Rich Korean consumers spend big on pricey hobby supplies

October 8, 2013 Leave a comment

Rich consumers spend big on pricey hobby supplies

2013/10/08 11:52

SEOUL, Oct. 8 (Yonhap) — Sales of ultra-high priced hobby supplies, including high-end cameras, are sharply increasing at local department stores, hinting that consumer sentiment is picking up, local department stores said Tuesday. Hyundai Department Store, South Korea’s third largest department store chain, said the monthly average sales of Leica cameras, whose price per unit ranges from 10 million won (US$9,315) to 20 million won, came to 110 million won between August and September.The daily sales of the cameras rose 89.4 percent in September compared with the previous month, the department said.

The sales of high-priced audio equipment, including Goldmund’s luxury audio equipment, priced at 10 million won a unit to 100 million won, rose 30 percent between August and September.

Sales of Cavalleria Toscana, a high-priced horse-riding clothing brand, rose 31.1 percent in September from a month ago.

Shinsegae Department Store, the second-largest department store chain, said that it saw the sales of high-priced imported audio equipment, including Bang & Olufsen audio, with a price tag of up to tens of millions of won soar in recent months.

Lotte Department Store, the largest department store chain, said that it enjoyed brisk sales of high-priced gadgets for making coffee and headphones in recent months.

Galleria Department Store, which especially focuses on selling luxury goods, said 10 VESPAs, a scooter priced at 6 million won a unit to 7 million won, have sold since May.

“The number of fresh VIP customers looking for the high-priced brands has been on the increase from the second half of the year and the sales of the brands are increasing,” an industry source said.

ksnam@yna.co.kr

Filed under Macro Trends

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Kee Koon Boon (“KB”) is the co-founder and director of HERO Investment Management which provides specialized fund management and investment advisory services to the ARCHEA Asia HERO Innovators Fund (www.heroinnovator.com), the only Asian SMID-cap tech-focused fund in the industry. KB is an internationally featured investor rooted in the principles of value investing for over a decade as a fund manager and analyst in the Asian capital markets who started his career at a boutique hedge fund in Singapore where he was with the firm since 2002 and was also part of the core investment committee in significantly outperforming the index in the 10-year-plus-old flagship Asian fund. He was also the portfolio manager for Asia-Pacific equities at Korea’s largest mutual fund company. Prior to setting up the H.E.R.O. Innovators Fund, KB was the Chief Investment Officer & CEO of a Singapore Registered Fund Management Company (RFMC) where he is responsible for listed Asian equity investments. KB had taught accounting at the Singapore Management University (SMU) as a faculty member and also pioneered the 15-week course on Accounting Fraud in Asia as an official module at SMU. KB remains grateful and honored to be invited by Singapore’s financial regulator Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to present to their top management team about implementing a world’s first fact-based forward-looking fraud detection framework to bring about benefits for the capital markets in Singapore and for the public and investment community. KB also served the community in sharing his insights in writing articles about value investing and corporate governance in the media that include Business Times, Straits Times, Jakarta Post, Manual of Ideas, Investopedia, TedXWallStreet. He had also presented in top investment, banking and finance conferences in America, Italy, Sydney, Cape Town, HK, China. He has trained CEOs, entrepreneurs, CFOs, management executives in business strategy & business model innovation in Singapore, HK and China.

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