The 59th Regular Shareholders' Meeting of Binggrae Held on the 20th
Attended by About 100 Shareholders
"We have succeeded in exporting plant-based Merona to Europe, which was previously a barren land for food exports. We will continue to challenge ourselves to leap forward as a global food company."
Jeon Chang-won, CEO of Binggrae, emphasized his commitment to overseas expansion at the 59th regular shareholders' meeting held on the 20th.
At the regular shareholders' meeting held at Binggrae's Namyangju factory that morning, CEO Jeon stated, "Binggrae is opening a new horizon for K-food based on its representative brands that have been loved in the domestic market for a long time," adding, "We will increase the proportion of overseas sales through continuous overseas expansion."
In response to the domestic ice cream market stagnation caused by low birth rates and population decline, CEO Jeon has recently been focusing more on overseas markets. In fact, the number of countries to which Binggrae exports has increased from about 20 countries in 2022 to over 30 countries currently. During this period, overseas sales reached 104.2 billion KRW in 2022, 125.3 billion KRW in 2023, and accumulated exports of 120.7 billion KRW by the third quarter of last year. The export ratio of total sales also rose from 8.4% in 2021 to 10.5% in 2023, continuing to increase to 12% last year.
In particular, as CEO Jeon mentioned, Binggrae is targeting Europe and Oceania regions such as the Netherlands, Germany, the United Kingdom, and France by overcoming non-tariff barriers applied to imported dairy products, led by plant-based Merona. As a result, sales of plant-based Merona in the European region in the first half of the year achieved more than triple the previous year's performance.
With export success, last year Binggrae surpassed operating profit of 100 billion KRW for the first time since its founding. Binggrae recorded consolidated sales of 1.463 trillion KRW and operating profit of 131.3 billion KRW last year. This represents increases of 4.9% and 17%, respectively, compared to the previous year. Net profit for the same period rose 19.7% to 103.2 billion KRW.
CEO Jeon said, "Binggrae is laying the foundation for long-term growth through profitability improvement and efficient resource allocation," adding, "We will expand shareholder value through active communication with shareholders."
Meanwhile, the shareholders' meeting was held with about 100 shareholders participating, and all agenda items including approval of consolidated financial statements, appointment of directors, appointment of auditors, approval of director remuneration limits, and approval of auditor remuneration limits were passed as originally proposed.
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