Hanchang Establishes Subsidiary 'The Century 21'... "Entering the 8 Trillion Won Luxury Platform Market"

[Asia Economy Reporter Jang Hyowon] Hanchang is making a full-scale entry into the domestic luxury platform market through a licensing agreement with Century21, the first premium luxury department store representing the United States.

On the 30th, Hanchang announced that it established a specialized luxury platform subsidiary, ‘The Century21,’ through the acquisition of stocks and equity securities of other companies worth 2.5 billion KRW.

Century21, which opened its first store in Manhattan, New York, USA in 1961, operates 15 premium luxury department stores mainly in the eastern United States, with over 12 million annual visitors. Century21 has supplied only 100% authentic products verified over the past 62 years through direct transactions with luxury brands.

Until now, luxury brand imports in Korea were conducted through second or third-tier vendors or by utilizing overseas local boutiques, but through this licensing with the US Century21, Hanchang has pioneered a path to directly receive supplies from more than 4,000 top overseas luxury brands, including Louis Vuitton, Chanel, and Gucci, as a first-tier vendor for the first time in Korea.

Based on verified K-culture, Century21 expects Korea to serve as a foothold for expansion into Asia, and thus has formed a partnership with Hanchang to enter the domestic luxury market. Hanchang established its subsidiary ‘The Century21’ and plans to begin full-scale sales through the luxury platform from the second half of this year.

Hanchang is pushing forward a rigorous business restructuring this year, including the liquidation of loss-making businesses and securing new growth engines. With domestic luxury platform startups such as Trendy, MustIt, and Ballan showing rapid growth, Hanchang expects to achieve visible results from this year in its luxury platform business, which is being promoted as a new business.

According to a report by Samjong KPMG, last year the domestic luxury market reached 5.8 billion USD (approximately 7.2 trillion KRW), recording a growth rate of 29.6% compared to the previous year. As the MZ generation emerges as the main consumer group in the luxury market, it is expected to exceed 7 billion USD (approximately 8.7 trillion KRW) by 2024.

Jung Giljun, CEO of The Century21, said, “We have been discussing business synergies with the US Century21 in detail over the past several months, and through meticulous demand forecasting, we are confident in the growth potential of the domestic luxury market and Century21’s competitiveness.” He added, “Through a direct partnership with the leading premium luxury department store in the US, we will be able to successfully enter the domestic luxury market.”

He continued, “Starting with a B2B luxury platform business, we plan to diversify our portfolio to include a D2C (direct-to-consumer) luxury platform in the future, and to this end, we plan an additional capital increase soon. Through a stable business structure and sales scale, we will maximize profitability from the second half of this year, the first year of our business.”

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