Lotte Mart's Performance Declines... First Ever 'Voluntary Retirement for All Levels' Since Establishment

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] Lotte Mart is conducting voluntary retirement for all job levels from entry-level employees to managers for the first time since its founding.

According to the distribution industry on the 25th, Lotte Mart recently decided to accept voluntary retirement applications from regular employees with more than 10 years of service at the same job level among approximately 4,300 employees. This is the first time since Lotte Mart's establishment in 1998 that voluntary retirement has been offered to all job levels. It is known that indefinite contract workers such as cashiers are excluded.

A Lotte Mart official explained, "This is an unavoidable decision due to deteriorating performance," and added, "Voluntary retirement will be carried out entirely based on the applicants' voluntary intention."

Voluntary retirees will receive severance pay of up to 27 months of their base salary depending on their years of service. Additionally, those with university student children will receive 5 million KRW per child as tuition support.

Lotte Mart has experienced sluggish performance, with a cumulative operating loss of 66 billion KRW over the past three years. To overcome the crisis, it closed 12 stores last year and implemented unpaid leave for volunteers from July to December. It is also known that about 50 employees resigned after a regular voluntary retirement application was accepted at the end of last year.

Lotte Mart plans to close additional unprofitable stores this year as well.

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