Department store and travel retail sales powered a stunning 149 per cent profit growth for South Korea’s Shinsegae retail group in the first quarter of this year.

The company says its net profit reached 84.2 billion won (US$78.4 million) in the three months to March 31, compared with 33.8 billion won a year earlier.

Sales rose 19.8 per cent to 1.1 trillion won.

Sales from its Shinsegae Department Store division rose 2.7 per cent to 425.7 billion won, the company said, with operating profit up 13.7 per cent to 59.2 billion won.

Meanwhile, the company duty-free travel retail business recovered from past losses to post a 23.6 billion won operating profit on sales of 339.5 billion, 85.4 per cent up year-on-year.