Lotte focuses on health care, mobility to spur growth

The Korea Times

The Korea Times

Business

Fri, December 8, 2023 | 15:08

Companies

Lotte focuses on health care, mobility to spur growth

Posted : 2023-09-27 12:54

Updated : 2023-09-28 17:14

Lee Hoon-ki, CEO of Lotte Healthcare, introduces the company's digital health care management platform CAZZLE during a press conference at Lotte World Tower in Seoul, Sept. 14. Courtesy of Lotte Healthcare

By Baek Byung-yeul

Lotte Group is pursuing growth with new businesses centered on four themes ? health and wellness, mobility, sustainability and its new life platform ― as well as expanding its market dominance through M&As and reorganizing its business portfolio to beef up competitiveness, the group said Wednesday.

"The health and wellness sector is one of the main pillars of the group’s new growth engines and Lotte Healthcare and Lotte Biologics are playing important roles for the growth strategy," the group said.

On Sept. 18, Lotte Healthcare entered the digital health care market with the launch of CAZZLE, a personalized health care platform.

CAZZLE is designed to offer customized health information and shopping convenience by integrating and analyzing health checkup data, survey information, genetic test results, exercise records, diet and nutritional supplements provided by customers through an AI algorithm. The company aims to attract 1 million subscribers to CAZZLE by the end of 2024.

Lotte World Tower in Jamsil, southeastern Seoul / Courtesy of Lotte Corp.

Lotte Shopping signed a partnership with British retail tech company Ocado last November to target the domestic online grocery market and strengthen its competitiveness in fresh food sales.

By 2030, the company plans to invest 1 trillion won ($740 million) to build six automated cargo distribution centers (CFCs), the first of which will be built in Busan in 2025. Once completed, the centers are expected to showcase advanced automated logistics systems and create more than 2,000 local jobs.

Lotte Wellfood, the new name of the group’s food unit Lotte Confectionery, plans to expand not only its confectionery business but also new businesses such as care food and functional food, the group said.

Lotte R&D Center, the group's R&D unit, will continue its research into alternative meat in collaboration with its food affiliates. To that end, the company forged partnerships with Pensees and Neo Cremar in July to expand into the cultured meat business.

Lotte Chemical is expanding its battery materials value chain, while copper foil production unit Lotte Energy Materials is expanding its production facilities in key regions such as Korea, Malaysia, Europe, and North America, with a goal of reaching an order backlog of 15 trillion won this year and 20 trillion won by 2025.

baekby@koreatimes.co.kr