'Octogenarian beauty challenger' Amorepacific's global sprint under Suh Kyung-bae and Kim Seung-hwan

[Korea Financial Times, Park seulgi] For Amorepacific Group, celebrating its 80th anniversary this year, the key keyword moving forward is 'global'. The strategy is to accelerate overseas market penetration based on accumulated know-how in line with the K-beauty globalisation trend.

Under the dual leadership of Amorepacific Group Chairman Suh Kyung-bae and Amorepacific CEO Kim Seung-hwan, a full-scale leap toward becoming a global leading beauty and wellness company is expected.

According to industry sources on the 30th, Chairman Suh unveiled the company's mid to long-term blueprint at the recent 80th anniversary founding ceremony. Presenting 'Create New Beauty' as the vision slogan, the goal is to achieve KRW 15 trillion in sales by 2035.

To this end, the company will pursue the 'Everyone Global' strategy to cultivate global core hubs centred on the so-called 'Pentagon 5 major markets': North America, Europe, India and Middle East, China, and Japan and APAC (Asia-Pacific).

Chairman Suh stated: "We plan to advance our business portfolio to enter the global top three in premium skincare, accelerate global growth, and expand overseas sales proportion to 70 percent."

The blueprint reflects recent performance improvements. Amorepacific recorded consolidated sales of KRW 1.005 trillion and operating profit of KRW 73.7 billion in the second quarter of this year. Sales increased 11.1 percent and operating profit surged 1,673 percent year-on-year. This resulted from explosive overseas business growth while domestic business remained stable.

Domestic sales grew 8 percent to KRW 553.6 billion, while overseas sales achieved KRW 436.4 billion, up 14.4 percent. Operating profit also showed significant growth both domestically at KRW 40.2 billion (up 164 percent) and overseas at KRW 36 billion (up 611 percent). The company particularly distinguished itself in the North American market, a battleground for global beauty companies. Western market sales in the second quarter grew 12.2 percent year-on-year to KRW 178.5 billion, accounting for 17.8 percent of total overseas sales.

These achievements result from rapid response to global market restructuring. Amorepacific struggled with weak Chinese market performance until 2023, but CEO Kim led a turnaround by diversifying the portfolio. Through this, Amorepacific simultaneously captured two rabbits: 'strengthening global competitiveness' and 'performance recovery'.

CEO Kim Seung-hwan is known as Chairman Suh's 'confidant'. A junior of Chairman Suh at Yonsei University's business school, he joined Amorepacific Group during the 2006 holding company transformation and distinguished himself in strategic planning. He later rose to CEO after serving as head of human resources and organisation. CEO Kim achieved organisational improvement through focus on 'global rebalancing strategy' despite difficulties from the COVID-19 pandemic and global economic downturn.

At the 'World Department Store Summit (WDSS 2025)' forum in June, he demonstrated commitment to the North American market by stating: "We will secure US local production facilities within the next five to ten years."

Going forward, Amorepacific plans to strengthen locally customised products and content centred on the Pentagon 5 major markets (North America, Europe, India and Middle East, China, Japan and APAC) and expand collaboration with global distributors. The strategy also includes expanding the portfolio to encompass luxury anti-aging, derma, and mass skincare, as well as hair and makeup, and extending into wellness and device businesses to present integrated beauty experiences.

Chairman Suh pledged: "Amorepacific has led K-beauty globalisation for the past 80 years, and will continue the 'new beauty' journey appropriate for the times while listening to customer voices. We will grow into a global leading beauty and wellness company with KRW 15 trillion in sales over the next ten years."

Park seulgi (seulgi@fntimes.com)