ING Story, Operator of Jaksim Study Cafe, Acquires and Merges 'Coffee Only' with Srasio Strategy

The Thrasio strategy involves acquiring and merging small to medium-sized companies that have grown to a certain scale but face limitations due to insufficient investment in capital, technology, and specialized personnel, thereby reducing initial investment costs. The core of the business is to leverage the acquired company's specialized workforce to generate higher returns, creating economies of scale and enhancing competitiveness. This business model is known as the Amazon roll-up strategy, and companies pursuing this model are called Amazon aggregators.

ING Story, which operates the premium study cafe and reading room brand ZAKSIM, has recently been actively acquiring or investing in promising brands as a 'brand aggregator.' Among them, they have decisively acquired the professional cafe franchise brand COFFEE ONLY under the Thrasio strategy. ING Story currently operates over 700 study cafes and reading rooms nationwide, including the ZAKSIM brand, and has proposed the role of 'key tenant' to building and shopping mall owners to increase property value and operational profits. They are now preparing to officially introduce another startup brand to the market.

Kang Nam-gu, CEO of ING Story, stated, “Asset owners prioritize whether their invested assets are being managed stably over the amount of expenditure. In fact, asset stability has been one of the reasons assets could grow,” adding, “Going forward, only sustainable brands that can effectively serve as key tenants, like ZAKSIM, will be spotlighted as stable investment destinations. Currently, COFFEE ONLY shows promising growth potential as a key tenant brand on basement level 1 and first floor. We plan to apply ZAKSIM’s growth secrets and undergo rebranding to successfully establish the COFFEE ONLY brand in the low-priced coffee market.”