Baemin and SK Shieldus Join Hands to Nationwide Deploy Serving Robots

Woowa Brothers - SK Shielders Form Strategic Partnership for Serving Robot Business
SK Shielders Handles Sales, Consultation, and Contracts, Baemin Responsible for Robot Installation and AS
New Serving Robot Launch in March, Aiming for Serving Robot Popularization Year in 2024

Kim Min-su, Head of Serving Robot Division at Woowa Brothers (left), and Kim Yoon-ho, Head of Strategic Business Group at SK Shieldus, are posing for a commemorative photo after signing a "Strategic Business Partnership Agreement for Serving Robot Business" on the 18th at Garden Five in Munjeong-dong, Seoul.

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Cheol-hyun] Baedal Minjok's serving robot 'Dilly Plate' will spread nationwide through the sales and marketing infrastructure of SK Group's affiliate SK Shieldus.

Woowa Brothers, operator of Baemin (CEO Kim Beom-jun), announced on the 21st that it signed a 'Strategic Partnership Agreement for Serving Robot Business' with SK Shieldus (CEO Park Jin-hyo) on the 18th at Garden Five in Munjeong-dong, Songpa-gu, Seoul.

SK Shieldus is a life care platform company born after last year’s merger of information security company SK Infosec and ADT Caps, and it has sales and marketing infrastructure nationwide.

This agreement was made to expand Baemin's serving robot rental business, which started in November 2019, nationwide and to advance the management system including robot installation and maintenance. Going forward, SK Shieldus will handle customer-related tasks such as sales, consultation, and contracts related to serving robots, while Baemin will be responsible for robot installation, after-sales service (A/S), and technical support.

Serving robots have been steadily increasing in demand as their advantage of improving store operation efficiency has been highlighted in a social atmosphere that prefers non-face-to-face services. As of the end of last year, Baemin supplied about 630 serving robots to over 500 stores nationwide. The serving robots installed in stores perform about 2,000 servings per month, averaging 6 hours per day.

Based on this partnership, the two companies plan to make this year the first year of popularizing serving robots and focus on their distribution. In particular, since SK Shieldus has various types of customers ranging from government agencies to public enterprises, large corporations, small and medium-sized enterprises, and individual business owners, the demand for serving robots, which had been limited to restaurants, is expected to expand significantly into various fields.

Baemin will also introduce a new robot 'Dilly S' with significantly improved performance compared to existing serving robots as it expands the business scale with SK Shieldus. Dilly S has enhanced stability and excellent obstacle avoidance ability using laser radar and cameras. It is equipped with a large 10.1-inch touchscreen that can indicate the robot’s direction in advance and also has customer service functions.

Park Jin-hyo, CEO of SK Shieldus, said, "With this agreement, customers from various industries will be able to introduce serving robots at reasonable costs, which will greatly improve operational efficiency within business sites. In the future, we will expand new business models based on big tech, including robots, across life care by entering various fields using robots."

Kim Beom-jun, CEO of Woowa Brothers, said, "We expect that the combination of Baedal Minjok’s accumulated robot business know-how and SK Shieldus’s professional sales infrastructure will accelerate the distribution of serving robots. We hope this partnership will be an opportunity for robots to be used not only in restaurants and cafes but also in various other places."

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