occupancy rate for mainstream hotels in Tokyo is up from 2.4% to 85.1% in October. Although these days the number of the Chinese tourist traffic is down, the gap is being filled by Russia tourists and elsewhere.
Maggie Zhang joined iTV-Asia in September 2010. She is originally from Henan, China and is “Content Coordinator” for Japan. She is focused on a number of industries including advertising, energy, entertainment, finance, food & beverage, media and real estate. Maggie is new to Shanghai and is exploring and learning about this great city. She can be reached at maggie.zhang@itv-asia.com.