Woongjin has completed the acquisition of FreedLife, the leading funeral service company in Korea, and announced its transformation into a “Total Life Care” company. This vision entails accompanying individuals through all stages of life, from infancy and school years to young adulthood, middle age, old age, and eventually funerals.
In preparation for the super-aging society, Woongjin has identified funeral services as a future growth engine and acquired the industry leader FreedLife last month. With the rapid increase in the elderly population, the domestic silver industry market is expected to grow to 168 trillion won by 2030.
The concept of “Total Life Care” views people’s lives as a single journey, providing tailored services needed at each stage. Woongjin aims to go a step further by proactively predicting and designing services according to the evolving demands in life flow, defining itself as a “life companion” that continuously provides related platforms, content, and services. They recognize the need for infrastructure and capabilities to understand and execute this comprehensively.
Woongjin already holds key business sectors that encompass the life cycle, such as education, leisure, beauty, health, logistics, and IT. Their education subsidiary, Woongjin Thinkbig, offers collections and digital learning content for infants and cognitive improvement programs for lifelong learning for the elderly.
The book logistics company Woongjin Books can be utilized as a nationwide distribution network for funeral logistics. Woongjin IT, based on its experience in developing tailored solutions for various industries, is expected to digitally transform FreedLife’s operations with systems like SAP-based ERP, digital mobility solutions (WDMS), and a rental management system (WRMS).
Woongjin’s deep understanding of direct sales and prepaid installment transactions, built from leading the “world’s first home appliance rental” market, is considered an asset. They have expertise in maintaining long-term contracts based on trust and managing systematic customer management and settlement systems. It is expected that this will allow them to operate the core membership-based prepaid business structure of funeral services more stably and transparently.
A Woongjin representative stated, “FreedLife will become a new axis opening Woongjin’s future,” and added that their entry into the funeral market reflects a “restoration of the value of being a person-and-lifestyle-focused company,” as well as their ambition to evolve into a company that takes care of customers’ entire lives.