South Korean cosmetics lay foundation to seduce Europe
PARIS: South Korean cosmetics brands, wildly successful at home and across Asia, now have their eye on the European beauty market where their penetration is, for now, only skin-deep.
Picking luxury goods powerhouse France as its bridgehead to seduce European consumers, South Korea’s leading cosmetics firm Amore Pacific launched its top brand Sulwhasoo at the upmarket Galeries Lafayette department store a few months ago.
Britain is the next planned stop for Amore next year, when the company also plans to launch its other flagship brand, Laneige.
The Korean industry has a solid reputation for innovation and a particular knack for blending natural far eastern ingredients – such as green tea, ginseng root or even snail slime – into beauty products.
Hallyu, the ‘Korean Wave’ of pop culture sweeping Asia since the 1990s, has given cosmetics sales a big lift, with young fans wanting to make up just like their KDrama or K-Pop idols, or even become K-Beauty ambassadors for big brands.
Amore Pacific, which had sales of around US$5.6 billion last year, is still heavily reliant on its domestic market, which accounts for two-thirds of its revenues.
Its European and North American operations pale by comparison, generating combined sales of less than US$100 million.
“The company’s aim today is to widen its geographical presence beyond Asia,” Thierry Maman, head of Amore Pacific Europe, told AFP.
Tensions with Chinese clients after South Korea allowed the United States to install a missile shield added urgency to the group’s ongoing drive towards ‘globalisation’, said Maman, who was a manager at French luxury conglomerate LVMH before joining Amore.
One of the challenges for European expansion is that the Korean Wave of pop culture has not really taken off there.
The Hallyu association can even be a bit of a drawback, says Laura Koeppler, who co-manages the Korean Smooch online store which sells avant-garde cosmetics made in Seoul to European customers.
Koeppler said early Korean cosmetics imports to Europe rode a wave of enthusiasm for Kawai, meaning ‘cute’ in Japanese, including TonyMoly and Skin79 which makes face masks in the shape of a panda. — AFP