CJ Freshway Posts Record Results...Operating Profit Tops 100 Billion Won for First Time

Sales Up 7.9% and Operating Profit Up 8.1% Year-on-Year
Reflecting成果 of New Growth Models Such as O2O and Kitchenless

CJ Freshway has recorded its highest performance ever, surpassing 100 billion won in operating profit for the first time since its establishment.

CJ Freshway announced on February 5 that its operating profit for last year reached 101.7 billion won, up 8.1% from a year earlier. Sales rose 7.9% to 3.4811 trillion won. The company explained that, despite internal and external uncertainties, it upgraded its profitability-focused business model across all divisions, including distribution and food service, and preemptively secured online-based growth engines, which led to the improvement in results.

By business segment, sales from the distribution business (restaurant food ingredients and food raw materials) came to 1.5621 trillion won. The company said that last year’s merger with its subsidiary Fresh One strengthened synergies between product and logistics capabilities and improved operational efficiency, which had a positive impact on profitability. The online distribution business posted 55% annual sales growth, making visible the成果 of its O2O (Online to Offline) strategy that combines online and offline distribution capabilities. Its fundamental competitiveness, including acquiring new customers through channel diversification and its nationwide logistics infrastructure, supported the expansion of sales.

Sales from the food service business (food service ingredients and food services) amounted to 1.8934 trillion won. In the food service ingredients segment, sales increased on the back of expanded new orders centered on high-margin clients and the competitiveness of its private brand (PB) products. In the food services segment, the company maintained its growth trajectory by expanding its scale, focusing on large concession sites such as airports. Recently, it has been expanding its business scope through mobile catering and convenient meal services. As part of its "Kitchenless" model, which provides food services without kitchen facilities, related sales grew 22% year-on-year.

Provisional results for the fourth quarter showed sales of 898 billion won and operating profit of 30 billion won. These figures were up 5.6% and 19%, respectively, from the same period a year earlier, driving the full-year performance. Strengthening of online channels, expansion of food service operations to areas such as the military and apartment complexes, and recovery in hospital demand contributed to the improvement in sales and operating profit.

Im Sungchul, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of CJ Freshway, said, "By enhancing our fundamental competitiveness in areas such as products and logistics, and through digital transformation, we have established a profitability-centered growth structure and, as a result, achieved operating profit in the 100 billion won range for the first time since our founding." He added, "This year, we will focus on proving the effectiveness of our new growth engines in the market by accelerating the realization of our O2O成果 and fully implementing our Kitchenless strategy."

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