On Thursday afternoon, Jeong Hyun-sook, a 55-year-old housewife, belatedly realized she did not have enough milk for breakfast. She rushed to a nearby supermarket but all she could find was organic milk, which was almost twice the price of ordinary milk. “A clerk said that the milk shelf often becomes empty earlier than usual recently. I was just stunned,” she said.Jeong eventually bought two 200-

Amore Pacific Corp. is considering acquiring a French luxury perfume brand, Annick Goutal, in the hope of diversifying its global portfolio, company officials said Thursday.  Amore Pacific CEOSuh Kyung-baeThe nation’s largest cosmetics manufacturer, however, made it clear that nothing had been decided regarding the potential takeover.  “The possible takeover will pave the way for us to go global i

 Siemens Korea will become a “true Korean company” that contributes to the country’s economic growth and job creation, its new and first Korean chief executive said Thursday. “I’m the first Korean CEO in the 60-year-old history of Siemens Korea. The headquarters may have thought a native would know better about the local market and respond faster to it,” Kim Jong-kap, chairman and CEO of Siemens K

Miele International, a German manufacturer of high-end home appliances, said Wednesday that it will keep its premium pricing strategy despite expectations that the company could lower product prices here following the Korea-EU free trade agreement.  Markus Miele (Miele Korea)“We also do not consider any dramatic price increase for now, even though raw material costs have soared recently,” Markus M

Louis Vuitton has decided to close a store at Lotte Duty Free Shop in COEX, citing recent slowing sales there. According to industry sources on Tuesday, the French brand will not renew its contract with Lotte, set to expire in December, and will withdraw the store.“We have informed Lotte about the withdrawal because of poor sales,” a Louis Vuitton official said in an interview.  A pedestrian looks

Amore Pacific Corp. said Monday that it has become the first Korean cosmetics company to get an International Standards Organization 27001 accredation.In order to secure the ISO27001 status, the nation’s largest cosmetics manufacturer underwent a rigorous set of internal and external audits for two years, the company said.  Lee Yoon (right), executive director of Amore Pacific, and Kim Sang-wook,

Shipments of makgeolli soared last year largely driven by a recent surge in exports to Japan, data showed Monday. A total of 412,000 kiloliters of the Korean rice wine were shipped here in 2010, up 58.1 percent from the previous year, according to the National Tax Service.In the local alcohol beverage market still dominated by soju, a Korean distilled beverage made from rice and other starches, an

Prices of vegetables, fruit and coffee rapidly escalatingA prolonged rainy spell is deepening concerns over increases in consumer prices. The government had expected the nation’s consumer price index, which hovered at 4.3 percent in the first half of the year, would stabilize in the latter half at 3.7 percent. But, coupled with high oil prices, the long rainy season is adding to uncertainty about

Choi Hung-jib, 60, was named the new CEO of Kangwon Land, a resort and casino in Gangwon Province, on Tuesday. The move makes the former vice governor of Gangwon the seventh president of the nation’s only casino for locals, established in 2008 in Jeongseon, 214 kilometers east of Seoul. Choi Hung-jib“The 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics will be an opportunity for Kangwon Land to leap to a global b