Meeting with Major Retail CEOs Visiting Korea on the 20th
Discussion on Additional Department Store and Duty-Free Shop Locations and Investments
Bernard Arnault, Chairman and CEO of LVMH, the world's largest luxury group, will visit South Korea on the 20th. This is his first visit to Korea in 3 years and 5 months since October 2019.
According to the distribution industry, Arnault will visit Korea for a 3-day, 2-night trip, touring major department stores and duty-free shops in Korea, and meeting key industry executives such as Lee Boo-jin, President of Shilla Hotel, and Chung Yoo-kyung, Chief Executive Officer of Shinsegae. Meetings with heads of major domestic department stores such as Lotte, Shinsegae, Hyundai, and Galleria will also take place.
Since 2016 until 2019, before the spread of COVID-19, Arnault regularly visited Korea every year to meet with top CEOs in the distribution sector. Given the rapid growth of the domestic luxury market during the COVID-19 period, the industry expects discussions on attracting new stores and additional investments in domestic department stores and duty-free shops during this visit.
In particular, it is anticipated that the direction of Louis Vuitton's future operations in domestic duty-free shops will be clarified. Previously, Louis Vuitton strongly criticized the resale methods of Chinese daigou traders and announced a phased withdrawal from domestic duty-free shops, stating that it would focus on airport duty-free shops in the future. The industry expects that Louis Vuitton, which has withdrawn from Busan Lotte, Jeju Lotte, and Jeju Shilla Duty-Free Shops, will open additional stores at Incheon International Airport Terminal 2. It is highly likely that Louis Vuitton will open a boutique store in the duplex duty-free shop located in Zone 3 of Terminal 2 at Incheon Airport, which is currently under bidding. Both Shilla and Shinsegae Duty-Free Shops, selected as multiple operators for Zones 3 and 4 at Incheon Airport and awaiting the Korea Customs Service's second review, have received letters of intent from Louis Vuitton to open stores.
Arnault is the head of LVMH, which owns Louis Vuitton, Dior, Fendi, Celine, Tiffany & Co., and others. At the end of last year, Bloomberg announced that his net worth was $170.8 billion (approximately 223 trillion KRW), ranking him as the richest person in the world based on net assets.
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