AmorePacific chairman lauds sales milestone

The 650 employees of AmorePacific Group’s duty-free division recently received letters from Chairman Seo Kyung-bae that said, “To those who make the world more beautiful … I am very proud of you. I love you.”

“Congratulations on 1 trillion won [$8.3 billion] in sales,” Seo added in the Dec. 31 handwritten letter.

Sales in the company’s duty-free division exceeded 1 trillion won last year for the first time in the company’s history, thanks to the large numbers of youke, or Chinese tourists, visiting Korea.

This wasn’t the first time Seo sent letters to employees.

“Six hundred employees of the department are staff who actually do sales in duty-free shops,” a company representative said. “It appears that the chairman wanted to thank staff who go through difficulties in the field while dealing with customers.”

“I hope all of you angels in the duty-free department can contribute to the dream of making Amore a great global brand company by 2020,” Seo added in the letter.

The company uses the word “angel” to refer to employees who work in retail sales.

“It was very meaningful to receive a letter that was handwritten by the chairman,” said Lee Ye-ji, a Sulwhasoo store clerk at the main Lotte Department Store branch in central Seoul.

Seo also gave the sales staff products from the company’s premium cosmetics brand Sulwhasoo, since the brand played a key role in raising the company’s sales.

Sulwhasoo is very popular among youke, and its annual sales also exceeded 1 trillion won last year, a first for a single cosmetics brand.

BY KOO HUI-LYUNG [kim.youngnam@joongang.co.kr]