Cosmetics Brand 'Shu Uemura' Leaves Korea After 16 Years

[Asia Economy Reporter Seungjin Lee] Shu Uemura, a brand operated by the global cosmetics company L'Or?al, is withdrawing from South Korea after 16 years.

According to industry sources on the 22nd, Christian Marcos, CEO of L'Or?al Korea, informed employees via email on the 17th about Shu Uemura's exit from the Korean market.

In the email, CEO Arnai stated, "I have conveyed to the Shu Uemura team the difficult decision to terminate the domestic business of the Shu Uemura brand by the end of September."

Currently, Shu Uemura has 77 offline stores nationwide. After September, products will only be available through duty-free shops and overseas direct purchases. It was also reported that the withdrawal will be announced to offline channels such as department stores last week.

He further explained, "Following an in-depth review and evaluation of the company's future growth prospects, we decided to focus on brands with high growth potential in the Korean market to maximize the brand portfolio and respond to category changes in the domestic beauty market by ending Shu Uemura's business in Korea."

Shu Uemura is a brand created in 1967 by Japanese makeup artist Uemura Shu and was acquired by L'Or?al in 2004. Production is still carried out in Japan. It first entered Korea in 2005. During the 2019 boycott of Japanese products, Shu Uemura suffered business setbacks, including a 15% sales decline at a department store.

A cosmetics industry official explained, "Shu Uemura did not have strong competitiveness in the Korean market, and following the 2019 Japanese boycott and the impact of COVID-19, consumption of color cosmetics significantly declined," adding, "This appears to be part of the headquarters' management efficiency measures."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.