Structural Reforms and Foreign Demand Drive GS Retail's Q1 Operating Profit Up 39% Year-on-Year

GS25 Convenience Stores: Expansion of Fresh-Focused Outlets Drives Growth

BTS Comeback Concert Spurs 73% Surge in Foreign Customer Sales

Supermarkets and Home Shopping Achieve Synchronized Growth

GS Retail, the operator of convenience store chain GS25, saw a significant improvement in profitability in the first quarter of this year. The company accelerated structural reforms to boost efficiency at its core convenience store business by focusing on high-performing stores, while sales to foreign tourists surged due to the BTS comeback concert. The corporate supermarket (SSM) and home shopping segments also strengthened their fundamentals, contributing to the rebound in overall performance.

Foreign customers are lining up at GS25 stores to purchase K-pop idol albums. Provided by GS Retail

On May 7, GS Retail announced in a regulatory filing that its consolidated operating profit for the first quarter reached 58.3 billion won, up 39.4% from the same period last year. Revenue rose 3.8% to 2.8549 trillion won, and net profit soared 783.6% to 42.5 billion won.

By business segment, first-quarter sales at the convenience store division increased 3.7% year-on-year to 2.0863 trillion won, with operating profit rising 23.8% to 21.3 billion won. The company’s strategy of expanding fresh-focused stores—targeting one- to two-person households and strengthening grocery offerings such as agricultural, livestock, and fisheries products, seasonings, and ready-to-eat meals—proved effective. As of the first quarter of this year, GS25 operated 836 fresh-focused stores, an increase of around 240 locations compared to the same period last year. These stores recorded average daily sales 1.6 times higher than regular stores.

Instead of simply adding more outlets, GS Retail pursued a "scrap and build" strategy of expanding or relocating existing stores to prime locations. As a result, same-store sales for locations operating more than one year increased by 4.7% compared to the previous year. In addition, sales to foreign customers—measured by payment methods like Alipay and WeChat Pay—jumped 73% from a year earlier. The company attributed the rise in foreign customer sales in part to the BTS comeback concert held in Gwanghwamun Square this March.

The SSM (corporate supermarket) division, GS The Fresh, reported first-quarter sales of 453.4 billion won, up 9% year-on-year, and operating profit of 12.1 billion won, a 55.1% increase. The company cited synergies from its 589 industry-leading stores and the growing use of its quick commerce service, which delivers products within one hour of ordering. First-quarter quick commerce sales for GS The Fresh rose 32.8% compared to the same period last year, with the share of quick commerce sales in total supermarket revenue reaching 9.7%, up 1.8 percentage points year-on-year.

Elsewhere, the home shopping business GS Shop saw first-quarter sales rise 1.6% year-on-year to 262 billion won, while operating profit climbed 32.6% to 29.7 billion won. GS Shop drove sales growth by expanding new and exclusive products in key categories such as fashion, beauty, health, and food, and by leveraging integrated sales strategies across TV, mobile, and social networking services (SNS).

A GS Retail representative stated, "Our focus last year on building a growth foundation centered on our core business with a customer-first perspective is reflected in our first-quarter results," adding, "We will continue efforts to strengthen our business structure and ensure stable, long-term growth."

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