Doosan Group has been banking its future growth on the fuel battery and duty-free shop businesses, as the outlook for both the domestic and global economy is not too bright. While the economy has been on the slow side, the group has been taking on various reform measures within its office procedures and technology development.
This year, the group will celebrate its 120th anniversary. In 1896, the late patriarch Park Seung-jik set up a small store in what is now Chongno 4th Street in Seoul.
That small store has become a global business group, overcoming all kinds of problems both domestic and international. The group is now at a juncture where it has to prepare for its growth in the next century.
The group took over Fuel Cell Power, a producer of home heating fuel batteries, in Korea and at the same time, took over ClearEdge Power, which has fuel battery technology to heat buildings, giving the group will a full lineup of original technologies for fuel batteries for heating homes and buildings.
The battery is an environmentally friendly energy source, as the cost for its production and maintenance is low and at the same time easy to handle.
The group will also take the duty-free shop operation very seriously, making it one of its next-generation growth engines. It will make room for the shop so it takes up an entire floor of its Doota Building in Dongdaemun and turns the entire area into a second tourism hub in Seoul after Myungdong, where some 7 million foreign tourists visit annually.
Following its acquisition of ClearEdge Power on July 18, 2015, Doosan Corporation, a $21-billion Korea-based industrial company that employees 43,000 people worldwide, formed Doosan Fuel Cell America, Inc. (Doosan FC). This follows Doosan’s merger with another fuel cell company, Korea-based Fuel Cell Power, and the formation of the Doosan Fuel Cell Group. According to Group CEO Jeff Chung, Doosan FC plans to add hundreds of employees to its Connecticut-based operation, and is positioned to become the number one global fuel cell provider in the next 10 years. Fuel cells convert hydrogen into electricity while creating virtually no emissions. This clean energy technology has been deployed in buildings, utility grids, cell towers, forklifts and passenger vehicles but is only now realizing significant growth. Doosan FC will focus on the $1.7-billion stationary fuel cell market that provides energy for residential and commercial building applications and is growing at a rate of thirty percent or more per year.
“Fuel cells are the future of distributed energy and we view this still-burgeoning industry as a catalyst for growth throughout Doosan Corporation,” said Chung, a Harvard grad and former McKinsey & Company consultant who headed corporate strategy with Doosan Heavy Industries prior to assuming the role as head of the fuel cell group. “The technology we’ve added with the acquisition of ClearEdge (Power) and formation of Doosan FC has been refined over 50 years of continued research and development and represents the most dependable fuel cell technology in the market.”
The new subsidiary, situated in South Windsor, just outside of Hartford, will focus primarily on the 400-kilowatt stationary fuel cell offerings that ClearEdge Power acquired from UTC Power in spring 2013.
In the Doota shopping center, Doosan plans to designate a new floor for a duty-free shop without affecting the existing stores. This duty-free shop is expected to help promote tourism and businesses in the Dongdaemun shopping district.
“Dongdaemun is an optimal location for duty-free business considering the tourism, shopping and transportation infrastructure and a large number of foreign tourists,” said a source at Doosan.
Doosan has been running the Doota shopping mall for 16 years, which has become a landmark of Dongdaemun, drawing around 7 million foreign visitors annually. Doosan will go all-out for the success of its urban duty-free store.
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A view of the Doosan Tower near Dongdaemun in Seoul.(Photos:Doosan)
