Dongwha brings global employees together
Employees of Dongwha Group pose for a photo during the Global Dongwha Festival, a gathering of the group’s workforce for teambuilding and bonding, held Sept. 9 and 10 at the convention center of Hotel Hyundai in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province. Under the stewardship of Chairman Seung Myung-ho, the group invited employees from Malaysia, Vietnam, New Zealand and Australia. / Courtesy of Dongwha Group
By Kim Tae-gyu
Dongwha Group brought hundreds of its employees from around the world to Korea’s historic city of Gyeongju for the Global Dongwha Festival, Sept. 9 and 10.
Held annually since 2003, the two-day event brings a global workforce together for teambuilding and bonding.
“While having fun via various activities like quizes on our group’s history and cultural performances, our employees come together. The festival is a part of efforts to achieve our group-wide initiative of realizing a better work environment,” a Dongwha official said.
“We hosted this year’s festivities in Gyeongju, a 2,000 year old city, in the hopes that we will also be able to survive and thrive for a long time.”
Gyeongju, about 370 kilometers southeast of Seoul, was the capital of the Silla Kingdom (B.C. 57-935 A.D.), which ruled around two-thirds of the Korean Peninsula at its peak.
Rich archaeological sites and cultural properties make the city one of Korea’s most popular tourist destinations.
“The Global Dongwha Festival helps us form a shared culture, which is crucial as members of the same group. I think it also boosts our top and bottom lines,” the official said.
Under the stewardship of Chairman Seung Myung-ho, Dongwha set a performance record in 2014 with 565.2 billion won in sales and 56.2 billion won in operating profit. It broke that record the very next year with 674.7 billion won in turnover and 78.7 billion won in operating income.
During the first half of this year, it racked up 338.6 billion won in sales, up 4 percent from last year, and 44.8 billion won in operating profit, up 6.2 percent.
In particular, its overseas operation underpins the group’s income statements ― its Vietnamese unit, which started operations in 2012, now enjoys an operating profit ratio over 30 percent.
Established in 1948 as a wood producer, Dongwha Group has become one of the nation’s leading players in building decorative materials, manufacturing wood boards, chemicals, construction and homebuilding materials and substances.
The Seoul-headquartered group extended its business horizon to secondhand automobiles by founding Dongwha M Park in 2011 and most recently to media via the acquisition of the Hankook Ilbo and The Korea Times.
It holds a total of five subsidiaries including Dongwha Enterprise, the leading floor material maker here, and Daesung Wood, the top-tier player in the domestic timber industry.
Dongwha is second to none as far as wood materials are concerned ― it has more than two-thirds of the local particle board market and a quarter of the medium density fireboard market.
The group has also actively tapped into the global market with four overseas production bases in Malaysia, Vietnam, Australia and New Zealand.