[Photo provided by Lotte Duty Free]

South Korea’s Lotte Duty Free that is going all out to become the world’s No. 1 travel retailer by 2020 opened its third duty-free shop in Vietnam in which its previous two duty-free shops successfully turned around within just a year after their opening.

Korea’s travel retail giant on Friday opened its duty-free outlet at Noi Bai International Airport’s Terminal 2 in Hanoi, the third tax-exempt store location in Vietnam after opening ones at Da Nang and Nha Trang airports, according to the company.

With the latest addition, Lotte Duty Free now runs total 21 tax-free shops in eight countries across the world, the company said Sunday.

The new store commanding a space of 506 square meters at Hanoi’s Noi Bai airport offers about 90 global brands of cosmetics, perfume, fashion and accessories, as well as tobacco and liquor, including Korean beauty brands including The History of Whoo, Su:m 37 and Innisfree.

Lotte Duty Free expects sales from the Hanoi outpost would reach 200 billion won ($169 million) over the next 10 years. About 3.16 million passengers are estimated to have passed the airport’s terminal last year, with the number of Chinese travelers growing 20 percent on year, Koreans 12 percent and those from France 10 percent.

[Photo provided by Lotte Duty Free]

The company pins high hope on the new outlet after sales at its two other locations in Da Nang and Nha Trang grew fast to make profits in the first year of opening, the company added. It now is planning to add the fourth Vietnamese duty-free shop in the inner city of Da Nang this year, hoping to cement its position in the Southeast Asian country’s duty-free retail market.

Lotte Duty Free earned 250 billion won in sales from overseas stores last year. Its half-year sales this year already exceeded last year’s full-year revenue with the opening of new outlets in Australia and New Zealand. The company aims to earn 1 trillion won from its overseas business next year to become the world’s number one duty-free retailer.

By Lee Han-na and Lee Ha-yeon

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]