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Emart reports best quarterly earnings in 8 years on retail innovations

Published: 12 May. 2025, 17:46 Updated: 12 May. 2025, 17:49

Shoppers enter Emart Food Market's Godeok branch in Gangdong District, eastern Seoul, on its opening day on April 17. [NEWS1]

Emart reported its strongest quarterly earnings in eight years for this year's January-March period, powered by deep cost restructuring and a renewed focus on core retail operations.

The Korean retailer said Monday that consolidated revenue for the first quarter rose 0.2 percent from a year earlier to 7.22 trillion won ($5.1 billion), while operating profit jumped 238.2 percent to 159.3 billion won. This marks the highest quarterly operating profit since 2017.

On a standalone basis, revenue reached 4.63 trillion won, up 10.1 percent on year, while operating profit surged 43.1 percent to 133.3 billion won.

“Our efforts to reinforce the competitiveness of our core retail business through continued innovation are beginning to deliver tangible results,” the company said in a statement.

“We’ll continue to pursue stable, profit-driven growth through innovations in pricing, products and retail space.”

The turnaround follows an aggressive restructuring campaign led by Shinsegae Group Chairman Chung Yong-jin, who pushed for sweeping changes after Emart posted its first annual loss in 2023.

In November of that year, Chung reorganized the company’s corporate strategy office and called for a full-scale overhaul.

Shinsegae Group Chairman Chung Yong-jin [SHINSEGAE]

"The worse the economy gets, the more we need to focus on strengthening our core competencies," he told employees in March this year, which marked his first year as chairman.

"We must build overwhelming dominance that competitors can’t challenge,” he added.

Emart carried out its first-ever voluntary retirement program and consolidated operations to streamline its organization. Last July, it merged with supermarket subsidiary Emart Everyday and established a cooperative purchasing system with Emart Everyday and Emart24 convenience stores to cut costs.

"We've been able to offer daily necessities at the lowest everyday prices through major promotions like our 'Shock Price Declaration' and ‘Goraeat Festa,'" an Emart spokesperson said, adding that it was made possible due to the integrated buying strategy.

Emart's strategy of emphasizing grocery retail has also borne fruit. Specialty food stores such as Starfield Market and Emart Food Market posted strong results.

Starfield Market’s Jukjeon location saw a 21 percent increase in revenue on year, while the Munhyeon, Yongsan and Mokdong branches saw sales rise 35 percent, 11 percent and 6 percent, respectively, in the first quarter.

“Innovations in store layout focused on groceries, a core strength of offline retail, helped boost customer traffic to our hypermarkets by more than 2 percent in the first quarter,” the company said.

Customers enter a Traders Wholesale Club's Magok branch in Gangseo District, western Seoul, on Feb. 14. [NEWS1]

Warehouse club chain Traders also contributed solid results. It posted 42.3 billion won in operating profit, up 36.9 percent on year. The new Magok location, which opened in February, broke the company’s record for highest opening weekend sales and now leads all 23 Traders stores in revenue.

Subsidiaries such as SCK Company — which operates Starbucks Korea — Shinsegae Food and Emart24 also reported robust earnings.

Yet e-commerce operations continued to struggle. SSG.com saw revenue drop 13.7 percent on year to 356.8 billion won, while operating losses widened by 4.2 billion won to 18.1 billion won.

“The expansion of logistics centers and delivery services increased our temporary cost burden,” an SSG.com spokesperson said.

Gmarket, which is exploring a joint venture with Alibaba, also reported a 21.4 percent drop in revenue to 200.6 billion won and a deeper operating loss of 12.1 billion won, up 3.6 billion won in losses from a year earlier.

Translated from the JoongAng Ilbo using generative AI and edited by Korea JoongAng Daily staff.
BY CHOI HYUN-JU [[email protected]]