‘Since Lotte has outbid other contenders, there’s a 99.9 percent chance of Lotte becoming the preferred bidder.’

South Korea’s exports of kimchi recorded an all-time high last year, reaching a trade surplus for the first time in 12 years, data showed Monday. Kimchi is a traditional Korean side dish made of spicy sauce and fermented cabbage. According to the Korea Customs Service, exports of kimchi surged by 10.7 percent on-year to $159.9 million last year. The figure surpassed the record-high exports of $144.5 million in 2020. More than half of last year’s exports went to Japan, followed by

French luxury brand Louis Vuitton is closing shops at all downtown duty-free stores in South Korea by March 2023. Having stopped running its store at Lotte Duty Free Jeju in December, Louis Vuitton will close three more -- at the Shilla Duty Free in Jeju, Lotte Duty Free in Busan and Lotte World Tower in Jamsil, Seoul -- in March, according to UK travel retail media outlet Moodie Davitt Report. Louis Vuitton also plans to pull out from the three remaining downtown duty-free stores -- Lotte Du

Lotte Hotel, the hotel chain owned by Korea’s retail giant Lotte Group, said Monday that it will open a new hotel in Chicago next year, the first overseas launch under its lifestyle boutique hotel brand L7. Lotte said it completed an acquisition of Kimpton Hotel Monaco Chicago for 42.8 billion won ($35.9 million) on Friday (US time) in a joint investment with the state-run Korea Overseas Infrastructure Development Corp. The 13-story hotel with 191 rooms is expected to be refurbished int

Amid the prolonged strike of unionized delivery workers of CJ Logistics, the logistics unit of Korea’s conglomerate CJ Group, government is planning to deploy additional workers to prepare for a delivery surge in the upcoming New Year’s holiday. According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, starting Monday, it will deploy around 10,000 delivery workers to the field from Jan. 17 to Feb. 12. Following the scheme, the ministry aims to offset the delivery shortage sp

South Korean e-commerce giant Coupang said Wednesday it has exclusively launched the product lines of Nitori, Japan’s largest furniture and household goods brand. According to the company, Coupang will directly import Nitori products so that customers in Korea can conveniently purchase the brand’s items. Celebrating the launch, Coupang presents a limited-time offer from Wednesday to Friday. Any Coupang customer can receive four types of discount coupons -- discounts of 3,000 won ($

Market valuation estimates of local digital platforms that promote individual trading of secondhand products have been on the rise with traditional retailers and even banks injecting large investments in hopes of them becoming the next Coupang and Market Kurly. Some market insiders say that valuation of Danggeun Market, the nation’s biggest secondhand trading app by transaction volume, is estimated at 3 trillion won ($2.5 billion). The figure, though based on mere estimation, surpasses

Retail giant Shinsegae Group saw its shares plunge on Monday as a controversial social media post from the group’s heir and Vice Chairman Chung Yong-jin sparked investor jitters. The company’s stocks shed 6.8 percent to close at 233,000 won ($196.23) Monday against the benchmark KOSPI’s 0.95 percent decline. The plunge in stock value comes after Chung made several politically charged remarks in recent months criticizing communism alongside pictures of Chinese President Xi Ji

Starbucks Korea, the nation’s No. 1 specialty coffee chain, said Wednesday it is considering bumping up the price for a cup of Americano in almost eight years due to the price surge in coffee beans imported from overseas. “Even when other franchise coffee shops have increased their coffee prices, we have fixed our price rate. It was bearable back then, but since COVID-19, the price of coffee beans and other materials such as syrups have begun to soar just too much,” an offici

CJ CheilJedang, a food manufacturer under Korea’s CJ Group, said Tuesday it will reorganize its business units and refine global market strategies in a bid to efficiently promote its Korean food products worldwide. According to the food giant, it plans to divide its headquarters business into global and regional food unit. Namely the Global Headquarter will take charge in promoting its food products such as dumpling, chicken, kimchi, Korean hot sauce and dried laver overseas. The region

Paris Baguette operator SPC Group promoted its third-generation heir Hur Jin-soo as president of Paris Croissant, the group‘s de facto holding company, the firm announced Thursday. The recent promotion is in recognition of Hur’s contribution to raising Paris Baguette’s brand awareness in major foreign markets, explained SPC. He also led the bakery chain’s joint venture project in Indonesia and Cambodia this year. At its global branches, SPC appointed foreign executive

Shinsegae and Seoul Auction are teaming up to expand operations in arts, NFTs and metaverse fields, South Korea’s largest art auction house said Thursday. The department store operator will purchase 28 billion-won ($23.6 million) of new shares issued by Seoul Auction, according to a DART announcement posted by the two firms on Wednesday.  When the acquisition is finalized on Jan. 6, Shinsegae will own a 4.82 percent stake in Seoul Auction. The firm is currently the largest art auc

A local manufacturer and a distributor of a plastic baby bathtub that was previously recalled for containing high levels of toxic environmental hormones will have to pay compensation to thousands of customers. The Korea Consumer Agency said Wednesday it advised the baby tub’s manufacturer, Daehyeon Chemical, and its intermediate distributor, Kihyun Industries, to pay 50,000 won ($42) to each customer who used the product as compensation. While the tub was mostly sold at Daiso stores, t

Home appliances company Coway said its new induction cooktop is enjoying high demand thanks to its auto cooking function, as more consumers are choosing to cook at home rather than eat out amid the pandemic. The auto cooking function of Coway’s Noble Induction Freedom, launched in November, saves the trouble of watching and controlling the heat for pots and pans to keep the contents from burning or boiling over. When cooking rice in a pressure cooker, for example, the cooktop automatic

Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corporation (aT) has been at the center of promoting kimchi overseas, expanding the fermented dish’s presence in the United States and increasing its global exports. Located in Naju, South Jeolla Province, the state-owned company overlooks the distribution and transaction of all agricultural goods produced in Korea. One of its recent efforts is promoting kimchi in the United States and abroad. The firm has been particularly upping its activities i