Lotte Group is a corporate group started by Zainichi Korean businessman Shin Kyuk-ho in Tokyo on June 28, 1948, starting with the Japanese Lotte Co., composed of Lotte Holdings (Japan) and Lotte Corporation (South Korea). Shin expanded Lotte to his ancestral country, South Korea, with the establishment of Lotte Confectionery in Seoul on April 3, 1967.

Name

The source of the company's name is neither Korean nor Japanese, or even Chinese, but German. Shin Kyuk-ho 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 in the novel. ("Charlotte" is also the name of premium auditoriums in movie theatres run by Lotte. ) Lotte's current marketing slogan in Japan is "The sweetheart of your mouth, Lotte" (お口の恋人,ロッテ).

Operations

Lotte Corporation – is located in Songpa-gu, Seoul and Lotte Holdings Co., Ltd. in Shinjuku, Tokyo. It is controlled by the founder Shin Kyuk-Ho's extended family.

Business

Lotte Group's major businesses are food, retail, chemical, construction, manufacturing, tourism, service, finance, etc.

Sports

Lotte also owns professional baseball teams.

Lotte R&D Center

Controversies

See Lotte Corporation - Controversies.