Oriental Brewery’s flagship beer brand Cass unveiled the lineup for “Cass Blue Playground Connect 2.0,” its annual music festival, on social media Monday. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the concert will be livestreamed on its official YouTube channel and Facebook, on July 18 from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m., the company said. The lineup includes Sehun & Chanyeol of K-pop boy group EXO (EXO-SC), who were recently selected as Cass summer campaign models, K-pop girl group Red Velvet

Pernod Ricard Korea President and CEO Jean Touboul (center) draws on a bottle that has been prepainted with Airlite, an eco-friendly paint, during the Absolut Eco Street Art Project held by the company in Gwanghwamun, central Seoul, on Monday. The liquor maker built a structure using container boxes, on which a graffiti artist Xeva depicted “The Breathing City,” using special eco-friendly paint Airlite. The Absolut Eco Street Art Project is Pernod Ricard Korea’s first attem

Baedal Minjok, a South Korean food delivery app, said Monday it is making progress in expanding business in Vietnam with its shared kitchen service, helping Korean food franchises tap into the market there. The food delivery service, operated by Woowa Brothers, said it plans to open second and third Baemin Kitchen branches in Ho Chi Minh in the second half of this year, following the first store that opened in November 2019. The company presented its food delivery app Baemin in Ho Chi Minh in

The state COVID-19 relief funds distributed in May appear to have led more people to eat out or spend money on food at physical stores, according to data released by the country’s statistics agency on Friday. Statistics Korea said the value of online shopping transactions was 12.72 trillion won ($10.6 billion) in May, up 13.1 percent compared to a year earlier. The online shopping transaction value had jumped 24.5 percent in February, but with the COVID-19 spreading further in March,

It’s been 18 years since Porsche released the Cayenne, its first sport utility vehicle, but skeptics still questioning the vehicle’s “Porsche DNA.” Undeterred, the carmaker has continued to bolster its SUV lineup, and sales show Porsche’s decision was right. Its SUV sales now double those of smaller sports cars in some markets, including the US. In Korea, the Cayenne is attributed as having set the pace for the popularity of premium SUVs. This year, the carma

McDonald’s Korea said Thursday it is rolling out a deluxe version of its steady-seller Quarter Pounder with Cheese as a limited edition that will add more fresh vegetables to the standard burger. According to the burger chain, the Quarter Pounder with Cheese Deluxe adds more fresh vegetables, including lettuce, tomato and onions, to the standard burger to bring a richer flavor. The new burger is available for a limited time until July 29. The Quarter Pounder with Cheese Deluxe is al

Baskin-Robbins, the American ice cream chain that is operated by SPC Group in Korea, said Thursday it has hired K-pop boy band BTS to promote the flavor of the month in August. Baskin-Robbins said it has finished shooting the advertisement and photos to promote the new flavor of ice cream set for August with BTS, and will release them next month via social media and on cable TV. The company said it will also roll out various promotional goods, such as a “projection light” to cel

E-commerce is booming, particularly due to the pandemic. With just one click, customers can get almost anything they desire delivered to the doorstep within a day, or even hours. Major e-commerce companies such as Coupang and Tmon are reportedly seeing their annual turnover pass over the trillion-won mark, and similar companies have been springing up, presenting new services that maximize consumers’ convenience. But contrary to the attention these e-commerce firms are receiving, the ind

South Korea’s largest steelmaker Posco won the steel industry leadership award at this year’s Global Metals Awards, the company said Wednesday. Posco said it was selected as the winner at the awards ceremony, hosted by S&P Global Platts, for its business performance turning out relatively better than its competitors in times of protectionism spreading globally and worsening market conditions. The Global Metals Awards recognize those that motivate the metals industry to new w

Cosmetics giant Amorepacific Group said Wednesday it has signed a strategic partnership with 11Street, an e-commerce platform, to reinforce its digital sales. Amorepacific CEO Ahn Se-hong and 11Street CEO Lee Sang-ho signed the joint business partnership deal at the cosmetic firm’s headquarters in Seoul. Under the agreement, Amorepacific will broadcast monthly live commerce shows on 11Street to promote its makeup products. The previous live broadcasts in April and May promoted Amorepa

“COVID-19,” “seafood” and “home meals” have risen as popular keywords for online shoppers in the first half of this year, online grocery platform Market Kurly said Wednesday. Market Kurly said it analyzed sales data it collected from January to June and found that products related to the three keywords saw jumps in sales. Sales of items in the living and health category on the platform, such as face masks, grew by 170 percent compared to the year before.

Lotte Department Stores said Monday it is starting a new delivery service where customers can receive their online orders within three hours inside Seoul as the first department store to offer such a rapid delivery service here. According to the retail giant, 90,000 products from 400 brands being sold at the department store branches will be available for the “Baro Baesong,” which is translated into direct delivery, to all areas in Seoul. All purchases on Lotte’s online pl

The retail industry is seeing sales recover, owing to the ongoing nationwide discount promotional event to revitalize the domestic economy, which has been suffering dampened consumer sentiment amid the COVID-19 outbreak. Major retailers saw sales grow during the first weekend of the government-led K-Sale period, locally dubbed “Donghaeng,” which kicked off Friday. According to Lotte Shopping, the retail arm of Lotte Group, sales of Lotte Department Store rose 21 percent from Fri

South Korea’s SPC Group, which operates bakery franchise Paris Baguette, said it has bagged a Guinness World Records certification for its bestselling roll cake brand. Paris Baguette’s sales of Silky Roll Cake topped 12.49 million from January 2015 to December 2019 in five countries -- Korea, China, the US, Singapore and Vietnam. It is the largest number of roll cakes to be sold and hence got the honor, the company said. When converted to distance, it is 3,000 kilometers when con

GS Engineering and Construction said Thursday it is officially entering the precast concrete business by building a precast concrete factory in North Chungcheong Province. According to the company, it signed an investment agreement with the North Chungcheong provincial government and Eumseong County on Wednesday, to build the factory in the region. The factory will be built on a 150,000-square-meter plot of land inside the General Industrial Complex in Eumseong County, and it will be capabl

South Korea’s Daelim Industrial said Thursday it has applied for a patent for its new technology that drastically reduces sound between apartment floors. According to the construction company, it analyzed the impact patterns of the footsteps of adults and children to develop the new method of topping two layers of mortar and one layer of insulation material on top of the concrete slab, which is the basic frame of a building. Dubbed the Noise Free 3-layer System, the extra mortar and h

Amorepacific Group Chairman Suh Kyung-bae’s eldest daughter is getting engaged to the first son of Bokwang Investment Corp. Chairman Hong Seok-joon this weekend, according to industry sources Thursday. Suh Min-jeong and Hong Jeong-hwan, who started dating early this year after being introduced by an acquaintance, are set to hold an engagement ceremony at Shilla Hotel in Seoul at around 6 p.m. on Saturday. Both work at their fathers’ companies. Suh is the second-largest sharehold

Korean e-commerce giant Coupang said it is recruiting about 200 tech talents, starting from Wednesday. The positions include software developers, product owners, product designers and more, with over five years of experience in their respective fields, Coupang said. For those hired in this recruitment, Coupang said it will also offer a signing bonus, starting from 50 million won ($41,600) upon joining the company. Coupang has tech development offices in the Silicon Valley in California as

Samyang Foods said Wednesday that it is rolling out various character goods to promote its Buldak Spicy Chicken noodle character Hochi. According to the company, it recently launched a Hochi emoticon for the mobile messenger service Line, for users in both South Korea and Japan. The emoticon is designed to encapsulate 40 expressions frequently used on the mobile chat app, represented by Hochi. The company, which makes the globally popular Buldak Spicy Chicken noodles, said it also launched

The unplanned popularity of K-pop singer Rain’s music video “Gang” has led to a surprising side benefit for Nongshim, towing the sales of its steady-selling shrimp cracker by 30 percent, the company said Wednesday. According to the South Korean food firm, it saw the sales of its shrimp crackers jump to a record 7 billion won ($5.83 million), up by 30 percent, from May 23 to Tuesday compared to a year earlier. K-pop star Rain’s “Gang,” which is from his min