Hyosung Group Chairman Cho Hyun-joon. (Photo: Hyosung Group)

Five major subsidiaries of Hyosung Group saw their combined operation profit reenter the 1 trillion won territory last year for the first time in three years.

The good business performance was owed to the expanded sales of premium products and booming new businesses such as carbon textiles, as well as better records of overseas operations.

The feat was noteworthy since Hyosung Group’s subsidiaries fared well amid the slumping business performance of the same industries.

The global management strategies of Hyosung Group Chairman Cho Hyun-joon, in his third year in office, have begun to pay off. Hyosung Group’s five subsidiaries - Hyosung Corp., the holding company of Hyosung Group, Hyosung T&C, Hyosung Heavy Industries, Hyosung Advanced Materials, and Hyosung Chemical - posted 18.011.9 trillion won in combined sales and 1.010.2 trillion won in combined operating profit last year, the group announced on March 6.

In 2016 the company chalked up 11.929.1 trillion won in combined sales and 1.016.3 trillion won in combined operating profit.

Hyosung expanded profitability by expanding sales of premium products in the Chinese market, in which competition is getting fierce with oversupply. The group’s overseas operations, including ones in Vietnam, China and India, saw good business performances with the improving of profitability in new businesses.

Hyosung Corp. logged 244.7 billion won in operating profit last year, a 58 percent surge from 155 billion won in 2018. Hyosung T&S, an IT subsidiary of Hyosung Corp., led the good business performance of Hyosung Corp. by posting 97.2 billion won in operating profit, the best-ever.

Hyosung T&C, the world’s No. 1 spandex maker, recorded a good business performance. Despite the sagging global economy, the company posted 322.9 billion won in operating profit last year.

Its overseas operations, including an Indian production operation that opened last August and other production operations in China and Vietnam, saw spandex sales surging.

Hyosung Advanced Materials achieved a stable business performance thanks to the sales of new future businesses such as aramid fiber and carbon textiles in a full swing.

The company logged 3.053.6 trillion won in sales and 158.3 billion won in operating profit last year.

Hyosung Chemical saw profitability improve on the back of rising brand value of polypropylene and the expanded sales of the new business Polykestone.

The company posted 153.9 billion won in operating profit. Hyosung Heavy Industries chalked up 130.3 billion won in operating profit on the back of stable winning orders in the construction business.

As to the good business performance of Hyosung Group, business sources said Chairman Cho’s business strategy in which he stressed “Voice of Customer” was evaluated to bear fruits.

Upon taking office, Chairman Cho frequently toured its overseas operations to lend an ear to the voices of the production fields. He was also engaged in active field management activities by participating in global textile fairs that took place in France and China and other countries and meeting with customers in person.

In particular, Chairman Cho, with rich expertise in the IT business, played a leading role in expanding overseas sales of Hyong T&S, an ATM maker.

Chairman Cho has laid foundation of global network in mainstay businesses as he has led “China Project” in the spandex business designed to explore the Chinese market since the late 1990s, a Hyosung Group official said.

Hyosung Group plans to accelerate efforts to explore new future businesses in the materials sector this year as it did last year.