KT&G President Kwak Young-kyoon, center, poses with Andrew Lochrie, right, regional director of Asia & Pacific at Imperial Tobacco Group, after signing an alliance agreement at the head office of KT&G in southern Seoul, Monday.
/ Courtesy of KT&G |
By Kim Tae-gyu
Staff Reporter
KT&G, South Korea's foremost tobacco company, sealed a partnership with Imperial Tobacco Group under which the former will manufacture products for the latter this year.
The Seoul-headquartered firm said Tuesday that it had reached a license agreement with Imperial Tobacco Group, which brags of geographic diversity as its products are available in more than 160 countries across the world.
``We have forged a brand license agreement with Imperial Tobacco to start producing one of its best-selling products, Davidoff, here in Korea over the first half of this year,'' KT&G spokesman Kim Tae-hoon said.
``We will come up with two types of Davidoff products with the price tag of 2,500 won. The exchange of state-of-the-art technologies between Imperial Tobacco and KT&G will bring more premium cigarettes here,'' he said.
Davidoff is on offer in more than 100 countries across the globe and is particularly strong in such countries as Taiwan, Greece and Middle East, according to the Bristol-based company.
The trademark was originally held by Reemtsma in German but was acquired by Imperial back in 2002 when it took over Reemtsma.
``On top of debuting Davidoff here, we are set to join hands with Imperial in a variety of areas where we can collaborate with the British firm down the road, for example, cooperation in the advance into the global market,'' Kim said.
``The global market has been ruled by the `big three' companies up until now. But we will make a splash in the international scene under the business alliance with Imperial,'' he said.
The big three refers to the world's three primary tobacco makers of Philip Morris, British American Tobacco (BAT) and Japan Tobacco International.
KT&G is Korea's single-largest cigarette manufacturer, and accounts for around 60 percent of the local market in competition with global behemoths such as BAT and Philip Morris.
The former state monopoly, now privatized to be listed on the Seoul bourse, chalked up 2.8 trillion won in sales last year, up 7.9 percent from a year ago, to net 744.9 billion won in profits.
As of the end of the fourth quarter in 2009, more than a fifth of its sales came from overseas markets. KT&G is vying to substantially increase its proportion from international markets in the future.
voc200@koreatimes.co.kr
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