To tackle pain in her back and hip, graduate school student Lee Yeon-hee uses a lacrosse ball every night to give herself a massage. “After rolling my back on this small massage ball for about 10 minutes, I can feel that the muscles are relaxed. I save both time and money by doing this simple exercise every night,” she said.Lee is one of a growing number of people purchasing massage products that can be used at home. According to online shopping website G-market, sales of such products jumped 40

South Korean retail giant Lotte opens a new premium outlet in Giheung, Gyeonggi Province, on Thursday -- the second-largest among its branches nationwide and the latest addition to large-scale malls launched by retailers here in hopes of raising offline sales.Lotte is pinning hopes on the latest outlet’s location, citing three highways and five major roads passing through Giheung. It aims to attract some 25 million shoppers in and around the region including Yongin, Suwon, Dongtan and Bundang in

South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission on Tuesday greenlighted a set of voluntary rules agreed to by convenience store operators including the minimum distance between each store to quell excessive competition.Five members of the Korea Association of Convenience Store Industry, CU, GS25, 7-Eleven, Mini Stop and C-Space, along with nonmember E-Mart 24, came up with the voluntary agreement on rules to curb excessive competition in the course of opening, operating or closing stores. Under the deal, fr

South Korean cosmetics company Nature Republic said Tuesday that it has opened four pop-up stores inside Italy’s Coin Department Stores located in Rome, Milan, Torino and Bari.The Coin Department Store is Italy’s largest department store in terms of the number of outlets. It first opened in 1916, and now has over 50 stores selling clothing, beauty and home decoration products across the country.The company said its entry into Italy would help the firm expand its presence in the European market,

Akaria Hanmi, a joint venture between South Korean construction management company HanmiGlobal and Saudi Arabian property developer Al Akaria, will continue to solidify its position as a leading construction management company in the Saudi Arabian market, the head of the joint venture said last week.In an interview with a group of reporters, Khalid Al Arfaj, chairperson of Akaria Hanmi’s board of directors, said the company will expand its business, with the target of achieving 30 billion won ($

South Korean full-service carrier Asiana Airlines has completed the first phase of advancement for its system for Flight Operational Quality Assurance, the company said Sunday.FOQA refers to a process of collecting and analyzing data from flights to improve safety and efficiency of flight operations. Akiyoshi Yamamura (right), Asiana Airlines’ senior executive vice president, and Carlos Ricarte, director at CEFA Aviation, checks the Flight Operational Quality Assurance operation system on a comp

South Korean air carrier Asiana Airlines said Thursday it held its fourth graduation ceremony for beneficiaries of its “Beautiful Classroom” project.The airline’s head of business management Kim Yi-bae presented certificates to Vietnamese students who have completed the education program during a ceremony at its job training center in Hai Duong, Vietnam. Since 2015, Asiana Airlines has been running the “Beautiful Classroom” project, a corporate outreach campaign, to help improve the educational

Air Premia, a new budget air carrier applying for a business license here, said Thursday that it has received investment proposals worth 125 billion won ($111 million) from domestic private equity funds for its Series B financing. According to the company, private equity funds including IMM Investment, JKL Partners and Skylake Investment submitted plans to each invest 30 billion won in the company. Including other private equity funds such as Mirae Asset Venture Investment and Daishin Private Eq

CREDIT CARDLOTTE CARDCredit card company Lotte Card made a foray into the Vietnamese market, in a first for a Korean credit card company, with the full acquisition of Hanoi-based Techcom Finance approved in March. In March, the firm received approval from Vietnam’s central bank for the acquisition. It earned licenses to operate credit cards and related businesses, becoming the first Korean credit card company to enter the Southeast Asian country’s consumer finance market. Telecom Finance is a su

South Korean chemical-to-textile company Kolon Group said Wednesday that Chairman and CEO Lee Woong-yeol is resigning from his post. According to the group, the chairman announced that he would step down next year, after 23 years of overseeing the company’s management.  Kolon Group Chairman Lee Woong-yeol (Kolon Group)The company said in a press release that the group will be operated without a chairman. Instead, the group’s major business plans will be handled by a holding company and president

South Korean discount chain operator Homeplus will grant full-time and permanent employment status to some 600 contract workers at its stores, starting from Saturday. The move comes five months after the company converted the status of some 430 contract workers to regular positions. Homeplus cashiers (Homeplus)This year, a total of 1,200 Homeplus workers would have been converted to full-time and permanent positions, including 600 contract workers and security guards whose contracts end this yea

South Korean mobile shoppers used e-commerce platform Coupang the most in October, which saw about a 23 percent increase in the number of its monthly active users, industry data showed Tuesday.According to mobile application analysis company Wise App’s survey conducted on 23 million Android phone users here, at least 8.18 million of them had used Coupang for mobile shopping last month.It was followed by 11st with some 5.95 million monthly active users (MAUs) and WeMakePrice with 4.36 million use

South Korean tobacco manufacturer KT&G on Monday unveiled its new heat-not-burn tobacco device Lil Hybrid, the first HNB device that works by heating a liquid cartridge.  “Our previous HNB tobacco devices -- Lil Mini and Lil Plus -- had received consumer feedback that the taste needs to be improved. That’s why we came up with our exclusive and new platform called Lil Hybrid,” said Lim Wang-seob, chief of the company’s product innovation division.  According to KT&G, Lil Hybrid works by hea

South Korean low-cost carrier Air Busan said Friday that it will go public on the country’s main Kospi bourse next month.Air Busan said it will submit an application for the listing of its stock to the Financial Supervisory Service and decide the final stock price by mid-December. Air Busan is one of two budget affiliates of full-service carrier Asiana Airlines. The other is Air Seoul.According to the company, with the IPO it aims to raise 18.7 billion won ($16 million) to 20.8 billion won at 3,

South Korean retail giant Lotte Group’s home shopping operator Lotte Home Shopping unveiled on Friday its plans to step up as a world-leading media commerce company by 2025.  Lotte Home Shopping employees participate in a ceremony in Seoul to celebrate the company’s vision for the future. (Lotte Home Shopping)According to Lotte Home Shopping, it will strengthen its business fundamentals by developing its mobile shopping platform and will offer consumers an advanced shopping experience by introdu

Yuhan-Kimberly, a South Korean manufacturer of sanitary products, said it was joining forces with the Mongolian government to restore a forest and open an observatory tower there. According to the company, the work to restore deforested areas of Mongolia’s Tujin Nars forest began in 2003. The forest had sustained severe damage after two fires before the local government formally asked Yuhan-Kimberly to take part in the project in 2001.Since that time, over 10 million trees have been planted.  An

South Korea’s birthrate has been in free fall in the past several years, but either despite or because of this, the interest in prenatal care among mothers-to-be is on the rise. The result has been increased consumer demand for baby products and prenatal care services.The industries that are benefiting from the prenatal care market boom are retailers and hotels, with a rising number of customers looking for premium baby products or staycation products in line with the popular “babymoon” trips.Lo

South Korean e-commerce company Coupang said Wednesday that it has secured a $2 billion investment from SoftBank’s Vision Fund, which will be injected into consumer-first technology including its logistics network.SoftBank’s latest investment is the largest investment amount ever received by a South Korean online retailer, according to Coupang. It comes three years after SoftBank invested $1 billion in Coupang in 2015.  Coupang CEO Kim Bom (right) poses with SoftBank founder and CEO Masayoshi So

South Korean retail giants Lotte and Shinsegae are likely to vie for acquiring 100 percent of Ministop Korea, the fourth-largest convenience store chain here in terms of the number of locations. According to Japan’s Aeon Group, the largest shareholder of Ministop Korea, it had received bid proposals from Lotte, Shinsegae and Seoul-based Glenwood Private Equity as of Tuesday.  Ministop Korea (Yonhap)A preferred bidder is to be decided in a week, according to Nomura Securities, which was chosen as

The Transport Ministry said Monday it has begun a nationwide survey on the preferred format for new vehicle license plates. The one selected would be applied from September next year.  Transport Ministry officials show five different designs for new vehicle license plates for the nationwide survey, during a press briefing last week. (Yonhap)In July, the ministry decided to adopt a new license plate with seven digits, adding one to the current six. Such a change would allow for 210 million new ca