Lotte Hotels & Resorts tops Lotte Group's annual awards ceremony

Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin

Lotte Group on Monday awarded its highest corporate honor to its hospitality arm for its logistical role at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, anchoring an annual awards ceremony that highlighted the conglomerate’s shifting focus toward global brand equity, pop-culture synergy and high-risk industrial research.

The Grand Prize, presented during the 2026 Lotte Awards at the Lotte Hotel World in Seoul, went to Lotte Hotels & Resorts. The company was recognized for successfully managing high-stakes protocol and catering services during last year’s APEC meetings in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, where it deployed 400 culinary and service staff for the leaders' dinner. The effort was credited with significantly elevating the group’s global profile among attending world leaders and international business executives.

The ceremony, attended by Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin and roughly 100 recipients, handed out accolades across categories including Brand/CX Design, R&D, and Sales & Marketing. In the marketing track, Lotte GRS, the group’s restaurant franchise arm, was recognized for capitalizing on cultural trends through a menu collaboration with a breakout contestant from the hit Korean reality competition program "Culinary Class Wars." Meanwhile, Lotte Wellfood was cited for the sustained growth of its Kancho snack brand and Lotte Chemical Advanced Materials won for maintaining its top market share in television sets utilizing recycled plastic housings.

Signifying a corporate culture that increasingly tolerates calculated failure, Lotte Fine Chemical won the "Challenge" category — the first time the risk-taking award has been handed out since 2022. The affiliate was honored for developing an eco-friendly superabsorbent polymer. Although its original commercial application for diapers failed to materialize, the company successfully pivoted, repurposing the material into a high-value soil moisture-retention agent.

In technical sectors, Lotte Chemical Basic Materials secured the R&D award for developing a specialized polypropylene used in electric vehicle battery separators. Additionally, a newly established Brand/CX Design category recognized Lotte E&C for its premium residential line, "Le El," and Lotte GRS for renovating its Lotteria spaces to anchor its upcoming global expansion.

This article was published with the assistance of generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.