Retail News CRM

Tag: emart24

  • Emart24 opens its first store in Singapore

    Emart24 opens its first store in Singapore

    E-Mart’s convenience store chain Emart24 has opened its first store in Singapore, becoming the first Korean convenience store chain to operate in the city state amid the retailer’s push for overseas expansion.

    The first store is located in the Jurong Point shopping centre, west of Singapore. The second store is set to open Saturday in Nex Mall, a shopping mall in the city’s northeastern region.

    A joint venture company called Emart24 Singapore Pte Ltd will operate Emart24 convenience stores through a master franchise agreement, it said.

    Singapore-based food and beverage giant Fei Siong Group is one of the investors in the joint venture, the South Korean retailer said.

    The two stores will focus on Korean-style fast foods and ready-to-eat meals, such as tteokbokki and gimbab, seaweed rice rolls with vegetables. The retailer plans to add up to 300 stores over the next five years, it said.

    Singapore is the second country for Emart24 to enter after it opened its first convenience store in Malaysia in June last year.

    Further reading, earlier this year, Emart disclosed its plan to open 20 hypermarkets in Vietnam by 2026 and generate US$1 billion in sales, becoming the hypermarket chain with the largest market share in the country.

  • Emart24 ups the booze to capture solo drinker market

    Emart24 ups the booze to capture solo drinker market

    Convenience store chain Emart24 will expand its alcohol selection tenfold at around 500 branches this year, the brand said Wednesday. The products will be offered using the shop-in-shop model with 120 products, including wine, whiskey and micro-beers, displayed in a dedicated corner. Three to six racks will be added at each outlet to hold the products.

    The company explained the efforts are motivated by the rise of solo drinkers, those who enjoy a few drinks after work as opposed to drinking in larger groups.

    The reduction of the workweek to 52 hours and changing lifestyles, which prioritize work-life balance, have further driven up the number of solo drinkers. Before the announcement, the convenience store tested the shop-in-shop model at 19 branches for two months from November. Sales of wine, craft beer and whiskey increased 20-fold. Overall sales at these 19 branches doubled.

    Emart24 said it plans to expand the shop-in-shop concept to products other than alcohol in the future. It is considering fresh food and imported snacks.

    Lees ook:

  • Ministop South Korea is for sale, rivals compete

    Ministop South Korea is for sale, rivals compete

    South Korean retail operators Lotte and Shinsegae are competing to buy the 21-year-old local subsidiary of Japanese convenience-store operator Ministop.

    Shinsegae and Lotte respectively own rival chains Emart24 and 7-Eleven and are both reportedly seeking to take full ownership of Ministop South Korea. Both companies see the deal as a means to grow their respective businesses in a market where convenience-store penetration has reached saturation point, limiting opportunities for organic network growth.

    7-Eleven currently operates 9535 stores across South Korea and Emart24 3413. The Ministop network numbers just 2535.

    Japan’s Aeon, which owns the Ministop brand, owns a majority 76 per cent of the South Korean business.

    Daesang group owns 20 per cent and Mitsubishi the balance. Aeon has appointed Nomura Securities to find a buyer for the business as it sees little future for the convenience store brand in South Korea, a highly competitive market. Instead, Aeon is looking to Southeast Asian markets for growth, including Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia.

    Last year, Ministop South Korea sales totalled 1.18 trillion won (US$1 billion), ranking it fourth in revenue terms behind GS25, CU and 7-Eleven.

    Lees ook:

  • Emart24 opens swanky cafes overlooking Han river Korea

    Emart24 opens swanky cafes overlooking Han river Korea

    Convenience store Emart24 is hoping to entice visitors to stay awhile at its two new shops overlooking the Han River that open this Friday.

    The multi-level stores will each host a bookstore and cafe that will offer beer on tap.

    Emart24 is taking over the spaces from two existing observatory cafes which face each other at the south end of Dongjak Bridge. Both spots are known for offering great sunset and nighttime views.

    On the bridge’s western side, the cafe’s view includes N Seoul Tower, while the cafe on the east side looks toward the Moonlight Rainbow Fountain at Banpo Bridge.

    Each Emart24 will have five floors: a cafe and snack zone on the first and second floor, a small bookshop and lounge on the third and fourth and an outdoor rooftop on the fifth.

    “The new operations were aimed to look more like a cafe in order to break through the perception people have about convenience stores and make them into a cultural space,” said Emart24 in a statement released Wednesday.

    True to this concept, Emart24 will only offer one-fifth as many products at the Han River shops as its normal branches. However, it will offer a wider variety of desserts, like cake, puddings and macarons. Baristas will also serve up coffee at the cafe.

    Riverside drinkers will find two beers made from the craft brewery Devil’s Door, run by Emart24’s parent company Shinsegae, as well as Heineken draft beer. Wine options are set to be added in the future.

    The Gureum and Noeul Cafes that Emart24 is taking over are two of eight observatory cafes on the Han River. These cafes were part of an initiative by the Seoul Metropolitan Government to develop cultural and tourism infrastructure on the banks of the Han back in 2009. The sites were rented out by the city and made into coffee shops or restaurants, but not all of the operations were successful.

    An Emart24 spokesman said the company won a three-year contract for Gureum and Noeul, the two largest observatory cafes by the Han River.

    “The company sees it more like an experiment rather than a profitable revenue source,” said the spokesman. “We thought if we make it into a cultural space where people can casually stop by without an entrance fee, more people and foreigners would want to come.”

    The bookstore on the third and fourth floors will offer around 800 titles. Every quarter, local publishing house Munhak Dongnae will curate a new selection.

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook: