"Olive Young-Made K-Beauty"... Betting Big on Global Expansion

PB expansion into Europe
PB growth centered on Japan, China, and the United States

CJ Olive Young, the No. 1 player in the domestic health and beauty (H&B) market, is accelerating the expansion of its private brands (PB). Olive Young plans to move beyond simply being a distribution channel and shift to a structure in which it directly owns and operates brands, with the dual goal of boosting profitability and using global markets with rising K-beauty demand as a new growth pillar.

According to the industry on the 9th, Olive Young recently signed a partnership with Gabona, a Polish cosmetics-focused distribution company, to launch its PB brands in Europe. Under this agreement, Gabona will be exclusively responsible for distributing Olive Young’s PB products in the European region. By leveraging Gabona’s local distribution network, Olive Young aims to reduce its initial investment burden while also testing and validating market response.

Promotional images of CJ Olive Young's in-house brands Keolleogeuraem, Baiohil Bo, and Beuringgeurin. CJ Olive Young

Scaling up PB globally... From distribution to brand building

Olive Young has been leveraging its accumulated experience in product planning and brand management to use PB both as a testing ground and as a core growth engine. Some analysts say this allows the company to build up knowledge on overseas consumer response and distribution, and in the longer term, to use this data as a reference indicator for assessing the global expansion potential of brands stocked in its stores.

Since launching its PB business in 2009, Olive Young has continued to nurture its own brands. It now owns around 10 PB brands, including Bioheal Boh (slow-aging), Bring Green (vegan skincare), Wakemake and Colorgram (color cosmetics), Round Around (lifestyle), Delight Project (healthy snacks), All The Better (wellness), and Ideal For Men (men’s care).

PB products have the advantage of reducing costs incurred in the manufacturing and distribution process, increasing margins, and, over the long term, building brand equity. On top of this, as global awareness of K-beauty has risen rapidly, Olive Young is operating on the premise that it can strengthen profitability based on product competitiveness while also diversifying its revenue portfolio.

Japan as the top-priority strategic market... U.S. offline sales just around the corner

To drive PB-centered overseas expansion, Olive Young has also been establishing local subsidiaries in key countries as operational bases. In China, it set up a subsidiary called Cosmetics Trading Co., Ltd. in 2023 and, starting in 2024, began to fully roll out local operations focused on PB brands. In Japan, it established a local subsidiary in May 2024 and shifted to a structure in which it directly manages distribution and marketing.

Among these markets, Japan is cited by CJ Olive Young as its "top-priority strategic market" for global expansion. According to data compiled by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, Korean cosmetics have ranked No. 1 in Japan’s cosmetics imports by country for three consecutive years from 2022 to 2024. Olive Young is currently exporting seven PB brands, including Bring Green, Wakemake, and Colorgram, to Japan, and has secured placements on major online channels such as Rakuten and Qoo10, as well as offline retailers including LOFT, PLAZA, @COSME, and Matsumoto Kiyoshi. PB sales in Japan recorded an average annual growth rate of more than 100% between 2020 and 2024. Consumer response has been clear, with Wakemake’s Seamless Wear Foundation, a color cosmetics brand, ranking No. 1 on Qoo10 on the day of its launch.

In the United States, Olive Young is selling PB brands such as Bring Green and Colorgram primarily through e-commerce channels including Amazon and TikTok Shop. In May, Olive Young plans to open its first store in California and establish a local subsidiary, making a renewed attempt at offline distribution. This marks a re-entry into the market about 10 years after its withdrawal in 2014 due to insufficient localization. Over the past five years, Olive Young’s overseas sales have recorded an average annual growth rate of around 60% in Japan and around 160% in the United States.

Raundeueoraundeu Jeju-specialty product image. Olive Young

Targeting foreign tourists at home... Launching region-specific PB products

In Korea, the company is also focusing on developing lifestyle PB brands aimed at foreign tourists. A representative example is Round Around. Olive Young is rolling out region-specific products centered on areas with high foreign tourist traffic such as Jeju, Busan, and Gangneung. Signature items include lip balms, shower balls, bath bombs, hand creams, and umbrellas inspired by tangerines, green tangerines, and camellias. These products are also seen as serving as a kind of test bed that secures touchpoints with overseas consumers in advance through domestic offline channels.

A CJ Olive Young official said, "As foreign tourists are increasingly visiting stores outside the Seoul metropolitan area, we are successively introducing region-specific products that can only be purchased at stores in those regions, so that tourists can remember their travel experiences for a long time," adding, "As a result, it was found that about 80% of customers who purchased Round Around’s Jeju-exclusive products last year were foreign tourists."

Industry observers say the expansion of Olive Young’s PB portfolio is also changing its bargaining structure. When a distributor owns PB brands that can substitute for other products, its dependence on specific brands decreases, and it can gain the upper hand in product assortment and pricing policies. At the same time, as PB performance becomes one of the indicators for gauging the global expansion potential of brands stocked in its stores, the influence of the Olive Young platform itself is also growing.

An industry source commented, "For a distributor, directly owning brands is a choice that secures not only profitability but also bargaining power and business continuity," and added, "This is particularly positive now, as global awareness of K-beauty has become significantly higher compared with the past."