LG Group is a large South Korean chaebol (conglomerate), producing electronics (including domotics), mobile phones, and petrochemical products.
The name LG comes from an abbreviation of "Lucky Goldstar" (hangul:럭키금성), the company's name until 1995. Before changing their name, many electronic products were sold under the brand name Goldstar, while some other household products (not available outside Korea) were sold under the brand name of "Lucky." The Lucky brand was famous for producing household cleaning products and laundry detergents in South Korea. Before massive industrialization of South Korean society, the name Lucky was synonymous with toothpaste (similar to Kleenex referring to a facial tissue paper).
[edit] History
Established in 1947, Lucky (hanja:樂喜) Chemical Industrial Co. (now called LG Chemical), was the first chemical company in Korea. The company was a partnership between the Koo and Heo families, who have had business dealings with each other for many generations. The group expanded into the home appliance industry in 1958 under the name Goldstar Electronics Co. (now called LG Electronics), forming the country's first electronics company. From then, it was known as Lucky-Goldstar (hangul:럭키금성) Group.
During the 1970s, with the Park Chung-hee government's push for industrialization, Lucky-Goldstar Group expanded into various businesses including heavy industries and petroleum refinery.
The corporation always highlighted the amicable partnership between the Koo and Heo families in several ways. First, they always maintained the corporation name as Lucky-Goldstar to signify the different parts of their corporations. Second, they had their corporate headquarters in Seoul that would be known as "Twin Towers," featuring identical 34-story buildings. Third, when they took over a Korean baseball team in late 1989, they renamed the team as the "LG Twins."
[edit] Name change
In March 1995, the Lucky-Goldstar Group officially changed its name to LG Group, taking the first letter of the two parts of their name in English. LG was the first chaebol in South Korea to only use English abbreviations as its group name.
While the group said that the name change itself was to provide the company a more global face, some have attributed the group's decision to change their name to LG to the success of the group-owned baseball team, LG Twins. The LG Twins based in Seoul had become the most popular baseball franchise in the country through its "hip" marketing and results on the field (won championships in 1990 and 1994). The team always had the name LG despite the fact that this name was never used in external situations by the group. Whatever the true motivation for the name change, the fact that the Korean public had become used to the name "LG" was very helpful in the group's smooth transition of name without opposition from consumers.
Today, the "LG" in LG Group does not stand for anything. The corporate website states that "LG is not an acronym, there is no full name for LG."
In 2005, the group decided to split, ending a history of partnerships between the Koo and Heo families. The Koo family retained control of the LG group (now focused on electronics, chemicals, and telecommunications), while the Heo family formed GS Holdings, which includes refinery (GS Caltex), construction (GS Construction), and retail businesses (GS Home Shopping and GS25 convenience store chain) among others. Numerous convenience stores, bookstores, and other retail companies which formerly operated under the LG logo were rebranded. The "GS" name, like LG, is derived from the conglomerate's older moniker, this from the "Goldstar" part. Officially, the GS Group states that GS stands for "good service," since most of their group is focused on the service industry, but it was also a marketing ploy to give the consumers a brand that had familiarity yet seem distinct from LG. [1]
[edit] Companies
LG has made a joint venture and created LG-Nortel Networks. Since 2001, LG has two joint ventures with Royal Philips Electronics: LG Philips Display and LG Philips LCD.
LG also has a joint venture with Hitachi, Ltd.: Hitachi-LG Data Storage, which manufacters optical data storage solutions like DVD-ROM drives, CD writers, etc.
LG has owned the LG Twins baseball club since 1989.
[edit] External links
