On Monday, E-Mart Inc., South Korea’s leading retailer, reported that its net loss had increased in the second quarter compared to the same period of the prior year due to a decline in consumer sentiment and high inflation.
The company’s consolidated net loss for the three months ending in June was 103.2 billion won (US$77.4 million), a greater figure than the 63.1 billion won loss in the same period of 2019. Additionally, its operating loss rose to 53 billion won in the April-June period from a loss of 12.3 billion won a year earlier, while sales inched up 1.7 percent to 7.27 trillion won.
E-Mart attributed its weak performance to the domestic market’s slump in the face of high inflation and rate hikes. Its discount store business saw a revenue of 3.94 trillion won in the second quarter, a 0.5 percent decrease year-on-year, with an operating loss of 25.8 billion won and a net loss of 79 billion won.
Meanwhile, the company’s e-commerce affiliates — SSG.com and Gmarket — reported sales of 427 billion won and 292.5 billion won respectively, with SSG.com’s operating loss decreasing 22.2 billion won to 18.3 billion won and Gmarket’s operating loss contracting 6.9 billion won to 11.3 billion won.
Sales of SCK Company, the operator of Starbucks in South Korea, rose 6.2 percent on-year to 707 billion won, and sales of convenience store chain emart24 increased 7.2 percent on-year to 574.4 billion won. However, SCK Company’s operating profit dropped 11.1 billion won to 36.4 billion won and emart24’s operating profit went down 900 million won to 3.4 billion won.
Josun Hotels & Resorts Co., the retailer’s accommodations business, saw its sales surge 18.9 percent on-year to 138.5 percent.
The corporate logo of E-Mart (Yonhap)