April 20, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] KT&G said on Dec. 28 that its cosmetics unit Cosmocos is seeking to tap the US market by opening more shops in New York.

Cosmocos, formally Somang Cosmetics, was acquired by the Korean tobacco firm in 2011 to strengthen the beauty business via its multi-brand outlets Beauty Credit.

The stores, set to open in the first half of next year, plan to sell products ranging from skincare to makeup, of Danahan, VProve, the Flower Men and more. The company plans to promote cosmetics that use self-developed special ingredients such as red ginseng extract base.

Cosmocos said it also hopes to penetrate the e-commerce market by shipping products via Amazon, and will carry out active marketing with the e-commerce giant which has over 50 percent market share in the US.

According to market researcher Euromonitor, the US cosmetics market was valued at US$86 billion in 2017, having seen a 3.2 percent market growth on-year. Market watchers predict the US beauty industry will grow to US$94.3 billion by 2020.

Data from Korea’s trade and investement promotion agency KOTRA showed that in 2017 local exports of beauty products grew 28 percent on-year to US$449 million.

“With the rising market share of Korean cosmetics in the US, we will aggressively tap both the online and offline markets of the US beauty industry,” said a Cosmocos official.

By Kim Da-sol/The Korea Herald (ddd@heraldcorp.com)