Han Chaeyang, Emart CEO: "Core Business, Channels, and New Ventures as the Three Pillars to Overcome Low Growth"

15th Annual General Meeting Held on March 26

Agenda Items Passed, Including Improvements to Dividend Procedures

Concluded Quietly Without Minority Shareholder Issues

Han Chaeyang, CEO of Emart, presented three core strategies for this year, stating that the company will secure a foundation for growth by strengthening its core business competitiveness, innovating its channels, and fostering new businesses, even in a low-growth environment.

At the 15th Annual General Meeting of Shareholders held at Post Tower on Sogong-ro, Jung-gu, Seoul on March 26, CEO Han announced, “We will further strengthen our core business competitiveness in areas such as products, marketing, and stores to accelerate external growth.” She explained that the company aims to attract more customers by expanding purchase volumes, strengthening private label (PL) and ultra-low-priced products, and reorganizing the “Goraeit Festa.”

CEO Han stated, “We will convert at least six Emart hypermarkets to mall-type formats, and for about 30 other stores, we will comprehensively improve facilities and experiential elements.” She added, “To enhance regional customer accessibility, we will actively expand small-format stores such as No Brand and Everyday, and plan to open a new Traders store in Uijeongbu by the end of the year.”

On March 26, Han Chaeyang, CEO of Emart, delivering a greeting at the 15th regular shareholders' meeting of Emart. Emart

She also said, “We will further expand our omnichannel services, connecting online and offline seamlessly,” and added, “We will strengthen pickup and delivery services based on the Emart app, and further expand quick commerce services in response to consumption trends focused on immediacy.”

Additionally, she stated, “We will focus on fostering new growth engines such as retail media and overseas businesses to establish a foundation for mid- to long-term profitability. We will also gradually introduce new technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics to improve work productivity and proactively respond to new business environments.”

At the shareholders’ meeting, Emart revised certain provisions in line with amendments to the Commercial Act. The company proposed improvements to the dividend process, such as increasing dividends, confirming the dividend amount in advance, and designating the dividend record date. This allows shareholders to anticipate dividend yields, which is beneficial for investment decisions. The provision excluding the cumulative voting system was also removed. The cumulative voting system is a mechanism that grants shareholders as many votes as the number of directors to be elected per share, thereby increasing the chances for minority shareholders to join the board of directors.

Other agenda items approved as originally proposed included: ▲ Approval of the 15th financial statements and consolidated financial statements ▲ Appointment of inside directors ▲ Appointment of audit committee members ▲ Approval of plans for holding and disposing of treasury shares ▲ Decision on the limit of directors’ remuneration, among others.

Meanwhile, unlike last year, the shareholders’ meeting was concluded quietly. Last year, the Economic Reform Solidarity, an economic expert group, and ACT, a minority shareholder action platform, had warned CEO Han that they might engage in collective action at this year’s meeting if the company failed to present concrete plans to enhance corporate value. However, they did not appear at the meeting this year.

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