German publisher Taschen enters Hong Kong market with first Asian bookstore – and a Ferrari book costing HK$250,000
Company hopes its books-only business model, featuring special and limited-edition offerings, will help differentiate it from rivals
A German publisher has swum against the tide by opening a bookshop in Hong Kong – its first in Asia – with a game plan for success in a battered industry that includes a book costing HK$250,000.
The pricey collector’s item from the new Taschen store is a compilation of previously unseen photographs, drawings and sketches from the Ferrari archives and private collectors, detailing the main characters and milestones in the Italian carmaker’s history from its founding in 1947.
For the full price, which would pay for a four-seater Volkswagen in Hong Kong, the buyer will take home a book sealed with the Ferrari horse logo tucked in an aluminium case that sits on a sculpture evocative of a 12-cylinder racing car engine.
The book on its own costs HK$47,000 (US$6,000).
Marlene Taschen, 32, managing director of the business set up by her father, Benedikt Taschen, in Cologne in the 1980s, said Hong Kong would serve as the company’s barometer, helping it decide where in Asia it would go next.
