Jung Yong-jin, the Chairman of Shinsegae Group, marked his first anniversary in office by announcing the official resumption of growth. Promoted to chairman on March 8 last year, he has laid the foundation for the group’s resurgence through rigorous innovation.
The growth strategy is divided into two tracks. Leading subsidiaries like E-Mart and Starbucks will strive for an overwhelming market dominance over competitors. Meanwhile, sectors such as e-commerce and construction, which were underperforming last year, aim to achieve full management normalization and establish a solid foundation for growth this year.
E-Mart spearheads this growth resumption. Last month, Chairman Jung demonstrated his commitment to responsible management and confidence in improving performance by acquiring 10% of the E-Mart shares from Lee Myung-hee, the General Manager of Shinsegae Group.
This year, E-Mart will open three new stores in the metropolitan area. Many of these new outlets are being planned as Traders, which since its debut in 2010, has become the top warehouse-style discount store in terms of location count in Korea.
In an environment where online shopping prevails, the core strategy is to transform stores into places that customers “want to visit deliberately.” To achieve this, there are plans to continuously increase differentiated store formats, like food markets.
Starbucks, which surpassed 3 trillion won in annual sales last year, will continue to expand its dominant market presence. Within the group, Starbucks ranks third in sales behind E-Mart and Shinsegae Department Store. This year, Starbucks plans to open more than 100 new locations.
The ‘No Brand Product Introduction Store’ initiative by convenience store E-Mart 24 surpassed 1,000 stores early this year. These stores have average daily sales that are 38% higher than the overall store average. E-Mart 24 plans to expand the number of No Brand stores to 2,500 by the end of this year and to 4,000 next year, aiming to sell No Brand products in over 60% of their stores.
Chairman Jung commented, “It’s essential to focus on personnel decisions based on the principle of rewarding achievements to enhance the group’s core value of customer satisfaction and press down on the accelerator for growth. We will give appropriate rewards to those who bring about results through change and challenges, and continue to encourage innovation.”