Jamie Matusow, Editor-in-Chief, with Joanna Cosgrove, Contributing Editor11.02.18
Amorepacific is #10 on this year's list of Top Global Beauty Companies.
Below is a look at the company’s 2018 highlights, recent acquisitions, and its plan to focus on innovation.
Beauty Sales
$5.6 billion
(FY 2017 Beauty Sales: $5.5 billion)
Key Personnel
- Suh Kyung-bae, chairman and chief executive officer
- Bae Donghyun, president and chief executive officer
- Jessica Hanson, president and general manager, Amorepacific US Inc.
Major Products/Brands
Twenty cosmetics, personal care, and health care prestige and masstige brands including the following U.S./global brands:
- Etude House, Amorepacific, Laneige, Annick Goutal,
- Sulwhasoo, Mamonde, Iope. And: Innisfree, Hera,
- Happy Bath, Primera, Hanyul, Espoir, Aritaum,
- Vital Beauty, Ryo, and Mise-en-Scéne
New Products
- Amorepacific Botanical Radiance Oil
- Mamonde Petal Purifying Bubble Mask
- Sulwhasoo First Care Activating Mask
- Etude House Quick And Easy Blur Tint
- Innisfree Vivid Creamy Lip Tint
Amorepacific Group is Korea’s Largest Beauty Company
Amorepacific was one of a handful of companies on this year’s list that dipped in annual net sales. After growing for several years in a row, sales fell 10% last year. Sales of Amorepacific dropped 9%; Innisfree, 16% and Etude, 18%. In response, the company looked toward other parts of the world for growth, including expansion of Etude in Kuwait and Dubai, Laneige in Australia, Mamonde in the U.S. (in Ulta), and Hera in Singapore.
Amorepacific Group said it would focus on the development of innovative global products, presenting an enhanced customer experience, and improving its digital infrastructure to lay groundwork for sustainable growth. Overall, while overseas sales rose by 7%, domestic sales in South Korea dropped 16%, due to declines in the number of Chinese tourists and declining sales in duty-free channels and retail stores in tourist areas. CEO Suh Kyung-bae blamed the domestic decline on the economic recession and a changing consumer environment.
Still, the company achieved net sales of $5.6 billion.
At 73 years old, Amorepacific Group is Korea’s largest beauty company and an unquestionable leader of K-Beauty and its enthusiastic spread throughout the world. Included on Forbes’ ‘World’s 100 Most Innovative Companies’ list for four consecutive years, Amorepacific is known for developing never-before-seen innovative products such as the Cushion Foundation, Sleeping Mask and Boosting Serum. These products expanded into new beauty categories in the global beauty market, changing daily beauty routines for women around the world.
2018 Highlights
In January, Amorepacific Group expanded its U.S. brand portfolio, adding Mamonde—a mid-priced skin-care and makeup brand inspired by flowers—to current brands Innisfree, Laneige and Sulwhassoo. Amorepacific Group introduced Mamonde in 1991, and the U.S. market is the brand’s first international venture outside of Asia.
Jessica Hanson, president and general manager, Amorepacific US Inc., who was appointed in October 2017, said they’d be simplifying multi-step routines and upgrading packaging to be more in line with prestige products.
In May, Amorepacific U.S. Inc. opened its first-ever global beauty pop-up shop on Bleecker Street in New York City.
In June, Amorepacific Group officially entered the Middle East with its No.1 young makeup brand Etude House, and opened its first store in the Dubai Mall in March, then rapidly expanded to other locations. Sales of the “playful” brand reportedly rose 15%.
“We’ve finally begun to spread the essence of Asian Beauty to customers in the Middle East that have great insight in beauty,” said Suh Kyung-bae, who was recognized as Forbes’ “Asia’s Businessman of the Year” in 2015 and also ranked 20th in “The Best Performing CEOs in the World” selected by Harvard Business Review in 2017. He added, “We are well on track in realizing the dream of becoming a great brand company that makes the world a more beautiful world by actively spreading the singular and innovative beauty culture of Amorepacific across Asia, North America, Europe and the Middle East.”
Since 1945, Amorepacific has had a single, clear mission: to present its unique perception of “Asian Beauty” to the world, as well as combine the best of natural Asian ingredients and advanced biotechnology.
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