Last year, Eastern Group publicly announced that it had been awarded the Base B project of the Linkou International Media Park in New Taipei City. The Linkou Global Headquarters building is expected to open in 2025. Eastern Group will invest NT$12 billion in a comprehensive plan for healthcare, beauty, pets, hotel, exhibition venue, and e-sports, including a multi-functional exhibition hall and shopping mall. The building will be 180 meters high, and will be sitting upon the 250-meter Linkou Plateau, which will create a new 430-meter landmark of healthcare and beauty in New Taipei. In addition to the planned multi-functional media park, the new brand “Silks X” of the Silks Hotel Group will also be located in the headquarters building, with a NT$1.5 billion investment from Eckare for the joint operations of the hotel. Gary Wang, President of Eastern Group and Chairman of Eckare, and President Steven Pan, Chairman of the Silks Hotel Group, attended a joint press conference today (3/5). The two parties officially signed an agreement announcing the first cross-sector strategic alliance between Eastern Group and Silks Hotel Group, which represented the first new hotel brand debut worldwide in the post-pandemic era.
The new brand “Silks X” under the Silks Hotel Group is expected to be established in the Eastern Linkou Headquarters building in 2025. Currently, Eastern Commerce Company (Eckare), a new subsidiary under Eastern Group, is planning to provide an additional investment of NT$1.5 billion to establish the “Eastern Hotels International Corporation”. Eastern will also be entrusting the hotel and catering services management to “Silks X” under the Silks Hotel Group. Currently, the 26th to 33rd floors will be used as the business hotel floors for Silks X. In the initial planning, there will be 200 guest rooms offering different grades of accommodation, a large banquet hall of 3,636 square meters, as well as Chinese and Western style restaurants. The hotel is expected to attract millions of visitors each year from the Greater Taipei and Taoyuan metropolitan areas, as well as international tourists for dining and leisure accommodation.
Gary Wang said that the Silks Hotel Group is the most professional hotel operator in Taiwan, and Chairman Steven Pan is an entrepreneur he admires. During the pandemic, the hotel industry was severely affected and many hotels closed down, but only the Silks Hotel Group was able to undergo a successful transformation. Although operations in last year’s first quarter were challenging, after quickly adjusting the sales of branded products, dozens of projects were proposed, which created profit growth and impressive EPS of NT$5. The performance of the Silks Hotel Group during the pandemic could be described as “world class.” Therefore, when Gary Wang was planning to find a hotel to cooperate with, Silks was his first choice. Gary Wang pointed out that as “Silks X” is located on the Linkou Plateau in New Taipei City, it will be the tallest hotel in Taiwan upon completion, as well as the second tallest city landmark in Taiwan. In addition, the Linkou International Media Park has the advantage of having three major corporations, namely, Eastern, Mitsui and Sanlih, and aims to become the next Xinyi area, which will attract many international visitors. With the help of the Silks Hotel Group, Gary Wang is certain that Silks X will provide a new level of service quality and give a good impression of Taiwan to foreigners, as well as allowing its management services to reach out to the world. It is estimated that it will attract more than 10 million visitors a year from the Greater Taipei and Taoyuan metropolitan areas, as well as from overseas.
In terms of its main customer base, in addition to the distributors and members of Eckare, Gary Wang pointed out that Taiwan’s aesthetic medicine tourism ranks fourth in the world. Eastern Group is currently seeking cross-industry alliances with hospitals and aesthetic medicine professionals in the hope of integrating their services at the Eastern Group headquarters to partner with the Group’s brands, such as Eastern Natural Beauty, hair and nail salons, and biotech, giving the Group a head start in the healthcare and beauty business in the post-pandemic era.
Gary Wang also mentioned that despite the pandemic, Eastern Group still delivered excellent results, with a total revenue of NT$33 billion in 2020, EPS of NT$14.18, and a target of NT$228.9 billion by 2025. Among them, Eckare has grown rapidly, with more than 300,000 domestic and overseas distributors, while the first year of revenue in 2018 exceeded NT$100 million, the second year NT$400 million, and the third year NT$1.5 billion. This year’s target is set at NT$6 billion and it is expected to reach NT$77.3 billion in global revenue by 2025. We believe that with the first-class management team and innovation skills of Eastern and Silks, “Silks X” in Linkou will not only become a superb hotel, but also serve millions of distributors worldwide, over 9 million members of ETMall, and international visitors. Furthermore, this new landmark will become the pride of Taiwan outside of Taipei 101.
Steven Pan also stated that the pandemic had a huge impact on all industries, and that the tourism industry, the hardest hit by this catastrophe, needs to re-imagine how to face the post-pandemic world. In addition to quickly transforming into urban leisure hotels in the midst of the pandemic, Silks also developed a new hotel brand, “Silks X”, which is not only the first new hotel brand worldwide in the post-pandemic era, but is also tailor-made for and incubated by Eastern. The “X” in “Silks X” stands for “crossover and integration”, which is in line with Eastern Group’s multi-industry and multi-media approach. It is hoped that Silks X will become a place for people and cultures to come together, a platform for Taiwan to connect with the rest of world.
Steven Pan believes that to create a new hotel brand, it is necessary to combine it with a new emerging digital media venue, and the Linkou International Media Park meets all the criteria. Linkou is the youngest emerging area in New Taipei City, attracting many young and elite groups that want to make it their home. In addition to its proximity to the Taoyuan Industrial Technology Park and Taoyuan International Airport, the newly developed Linkou Media Park integrates new media, high-tech, green energy, innovation, and other cross-sector emerging industries. With international tourism and shopping opportunities, it will create vast entertainment and dining demands for business and leisure visitors.
Eastern has always been on the forefront in new media and new retail business models; moreover, innovative development is the best choice to face the post-pandemic era. Silks Hotel Group is the number one hotel in every city and can help Eastern create the top hotel brand in Linkou. Steven Pan also emphasized that this is also the first new hotel brand launched after the global pandemic.
Eastern Group has expanded its subsidiary layout in recent years, internationalized its market, and acquired Natural Beauty, Strawberrynet, and ETtoday Pets. In addition to the development of these channels, it has successfully transformed and developed product brands and content IP, moving towards healthcare, cosmetics, and entertainment and film industries, establishing the one-stop Eastern Lifestyle Circle. In order to drive the development of the Linkou International Media Park, the related companies of the Eastern Group will move into the park and set up the Eastern Global Operation Headquarters to concentrate their resources. Eastern Group has also fulfilled its corporate social responsibility to the residents of New Taipei City by donating 1.05 hectares of land for the construction of a plaza, which is planned to be an open activity plaza. A multi-functional exhibition hall will be built in conjunction with the film industry development, and with the convenience of the adjacent Airport MRT Station A9, it will be the best choice as a venue for startups, performing arts, and corporate activities in Taiwan. With the addition of Silks X, a new premium brand of Silks Hotel Group, the hotel will provide international standard dining and accommodation services, which will not only be the “icing on the cake,” but also become a new hotspot for people to gather, meet, connect, and interact with each other in the Linkou and Greater metropolitan areas. It is expected to attract more than 10 million visitors annually.