"Strengthening Responsible Management"... Shin Dong-bin Returns as Lotte Shopping Inside Director After 5 Years

Return After Five Years Since 2020
Securing Momentum for Sustainable Growth
Aiming for Simultaneous Growth in Sales and Profits

Shin Dong-bin, Chairman of Lotte Group, has returned to the position of inside director at Lotte Shopping after five years. This move is a strategic step to lead responsible management at the forefront of the core distribution business in order to overcome the liquidity crisis that has arisen both inside and outside Lotte Group. Major business divisions of Lotte Shopping, including department stores, grocery (food), and e-commerce, plan to accelerate strategies to strengthen high-value-added and global businesses and promote simultaneous growth in sales and profits, triggered by Chairman Shin’s return as an inside director this year.

Shin Dong-bin, Chairman of Lotte. Provided by Lotte Holdings

On the morning of the 24th, at the 55th regular shareholders’ meeting held at the Lotte Retail Academy in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul, Lotte Shopping passed the agenda to appoint inside directors including Chairman Shin, Kang Sung-hyun, Vice President and Head of Lotte Shopping’s Mart Business Division, and Kim Won-jae, Head of Financial Support at Lotte Distribution Group HQ.

With this, Chairman Shin has returned as an inside director of Lotte Shopping after five years. Previously, Shin resigned ahead of the expiration of his term as inside director of Lotte Shopping in March 2020, following the National Pension Service’s intervention against excessive concurrent executive positions held by group heads. Since then, he served as inside director at four companies including Lotte Holdings, Lotte Chemical, Lotte Wellfood, and Lotte Chilsung Beverage, before stepping down from the inside director position at Lotte Chilsung and returning as a registered director at Lotte Shopping this time. Lotte Group explained, "Since the distribution sector is a key business of the group, we intend to strengthen responsible management along with the chemical and food sectors."

Kim Sang-hyun, Vice Chairman and General Head of Lotte Distribution Group, who chaired the Lotte Shopping shareholders’ meeting that day, promised shareholders, "We will focus on strengthening core business competitiveness through structural improvements by business division and securing financial soundness to promote a strategy of simultaneous growth in sales and profits." To overcome the growth limitations of the domestic market and consumption slowdown, they plan to establish a local operating corporation in Singapore to actively foster overseas business. Additionally, based on the successful model of Lotte Mall West Lake Hanoi, they will review development projects centered on overseas complex complexes and shopping malls, and expand overseas markets by exporting private brand (PB) products to the U.S., Southeast Asia, and other regions.

Kim Sang-hyun, Vice Chairman and General Manager of Lotte Distribution Group, is delivering a greeting at the Lotte Shopping regular shareholders' meeting. Photo by Lotte Shopping

By business division, Lotte Department Store plans to secure a dominant position in the shopping mall market through the renewal and reopening of Time Villas 'Gunsan' this year, and establish solid competitiveness within commercial districts through large-scale renovations of key stores such as Jamsil and Main Store. Overseas business will review optimal sites for development as 'group company complex complexes' to secure global competitiveness.

Lotte Mart and Super will promote efficiency in domestic business and accelerate expansion of overseas business, and plan to officially launch the new grocery application (app) 'Zeta' next month. In addition, in partnership with the UK retail tech company 'Ocado,' they will steadily advance the construction of the first state-of-the-art logistics center (CFC) in Busan to provide a differentiated shopping environment in the domestic online market. The e-commerce division aims to achieve an early turnaround to profitability by continuously improving profitability centered on fashion and beauty product categories.

Vice Chairman Kim said, "This year, the management environment is expected to be difficult as household consumption is restrained due to high inflation and high interest rates," and pledged to shareholders, "Lotte Shopping will strengthen fundamental competitiveness to become 'the customer’s first shopping destination' and will not stop innovating toward discovering new markets."