“Lotte Men” Take the Lead as Relief Pitchers... Will the “Cha Woochul Magic” Work?

2026 Lotte Executive Appointments
Chairman Shin Dongbin’s “Strict Reward and Punishment” Principle Reflected
Cha Woochul, Who Led Lotteria’s Turnaround, Appointed
Named as New Head of Struggling Lotte Mart and Supermarket
Jung Hyunseok, Who Revived Uniqlo, Becomes Youngest CEO of Lotte Department Store

As Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dongbin continues his emergency management policy, he has implemented another sweeping personnel reshuffle for the second consecutive year. Attention is now focused on the rise of “Lotte men” who have been appointed as new leaders of the group’s retail division, which has been struggling with sluggish business conditions.

According to the business community on November 27, Lotte announced its regular executive appointments for 2026 the previous day, replacing 20 out of all CEOs-accounting for one-third of the total. This comes after last year’s unprecedented move of replacing 21 out of 60 CEOs, or 36% of the total, marking another significant generational shift within the company.

Notably, in its core retail sector, all positions vacated by external executives-such as Kim Sanghyun, Vice Chairman and Head of Lotte Retail HQ, Jung Junho, CEO of Lotte Department Store, and Kang Sunghyun, CEO of Lotte Mart and Supermarket-have now been filled by executives with long-standing ties to Lotte.

Cha Woochul, newly appointed CEO of Lotte Mart and Lotte Super. Photo by Lotte

First, Cha Woochul, who previously led Lotte GRS, has been promoted to President and appointed as the new CEO of Lotte Mart and Supermarket. Cha, the new CEO, is a classic “Lotte man” who graduated from Whimoon High School and Kyung Hee University with a degree in Food Processing and joined Lotte Confectionery in 1992. Since then, he has worked at the Lotte Policy Headquarters, the group’s control tower, since 2004, and later served as Head of Management Improvement Team 1 at Lotte Holdings, closely assisting Chairman Shin.

Since 2021, he has served as CEO of Lotte GRS, which was facing management difficulties, and led the “revival of Lotteria.” By decisively restructuring unprofitable businesses and stores and expanding global operations, he focused on improving the company’s fundamentals. As a result, Lotte GRS returned to profitability within just one year of his appointment. By the third quarter of this year, Lotte GRS’s cumulative operating profit had increased by about 50% year-on-year to over 50 billion won, and the company is on the verge of returning to annual sales of 1 trillion won.

Cha has now been tasked with replicating this success at Lotte Mart and Supermarket, which are struggling due to the domestic market slowdown. In the third quarter of this year, Lotte Mart and Supermarket recorded sales of 1.3035 trillion won, an 8.8% decrease from the same period last year, while operating profit plummeted 85.1% to just 7.1 billion won. Lotte stated, “Cha was recognized for enhancing profitability in existing businesses, strengthening competitiveness in new businesses, and expanding global operations during his tenure at Lotte GRS,” adding, “He is expected to lead the integrated organizational management of Lotte Mart and Supermarket, stabilize the e-grocery business, and drive global expansion centered on Southeast Asia.”

Jung Hyunseok, New CEO of Lotte Department Store. Provided by Lotte

Jung Hyunseok, who became the youngest-ever CEO (Executive Vice President) of Lotte Department Store, is another example of an appointment reflecting previous business achievements. Born in 1975, Jung is a “Lotte man” who graduated from Gangseo High School and Inha University with a degree in German Language and Literature, and joined Lotte Department Store in 2000. He is ten years younger than his predecessor, Jung Junho (born in 1965), symbolizing a generational shift.

From 2020 to 2024, Jung served as CEO of FRL Korea, which operates Uniqlo, and overcame the “No Japan” boycott to turn the company profitable. FRL Korea posted an operating loss of 88.3 billion won in the 2020 fiscal year (September 2019-August 2020), but achieved an operating profit of 148.9 billion won in the 2024 fiscal year (September 2023-August 2024). During this period, sales reached 1.0601 trillion won, returning to the trillion-won mark for the first time in five years since the 2019 fiscal year (September 2018-August 2019, 1.378 trillion won). A Lotte representative commented, “Based on his experience, Jung is expected to drive brand differentiation tailored to changing customer trends.”

This round of Lotte appointments reflects the company’s job-based HR philosophy of selecting talented professionals regardless of age or gender. For example, Kim Songgi, Head of Culinary R&D at Lotte Hotel and a renowned master chef born in 1960, was promoted to Executive Director at age 65 in recognition of his successful management of the banquet at this year’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Gyeongju.

By also embracing young leadership, the number of new executives rose to 81, a 30% increase from the previous year, and eight women, accounting for 10% of all new executives, were appointed. Lotte stated, “Amid an uncertain business environment, we will continue to maintain performance-based executive appointments and the principle of recruiting external talent to enhance agile change management and execution.”