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Lotte Group to withdraw food business from Southeast Asia

A clerk moves boxes in front of a Lotteria chain store in Seoul's Jamsil last October.  Korea times fileBy Kim Jae-heunLotte Group's restaurant business unit, Lotte GRS, has been shutting down its Lotteria hamburger chain in Indonesia since last year. Also in the process of closing down is Lotte Group's food material supplier in Vietnam, which was established in early 2020 to expand Lotte GRS' business in neighboring Southeast Asian countries.According to Lotte GRS and Lotte Holdings, Lotteria hamburger chains overseas are being shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Lotte GRS' overseas office in Indonesia is currently undergoing liquidation. Lotteria franchises in Vietnam have all stopped operations and its headquarters in Seoul is reviewing the possibility of closing down the business within this year.As of the end of last year, Lotte GRS was operating two overseas affiliates of Lotteria, in Indonesia and Vietnam. After Lotte Holdings was established in 2017, it took control of the overseas restaurant business.Lotteria Indonesia, which operates more than 20 stores there, is i

Apr 16, 2021By Kim Jae-heun
Lotte Group to withdraw food business from Southeast Asia
Tech & Science

Naver, Kakao in race to acquire local storytelling platform

Kakao Page Vice President Hong Min-young poses at the company's headquarters in Bundang, Gyeonggi Province, in August, 2020. Courtesy of Kakao PageBy Kim Jae-heunNaver and Kakao are competing against each other to acquire Munpia, a local web novel platform.The two companies are seeking to gain management control over S2L Partners, which runs Munpia, by acquiring a 64.42 percent stake. Munpia's enterprise value is estimated at a minimum of 300 billion won.Naver has already formed a consortium with a local private equity fund to acquire Munpia, while Kakao is also in talks with a strategic investor.In January, Naver took over the world's largest social storytelling platform, Wattpad, which boasts 90 million monthly active users. Kakao is working on acquiring No. 3 player, Tapas, and No. 5 player, Radish, although the first deal is facing obstacles.The main impetus behind the push to acquire the storytelling platforms is to secure intellectual property (IP) rights over stories. Such content can be used in different fields of entertainment, including movies, TV dramas or games, which Nav

Apr 15, 2021By Kim Jae-heun
Naver, Kakao in race to acquire local storytelling platform
Companies

Retailers taking action against Japanese seafood

A customer walks by gift-set boxes sold at Hyundai Department Store in Seoul, on Jan. 6. YonhapBy Kim Jae-heunLocal supermarket chains E-mart, Lotte Mart and Homeplus have confirmed that they will continue boycotting the sale of Japanese seafood.The following announcement came after the Japanese government's recent decision to release a massive amount of radioactive water into the sea from its wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant. The retailers' decision to continue banning the import of Japanese marine products is rooted in flow-on environmental effects of the earthquake and tsunami that hit the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant back in 2011. The region was contaminated with radiation and Koreans urged the government and retail companies to stop importing food from Japan. “To avoid any controversy, we just import seafood from far away in the United States or Norway. We don't even consider importing Japanese food products,” an official from one of the chain supermarkets said. Department stores here have also stopped selling Japanese seafood from some 10 years ago. Ev

Apr 14, 2021By Kim Jae-heun
Retailers taking action against Japanese seafood
Companies

Coupang urged to improve sustainability

A television monitor shows Coupang's stock price on March 15. Korea Times fileAnalysts advise e-commerce giant to address labor issues for more investmentsBy Kim Jae-heun, Kim Yoo-chul Despite several labor-oriented issues, it seems like business as usual for Coupang because no major investment banks are offering “sell” views on its stocks now being traded on the NYSE.But it is notable that its share price was remaining at the $40 per share level after peaking briefly at $69 on the first trading day a month ago.Some big institutional investors are still maintaining their bullish views on the company given its still-large opportunity to increase its market share in Korea, but they have some concerns on its valuation.According to an analysis by The Korea Times over comments on Coupang by leading global investment banks ― Mizuho, Credit Suisse, JP Morgan, Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs ― only Goldman Sachs maintained a “buy” rating on Coupang and $62 as its target. The remaining four banks offered “neutral” ratings and their target prices ranged betw

Apr 13, 2021By Kim Jae-heun
Coupang urged to improve sustainability
Companies

Stand-alone cosmetics stores sales plunge, while online flourish

A customer walks into Innisfree shop in Seoul in this 2018 file photo. Korea times fileBy Kim Jae-heunStand-alone cosmetics shops near universities in the capital area or on main streets in downtown once thrived, with the market growing to be worth 2.81 trillion won ($2.58 billion) in 2016. However, the figure has fallen since then, plummeting to 1.7 trillion in 2018.One of the most popular skincare franchises, Missha, now has only 400 stores nationwide, closing down 164 last year alone and 30 more this year as of last month. At its peak, Missha operated 800 stores. Sluggish consumption and intensifying competition have been behind the dramatic decline, alongside the rise of online malls and flourishing Health & Beauty stores such as Olive Young. But the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic has also played a decisive role.People spending more time at home saw less reason to wear makeup, as well as shifting their daily purchases online to avoid spreading the coronavirus. Cosmetics brands operated by major companies were not an exception. AmorePacific's Innisfree and LG Household & He

Apr 10, 2021By Kim Jae-heun
Stand-alone cosmetics stores sales plunge, while online flourish
Companies

Convenience stores to beef up vegetable offerings

Vegetables for sale at CU convenience store / Courtesy of BGF RetailBy Kim Jae-heunConvenience stores here are offering vegetables at discounted prices to attract customers during the COVID-19 pandemic. As the government has strengthened quarantine measures to keep people at home, they are left with fewer choices but to shop online or purchase groceries at nearby convenience stores.Most items sold at convenience stores are often perceived as pricier and lower in quality than those sold at supermarkets or discount stores.To change this perception, BGF Retail and GS Retail have decided to launch promotional events for vegetables at CU and GS Fresh Mall, respectively. CU is BGF Retail's convenience store brand and GS Fresh Mall is GS Retail's online grocery store.BGF Retail said Thursday that CU has started selling six types of produce, including perilla leaves, spicy chili peppers, and cucumber chili peppers until the end of this month at a 20 percent discount. Some vegetables are 55 percent cheaper than those available at local supermarkets. CU is selling leeks for 40 won per 10 grams

Apr 9, 2021By Kim Jae-heun
Convenience stores to beef up vegetable offerings
Companies

Shinsegae, Lotte capitalize on baseball to enhance market presence

Shinsegae Vice Chairman Chung Yong-jin takes a photo in his seat during the baseball match between SSG Landers and Lotte Giants at SSG Landers Field in Incheon, April 4. YonhapBy Kim Jae-heunOnly three months after Shinsegae acquired SK Telecom's professional baseball team SK Wyverns and rebranded it as SSG Landers, the retail giant is making good use of the team in marketing campaigns to improve the performance of its main retail business.On March 30, Shinsegae Vice Chairman Chung Yong-jin publicly targeted longtime rival Lotte Shopping on social media platform Clubhouse saying “they will have to bite the bullet to catch us.”Chung's comment could be interpreted as not a denouncement of Lotte Shopping but rather as a marketing tactic to seek a win-win strategy for both firms. Lotte also reacted by putting an online banner on its combined shopping platform Lotte ON with a written message: “We will quietly meet SSG.com in the away game and defeat them.” Here, Lotte was referring to its baseball team Lotte Giants' game against SSG Landers on April 4. The match en

Apr 9, 2021By Kim Jae-heun
Shinsegae, Lotte capitalize on baseball to enhance market presence
Companies

Celltrion founder is Korea's richest man: Forbes

Celltrion Chairman Seo Jung-jin / YonhapBy Kim Jae-heunThe richest person in Korea is Celltrion Chairman Seo Jung-jin, according to Forbes's World's Billionaires List of 2021 revealed Tuesday (local time). The American business magazine estimated the assets of billionaires around the world based on a number of factors, including their company's stock price and exchange rates.Seo's net assets were valued at $14.2 billion (15.9 trillion won), ranking him as the 145th richest person in the world. The pharmaceutical firm chairman was listed among the top three billionaires in Korea last year after late Samsung Group Chairman Lee Kun-hee at No. 1 and NXC CEO Kim Jung-ju at No. 2.This year, Kim maintained the No. 2 spot with estimated assets of $13.3 billion, followed by Kakao Chairman Kim Beom-su with $9.3 billion coming in third and Samsung Group Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong with $8.3 billion at fourth place.The number of Korean billionaires increased sharply from 28 in 2020 to 44 this year. A number of them have amassed a huge fortune by investing in cryptocurrencies, listing through spec

Apr 8, 2021By Kim Jae-heun
Celltrion founder is Korea's richest man: Forbes
Companies

Nongshim heir slates meal replacement noodles as next growth engine

From left, the late founder of Nongshim Shin Choon-ho and vice chairman of the company Shin Dong-won / Courtesy of NongshimBy Kim Jae-heunNongshim Vice Chairman Shin Dong-won is facing up to the challenge to beef up his company's home meal replacement noodles items following the death of his father Shin Choon-ho. The younger Shin took over the lead position from his father who died of a chronic illness last month. Two days prior to the founder's death, the vice chairman said during a regular general shareholders' meeting that home meal replacements and functional health food would be the next growth engines of the company.The meal replacements market grew significantly here with the outbreak of COVID-19 and the increasing number of one-person households. To better meet the trend, Vice Chairman Shin decided to focus on meal-kit products based on noodles, which the company is best known for. Nongshim will introduce three new meals by the end of this month through its brand Cook Tam: Beef Soup Noodles, Hot Spicy Meat Stew Noodles and Sausage Stew Noodles. Shin believes noodle meal-kit p

Apr 8, 2021By Kim Jae-heun
Nongshim heir slates meal replacement noodles as next growth engine
Tech & Science

Disney Plus' service launch in Korea imminent

Disney Plus' homepage / Courtesy of Disney PlusBy Kim Jae-heunThe Walt Disney Company is preparing to launch its over-the-top (OTT) streaming media service here and it is cutting off its supply of original content to local players. The country's largest OTT service, Wavve, said Sunday that its contract with Disney for subscription video on demand (SVOD) will terminate at the end of this month. Dozens of Disney animation and blockbuster films, such as the Marvel, Star Wars and Frozen series, will no long be available on Wavve in May. “The due date of contract was until this month and Disney told us that it will not extend the SVOD service with us. However, we will still be able to purchase Disney series by units,” a Wavve official said. Disney has about 6,000 videos on Wavve, so taking out 100 of those may not seem like a big deal. However, this will affect the most popular videos and Wavve users will feel there is not much to watch if Disney stops supplying them on the domestic platform.Disney is likely to end its SVOD contract with other local OTT players too. Last month

Apr 7, 2021By Kim Jae-heun
Disney Plus' service launch in Korea imminent
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