TonyMoly leading ambitious K-beauty charge

The company generates sales across Europe, North America and Asia, and is looking to further strengthen its foothold especially in China and Southeast Asian nations.

With its aggressive expansion plan, the company says it is looking to grow into a company that outstrips the sales of current domestic market giants, including LG Household & Healthcare and AmorePacific.

Speaking on the event of its 10th anniversary, the company’s chairman Bae Hae-dong said: “We will double our sales to 2 trillion won in 2025. We will continue to expand research and development to introduce a number of best-selling beauty products and boost customer satisfaction​.”

China: heart of strategy​

The company currently boasts 60 outlets within department stores in China, and is set to increase this to 200 by the end of the year, with the country emphasised by Hae-Dong as set to play a key role in the company’s growth.

“We recently resolved legal issues with the former sales agent in China and, this has cleared all our obstacles to bolstering our business there,​” the chairman explained.

“In April, we established a sales subsidiary in Qingdao. From 2017, we also plan to run a plant in China. In addition to setting up directly managed brand stores, we are talking with Chinese retailers to set up shops inside their outlets​.”

K-beauty milestone​

Hae-dong noted that TonyMoly’s retail space deal with European beauty giant Sephora which began this month can be considered a key milestone in the global spread of K-beauty.

“We are the first Korean cosmetics brand to set up a shop-in-shop at Sephora outlets: this is an important milestone, not only for TonyMoly, but also for the nation's cosmetics industry. It shows that Korea's cosmetics brands have earned global recognition.”​

The beauty brand currently boasts 7,700 branded outlets in 41 countries, with 676 stores in Korea: it’s plan is to continue building on this global presence by targeting younger women in their 20s, which it believes will have a knock-on effect of attracting consumers from the 30 - 40 years age group.

“We will continue to bolster our brand image as a global cosmetics leader​,” Hae-dong concluded.