Lotte Wellfood reported a nearly 30% increase in operating profit for the third quarter, driven by growth in overseas markets such as India and Kazakhstan, along with improved domestic profitability. Despite a decline in domestic sales, the expansion of overseas subsidiaries offset this downturn, leading to overall performance improvement.
On November 11, Lotte Wellfood announced that its consolidated operating profit for the third quarter reached 89.9 billion won, a 29.7% increase compared to the same period last year. During the same period, sales rose to 1.1739 trillion won, up 1.5%. The operating profit margin stood at 7.7%.
For the first three quarters of this year, cumulative operating profit totaled 190.4 billion won, marking a 58.7% increase from the previous year. Cumulative sales reached 3.3569 trillion won, up 5%, with a cumulative operating profit margin of 5.7%.
The primary driver of this performance improvement was the overseas business. In the third quarter, operating profit from overseas subsidiaries soared to 23.1 billion won, a 137.8% increase year-on-year. Sales from these subsidiaries grew by 16.1% to 271 billion won. For the year to date, cumulative operating profit from overseas subsidiaries reached 64.7 billion won, up 105.4%, while sales increased by 20.5% to 852.7 billion won.
In India, the expansion of the Choco Pie production line has begun to yield results. The stabilization of operations at the fourth Choco Pie line and the expansion of sales regions contributed to revenue growth. In Kazakhstan, increased domestic sales and exports also supported overseas performance.
Conversely, domestic operations experienced a decline in sales as part of a management efficiency process focused on profitability. Despite challenges such as weather impacts on the ice cream market and rising costs for packaging materials and crude oil, the company improved profitability by streamlining low-efficiency products and distribution channels while enhancing productivity.
Lotte Wellfood plans to continue focusing on expanding its overseas markets and improving domestic operations in the fourth quarter. In India, the company aims to stabilize operations of the Choco Pie production line and expand quick commerce sales, while in Kazakhstan and Russia, it plans to broaden the distribution of Lotte brand products.
Domestically, the company will strengthen marketing efforts for Pepero Day and expand product offerings tailored to new growth sales channels such as warehouse discount stores and household goods stores. Efforts to enhance profitability will also continue.
A Lotte Wellfood official stated, "The continuous enhancement of our business structure and the strong performance of our overseas subsidiaries in India and Kazakhstan drove our third-quarter results. We will continue to pursue qualitative growth through strategies aimed at strengthening domestic profitability and expanding our global market presence."
* This article has been translated by AI.
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