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Tag: Korea

  • Herr Seoul opens in Central

    Herr Seoul opens in Central

    Herr Seoul has opened its first store outside Korea.

    The prestigious Seoul barbershop has chosen bespoke menswear destination Attire House for its offshore debut, which opened this week.

    HERR_in_Seoul

    Founder Sangyoon Lee visited Hong Kong to meet customers and local influencers and share his knowledge of men’s grooming, entrepreneurship at his young age and Herr’s mission to be “the ultimate gentleman’s paradise”.

    HERR_at_AttireHouse

    Established in 2013 in Seoul, Herr believes it has “set the trend of men’s grooming in Korea as it encourages men to release their dapper potential by providing professional knowledge of personal care and offering highly skilled stylists for the finest and latest haircuts”.

    HERR_interior

    Customers are encouraged to take dwell time and build a relationship with their barber.

    TaylorOfOldBondStreet_grooming_kit

    Herr Seoul has collaboration projects with luxury fashion giants, watchmakers and hotels, including Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Tod’s, Club Monaco, Patek Philippe, and the Four Seasons Hotel.

    HERR_cupboard1

    Herr currently has three branches in Seoul – next to Hyundai Card Headquarter, Lotte Department Store in Myeong-dong and the Four Seasons Seoul providing full grooming services.

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    HERR_barberchair1

    Attire House, the  brainchild of Brandon Chau and Roger Chan, is a two-story, 5000 sqft ‘gentlemen’s haven’ in Central established in December 2016, offering ready-to-wear attire, bespoke tailoring, grooming and a mixologist’s bar.

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  • Inditex Group sales rise on new stores

    Inditex Group sales rise on new stores

    Zara parent Inditex Group sales rose by 12 per cent in its latest trading year, to January 31, reaching €23.3 billion.

    Growth was achieved in every geographic region where the group is present, and includes contributions from debut stores in Vietnam and New Zealand.

    Same-store sales rose by 10 per cent, up from 8.5 per cent the previous year, with positive same-store sales growth in all geographies and across all brands.

    Net profit was €3.2 billion, up 10 per cent year-on-year, while earnings before interest and tax grew 8 per cent to €5.1 billion.

    Chairman and CEO Pablo described the result as positive against a backdrop of strong prior-year performance.

    Inditex opened 279 stores, net of closures, in 56 markets, across all its brands, ending the year with 7292 stores in 93 countries, a large proportion of the new ones in Asia, including its first Zara in Vietnam, in Ho Chi Minh City.  Other Zara stores opened in China, Thailand, Indonesia and Japan and it refurbished it flagship in the Shinjuku district in Tokyo, one of Japan’s most important shopping districts, which reopened to the public in November.

    A flagship Pull&Bear store opened in Windsor House in Hong Kong and new stores were opened by Massimo Dutti in India and by Oysho in Indonesia. Bershka refurbished its flagship on Nanjing Road East in Shanghai and Zara Home opened a global flagship on Garosu de Seoul in South Korea.

    Since the financial year ended, it has opened online stores in Malaysia and Singapore, taking its online platform to 43 markets.

  • Starbucks Coffee Korea sales booms

    Starbucks Coffee Korea sales booms

    Starbucks Coffee Korea said its annual sales topped the 1 trillion won (US$884.17 million) mark for the first time ever last year.

    The local franchise of the US coffee giant, which is operated by retail conglomerate Shinsegae, debuted in South Korea in 1999.

    Annual sales rose 29.6 per cent from the 773.9 billion won of 2015.

    Operating profit also increased 81.2 per cent year-on-year to 85.4 billion won in 2016.

    As at the end of February, Starbucks operated 1008 shops across the country.

    Industry observers said Starbucks’ record is astonishing as annual sales of other players such as Twosome Place and Angel-in-us Coffee are averaging between 100 and 200 billion won.

    “Starbucks gained popularity among women in their 20s and 30s who are attuned to the latest consumer culture of the United States,” an analyst said, adding that Starbucks has constantly launched new menus.

    Starbucks acquired tea retailer Teavana in 2012 and has since rolled out various tea menus along with bakery products.

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  • Indonesia’s Lippo & Korea’s Lotte form e-commerce JV

    Indonesia’s Lippo & Korea’s Lotte form e-commerce JV

    Indonesia’s Salim Group is planning a major foray into e-commerce this year in partnership with South Korea’s Lotte.

    Indo Lotte Makmur, a 50-50 JV by the two conglomerates, will launch the iLotte online shopping platform as soon as July, putting US$88 million into the project initially. The service will be geared primarily toward women in their 20s and 30s, and feature name-brand cosmetics sold in South Korea as well as offerings from Lotte’s online mall.

    A robust infrastructure built up over the course of years will let Salim achieve economies of scale for the e-commerce business, says Indo Lotte CFO Dani Sumarsono, who is overseeing online business at Indonesia’s largest conglomerate.

    “E-commerce is not only about digital technology but about moving physical products,” he says. “We have been investing in infrastructure for a long time.”

    Indo Lotte president, a former executive at Lotte’s e-commerce business in South Korea, says Salim has a lot of infrastructure, while Lotte can bring know-how and technology.

    Indonesia’s e-commerce market is expected to grow to $46 billion in 2025 from just $1.7 billion a decade earlier, according to research by Google and Singapore’s Temasek Holdings. Under this scenario, Indonesia would make up more than half of the total Southeast Asian e-commerce market and would follow China and India as the third-largest national market in Asia, excluding Japan. A doubling of internet users, from 92 million to 215 million, is seen as the driver of this expansion.

    Expensive market

    With chronic congestion of its major cities and a lack of basic infrastructure on its islands, Indonesia is an expensive market to service. Logistics costs are 27 per cent of GDP, compared with 20 per cent in Thailand and 13 per cent in Malaysia, according to the World Bank.

    However, Salim’s 13,000-plus Indomaret convenience stores across Indonesia can be used as places to pay for and pick up goods ordered online. Meanwhile, a shipping unit that delivers instant noodles made by group member Indofood Sukses Makmur to more than 30,000 small towns nationwide can help bolster efficiency.

    Salim has also created a JV with Tokyo-based startup Liquid to explore payments using fingerprint authentication, with credit-card ownership of less than one in every 10 adults in Indonesia. Liquid’s system allowing pre-registered shoppers to pay via fingerprint scanner has been deployed at Japanese convenience stores. The JV will test the system for 500,000 Salim employees initially and targets commercial application within the year.

    Meanwhile, another Indonesian conglomerate, Lippo Group, is developing an electronic payment service for use on MatahariMall.com, which Lippo launched in 2015.

  • Aesop Korea opens fifth Seoul boutique

    Aesop Korea opens fifth Seoul boutique

    Australian luxury beauty brand Aesop has expanded its footprint in Seoul with a fifth signature boutique.

    On the ground floor of LG Twin Towers, a mixed-use complex in the upscale riverside neighbourhood of Hannam-Dong, the store is just 45 sqm.

    Aesop-new-boutique-Seoul-at-LG-Towers-1

     

    The new Aesop Korea store’s interior was designed by Suh Architects, a Korean practice which has already collaborated with the cosmetics brand on two other projects. Principal/founder Eulho Suh has degrees from Rhode Island School of Design and Harvard University Graduate School of Design in the US, and worked for Morphosis Architects in Santa Monica, California, and Kohn Pederson Fox in New York.

    Aesop was established in Melbourne in 1987 and has offices and stores throughout the world, including Hong Kong, London, New York, Paris and Tokyo.

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  • Further ‘exceptional’ growth for Furla Group

    Further ‘exceptional’ growth for Furla Group

    Italian luxury company Furla Group has had another year of what it describes as “exceptional growth” in turnover and profit.

    Sales soared 31.7 per cent in Japan, its strongest market in Asia, and the company is now setting its focus on boosting sales in China and Australia in the year ahead.

    The fashion house turned over €422 million last year (US$446.7 million), up 24.5 per cent year-on-year at constant exchange rates. Pre-tax earnings rose 48 per cent and worldwide like-for-like sales were up 9 per cent.

    Furla says the key factors behind its outstanding performance across all markets and distribution channels were a growing appreciation by international consumers for the brand and its collections, the company’s significant investments in marketing, and its constantly expanding distribution network.

    Furla has a direct presence in 100 countries. Its monobrand stores total 444, compared to 415 in 2015, and these are split evenly between directly owned boutiques and franchises. The company also has wide distribution in multibrand and department stores in 1200 international locations.

    During the year, Furla opened stores on Nathan Road in Hong Kong, Nanjing Road in Shanghai and other upscale addresses in Australia, China and South Korea.

    During the year the company’s travel retail sector also grew significantly, to a total of 262 stores in 63 countries, with a 40 per cent increase in turnover.

    “We are particularly proud of the 2016 results,” says Furla Group GM Alberto Camerlengo. “The investments of the shareholders, our constant efforts in research and product innovation, all the way to distribution, have allowed us to be a leader in the top international markets.”

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  • Isetan Mitsukoshi replacing CEO

    Isetan Mitsukoshi replacing CEO

    Japanese department store chain Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings has appointed a new CEO as retailers battle to recover from a sharp fall in shopping spend by tourists.

    In a filing with the Tokyo Stock Exchange, Isetan Mitsukoshi says senior managing executive officer Toshihiko Sugie will become CEO on April 1, replacing Hiroshi Ohnishi, who had been in the role since 2012.

    Isetan Mitsukoshi says it made the change “to further improve corporate value by installing fresh management”.

    Japanese department store sales fell to less than ¥6 trillion (US$52.70 billion) last year from a 1991 peak of ¥9.7 trillion, with retailers hit by weak economic growth, changing consumer tastes and e-commerce competition.

    There was a brief boom when tourists, especially Chinese, were buying expensive items such as jewellery and watches. This has come to an end despite tourism numbers growing by 21.8 per cent to a record 25 million last year, according to the Japan National Tourism Organization. More than 70 per cent of tourists came from China, Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan.

    Isetan Mitsukoshi says its duty-free sales fell 19 per cent to ¥36.7 billion over the nine months through December.

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  • AirAsia in big free-seat giveaway

    AirAsia in big free-seat giveaway

    AirAsia will be “giving away” up to 3 million seats in its first major promotion of the year, the company said on Monday.

    People who book from today till Sunday – March 13 to 19 for travel between September 1 this year and June 5 in 2018 will enjoy fares from as low as Bt0 to various destinations.

    (That deal applies for one-way base fares, and terms and conditions apply – passengers would still pay for taxes and fees.)

    Guests travelling on Thai AirAsia X will also be able to enjoy flights to Seoul, Osaka, Tokyo and Shanghai from only Bt2,990, or its Premium Flatbed from only Bt7,990. Bookings are available from today till Sunday for a travelling period from 1 September 2017 to 5 June 2018.

    AirAsia is a leading low-cost carrier, with a network of more than 120 destinations in Asia, Australia, New Zealand and the Middle East.

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  • South Korea Invests in Infrastructure, Electricity Projects

    South Korea Invests in Infrastructure, Electricity Projects

    The Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) said that South Korean investors will invest in numerous sectors in Indonesia. BKPM chief Thomas Trikasih Lembong said in this week alone, several project agreements will be signed.

    “I’m expecting for several infrastructure and electricity projects to be signed this week. The value is about US$200 million (approx. Rp2.6 trillion),” Thomas said during the sidelines of the Indonesia-Korea Business Summit at the Shangri La Hotel in Jakarta, Tuesday, March 14, 2017.

    According to Thomas, many South Korean factories have opened in Indonesia, such as textile and footwear factories. The factories’ operation has employed more than 500,000 people.

    At the Indonesia-Korea Business Summit, the BKPM and the Korea Trade Investment Agency (KOTRA) signed a MoU as a way to promote investments between the two nations.

    “We hope this will help both Indonesian and South Korean companies in developing their business,” Thomas said.

    Thomas said that most of the country’s investments are in the manufacturing sector, accounting for 71 percent of their investment value from 2012 to 2016.

    The investments are aimed at both countries’ leading sector, and will cover areas including information exchange, documentation, publication, and others.

    South Korea is Indonesia’s third-biggest investor today after Singapore and Japan. From 2012 to 2016, South Korean companies invested a total of US$7.5 billion for 7,607 projects in Indonesia.

  • Sout Korea Costco stores’ move to all US beef a positive for exporters

    Sout Korea Costco stores’ move to all US beef a positive for exporters

    On the heels of two Costco stores in South Korea beginning the transition to sourcing chilled beef from US sources, with the remaining 11 to make a similar shift from Australian beef to US imports, officials from the Iowa Beef Industry Council (IBIC) were part of a trade mission to get a closer look at the supply chain in South Korea. The US Meat Export Federation’s (USMEF’s) Spring Seminar drew more than 200 representatives to make the Feb. 11-18 trip, which also included members of the Iowa Pork Producers Association and representatives from the beef-processing segment and pork exporting officials from the US.

    USMEF officials coordinated tours of the processing plant and cold storage facility at Haesung Provision and Kyunwoo Foods, followed by a visit to a Costco warehouse in Kwangmyung. The recent resumption of red meat exports to South Korea was a windfall for USMEF and its members and the decision by Costco, the region’s largest importer, to convert the remaining 11 stores to selling US beef exclusively signals more positive trade relations moving forward.

    “The retail market is vital for US beef. Costco’s announcement to move from 17 percent to 100 percent US beef in their stores is exciting for cattle producers,” said Dave Rueber, an IBIC member and Iowa beef producer who was part of the mission. “USMEF has been working on this for 13 years. This will result in a 15,000 metric ton increase in beef purchases this year.”

    Expectations of record exports of chilled beef to South Korea are based on the momentum realized in 2016, when beef exports jumped 31 percent in value (to $1.059 billion) and 42 percent in weight (to 179,280 metric tons).

    Knowing South Korea is one of the most social media-savvy cultures in the world, USMEF invited well-known bloggers and foodservice professionals to network with attendees in addition to hosting a cookbook launch, which focuses on US meats.

    “As beef producers, we cannot become complacent, we must continue to focus on building long-term beef demand and being aware of future opportunities,” said Daryl Strohbehn, another Iowa beef producer who made the trip. “As an industry, we have to continue listening to what our consumers want, including our overseas customers.”

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  • Korea’s exports of consumer goods to China tops $7b in 2016

    South Korea sold more than $7 billion worth of consumer goods to China last year, a report showed Tuesday, amid growing concerns that this sector will suffer the most from a trade spat between the two countries over the deployment of an advanced US anti-missile system.

    The outbound shipments of consumer products reached $7.02 billion as of end-2016, accounting for about 11 percent of all consumer goods sold abroad last year, according to the latest report by the Korea International Trade Association and the Korea Institute of Finance.

    The figure represents only 5.6 percent of total exports to the world’s second-largest economy, which stood at $124.4 billion. More than 90 percent of all goods sold to China were intermediate goods such as machinery and industrial components like memory chips.

    Although the portion is marginal, consumer goods have emerged as a key export for the South Korean economy, Asia’s fourth largest, as the market has posted rapid growth over the past few years, the report said.

    The on-year export of five major consumer goods, including cosmetics and pharmaceuticals, grew by 13.6 percent last year, compared with a 5.9 percent on-year drop in the country’s overall overseas shipments, it showed.

    China’s import of consumer goods also rose at a faster pace of 9.2 percent in 2015 from 4.2 percent in 2000.

    The stellar performance in the consumer goods sector, however, is making local exporters more anxious since rising diplomatic tension with China could affect growth going forward.

    Since last July, Beijing has ratcheted up a hostile stance toward Seoul, in protest of Seoul’s stationing of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense on its soil. Beijing strongly denounced the deployment, claiming that the installation’s powerful radar system will be used to spy on its own military.

    South Korea’s tourism and retail industries are bearing the brunt of what appears to be retaliatory measures taken by China.

    Beijing has banned the sale of group tours to South Korea and placed retail outlets run by Korean firms under suspension, among other moves.

    Experts here cautiously raised a view that maybe it’s time South Korea focused more on exports of intermediate and capital goods.

    “Consumer goods are to some extent overrated because we people can see them more easily. But intermediate and capital goods are traded between businesses, which means they’re less likely to be affected once a deal has been signed,” Ji Man-soo, a KIF researcher, said.

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  • Chinese officials close Lotte Group stores amid political issue

    Chinese officials close Lotte Group stores amid political issue

    Following inspections, Chinese authorities have closed nearly two dozen Lotte Group stores.

    Lotte says that 23 of its supermarkets in its biggest overseas market have been shuttered, reaching from Dandong on the North Korean border to the east coast and southern Changzhou.

    Workers at three stores say the closures are temporary and fire-safety related. Its its Sina Weibo microblog, the Anhui fire department says it temporarily shut two Lotte Mart stores because of fire risks, part of a broader regional sweep over the past month that had led to the closure of 30 stores belonging to a range of companies including Lotte.

    However, the Lotte closures follow a series of incidents affecting South Korean companies in China, including cyber attacks and a ban on sales of travel tours to South Korea, Reuters reports. Lotte Mart had 115 stores in China as of January, its biggest overseas market, and had group sales there of more than 3 trillion won (US$2.6 billion) in 2015.

    Problems started for Lotte after it approved a land swap outside Seoul last month so South Korea could install a defence system in response to missile threat from North Korea.

    Meanwhile, photos and videos are circulating on Chinese social media of protests outside Lotte stores, while others show Lotte outlets with their steel grates pulled shut. Outside one store, a red banner reads: “South Korea’s Lotte has declared war on China … Get the hell out of China”.

    Lotte Duty Free is back online after a cyber attack last week from Chinese IP addresses crashed its website, and the group is seeking help from the South Korean government regarding the issues it is facing in China, where it employs about 20,000 people – a third of its overseas staff.

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  • Mamonde launches Singapore site on Lazada

    Mamonde launches Singapore site on Lazada

    Korean beauty products brand Mamonde has launched an e-commerce site on Lazada to introduce its skincare and makeup products into Singapore.

    Mamonde’s USP is using flower extracts in its products. Camellia, hibiscus, honeysuckle, lotus and magnolia blooms are hand-picked and frozen or heat dried, with the active ingredients then being extracted.

    Mamonde Lazada SG

    There are plans to also open a physical store in Singapore eventually, says Amorepacific, which also owns the brands Etude House, Innisfree, Laneige and Sulwhasoo.

    “Launching digitally first in Singapore was a deliberate move that allows us to observe consumer purchasing habits before scaling up operations in the market,” says Amorepacific Asean regional head Robin Na.

    “While the beauty industry in Singapore is mature, we believe that consumers there are still hungry for new brands.”

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  • China main market for Korean online industry

    China main market for Korean online industry

    Sales of South Korea’s online shopping malls rose dramatically in recent months helped by the growing number of Chinese customers.

    Data released this week shows the Korean online industry growth is happening amid China’s retaliation against South Korea over Seoul’s plans to deploy an advanced US missile defense system on its soil.

    WeMakePrice, a major online shopping mall, said its sales on Alibaba Group’s Tmall rose 100 per cent in January compared with the same period last year. The comparable figure was 50 per cent for February.

    “We don’t expect any drastic decline in the sales in Tmall, one of the biggest online shopping sites in China, unless Chinese consumers stage a boycott of South Korean products,” a WeMakePrice official said.

    GMarket, another online shopping mall, said its sales to Chinese consumers surged 18 per cent in 2016 from a year earlier, and the trend is similar for the first two months of this year.

    A possible decline in the number of Chinese tourists visiting South Korea, however, may adversely affect the South Korea online industry as many Chinese tourists place orders at South Korean duty-free shops online before picking up goods in person while touring South Korea, industry sources said.

    China has been retaliating against Seoul’s decision reached in July to have the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system deployed on South Korean soil later this year. South Korea says the missile system will not target China but only counter threats from North Korea.

    In the latest retaliation, Chinese travel agencies suspended sales of tour packages to South Korea last week.

  • Good direction for Korean rental booms

    Good direction for Korean rental booms

    South Korean Rental services, which in the past were typically limited to water purifiers or bidets in South Korea, are rapidly embracing other products.

    According to big data analysis firm Daumsoft, online mentions of “rental service” on blogs and Twitter more than doubled over the past three years from 75,300 in 2014 to 177,003 in 2016, and now include more lower priced goods, with shorter rental periods.

    Although water purifiers still ranked first in terms of the number of references, apparel such as clothes, coats, and bags have developed a significant presence in the rental market recently, officials said.

    For instance, the word “clothes” as a related term for rental services increased from 5587 mentions in 2014 to 23,047 in 2015 and 31,112 in 2016, while “coats” and “bags” soared from 108 to 14,777 and 454 to 3228 from 2014 to 2016, respectively.

    “While dress rentals for parties or other special occasions are most popular overseas, renting clothes for weddings (as guests), job interviews, and company meetings is also popular in Korea,” the company said. “The reason behind the dramatic increase in the number of ‘coats’ and ‘bags’ is probably because they’re among the more expensive fashion items.”

    Women were the biggest customers of the rental services, the analysis showed, with the word “women” topping the list in terms of the number of online mentions (at 23,848), followed by “babies”, with Daumsoft adding that baby products are increasingly sought after by local mothers.

    “During economic hardships, people tend to think twice about their spending and try to get the most out of their budget,” said professor Oh Se-jo at Yonsei University School of Business, adding that people compare more carefully the quality and the diversity of their consumption.

    “Rental services best serve consumers who want to save but at the same time pursue their interests and hobbies, which is why they’ll continue to grow,” he said.

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