Aekyung Industrial swings to net loss as cosmetics sales fall

Aekyung Industrial swung to a net loss in the second quarter as cosmetics sales fell.

Aekyung Industrial, which operates brands like Kerasys, Age 20’s and Luna, announced in a preliminary report Monday that it swung to a 3.99 billion won ($3.4 million) net loss from 3.35 billion won in net profit in the same quarter last year. It also swung to 1.25 billion won in operating losses from 6.09 billion won in operating profit during the same quarter a year earlier.

Its sales in the April-June period were down 22.5 percent on-year to 121.88 billion won.

In the first half of the year, operating profit from cosmetics products plummeted 80 percent year-on-year to 4.5 billion won, while sales went down by 39.8 percent to 97.4 billion won.

Operating profit of household items in the first half of the year inched up 6.2 percent compared to the same period the previous year to 6.8 billion won, from sales that rose 6 percent on-year to 184.8 billion won.

Aekyung Industrial, 45.08 percent owned by AK Holdings, which is also the majority shareholder in the cash-strapped Jeju Air, said its cosmetics sales were hit by Covid-19, but added it built a foundation for growth by releasing new Age 20’s products.

“Aekyung Industrial is investing continuously to enforce digital marketing and digital channels both in and outside of Korea,” the company wrote in a statement.

BY JIN MIN-JI [jin.minji@joongang.co.kr]