LG H&H sells Avon's North American business amid realignment

LG Household & Health Care is selling its Avon business in North America, operated independently as the Avon Company, as it shifts gears toward retail and digital channels for its Korean beauty and wellness brands, the company said Monday. In a regulatory filing, LG H&H USA signed a stock purchase agreement to sell its stake in the Avon Company to Regent affiliate Stratford Worldwide, the global investment firm that operates Avon International. The exact sale price will be finalized when the dea

2026-08-24 17:42:41:00

A 115% jump: Tourist wallets power Korea’s convenience store growth

Foreign tourists are becoming an increasingly important source of growth for Korea’s convenience stores, with spending surging fastest in Seoul’s trendsetting Seongsu district. Foreign-card sales at CU stores in Seongsu jumped 115.1 percent on-year in the first half, according to data provided to The Korea Herald by BGF Retail, operator of Korea’s largest convenience store chain by outlet count. That far outpaced growth of 35.3 percent in Myeong-dong and 32.5 percent in Hongdae, Seoul’s other ma

2026-08-24 15:24:13:00

CJ CheilJedang's California kitchen feeds Bibigo's US rise

Korea Herald correspondent BEAUMONT, California — CJ Group's three-day K-pop and Korean culture festival, KCON LA 2026, drew 142,000 fans, and for many of them, the food may have mattered just as much as the music, with over 10,000 people lining up to try US-made Korean dishes at the booth run by the group's flagship Korean food brand, Bibigo. Few attendees likely knew, however, that the mandu, or Korean dumplings, on their plate traced back to a plant not far away. The factory in Beaumont, abou

2026-08-23 16:49:35:00

Jin Air, Air Busan, Air Seoul to merge into single carrier by March 2027

Jin Air, Air Busan and Air Seoul, the three budget carriers under Hanjin Group, are set to operate as a single airline under the Jin Air name starting in March. The boards of all three companies approved the merger plan and signed the agreement Friday. Each carrier is planning for shareholder ratification in December, then regulatory approval, before the combined airline launches March 17, 2027. The move will follow the planned Dec. 17 merger of Korean Air and Asiana Airlines, the respective par

2026-08-21 17:51:29:00

S. Korea's social life runs through bars: reports

South Koreans lean on bars for socializing more than drinkers elsewhere, according to two new reports commissioned by AB InBev, parent company of Oriental Brewery, as global alcohol volumes hold more than 30 percent above early-2000s levels amid declining per-capita consumption. An Oxford Economics study of 5,311 legal-drinking-age adults across five countries — Korea, Brazil, Mexico, the UK and the US — found that 93 percent of Koreans say bars are their go-to or occasional place for socializin

2026-08-21 13:22:58:00

Eqqualberry packs booth at Olive Young's US festival

Eqqualberry, the K-beauty skincare brand operated by Boosters, drew thousands of visitors to its booth at a US beauty festival this month, weeks after landing its first major retail listing in the UK. The company said Thursday that it drew roughly 4,000 visitors to its booth over three days at Olive Young Festa LA 2026, a K-beauty event held Aug. 14-16 as part of the broader Korean culture festival KCON LA 2026. Participating as an Olive Young partner brand, Eqqualberry showcased a five-product

2026-08-21 08:56:10:00

Homeplus sees no profit until 2029 under revised plan

Profitability at Homeplus remains out of reach until 2029, its revised rehabilitation plan showed Thursday, a reversal from the quick return to the black it had promised in earlier planning. Homeplus now projects an operating loss of 10.3 billion won ($7.4 million) for the year ending February 2028, on sales of 3.38 trillion won. It expects a sharp reversal the following year, with sales jumping 22 percent to 4.12 trillion won and operating profit turning to 124.2 billion won. As recently as Jun

2026-08-20 14:51:14:00

Korean Air-Asiana unused miles top W4tr amid regulatory delay

Unused frequent flyer miles at Korean Air and Asiana Airlines have surpassed 4 trillion won ($2.9 billion) for the first time, while a delayed antitrust approval for the two carriers' merger muddies the picture of when, or how, that liability gets unwound. According to each airline's half-year filing released Wednesday, Korean Air's deferred revenue from its mileage program stood at 3.12 trillion won at the end of June and Asiana's at 946.8 billion won. That marks the first time the combined fig

2026-08-20 13:44:59:00

Inside Tous Les Jours' bid to bake its way to US success

Korea Herald correspondent LA HABRA, California — CJ Foodville, CJ Group's food service arm, brought Tous Les Jours to the United States in 2004, becoming the first Korean bakery chain to do so. After years of ups and downs, profitability finally took hold and has now been sustained for eight straight years. Part of the success story plays out inside one of the chain's 205 US stores, a roughly 80-seat outpost in La Habra, California, where the typical American bakery experience takes on a Korean

2026-08-19 14:43:39:00

How Olive Young's US store makes K-beauty interactive

Korea Herald correspondent PASADENA, California — "Annyeonghaseyo, welcome to Olive Young!" a staff member called out as customers ambled through the door at the K-beauty retailer's first US store on Friday. The store, launched in May and situated on Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena, is designed to resemble its Korean counterparts, save for small touches like a long corridor running from the entrance to the back wall and a customer with her dog on a leash. Spanning 803 square meters, it sits acros

2026-08-17 15:55:12:00