Lotte reshuffle prioritizes 'same but younger faces'

South Korea's fifth-largest conglomerate Lotte Group seeks to give fresh impetus to its affiliates suffering overall lackluster performances through a year-end personnel reshuffle.

Lotte's latest reshuffle highlights the expansion of its young leadership, with 46 percent of the newly selected executives in their 40s.

Former Executive Vice President Lee Hoon-ki, who led Lotte Group's ESG Management Innovation Office, was promoted to president of Lotte Healthcare, joining the group's short line of presidents in their 50s.

The Korean conglomerate also focused on recruiting outside experts with experience overseas, with Lee Chang-yeop, former head of the LG Household & Healthcare business division, promoted to executive vice president at Lotte Confectionery.

According to Lotte Group, Lee is a global marketing expert who has worked for global consumer goods companies such as P&G Korea, Hershey Korea and Coca-Cola Korea.

Kim Hye-joo was named CEO of Lotte Members as the first woman from outside the group to take the helm, in recognition of her expertise in data analysis and work experience in Samsung Electronics and KT as a big data analyst.

Lee Wan-shin, CEO of Lotte Homeshopping, was appointed CEO of Lotte Hotel.

Meanwhile, Ahn Se-jin, former head of Lotte's hotel and service-related businesses, plans to move to the head of Lotte Institute of Economy & Business Strategy, the group's think tank, to focus on establishing new strategic directions to create future growth engines for the group.

Nam Chang-hee, CEO of Lotte Supermarket, was appointed CEO of Lotte Hi-Mart.

The appointment of executives for the group came 15 days later than usual. The tardiness largely follows the group's poor performance within many of its affiliates, which called for a careful revision of its strategic personnel placements.

Lotte Engineering & Construction suffered difficulties in raising funds due to the tight short-term fund market following the Legoland crisis. Lotte E&C consequently received a total of 1.1 trillion won ($840 million) in funds from its affiliates, including 500 billion won from Lotte Chemical and 100 billion won from Lotte Homeshopping.

Doubling the whammies, Lotte Duty Free is also accepting voluntary retirements from its employees for the first time since its foundation in 1980, with its cumulative deficit reaching 53.3 billion won in the first and third quarters alone.

Lotte Hi-Mart, which is expected to see the first deficit since its foundation, is also receiving applications for voluntary retirement until Friday. Lotte Hi-Mart has lost 7.2 billion won so far this year, with its home appliance sales seeing a drastic decrease with the endemic phase of the pandemic approaching.