Emart Turns to Loss Despite Achieving 7 Trillion Won Sales for 2 Consecutive Quarters... Operating Loss of 12.3 Billion Won (Update)

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeon Jinyoung] Emart continued its growth by surpassing 7 trillion KRW in consolidated sales for the second consecutive quarter. However, operating profit turned to a loss due to increased selling and administrative expenses such as labor costs and depreciation arising from the acquisition of Gmarket.

Emart announced on the 11th that it posted an operating loss of 12.3 billion KRW on a consolidated basis in the second quarter, turning to a deficit. This was due to a decrease in operating profit in the separate business segment caused by increased selling and administrative expenses including personnel costs. During the same period, sales increased by 21.9% to 7.1473 trillion KRW, and net loss for the period turned to a deficit of 63.1 billion KRW.

Looking at the performance by business division, total sales at discount stores rose 4.1% year-on-year to 2.9002 trillion KRW, and existing stores also grew 3.8%, continuing the growth trend for eight consecutive quarters. Specialty stores recorded an operating profit of 3.4 billion KRW, an improvement of 5.2 billion KRW year-on-year, due to business structure reorganization.

An Emart official stated, “We continued to achieve record-high sales through balanced growth of online and offline affiliates. In the second half of the year, we will further improve profitability by strengthening product competitiveness, expanding PL products, and enhancing logistics efficiency.”