Shinsegae to invest W4 tril., hire 14,400 workers

By Lee Hyo-sik

Shinsegae Group has decided to invest 4.1 trillion won ($3.4 billion) this year and hire 14,400 new workers, Korea’s leading retail conglomerate said Thursday.

It said it had initially planned to invest 3.5 trillion won in 2016, but decided to raise that by 20 percent in order to help revitalize the sagging domestic economy.

“The overall retail sector has been struggling to deal with continued sluggish domestic consumption,” a Shinsegae Group official said. “But we decided to invest more and hire more workers to find new growth engines and help inject vigor into the stagnant domestic market.”

The group plans to mobilize its resources in opening 10 multipurpose shopping centers across the country.

It will first invest 1 trillion won to complete Hanam Union Square, its multipurpose shopping mall southeast of Seoul in Hanam, Gyeonggi Province, this year. Shinsegae expects the facility, built on a 117,000 square-meter site, will hire about 5,000 workers and attract more than 10 million Chinese and other foreign tourists annually.

The group also plans to open three new department stores this year in Hanam, Gimhae in South Gyeongsang Province and Daegu. It will also expand its stores in southern Seoul and downtown Busan.

Shinsegae Duty Free has been transforming a section of the group’s main department store in downtown Seoul into an upscale duty free store. The new shop is scheduled to open in May, which the group expects will emerge as one of Korea’s most-visited duty free shops.

E-Mart, the discount store unit of Shinsegae Group, plans to strengthen its online mall business by budgeting 150 billion won for the construction of a logistics center in Gimpo, Gyeonggi Province. The facility will help the company more effectively compete with Coupang and other online-based retailers.

E-Mart also said it will expand the size of its existing stores and upgrade its website, as well as set up more stores in Vietnam and other Southeast Asian nations.

“Business conditions at home and abroad have largely been unfavorable for us,” Shinsegae Group Vice Chairman Chung Yong-jin said. “We expect to bear fruits this year from our investments in multipurpose shopping centers, duty free shops and department stores. We will continue to invest and hire workers as a leading retailer to help bolster the domestic economy.