Hyundai and Kolmar Korea announce K-beauty and fashion brands at the Australian Korean Wave Expo (comprehensive)

The distribution and beauty industries participated in the '2026 Melbourne Korean Wave Expo' held at the Melbourne Showgrounds, Australia from the 5th to 7th (local time) to inform local consumers and buyers of domestic beauty and fashion brands and products.

Hyundai Department Store [069960] announced on the 8th that it operated a 96㎡ (approximately 30 pyeong) promotional hall, the largest among participating companies, at this expo with Mediquits, a partner of the K brand overseas expansion support project.

The promotional hall showcased representative products from a total of 13 brands, including domestic basic cosmetics brands such as 'Wellage' and 'The U', and K-fashion brands such as 'Lola Lola', 'Maha Grid', 'Stand Oil', and 'The Boulevard'.

We also introduced products from Hyundai Department Store’s own character ‘Hindi’ and products from ‘Withmu’, an intellectual property (IP) platform that distributes K-pop artists’ goods.

Experience events such as tastings, free gift giving, and stamp events were also held for local visitors. The number of visitors to the Hyundai Department Store promotional center over two days was calculated to be 10,000.

Yoo Hee-yeol, managing director of the fashion division at Hyundai Department Store, said, "In Oceania, including Australia, the popularity of the Korean Wave is rapidly increasing, but there are relatively few opportunities to experience Korean culture or brands, so it is a market with great growth potential. We will continue to actively support promising K brands in entering the global market."

Kolmar Korea [161890] also participated in this expo with six client companies and conducted export consultations worth approximately KRW 6.8 billion.

Kolmar Korea operated a booth along with Gudai Global (Round Lab), Parquet (Mixoon), Mercico (Hubloom), Iunik (iuniq), Gibest (Nine Tales), and HK Innoen (Bewants) at this expo held from the 5th to 7th (local time).

Kolmar Korea explained that a total of 150 export consultations were conducted on site, which is more than 10% of the total number of consultations at the fair.

About 30,000 people visited the two-day event targeting general consumers, of which it was estimated that about 15,000 visited the Kolmar Korea booth.

Kolmar Korea displayed products such as sunscreen, essence, cream, and mask pack at the event venue and ran a program where you could check the ultraviolet (UV) blocking effect or experience five types of suncare products.

The reason Kolmar Korea is targeting the Australian market together with its customers is because demand for K-beauty products is increasing there.

According to the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA), Australia's imports of Korean basic cosmetics last year amounted to $147.7 million, a 42.1% increase from the previous year.

Korea ranked second in importing countries, recording a 19.5% import market share in the first half of this year. The market share gap with the United States, which ranks first, is 1.6 percentage points.

An official from Kolmar Korea said, "Through this expo, we were able to inform local buyers and consumers of the competitiveness of K-beauty products together with our customers," and added, "We will continue to actively support our customers' expansion into the Australian market and global expansion."