AmorePacific, S. Korea's largest cosmetics company, is gearing up for entry into the Middle Eastern and Latin American markets. “We are planning to break into the Middle Eastern market, including Dubai, next year and then into the Latin American market, such as Brazil and Mexico, by 2017,” AmorePacific Chairman Seo Kyung-bae said at the 70th anniversary ceremony, held on September 9.
“We are taking aim at Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Iran in the Middle East and Mexico, Columbia and Peru in the Latin America,” said Chairman Seo. AmorePacific is eyeing those markers because the markets have massive growth potential and there has been a change in public perceptions toward putting on makeup.
“We aim to raise our total sales to 12 trillion won and the share of overseas sales to 50 percent of our total sales by 2020. ‘Global megacities’ with a population of over 10 million will be our major targets,” Seo stressed.
AmorePacific raked in 832.5 billion won in overseas sales in 2014, up 52.8 percent from a year ago. In the first half of this year, it logged 2.4 trillion won in total sales, up 26.4 percent from the previous year. Many think that the S. Korean cosmetics giant is fast evolving into a bona fide global beauty product maker.
“Our dream of making global consumers happy with Asia beauty has become a reality,” Seo expressed his confidence in Korean cosmetics.
AmorePacific is set on making inroads into overseas markets vigorously by enhancing the competitiveness of Sulwhasoo (a premium herbal medicinal cosmetics brand) and innisfree (an all-natural beauty brand).
With the expansion of overseas duty-free shop channels, AmorePacific is planning to launch its top 5 brands (Sulwhasoo, Laneige, Mamonde, Etude and innisfree), Hera and IOPE in overseas markets.
“The number of Chinese consumers wearing makeup is projected to balloon to 500 million from the current 150 million. Thus, the Chinese market’s growth potential is enormous,” Seo mentioned.
Therefore, AmorePacific will scale up its product lines, designed specifically for the Chinese market, and leverage China as its beachhead market in order to penetrate neighboring markets such as Vietnam and Malaysia.
Expanding new distribution channels, such as duty-free stores and digital channels, AmorePacific will ramp up the distribution of its products through duty-free shops in the Chinese, US and EU markets, as well as on home turf.
Asked whether he was planning to acquire a foreign cosmetics brand, Seo said, “What matters to us is writing our own story. When our stories pile up with time, they will become our history. We will write our own stories about how we’ve made the world happy with unique elements of our own culture.”
