AMOREPACFIC Corp., known for its cosmetics mixing Oriental medicinal herb powders and creams, is broadening its operation in China to spearhead its global expansion.

The company’s ‘Sulh-wasoo,’ one of the most popular cosmetics products it has on the market, is the result of the company’s extensive research into Chinese medicinal herbs as ingredients in its cosmetics products. 

The Sulhwasoo brand has been a leading product for Amore Pacific in broadening its international reach, starting with Hong Kong in 2004 and New York in 2010. The cosmetics firm opened its first store in the Paxson Department Store in Beijing in March 2011 as a base to launch its Chinese operation. Now the company has a total of seven stores in major cities in China including Beijing and Shanghai. 

It plans to set up the Asian Beauty Production Research Center in Shanghai next March in a 41,001 square-meter building, which will include a production base and research and logistics functions, the company said.

The company said it opened the Mijium Research Center, the second such facility for the company, in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, next to the first research facility built in 2010 to exclusively study foreign demand for cosmetics and the skin of Asian women. It plans to increase the number of research personnel at the new center from 300 to 500 by 2015.

AMOREPACIFIC announced on Jan. 19 the acquisition of the Consumer Centered Management (CCM) Certificate from the Fair Trade Commission.

CCM is an assessment and certification system that examines whether or not a company organizes all of its managerial activities based on consumer centered principles and improves its management on an ongoing basis going forward. The Fair Trade Commission announced this new system in September 2011 to improve the Consumer Complaints Management System (CCMS).

AMOREPACIFIC is attempting to improve ways of solving consumer complaints as part of its sustainable management policy. To enhance service at the point of customer contact, an education program in which the onsite sales staff deliver the voice of the customer (VOC) and instruct on how to prevent consumer complaints, is currently being run. In addition, a preventive system was launched in March 2011 to fundamentally prevent consumer complaints at the phase of product deve-lopment. By utilizing the preventive system, the company is able to study the same kind of precedents and similar claim cases beforeh-and. In 2011, more than 120 products went through this system, which demonstrates its important role.

In addition, AMOREPACIFIC runs a management improvement program, Customer Gift for AMOREPACIFIC (CGAP), through which customer’s inconveniences and complaints are attended to quickly and the information is then sent to relevant divisions to provide solutions. The objective of the system is to close the gap between the customer and the company by adopting customer complaints as if they were presents from the customer and to establish an environment where customers can use the products safely. In November 2011, under the theme ‘Reset & Restart,’ a two-day forum took place during which customers’ inconveniences, complaints, and comp-liments were listened to directly, and executives and staff were made aware of the importance of VOC.