'Sejeong 2nd Generation' President Park Ira: "Olivia Lauren to Become Independent... Will Establish Separate Corporation"

Park Ira, the second-generation president of Sejung Group, is establishing a separate corporation centered on the women's clothing brand Olivia Lauren. Since Sejung has been strongly associated with menswear brands such as Indian and Tremolo, the goal is to operate the women's clothing brand independently to enhance its competitiveness.

At a press conference held on the 17th on the first floor of Sejung Group's headquarters in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, President Park Ira stated, "We will create a 100% subsidiary focused on Olivia Lauren starting December 1," and emphasized, "Since Olivia Lauren has grown significantly since its launch in 2005, we will focus on promoting new beauty brands and women's clothing businesses."

Park Ira, CEO of Sejeong, is explaining the company's vision at a press conference on the 17th.
[Photo by Minji Lee]

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Currently, Sejung operates key brands including the distribution select shop Wellmade (featuring Indian, Bruno Baffi, etc.), women's clothing Olivia Lauren, the online casual brand WMC, and fine jewelry brand Didier Dubot. Through its subsidiary Sejung CCR, it also offers the furniture specialty store Cocorobox. In terms of sales composition within Sejung, menswear centered on Wellmade accounts for 48%, while Olivia Lauren accounts for about 35%. With the increasing sales proportion of women's clothing, the company plans to establish a new corporation to further expand the women's clothing business. The name of the new corporation has not yet been finalized and is currently undergoing an internal contest. President Park Ira will serve as the CEO.

The reason President Park is establishing a separate corporation is that, while serving as the general director of women's clothing, she judged that it was necessary to break away from the menswear-centered decision-making structure. Currently, Park is directly involved in directing women's clothing products and oversees women's clothing, jewelry, and new businesses. She explained, "A decision-making system exclusive to women's clothing is necessary, but it is currently aligned with the men's planning system, which weakens the competitiveness of women's clothing. This is also essential for nurturing global brands and growing into a 'Global Lifestyle Management Group' in the future."

Sejung, which started in 1974 as Dongchun Textile Industry, is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year and has announced its ambition to leap forward as a "Lifestyle Management Group" with a new vision. To achieve this, President Park has outlined strategies including ▲ nurturing global brands ▲ adopting AI digital new technologies ▲ collaborating with external experts. Regarding nurturing global brands, no concrete plans have been finalized yet. However, Park intends to invest in brands regardless of categories such as golf, beauty, kids, young casual, and lifestyle. She explained, "We are studying brand launches and investments. When these in-house brands become solid, we believe they can expand overseas."

In the past, Sejung consistently sought to enter overseas markets, such as the direct entry of the jewelry brand Didier Dubot into the U.S., but the results were not as significant as expected. Having learned from trial and error, President Park plans to enter markets like Dubai (jewelry) and Southeast Asia (apparel) through overseas partners.

Additionally, President Park announced plans to enhance business efficiency by utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) technology across all stages from design, planning, production to sales. Using 3D fashion design graphic tools, they will implement clothing products' patterns, sewing, and fit to improve work convenience. Collaboration with external experts will continue as needed, similar to the partnership with former Matin Kim CEO Kim Da-in in March to launch the "Dainit" brand. Furthermore, Park is focusing on securing loyal customers by launching an integrated fashion platform combining online and offline channels.

Finally, President Park said, "I currently operate the YouTube channel 'Ira Week,' which reflects my strong desire to significantly grow Sejung's brands," adding, "I will successfully lead the independence of women's clothing and support other brands to create synergy."

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