[THE INVESTOR] Amid the growing popularity of South Korean beauty products pioneered by behemoths AmorePacific and LG Household & Health Care, more companies are expanding overseas.

Instead of launching and campaigning for their own brands, though, they are targeting overseas market as original equipment manufacturers or as original development manufacturers.

Claires Korea, which raked in 180 billion won (US$162.87 million) revenue boosted by its best-selling item Guerisson horse oil cream, announced that it will produce cosmetics for clients through a subsidiary Cos9.




Shinsegae International has established Shinsegae Intercos Korea, a 50:50 joint venture with Italian cosmetics company Intercos, in 2015 and is building a factory in Gyeonggi Province, set to start operations in early 2017.

Also under construction is a factory by Megacos, a subsidiary of TonyMoly that posted 220 billion won worldwide turnover in 2015 including those from Sephora. The factory, when completed in 2017, has an annual capacity of 500 million products.

South Korean OEM and ODM businesses has been dominated by Cosmax and Kolmar Korea that boast over a combined 1 trillion won in annual sales. Smaller firms are rushing to join them as the country’s beauty technology has gained trust in overseas market, according to industry sources.

By Hwang You-mee (glamazon@heraldcorp.com)