April 26, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] Korean retail giant Hyundai Department Store on Oct. 31 announced that its first duty-free store in Seoul will start operations from tomorrow.

Hyundai Department Store Duty Free has renovated the existing three floors of the existing department store’s World Trade Center branch, spanning 14,250 square meters with around 600 different brands, including 40 foreign luxury brands. 

“We expect that sales at our new duty-free outlet will be around 600 billion won (US$527 million) to 700 billion next year,” said HDSDF President Hwang Hae-yeon during a press conference, adding that the company aims for its sales to reach 1 trillion won by 2020.

The new store’s 10th floor is filled with hallyu-themed stores, which can attract foreign tourist.

“We will also collaborate with SM Entertainment to appeal to more hallyu fans,” he said.

Some industry watchers, however, pointed out that the new store does not have enough competitiveness since the top three luxury brands -- Chanel, Hermès and Louis Vuitton -- are not available.

“Due to Beijing’s retaliation against Seoul for the deployment of THAAD, luxury brands are reluctant to operate in newly opened duty-free outlets. This is not only an issue for our company alone and we will try our best to open more luxury brands as soon as possible,” Hwang said.

In 2016, the Korean Customs Service selected Hyundai Department Store, Shinsegae DF and Lotte Duty Free as the operators of three new duty-free outlets in Seoul. Most recently in July, Shinsegae opened its new outlet in Gangnam.

By Song Seung-hyun (ssh@heraldcorp.com)