What’s Happening to the 'Good Franchise'... Joining the Fight to Overcome COVID-19

Minister Park Young-sun of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups (fourth from the right) is holding hand sanitizer and smiling brightly with Jeong Hyun-sik, Chairman of the Korea Franchise Industry Association (third from the right), and other franchise officials. This photo was taken at the 'Good Franchise Chat Meeting' held on the 4th at Myeongryun Jinsagalbi Yeouido branch in Seoul.
Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Daeseop] Amid the spread of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), "Good Franchises" that have engaged in win-win cooperation with their franchisees are gaining attention. Park Young-sun, Minister of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, has expressed her gratitude directly to these Good Franchises, as they have become a great force in overcoming the COVID-19 crisis.

According to the Ministry of SMEs and Startups and the franchise industry on the 8th, the number of Good Franchises participating in overcoming COVID-19 has exceeded 45 franchisors, with the number of supported franchise stores surpassing 63,000.

Haemaro Food Service, the franchisor owning the fast-food brand "Mom's Touch," is providing price reductions on goods and encouragement funds to franchise stores included in the movement paths of confirmed cases. According to the Fair Trade Commission's disclosure document (as of December 31, 2018), Haemaro Food Service operates 1,167 franchise stores nationwide.

Aroma Trade, which operates about 130 domestic franchise stores of the specialty candle brand "Yankee Candle," is reducing part of the product supply costs for all franchise stores and providing free hand sanitizers. The gimbap specialty franchise "Kim Ga Ne" supported a two-month waiver of franchise fees and royalty exemptions for all 440 franchise stores (worth about 100 million KRW).

BGF Retail, which operates the convenience store franchise "CU," has fully borne the disposal costs of fresh foods (such as lunch boxes) at stores visited by confirmed cases, provided self-disinfection support for stores visited by suspected cases, and offered living stabilization loan support through the "Franchisee Win-Win Cooperation Fund." CU has 13,040 convenience stores nationwide.

Ttobongi F&S distributed more than 10,000 masks to "Ttobongi Tongdak" franchise stores and also supported a 15% price discount at the company's expense. The widely known franchise entrepreneur Baek Jong-won, who founded The Born Korea, is cooperating with franchise stores by waiving franchise fees for two months and lowering prices of major food ingredients. This franchise owns brands such as "Hanshin Pocha" and "Paik's Coffee."

Myeongnyundang, which owns the "Myeongnyun Jinsa Galbi" brand, supported full one-month rent for 522 franchise stores nationwide. The total monthly rent supported this time amounts to 2.3 billion KRW. They also prepared a support fund of 500 million KRW to assist temporarily closed stores.

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups is actively working to increase the number of such Good Franchises. On the 4th, Minister Park Young-sun personally visited the Myeongnyun Jinsa Galbi Yeouido branch in Seoul and met with Jung Hyun-sik, Chairman of the Korea Franchise Industry Association, Kang Hyung-jun, CEO of Myeongnyundang, and Won Jong-min, Chairman of the Myeongnyundang Franchisee Association, expressing her gratitude for their participation in overcoming COVID-19.

An official from the Ministry of SMEs and Startups said, "We will prepare and implement various support measures, such as lowering the policy fund interest rate by 0.3 percentage points for Good Franchise franchisors using the SME policy fund budget."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.