韩国Cosmax集团设立资本仅10亿韩元的OBM子公司GrowX，加码美妆品牌孵化营销服务

Cosmax Group has established a separate specialized company to strengthen its original brand manufacturing (OBM) business, which it has been cultivating as a new growth engine. With cosmetics brand startups on the rise, the move is aimed at carrying out OBM work — which supports brands not only through product development and production but also through their establishment in the market — in a more systematic and professional manner than the existing ODM model.
According to the beauty industry on the 27th, Cosmax BTI (044820), the holding company of Cosmax Group, set up a new subsidiary called GrowX early this month, with marketing consulting for cosmetics and health functional foods as its main business. Cosmax BTI holds a 100% stake in the company, with capital of about 1 billion won. "Demand among clients has been growing not only for brand planning and development but also for marketing support to help them establish themselves in the market," a Cosmax official said. "We plan to provide services such as market research, marketing strategy development and consulting for founders of new cosmetics brands and for companies entering the cosmetics business from other industries."
Late last year, Cosmax Group divided roles so that Vice Chairman Lee Byung-man, the eldest son, oversees the ODM business while Vice Chairman Lee Byung-joo handles new businesses and mid- to long-term strategy. Since then, Lee Byung-joo has been driving the expansion of the OBM business. Last month, Cosmax BTI shifted to a sole chief executive structure under Lee Byung-joo, and the company has now gone a step further by establishing GrowX as a dedicated OBM entity.
Hong Sung-hae, head of Cosmax BTI's new business division, was named chief executive of the new company. Hong is a beauty marketing specialist who oversaw new brand development and marketing at Amorepacific and led the health and beauty (H&B) new business at Dongwha Pharm, and joined Cosmax BTI in January this year.
Cosmax Group is strengthening its OBM business because demand for professional marketing support has grown, particularly among small operators, as K-beauty brand startups have become more active. The share of indie brands among Cosmax's top 20 clients by revenue rose to 65% last year from 40% in 2021.
According to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, the number of domestic cosmetics responsible distributors rose 25.1% to 28,412 last year from 22,716 in 2021. Many of them not only lack their own manufacturing facilities but also cannot afford dedicated staff for market research or marketing. In its "2026 Industry Map" report, the Samil PwC Management Research Institute forecast that while barriers to entry in the cosmetics market have fallen due to OEM production and the expansion of H&B and direct-to-consumer (D2C) channels, the sustainability of small brands will weaken as platform-centered distribution drives up marketing and customer acquisition costs.
Cosmax had been steadily expanding its brand development business even before setting up GrowX. In August, it worked with the Ministry of SMEs and Startups and Musinsa to run a program supporting 20 small-scale domestic beauty brands with everything from product planning and production to marketing consulting and brand upgrading.
Overseas, the group is pursuing OBM operations through its local units. Its Thai unit is working to help Korean cosmetics brands enter the local market, while in Indonesia it is securing personnel for OBM business development and brand management through a cosmetics distribution subsidiary.
GrowX will focus first on the domestic market but is leaving open the possibility of expanding overseas. "Overseas OBM operations are currently pursued separately by each local unit, but there is a possibility that GrowX will broaden its business into overseas markets going forward," the Cosmax official said.