The Mamma signs MOU with Korea Mart Association... "Secured over 60,000 prospective franchise stores"

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoo Hyun-seok] TheMamma announced on the 19th that it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Korea Mart Association to jointly promote mobile food ingredient O2O services and electronic shelf label (ESL) business.

TheMamma is a distribution IT company operating the local food ingredient mart shopping apps 'MammaMeokja' and 'MaZa'. It sells fresh food and industrial products from franchised neighborhood marts nationwide through the apps and provides same-day delivery services. It also operates directly managed food ingredient marts in Seoul, the metropolitan area, and the Chungcheong region. The company is preparing for a KOSDAQ initial public offering (IPO) next year.

The Korea Mart Association is a corporation established to protect the rights and interests of about 60,000 small and medium-sized marts nationwide and 300,000 workers employed there. To support member companies' growth, it promotes logistics, marketing, apps, partner expansion, and discovers convergence businesses. It monitors government projects and proposes budgets to ensure that policies for protecting and fostering small merchants are substantively reflected.

According to this MOU, member companies of the Korea Mart Association will sequentially sign franchise contracts with TheMamma. They will register as franchise stores on TheMamma's food ingredient shopping apps such as MammaMeokja and MaZa and sell products. Accordingly, the trend of expanding TheMamma franchises is expected to accelerate.

The MOU also includes that TheMamma will exclusively supply its self-developed ESL solution to the Korea Mart Association members. The Korea Mart Association plans to actively encourage member marts to adopt TheMamma ESL. TheMamma aims to play a leading role in enabling ESL, which is spreading mainly in large marts and convenience stores, to quickly establish itself in neighborhood marts as well.

The Korea Mart Association has decided not to sign another MOU with other companies containing the same or similar content as the one signed with TheMamma. This means it will not enter into franchise contracts at the association level with other food ingredient shopping apps or collaborate with other ESL suppliers. This decision reflects agreement with TheMamma’s business philosophy, which pursues coexistence with local commercial districts and innovation in small mart distribution.

Kim Min-su, CEO of TheMamma, said, "Neighborhood marts have several advantages that large corporations cannot have," adding, "If systematic IT is introduced to neighborhood marts, they can secure sufficient competitiveness." He continued, "TheMamma will do its best to support the retail tech development and distribution innovation of marts affiliated with the association."

Kim Sung-min, chairman of the Korea Mart Association, emphasized, "Small and medium marts are currently facing many difficulties, but I hope we can overcome these challenges with the energy of Kim Min-su, CEO of TheMamma, who created something out of nothing," and added, "Furthermore, we will actively cooperate in areas where the association can help."

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