The Hong Kong beauty market can be summed up in three terms: Open, Flexible and Competitive Market. It is quite open to new global brands, but those who failed to showtheir presence are soon ignored and ostracized. Such kind of market nature allows the steady growth of AMOREPACIFIC Hong Kong over the last 10 years to appear even more significant. Today, we will look into AMOREPACIFIC Hong Kong which now finds itself ranking alongsideother global leading brands in the Hong Kong beauty market.

In the early 2000s, Fion Ipp, who is now the president of AMOREPACIFIC Hong Kong, obtained the distributorship rights for AMOREPACIFIC and launched LANEIGE. It was the first Korean brand introduced to the Hong Kong beauty market. "(The success of LANEIGE)changed the competitive environments of cosmetics market and opened up the market place for Korean brands," recalled Fion. In fact, as Sulwhasoo made its debut in the Hong Kong beauty marketa year later, local customers were gaining interest in Korean beauty brands and turned its attentionto the AMOREPACIFIC.

Both LANEIGE and Sulwhasoo have been well-loved, the independent business was incorporated into AGO (AMOREPACIFIC Global Operations Ltd.) in early 2014 and eventually grew into a subsidiary of AMOREPACIFIC Group. Fion reflected with laughter that some of the biggest changes after becoming a subsidiary included an increasing amount of reporting and meetings with their Korean headquarters, but nothing really has changed much in terms of business operations. Now that AMOREPACIFIC Hong Kong has been a part of the AMOREPACIFIC Group for over one year, it will have toundergo some transitions in order to tune itself to the system of the Korean HQ.

Recently, AMOREPACIFIC Hong Kong seizedthe attention of the market once again by becoming the Gold Award Winner at the HKMA Quality Award, which is one of most prestigious awards in Hong Kong. This award has been given to renowned global companies such as Disney, MTR and Pfizer as it picks and chooses based on strict evaluation of every detail including business performance and working environment for employees. "The award itself means a lot, but what is more significant is the public recognition that we gained," emphasized Fion with a glow of satisfaction.

LANEIGE and Sulwhasoo have grown into the most famous and noteworthy brands in the premium and luxury categories, respectively. "Through our innovative products, effective marketing and efforts to provide outstanding customer service, LANEIGE and Sulwhasoo were able to withstand the strains of market volatility and maintain steady growth over the last 10 years," remarked Fion. LANEIGE still records high sales of its products including BB Cushion, Two Tone Lip Bar and Collagen Drink despite the region seeing a sharp decline in the number of tourists. In addition, Sulwhasoo continues its growth in the midst of fierce competition, by virtue of its efforts toward luxury positioning over the past 10 years. "Sulwhasoo does not necessarily offer great bargains or gift-with-purchases, but appeals to customers with the value of the brand itself," stated Fion.

Furthermore, innisfree, which has affiliation with AGO,ventured into the Hong Kong beauty market in 2013 and since then, has steadily served Hong Kong customers. It now operates a total of 12 stores in Hong Kong and expects toeventually reach 300,000 members. As a brand representing Korea, innisfree is certainly recording significant achievements.

AMOREPACIFIC Hong Kong launched the brand AMOREPACIFIC last year and began operating/managing ETUDE HOUSE earlier this year. Through this, AMOREPACIFIC Hong Kong plans to expand its brand portfolio and further strengthen its competitiveness and presence in the Hong Kong beauty market. Of particular note, the AMOREPACIFIC store, with its new brand SI being applied for the first time, is recognized as being much more luxurious of a store than any other global luxury brands. It demonstrates that AMOREPACIFIC is securing its presence in the Hong Kong beauty market where brand positioning really matters. In addition, ETUDE HOUSE,which is currently operated by AMOREPACIFIC Hong Kong starting this year, is working toward becoming a flagship brand, making the best use of its own unique strengths through constant commitment to research.

AMOREPACIFIC Hong Kong has been creating a new history since its establishment, just as AMOREPACIFIC Group has done in Korea over the last 70 years. We hope that all of our brands in Hong Kong become more competitive and much loved as brands that are representative of Korea.