Lotte Group operates 347 business sites in Vietnam, where it is marking 30 years since entering the market, embedding itself in the daily lives of local consumers. The group has expanded beyond food and retail into tourism, logistics and construction, emerging as a household name in the country.
Lotte Group first entered Vietnam in 1996 when Lotte GRS opened Lotteria outlets there, reaching the 30-year mark this year, according to reporting by The Seoul Economic Daily on the 12th. The group has accelerated its local expansion over the past decade in particular, adding nearly 100 sites in 10 years from 248 in 2016.
Lotteria currently runs 270 stores across Vietnam, while Lotte Mart operates 17 stores, Lotte Department Store three and Lotte Global Logistics seven distribution centers. Lotte Duty Free and Lotte Hotel each have three sites, Lotte Culture Works runs 43 Lotte Cinema locations and Lotte World operates one aquarium.
Lotte Duty Free, Lotte World, Lotte Properties, Lotte Engineering & Construction and Lotte Chemical have entered the market one after another over the past decade, bringing the number of local affiliates to 15. The group's business scope has also widened from food and retail to tourism, services, urban development and chemicals.
The group has sharply increased local hiring, contributing to job creation. Lotte Group has hired more than 10,000 workers in Vietnam. Last year it held an integrated local recruitment fair in Vietnam, the first such event by a major South Korean company.
Through Lotte Ventures, its corporate venture capital arm, the group is also actively seeking promising Vietnamese startups. It aims to nurture 100 local startups over the next five years. The move reflects a judgment that sustainable business in Vietnam requires local companies, industrial ecosystems and ultimately the Vietnamese economy to grow together.
With Vietnam's population approaching 100 million and incomes rising, Lotte Group sees the country as a second domestic market that can offset the growth limits of South Korea's home market. The World Bank put Vietnam's gross domestic product growth at 8% last year and upgraded the country to upper-middle-income status in July this year.
"Lotte has expanded its Vietnamese operations, which began with retail and services, into construction, chemicals, logistics, information technology and venture investment," a Lotte Group official said. "Going forward, we plan to strengthen the competitiveness of our core businesses and expand new ventures such as urban development and logistics to broaden the foundation for growing together with Vietnam."