AmorePacific Group recorded a 14 percent boost in its sales revenue in 2013 thanks to a jump in profits in its overseas operations with sales rising to 3.895 trillion won and operating profit climbing to 469.8 billion won, up 4.3 percent YoY, the company said.
Officials of the leading Korean cosmetics firm said its overseas sales jumped 27.8 percent YoY, leading the company’s total sales last year and joining the 3 trillion won Sales Club for the first time. Sales in China rose 29 percent last year to 338.7 billion won, led by such cosmetics products as La Neige and BB Cushion, the company’s new product lines, while its high-end product Sulwhasoo did continuously well last year. The company also did well in the U.S. market with its sales rising 30 percent YoY, while domestic sales rose only 5 percent due to increases in the sales of such products as Innis Free and Etude with the sale of Inni Free rising a whopping 45 percent to 332.8 billion won.
However, the group’s non-cosmetics affiliates did not do as well with AmorePacific Pharmaceutical’s sales falling 11 percent and operating profit down 40 percent YoY at 125.4 billion won and 4.3 billion won respectively.
Chairman Suh Kyung-bae has been pledging to expand the company’s overseas operations, stressing again the importance of overseas markets for the company’s overall performance.
He pointed out that a number of its cosmetics products such as Laneige and Mamond have surpassed their domestic sales overseas, making AmorePacific a global cosmetics brand and, therefore, should redouble their efforts to expand overseas sales of other cosmetics products.
The chairman has been working on a plan to set up its overseas subsidiaries according to brand name in order to strengthen its overseas operations since the early part of last year.
AmorePacific Corp. has a special relationship with China, which began in 1993 before China opened its doors to foreign investors with the establishment of its subsidiary in Shenyang, China.
The company began to supply its leading cosmetics lines including Mamond and Amore to Chinese department stores and cosmetics stores in such cities as Jiangchun, Harbin, and Shenyang, well aware that China has the potential to be a great cosmetics market due mainly to its large population.
Excellent quality and growing demand have kept the sales of AmorePacific cosmetics products growing rapidly, ranking 4th and 5th in market share in the cosmetics market in northeastern China.
Not satisfied with the business conditions, the company introduced to the market a new line of cosmetics, La Neige, to be sold in large department stores across China to further push its sales.
In May 2002, the company entered the cosmetics market in Hong Kong, a center of cosmetics markets in Asia where well-known global cosmetics brands compete for market share. The results were very successful. The company opened its first La Neige sales counter at a top department store in Hong Kong, and it is now sold in 23 stores in the former British colony with each store chalking up an average of 100 million won in monthly sales now.
The cosmetics company is highly satisfied with its performance in Hong Kong and its accumulated experience operating in the Chinese market setting up its wholly-owned subsidiary in Shanghai in 2002. Now, AmorePacific’s cosmetics products are sold at 290 major department stores in some 100 cities in China.
In 2012, the company stepped up its marketing activities across China by redecorating its stores in order to strengthen the brand concept and introducing non-cosmetics products including water sleeping bags and water bank lines, which have become hit products, putting Amore Pacific on the upper levels of cosmetics market in China competing head-to-head with some of the world’s premium cosmetics products brands.
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