Vic Markets are becoming Lotte Mart Maxxes

The Lotte Mart Maxx branch in Seo District, Gwangju, will reopen on Friday. [LOTTE SHOPPING]

Lotte Shopping announced a new name for its warehouse-style discount stores: Lotte Mart Maxx.

The company announced Tuesday it will rename its two existing VIC Market stores and convert four Lotte Marts into Lotte Mart Maxxes by the end of March.

The original warehouse-style VIC Market branches are in Yeongdeungpo in western Seoul and Guemcheon District, southern Seoul.

On Wednesday, the Songcheon branch of Lotte Mart in Jeonju, North Jeolla will become a Maxx.

Lotte Marts in Seo District, Gwangju and Mokpo, South Jeolla will re-open as Maxx branches in January. The Changwon branch in South Jeolla will do so in March.

At all six Lotte Mart Maxxes, products exclusive to that brand will account for over 50 percent of the items sold compared to 35 percent for VIC Markets.

Warehouse-style stores are known to be cheap and to sell in bulk. Maxx branches will carry products in slightly smaller sizes, for families of three to four.

“To make sure that there won’t be any customers who are on the fence about purchasing big-portioned products such as imported meat and marinated beef in bulk, we reduced food sizes to 70 percent of those at other warehouse-style stores," said a spokesperson for Lotte Shopping.

"We also lowered the average price to be between 40,000 won [$34] and 50,000 won per pack [of meat] to make it more convenient and attractive.”

Some synergies with recently acquired businesses are planned.

Furniture store Hanssem, acquired by Lotte Shopping and IMM Private Equity last September, will have a presence in the Maxx branches, as will electronics store Hi-Mart and dollar-shop Daisos.

Bottle Bunker specialty wine stores will also be in Maxxes, offering about 4,000 varieties of wine. The first Bottle Bunker opened last month at Lotte Mart's Jamsil branch in southern Seoul, which was rebranded as Zettaplex at the same time. The Bottle Bunker generated sales of 600 million won in its first three days.

The Maxx branches will be mostly in South and North Jeolla and Changwon, South Gyeongsang where there aren’t many rivals such as Costco and Emart’s Traders. The company aims to have 20 Maxx branches by 2023 and plans more in Seoul if its rebranding is successful.

Lotte Shopping has been focusing its business strategy after falling behind big e-commerce players.

It reported an earnings shock in last year's third quarter, with operating profits of 28.9 billion won, down 74 percent on year. Sales were down 2.4 percent to 4 trillion won. Shares of the company fell 2.01 percent on Tuesday to 82,700 won.

BY LEE TAE-HEE [lee.taehee2@joongang.co.kr]