Cheil Industries Unveils New Vision
- To hike sales to three trillion won in 2006 during its 50th anniversary

Cheil Industries Co. reconfirmed its commitment to expand its high value-added businesses, projects in China and take on new profitable businesses to increase its sales to 3 trillion won within three years with a before tax profit of 300 billion won. The company, one of the Samsung Group affiliates, made the pledge on Sept. 15, its 50th anniversary led by its president Jei Jin-hoon at its Gumi plant site where around 350 officers and employees were gathered.

President Jei, in his congratulatory speech, recalled that the company has continued to do well both as chemical material and fashion makers. He said the company will now focus on making it a global first-rate business entity with the highest quality and value to realize its future vision. He asked officers and staff to reform their ways of handling business matters and thinking to go along with the digital age and to make its office culture younger by training the core talent available in the company.

Pointing out that securing a global competitive edge is the key word for the company management policy, he called for reorganization of the company's business structure centered around high value-added businesses, the renovation of technologies  to expand the number of first-rate global products, strengthening its overseas operations by localizing units overseas and nurturing new businesses by recruiting talented personnel. He also called for making the company? fashion brands tops in the world to help increase the company's sales revenue to reach 3 trillion won in 2006 with pre-tax profit of 300 billion won.

Cheil Wool, the company's former name, was established in 1954 as a key affiliate of the Samsung Group, making wool textiles. The company went into the history books as the first Korean firms to export woolen textiles in 1961, building the foundation for Korea as a wool textile exporting country. The company diversified its business lines expanding into chemical and electronic parts from woolen textiles and fashion. In 1983, it launched a ready-made suit and casual wear business becoming a total textile and fashion manufacturer.

The company entered the plastic engineering business in 1989 to further diversify its lines and it turned out high-tech synthetic resin products like ABS and PS. In 1995, the company began to produce electronic parts including material for semiconductor chips at its Gumi plant complex, following its construction in 2002. The company became highly diversified with its lines ranging from high-tech chemicals, electronic parts to fashion products.

In the meantime, Cheil has all of its offices and employees participating in public service projects on its 50th founding anniversary. Around 22 social service events have been undertaken by its business units across the country including "Love Click" Collection of Money for Love.

Cheil succeeded in developing Super Black that is a 100 percent black color cloth. It has succeeded in achieving perfect black color in cloth since the start of research in 1992.

Super black cloth has 50 percent higher chromaticity that shows darker than other black cloth and the weight of dyes of it is two times higher, therefore, people can distinguish the difference in color at sight.

Super black cloth that Cheil developed turned out to be better than or the same as Japan's advanced goods, as K/S number showing the chromaticity of black colors recorded it above 32. K/S number of general black cloth is only up to 22.

Cloth that people consider as black is usually Dark Navy which is mixed with dark blue, not real black. So, it seems to be black by being mixed with other color, not perfect and it means that there was no 100 percent black cloth in the country. Formal suits made by black cloth matches revival moods which comes up nowadays and is expected to have stable increasing demand due to its luxurious color.

Cheil put various efforts into developing Super Black cloth from design of textiles to operation. The biggest market of Super Black cloth is Japan because of its culture that they wear dark black formal suit as a marriage suit. Cheil aims at 10 percent of Japan's annual market share, which is at a scale of 5 million yards. The price of Super Black cloth is 20 to 30 percent higher than others, therefore, it has bright prospect as a high value export good.   nw