GS Retail and Home Shopping Merger Proposal Passed at General Meeting, Hyunsoo Heo: "Nationwide Stores as Delivery Hubs"

Hyunsoo Heo, Vice Chairman of GS Retail.

[Asia Economy Reporter Yuri Kim] The merger plan between GS Retail and GS Home Shopping has passed the extraordinary general meeting of shareholders. The two companies will officially launch as the integrated GS Retail on July 1. Huh Yeon-su, Vice Chairman of GS Retail, said, "Through this merger, we will leap forward as an integrated online and offline commerce platform leading customer lifestyles."

On the 28th, GS Retail held an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders at the GS Retail Northeast Office in Gangdong-gu, Seoul, and announced that the merger approval agenda with GS Home Shopping had passed. The approval rate of attending shareholders was 98.47%. The surviving entity after the merger will be GS Retail, and the merger date is set for July 1.

Vice Chairman Huh, who attended as the chairman of the extraordinary general meeting, said, "Due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, all businesses are rapidly shifting to mobile and platform-centered models, and especially within the distribution industry, tectonic shifts and competition for leadership are intensifying. We will provide seamless total solutions that connect online and offline centered on digital commerce, enabling customers to fulfill all shopping needs without channel distinctions."

To this end, the integrated GS Retail plans to integrate the core competencies and assets of both companies in IT, data, products, and logistics, strengthen platform businesses such as quick commerce and subscription economy, focus on nurturing digital commerce, and discover new businesses. To compete with e-commerce platforms like Coupang and Naver Shopping, they plan to utilize over 16,000 GS25 and GS The Fresh (GS Supermarket) stores nationwide as 'urban logistics centers.' By using these, it is expected that consumers will be able to receive delivery services within two hours.

Vice Chairman Huh said, "We will secure innovative last-mile competitiveness through differentiated product competitiveness and integrated delivery infrastructure," adding, "we will actively expand new stores that maximize customer experience in store spaces." To this end, GS Retail recently acquired a 19.53% stake in Mesh Korea, which operates Burung.

Home Shopping plans to grow new product categories and handled brands through active investment in data home shopping (T-commerce) and expand its business areas to direct-to-consumer (D2C) platforms and live commerce.

GS Retail aims to achieve a transaction volume of 25 trillion won by 2025 through an investment of 1 trillion won over five years.

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