Lotte Corporation


Lotte Corporation is a South Korean multinational conglomerate. Lotte began its history on June 28, 1948, by Korean businessman Shin Kyuk-ho in Tokyo. Shin expanded Lotte to his ancestral country, South Korea, with the establishment of Lotte Confectionery in Seoul on April 3, 1967. Lotte eventually grew to become South Korea's fifth largest business conglomerate.
Lotte Corporation consists of over 90 business units employing 60,000 people engaged in such diverse industries as candy manufacturing, beverages, hotels, fast food, retail, financial services, industrial chemicals, electronics, IT, construction, publishing, and entertainment. Lotte runs additional businesses in China, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, India, United States, United Kingdom, Kazakhstan, Russia, Philippines, Myanmar, Pakistan and Poland, Australia and New Zealand. Today, Lotte is the largest confectionery manufacturer in South Korea.

History

Lotte was founded in June 1948, by Korean businessman Shin Kyuk-ho in Tokyo, Japan, two years after he graduated from Waseda Jitsugyo High School. Originally called Lotte Co., Ltd, the company has grown from selling chewing gum to children, in post-war Japan, to becoming a major multinational corporation.

Name

The source of the company's name is neither Korean nor Japanese, or even Chinese, but German. Shin Kyuk-ho was impressed with Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther and named his newly founded company Lotte after the character Charlotte in the novel. Lotte's current marketing slogan in Japan is "The sweetheart of your mouth, Lotte".

Management

Lotte Corporation – Lotte group's world headquarters – are located in Myeongdong, Seoul and Lotte Holdings Co., Ltd. in Shinjuku, Tokyo. It is controlled by the founder Shin Kyuk-Ho's extended family.

Business

Lotte group's major businesses are food products, shopping, finance, construction, amusement parks, hotels, trade, oil and sports.
Lotte also owns professional baseball teams
In June 2016, companies of the group were raided by South Korean prosecutors, investigating into a possible slush fund as well as breach of trust involving transactions among the group's companies. The investigation forced its Hotel Lotte unit to abandon an initial public offering and Lotte Chemical Corp to withdraw from bidding for Axiall Corp. Vice chairman, Lee In-won, was found dead in August same year. He was suspected of suicide just hours before being questioned by prosecutors. Lee was considered the top lieutenant of Chairman Shin Dong-bin.