Lotte Group is a large South Korea-Japan chaebol (conglomerate) founed in June 1948 in by a Korean businessman, Shin Kyuk-Ho (신격호 who was living in Tokyo, Japan. Lotte Group consists of over 50 business units employing 38,000 people engaged in such diverse industries as candy manufacturing, beverages, hotels, fast food, retail, financial services, heavy chemicals, electronics, IT, construction, publishing, and entertainment. Today, Lotte is South Korea's 5th largest conglomerate. Lotte has major operations in South Korea, Japan, China, the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, India, USA, and Russia and continues to expand.