Health & Beauty distributor SL LIFE (CEO Myung-gyu Kim) announced on the 24th that it has attracted a strategic investment of 5 billion won from Solid One Partners (CEO Chi-yeol Kim) and global K-beauty company Goodai Global (CEO Joo-hyuk Cheon).
SL Life exclusively imports, clears customs, distributes, and markets various global brands in beauty, health, and health functional foods in North America, Europe, and Japan, and is a domestic distribution vendor for leading K-beauty and K-health functional food brands in Korea. It is introducing domestic and international partner brands to major offline distribution channels such as H&B drugstores Olive Young, Costco, E-Mart, duty-free shops, Kakao Gift, Coupang, Market Kurly, and SSG.com. It is also an omni-channel H&B distribution platform and vendor specialized company that seeks brand growth by expanding overseas exports. In particular, it has established itself as a major distribution partner and vendor for Olive Young, the No. 1 H&B drugstore in Korea, since 2022.
SL Life CEO Kim Myeong-gyu said, “SL Life, whose sales have been growing by an average of 40% per year, is currently distributing over 120 domestic and international H&B brands and has secured over 9,700 offline distribution networks in Korea.” He added, “We expect to record sales of 48 billion won this year, and with this investment, we plan to actively advance into overseas markets. Our goal is to achieve annual sales of over 100 billion won and an IPO within three years.”
Meanwhile, Gudai Global, a global representative K-beauty company that has established a troika system of Joseon Beauty, TirTir, and Laka and is leading the K-beauty craze in Japan, Asia, and North America, recently announced that it decided on this strategic investment after observing the growth potential of SL Life. The two companies plan to continue their partnership related to domestic and overseas distribution in the future.
Using this investment, SL Life acquired Page-Oner (CEO Han Seung-yeon), which distributes famous K-beauty brands such as Aekyung Kerasys and Dong-A Pharmaceutical Party On in the Japanese market, and has made a full-fledged entry into the Japanese health and beauty market. Page-Oner, which has become a subsidiary of SL Life, has secured over 5,000 offline distribution channels in Japan with large trading companies such as ARATA, Oyama, and Tokyo-to, as well as major Japanese distribution channels such as @Cosme, Welcia, PLAZA, LOFT, Don Quijote, Matsumotokiyoshi, AEON, Kokumin, Hands, and Drug Seven. The company plans to grow into a representative distributor in Japan by continuously launching various K-beauty brands and K-health functional food brands and introducing them to the Japanese market.
“The importance of distributors in the cosmetics value chain is rapidly increasing, but I think SL Life is the first to actually connect Korea and Japan and complete commercialization,” said Jin Seok-min, partner at Solid One Partners, who led this investment.
Using this investment attraction as a stepping stone, SL Life plans to establish subsidiaries in the North American, ASEAN, and European markets and make full-fledged inroads into overseas export distribution markets.
Reporter Park Hye-seon
Source: www.segyebiz.com
