Market Kurly Preparing for 'Listing Within the Year', CEO Kim Seul-ah Expresses 'Confidence in Growth'

[Asia Economy Reporter Yuri Kim] "(Although deficits have continued since the founding) prioritizing customer value to increase volume is the most important. In the food market, the online penetration rate is about 20%, so there is still high growth potential, and Market Kurly's growth will continue."

◆"Online Food, Just the Beginning"

Seula Kim, CEO of Kurly, expressed confidence in the business at her first public appearance after officially announcing the pursuit of an initial public offering (IPO) on the 30th. CEO Kim emphasized, "The online food business is the largest market among retail markets and the least transitioned to online," adding, "There will be sufficient business opportunities even with just domestic market growth." She foresees the domestic online food market growing more than threefold, and Market Kurly is confident it will grow in step with this trend.

Market Kurly is an online grocery shopping service started in 2015 from CEO Kim’s concern about whether "good products could be delivered fresh to homes." Since the service began, sales have more than doubled annually. Last year, sales reached about 1 trillion won. The number of service subscribers, which was around 50,000 in 2015, exceeded 7 million last year.

Although deficits have continued since its founding, CEO Kim dismissed concerns about this. She said, "If we pursue profitability alone in a rapidly growing market with much value to create for customers, priorities will be reversed," emphasizing, "We will continue to grow volume by providing more services to customers as we have done so far, and based on this, we will also secure efficiency." Market Kurly recorded an operating loss of 116.2 billion won last year. Although this increased compared to 2019 (101.2 billion won), the company views the significant reduction in the loss-to-sales ratio as encouraging.

◆"Beyond the Capital Region"

To apply this philosophy, Market Kurly opened the Gimpo Logistics Center last month. With a total area of 82,644㎡ (25,000 pyeong), it is the largest fresh food logistics center in Korea. The company emphasized that it is optimized to maintain product freshness by having refrigerated, frozen, and room temperature centers. By introducing the automated ‘QPS (Quick Picking System),’ the workflow was minimized to improve productivity. Market Kurly’s daily order processing capacity increased from 220,000 boxes to 440,000 boxes.

Market Kurly plans to expand its dawn delivery service to densely populated areas outside the capital region within the first half of this year. The Chungcheong region, including Daejeon and Sejong, is a likely target. The funds secured through the IPO planned for this year will be focused on workforce investment, while also considering service expansion to major regional areas. CEO Kim said, "I hope this logistics center expansion will be a stepping stone for greater growth as Korea’s leading dawn delivery company."

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