Lotte chief cheerleads for PyeongChang

By Park Jae-hyuk

Lotte Group, which has continued its support for the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Games, has been motivated by Chairman Shin Dong-bin’s passion for skiing, according to company officials, Wednesday.

The nation’s fifth-largest conglomerate decided last year to offer about 60 billion won ($52 million) for the upcoming Winter Olympics, Paralympics and several test events.

Lotte Group said at that time that the decision was made by the chairman, who has led the Korea Ski Association since 2014. He was a skier while in college and has skied since the age of six.

Recently, the chairman ordered Lotte Department Store to supply groceries for Korea’s national snowboarding team for this weekend’s FIS World Cup, which is one of the test events for the Olympics.

Shin also promised to give hundreds of millions of won to the winners of skiing events at the PyeongChang Winter Games.

Last month, he visited the Seoul International Cross-Country Competition to cheer for the promising Norwegian-Korean skier Kim Magnus, who decided to participate in the Olympics on Korea’s national team thanks in no small part to Shin’s role.

In addition to the chairman’s support, the nation’s leading retailer vowed to promote the sales of commemorative goods. Its department stores now sell various products decorated with symbols of the PyeongChang Winter Games.

Last Friday, Lotte Department Store gave a sneak peek of dolls, stationery items and fashion goods commemorating the Olympics at its main branch in downtown Seoul.

The department store is also offering a virtual reality skiing experience until next Wednesday. The company said the special event will move to Busan, Feb. 17; Daegu, Feb. 24; and the Hongik University area in western Seoul, March 3.

As an official sponsor of the Winter Games, Lotte organized a team last December to develop the commemorative goods.

The products developed by the team will be available this June at Lotte Department Store locations. During the Winter Games, they will hit shelves at special stores to be opened in PyeongChang and the nearby city of Gangneung.

“We decided to open the special outlets to promote the global sporting event to be held next year,” a Lotte Department Store official said. “We will continue to carry out various marketing campaigns through the special outlets.”

Lotte Group said it will soon offer the products at its duty free shops and will open Olympic stores in airports and terminals near the game venues.