[비즈한국] There is confusion regarding the headquarters of Lotte Chilsung Beverage (Lotte Chilsung). Lotte Chilsung’s website lists its headquarters location as Lotte Castle Gold in Songpa-gu, Seoul. In fact, most of Lotte Chilsung’s office staff commute to this location. However, the corporate registry lists the company's headquarters address as 1322-1 Seocho-dong, Seocho-gu, Seoul. This location is used as a logistics warehouse for Lotte Chilsung. It is difficult to view it as a place that performs the functions of a typical major corporate headquarters.
Lotte Chilsung owns a 43,438㎡ (approximately 13,139 pyeong) property in Seocho-dong, Seocho-gu, Seoul. This site was previously used as a Lotte Chilsung factory and is currently used as a logistics warehouse. The real estate industry values this property at up to 4 trillion won. In fact, credit rating agencies suggest that thanks to this property, the likelihood of a financial crisis for Lotte Chilsung is low.
Some predict that Lotte Chilsung will look to monetize the Seocho-dong site by constructing large-scale officetels. Lotte Chilsung is remaining tight-lipped on the matter. A Lotte Chilsung official stated, “The development of the Seocho-dong site is a matter being discussed with the Seoul Metropolitan Government,” adding, “At this moment, we have no specific development plans to share.”
What stands out is that Lotte Chilsung’s headquarters is registered at this Seocho-dong site in both the corporate registry and business reports. The actual headquarters operations take place at the Lotte Castle Gold building in Songpa-gu, Seoul. Most Lotte Chilsung office staff also commute to Lotte Castle Gold. Lotte Chilsung’s website even lists the address of floors 3-5 and 9 of this building as its headquarters.
Even in the 1990s, Lotte Chilsung did not use the Seocho-dong site as its headquarters. In the past, the main office was located in the Lotte E&C building in Jamwon-dong, and it moved to Lotte Castle Gold in 2011. Unless the Seocho-dong site is developed on a massive scale, it seems unlikely that it will be used as the main office in the future.
The Commercial Act defines a headquarters as the “place where a company’s business is overseen,” meaning Lotte Chilsung’s current registration is somewhat inconsistent with the law. Furthermore, since various tax notices and legal documents are delivered to the registered headquarters, there are likely operational inconveniences. Despite this, Lotte Chilsung has not changed its headquarters registration for decades. The previously mentioned Lotte Chilsung official explained, “The headquarters was located in Seocho-dong at the time of business registration, and it has remained that way ever since.”