Busan City Begins Construction of 'Global Hub City' Forward Base... Groundbreaking for 'BGF Retail Busan New Logistics Center'

Groundbreaking Ceremony at 2:30 PM on the 3rd, Attended by Mayor, BGF Group Chairman, and Busan Jinhae Free Economic Zone Authority Head

Targeting Operation in Second Half of 2026 ... 220 Billion KRW Investment and 800 New Jobs Created

The city of Busan announced that a groundbreaking ceremony for BGF Retail's new logistics center in Busan will be held at 2:30 p.m. on the 3rd at the construction site in Guran-dong, Gangseo-gu.

Bird's-eye view of BGF Retail Busan New Logistics Center.

The ceremony will be attended by over 100 people, including Mayor Park Hyungjoon, BGF Group Chairman Hong Seokjo, and Kim Kiyoung, Commissioner of the Busan-Jinhae Free Economic Zone Authority, and will proceed in the order of opening ceremony, commemorative speech, congratulatory address, and groundbreaking ceremony.

This groundbreaking marks the full-scale realization of BGF Retail's investment in building a new logistics center in Busan, which is the second major corporate investment attraction achieved since Mayor Park took office.

BGF Retail is a major corporation operating logistics, food manufacturing, and service industries, centered around CU, the number one convenience store in Korea.

Starting with the groundbreaking, BGF Retail will begin construction of the new logistics center in Busan, with a total floor area of 128,000 square meters on a 47,000 square meter site in the International Industrial Logistics City in Gangseo-gu, aiming to begin operations in the second half of 2026. The company plans to invest 220 billion won and newly hire about 800 operational staff, including production management, on-site workers, and delivery drivers.

With the construction of this new logistics center, BGF Retail will have its largest logistics center in Busan. Notably, the International Industrial Logistics City, where the center will be located, is within the Busan-Jinhae Free Economic Zone, adjacent to the Busan New Port, boasting the nation's best logistics transportation network, and is also close to the upcoming Gadeokdo New Airport, scheduled to open in 2029. This positions the logistics center as a future export base.

BGF Retail is already exporting its private brand (PB) products to more than 20 countries, including the United States, China, the United Kingdom, and Hong Kong.

BGF Retail's major logistics centers include: ① Jincheon Central Logistics Center (opened in 2019, CDC, land area 8,200 pyeong) and ② Gwangju Logistics Center (opened in 2020, land area 4,000 pyeong).

The city expects that, following the construction of BGF Retail's new logistics center, if global logistics and distribution companies such as Lotte Shopping, Coupang, and LX International, which have already been attracted for investment, also establish their logistics centers in Busan, these facilities will create synergy with Busan's world-class logistics infrastructure and dramatically change the landscape of Korea's logistics and distribution industry, serving as an outpost for realizing 'Global Hub City Busan.'

Busan already possesses the world's second-largest transshipment port and the seventh-largest container port, and with the opening of Gadeokdo New Airport, an excellent air logistics network and digital innovation technology, it has ample potential as a global logistics hub.

Hong Seokjo, Chairman of BGF Group, stated, "The new logistics center to be built in Busan, the logistics hub of our country, will create various jobs and contribute to the development of the local economy, and will help Busan take a step forward as a 'global hub city.' As logistics infrastructure has played a major role in CU's expansion into larger markets, the Busan logistics center will fulfill its role as the largest distribution and logistics base in the southern region," he commented at the groundbreaking ceremony.

BGF Retail operates over 550 stores overseas, including in Mongolia and Malaysia. In particular, in Mongolia, the company recently opened its 400th store and achieved a surplus, and in March this year, it became the first in the domestic industry to open its first store in Kazakhstan, further accelerating its overseas expansion.

Mayor Park Hyungjoon said, "I am very pleased that BGF Retail, the operator of Korea's number one convenience store CU, is breaking ground on a new logistics center that will serve as an outpost for realizing 'Global Hub City Busan.' Amid even more challenging circumstances than during the COVID-19 period due to the triple-high phenomenon, BGF Retail's bold investment of 220 billion won will serve as a catalyst for Busan's leap as a true 'global hub city.' Recently, favorable conditions for Busan's transformation into a 'global hub city' are rapidly being established. The city has secured essential budgets for the early opening of Gadeokdo New Airport in the 2025 government budget proposal, and the 'Busan Global Hub City Special Act' includes many provisions necessary for Busan to join the ranks of world-class cities. Based on this, we will do our best to make Busan a 'global hub city' like London, Dubai, and Singapore, where people, capital, and logistics converge, so that investment-attracted companies like BGF Retail can grow in favorable conditions and environments," he said.

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