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Lotte chief calls for competitive innovation to rebound from 'tough' 2024

Published: 09 Jan. 2025, 18:53 Updated: 09 Jan. 2025, 19:01

CHO YONG-JUN
[email protected]

Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin attends a session where group affiliates showcased its AI use cases on Jan. 9, held before the group-wide meeting later that day. [LOTTE]

Lotte Chairman Shin Dong-bin urged executives to innovate and increase the group’s competitiveness as the retail and chemical giant prepares for a better 2025.

“We should realize that this is the last chance for us to change,” Shin said during Thursday’s yearly meeting, featuring 80 executives from the group's affiliates, held at Lotte World Tower in Songpa District, southern Seoul.

Shin admitted that 2024 was the group’s “toughest year yet,” referring to the rumors of the group suffering from a liquidity crisis following the low performances of its retail business and Lotte Chemical, which logged an operating loss of 41.4 billion won ($28 million) in the third quarter of 2024.

"The fundamental cause of the difficulty lies not in external circumstances but the lack of competitiveness of our key businesses," he said. "We won't be able to survive if we don't innovate and change."

Shin also ordered affiliate CEOs to focus on finding global business opportunities for Lotte's long-term growth.

Prior to the official meeting, Lotte affiliates shared their AI use cases. Lotte Innovate, the group’s IT subsidiary in charge of transportation card Cashbee, showcased Aimember, an AI-powered platform that automatically generates meeting logs and business reports. Advertisement subsidiary Daehong Communications introduced its marketing AI tool AIMS, which analyses marketing insights and produces advertisement content.

BY CHO YONG-JUN [[email protected]]