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Lotte Group is a large South Korea-Japan chaebol (conglomerate) founded in June 1948 in by a Korean businessman, Shin Kyuk-Ho (신격호 who was living in Tokyo, Japan. Lotte Group consists of over 50 business units employing 38,000 people engaged in such diverse industries as candy manufacturing, beverages, hotels, fast food, retail, financial services, heavy chemicals, electronics, IT, construction, publishing, and entertainment. Today, Lotte is South Korea's 5th largest conglomerate. Lotte has major operations in South Korea, Japan, China, the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, India, USA, and Russia and continues to expand.
[edit] Business
Lotte's corporate headquarters are located in Seoul and Tokyo, with offices also in Beijing. According to the company's Korean website, Lotte of Korea had 30 trillion won in sales in 2005. Lotte of Japan employs 3,600 persons and operates 5 production facilities, 7 branch offices, and a research center in Saitama. The company's core business focus in Japan is the production and sale of chewing gum, chocolate, biscuits, beverages, candy and ice cream.
In addition to candy and chewing gum, Lotte also operates the Lotteria chain of fast food restaurants, Lotte Hotel, and Lotte World in Seoul, one of the world's largest indoor theme parks. Lotte also owns the Lotte Giants baseball team in Busan, South Korea and Chiba Lotte Marines in Japan.
[edit] History
The group was founded in June 1948 in Tokyo, Japan by a Korean businessman, Shin Kyuk-Ho (신격호, 辛格浩), also known by his Japanese name, Takeo Shigemitsu (重光 武雄, Takeo Shigemitsu?). 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. After the normalization of diplomatic relations between Japan and South Korea in 1965, Lotte Confectionary Co., Ltd was established in Seoul on April 3, 1967.
The source of the company's name is neither Japanese nor Korean, but German. Shin was impressed with Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's "The Sorrows of Young Werther" (1774) and named his newly-founded company Lotte after the character Charlotte (also the name of a new brand of deluxe movie theatres run by Lotte) in the novel. Lotte's current marketing slogan in Japan is お口の恋人ロッテ (o-kuchi no koibito Lotte), which is translated as "your palate's sweetheart, Lotte".
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