Shinsegae, Galleria woo Louis Vuitton, Rolex for new growth

Louis Vuitton and Rolex brands are status symbols for customers and so they are for department stores in South Korea.

Shinsegae Inc. and Hanwha Galleria, the country’s leading department store operators, are intensifying their competition to lure Louis Vuitton and Rolex or retain their boutiques in their branches outside of Seoul, where they recently opened new stores.

The department store operators hope the foreign designer brands will shore up their profits even during an economic downturn, as well as boost the operators' exclusive images.

In Daejeon, Rolex and Louis Vuitton are only available at Hanwha Galleria Timeworld.

In southern Gyeonggi Province, excluding Pangyo, known as Korea's Silicon Valley, Louis Vuitton operates a store only in one Shinsegae branch, located in Gwanggyo, about 30 km south of Seoul.

In Daejeon and southern Gyeonggi Province, Shinsegae and Hanwha Galleria are wooing Rolex and Louis Vuitton with spacious areas dedicated to their brands, or refurbishing their luxury halls to attract the two high-end brands.

IN DAEJEON

Hanwha Galleria Timeworld is renovating the first floor of the outlet in Daejeon, about 140 km south of Seoul, to make room for Rolex. The new Rolex store is scheduled to open in the first quarter of next year.

It will be as large in area as another Rolex store in Korea, located within Lotte Department Store in Jamsil, Seoul, which is Rolex’s largest outlet in the country.

The Swiss luxury watch brand, already in operation at Hanwha Galleria Timeworld in Daejeon, is being relocated to the areas once occupied by TUDOR, Montblanc, Balenciaga, Breitling and TAG Heuer.

Hanwha Galleria Timeworld has extended its contract with Louis Vuitton by three years until 2026 from the end of this year.

Its contract period with Rolex will run through 2026.

The contract extension came after Hanwha Galleria last year yielded its No. 1 position in the city to Shinsegae, which opened in Daejeon in 2021, in terms of sales.

In 2022, the department store arm of Hanwha Group raked in 736.2 billion won ($560 million) in sales in Daejeon, less than Shinsegae’s 864.7 billion won in the region.

IN GYEONGGI PROVINCE

In the southern part of Gyeonggi Province, Louis Vuitton is only available at the Shinsegae branch.

To retain Louis Vuitton and other luxury brands, Shinsegae has undergone full-scale renovations at its Yongin branch, about 40 km south of Seoul. It has refurbished the first basement floor of the Gyeonggi branch into a dedicated area for high-end brands.

It must not be off its guard, however.

Hanwha Galleria is eager to host Louis Vuitton in its Gwanggyo branch, which opened in 2020. The branch is about a 15-20 minute drive from the Shinsegae department store in the province.

Hanwha still leaves a key area in its luxury hall on the second floor empty three years after opening, to make room for Louis Vuitton at any time.

Now both Shinsegae and Hanwha Galleria face a new competitor in the region.

Lotte Department Store, one of the country’s three major department store operators, in 2021 opened a branch in Dongtan in Gyeonggi Province, a 15-30-minute drive from either the Shinsegae or the Hanwha Galleria branch in the province.

Write to Young-Chan Song at 0full@hankyung.com
 

Yeonhee Kim edited this article.