Tefal still hungry for growth

Company aims to boost Rowenta brand to the level of Tefal


In the late 1990s, the French cookware and home appliance brand Tefal was preparing to show its first TV commercial for “non-stick” frying pans in Korea.

The Korea Broadcast Advertising Corporation refused to approve it, saying the slogan “the pan that really doesn’t stick” was an exaggeration.

Kay Paeng, then marketing manager for the brand, visited the advertising regulator’s office on a Saturday and cooked eggs without using oil in front of the members of the review committee.

“There was no way but to show them it’s real. They looked baffled first then impressed,” said Paeng, 49, who is now the chief executive of the Korean unit of Groupe SEB.

The France-based small home appliance maker, which owns famous brand names such as Tefal and Rowenta, set up the Korean branch in 1997 when the Asian currency crisis hit.

It was one month after Paeng, who had helped the success of the kitchenware brand Correlle at Corning Korea for eight years, joined the company in October. She was 35 at the time.

“It was an unexpected situation. And we decided to target the austerity of consumers at a time of economic slowdown,” she recalled.

Among other things, she said, its “long-lasting” frying pans succeeded in appealing to consumers even though the price was two to three times higher than existing products.

Like Korea, which overcame the crisis within one year, the company also could see a significant turnaround in sales in the next year.

“At the time, nearly 80 percent of managerial-level employees were women. They closely cooperated to overcome the difficult time,” Paeng said.

This “woman power” has driven the company’s sales to be increase more than 30-fold in the past decade. Korea is now the second-largest Asian market after Japan for the global company.

And Paeng has always been behind hit products such electric grills, mini blenders and Korean-style woks that were inspired by the demands of Korean housewives.

In 2009, she became the first Korean to lead Groupe SEB Korea in 2009. She was the first female regional managing director in the company’s 150-year history.

Her rise on the company’s corporate ladder this time coincided with another global financial crisis in the previous year.

“A crisis makes a person stronger. Because we faced a turning point at a time of crisis, we could be more desperate to seek business opportunities,” she said.

She admitted she is workaholic, saying “I always try to study the market and find a new business opportunity. I feel guilty when I ignore it.”

Paeng takes a very hands-on approach to this ― often disassembling a new electrical product or cutting a frying pan base with a power saw to look at the structure and better understand them.

Under her leadership over the past two years, Tefal’s small home appliances line gained further market dominance here, while Rowenta became one of the top three hair dryer makers last year.

Paeng hopes to boost the brand name of Rowenta to the level of Tefal, with its new home appliances products waiting for a Korean launch.

“There’s no particular pressure as a woman CEO. But I feel responsibility to establish a good precedent as the first Korean CEO,” she said.

As part of the efforts, Paeng has promoted on company tradition more actively ― the “Fund and Fighting Spirit” team. With representatives from each department, the team helps improve communication among employees.

Paeng, now a mother of two daughters, advised other working women not to push themselves too much, saying she also wanted to become a “superwoman” in the early days of marriage.

“Balancing between career and family life is a difficult issue for everyone regardless of age and gender. You’d be better to make a choice and focus on it,” she said.

“I may be the first generation of female executives here. I want to affect a positive impact on younger generations. I hope each woman to share such responsibility.”

On weekends, Paeng enjoys taking photographs working as a member of the Visual Worship Institute, a non-profit organization based in the United States.

She has participated in photography projects to help expose social issues such as Filipino comfort women in 2009 to the outside world.

“Photography can play a lot of social roles. I think it’s my turn to give back,” she said.

By Lee Ji-yoon (jylee@heraldcorp.com)