April 19, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] South Korea’s largest cosmetics firm Amorepacific Group was listed as the No. 7 cosmetics firm in “The Beauty Inc. Top 100” list published by Women’s Wear Daily on April 14, the company said April 17.

“The Beauty Inc. Top 100” is WWD’s annual ranking of the world’s biggest beauty firms, based on the previous year of sales.

Amorepacific’s new headquarters in Yongsan, central Seoul. Amorepacific

Amorepacific Group was first included in the top 20 worldwide in the 2007 issue and jumped more than 10 spots to stand at No. 7 this year. The surge Amorepacific made over the last 10 years was the largest among the top 10 cosmetic firms, the company said.

The result was largely attributed to the success of Amorepacific Group’s five champion brands in Chinese markets, as well as in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

The five major brands include Sulwhasoo, Laneige, Mamonde, Innisfree and Etude House. In particular, Sulwhasoo, which has remained the top seller for more than 10 years on the Korean market, crossed the 1 trillion won ($880 million) in annual sales milestone in 2015.

Amorepacific Group’s sales reached a total 6.7 trillion won in 2016, recording more than a fourfold increase from 2006, when sales had reached 1.5 trillion won. The group’s yearly operating profit also surged to 1.08 trillion won from 237 billion won, during the same period.

In 2016, the group’s sales rose by 18.3 percent, up 1 trillion won from 5.6 trillion won in 2015. The operating profit of the group also increased by 18.5 percent on-year, up 170 billion won from 913 billion won in 2015.

L’Oreal remained the global No. 1 with sales of 32.5 trillion won, followed by Unilever with sales of 23.3 trillion won and Procter and Gamble at 17.5 trillion won.

By Shim Woo-hyun/The Korea Herald (ws@heraldcorp.com)