APR, which has been posting record-breaking earnings consecutively, will launch medical device products this year and expand its device business in earnest. To this end, the company plans to add related items including development, manufacturing, and sales of medical device consumables to its business purposes. The move signals APR's aim to target the "medical aesthetics" market by extending its beauty device reach from ordinary households to aesthetic shops.
According to APR on the 15th, the company will table a motion to add three medical device-related business purposes at its shareholders' meeting to be held in Sincheon-dong, Songpa-gu, Seoul on the 31st of this month.
APR currently operates with business purposes including research and development of medical devices, beauty devices, and home electronics. By adding business purposes such as △development, manufacturing, and sales of medical device consumables △development, manufacturing, and sales of medical instruments △medical device repair services, the company is analyzed to be laying groundwork for future medical device-related business expansion. An APR official said, "We included related content in the shareholders' meeting agenda to reflect preparations for the medical device business that we have been pursuing over the mid-to-long term and to reorganize the scope of business operations," adding, "We have comprehensively reorganized all business areas that may be required in the process of launching medical device products and expanding the business going forward."
In line with this, APR plans to launch at least one "energy-based device" (EBD) within the year and begin sales targeting aesthetic shops. Factory and certification procedures for this device and other medical device products are underway. Until early this month, APR also recruited employees responsible for "PDRN/PN aesthetic medical device overseas sales" and "medical device cosmetics raw material procurement."
Last month, the company also filed two patents for "skin beauty devices." This marks APR's first patent filing since April last year. As of the end of September last year, APR had filed 44 patents and registered 67 patents domestically. An upgraded version of "Booster Pro," the company's flagship home beauty device product, is also planned for release in the first half of this year.
APR has particularly set plans to aggressively target Western device markets. This is based on the assessment that interest from local consumers in devices is growing as skincare products from its brand "Medicube" gain popularity, primarily in North America. In fact, Booster Pro maintains a top ranking in the "Wrinkle and Anti-Aging Devices" category on Amazon US. At a recent non-deal roadshow (NDR), APR also presented a goal to raise the US device sales portion from the current 15% level to 40-50%.
APR's such attempts are interpreted as efforts to reduce dependence on cosmetics, which account for most of its revenue. Last year, APR recorded an all-time high revenue of 1.5273 trillion won, but device sales accounted for 407 billion won, less than half of cosmetics (1.0771 trillion won). According to Mirae Asset Securities, of last year's overseas revenue of 1.2258 trillion won, devices are estimated at 294 billion won, significantly trailing cosmetics (934 billion won).
Bae Song-yi, a researcher at Mirae Asset Securities, said, "While device growth rates have been relatively low as cosmetics have grown explosively, the company is still actively nurturing home beauty devices as a mid-to-long term growth driver," adding, "Momentum will be reignited with the launch of new device products."
