Direct-to-consumer products raise their awareness in Taiwan

TAIWAN's STRONGEST LOCAL BRANDS

Local brands who directly sell their products to consumers have risen their status in Taiwan. Due to the pandemic, the position of consumer brands has improved greatly.

Uni-President, the biggest food enterprise in Taiwan, raised one position in this year's local brands ranking and became the second most popular local brand in Taiwan.

Uni-President is the operator of all 7 Eleven convenience stores in Taiwan. It also sells instant noodles, beverages, bread and even facemask. Unlike other companies that suffered during the pandemic, Uni-President's stock rose 18% during the pandemic, as people have faith in its ability to provide when the lockdown happens.

Uni-President also tried new things during the pandemic to cope with the trend. It started a concept store called "Simple Fit", combining 7 Eleven, gym and medical beauty care products. The company opened its first Simple Fit store in Taichung in June. Uni-President also added the number of the vending machines during the pandemic, to cater people's need for contactless purchases.

PX Mart is another convenience brand that improved its ranking this year on our list. As a local market brand, PX Mart used its offline stores to boost its brand's image into local communities. In March, PX Mart said it would give away 100,000 free coffees to doctors, nurses, firefighters and others. PX Mart's sales also increased during the pandemic as customers were storing food and cooking at home. Its fresh-food business grew three times year-on-year in the first half of 2020.

Another local brand which improved its ranking is Giant, a Taiwanese manufacturer that mainly produces bicycle. Cycling has become a symbol of a healthy lifestyle, which drove up the sales of Giant's bikes. Also, as Taiwan controls COVID-19 spreading better than others, more Taiwanese tend to go cycling as a way to fight depression and build a healthy body.

There are some interesting changes in Taiwanese electronic brands. Consumer-facing brands such as Acer and HTC all dropped in the local brands ranking. Electronic suppliers such as TSMC and Foxconn made their way up in the brand ranking list. It shows a decline of Taiwan's local consumer electronics brands. But as a leader in the global electronics supply chain, Taiwanese companies such as TSMC and Foxconn still benefited from the global order increase of electronic products. Another reason for the rise of TSMC and Foxconn is their constant appearance on financial news, as they are among the best-performing stocks in Taiwan. It would be hard to ignore them when everyone focuses on how to earn and save money during the pandemic.