The Barcelona-based company MiiN Cosmetics, specialized in the sale of Korean cosmetic brands, has just opened a flagship store of more than 400 square meters in an emblematic location on Balmes street. It is the two-story building that displays, a few meters from Pelayo street, the historic logo of another cosmetic firm, Bella Aurora, an American brand that arrived in Barcelona in 1914. Multiple tenants have passed through the building over these more than one hundred years; the company Julia Tours was one of the last to occupy it, but, since the pandemic, the premises remained closed.
The unique establishment, this time dyed pink, has come back to life barely ten days ago thanks to Miin Cosmetics, which has decided to transform it into its flagship, that is, into an engine to increase the visibility and notoriety of the brand, which, until now, had in Barcelona a small store located on Pau Claris street with Diputació ---the origin of the firm--- and another in L'illa Diagonal. In total, the brand now has 14 points of sale between Barcelona (3), Madrid (3), Bilbao, Valencia, Seville and Zaragoza and in European capitals such as Paris, Milan and Munich. The opening of this store in the heart of the Catalan capital has involved an investment of 700,000 euros.
The company's goal is to open ten more stores in the coming months in Spain and Italy and close the year with a network of 24 stores and a turnover of 17 million euros. If successful, the firm would achieve a growth of 70% compared to 2022, a year in which it billed 10 million. MiiN Cosmetics' plans are ambitious, as the company thinks big and has drawn up a business plan that aims to reach one hundred establishments by 2028, an objective that, if met, would multiply the chain's turnover tenfold, according to its founder, the young entrepreneur Lilin Yang, told The New Barcelona Post.
Of Chinese origin, Yang has found in Barcelona the ideal place from which to build a business project that she started in 2014 and that she now wants to expand throughout Spain and Europe, without ruling out addressing new continents in the medium term. In addition to the fourteen stores she has already opened in recent years thanks to the boom that Korean cosmetics are experiencing, Yang's great success is that in a very short time she has made her company the benchmark for Korean brands that want to introduce their products to the European market.
Thus, MiiN already exclusively imports up to 30 leading brands from the Asian country to Europe, selling them not only in its own network of stores, but also to other important chains in the sector such as Sephora or Douglas. That is, in addition to the B2C channel or direct sales to the final consumer, the company has an important distribution or wholesale business (B2B) that already generates around 35% of its sales. This strategy is complemented by a third channel that is also strategic for the brand, the online store, available in practically all European countries. "Each channel contributes around a third of the turnover," explains Yang, a balance that she considers basic and that offers her "security" because it allows her to face possible crises or cycles that may occur in each of the three divisions.
And who is Lilin Yang? Born in China, she says that since childhood she felt very attracted to Spain after reading a novel by a Taiwanese writer who spoke about the country. Her first trip to get to know that Spain she had read about in person was in 2005. Indeed, she liked what she saw and decided to stay to study Spanish and then tourism at the universities of Alcalá and Salamanca, respectively, and lived in Madrid until she moved to Barcelona ten years ago. Throughout all this time, she traveled frequently to Asia and always returned with a suitcase full of her favorite Korean cosmetic brands, which she could not find here. At first, they were creams for her own use, but then she began to fill suitcases with products to sell to friends and friends of friends, until she decided to undertake and set up her own import business. And that's how in 2014 she opened a small 25-square-meter store on Pau Claris street, which was followed by a store in Madrid and another in Munich, until today, when she has woven a network of fourteen establishments, all her own.
Yang explains that since the beginning she has had a Swiss partner, although he is not involved in the day-to-day business, and that all growth is being financed with own resources thanks to the company being profitable from the first year. "We have never distributed dividends and we have not wanted to go into debt either," explains the CEO, after pointing out that, for now, they are not looking for partners or travel companions.
According to the businesswoman, the beauty market is on the rise and there is increasing knowledge and appetite for products made in Korea, a country that has seen the export of its culture accelerate thanks to successful television series such as Squid Game. "In Korea, the cosmetics business is very important; it is already the third largest exporter in the world in this sector, behind France and the United States," she states. Yang highlights that extreme skin care is part of Korean culture, which focuses not so much on treatment, but on prevention through following strict routines and using high-quality products that are the result of a "very strong investment in R&D for the continuous improvement of formulas."
In its new flagship store on Balmes street, MiiN Cosmetics sells 32 Korean brands, with a total of 500 references, whose average price Yang considers "accessible" for the general public. Two of the brands, Meisani and Ondo, are own brands developed by the company starting in 2020 and manufactured by Korean suppliers. Their creation is not trivial, quite the opposite, since it must be taken into account that of the 30 brands it represents, it only has exclusivity for Europe, so if MiiN wants to begin its expansion outside the continent, it can do so by relying on these two brands. In this regard, Yang announces that, in 2024, MiiN will open a commercial office in Seoul to begin expanding its own brands.
Initially, MiiN Cosmetics focused solely on skin treatment products, but now it also markets hair care items and perfumes. In two weeks, it will also enter a new market category with ample potential: makeup sales. Yang also announces that with the Balmes flagship, the company expands into a new business area, the provision of services, as the store is equipped with cabins to perform cosmetic treatments and, in a few weeks, will also offer customers the possibility of getting manicures or pedicures.
"We want this flagship to become the reference Korean Beauty House in Europe; it is not just a store, it is a space to offer a complete experience to customers and to show and disseminate all the potential of products offered by Korean cosmetics," says Lilin Yang.
The CEO travels to Korea every three months to discover the latest innovations and stay up-to-date and assures that she "has tried each of the products sold by MiiN stores on her own face," a brand that, by the way, means "beautiful person" in Korean, she explains.
MiiN Cosmetics already has a staff of one hundred employees and its corporate offices are on Bruc street in Barcelona. In parallel, the warehouse that receives creams imported by ship from Korea is located in Badalona, from where shipments are made to the network of own stores and orders are prepared for both wholesale customers and those received through the online store.
"I love Barcelona, I love Spain. This country has brought me luck!" Yang concludes amusedly.