Will CEO Oh Gyusik, Who Led LF's Major Transformation, Succeed in a Third Term?

Fashion Street Store Downturn Foreseen, O4O Proactively Introduced
Swift Transition to Emergency Management System Amid COVID-19

[Asia Economy Reporter Yujin Cho] Oh Gyusik, Vice Chairman and CEO of LF, who transformed the offline stores into O4O (Online for Offline) stores, turning the company from a fashion enterprise into a lifestyle culture company, is expected to secure a third consecutive term.

According to industry sources on the 9th, Oh's reappointment is highly likely in the upcoming LF regular executive personnel reshuffle scheduled for mid-month. Oh was appointed CEO in March 2012 and was reappointed twice in 2015 and 2018. If he succeeds this time, he will lead LF again for three years until March 2024.

Inside and outside the company, Oh is praised for swiftly establishing an emergency management system amid the COVID-19 pandemic and rapidly executing digital transformation in line with the rise of the untact (contactless) trend.

LF plans to expand the 'LF Mall Store' based on the O4O concept to all street stores in the mid to long term to maximize synergy between online and offline distribution and to actively open new stores in major commercial districts nationwide. An LF official said, "Vice Chairman Oh anticipated the structural decline of fashion street stores and proactively introduced an online-offline linkage strategy and is leading the emergency management system due to COVID-19."

However, as the fashion industry as a whole has collapsed due to the worsening COVID-19 situation, business performance has not been favorable, leaving the challenge of improving results. Due to the impact of COVID-19, the offline sales base deteriorated, and LF returned to a loss in the third quarter of this year, with operating profit of 44.5 billion KRW on a cumulative basis, down 35% from 60.1 billion KRW in the same period last year. Operating profit, which was 77.9 billion KRW in 2012, the first year of Oh's term, briefly rose to 110.1 billion KRW in 2014 and 2017 and 119.5 billion KRW in 2018, but fell to 87.5 billion KRW last year.

Oh joined LG Sangsa, the predecessor of LF, as a new employee through open recruitment in 1982 and is a remarkable figure who rose to the position of Vice Chairman and CEO. He worked at LG Sangsa's New York branch in 1990, the finance team in 1996, and the management planning team (executive director) in 2001, then joined the fashion business team 4 in the fashion division in 2004. Based on his extensive experience in acquiring overseas brands and expanding distribution business, he was promoted alongside Chairman Koo Bongeol in March 2012 and has been serving as co-CEO for nine years.