Chaebol | |
Industry | Conglomerate |
Founded | November 1953 |
Founder | Lee Byung-chul |
Headquarters | Seoul, South Korea |
Area served
|
Worldwide |
Key people
|
Lee Gwan-Hoon (CEO) Lee Jay-Hyun (Chairman) Sohn Kyung-Shik (Chairman) Lee Woo-Rahm (Chairman) |
Products | Food & Food Service, Home Shopping & logistics, Entertainment & Media, Biotechnology & Pharmaceutics, Infrastructure |
Subsidiaries |
CJ CheilJedang CJ E&M CJ CGV |
Website | www |
CJ Corporation (Hangul: 씨제이㈜) is a South Korean conglomerate holding company headquartered in Seoul. It comprises numerous businesses in various industries of food and food service, pharmaceutics and biotechnology, entertainment and media, home shopping and logistics. CJ Group was originally a branch of Samsung until it separated in the 1990s.
CJ comes from 'Cheil Jedang' (Hangul: 제일 제당), which can literally mean "first sugar manufacture", the industry where it originally started.
Notable CJ subsidiaries include CJ Cheil Jedang, CJ Entertainment & Media (TV Broadcasting and Film production), and CJ CGV (Cinema Chain).
CJ was founded as 'Cheil Jedang' in August 1953 as a sugar and flour manufacturer and was originally part of Samsung Group, as its first manufacturing business. In 1955, it opened the first flour mill in South Korea and in 1962, started exporting sugar to Okinawa, Japan. In 1965, Cheil Jedang's sugar business was branded as 'Beksul'. The company entered into the artificial seasoning market in 1963 with Mipoong, competing against Miwon, the then-best-seller by Daesang.
In the 1970s, CJ continued its growth as a composite food company. In 1973 CJ entered into the feed business, launching 'Pungnyeon Feed'. In 1975, CJ developed mass-production techniques for "Dashida", a seasoning product, as well as technology for the mass-production of nucleic acids for the first time in South Korea in 1977, launching its first nucleic acid seasoning, "Imi". In 1979, the company was renamed 'Cheil Jedang Corp.' and started producing cooking oil under Beksul.
In the 1980s, CJ expanded to processed food items such as beverages and frozen foods, and entered the pharmaceutical business based on new advanced technologies. In 1984, CJ established ETI, a local subsidiary, in New Jersey, U.S. as a joint venture project In 1986 CJ's Biotechnology & Pharmaceutics division succeeded in becoming the third in the world to develop Alpha-interferon, an anticancer medicine, as well as launching 'Hepaccine-B', a hepatitis vaccine. It established Cheil Frozen Food and launched its beverage business in 1987. With the establishment of Cheil Jedang Indonesia in 1988 and the construction of a lysine and synthetic seasoning plant in Indonesia in 1990, CJ started reaching markets outside South Korea.