Lotte Duty Free management is literally working overtime to get its central Seoul Lotte World Tower duty free store ‘remerchandised’ and ready for a reopening this week, following its success in gaining one of the 10-year downtown duty free licenses – as reported by TRBusiness last month.

 

Lotte Duty Free spokesman Jihyun Ethan Choi formally confirmed today that the company is ‘putting all the effort to open the store within this week’ and this follows the previous recent statement from the company confirming the removal of the anxieties held by its 1,300 employees at the World Tower location.

 

[Click here for more details: http://www.trbusiness.com/regional-news/asia-pacific/lotte-shinsegae-and-hyundai-win-10-year-licenses/113297].

 

LOTTE HAS MADE HUGE PROMISES…

As reported last month, Lotte has given huge undertakings as part of its support package associated with this contract and its business in general, which includes a pledge to invest Won2.3 trillion ($1.97bn) on tourist-related investments in the upmarket Gangnam quarter of Seoul between 2017 to 2021.

 

It has also promised to support small and medium-sized business partners and to attract more than 17m foreign tourists. [Financial criteria was one of the main criteria in the offer evaluations-Ed] while creating 34,000 direct and indirect jobs and substantial foreign exchange income.

 

KOREAN CUSTOMS UNDER PRESSURE

The Korean Customs Service (KCS) will also come under major pressure to ensure that all of these promises are kept and not the least since it has also been subject to investigation with regard to its conduct in recent months.

 

As reported, the KCS awarded its three biggest remaining 10-year downtown duty free licenses in Seoul to Lotte Duty Free, Shinsegae DF and the Hyundai Department Store on 17 December.

 

At the same time, ‘Top City’ won the one small, medium enterprise Seoul contract, while the two remaining provincial licenses were gained by Busan Duty Free and Alpensia.