SK Engineering and Construction was handed a $68.4 million penalty by a US court Thursday on charges of bribing an official to win an Army contract. The Department of Justice said in a press release that the Court for the Western District of Tennessee has ordered SK E&C to pay $60.6 million in criminal fines along with $2.6 million in restitution to the Army and serve three years of probation. The fine is the largest ever imposed against a criminal defendant by the federal district court.

Celebrating the 200th anniversary of its flagship scotch whisky brand Johnnie Walker, Diageo Korea said Thursday it will roll out a limited edition in retail shops across the country. Founded by John Walker in Scotland in 1820, Johnnie Walker is the world’s No. 1 scotch whisky brand selling over 100 million bottles annually in about 200 countries across the globe. Marking the anniversary, the South Korean branch of British liquor firm said it will present a limited edition of Johnnie

South Korean liquor maker HiteJinro said Wednesday it will start exporting its hit soju brand Jinro Is Back to seven countries, marking the first anniversary of its release. According to the company, it will export 1.3 million bottles of Jinro in the first batch to Japan, China, the US, the UK, Canada, New Zealand and Singapore. “We decided to export (Jinro) to mark the first anniversary, as there have been consistent demands for exports from the global markets, especially centering on

McDonald’s Korea said Wednesday that despite the COVID-19 pandemic it posted sales growth of 9 percent from January to April on-year, thanks to its Best Burger initiative. The announcement was made by Managing Director Antoni Martinez, who was appointed to the position in February, in his first public message via a video on its official YouTube channel, titled “Invitation to Best Burger: Antoni Martinez’s Message.” Unable to hold a physical press conference due to th

Cleanwrap, a leading food packaging company in South Korea, said Wednesday that its flagship Clean Gloves are now available through the US shopping website Amazon. The company’s sanitary gloves received attention during the general election, held April 15, when 1.25 million packs (or 60 million gloves) were supplied to polling stations across the country to prevent voters from contracting COVID-19. According to the company, its sanitary gloves and plastic bags are made of nontoxic mate

Oriental Brewery said Tuesday its flagship beer Cass Fresh and Cass Light have received the 2020 Superior Taste Award held by International Taste Institute. According to South Korea’s largest beer maker by revenue, Cass Fresh received the award with one-star rating, which is granted to participants scoring above 70 percent. Cass Light received two stars, scoring between 80-90 percent. ITQI was established in Brussels, Belgium, in 2005, serving as an evaluation body for food and bevera

JTI Korea said Tuesday it is the first global tobacco firm to launch e-cigarettes on Coupang’s platform. The company’s flagship hybrid e-cigarette Ploom Tech will now be available on the South Korean e-commerce giant’s Rocket Delivery service. To celebrate the launch, JTI said it will offer a 50 percent discount for all users buying the bundle set -- Ploom Tech Starter Kit, which contains a battery, a USB charger and an adapter, a mouth piece and a carrying case -- at 17,500

BAT Korea said Monday it will kick off a promotional event for its latest product Glo Pro and Glo Series 2 Mini, offering them at discounted prices on its website and at convenience stores. BAT Korea said it planned the event to mark the successful launch of Glo Pro and to express appreciation to online customers. The tobacco maker said it is starting the event at its official website from Monday, and for convenience stores across the country from June 29. From the website, customers can

South Korea’s largest steelmaker Posco said Monday its smart factory support program for small and medium-sized enterprises has been seeing positive outcomes, such as in their revenue growth. Since 2013, Posco has been running its “Productivity Innovation Program” initiative to assist SMEs in building their “smart” capacity. As of last year, the company said it had supported 1,094 companies with investments worth 22.8 billion won ($19 million). The companies in

Market Kurly said Friday that 315 people linked to a COVID-19 case at its logistic center have all tested negative for the disease. The online grocery platform had one virus infection case involving a part-time worker at one of its logistics centers in Songpa-gu, Seoul, on May 27, which prompted the company to conduct the round of virus tests on employees and visitors at the center. Market Kurly and the government sorted out and designated 315 people linked to the center and had them tested

LS Cable & System said Friday it won a contract worth 100 billion won ($82 million) to supply electrical cables in Singapore. Under the deal, LS C&S will provide high- and low-voltage cables that will stretch 400 kilometers through Singapore, through 2021. The company said it has a strong foothold in Singapore, obtaining the biggest market share there. The orders have been placed by the Singaporean government to replace aged high-voltage cables for consecutive years since 2017. Th

E-mart Traders said Friday it will roll out 20 million single-use face masks, selling them at a price of 320 won (26 cents) per mask. The warehouse hypermarket store, which is part of the country’s retail giant Shinsegae Group, said it will sell a box of 50 face masks for 15,980 won at its 18 stores across the country from Saturday. Purchases will be limited to one box per person. E-mart Traders said it was able to sell the product -- a three-layered face mask with a melt-blown filter

Gmarket Global Shop, an e-commerce platform operated by eBay, held an autograph session for Korean singer Kim Woo-seok via video call, receiving positive comments from global fans as events are being canceled due to COVID-19 outbreak, the firm said Thursday. The event was hosted to celebrate the release of Kim’s first solo album “1st Desire (Greed)” on Sunday. As many concerts and physical events are being canceled due to the novel coronavirus outbreak across the world, the

The rapid growth of e-commerce giant Coupang has been clipped recently upon the recent outbreak of COVID-19 infections at its logistics centers in addition to sudden deaths of its workers in the past months. On Wednesday, a civic group filed a complaint against Coupang’s founder and CEO Kim Bom-suk, claiming that his firm failed to inform customers properly about the COVID-19 cases of its employees. The civic group, named “People’s livelihood solution committee (directly tr

SPC Group said Wednesday it will open a Shake Shack store in Daegu in July, its first in the city. According to the company, the new Daegu store will be located in Dongseongno Spark, a shopping mall with a theme park. It is the second outlet to be launched outside Seoul metropolitan area, after the store in Busan, which opened in July 2019. The lot is currently covered with a colorful hoarding art depicting the city’s skyline, for which the company cooperated with Xeva a graffiti arti