68 | FORBES ASIA JUNE 2018
for the sea led to a desire to travel, and
Park decided to chart his own path: “I
said, Dad, give me three years. Without
the safety of your greenhouse I would
like to go out and learn on my own. I
wanted to see outside Korea.”
But he faced a barrier: South Korea
was under military rule, and it was dif-
icult for citizens to get passports unless
they were traveling on business. So Park
decided that a job at an export company
might pave his way overseas. He landed
at a modest handbag manufacturer
called Chungsan, where he was the
irst employee with a college degree. “I
could’ve gone to a chaebol company, but
I purposely picked a small company,”
he says.
In 1980 his choice paid of. He was
sent to Florence, Italy, to line up a
leather supplier and was amazed by the
fashion sense of the locals. “I visited a
men’s clothing shop, and I was shocked.
he gentlemen on the streets were wear-
ing yellow pants, green pants, fuchsia
pants, red pants. here were 15 difer-
ently colored shirts. I could not imagine
men wearing those colors. hat excitedme very much. It really motivated me.”
hat sparked his creativity. “My
canvas was small, but I could draw the
drawing I liked, I could paint the paint-
ing I wanted. I could see a lady in New
York wearing the handbag that I made.
It was a little thing, but it was a good
feeling. It felt like an achievement.”
Park stayed with Chungsan for seven
years, eventually becoming its headSimone—named aer his wife’s
nickname—is headquartered 14 miles
south of Seoul, where 400 staf work
in a suburban-style oice campus. he
privately held company generated $120
million in net income and $940 million
in revenue last year. hat proit number
is 16.2% higher than four years ago,
while revenue is up 45.5%. In 2015 the
Blackstone Group, the world’s largest
private equity irm, purchased a 30%
stake for $300 million. he company’s
value has risen since then, and Park, 63,
who now owns 62% with his immediate
family, breaks into the ranks of billion-
aires this year while also debuting on the
list of South Korea’s 50 richest people.
Forbes Asia estimates his net worth at
$1.16 billion.
But for Park this capstone to his ca-
reer probably doesn’t compare to a title
he earned not long aer he started. In
1988 —just ten years aer China began
opening up—no Asia-based factory
was yet producing handbags for luxury
brands.
“hat was the irst single step for Asia
in manufacturing designer handbags,”
he says of the Donna Karan deal. “hat’s
why Chinese manufacturers called me
Da ge, big brother. Even when I was just
30 years old, 50-, 60-year-old men were
calling me Da ge. Simone will always be
known as a pioneer.”
Park sits down at a large wooden
desk amid an oice dotted with towers
of books, an array of sample handbags
and scores of contemporary artworks.
“hat’s my root,” he says when asked
about one of the several ish decora-
tions that adorn the crowded walls. It’s a
nod to his late father’s ishing company,
which once had nine boats and a facility
for repairing and building ships.
Park igured he’d join the family busi-
ness aer graduating from Seoul’s Yonsei
University with degrees in German and
literature in 1978. His two older broth-
ers—he’s the ih oldest of six siblings—
already were working with his father,
and he recalls accompanying him on the
boats for as long as six weeks. But a love
of development and sales, increasing
revenue by more than tenfold during his
tenure, he says. But in 1987 he ventured
out on his own and borrowed $30,000
from his father, defying the counsel of
friends and family. hey warned that
South Korea was beginning to lose its
manufacturing prowess as produc-
tion shied to less expensive countries.
“hey said, ‘Kenny, that’s done. Why do
you want to catch the last train? China is
coming.’ ”
But he had a safety net: One big
customer was virtually guaranteed. San
Francisco-based Esprit, now listed in
Hong Kong, had approached Chungsan
seeking a supplier, but a conlict of inter-
est with an existing customer thwarted
the deal. Esprit ofered the contract
to Park, motivating him to launch his
own company. he timing was on his
side. he workforce at factories in Italy
and much of Europe was aging as fewer
young people were interested in becom-
ing crasmen. he business was there,
but the ability to handle it increasingly
wasn’t.
So Park focused on signing up cus-
tomer number two. “I asked my Ameri-
can friends, ‘Who’s the hottest right
now?’ hey said Donna. Donna Karan.
It’s American. It shows New York.”
He purchased her bags and worked to
produce the perfect sample before land-
ing his meeting in the summer of 1988.
Four years later he established his irst
ofshore factory, in Guangzhou, and a
second one ive years later in Jakarta.
His irst European customer signed on
in 1999.
he company has lourished as Mil-
lennials’ appetite for designer goods
continues to expand. In 2017 the market
for luxury leather goods among the top
ive companies totaled $49.2 billion, up
nearly 30% in ive years, according to
data compiled by Euromonitor Interna-
tional. Simone supplies two of those ive
players: Michael Kors and Coach. Now
the market has come full circle: Where
once China was purely a manufacturing
base, today it’s the world’s largest marketSouth Korea’s 50 Richest
KENNY PARK
“My canvas was
small, but I could
paint the drawing I
liked, the painting I
wanted. I could see
a lady in New York
wearing the handbag
that I made.”