Retail News CRM

Tag: Korea

  • Asiana Airlines mired in the red for first half of 2018

    Asiana Airlines mired in the red for first half of 2018

    Asiana Airlines, Korea’s second-biggest airline by sales, said Wednesday it swung to a net loss in the first half as a strong won drove up currency losses and fuel costs.

    Asiana Airlines reported it was in the red by 54.8 billion won for the January-June period, shifting from a net profit of 21.3 billion won a year earlier, the company said in a statement.

    “The airline suffered 72.6 billion won in foreign exchange losses during the first six months due to the won’s strength against the dollar, swinging from foreign exchange gains worth 63.7 billion won a year ago,” an Asiana spokesman said.

    Higher jet fuel prices also weighed on first-half results, he said.

  • Line Friends opens pop-up character store in Hollywood

    Line Friends opens pop-up character store in Hollywood

    Line Friends, the character merchandising unit of Japan-based mobile messenger Line, announced that it has opened its first pop-up store in Hollywood, Los Angeles.

    Over 1,500 people lined up outside the new Line Friends’ pop-up store in Hollywood, Los Angeles, on the morning of 27 July, waiting for the doors to open for the first time.

    The pop-up store, which will be open until late October, saw over 15,000 visitors within the first two days of its launch.

    Line Friends, a range of characters based on Naver’s messaging app, Line, has gained popularity in global markets as part of a growing trend for “K-characters.” Armed with cute animal characters with names like “Brown” and “Sally,” the brand reached the United States after its explosive success in Southeast Asia.

    Line Friends has been expanding its customer base, starting with its release of the character line “BT21” in collaboration with boy band BTS last year in an effort to draw in BTS fans from around the world.

    The brand has been more popular in foreign countries than in Korea. A Line Friends pop-up store opened in New York last August, but became a permanent location after its huge popularity.

    “Judging by the success of the Hollywood pop-up store and the popularity of the New York location, we expect that we’ll be able to expand to a full-scale intellectual property business with Line Friends in North America,” the company said.

    Line Friends operates 112 stores in Japan, the United States, China and Taiwan. Korean character and animation industries are the main pillars of the K-content industry along with mobile and PC games. The industry’s growth potential is practically unlimited as the language and cultural barriers are low and it is easy for brands to collaborate with other businesses for things like household items, games and film.

    According to this year’s content industry outlook report released by the Korea Creative Content Agency in March, the character industry accounted for 9.5 percent of content exports, the second highest following the game industry. Kakao Friends is also planning to expand to Japan, the United States and Europe, starting with its recent name change to Kakao IX.

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  • Jeju Air net profit rises 10 percent in second quarter

    Jeju Air net profit rises 10 percent in second quarter

    Jeju Air, Korea’s biggest low-cost carrier by sales, said Tuesday its second-quarter net profit rose 10 percent from a year earlier, helped by oil and currency hedging plans.

    Net profit for the three-month period that ended in June climbed to 16.83 billion won ($15 million) from 15.27 billion won a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing.

    “The company has hedged on oil prices and major settlement currencies due to its heavy exposure to volatility. The move helped it secure a certain level of profitability in the past quarter,” the airline said in a statement.

    But operating profits fell 28 percent to 11.63 billion won in the April through June period from 16.18 billion won a year ago. Sales were up 24 percent to 283.26 billion won from 228 billion won during the same period last year, it said.

    An increase in jet fuel prices and a decreased number of holidays had an impact on the quarterly operating income, the statement said.

    For the first half of 2018, net profit jumped 66 percent to 53.77 billion won vis-a-vis 32.31 billion won in the previous year. Operating income climbed 34 percent to 58.06 billion won in the first half from 43.41 billion won a year ago. Sales rose 26 percent to a record 591.84 billion won from 468.2 billion won.

    Looking ahead, Jeju Air said it is on track to achieve sales of over 1 trillion won this year on the back of a strengthened fleet and profitable routes.

    The budget carrier plans to expand its fleet to 39 B737-800NG planes by the end of this year from the current 34.

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  • BrewDog to open brewpub in Itaewon Korea on Friday

    BrewDog to open brewpub in Itaewon Korea on Friday

    Scottish beer brand BrewDog will launch its first brewpub in Asia in Itaewon, central Seoul, this week.

    The 500-square-meter (5,381-square-foot) bar near Itaewon Station will be the brand’s second brewhouse in the world and first outside of the United Kingdom. The company runs pubs in more than 50 countries, but only two are brewpubs, which means they have brewing facilities and can produce fresh beer on the spot.

    “Global craft beer has been growing faster than ever in the last few years, and among other Asian countries, the expansion speed of Korea was very impressive,” said James Watt, BrewDog’s co-founder. “We have high expectations for the Itaewon branch to act as the center of our strategy to stretch out in Asia.”

    Alex Hwang, who will manage the Itaewon brewery, added that Korea was selected for its image as a trendsetter among Asian countries.

    The foreigner-friendly Itaewon district in central Seoul is a haven for other tap houses and craft beer pubs. The equipment at BrewDog’s bar will come from Rolec, a German company that specializes in brewing machinery.

    “Itaewon is Korea’s craft beer mecca, but because most of the stores were small, it was hard to find pubs with full-fledged brewing facilities,” said BrewDog’s Korea head Kim Tae-kyung.

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  • DJI x LINE launches character-branded drone

    DJI x LINE launches character-branded drone

    Shenzhen-headquartered tech firm DJI has released of a Line Friends drone, its first character-branded device.

    The move is expected to be a step towards making the technology more accessible to a wider audience. The miniature camera drone depicts the popular character Brown, and is small enough to lift off from the palm, with a photo-taking capacity of 12 megapixels and 1080p stabilised video capture. The Line Friends drone has the distinctive feature of being able to be controlled with hand gestures.

    DJI’s senior communication manager Monica Suk said, “The DJI Spark earned its reputation as the smallest, yet powerful flying camera. It made flying a drone extremely easy, fun and more personalised. Similar to other things we carry in our bags, a drone is becoming a lifestyle accessory.

    “This special edition Line Friends drone will take this concept even further and make storytelling and sharing exciting, and a part of our everyday life.”

    The Line Friends drone (Brown) Spark RC Combo is selling at US$399 in North America, China, Hong Kong and Korea.

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  • Korean Air launches new route to Boston with Delta

    Korean Air launches new route to Boston with Delta

    Korean Air Lines, the country’s flag carrier, said Monday it will open a new route to Boston in April next year as part of a joint venture with Delta Air Lines.

    Korean Air plans to use Boeing 787s to provide five flights per week on the Incheon-Boston route, beginning April 12, the company said in a statement.

    Delta Air will allocate its Boeing 777-200ER to serve on the Incheon-Minneapolis route on a daily basis from April 2.

    On May 1, the two airlines launched a joint business that permits Korean passengers to use multiple routes when traveling to the United States by taking flights from either Korean Air or Delta Air.

    The partnership has allowed local travelers to fly on 370 routes to 192 cities in the U.S. since May. Until April, Korean Air customers leaving the country could only enter the United States for travel or business trips at a handfuls of airports.

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  • Lancome launches event at Shinsegae Duty Free

    Lancome launches event at Shinsegae Duty Free

    Cosmetics brand Lancome has taken over a high-profile retail space in Seoul’s Shinsegae Duty Free store.

    The 360-degree panoramic LED screen above the signature Shinsegae carousel, facade and surrounding features were fully branded to showcase new products, creating a multi-sensorial concept space intended to immerse guests and consumers in the brand’s “Makeup Is My Power” experience.

    Lancome Travel Retail Asia Pacific is using the area to promote its Teint Idole Ultra Wear Foundation in a move designed to promote the power of makeup as well as to create a dedicated beauty space for consumers to fully experience its products.

     

    “As part of our goal to create new tourism demands through our duty-free store, we are on a constant lookout for partners and ideas to strengthen and elevate our retail offerings. We are proud to partner Lancôme Travel Retail Asia Pacific for this impressive regional launch,” said Seokho Hong, senior VP of Shinsegae Duty Free.

    The official launch event included a celebrity appearance by popular Korean celebrity and Lancome local ambassador for South Korea, Suzy Bae, a group of Lancome’s national make-up artists from around the world, and 20 prominent Chinese KOLs and customers.

  • Lotte donates $100,000 to Laos disaster relief effort

    Lotte donates $100,000 to Laos disaster relief effort

    Lotte said on Tuesday it has donated $100,000 to relief and reconstruction efforts following the Laos dam disaster in Attapeu.

    Oh Sung-yup, head of communications at Lotte Corporation, delivered the fund to Community Chest of Korea, a non-profit charity organization based in central Seoul, on Tuesday. The fund will be used to supply necessities to victims who lost their homes and to help rebuild villages.

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  • SK Broadband adds home screens to TV

    SK Broadband adds home screens to TV

    SK Broadband will launch customizable home screens for all of its 4.6 million TV subscribers on Aug. 16.

    SK Broadband unveiled a series of upgraded TV media services on Tuesday and vowed to increase its offerings of customized content.

    “Paid broadcasting services are supposed to analyze the data of customers’ media consumption trends to come up with the services and content that suit them,” said Yoon Suk-am, head of the media business division at SK Broadband at a press conference at SK Telecom’s headquarters in central Seoul. “It will be the first step in raising customer value further.”

    Users may choose among three options to set their home screen, which appears right after the TV is turned on – video on demand, a real-time TV channel or a kids’ channel that consists only of content for children. Baseball aficionados, for example, can set a baseball channel as their home screen.

    The screen can also recommend content according to age group and based on the past user’s viewing habits, including their favorite TV programs from the past five years. The screen will also show which monthly plan users are subscribed to, valid membership points, coupons and discounts.

    SK Broadband said its mobile video streaming app, Oksusu, will offer real-time baseball broadcasts that are up to 20 seconds faster than competing apps.

    For children, SK Broadband will offer a custom fairy tale maker to TV subscribers. Kids can add their own voice, face and drawings to a TV screen to make their own TV fairy tale content, using 3D facial recognition technology and real-time facial expression generation technology. Some 250 fairy tales will be available for customization.

    When viewers take a photo of their face with a smartphone app and send it to the TV, the photo’s facial expression will take on up to 20 different emotions depending on the flow of the story. Viewers may even turn into the antagonist of one of the fairy tales. Children may also draw paintings that are added to the story and affect its outcome.

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  • Faure Le Page ready to debut in Seoul

    Faure Le Page ready to debut in Seoul

    The Parisian luxury accessories retailer Faure Le Page will open its first store in South Korea next month.

    The Faure Le Page store will be the fashion house’s eighth brick-and-mortar store globally when it opens at Hanwha’s Galleria Department Store in Seoul.

    The French company, which specialises in leather bags and other leather goods, dates back to 1717 and already has Asian stores in Japan and Taiwan.

    “Seoul, one of the most dynamic cities in the world, will open a new chapter for our brand,” said Faure Le Page’s creative director Augustin de Buffevent.

    “After comparing other competitive fashion companies, we decided to partner with Hanwha Galleria [due to] their best department stores for luxury goods.”

  • E-Land to stop selling Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf in China

    E-Land to stop selling Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf in China

    South Korean fashion and retail group E-Land is surrendering its Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf China franchise licence.

    The move is expected to improve the conglomerate’s reportedly strained cash-flow situation and mark a more focused approach to retail. It comes after expanding the franchise to 17 locations in China over the past two years. It had originally pledged to expand the Chinese business to 1000 stores.

    The group’s liquidity has been under significant pressure in recent years, forcing it to relinquish its resorts and cruise businesses as well as other holdings. It currently runs around 250 brands spanning retail, fashion and restaurants.

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  • YSL Beauty Hotel event by Lotte

    YSL Beauty Hotel event by Lotte

    Following a new customer service strategy, South Korean travel retailer Lotte Duty Free exited part of its duty-free concession at Incheon International Airport Terminal 1 this Tuesday, 31st of July. Its tactical shift aims at providing greater focus to its downtown retail business through the organization of a growing number of diverse and various unique events.

    In line with its new strategy, Lotte has partnered with L’Oreal Travel Retail Asia Pacific to host a promotional event for YSL at its VIP Star lounge in Myeongdong, Seoul.

    From the 1st to the 3rd of August, invited clients have the opportunity to observe YSL’s beauty products coming to life. In a world where technology is booming and penetrating every aspect of our lives, Lotte has put together a digital-heavy event with a VR Experience Space, a Concert Room and an Arcade Zone for fervent gamers. Visitors are also equipped with digital wristband giving them access to all the information they might need along with photos and videos from the event. L’Oréal’s beauty touch cannot be forgotten as visitors can feel like models getting ready for a fashion show by enjoying beauty classes to then head towards the photoshoot zone.

    To retain customers which were previously shopping in its late Incheon Airport physical stores, Lotte aims at bringing its clients an elevated shopping experience. From personal shopping service, a high-end Café and two restaurants, visitors will feel like stepping in a luxurious palace hotel.

    Lotte Duty Free expects the YSL Beauty Hotel event to attract over 3,000 customers, two-thirds being international travelers from countries such as China and Japan.

    Special guests Junho, Nichkhun and Hwang Chiyeul, Lotte’s brand ambassadors, will hold a mini concert on the closure of the event.

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  • Gentle Monster makes debut in London

    Gentle Monster makes debut in London

    South Korean luxury eyewear brand Gentle Monster has opened an eye-catching new store in London.

    The 450sqm store was launched in the city’s West End, representing the initial step in a broad-ranging plan to expand the firm’s business in Europe.

    The new London flagship is enhanced by robotic installations and an “active volcano” described by one fashion scribe as “spectacular”. The firm has previously invested in a South Korean robotics factory.

    Gentle Monster MD Garry Bott said, “We are very much focused on creating a sensory experience for the customer, even down to the individual fragrance for each of our flagship stores.”

    Future stores are expected to open in Paris and Dubai.

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  • Ralph Lauren sales decline, and Asia saves it

    Ralph Lauren sales decline, and Asia saves it

    Fashion label Ralph Lauren sales reached US$1.4 billion for the first quarter of this fiscal year, driven by sales in Asia and Europe.

    Ralph Lauren sales in Asia increased 19 per cent to US$248 million on a reported basis and by 16 per cent in constant currency, driven by strength in both retail and wholesale channels. Samee-store sales in Asia increased 6 per cent in constant currency, reflecting growth in both the brick-and-mortar and digital-commerce operations.

    By comparison, European revenue in the first quarter increased 8 per cent, while North America declined by 2 per cent.

    Ralph Lauren, executive chairman and chief creative officer for the company said, “I continue to be inspired and energised by the passion our teams have for our brand and our company. This passion, along with Patrice’s [Louvet, president and CEO] partnership over the last year, the clear plan he and the team laid out in June, and the initial progress in this quarter, gives me confidence in our future as we celebrate 50 years in business.”

    Louvet added: “We are off to an encouraging start to the new fiscal year on both the top and the bottom line… we are on track to return the company to long-term, sustainable growth and value creation.”

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  • Lotte Duty Free exits Incheon Airport Terminal 1 contracts, sets its sights on Vietnam

    Lotte Duty Free exits Incheon Airport Terminal 1 contracts, sets its sights on Vietnam

    Lotte Duty Free exits its contentious Incheon International Airport Terminal 1 cosmetics, fashion and leathergoods contracts, to be replaced by Shinsegae Duty Free.

    As reported, South Korea’s duty free giant served notice on 13 February of its intention to quit three contracts – DF1 (P&C), DF5 (leathergoods & fashion) and DF8 (miscellaneous categories).

    The company cited “the burden of rent increases” following the sharp downturn in Chinese tourists in 2017 amid the THAAD dispute with China.

    The three concessions, later consolidated into two by Incheon International Airport Corporation, were subsequently awarded to Shinsegae Duty Free, which commences business on 1 August. Lotte Duty Free will continue to operate its DF3 liquor, tobacco and foods business at T1 until 2020.

    Lotte Duty Free said that it expects to save about 1.4 trillion won (US$1.25 billion) in rent by 2020 through its premature exit. “Based on improved profitability through the withdrawal from Incheon Airport, the company intends to strengthen its competitiveness in downtown duty free shops and to expand online duty free shop marketing,” it said.

    “In addition, in order to revitalise sales of our [T1] liquor and cigarettes stores, we plan to analyse outbound passengers and target enhanced marketing through improved linkage with city and online duty free shops.”

    Lotte said that it also aims to boost downtown and online sales of cosmetics and fashion to avoid losing custom to its Incheon successor. A customer prepaid card for Lotte’s vacated T1 business can now be used downtown.

    Lotte Duty Free plans to concentrate its efforts on expanding business overseas, with Vietnam the key focus. As reported, the company celebrated the grand opening of its Da Nang International Airport concession on 1 November last year, after a soft opening in May. The business, registered as Phu Khanh Duty Free, is a 60/40 joint venture between Lotte Duty Free and a local partner.

    In June this year Lotte Duty Free opened arrivals and departures stores at Cam Ranh International Airport in Nha Trang, after being awarded an exclusive ten-year duty free concession.

    Lotte said that it also plans to invest heavily in additional downtown stores in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang.

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