E-Mart, South Korea’s largest discount hypermarket chain by sales, says it will launch a premium grocery store in Los Angeles next year, the latest in a series of moves to expand its presence abroad.

E-Mart has signed a 10-year contract to lease three floors of a six-story building in downtown LA with a plan to open the 3104sqm grocery shop named PK Market in the second half of next year.

“As we have wrapped up the lease contract, we can now begin a full-fledged preparation for our US business,” E-Mart said in a statement.

Chung Yong-jin, vice chairman of Shinsegae Group that operates E-Mart, said in March the business group will launch the food store brand in the US, targeting locals with Asian food products.

The company introduced PK Market, a store that sells international ingredients, vegetables, seafood and meat, at its shopping complex Starfield Hanam, just southeast of Seoul, in 2016.

• Original reporting by Yonhap, via Korea Bizwire.