Who Makes VT Reedle Shot? The Korean Laminator Company Behind VT Cosmetics

The product this story is about: VT Cosmetics CICA Reedle Shot 100 on AmazonAffiliate link. As an Amazon Associate, EpicKor earns from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you.

Quick Answer

Is VT Cosmetics Korean? Yes. The brand belongs to VT Co., Ltd. (주식회사 브이티), a company listed on Korea's KOSDAQ market (ticker 018290) with its registered head office in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, north-west of Seoul. Its largest shareholders are Korean individuals and a Korean company, and Korea's disclosure system, DART, classifies it as a mid-sized enterprise (중견기업), not part of a conglomerate.

Who makes VT Reedle Shot? VT designs and sells it but does not own a cosmetics factory. Its annual report says all its cosmetics are made by contract manufacturers. The two main ones it names are Cosmecca Korea (코스메카코리아), an independent manufacturer, and ENC (이앤씨), a factory company in Yongin that VT has controlled since 2024 and now owns 65.62% of. VT says it makes its key products at ENC "to stop its product know-how from leaking".

Who owns VT? Co-CEO Jeong Cheol (정철) is the largest shareholder, with 16.96%. With co-CEO Kang Seung-gon (강승곤), executive Jo Ha-na (조하나) and the K-pop agency Cube Entertainment, the group holds 39.25% (DART, 30 June 2026). The rest belongs to more than 41,000 small shareholders.

What is the twist? Before it sold skincare, this company made laminating machines, the kind that coat ID cards and photos in plastic. It was founded in 1986 as GMP, went through a creditor-led rescue under the Korea Development Bank, and only bought into a small brand called VT Cosmetic in 2017. It still owns the laminating business.

How big is it? Group revenue was ₩437.2 billion (about $308 million) in 2025, with ₩82.9 billion ($58 million) in operating profit. Cosmetics were 93.6% of revenue, and two-thirds of cosmetics sales were exports.

This page follows the bottle back to the company. EpicKor has no relationship with VT, and nothing here is investment advice. Won figures come from VT's filings on DART unless a press or brokerage source is named. Dollar figures use ₩1,421 to the dollar, the 2025 average of the US Federal Reserve's daily KRW/USD rate (FRED series DEXKOUS), and are rounded.

VT at a Glance

Sources: VT FY2025 annual report and H1 2026 half-year report on DART; property-acquisition report, 26 October 2026. Export share is EpicKor's calculation from the filing's sales table.

What Reedle Shot Is, and What It Costs in Korea

Reedle Shot (리들샷) is a facial essence sold in numbered strengths: 100, 300 and 700 at launch, with more variants added since. The name joins "needle" and "shot". The selling point is a texture: users describe a light prickle when it is pressed into the skin.

That prickle comes from the ingredient VT calls CICA REEDLE (시카 리들). According to SmartToday's report on VT's patent filing in June 2023, it is a cosmetic composition whose active ingredient is micro-needles impregnated with cica (centella) extract. VT filed the patent in Korea and the US, and says the ingredient has been listed with the US Personal Care Products Council. The company itself calls the line a "topical beauty device" (바르는 뷰티 디바이스). That is marketing language. Reedle Shot is sold as a cosmetic, not as a medical device or a treatment.

What it costs in Korea, November 2026:

• Reedle Shot 100, 50 mL bottle: ₩32,000 list price on the Korean review site Glowpick (글로우픽), checked November 2026. That is about $23. Korean shops discount it often.
• Daiso Reedle Shot sticks: ₩3,000 (about $2) for six 2 mL sticks, sold at Daiso Korea since October 2023, according to The Economist Korea. That works out to ₩250 per mL against ₩640 for the bottle at list price. The stick product carries a slightly different name ("facial boosting first ampoule"), so it is not the same item in a smaller pack. Our Daiso Korea price guide walks through the comparison.

On Amazon, check the price on the listing. EpicKor does not quote Amazon prices.

The timeline of one product

The Economist Korea interviewed VT Cosmetic's vice president Choi Cheol-ho (최철호) in May 2024. His account of the launch:

• July 2023: Reedle Shot launched in Japan first, through major online malls, where it became a top seller.
• October 2023: It arrived in Korea through Olive Young and Daiso. Daiso put it in about 1,500 stores. The first batch sold out in two weeks.
• 2024–2025: Daiso's later VT products followed. In Daiso's 2025 online-store report, the best-selling new product of the year was a VT PDRN sheet mask, as our Daiso Korea buying guide notes.

Laminating Film to Skincare: How a 1986 Factory Became VT

The company's age surprises most people who know it only from TikTok. Its filings tell a story in five steps.

1. A laminator maker (1986–2011). The company was incorporated on 15 November 1986 to make laminating machines and film, and listed on KOSDAQ on 7 September 1994. Its brand, GMP, is still sold to print shops and photo labs abroad. Its chief executive, Kim Yang-pyeong (김양평), was also its largest shareholder until 2015.

2. A rescue (2012–2016). In November 2012 the company signed a business-normalisation agreement with the state-owned Korea Development Bank (KDB), the lender leading its creditors. In December 2015 a share issue made KDB the largest shareholder. In October 2016 the creditors sold their converted shares, and the bank-managed process ended.

3. Buying a cosmetics brand (2017–2018). In January 2017 GMP bought 30% of a small company called VT Cosmetic (브이티코스메틱), formerly named Gonsen (곤센). It added 10% in December 2017. Control of GMP itself changed hands several times in those two years. On 15 June 2018, VT Cosmetic's chief executive, Jeong Cheol, became GMP's largest shareholder. He had run VT Cosmetic since July 2014 and became GMP's co-CEO in March 2018. His shareholding filings give his birth year as 1985, so he took control of a listed company at 33.

4. The merger (2019). GMP raised its stake in VT Cosmetic to 49.1% in July 2019 and absorbed it on 15 October 2019. The listed company was renamed VT GMP. In 2020 it bought 30.61% of Cube Entertainment for ₩29.1 billion, adding a K-pop agency to a laminator and a cosmetics brand.

5. Becoming VT (2023). On 3 July 2023 the company spun the laminating business off into a new, wholly owned subsidiary named GMP and renamed itself VT. The timing matters: Reedle Shot was launched in Japan that same month.

One more piece explains today's ownership. On 22 July 2024 VT agreed to buy about 50.3% of the factory company ENC for ₩60.3 billion, paying with 27.53% of Cube Entertainment (3.8 million shares, valued at ₩50.5 billion) plus ₩9.8 billion in cash, according to SmartToday and Asiae. The seller was co-CEO Kang Seung-gon; more on that below. With that deal Cube stopped being a VT subsidiary, and VT's consolidated figures include Cube only through 30 June 2024, per the annual report. VT added 5.4% of ENC in January 2025 (Metro Seoul) and now owns 65.62%. Today VT owns 9.34% of Cube, and Cube owns 12.29% of VT.

Who Owns VT? The Shareholder Table

DART lists the controlling group as of 30 June 2026:

Source: VT H1 2026 half-year report (corrected, filed 8 October 2026), section VII. The total covers the four related holders listed at 30 June 2026; at the end of 2025 a fifth, executive Jang Bo-heon, held 0.02% and the group total was 39.27%. Total shares in issue: 34,941,838.

Three details are worth knowing.

The Cube loop. Kang Seung-gon is co-CEO of both VT and Cube Entertainment. Jeong Cheol is also Cube's co-CEO. The July 2024 ENC deal was a related-party transaction: VT bought ENC from Kang, its own co-CEO, and paid him largely in Cube shares. SmartToday reported that the swap took Kang from about 9.3% of Cube to 36.82%, making him Cube's largest shareholder, while VT fell to about 10%. Jeong Cheol's October 2026 shareholding report puts Kang's Cube stake at 37.89%. So VT owns part of Cube, Cube owns part of VT, and the same two men run both. Cube is the agency behind the girl group i-dle.

The 2024 sale. On 2 December 2024 Jeong Cheol sold 1.6 million VT shares (5.48%) in a block deal at ₩27,100 each, about ₩43.4 billion in total. SmartToday reported that 850,000 of those shares went to Cube. The company said the money would settle his personal debts, including taxes and loans from the GMP–VT merger.

Pledged shares. Jeong Cheol's latest filing (2 October 2026) lists 2,076,153 shares (5.95%) under "major contracts", and gives the reason for the report as the extension of a share-backed loan (주식담보대출 연장). Pledged founder shares are common in Korea, but they are a risk if the share price falls far.

Is any of it foreign? The controlling holders are Korean nationals and a Korean company. Brokerage data summarised by Alphadistill put foreign ownership at about 7% of shares in 2026. VT is Korean-controlled.

Who Actually Makes the Products

VT is a brand company. Its annual report is plain about it: the cosmetics business has no production facilities of its own and buys finished products from OEM and ODM makers. Formulation, filling and packaging each go to specialist firms.

Two suppliers are named:

• Cosmecca Korea (코스메카코리아), a listed Korean contract manufacturer that also makes products for other K-beauty brands, including some we have covered (see our Anua and SKIN1004 deep dives).
• ENC (이앤씨), founded in 2012, with a factory in the Deokseong industrial complex in Yongin, Gyeonggi. VT owns 65.62%. The FY2025 annual report says VT produces its key products through ENC to protect the formulas. Brokerage research summarised by Alphadistill says ENC makes most of the PDRN range.

For the bigger picture of how Korea's contract manufacturers work, see our COSMAX deep dive.

In H1 2026, VT bought ₩95.7 billion of cosmetic contents and ₩31.2 billion of packaging (pouches, cartons, containers), per the half-year report. That is the cost base of a brand that rents factories rather than owns them, with one in-house factory to keep the best-selling formulas close.

Where the Money Comes From

Sources: VT FY2024 and FY2025 annual reports and H1 2026 half-year report, consolidated. Group revenue in 2022–2024 includes Cube Entertainment through 30 June 2024 (it stopped being a subsidiary with the 22 July 2024 ENC deal) and, in every year, the laminating business. In 2025, ₩437.2bn is about $308m and ₩82.9bn about $58m.

Read the table from left to right and three things stand out.

1. Before Reedle Shot, VT barely sold in Korea. In 2023 the cosmetics business sold only ₩21.4 billion at home and ₩155.6 billion abroad. The Economist Korea interview explains why: VT had turned away from China, where it judged the price war unwinnable, and pushed into Japan. Choi described a hard start, with about ₩2.5 billion of stock that VT came close to writing off. The Cica soothing line found its footing during the pandemic, and Reedle Shot followed. By Choi's account, Japan was about three-quarters of the cosmetics business in 2023.

2. Then Korea exploded, and cooled. Domestic cosmetics sales jumped from ₩21.4 billion in 2023 to ₩182.7 billion in 2024, more than eight times, after the Daiso and Olive Young launch. Part of the 2024 figure is ENC's outside contract work, consolidated from July. In 2025 domestic sales fell to ₩136.6 billion, down 25%.

3. Exports took over again. Cosmetics exports rose 69% in 2025, to ₩272.5 billion. VT's FY2025 annual report says it is in about 20,000 stores in Japan (Loft, Plaza, Welcia, Matsumoto Kiyoshi, Don Quijote) plus Qoo10, Rakuten and Amazon Japan. In the US it sells through Amazon US and TikTok Shop, and in stores at Ulta Beauty, Costco and Target. Asiae reported on 19 March 2026 that VT's US sales grew 326% in 2025, and that standalone revenue (VT Co., Ltd. alone, excluding subsidiaries) rose 19.3% to ₩381.1 billion. Brokerage research summarised by Alphadistill adds that Ulta took the brand into all of its roughly 1,400 stores in July 2025.

In Q1 2026, VT told Asiae that sales in Europe rose 870% and in the Middle East 200% year on year.

The laminating business is still there

GMP, the original business, sold ₩27.4 billion of laminators and film in 2025 (6.3% of group revenue) and ₩14.5 billion in H1 2026. It makes them at its own factory in Paju. The filing also describes GMP as Korea's largest designer and maker of induction heating rollers (the company's own claim), which are used in battery and flexible-circuit film production lines. VT also owns a housing developer (GMP Global), a biotech company working on an Alzheimer's treatment (VT Bio), and a fuel-cell power company (VT Ecoplant). They are small next to cosmetics.

The Other Side: What Should Make You Cautious

This is a growth story, but the filings show weak spots too.

Profit is falling while sales rise. Operating profit peaked at ₩110.9 billion in 2024, fell to ₩82.9 billion in 2025, and was ₩28.0 billion in H1 2026, against ₩58.1 billion a year earlier, even though H1 revenue rose 16%. Analysts quoted by Korean media blamed marketing spending for the US, Russia and other new markets. VT's Q3 2026 report is due by mid-November and will show whether the margin has recovered.

One product carries the company. Brokerage research put Reedle Shot at more than 80% of sales through late 2024, falling to about 62% in Q4 2025 as the PDRN line grew. That is better, but still a lot of weight on one franchise. Beauty hits fade, and Korea's domestic Reedle Shot sales already fell in 2025.

Japan is wobbling. Japan was VT's first big market. Brokerage research summarised by Alphadistill shows Japanese sales falling year on year in Q1 2026, and KB Securities expects a decline of about 3.8% for 2026 as a whole. VT has also bought the rest of its Japanese distributor, Cube Japan, after holding 20%, for about ₩6 billion. It is consolidated from Q1 2026, according to brokerage research summarised by Alphadistill. Cube Japan had ₩113 billion of revenue and a ₩5.1 billion operating loss in 2025. Consolidating it lifts VT's reported revenue but drags on its profit.

It does not make its own cosmetics. Contract manufacturing is normal in K-beauty and lets brands move fast, but it means VT's edge lies in product planning and marketing, not in factories. ENC is the exception it built to protect the key formulas.

A big property purchase. On 26 October 2026 VT agreed to buy a building in Seongsu-dong, Seoul for ₩79 billion (about $56 million), equal to 22% of its total assets, as a new head office. It plans to pay with its own cash and bank borrowing, with completion set for 24 December 2026. VT says it will save rent.

Governance. The controlling group holds 39%, part of it through an affiliated company (Cube) that the same executives run, and some founder shares are pledged for a loan. VT has paid no cash dividends for 2023–2025. It has bought back and cancelled shares instead, including a cancellation decided on 8 October 2026.

Older side bets. Over the years the company has also put money into housing development, an Alzheimer's drug candidate, fuel-cell power and, in 2021, hydrogen and lithium-sulphur battery projects (Asiae). None of them is a large business today.

What to Take From This

• VT Cosmetics is Korean. It belongs to VT Co., Ltd., a KOSDAQ-listed company in Paju controlled by co-CEO Jeong Cheol and related parties (39.25%).
• It started as a laminator maker. GMP was founded in 1986, went through a creditor rescue, bought VT Cosmetic in stages from 2017, merged with it in 2019 and took the VT name in 2023. It still makes laminators.
• Reedle Shot built the modern company. Cosmetics revenue rose from ₩177.0 billion in 2023 to ₩409.2 billion in 2025 (group revenue: ₩295.5 billion to ₩437.2 billion), with Japan first, then a Korean boom via Daiso and Olive Young, then the US and new markets.
• VT doesn't make the products itself. Cosmecca Korea and its own subsidiary ENC in Yongin make them.
• Watch the margin. Operating profit roughly halved in H1 2026 while sales grew.

If you came here from the product side, our Round Lab Dokdo Toner post looks at another Korean skincare bestseller, and our deep dives on MEDIHEAL, Numbuzin and Biodance answer the same "who owns it" question for other brands.

FAQ

Q: Is VT Cosmetics a Korean brand?

Yes. VT Cosmetics belongs to VT Co., Ltd. (주식회사 브이티), a Korean company listed on KOSDAQ (018290) with its registered head office in Paju, Gyeonggi Province. Its controlling shareholders are Korean individuals and a Korean company.

Q: Who owns VT Cosmetics?

Co-CEO Jeong Cheol (정철) is the largest shareholder with 16.96%. Together with co-CEO Kang Seung-gon, executive Jo Ha-na and Cube Entertainment, the controlling group held 39.25% on 30 June 2026, according to DART. Small shareholders own about 56%.

Q: Who makes VT Reedle Shot?

VT designs and sells it, but contract manufacturers produce it. The annual report names Cosmecca Korea and ENC, a Yongin factory company that VT owns 65.62% of. VT says it makes its key products at ENC to protect the formulas.

Q: Where is VT Reedle Shot made?

In Korea, by Korean contract manufacturers. VT has no cosmetics factory of its own. Check the "Made in" line on the pack you buy, as with any product.

Q: What is the micro-needle in Reedle Shot?

VT calls the ingredient CICA REEDLE: micro-needles impregnated with centella (cica) extract, according to SmartToday's 2023 report on VT's Korean and US patent filing. It causes a light prickle. Reedle Shot is a cosmetic, not a medical microneedling treatment.

Q: Is VT related to BTS?

VT launched a BTS collaboration in June 2017, starting with an essence sun pact, and later added products such as a collagen pact and a toothbrush kit. VT is not owned by BTS or HYBE. It is linked to a different K-pop agency, Cube Entertainment, through cross-shareholdings.

Q: Did VT start as a cosmetics company?

No. It was founded in 1986 as GMP, a maker of laminating machines and film, and listed in 1994. It bought into VT Cosmetic in 2017, merged with it in 2019 and renamed itself VT in 2023. Its subsidiary GMP still makes laminators in Paju.

Q: How much does Reedle Shot cost in Korea?

The 50 mL Reedle Shot 100 had a ₩32,000 list price on Glowpick in November 2026, and Korean shops discount it often. Daiso sells a related stick product at ₩3,000 for six 2 mL sticks. For Amazon, check the price on the listing.

Sources

• VT Co., Ltd., H1 2026 half-year report (corrected), filed 8 October 2026, DART receipt no. 20261008000451: company overview, name changes and spin-off (I.1–2), sales by segment and export/domestic split (II.2, II.4), contract manufacturing and named suppliers (II.3), shareholders (VII), affiliates and cross-holdings with Cube (IX), subsidiaries (XII), H1 2025 comparison (segment note)
• VT Co., Ltd., FY2025 annual report, filed 19 March 2026, DART receipt no. 20260319001002: 2025 results, Japan store count and channels, US retailers, ENC production rationale, no cash dividends
• VT Co., Ltd., FY2024 annual report, filed 19 March 2025, DART receipt no. 20250319000919: 2022–2024 results and sales tables, Cube deconsolidation
• VT GMP Co., Ltd., FY2019 annual report, filed 30 March 2020, DART receipt no. 20200330003472: 1986 incorporation, KDB normalisation agreement, changes of largest shareholder 2015–2018, VT Cosmetic stake purchases and 15 October 2019 merger, Cube Entertainment stake (30.61%, ₩29.1bn)
• Jeong Cheol, large-shareholding report, 2 October 2026, DART receipt no. 20261002000465: 39.25% group holding, 5.95% under major contracts, share-backed loan extension, Cube Entertainment's largest shareholder
• VT Co., Ltd., material-event report (acquisition of tangible assets), 26 October 2026, DART receipt no. 20261026000286: Seongsu-dong building, ₩79bn
• DART: VT H1 2026 half-year report
• DART: VT FY2025 annual report
• DART: VT GMP FY2019 annual report
• DART: VT Seongsu-dong property acquisition, 26 October 2026
• The Economist Korea, interview with VT Cosmetic vice president Choi Cheol-ho, 13 May 2024 (Japan-first launch in July 2023, ₩2.5bn stock, October 2023 Daiso and Olive Young launch, Daiso 1,500 stores)
• SmartToday, VT GMP files micro-needle composition patent for Reedle Shot, 15 June 2023
• SmartToday, Jeong Cheol block deal, 4 December 2024 (1.6m shares at ₩27,100, 850,000 to Cube, reason)
• Asiae, VT Q1 2026 sales ₩114.3bn, Europe and Middle East growth, 18 May 2026
• Asiae, VT GMP hydrogen and lithium-sulphur battery businesses, April 2021
• SmartToday, VT to buy ENC from Kang Seung-gon for ₩60.3bn, 22 July 2024 (stake, Cube shares ₩50.5bn plus ₩9.8bn cash, seller, Kang's Cube stake after the swap)
• Asiae, VT acquires 50.27% of ENC with Cube shares and cash, 22 July 2024
• Metro Seoul, VT buys an extra 5.4% of ENC (completed January 2025)
• Asiae, VT 2025 results, 19 March 2026 (standalone sales ₩381.1bn, US +326%)
• Alphadistill, summary of KB Securities and Meritz research on VT, 2026 (Reedle Shot share of sales, PDRN share, Q1 2026 Japan trend and 2026 Japan estimate, Ulta roll-out, foreign ownership, Cube Japan acquisition and 2025 results). Analyst estimates, not company filings.
• CosmeticsDesign-Asia, BTS and VT Cosmetics launch sun care cushion, 19 June 2017
• Glowpick (글로우픽) listing for VT Reedle Shot 100, 50 mL, ₩32,000, as checked for EpicKor's Daiso Korea price guide, November 2026
• FRED, DEXKOUS South Korean Won to U.S. Dollar spot rate: 2025 average ₩1,421.4

Last updated: 10 November 2026. Company figures, shareholdings, suppliers and history are from VT's filings on DART up to 26 October 2026; VT's Q3 2026 report had not been filed when this page was written. Regional sales splits, Reedle Shot and PDRN shares of sales, foreign ownership and the ENC payment structure are from press and brokerage research, not filings. Export share and per-mL prices are EpicKor calculations. Korean prices change with promotions, and Amazon listings can change. Dollar figures use ₩1,421 to the dollar. EpicKor has no commercial relationship with VT, and nothing here is investment advice.