SOUTH KOREA. Lotte Duty Free World Tower will reopen in early January 2017, following its successful bid for one of four new Seoul duty free licences.
As reported, the store – one of Korea’s best and busiest – was forced to close in mid-2016 after the retailer lost out in the controversial late 2015 downtown licence bid.
The retail giant has wasted no time in kick-starting its business, following the granting of the necessary pre-permit to operate.
The company told The Moodie Davitt Report that it will expand the store by some +52% from 11,400sq m to 17,334 sq m and increase the number of brands to over 700 from the former 500-strong line-up.
The retailer said that the opening will follow soon after personnel placement, brand negotiations and stock purchasing have been completed.
In related news, Lotte Duty Free will tomorrow celebrate the formal reopening of its store at Gimhae International Airport in the country’s second city, Busan (click here for our full report on that story).
As revealed by The Moodie Davitt Report, the retailer took over one of the two duty free concessions at the airport (the other is run by the Dufry ThomasJulie partnership) when incumbent Shinsegae Duty Free quit its operation, citing profitability concerns.
Lotte Duty Free has been operating out of temporary 158.3sq m shop space since 1 September. The newly extended store embraces 980.44sq m of space, some 329sq m more than the former Shinsegae Duty Free operation. Monthly sales in September reached US$5.5 million but have increased since and are expected to surge once the new shop opens.
Lotte Duty Free said it is projecting a profitable operation in 2017, based on a sales target of KW120 billion (US$99.7 million)
