Some 16 years after the family empire was divided three and not six ways, Ms Kim has carved a remarkable posi- tion in male-dominated Korean business society. Today she employs over 400 staff – 90% of them women – at her retail and import company Sungjoo Group, which post- ed sales of around US$100 million last tear. Sungjoo operates more than 90 retail stores in South Korea for MCM, Marks & Spencer, Lulu Guinness and Billy Bag.
In early 2005 Sungjoo obtained controlling power of MCM's business in global markets, placing Ms Kim at the helm of the MCM leathergoods-to-fashion brand which she had nurtured since becoming the importer and later the franchisee in the 1990s. And it is MCM that lies at the heart of Sung-Joo Kim’s very pronounced aspirations for the duty free channel.