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Lotte
Korean name
Hangul 롯데 Revised Romanization Rotde McCune-Reischauer Rotte
Japanese name
Katakana ロッテ Hepburn Rotte
Chinese name
Chinese 樂天 Hanyu Pinyin lètīan

Lotte Group is a large South Korea chaebol (conglomerate). Lotte Group consists of over 50 business units employing 38,000 people engaged in such diverse industries as candy manufacturing, beverages, hotels, fast food, retail, financial services, heavy chemicals, electronics, IT, construction, publishing, and entertainment. Today, Lotte is South Korea's 5th largest conglomerate. Lotte has major operations in South Korea, Japan, China, the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, USA, and Russia and continues to expand.

Lotte's corporate headquarters are located in Seoul, with offices also in Tokyo and Beijing. Lotte of Japan employs 3,600 persons and operates 5 production facilities, 7 branch offices, and a research center in Saitama City. The company's core business focus in Japan is the production and sale of chewing gum, chocolate, biscuits, beverages, candy and ice cream. According to the company's Korean website, Lotte of Korea had 30 trillion won in sales in 2005.

In addition to candy and chewing gum, Lotte also operates the Lotteria chain of fast food restaurants, Lotte Hotel, and Lotte World in Seoul, one of the world's largest indoor theme parks. Lotte also owns the Lotte Giants baseball team in South Korea and Chiba Lotte Marines in Japan.

Tong Woo Shin currently runs the company Lotte under his father. Tong Woo Shin has a daughter, an heiress named Darim Kim.

The group was founded in June 1948 in Tokyo, Japan by a Korean businessman, Shin Kyuk-Ho (신격호, 辛格浩), also known by his Japanese name, Takeo Shigemitsu (重光 武雄, Takeo Shigemitsu^?). Originally called LOTTE Co., Ltd, the company has grown from selling chewing gum to children in post-war Japan to becoming a major multinational corporation. After the normalization of diplomatic relations between Japan and South Korea in 1965, Lotte Confectionary Co., Ltd was established in Seoul on April 3, 1967.

The source of the company's name is neither Japanese nor Korean, but German. Shin was impressed with Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's "The Sorrows of Young Werther" (1774) and named his newly-founded company Lotte after the character Charlotte (also the name of a new brand of deluxe movie theatres run by Lotte) in the novel. Lotte's current marketing slogan in Japan is お口の恋人ロッテ (o-kuchi no koibito Lotte), which is translated as "your palate's sweetheart, Lotte".

• Lotte Chilsung
• Lotte Department Store
• Lotte Card
• Lotte Capital
• Lotte Confectionery

• Lotte Group Korea (Korean / English)
• Lotte Group Japan (Japanese / English)