E-Mart to open 1st S.Korean convenience store in Cambodia

E-Mart Inc. is set to launch the first South Korean convenience store in Cambodia as the struggling hypermarket giant aims to seek growth opportunities in overseas markets, especially Southeast Asia.

E-Mart24 Inc., its wholly owned subsidiary, on Thursday signed a memorandum of understanding for the Cambodian business with the country’s Saisons Brother Holding Co. and South Korea’s Hanlim Architecture Group Co.

The No. 4 convenience store operator in South Korea plans to open its first branch in Phnom Penh in the first half of 2024 after tying up in a joint venture called E-Mart24 Cambodia between Saisons and Hanlim. The unit of South Korea’s top supermarket chain E-Mart aims to gradually increase the number of Cambodian stores to 100 in five years depending on market conditions.

“We will make efforts to successfully settle the business in Cambodia while considering making inroads into other countries,” an E-Mart24 official in Seoul said.

South Korea’s convenience stores are expanding their businesses in Southeast Asia for new growth abroad as the local market is likely to become saturated given the falling population with a low birthrate.

STRONG GROWTH POTENTIAL

E-Mart24 has been seeking to start the convenience store business in the Southeast Asian country with strong growth potential in the long term. The Cambodian economy was expanding by more than 7% a year as of 2019, while the country with a population of 17 million attracted some 6.6 million international visitors in the same year despite COVID-19. 

The company made inroads into Malaysia in June 2021 and Singapore in December last year. It is currently operating 39 stores and three branches, respectively, in the two countries with an aim to raise the number to 300 each in the next five years.

The move came as earnings of its parent E-Mart, a unit of South Korean retail giant Shinsegae Group, deteriorated. E-Mart said its net loss and operating loss on a consolidated basis widened in the second quarter from a year earlier.

Saisons operates businesses in various industries such as retail, agriculture and construction, starting from the food and beverage sector in 2010.

Hanlim, a South Korean architecture firm providing comprehensive real estate services, is working on property developments in Southeast Asia with units in Cambodia, Vietnam and Myanmar. The company set up Hanlim Cambodia Co. in 2017.

Write to Young Chan Song at 0full@hankyung.com
 
Jongwoo Cheon edited this article.