E·Land Group () is a South Korean conglomerate headquartered in Changjeon-dong Mapo-gu

Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

, South Korea. E-Land Group takes part in retail malls, restaurants, theme parks, hotels, and construction businesses as well as its cornerstone, fashion apparel business. It has operations worldwide through its subsidiary E-Land World. In 2023, E-Land Group has 15,132 employees and sales are KRW 4.592 trillion.

History

E-Land started as a 6 square metres clothing shop on a fashion street in front of

Ewha University Ewha Womans University () is a private women's research university in Seoul, South Korea. It was originally founded as Ewha Haktang on May 31, 1886, by missionary Mary F. Scranton. Currently, Ewha Womans University is one of the world's largest ...

Sinchon Sinchon () is a region of South Korea surrounding Sinchon-dong, Changcheon-dong, Nogosan-dong and Daeheung-dong. It is known for its numerous universities including Yonsei University, Ewha Womans University, Sogang University, Hongik Univ ...

in 1980. E-Land's first ever brand was called "England", which later changed to "E-Land" due to restrictions on

trademark registration A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a form of intellectual property that consists of a word, phrase, symbol, design, or a combination that identifies a product or service from a particular source and distinguishes it from oth ...

. In 1994, E-Land Group introduced the first outlet in Korean market by opening the first store of 2001 Outlet. It took a form of multi story outlet stores with groceries, houseware and apparel. In 2003, E-Land Group purchased a 75% stake in New Core, a department store operating in 25 different locations in Korea. Following the acquisition, New Core was transformed to and operated as two department stores and 15 fashion premium outlets. In 2005, E-Land Group became the 37th largest corporation in Korea (excluding SOE's) with assets totaling over US$2 billion. In April 2006, E-Land Group acquired the entire South Korean operations of

Carrefour Carrefour Group, S.A. (, ), is a French multinational retail and wholesaling corporation headquartered in Massy, Essonne, Massy, France. It operates a chain of hypermarkets, grocery stores and convenience stores. By 2024, the group had 14,000 ...

which operated 32 discount stores. Carrefour Korea, despite its global presence and experiences overseas, struggled to understand the local Korean culture. Carrefour was rebranded to Homever by E-Land Group after the acquisition. The acquisition moved E-Land Group from 6th to 2nd largest discount/outlet operators with respect to total number of stores. In 2006, E-Land Group was the second largest retailer in South Korea based on number of stores (Source: Korea Rating). On 14 May 2008, the British retail group

Tesco Tesco plc () is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in the United Kingdom at its head offices in Welwyn Garden City, England. The company was founded by Jack Cohen (businessman), Sir Jack Cohen in ...

, which already operated in Korea, agreed to purchase 36 hypermarkets with a combination of food and non-food products from E-Land for $1.9 billion (976 million pounds) in its biggest single acquisition, making Tesco the second largest retailer in the country. The majority of the E-Land stores formerly belonged to French retailer

before 2006 and most of the stores will be converted to Tesco Homeplus outlets. Tesco's South Korean discount store chain, Home Plus, currently has 66 outlets. On 16 December 2011, E-Land purchased

Elizabeth Taylor Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor (February 27, 1932 – March 23, 2011) was an English and American actress. She began her career as a child actress in the early 1940s and was one of the most popular stars of classical Hollywood cinema in the 19 ...

's Krupp Diamond ring for $8,818,500 (including buyer's premium). It planned to put it on display at their E-World theme park in

Daegu Daegu (; ), formerly spelled Taegu and officially Daegu Metropolitan City (), is a city in southeastern South Korea. It is the third-largest urban agglomeration in South Korea after Seoul and Busan; the fourth-largest List of provincial-level ci ...

. On April 14, 2014, E-Land Group announced that they will found professional football club based in

and

Seoul E-Land FC Seoul E-Land FC () is a South Korean professional football club based in Seoul that competes in K League 2, the second tier of South Korean football. The club was founded in 2014 and is owned by the E-Land Group. Seoul E-Land play their home g ...

are competing in

K League Challenge The K League 2 () is the men's second-highest division of the South Korean football league system. It is contested between thirteen professional clubs and operates on a promotion and relegation system with K League 1. History In 2011, the or ...

(Second division) since 2015. When E-Land refurbished the group's website in June 2022, it boldly broke the framework of the company's official website, and introduced a public home featuring "magazine-type content." As a result, the number of visitors to the official website exceeded 15 million in 2024.

Description

The E-Land Group focuses on the production and distribution of consumer goods that include apparel, groceries and housewares. Products are sold through two different channels: approximately 5,000 franchise stores and 59 e-Land-owned stores. The Group's current retail business comprises Kim's Club, NC Department Store, NewCore Outlet, 2001 Outlet, and DongA Department Store. Its portfolio includes infant wear, children's wear, women's wear, sports wear and underwear and a multitude of channels such as outlets, department stores and super supermarkets. E-Land Group owns 60 brands in Korea. *Casual: Brenntano, Underwood, Hunt, R.Athletic, Teenie Weenie, Who.A.U, Shane Jeans, So Basic, There's, Coin, C.o.a.x, Prich, G-Star, SPAO *Deco & Netishion (Women's): Deco, Ana Capri, Telegraph, XIX, Dia, EnC, 96 New York, A6 *Women, kids, underwear and accessories: Mandarina Duck, Belfe, Lario 1898, Coccinelle, Peter Scott, Lochcarron of Scotland, E-Land Junior, Underwood School, l Ohoo, Little Brenn, Roem Girls, The Day Girl, Cocorita, Usall, New Golden, Hunt Kids, Caps, Vianni Kids, Cheek, Entetee, Celden, Hunt Innerwear, The Day Underwear, Eblin, Petit, Lin, Body Pop, Roem, The Day, 2Me, Teresia, Fiorucci, Clovis, Lloyd, Clue, Vianni, Eco Mart, Paw in Paw, OIX, Vicman, OIX Milano, NIX21, Marie Claire, OST, Beall, MIXXO, MIXXO Secret * Brands operated by E-Land under license in South Korea:

New Balance New Balance Athletics, Inc. (NB), doing business as New Balance, is one of the world's major sports footwear and apparel manufacturers. Based in Boston, Massachusetts, the multinational corporation was founded in 1906 as the New Balance Arch Su ...

, Berghaus, Ellesse, K-Swiss *Hotel, restaurant, construction: Lexington Hotel, Kensington Resort, Kensington Flora Hotel, Ashley, Pizza Mall, Rimini, Cafe Lugo, The Caffe, EWorld Daegu (Former Woobang Land), E-land Cruise (Former Han Liver Cruise) *Restaurants: Ashley (New England–style family), Rimini (Italian restaurant), Pizza Mall (Italian-style pizza bar)

2001 Outlet

2001 Outlet () is a South Korean retailer headquartered in

Korea Korea is a peninsular region in East Asia consisting of the Korean Peninsula, Jeju Island, and smaller islands. Since the end of World War II in 1945, it has been politically Division of Korea, divided at or near the 38th parallel north, 3 ...

. The outlet franchise is an affiliate of E-Land Group, which is also running another outlet chain, NewCore Outlet. The company operates product shops and the outlet and

retail Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is the sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholes ...

chain of Korean department stores. In addition to its Korean operations, the company also operates business establishments in

Incheon Incheon is a city located in northwestern South Korea, bordering Seoul and Gyeonggi Province to the east. Inhabited since the Neolithic, Incheon was home to just 4,700 people when it became an international port in 1883. As of February 2020, ...

Gyeonggi-do Gyeonggi Province (, ) is the most populous administrative divisions of South Korea, province in South Korea. Seoul, the nation's largest city and capital, is in the heart of the area but has been separately administered as a list of provinc ...

and other Korea local chains.

Stores

*Junggye Store in

Nowon-gu Nowon District () is one of the 25 districts of Seoul, South Korea, located in the most northeastern part of the metropolitan city. It is considered to be a residental district, due to its high concentration of apartments and residental building ...

, Seoul *Cheonho Store in

Gangdong-gu Gangdong District () is one of the 25 districts that make up the city of Seoul. Gangdong, literally means "east of river". Jungbu (literally "central part") Express Motorway starts in and passes through Sangil-dong, which is located in the east ...

, Seoul *Bupyeong Store in

Bupyeong-gu Bupyeong District () is one of the 10 administrative divisions (eight municipal districts and two counties) that comprise Incheon, South Korea. Bupyeong District comprises an area of 12.35 square miles (31.98 square km), and has a population of 5 ...

*Anyang Store in Manan-gu,

Anyang Anyang ( zh, s=安阳, t=安陽; ) is a prefecture-level city in Henan, China. Geographical coordinates are 35° 41'~ 36° 21' north latitude and 113° 38'~ 114° 59' east longitude. The northernmost city in Henan, Anyang borders Puyang to the eas ...

*Bundang Store in Bundang-gu,

Seongnam Seongnam (; ) is the fourth largest city in South Korea's Gyeonggi Province after Suwon and the 10th largest city in the country. Its population is approximately one million. It consists of three administrative districts: Bundang District, J ...

, Gyeonggi-do

Controversy

Although there is a policy to leave employees to autonomous decisions, it is said that unpaid leave was signed in a coercive atmosphere. "There was no coercion to overcome the difficult situation together," the management said. In January 2017, due to controversy over unpaid wages for part-timers, he issued an apology and dismissed the CEO of E-Land Park, an affiliate. In addition, disciplinary measures such as dismissal, demotion and salary reduction were taken to the relevant executives and employees.

References

External links

E-Land Official Korean HomepageE-Land Official English Homepage
{{chaebol Clothing companies of South Korea Clothing manufacturers Chaebol Conglomerate companies of South Korea Companies based in Seoul South Korean brands