Curly's Path to IPO... Pressing the Four-Stage Pedal

Curly Approaching Listing
Strengthening Business with 'Two-Track Strategy'

Diversifying Food Products and Expanding Delivery Areas
Individually Establishing 'Beauty Curly' and Enhancing Open Market
Opening Offline Store in Seongsu-dong
Operating 'Brand Hall' for Singapore Expansion

[Asia Economy Reporter Yuri Kim] With the Korea Exchange’s preliminary listing review approval, Kurly is rapidly approaching its stock market debut and is igniting business expansion with a 'two-track strategy' until the finish line. In addition to strengthening its core food sector, it is also expanding its non-food categories and extending its platform from online to offline. It is broadening its footprint in the domestic market while also knocking on the door of overseas markets.

According to the distribution and financial investment industries on the 23rd, Kurly, which operates Market Kurly, received the Korea Exchange’s preliminary listing approval the day before. Kurly plans to adjust the timing of its listing considering market conditions. Industry insiders expect that even if Kurly’s corporate value falls short of expectations amid unfavorable domestic and international stock market conditions, it will choose to gradually increase its value by visualizing business performance after listing. As the first among the three dawn delivery companies aiming for a listing this year, there is significant industry interest in Kurly’s moves.

To strengthen its business, Kurly is enhancing its existing main food category while expanding into non-food areas. Kurly plans to diversify its food assortment, which goes through its own verification process?a key strength?and to expand delivery zones by opening additional logistics centers in Changwon, Gyeongnam, and Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi, next year, thereby increasing loyal dawn delivery customers within regional metropolitan areas.

To expand the non-food sector, which currently accounts for about one-third of its business, Kurly pre-opened ‘Beauty Kurly’ as a separate category on the 28th of last month. The beauty products are segmented by product characteristics and organized like an independent beauty mall for easy browsing. Users can access it by clicking a separate tab at the top when visiting Market Kurly, enhancing usability. Kurly plans to officially launch Beauty Kurly in the fourth quarter of this year by adding luxury brands.

Kurly is also strengthening its ‘Marketplace’ telecommunication sales brokerage service, centered on lifestyle products. This involves expanding a platform brokerage model where sellers directly deliver products to buyers, covering lifestyle items such as home appliances and leisure tickets. This approach allows Kurly to secure diverse revenue sources, including commission fees from brokerage sales, in addition to direct-purchase dawn delivery, while reducing inventory burdens. Kurly plans to introduce this service only in areas where direct purchase and delivery to customers are not strictly necessary, after verifying sellers, differentiating itself from general open markets and reinforcing this service.

The stage, previously limited to online, will also expand offline. Kurly plans to open ‘Off Kurly’ in Seongsu-dong, Seoul, next month. Rather than a traditional offline store like a mart or supermarket, it will be presented as an experiential flagship store. Various products, including Market Kurly’s private brand (PB) ‘Curlys,’ will be showcased. Kurly stated, "We are thinking of increasing customer touchpoints and growing the crossover customer base between online and offline."

Beyond the domestic market, Kurly is also knocking on overseas doors. This month, Kurly opened a ‘Market Kurly Brand Hall’ on RedMart, a Singaporean food platform operated by Lazada Group, a leading Southeast Asian e-commerce company, marking the start of its overseas market entry. Starting with K-food such as kalguksu (hand-cut noodles), mandu (dumplings), and tteokbokki (spicy rice cakes), Kurly plans to increase export volumes and product numbers going forward.

Kurly’s sales grew from 46.6 billion KRW in 2017 to about 1.5614 trillion KRW last year, but as the scale increased, its deficit also widened from 12.4 billion KRW to 217.7 billion KRW during the same period. A distribution industry official said, "Kurly’s efforts to expand its core business volume through logistics infrastructure expansion, while also attempting to broaden online categories and extend its stage to offline and overseas markets, aim to simultaneously achieve external growth and revenue diversification. Since the market is particularly sensitive to performance before and after listing, Kurly is expected to pursue these initiatives more aggressively for the time being."

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