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Tag: world tower

  • Lacoste opens a store at Lotte duty free World Tower

    Lacoste opens a store at Lotte duty free World Tower

    Lacoste has bolstered its Asia Pacific presence with the opening of a 38 square meters store at Lotte Duty Free World Tower in Seoul.

    The new store reinforces Lacoste’s aim to strengthen and expand its presence in new geographical areas and find new ways of connecting with consumers before, during and after their trips.

    Lacoste CEO Asia Pacific & Global Travel Retail Jean-Louis Delamarre said: “We are thrilled to open this store in Lotte Duty Free World Tower.

    This opening in partnership with Lotte will allow us to further enhance our presence in Asia.”

    France’s premium casual brand Lacoste has been launching a ‘Life is a beautiful sport’ campaign based on the three values of authenticity, joy and elegance in the branding industry since 2014.

    Also in May, Novak Djokovic, world-renowned tennis player, was chosen as a brand new face to represent the brand. Lacoste selected Novak Djokovic as the new face of the brand to inherit the strength and fair play spirit that the brand has pursued since its founding.

    The comfortable elegance that Novak Djokovic shows and his unique play fit perfectly with the DNA of the brand, and it is raising expectations.Novak Djokovic has signed a five-year contract with Lacoste and will be active in and out of the court as an icon representing Lacoste’s brand.

    Lacoste was created by René Lacoste in 1933, a tennis legend. Rena Lacoste, famous for his persistent and robust play, has had the nickname of a crocodile, which symbolizes his brand. Meanwhile, as reported, Lotte Duty Free partially reopened the store on 15 January, 193 days after it was forced to close on 26 June 2016, following its unsuccessful 2015 bid to retain its licence.

    The 17,334 square meters store is the second-biggest in Asia and the world’s third-largest. The new space is +52 percent bigger than the original 14,011sq m shop. The integrated retail offer connects the new World Tower space with the existing adjacent store in the Avenuel building.

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  • Lotte World Tower becomes tourist hotspot in Korea

    Lotte World Tower becomes tourist hotspot in Korea

    Lotte World Tower has drawn 126,000 daily visitors on average in April, becoming Korea’s newest tourist hotspot.

    The number is set to grow faster this month, as Lotte holds various events around the nation’s tallest skyscraper in Jamsil, southeastern Seoul, during the “golden week” holiday. According to Lotte Corporation, Monday, 3.16 million people have visited Lotte World Tower and its neighboring Lotte World Mall since the tower’s April 3 opening. About 102,000 people per day visited the site on weekdays, while 203,000 per day visited there on weekends.

    In particular, Seoul Sky, the nation’s highest observation deck located between the 117th and 123rd floors of the tower, was visited by 120,000 people ─ about 4,800 a day enjoyed the city view from the 500-meter-high deck.

    Lotte, which has suffered a decreasing number of Chinese tourists over a missile dispute, now expects to achieve its goal of attracting 60 million tourists a year. The growing number of visitors positively affected sales revenue of facilities there as well. The aquarium, cinema, shopping mall, department store, discount store and electronics shop in the mall respectively had 33.6, 48.5, 15.8, 10.6, 19 and 61.5 percent more sales in April than a month earlier.

    The duty free shop alone suffered a 40 percent sales decrease, due to the Chinese government’s de facto travel ban on group tours to Korea.

    As more tourists are expected to visit the tower this week, Lotte has begun to hold various events. Until next Monday, visitors can enjoy the Sweet Swan public art project at Seokchon Lake. Lotte expects the massive swan family sculptures will boost sales of the nearby shops, as the 2014 Rubber Duck project and 2016 Super Moon project did.

    Families with children may enjoy a LEGO festival at a park in front of the tower. Four million LEGO parts will be available to visitors during the festival, so they can participate in making an eight- meter-wide and 12-meter-high flower which will be displayed at the park. Lotte World Tower is also holding exhibitions and classical concerts during the holidays.

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  • Lotte Duty Free sales up 25 per cent

    Lotte Duty Free sales up 25 per cent

    Lotte Duty Free has reported a 26 per cent increase in turnover to W5.9 trillion (US$5.1 billion) for last year.

    The figures are believed to excludes sales from its overseas airport and downtown outlets (Guam, Indonesia, Tokyo), reports DFNI Online.

    For 2015, its sales reached W4.82 trillion, a decline from W4.55 trillion the previous year.

    The Mers outbreak hit the retailer, despite it being awarded five-year contracts for two perfumes and cosmetics concessions and a liquor and tobacco concession at Seoul Incheon airport. It also beat off competition for a downtown duty-free shop in Jeju. The disease outbreak chopped off Chinese tourist arrivals to South Korea.

    Lotte Duty Free was further dented by the loss of its pivotal World Tower licence to travel retail newcomer Doosan Corporation (Doota Duty Free), but it has since regained the licence and re-opened the store.

    Marketing division manager Bo Joon Kim describes it as “one of the most chaotic times” in the group’s history.

    Lotte accounted for 48.7 per cent of total Korean duty-free sales last year, which amounted to W12.3 trillion. It started the year by opening its 4396 sqm Korean-style downtown duty-free store in Tokyo.

    Other developments included the reopening of its Gimpo airport store in August and the re-launch of its Gimhae airport outlets.

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  • Lotte World Tower duty free store has reopened

    Lotte World Tower duty free store has reopened

    As expected, Lotte Duty Free opened its World Tower flagship duty free outlet yesterday, following a six-month period of uncertainty caused by last June’s closure of the duty free section in the building.

    The opening follows the well-publicised and controversial shock loss of Lotte’s duty free operating license for this store back in November 2015.

    As reported, the Korea Customs Service (KCS) awarded the 10-year duty free license to Lotte Duty Free on 17 December 2016. However, it has clearly stated since that if the operator is subsequently found guilty of any wrongdoing in its ongoing investigations related to a contributions scandal, then it will revoke the award.

    INVESTIGATIONS CONTINUE OVER ALLEGED CASH FOR FAVOURS

    As reported, this ongoing investigation surrounds requests for multi-million dollar equivalent monetary contributions for foundations, which were made to Lotte and other companies by President Park Geun-hye’s former close friend Choi Soon-sil, who is presently under arrest.

    Park’s relationship with Choi – a friend for 40 years – was also one of the key factors which led up to her impeachment last month, although Choi denies all the charges related to abuse of power and fraud.Park also maintains that she has not been involved with Choi in any wrongdoing, although she has publicly expressed regret at allowing Choi to get too close to matters of government.

    Meanwhile, Lotte has given several bold undertakings to attract foreign tourists and create new jobs alongside the award of this new contract, which the Korean Customs Service – itself under pressure – will doubtless expect it to meet.

    MASSIVE INVESTMENT PROMISES

    As reported earlier this month, Lotte has pledged to invest Won2.3 trillion ($1.97bn) on tourist-related investments in the upmarket Gangnam quarter of Seoul between 2017 to 2021.

    Lotte Duty Free spokesman Jihyun Ethan Choi also formally confirmed to TRBusiness (2 January) that the duty free reopening has naturally come as a huge relief to Lotte’s staff.

    They have had to endure a six-month wait to find out whether they would have jobs or not at the World Tower – subject to winning the license or not. (Lotte employs around 1300 individuals at the World Tower).

    CHINESE TOURIST ARRIVALS CONCERNS

    At this time, Lotte and all other duty free operators in South Korea will also be keenly monitoring the levels of Chinese tourist arrivals over the next few months, since their biggest overseas duty free customers (in sheer spending power terms) registered only +1.8% growth – or 516,956 visitors – in November 2016. This was a big drop from previous double-digit numbers, according to the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO).

    Many commentators are not surprisingly pointing to pressure on Chinese tourists to cool their enthusiasm for South Korea in the wake of its government decision to site a US-built missile defence system on the border with North Korea. China says this system has the ability to gather data on surrounding terrain in the region.

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  • Lotte promises +$2bn in World Tower support

    Lotte promises +$2bn in World Tower support

    Ahead of this Saturday’s highly anticipated downtown duty free license awards in Seoul, South Korea, Lotte Duty Free has promised to invest Won2.3 trillion ($1.97bn) on tourist-related investments in the upmarket Gangnam quarter of Seoul between 2017 to 2021.

    It has also pledged to include support for small and medium-sized business partners while finding ways to attract more than 17m foreign tourists.

    This unprecedented offering from South Korea’s biggest duty free operator also includes an undertaking to create 34,000 direct and indirect jobs, while creating substantial foreign exchange income.

    UNPRECEDENTED SUPPORT PACKAGE FROM LOTTE

    Lotte has also promised to contribute substantially to social needs, while offering ‘win-win management’ arrangements and solutions for small and medium business partners.

    In a lengthy communication, Lotte Duty Free adds that all of these promises and much more are ‘included’ within the business plan it has already submitted to the Korea Customs Service on October 4.

    As such, it is obviously hoping this will be enough to secure one of the Seoul downtown duty free store licenses which now comprise 10 years in length, rather than five.

    SK GROUP ALSO HOPES FOR A LICENSE ‘REPRIEVE’

    Needless to say, Lotte is not the only company looking to secure a downtown license since there are three on offer in the capital Seoul, with SK Networks also hopeful that it will win a license and be able to restore its duty free offer at the WalkerHill casino and hotel in Seoul.

    Another three licenses are also expected to be offered to retailers operating in smaller South Korean cities, including Busan.

    SK Networks (part of the SK Group) lost its Seoul license last November at the same time as Lotte Duty Free, although Lotte holds other licenses in downtown Seoul and at Incheon Airport.

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