Lotte Department Store to Post W10 Trillion in Sales

Lotte Department Store is set to be the first department store in Korea to post annual sales of over W10 trillion (US$1=W1,140).

Lotte said on Thursday that its sales between January and the first week of December totaled W9.85 trillion, up 16.4 percent compared to the same period last year. It expects to surpass the W10 trillion mark on Sunday.

The company's sales have jumped nearly 220-fold from W45.4 billion in 1979 when it opened its first store. It recorded annual sales of W1 trillion in 1991, while its main store became the first single branch to hit the W1 trillion mark eight years later.