Lotte to Advance Payment of 700 Billion KRW to Partner Companies

Payment to over 14,000 partners advanced by about 12 days
Department stores, marts, Chilseong, and 27 affiliates participate

Lotte will advance the payment of approximately 700 billion KRW in delivery payments to about 14,000 partner companies, considering the concentrated cash demand situation such as bonuses and payment settlements before the holidays. Twenty-seven Lotte Group affiliates, including Lotte Department Store, Lotte Mart, Lotte Chilsung Beverage, Lotte Aluminum, Lotte Information & Communication, and Lotte Global Logistics, will participate, moving the payment date at the end of January forward by an average of 12 days to complete payments by the 20th.

Since 2013, Lotte has implemented early payment of delivery payments before holidays and operates a win-win growth fund worth about 1 trillion KRW. To improve cash flow for partner companies, Lotte introduced the win-win payment system across all affiliates in 2018, the first among large corporations. As a result of consistent win-win cooperation between large and small-medium enterprises, Lotte Department Store and Lotte Chemical received the '2022 Korea Win-Win Growth Award' from the Win-Win Growth Committee last year.

This year, the group plans to continue win-win activities at the group level to grow together with partner companies. Lotte is considering establishing an offline recruitment event to help partner companies secure excellent personnel and a 'Lotte Group Partner Company Recruitment Center (tentative)' utilizing employment platforms. Through the 'Win-Win Growth Academy,' customized education for partner companies will also be provided, including ESG (environment, social, governance) and safety management, and consulting to activate sales using big data.

Meanwhile, Lotte has expanded the support project for partner companies' overseas market development, which was previously conducted by each affiliate, to the group level. In September last year, six Lotte distribution affiliates (home shopping, department store, mart, duty-free shop, Hi-Mart, Korea Seven) held the 'Lotte-Korea Brand Expo,' the largest domestic small and medium enterprise overseas market development project, in both Germany and the United States.