Lotte Group is sponsoring 600 billion won for the 2018 Winter Olympics scheduled to take place in Pyeongchang, Gangwon Province in South Korea.

Lotte struck a partnership agreement with the PyeongChang Olympics Organizing committee, in a ceremony held Wednesday at the Lakai Sandpine Resort in Gangneung, to become the biggest domestic official sponsor for the event.

Under the deal, the retail conglomerate plans to sell various official Olympics merchandise, such as clothing, accessories and jewelry, through its department stores and duty-free shops and also set up official merchandise stores around the event venues and airport in the future.

The group’s decision was reportedly led by its chairman Shin Dong-bin, who is a former professional skier as well as the current chairman of the Korea Ski Association.

Shin, who began skiing at the age of 6, has been an avid supporter of skiing and winter sports, actively working with the Korea Ski Association on top of serving his duties as group chairman.

The chairman played an integral role in convincing Korean-Norwegian cross-country skier star Kim Magnus to represent the Korean team at the upcoming Winter Olympics, according to Lotte.

Shin also led efforts to increase the length of the Korean national skiing team’s overseas training by more than 40 days this year. He also pushed to hire more training and assistance personnel for the team, among other forms of support.

“Lotte Group will continue to provide full support for the successful execution of the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics,” said Lotte Group’s public relations director So Jin-se.

By Sohn Ji-young (jys@heraldcorp.com)