Drawing on surging sales in the EU market, Korean cosmetics maker TonyMoly is now keen on gaining ground in the US and China.
TonyMoly said on Nov. 3, “Since Tony Moly products first became available at Sephora, our overseas sales have ballooned. Gaining momentum from it, we will speed up our expansion in the US and China.”
In May, TonyMoly’s 35 items went on sale at Sephora stores across Europe. To the company’s surprise, TonyMoly products became so popular that most items sold out in a month.
TonyMoly’s cumulative overseas sales for the first nine months of this year surpassed the company’s 2015 sales. A TonyMoly official said, “Unique cosmetic packaging designs seem to have greatly appealed to European consumers. Other chain stores in the UK and the Netherlands, where there is no Sephora store, have been increasingly requesting us to ship products.”
And 800 Ulta stores across the US are now selling TonyMoly products. TonyMoly plans to strategically increase its presence in the US by shipping Sephora-specific and Ulta-specific products. TonyMoly is pinning high hopes on the growth potential of its Chinese operation. Megacos, TonyMoly’s Chinese subsidiary, is building a new plant in Zhejiang Province.
Park Sung-jae, head of TonyMoly’s IR office, said, “As of now, our 500 items have received China’s cosmetic hygiene permits. The number is expected to hit 700 by the end of this year. In September, TonyMoly products first became available on Tmall, China's largest B2C platform, and we will continuously ramp up our celebrity marketing campaign featuring Chinese Internet celebrities, known as Wang Hong in Mandarin.”