Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin has chosen the urban air mobility (UAM) sector as the group’s future growth engine.
The business group aims to be differentiation integrated mobility platform by connecting land-based network, acquired by Lotte Rental and UAM.
Lotte Group has a strategy to have synergetic effects in the conventional tourism and distribution businesses.
Lotte Corp. and Lotte Rental held 2021 K-UAM Confex at Paradise Hotel in Inchon to sign a seven-party MOU on the verification flight of UAM with Skyworks Aeronautics and Mobius Energy of the United States, the business group said on Nov. 16.
The deal calls for verifying UAMs by 2022 with the goal of making its flight on the route between Incheon International Airport and Jamsil, Seoul, by 2024.
Skyworks Aeronautics will be responsible for the development of aircraft, while Mobius Energy will be charged with developing battery modules.
MintAir, a Korean company, will be responsible for the operation of UAM aircraft. Incheon City government and the Institute for Aerospace Industry-Academics Collaboration (IIACI) will be tasked with supporting flight testing and operation of the project.
Lotte Rental will be charged with operating a mobility platform connecting aircraft and ground-and-building infrastructure, such as charging stations.
President Kim Seung-wook of Lotte Corp., President Kim Kyung-wook of Incheon International Airport Corp. and Incheon Mayor Park Nam-chun, President Choi Yoo-jin of MintAir and President Yoo Chang-kyung of the Institute for Aerospace Industry-Academics Collaboration (IIACI) attend 2021 K-UAM Confex pose together after they signed a seven-party MOU on the verification flight of UAM with Skyworks Aeronautics and Mobius Energy of the United States at Paradise Hotel in Inchon on Nov. 16.
Lotte Corp. will be responsible for assisting in the successful implementation of the project by combining groupwide capabilities and networks. Lotte Group is aggressively pulling out all the stops to explore future strategy businesses.
Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin stressed the review of insufficient investments into areas such as facility, R&D, brand and IT at a meeting of CEOs of the group’s subsidiaries during the Value Creation Meeting for the second half of 2021.
On behest of Chairman Shin, each subsidiary is focusing on investing to explore future growth engines, such as metaverse and EV battery.
In particular, the business group is attaching priority to exploring the mobility sector.
Lotte Group Conducts Personnel Change to Hire Outside Managers
Lotte Group carried out a regular reshuffle of executives of the group’s 38 subsidiaries on Nov. 25, appointing Kim Kyo-hyun and Lee Dong-woo to be vice chairman and CEO of Lotte Chemical and vice chairman and CEO of Lotte Corp., the holding company of the business group, respectively.
The group hired outside managers: It appointed Kim Sang-hyun and Ahn Se-jin to be CEO of the Distribution Headquarters and vice chairman & CEO of Lotte Shopping, and chief of the Hotel Headquarters, respectively.
Vice Chairman Kim Sang-hyun served as vice chairman and president in charge of H&B at Home Plus. Ahn were formerly charged with new business and business strategies at LG and LS groups.
Chung Jun-ho, appointed to be senior executive vice president of the department business, was from Shinsaegae Department Store.
The latest reshuffle, hiring outside gifted manpower with capabilities and expertise rather than inside manpower, is designed to cope with rapidly changing distribution industry and achieve management efficiency, business analysts said.
Meanwhile, Lotte Group changed the conventional regime of four business units to one with four headquarters related to distribution, chemical, food and hotel.
Lotte Data Communication, Lotte Members and Lotte Rental which do not belong to the four headquarters are separately managed.
Lotte Group said the latest reshuffle involved the hiring of gifted manpower in an extraordinary and overall fashion and promotions based on performances, and it has built a groupwide business management regime designed to cope with rapidly changing management environment conduits in advance.
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