Pulmuone's Group Catering and US Subsidiary Growth Drive 1Q Operating Profit Up 101%

Q1 Sales and Operating Profit Up 12% and 101% Year-on-Year

Pulmuone achieved strong first-quarter results, driven by the expansion of group meal service orders in the Food Service Distribution Division and the growth of its U.S. subsidiary.

On the 16th, Pulmuone announced through a public disclosure that its operating profit for the first quarter of this year reached 12.3 billion KRW, a 101.2% increase compared to the same period last year, and sales grew by 12.2% to 730 billion KRW. Overall sales growth was led by an increase of 43.2 billion KRW in the Food Service Distribution Division compared to the previous year, while operating profit surged significantly due to expanded profits from domestic group meal services, concessions, and rest areas, as well as price increases and logistics cost reductions at the U.S. subsidiary.

By business segment, the Food Manufacturing and Distribution Division saw sales grow 37.5% in business-to-business (B2B) channels due to improvements in meal facility water quality and expansion into new channels such as military supply contracts. However, business-to-consumer (B2C) performance slightly declined compared to the previous year due to reduced home dining following the endemic phase.

The Food Service Distribution Division recorded a 32.0% year-on-year increase in first-quarter sales to 178.3 billion KRW and turned to operating profit of 1.4 billion KRW, up 7.4 billion KRW from the previous year, driven by overall growth in meal services following the end of remote work, and recovery in dining-out demand due to increased visitors at rest areas and airports.

Overseas operations, including the U.S., Japan, China, and Vietnam, achieved first-quarter sales of 147.1 billion KRW, a 10% increase year-on-year, led by strong sales growth of tofu and Asian noodles from the core U.S. subsidiary. Operating losses decreased by 640 million KRW from 7.2 billion KRW in the same period last year to 6.56 billion KRW. The company expects continued improvement in loss reduction this year through internal cost improvement activities, price increases, and stabilization of logistics costs.

Kim Jongheon, Head of Financial Management at Pulmuone, stated, "This year, we will focus on profitability recovery by concentrating on targeting new channels with profitability in domestic business and implementing cost structure improvements and proactive price increases in overseas business. In the mid to long term, we will achieve sustainable growth based on profitability by developing differentiated new businesses such as customized meal plans using AI-based customer data in line with our digital transformation strategy."

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