Emart Withdraws 'PK Market' After 5 Years... Hanam and Goyang Stores to Close by End of This Month

The No Brand Shop and PK Market set up at Starfield Goyang.

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] Emart will completely shut down its 'PK Market' business, which it ambitiously launched as a 'premium supermarket,' by the end of this month. It has been five years since the first store opened at Starfield Hanam in September 2016.

An Emart official stated on the 16th, "Since 2019, we have been restructuring our specialty store business focusing on profitability and efficiency," adding, "As part of this, the PK Markets at Starfield Hanam and Goyang will close on the 31st."

PK Market is a grocery specialty store first introduced by Emart in 2016. Although prices were higher than those at large discount stores, it differentiated itself by importing high-quality groceries from around the world at prices lower than Emart's top-tier food store, SSG Food Market. It also attracted attention with a new concept grocerant space that combined groceries and restaurants to maximize customer experience.

However, following the spread of COVID-19, demand for purchasing groceries online increased, and demand for warehouse-type discount stores with lower prices grew, which is believed to have led to the eventual closure of PK Market.

Emart explained that the withdrawal of PK Market is part of the specialty store business restructuring led by CEO Kang Hee-seok. Following a strategy to expand specialty stores with high business potential and close those with low efficiency, they have closed miscellaneous goods specialty store Pierrot Shopping and health & beauty (H&B) store Boots. Earlier this year, the PK Mart Starfield City Wirye branch closed in March, and the remaining two locations, Starfield Hanam and Goyang, have also been decided to close.

Instead, they are expanding discount stores emphasizing cost-effectiveness such as No Brand and experiential electronics stores like Electromart. No Brand has maintained seven consecutive quarters of profit since its first profit in the first quarter of last year, and Electromart has increased from 44 stores in 2019 to 55 stores currently this year. Accordingly, Emart's specialty store business, which posted a deficit of 86.6 billion KRW in 2019, reduced its operating loss to 34.6 billion KRW last year and 7.8 billion KRW through the third quarter this year.

An Emart official explained, "The focused strategy of selecting and concentrating on specialty stores with high business potential to secure both growth and profitability, while closing those that do not, is showing clear results," adding, "Even though some specialty stores have closed, the overall sales scale of specialty stores has actually increased, and operating profits continue to improve."

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