Homeplus appoints new CEO from Carver Korea
Homeplus' new CEO Lee Jae-hoon / Courtesy of Homeplus
By Anna J. Park
Retail store chain Homeplus has appointed Lee Jae-hoon, current CEO of Carver Korea, as its new CEO. The new CEO will begin to work next month.
His appointment came three months after the retailer's previous CEO Lim Il-soon resigned in January. Lim held the position since October 2017.
As Lee, 56, has decades of CEO experience leading various businesses, including KFC Korea, Pizza Hut Korea, now the attention is on whether the new leader could turn around the retail shopping company's deteriorating revenues during the pandemic period.
Despite its position as the country's second-largest retail chain business following Emart, Homeplus has seen its revenues as well as operating profits dwindle over the past year.
During the fiscal year of 2019 ― from March 2019 to February 2020 ― the company's annual revenue stood at 7.3 trillion won ($6.5 billion), a 5 percent fall from the previous year, while its year-on-year operating profit shrank by 38 percent.
It is expected that the company will mark a further fall in revenue and profits during the March 2020 to February 2021 period due to the economic shock from COVID-19. Based on worsening revenues, Homeplus closed down a few of its regional branches.
“The newly appointed CEO has earned respected recognition of the industry as the CEO of retail, distribution and consumer products. We expect CEO Lee will further lead Homeplus' growth based on his excellent expertise and vast experience,” an official from Homeplus highlighted.
Lee began his career at the Bank of Korea as a trader in 1989, after he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School MBA program.