GS25, First in Retail Industry to Receive 'Highest' Grade in Win-Win Growth Index

[Asia Economy Reporter Seungjin Lee] GS Retail’s convenience store GS25 announced that it received the ‘Highest Excellence’ grade for the first time in the distribution industry in the 2019 Win-Win Growth Index evaluation announced by the Win-Win Growth Committee (hereinafter referred to as the Committee) on the 8th.

The Win-Win Growth Index is a quantified indicator that evaluates the level of win-win growth of large corporations to promote win-win growth between large and small and medium-sized enterprises. Since 2011, the Committee has regularly announced it once a year in accordance with Article 20-2 of the Act on Promotion of Mutual Cooperation between Large Enterprises and Small and Medium Enterprises. GS Retail (GS25) was selected as ‘Excellent’ grade for the first time in the convenience store industry in the newly established ‘Franchise Business’ category in 2016, received the ‘Excellent’ grade for three consecutive years until 2018, and received the ‘Highest Excellence’ grade for the first time in the distribution industry in 2019.

GS25 explained that being the only company in the industry to be classified as ‘Excellent’ and ‘Highest Excellence’ grades for four consecutive years since 2016 was the result of continuous investment in store environment improvement despite difficult management conditions, introduction of various win-win support systems to improve franchisees’ profitability, and enhancement of franchisees’ operational satisfaction.

In addition, GS25 strengthened competitiveness by providing various support systems and platform services, securing the top position in the industry in daily sales per store, total sales, and operating profit. Furthermore, it supports an advanced operation system such as precise single-item management based on big data through store and customer analysis and automatic ordering, promoting operational innovation based on digital transformation in the post-COVID-19 era.

In particular, this year, various support activities conducted to share the pain of franchisees suffering from domestic demand recession due to the spread of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) and to overcome the crisis together received positive evaluations.

GS25 introduced a support program for franchisees in February this year and has been implementing emergency support measures by allocating a ‘special additional budget’ since March. Based on the strong trust relationship built over many years with franchisees, GS25 plans to continuously provide leading and differentiated win-win support by preparing effective measures.

Since signing the first voluntary compliance and mutual win-win cooperation agreement for fair trade in the industry in 2016, GS25 has signed win-win cooperation agreements with the Franchisee Council every year. In addition, GS25 directly supported franchise stores with win-win costs of 100 billion KRW in 2018 and 130 billion KRW in 2019, and in February 2020, announced a new win-win support system with support worth 150 billion KRW.

GS25 analyzes that sufficient prior consultation on various support for franchise operators and operation of a prevention and monitoring system for unfair trade practices were major factors for receiving the highest excellence grade.

Kim Sung-gi, Head of GS25 Support Division, said, “GS25 was able to receive the highest excellence grade in the Win-Win Growth Index as the only company in the industry as a result of considering various ways for franchise stores and headquarters to grow together over the past 30 years and practicing continuous communication,” and added, “GS25 will continue to be a company that sincerely coexists with franchisees and present a standard model of excellent franchise business in Korea.”

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