LOS ANGELES — CJ Group set a target of reaching 12 trillion won ($8.7 billion) in North American sales by 2028, aiming to broaden the Korean Wave from K-pop and content into everyday consumer categories such as K-food and beauty, and to unite its affiliates' separate North American businesses under a single "K-lifestyle" strategy.
Huh Min-hoe, CEO of CJ, held a press briefing in Los Angeles on the 16th to unveil the group's North American performance and its medium- to long-term growth roadmap. The plan calls for lifting North American sales, which stood at about 8 trillion won last year, to 12 trillion won by 2028.
"In the United States, K-culture is expanding beyond content into daily life — the food we eat and the products we apply to our skin every day," the CEO said. "CJ is the only company in the world with a business portfolio that spans food, content and beauty."
CJ Group's North American sales grew from about 800 billion won in 2017 to roughly 4 trillion won following its 2019 acquisition of U.S. frozen pizza maker Schwan's. The compound annual growth rate from 2017 through last year reached about 33%.
To support the goal, CJ is expanding touchpoints where consumers can experience a Korean-style lifestyle. At KCON LA, held from the 14th to the 16th, the company staged an Olive Young Festa alongside K-pop concerts — its first such event overseas. Fifty-five K-beauty and lifestyle brands took part, offering experiential programs such as skin scans and personal color analysis. The event was designed as a venue to channel interest that begins with K-pop into lifestyle spending on beauty and food.
CJ has been expanding local production and distribution through affiliates including CJ CheilJedang, Olive Young, CJ Foodville and CJ ENM. As of the end of the first half of this year, cumulative investment reached 9.7 trillion won and local staff numbered about 12,000. Building on that base, the group plans to accelerate market penetration in each business. CJ CheilJedang will complete a production base in South Dakota by the end of next year and expand online sales through channels such as TikTok Shop and Walmart stores. Olive Young will increase its offline stores while growing its business-to-business operations through local retail partners such as Sephora.
CJ Group Chairman Lee Jay-hyun also toured KCON, the Olive Young Festa and a K-Collection booth that supports small and mid-sized companies' entry into global markets, inspecting operations in person. It marked his return to the United States for the first time in about three months, following the group's golf tournament, "The CJ Cup Byron Nelson," in May.
A CJ official said the chairman's dream from 30 years ago — "to have people around the world watch two or three Korean films a year, eat Korean food once or twice a month, and enjoy the culture by watching one or two Korean dramas a week" — is now becoming reality. "The chairman's return to the United States after just three months reflects how urgent and important he considers the K-lifestyle business," the official said.
"Just as CJ's cultural business began 30 years ago from the belief that 'culture is the future,' let us now advance to become a 'global K-lifestyle leader' that fills people's daily lives around the world with content, food and beauty," Lee said.
