CJ Freshway, 3Q Food Ingredient Sales Growth... Operating Profit Declines Due to Infrastructure Investment (Comprehensive)

Food Ingredient Distribution Sales Reach 596 Billion KRW... Driving Sales Growth
Significantly Reducing Debt Burden to Strengthen Financial Soundness

CJ Freshway's consolidated operating profit for the third quarter of this year was tentatively estimated at 30.2 billion KRW, a 14.2% decrease compared to the same period last year. During the same period, sales increased by 7.6% to 809 billion KRW, while net profit decreased by 8.8% to 22.9 billion KRW.

Sales growth was driven by stable revenue increases in the food ingredient distribution business and the food service business, maintaining a 7.6% growth compared to the same period last year. However, operating profit declined by 14.2% due to infrastructure investments aimed at building a foundation for future growth.

By business segment, sales in the food ingredient distribution business grew 4.5% year-on-year to 596 billion KRW. Within this, the school meal ingredient business expanded differentiated products based on lifecycle-specific specialized solutions such as Ainuri (Kids) and Healthy Nuri (Senior), recording sales of 216.7 billion KRW, a 15.6% increase compared to the same period last year.

Sales in the food service business increased by 21.1% year-on-year to 197.5 billion KRW. Growth was driven by increasing new orders based on a business strategy focused on automation and operational efficiency. Strengthening content such as the ready meal corner 'Snack Pick', developing specialized menus tailored to customers to build menu assets, and utilizing the ‘Fresh Meal’ application for digitalization of group meals all contributed to positive customer responses, leading to sales growth.

Furthermore, supported by healthy cash flow from the growth of the food ingredient distribution and food service businesses, financial soundness was also strengthened. Through continuous repayment of borrowings, the proportion of short-term borrowings decreased significantly from 63% at the end of last year to 35%, and the debt dependency ratio fell from 33% to 23%, substantially reducing the burden of borrowings.

A CJ Freshway official stated, “We are continuously growing by evolving into a food solution provider that supports customer success through ongoing communication with customers. Based on improved financial soundness, we will accelerate securing a super-gap competitiveness for mid- to long-term growth by expanding platform business capabilities, strengthening solution provider competitiveness, and establishing a future-oriented food service foundation.”

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