CJ Cheiljedang posts record-high earnings in Q2

South Korea's food giant CJ Cheiljedang Corp. posted record-high earnings in the second quarter of this year, breaking its own record from the first quarter thanks to its food and bio businesses posting strong growth.

On Aug. 9, CJ Cheiljedang announced that it logged an operating profit of 379.9 billion won ($330.8 million) in Q2, up by 26% compared to the year-earlier period and also the highest figure reported since its inception. Its revenue climbed by 8.5% to reach around 3.8 trillion won during the same period.

Also, the company's Q2 operating profit margin stood at 10.1%, marking the first time for CJ Cheiljedang to report a double-digit margin for the quarter since the adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in 2011.

According to a company official, the company's impressive performance is owing to maximizing its bio business' profitability while also improving the profit structure of its food business such as minimizing price increases for raw materials and ingredients.

CJ Cheiljedang's food business posted revenue of 2.2 trillion won, a 5% increase compared to the previous year with its operating profit also increasing by 6% to 129.9 billion won.

The growth of the company's food business was mainly driven by the home-cooking trend in Korea as CJ Cheiljedang saw increased sales of its frozen food product brand Bibigo and instant rice brand Haetban. In the US, the company's Bibigo Mandu, or dumplings, becoming the top-selling product across large retail channels.

The company's bio business also reported strong growth with its sales surging to 917.6 billion won, up by 23.5% compared to the year-earlier period, alongside its operating profit jumping to 193.9 billion won, up by 74.8% during the same period thanks to developing profitable products and diversifying global production hubs.

Write to Sul-li Jun at sljun@hankyung.com
Danbee Lee edited this article.