Taschen debuts in Asia, starts with Hong Kong

German publisher Taschen is selling a book about Ferrari for HK$250,000 (US$32,000) in its first-ever Asian bookstore.

The Ferrari book is just one of the special-edition volumes on offer in the store, and contains a collection of rare images that traces more than 70 years of the Italian car manufacturer’s history.

While the book alone costs $47,000, buyers who pay full price will receive a copy sealed in an aluminium case bearing the Ferrari horse logo and mounted on a podium designed to evoke the cylinders of a race car engine.

Opening in Hong Kong’s Tai Kwun Centre for Heritage and Arts, Taschen’s 1700sqft store operates a books-only retail model, which aims to distinguish it from competing stores trading in the region’s troubled print publishing market. Different sizes and editions of the same books, exclusively image-driven volumes, are being sold to be affordable to people of all income levels.

The firm’s MD Marlene Taschen said that Hong Kong constitutes a tentative first move into the region for the publisher. “We want to make the Hong Kong store a success first before going to the next market in Asia,” she said. Taschen Hong Kong is the firm’s 14th location.

Hong Kong’s book market has been beset recently by multiple store closures in a high-on-overheads retail environment that now contends with digital products. Prominent book stores Page One and Dymocks are recent departures from the market.

CLSA’s head of China education and Hong Kong consumer research Mariana Kou said that limited and special print editions would attract book fans in an industry that has been transformed by consumers’ ability to cross-check prices conveniently online.

“These books can become collectibles,” she said, noting Amazon’s moves to launch physical bookstores. “I am optimistic about the book industry.”