- E-Land
E.Land Group (
hangul :이랜드그룹) is aSouth Korea n conglomerate headquartered in Chanjeon-dong Mapo-guSeoul ,Korea . It started as a 6 sqm small clothing shop on a fashion street in front ofEwha University inSinchon in1980 . E.Land Group become a USD 7 billion group of companies, creating the phrase "Myth of 6 sqm (hangul :2평의 신화)". E.Land Group now takes part in retail malls, restaurants, hotels and construction businesses as well as its cornerstone, fashion apparel business. It has operations worldwide through its subsidiary E-Land World, includingChina ,Hong Kong ,Vietnam , theUnited States andEurope .Infobox Korean name
hangul= 이랜드그룹
rr= E.Land Group
mr= E.Land Group
caption==History=
In the 1980s, E.Land Group revolutionised the retail channel by pioneering new markets using a
franchising system. Franchising system is one of the most profitable forms of retail distribution due to its low initial investment requirement when opening new stores. Its first ever brand was called "England", which later changed to "E-Land" due to restrictions ontrademark registration .During the Asian financial crisis of 1997, E.Land Group successfully carried out several corporate reform initiatives, including corporate restructuring, overhaul of its finances and transformation of its management system. As a result, E.Land Group became the 37th largest corporation in Korea (excluding
SOE 's) with assets totalling over 2 billion USD as of the end of 2005.E.Land Group transformed Korean apparel retailing, which was historically divided into high-priced department stores and low-priced traditional markets, by creating a new medium-priced market using street shops. This market has now grown to over USD 20 billion in 2006.
E.Land Group currently takes part in fashion apparel,
hypermart retail, fashion outlet malls, department stores, hotels and restaurant businesses.ZZZZZ ++++++ =
Vertical Integration
It currently focuses on
vertical integration of production and distribution of consumer goods that include apparel, groceries and housewares. Products are sold through two different channels, namely, approximately 5,000 franchise stores and E.Land Group owned stores consisting of 25 premium fashion discount stores, two department stores and 32 discount stores.The strength of E.Land Group lies in its ability to generate synergies between its fashion and retail businesses, and this strategy being implemented through a business portfolio that includes infant wear, children's wear, women's wear, sports wear and underwear and a multitude of channels such as outlets, department stores and super supermarkets.
=Retail=
E.Land Group is currently the second largest retailer in Korea based on number of stores as of September 2006 (Source:
Korea Rating ).The Group's current retail business comprises Homever, Kims Club, NC Department Store, NewCore Outlet and 2001 Outlet.
2001 Outlet
In 1994, E.Land Group introduced the first outlet in Korean market by opening the first store of 2001 Outlet. It took a form of mullti story outlet stores with groceries, houseware and apparel.
NC Department Store & NewCore Outlet
In 2003, E.Land Group purchased a 75% stake in NewCore, a department store operating in 25 different locations in Korea. Following the acquisition, NewCore was transformed to and operated as two department stores and 15 fashion premium outlets.dadfalkdflkfkldja
Homever (ex. Carrefour)
In April 2006, E.Land Group acquired the entire South Korean operations of
Carrefour which operated 32 discount stores. Carrefour Korea, despite its global presence and experiences overseas, struggled to understand the local Korean culture. Carrefour was rebranded to Homever by E.Land Group after the acquisition.The acquisition moved E.Land Group from 6th to 2nd largest discount/outlet operaters with respect to total number of stores.
Using experiences accumulated from prior operations of 2001 Outlet and NewCore Outlet, E.Land Group successfully integrated its winning strategy to revive the stores after the acquisition.
During 2007, E-Land received media attention regarding new Korean non-regular protection laws. E-land laid off more than 900 non-regular female cashiers at its affiliate retailers, Homever and New Core, just before the law went into effect on July 1 2007. The group, instead, outsourced their jobs to workers from temporary agencies. The new law requires a company to grant its non-regular employees regular status after they have worked with the company for two years. [http://www.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/222034.html]
On
14 May 2008, the British retail groupTesco , which already operated in Korea, agreed to purchase 36 hypermarkets with a combination of food and non-food products from E-Land for $1.9 billion (976 million pounds) in its biggest single acquisition, making Tesco the second largest retailer in the country. The majority of the E-Land stores formerly belonged to French retailerCarrefour before 2006 and most of the stores will be converted to Tesco Homeplus outlets. Tesco's South Korean discount store chain, Home Plus, currently has 66 outlets [ [http://uk.reuters.com/article/mergersNews/idUKSEO28065320080514 Tesco to buy 36 S.Korean stores | Deals | Mergers & Acquisitions | Reuters ] ] [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7399957.stm BBC NEWS | Business | Tesco set to grow in South Korea ] ] .=Fashion=
Apparel brands
E.Land Group owns in excess of 60 brands in Korea.
Casual
* Brenntano
* Underwood
* Hunt
* R.Athletic
* Teenie Weenie
* Who.A.U
* Shane Jeans
* So Basic
* There's
* Coin
* C.o.a.x
* Prich
* G-StarDeco & Netishion (Women's)
* Deco
* Ana Capri
* Telegraph
* XIX
* Dia
* EnC
* 96 New York
* A6Women, kids, underwear and accessories
* E-Land Junior
* Underwood School
* Ohoo
* Little Brenn
* Roem Girls
* The Day Girl
* Cocorita
* Usall
* New Golden
* Hunt Kids
* Caps
* Vianni Kids
* Cheek
* Entetee
* Celden
* Hunt Innerwear
* The Day Underwear
* Eblin
* Petit Lin
* Body Pop
* Roem
* The Day
* 2Me
* Teresia
* Fiorucci
* Clovis
* Lloyd
* Clue
* Vianni
* Eco Mart
* Paw in Paw
* OIX
* Vicman
* OIX Milano
* NIX21
* Marie Claire
* OST
* BeallEland also operate the following global brands under license
* Berghaus
* Ellesse= Hotel, Restaurant, Construction & Others =
Restraurant
* [http://www.myashley.co.kr Ashley] : A New England style family restaurant that targets women customers. Its buffet style salad bar features 50+ different menus.
* [http://www.rimini.co.kr Rimini] : An Italian restaurant that mainly serves pasta in an attractive authentic Italian interior setting.
* [http://www.pizzamall.com Pizza Mall] : An Italian style pizza bar that sells a pizza at a revolutionary price of 9,900 won. Such pricing was unprecedented in Korea at the time of its launch in 1994.=Knowledge Management=
Knowledge Management permeates the organisation, encouraging the generation of new ideas and sharing of best practices. E.Land's Knowledge Management network is superior to that of many leading global companies and therefore is constantly benchmarked by others.E.Land Group has been recognised for best practices in their area by Forbes, Booz Allen and Harvard Business Review:
* 2004: The Best Practice in Knkowledge Management by Forbes
* 2005: Featured Harvard Business Review Case Study - The Right Stuff
* 2005: Used by SAP as a successful implementation case study for their ERP system=See also=
*Economy of South Korea
*List of South Korean companies = References =
=External links=
* [http://www.eland.co.kr E-Land Official Korean Homepage]
* [http://en.eland.com E-Land Official English Homepage]
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