[Photo News] K-Noodle expansion

Shin Dong-won, chairman of South Korea’s largest instant noodle maker Nongshim, looks around the company‘s second factory in US in this photo released Monday. According to Nongshim, the new factory located in Rancho Cucamonga, California can produce up to 350 million instant noodles per year. The Korean noodle maker said it aims to reach annual sales of $800 million (1.01 trillion won) in the US by 2025 after it garnered $395 million in sales last year.

May 2, 2022

Amorepacific Q1 profit drops on weak duty-free, overseas sales

South Korea’s cosmetics giant Amorepacific Group said Thursday its first-quarter net profit plummeted on-year by 13.4 percent to 171.2 billion won ($134.6 million), as sales dropped in duty-free business and in the Asian market due to the coronavirus pandemic. The group’s sales revenue decreased to 1.3 trillion won, down 9 percent in the cited period. Amorepacific Group’s domestic sales, accounting for approximately 60 percent of the total sales, decreased by 9.9 percent to

April 28, 2022

Ourhome sibling feud reignites over management control

A sibling feud over Ourhome, a Korean food company, has reignited as Koo Bon-sung, Ourhome’s former vice president and the eldest heir, launched a legal challenge against his sister and Vice President Koo Ji-eun. Koo Bon-sung and Koo Mi-hyeon, the eldest sister of the Koo family, released a statement Tuesday saying that they have filed a requisition to Seoul Southern District Court to convene a temporary shareholders meeting. They are seeking to pass a vote to appoint 48 new board of dir

April 27, 2022

McDonald’s Korea posts record-high W1tr sales

McDonald’s Korea logged a combined record high in sales of 1 trillion won ($801 million) from its directly managed stores and franchisees last year, the largest annual figure since its first store opened in the country in 1988, the global fast-food giant said Tuesday. The directly managed stores that take up about 70 percent of the total number of McDonald’s in the country posted 867.9 billion won in sales, up 9.7 percent on year, according to the company’s regulatory report.

April 26, 2022

3 French luxury houses log whopping W3tr sales in Korea

The combined sales of luxury houses Hermes, Louis Vuitton and Chanel in South Korea marked a record high of 3 trillion won ($2.4 billion) last year, amid the frenzy over high-end goods sparked by the coronavirus pandemic. According to Chanel Korea, the company’s sales revenue surged by 31.6 percent to 1.2 trillion won last year. Net profit skyrocketed by 67 percent to 249 billion won in the citied period. Louis Vuitton Korea’s sales rose 40 percent to 1.4 trillion won, while its n

April 21, 2022

[Newsmaker] Retailers hope for sales recovery as social distancing rules removed

With the government lifting nearly all social distancing measures, retailers in South Korea are now pinning high hopes on a business recovery after enduring two years of strict pandemic restrictions that limited operating hours, private gatherings and even food tasting at the grocery store. Supermarkets, which have been hit hard due to pandemic restrictions, are in talks with the government to return to offering in-store samples, which has been banned since last July. An Emart official and a

April 18, 2022

CJ Logistics to raise W740b fund to bolster fulfilment network

CJ Logistics, South Korea’s largest logistics firm, said Sunday that it is set to raise up to 740 billion won ($602 million) to construct major fulfillment centers in the metropolitan area, accelerating its e-commerce business. The firm will first raise 250 billion won in cash with Samsung SRA Asset Management, the real estate investment arm of Samsung Group, and plans to borrow the remaining 490 billion won from other financial companies. The fund will be operated for eight years until

April 17, 2022

Baemin sales surge 70-fold from 2014 on pandemic delivery demand

Korea’s food delivery app Baemin logged 2.3 trillion won ($1.8 billion) in sales last year, a 70-fold surge from 2014 when it started filing financial reports to authorities, its operator Woowa Brothers said in a regulatory filing Tuesday. “The stellar performance in recent years was largely driven by COVID-19, with many restaurant partners joining our app,” said an official from Woowa Brothers. In 2020, the first year of the pandemic, the company surpassed 1 trillion won i

April 12, 2022

Food firms flustered over resurgent kimchi feud

Korean companies exporting kimchi or food containing the Korean spicy cabbage are on high alert after a decades-long cultural feud over its origin has resurfaced online. Seo Kyung-duk, a professor at Sungshin Women’s University in Seoul and a cultural heritage activist, blasted a local bakery chain on Monday for using Chinese word “pao cai,” in the Chinese translation of the name of one of its breads. Starting in March, the bakery has written the Chinese translation of its k

April 11, 2022

Online luxury sellers strengthen counterfeit inspection amid Musinsa scandal

Korea’s online luxury sellers who have enjoyed the recent resell market boom are strengthening the counterfeit inspection process amid a scandal involving fashion commercial platform Musinsa, industry sources said Friday. On April 1, Naver’s online reselling platform Kream announced that the Essentials T-shirts sold through Musinsa by the brand operator Fear of God were proven to be fake. Musinsa, which has strongly objected to the counterfeit claims raised by Kream and has warned

April 8, 2022

SSG.com to launch cross-border shopping service

SSG.com, the digital shopping platform of retail giant Shinsegae Group, said Monday it will launch a cross-border shopping service for international shoppers. The company will sell over 9.6 million fashion and beauty items, as well as processed food on Gmarket Global’s English and Chinese online malls, as part of the first collaborative project following Shinsegae’s acquisition of eBay Korea, since renamed Gmarket Global, last year. International shoppers from over 80 countries in

April 4, 2022

Pulmuone completes 2nd tofu plant in China

Korea’s food giant Pulmuone said Sunday it has completed the construction of its second tofu factory in China, as it looks to accelerate its expansion in the growing market there. Located in the eastern Beijing of Pinggu, the new factory can produce 1,800 kilograms of tofu annually, increasing the productivity by 400 percent compared to the old factory. The second factory will produce a variety of tofu for soup, salad and steamed dish, tofu noodle, and soybean milk, according to the com

April 3, 2022

Kimchi with new packaging method on way to captivate the world

Forget about concerns of kimchi keeping its freshness and leaking its “unique smell” when shipped overseas. Korean companies are seeking ways to expand their kimchi exports by adopting new packaging methods, increasing overseas production and obtaining scientific proof that the traditional side dish is beneficial to one’s health. The state-run Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corp. announced Thursday it has launched a new kimchi product that can improve bowel movement an

March 31, 2022

Nongshim launches bakery snack brand Petit Paris

Nongshim Co. said it launched a “bakery snack” brand named Petit Paris, starting with a bread roll snack that tastes like French toast. The largest instant noodle and snack company in South Korea said it will introduce more products under the new brand as it pioneers the market for snacks with a soft texture and taste similar to that of bakery products. “As there is high consumer demand for bread, cakes and cookies, we expect Petit Paris bakery snacks to be popular as well. T

March 30, 2022

With first kimchi factory in US, Daesang gears up for global expansion

South Korean food giant Daesang Group has completed construction of the first kimchi factory in the US, setting up an overseas base not only to penetrate the local market but also to expand exports to Europe and Oceania. Located in the City of Industry in LA, home to industrial facilities from overseas with business links to Asian countries, the factory can produce 2,000 metric tons of kimchi annually. The company has invested 20 billion won ($16.4 million) for building production lines and w

March 29, 2022

[From the Scene] Has frenzy for Chanel died down? Shoppers say rarity factor has faded

Until just a couple of months ago, long lines in front of department store entries connected to Chanel were crowded with shoppers eager to grab bags priced at some 10 million won ($8,200). Some brought their own chairs for a more comfortable wait, while others set up tents to stay warm the night before. But the desire to get hold of luxury fashion items accentuated with the signature Chanel mark, however, appears to be losing steam. It seems an “open run,” a local shopping term refe

March 24, 2022

‘Retro’ Pokemon Bread craze shows no sign of stopping soon

The craze over Pokemon Bread shows no signs of abating, as the popular pastry series that has recently been revived has induced scenes of people waiting in line at supermarkets and adults posting their search to social media. According to manufacturer SPC Samlip, the supermarket pastry that comes with a sticker of one of the characters from the global hit anime and video game series Pokemon had sold 6.1 million rolls as of Monday. That means some 234,000 rolls were sold each day on average

March 21, 2022

Market jitters dampen appetite for e-commerce IPOs

After the blockbuster stock debut of Coupang last year, expectations had been growing for upcoming listings of the nation’s popular e-commerce platforms like SSG.com and Market Kurly until early this year. But uncertainties surrounding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its economic impact are prompting the firms to put their plans to go public on ice. SSG.com, the digital shopping platform owned by retail giant Shinsegae Group, is one of the hottest market debuts planned this year

March 20, 2022

GS Retail latest to adopt chicken-frying robots

GS Retail, the operator of Korea’s convenience store chain GS25, said Wednesday it will deploy chicken-frying robots, joining the recent race to automate food manufacturing. The company forged a partnership with Roboarte, the food tech startup behind Robert Chicken that uses robot arms to fry chicken. GS25 plans to use the startup’s robots to fry frozen chicken from its own brand Chicken 25. “The robot arms will automatically put the bucket full of frozen chicken in a frying

Feb. 23, 2022

British fashion brand unveils bags inspired by South Korean anime series ‘Run Hany’

British fashion label JW Anderson has unveiled new bags inspired by South Korean anime series “Run Hany.” The accessories, which appear to be a collaboration project as part of the brand’s new season collection, come in at least three colors -- blue, orange and white -- according to a recent post on Instagram. In another photo, one bag has a picture of the face of the series’ main character Hany, along with the JW logo in orange. “Not long till the show,” t

Feb. 21, 2022