President Chain Store Corporation prioritizes product quality management. To safeguard customer health and safety, the Company implements robust control measures across three key stages of the value chain, including raw material sourcing, logistics and in-store operations. The table below outlines the measures applied across each stage and the overall quality management system:

 

Raw Material Management	Logistics Management	Store Management
Tracking and traceability system Product quality inspection	Logistics management	Product labeling Service Quality Evaluation Quality Assurance Inspection Quality Assurance and Ethical Corporate Management Certification Training Inspection
Training for the quality management system Internal audits of the quality management system External audits of the quality management system

 

In 2024, a total of four product recall incidents were recorded for private-label products involving 852 units. These include both official and voluntary recalls (not mandated by authorities but initiated due to food safety concerns). Moving forward, the Company will continue to enhance its quality management system to minimize future recalls of private-label products.

 

Raw Material Management

Tracking and Traceability

To effectively monitor product safety and take up the responsibility of President Chain Store Corporation as a retail business, President Chain Store Corporation works with the ROC Fresh Foods Development Association to set up a Material and Quality Assurance System (MAS) for private-label products. This ensures that product raw materials and suppliers can be tracked and managed. The main document in the MAS system is the product specification document, which records the sources of raw materials and the suppliers.

President Chain Store Corporation meets the definition of a vendor of box meals as set forth in Article 9 of the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation and set up a traceability system for the meal box category in accordance with the official document (Food and Drug Administration Document No.1071300516 authorized by the Ministry of Health and Welfare on 26 June, 2018).

 

Quality Certification

To manage and stay on top of product quality, President Chain Store Corporation’s Quality Testing Laboratory obtained certification following items specified by TFDA and TAF (ISO/IEC 17025:2017). After a product is made, the laboratory first samples and tests it for microorganisms with chemical methods, ensuring product safety before it is put on the shelf.

 

 

President Chain Store Corporation adopted the method of Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points to evaluate risk factors. Items include legal documents of factories, proper labeling, and analysis report on the component of raw materials. President Chain Store Corporation also provides ISO 22000 training and legal compliance training on new regulations for risk awareness and control. In addition, President Chain Store Corporation requires OEM factories for private label food products to obtain domestic and international food safety certifications and require all suppliers to sign the “Agreement on Product Quality Assurance.”The Quality Assurance Department conduct onsite evaluations and sensitivity stress tests on a regular and random basis for food hazard factor inspections and supplier management. In order to ensure suppliers compliance with environmental safety and sustainability requirements, we conduct market monitoring and product sampling inspections. In periodic random inspections, we have strengthened microbiological testing for key products such as ready-to-eat fresh food items, focusing on indicators such as Enterobacteriaceae and pathogenic bacteria. The compliance rate is 99.8%.

Logistics Management

President Chain Store Corporation products are shipped to stores after production. Ensuring product quality during transportation is the key to stable product quality and safety. Therefore, even though the logistics company is not a main element in the scope of disclosure in this report, its operations are still disclosed due to its impact on product safety. After President Chain Store Corporation products and raw materials are manufactured by suppliers or contract manufacturers, they are shipped to stores by a logistics company. To ensure that the quality of products is maintained and guaranteed throughout the entire process of shipping, storage, and display and to reduce potential risk to products due to temperature, employees or sanitation, we partner with logistics companies on initial logistics and in-store product management and service audits. Initial logistics involves cooperation on shipping, taking product quality management processes from the store and pushing them upstream to the supplier end to set up a comprehensive quality control mechanism.

Store Management

Product Labeling

Transparent product labeling is key to President Chain Store Corporation’s promise to safeguard the rights and health of its customers. In addition to following MOHW’ s “Guidelines for Nutrition Labeling of Packaged Foods” and “Nutritional Claims of Packaged Foods, our“Product Safety Management”rules stipulate that new suppliers’ product labeling must conform to the Commodity Labeling Act, Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation or relevant government laws and regulations. We also require suppliers to sign an agreement guaranteeing that the ingredients, manufacturing, labeling and advertisements for their products all conform to relevant laws and regulations. In addition to screening potential new suppliers, product labels are the items that the logistics center must check upon receiving a shipment (including bar codes, expiration dates and Chinese labeling). President Chain Store Corporation also uses its “Packaging Internal Control Design System” to keep abreast of the information on our own brand product labels. This ensures that all products have clearly labeled information from manufacturing to shipping to final sale in the store.

 

President Chain Store Corporation High-Quality Service Qualification

President Chain Store Corporation conducts an annual President Chain Store Corporation High-Quality Service Qualification assessment on all its directly-operated stores and franchises, with items including basic service, professional service, comfort of the environment and appropriate responses. The results of the assessment are graded A+ and A (excellent), B (meets expectations) or C (needs improvement). Operations specialists visit stores receiving a grade of C to provide guidance, and hold meetings to draft corrective action plans, conduct drills on the shortcomings as well as re-evaluating to ensure improvement, providing the consumers with a great shopping environment.

 

Quality Assurance Audit

President Chain Store Corporation performs quality assurance audits and QA and ethical corporate management certification training and audits through the engagement of an external management consulting company.

Please refer to the 2024 Sustainability Report for the coverage and the outcome of the audits.

Quality Management Training

To strengthen the overall quality assurance capabilities of our personnel, food hygiene standards are included in onboarding training for new back-office employees. For staff in departments responsible for product quality management, targeted training is provided on a variety of quality control topics, such as product inspection and review processes for new product launches and category-specific quality assurance standards. Additionally, both new and existing store employees receive relevant training to ensure they clearly understand their responsibilities within President Chain Store Corporation’s comprehensive quality assurance system. This collective effort is essential for maintaining product quality and protecting consumer health and safety.

 

Type of Employees	Type of Training	Training Objectives	Training Outcomes in 2024
New Back-Office Employees	Basic Store Training (basic concepts, quality assurance, counter service, payment, equipment operation)	Help employees understand their roles within the quality management system through food hygiene standards, case studies, and customer complaint scenarios; understand the key regulations in store operations.	3,762 participants completed basic concept training, 3,969 participants completed quality assurance/counter service, 3,661 participants completed payment/equipment operations in 2024. These mandatory courses do not count towards training hours. Starting 2025, these will be consolidated into one course with no change in duration.
Marketing Supervisors	Quality Assurance Operations	Understand the role in quality systems through promotion of food safety policies, product management, and reporting procedures; execute group policies and comply with company processes.	49 participants passed the 2-hour course in 2024, with a total training hours of 98 hours.
Supervisors in Marketing, Innovative Integration Projects, QA, Procurement	Quality Assurance Inspection and Review for New Product Launches	Clarify the procedures and standards for new product reviews, and the available QA consultation and inquiry channels; execute group policies and comply with company processes.	61 participants passed the 0.5-hour course in 2024, with a total training hours of 30.5 hours.
QA Department Supervisors	Specialized QA Training	Enhance expertise through factory visits, practical experience sharing, and regulatory/case analysis; ensure that they understand their roles in the QA system and that all product units follow corporate procedures to prevent violations.	23 participants passed the 7-hour course in 2024, with a total training hours of 161 hours.
New and Existing Store Employees	Store Quality Assurance Integrity Certification	Annual recertification required in accordance with the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s “Good Hygiene Practices” and company integrity principles Passing score is 80, with one training hour recognized upon passing Unlimited attempts; highest score recorded New hires must certify within 2 weeks of onboarding	In 2024, a total of 87,135 participants completed the training (including former employees) via online testing. Among them, 377 new back-office employees completed the integrity training, with each course lasting 1 hour, resulting in a total of 377 training hours.

Quality Management Audits

Internal Audits

President Chain Store Corporation conducts internal audits across the three major stages of the product value chain, including manufacturing, logistics and retail stores, to verify the effectiveness of its quality management systems. The internal audit measures by function are as follows:

Stage of Product Value Chain	Manufacturing (Products)	Logistics	Retail Stores
Quality Assurance Department	Conducts regular evaluations of private-label manufacturers, covering production processes and quality control.	Annual audit for logistics centers requiring evaluation, primarily focusing on food safety-related requirements.	Performs special internal audits for stores as needed.
Audit Office	Performs audits of logistics quality management as needed.	Performs audits of logistics quality management as needed.	Conducts ad hoc risk-based inspections of stores.
Logistics Planning TEAM	NA	Conducts biannual audits of all logistics centers, covering delivery quality and QA operations.	NA
Operations Division	NA	NA	District consultants inspect store-level QA operations monthly for each location.

 

External Audits

To strengthen credibility and ensure consistency with international standards, President Chain Store Corporation also applies external audit mechanisms across the three major stages of its product value chain. The audit scope and status are as follows:

Stage of Product Value Chain	Manufacturing (Products)	Logistics	Retail Stores
Scope	All private-label food contract manufacturers in Taiwan	Logistics subsidiaries	President Chain Store retail locations
External Audit Status	All facilities are ISO 22000 certified.	Previously certified by ISO 9001, and operations continue to follow ISO 9001-compliant processes to maintain service quality. Targeting FSSC 22000 certification by end of 2025.	Store QA operations are periodically audited based on ISO 9001 standards by ISO 9001-certified external consulting firms. Audit items include equipment operations, product shelf life and labeling, environmental cleanliness, and implementation of store inspection checklists.