hellosyam

Lotte Department Store celebrated the opening of its Russian branch, the Lotte Plaza in Moscow, on Sunday. The celebration was attended by some 300 political and financial figures from the two countries, including Lotte Group executive vice chairman Shin Dong-bin and Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov.

The Lotte Plaza is in the bustling, trendy New Arbat Street, 2 km west from the Kremlin Palace at the heart of downtown Moscow.It cost US$200 million to build and covers 80,000 sq.m with seven floors plus one underground.

A new Lotte Department Store has opened in Moscow, Russia.

It also differentiates itself from Russian rivals by aggressive marketing strategies borrowed from Korea, which categorize customers into several classes depending on how much they spend. Lotte Department Store operates an exclusive lounge, a membership system and valet parking service for “most valuable” customers.

The company expects the Moscow store to earn W58 billion(US$1=W938) in the remaining months of this year and W140 billion next year, and break even in three years. Already the Korean retail giant is considering another store in Moscow and a store in Russia’s second largest city Saint Petersburg if the first Moscow store proves lucrative.

Lotte will open its first Chinese branch in Beijing in January next year. By branching out into overseas markets, it aims to become one of the world’s top 10 department stores by 2010. In 2005, the U.S.’ In-Store magazine ranked Lotte 14th among department stores around the world.