SOUTH KOREA. Shinsegae has promoted Son Yung-sik to CEO of the company’s fast-expanding Shinsegae Duty Free business, the company confirmed today to The Moodie Davitt Report.
The department store-to-travel retail giant has also hired Jeong-Ho (Jason) Cha, former Senior Executive Vice President and Head of The Shilla Duty Free, as CEO of fashion business Shinsegae International.
Both appointments are effective 1 January 2017.
Son, who joined Shinsegae in 1987, was formerly Executive Vice President at Shinsegae Duty Free. He replaces Sung Young-mok, who had been serving dual roles as CEO of Shinsegae Duty Free and Shinsegae Chosun Hotel. Sung will now focus on the hotel business.
Son assumes the post at a buoyant yet testing time for Shinsegae Duty Free. As revealed by The Moodie Davitt Report, the retailer was successful in its recent bid for one of four new downtown duty free licences in Seoul. It expects to open the new store (its second in Seoul) in the Gangnam area in late 2017. The company is also preparing its bid for the Incheon International Airport Terminal 2 duty free tender, which is likely to be launched in January.
Cha is one of South Korea’s most-respected and able retail executives. He spent 35 years with Shilla parent company Samsung Corporation and eight years with The Shilla Duty Free. When he took over the duty free reins Shilla generated sales of around US$300 million. By 2015, his last full year with the company, they had reached around US$2.4 billion and The Shilla Duty Free ranked as the world’s sixth-biggest travel retailer according to The Moodie Davitt Report’s annual Top 25 ranking.
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