South Korean facial mask producer JK International plans to open shops across China, starting with Weihai in Shandong province. 
JK sells 50 billion won (US$43.9 million) worth of masks worldwide annually, mostly to China. It has just opened a Q Mart chain store to sell Korean cosmetics and foods in Weihai city, and plans to follow up with flagship stores in six major cities this year, then other stores throughout the mainland next year.
JK will first focus on cosmetics and food retail, says CEO Yoon Jin-seok. In the mid and long term, the company will form a joint venture with a Korean fashion retail company to launch a lifestyle label in China. He hopes to establish 3000 outlets in China by 2020.
JK is the largest supplier of Korean make-up products to Jumei International Holding, one of China’s largest online cosmetics websites, taking up 23.4 per cent. Of its total sales of 86 billion won last year, about 90 per cent, or 77 billion won, is generated from exports to China, 70 per cent of which are facial masks.
To meet this demand, the company built a warehouse that can store more than 70 containers in Weihai, and plans three more logistics centres, in Beijing, Dandong and Tangsan. Yoon says the company will also invest in a 33,000 sqm cosmetics cluster planned for in Incheon to handle shipments to China.