TonyMoly to lead K-beauty across globe

TonyMoly Chairman Bae Hae-dong, second from left, poses with Hyuna of girl group 4Minute and company executives during a ceremony to mark the firm’s 10th anniversary, at a flagship store in Seoul, Thursday. / Courtesy of TonyMoly

By Lee Hyo-sik

TonyMoly, one of Korea’s rapidly growing cosmetics brands, has emerged as an industry leader, spearheading “K-beauty” around the globe.

The company, which went public last July, has successfully established a foothold in Europe and the United States over the past few years. It now plans to mobilize more resources to expand its reach in China and Southeast Asia.

Riding high on robust growth abroad, TonyMoly seeks to generate 1 trillion won ($833 million) in sales in 2020 and double the figure to 2 trillion won by 2025.

Its ultimate goal is to become a leading global cosmetics brand, surpassing industry heavyweights such as AmorePacific and LG Household & Health Care, according to its chairman.

“We will do whatever it takes to expand our presence in China to bolster our sales to 1 trillion won by 2020,” TonyMoly Chairman Bae Hae-dong said at a press conference marking its 10th anniversary. “We will double our sales to 2 trillion won in 2025. We will continue to expand research and development to introduce a number of best-selling beauty products and boost customer satisfaction.”

The company expects to earn about 260 billion won in sales at home and abroad this year, up from 219.9 billion won in 2015.

TonyMoly recently opened its first flagship store in Shanghai, taking the first step toward an aggressive expansion in the world’s second-largest economy.

“We recently resolved legal issues with the former sales agent in China,” Bae said. “So, this has cleared all our obstacles to bolstering our business there. In April, we established a sales subsidiary in Qingdao. From 2017, we also plan to run a plant in China. In addition to setting up directly managed brand stores, we are talking with Chinese retailers to set up shops inside their outlets.”

In China, the company operates 60 stores, all of which are inside retailers. It plans to increase the number to 200 by the end of the year.

Bae also talked about how TonyMoly has successfully made inroads in Europe and the United States.

It first set up a brand shop in New York in 2014 and the second in San Francisco the following year. On May 15, the firm began selling its beauty products at all Sephora stores in Europe. Sephora is a French cosmetics chain that runs 825 stores in 14 European countries.

“We are the first Korean cosmetics brand to set up a shop-in-shop at Sephora outlets,” Bae said. “This is an important milestone, not only for TonyMoly, but also for the nation’s cosmetics industry. This shows that Korea’s cosmetics brands have earned global recognition. We will continue to bolster our brand image as a global cosmetics leader.”

TonyMoly has 7,700 brand shops and shop-in-shops in 41 countries. In Korea, it has 676 stores.

“We will introduce a range of beauty products targeting women in their 20s under the slogan of Witty Beauty,” Bae said. “When our goods become popular with trend-savvy young women, those in their 30s and 40s, who use beauty products to look younger, will take notice of this and become our loyal customers.”