First Town Hall Meeting of the New Year Held on the 19th
Last Year’s Open Market Sector Achieved Annual Positive EBITDA
"Growth Flywheel" Strategy to Be Further Advanced
Mart and Fashion Chosen as Key Categories
Strengthening Seller-Oriented Platform
Ahn Jung-eun, CEO of 11st, expressed his ambition to focus on management aimed at improving profitability this year and achieve an annual positive EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization).
11st, a subsidiary of SK Square, announced on the 20th that CEO Ahn held the first town hall meeting of the new year on the 19th at the company headquarters in Gwangmyeong-si, Gyeonggi-do, presenting the 2025 goals that include this plan to all employees.
CEO Ahn stated, "Through strengthening the core competitiveness of commerce and focusing on profitability-centered management, we achieved an annual EBITDA surplus of over 10 billion KRW last year in our main business, the open market sector. Riding this steady improvement trend, we will succeed in turning the entire 11st’s EBITDA positive this year, including the open market and retail (direct purchase) businesses."
Generally, a positive EBITDA is used as an indicator that a company has started to generate cash from its operating activities. It is seen as a green light toward achieving operating profit profitability. In fact, 11st’s open market sector turned operating profit positive in March last year and continued an 11-month streak of profits through January this year. Additionally, the cumulative operating profit of the open market sector last year improved by nearly 26 billion KRW compared to the same period the previous year. The retail business also showed performance improvements, and 11st’s total annual operating loss last year is estimated to have decreased by more than 50 billion KRW compared to the previous year.
As a strategic direction for achieving profitability this year, CEO Ahn proposed the "advancement of the growth flywheel." This refers to the organic virtuous cycle effect created by the core elements of e-commerce: product, price, traffic, delivery, and convenience.
11st has selected "Mart" and "Fashion" as key categories this year and plans to enhance customer lock-in effects by strengthening free membership programs and delivery capabilities. It also intends to expand the ultra-low-price product lineup to attract and encourage customer purchases. Furthermore, it will activate the growth flywheel by improving support policies to invigorate sellers’ sales activities and enhance search functions to increase sales.
CEO Ahn emphasized, "This year as well, 11st will not stop challenging itself and will create a more valuable platform for customers and sellers to achieve sustainable growth without fail."
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