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outh Korean-based retail giant, the Lotte Group, opened on Tuesday its first duty-free shop outside Korea at the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Jakarta. Lotte Duty Free CEO Choi Young-soo said during his speech at the inauguration that the 880-square-meter shop was Lotte’s first international duty-free shop, and was set to be the biggest in Southeast Asia.

Lotte also has duty-free outlets in 10 locations in Korea.

Soekarno-Hatta’s Lotte Duty Free marketing director Novita Wibowo said Lotte Group’s rapid business expansion in Indonesia was the reason why the retailer chose Indonesia for their first global duty-free branch location.

Lotte Group entered the Indonesian market in 2008 after acquiring 19 outlets around the country from Dutch wholesaler Makro, which it rapidly developed into Lotte Mart hypermarkets.

As of today, there are 24 Lotte Mart stores and the group plans to open up to 100 more by 2018.

Novita added that for the duty-free shop, Lotte Group had invested Rp 40 billion (US$4.45 million).

“We are aiming to generate Rp 13.2 billion in monthly sales,” she told journalists after the inauguration.

The shop features a variety of quality products including perfumes, cosmetics, tobacco products and alcohol, as well as various designer brands, such as Coach, Dunhill, Mont Blanc, Chanel and Estee Lauder.

With the opening of the duty-free shop, Lotte Group has created 100 new jobs.

Novita said that Lotte Group already had plans for more duty-free shops.

“We have plans for one more shop this year in Jakarta’s downtown area, at the Ciputra World Mall, which is due to be opened by the end of the year,” she said.

The downtown shop will occupy a far larger space, with 5,500 square meters.

In the future, the group also plans to open duty-free shops at the Ngurah Rai International Airport in Bali and in the island’s downtown area, although Novita did not specify the precise location.

“We are still conducting a feasibility study. We are targeting Bali because its airport’s passenger traffic is more than two times higher than that at Soekarno-Hatta,” she said.

The annual number of passengers traveling through Soekarno-Hatta airport is 10 million.

Lotte Group is currently the largest retail company in South Korea, with operations in nine countries including Japan, Vietnam, China, Russia and Indonesia.

First launched in 1979, it is the fifth-largest conglomerate in South Korea after Samsung, Hyundai Motor, SK and LG.

Lotte’s businesses cover retail, food and drink, tourism, petrochemicals, construction and manufacturing.

In the retail industry, the group manages Lotte Department Store, Lotte Mart, Lotte Super, Lotte Duty Free Store and Lotte Home Shopping. (fem)