Chairman Shin Dong-bin of Lotte Business Group returned home from his visit to Europe along with Lotte food company executives from Koea and Japan.
During the trip, Chairman Shin presided over a strategic meeting designed to integrate Lotte in Korea and Japan.
He looked into production facilities of Guylian in Belgium and E. Wedel in Poland, which were acquired by Lotte companies in Korea and Japan, respectively.
Chairman Shin, going over the UK, discussed design strategies with Thomas Heatherwick, a globally renowned architect.
During his visit to Europe, Chairman Shin focused on securing global competitiveness to have synergetic effects of Lotte food companies in Korea and Japan.
To this end, Shin was accompanied by Korean and Japanese Lotte food company executives, such as Lee Young-gu, head of Lotte’s Food Group, President Lee Chang-yup of Lotte Welfood, Shin You-yeol, head of the Future Growth Office at Lotte Corp., and President Genichi Tamatsuka of Lotte Holdings.
Chairman Shin presided over a strategic meeting designed to integrate Lotte food companies in Korea and Japan into one in Warsaw, Poland, on Nov. 3.
The strategic meeting is a consultive body among Korean and Japanese Lotte food company executives designed to explore how to promote cooperation.
During the latest strategic meeting, the participants had in-depth discussions into how to nurture “Pepero,” the first target of collaboration in the “One-Lotte Initiative,” into a global mega-brand with 1 trillion won in sales.
Lotte food companies in Korea and Japan pledged to aggressively cooperate in the goal of fostering Pepero, a chocolate-covered snack, into a global top 10 brand and Aisa’s No. 1 brand.
In order to raise sales of Pepero to 1 trillion won, Lotte discussed ways of expanding in existing markets, such as Vietnam and India, and exploring new countries with a high potential and promoting joint sourcing and marketing activities support.
The participants pondered mid- and long-term ways of promoting cooperation to nurture Korea and Japan’s representative brands, including Pepero.
They worked out a blueprint focusing on overseas market joint marketing, overseas distribution network efficiency, and the two countries’ alternative support activities on new products.
Specifically, they agreed to communicate with customers with a focus on the brand “Lotte,” not Korean products and Japanese products.
Both sides plan to raise the efficiency of global distribution networks after examining the global competitiveness of their representative brands. They plan to mutually cooperate by supporting a testbed.
Chairman Shin, who presided over the meeting, urged close cooperation between Korean Lotte and Japan Lotte, to become globally sustainable companies.
He strongly asked for their devoting themselves to nurturing diverse mega brands, each with 1 trillion won in sales abroad.
The executives explored synergetic effects among production plants. In 2008, Lotte Welfood acquired Guylinan, the world’s top three chocolate brand, while in 2010, Lotte in Japan took over E. Wedel, a Polish confectionery company.
Prior to the meeting, Chairman Shin attened a ceremony to open “Chocolate Factory Museum,” run by Lotte E. Wedel in Warsaw on Nov. 2.
The facility, measuring 8,738 sq. meters in floor space, is outfitted with experience halls, production and R&D facilities.
Meanwhile, Chairman Shin met with Thomas Heatherwick, a global top architect and designer, in London on Nov. 5 and talked over the latest trends as well as design strategies.
The two concurred on the significance of connecting business visions and customer experience as to design strategies and discussed ways of promoting cooperation in the future.
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