Shinsegae replaces CEOs of 8 affiliates to resuscitate slowing retail biz

Customers visit an Emart Traders shop in Incheon, Sept. 5. Courtesy of Emart

New Gmarket CEO James Chang / Courtesy of Shinsegae Group

Retail giant Shinsegae Group replaced the CEOs of its eight affiliates in a regular personnel shakeup announced Friday, a possible sign of profitability slowdown.

The group said it has replaced 10 CEOs at eight affiliates: Gmarket, SSG.com, Shinsegae DF, Shinsegae Food, Shinsegae International, Shinsegae E&C, Josun Hotels & Resorts and Shinsegae Live Shopping.

Shinsegae Group said the latest personnel reshuffle was “aimed primarily at overcoming challenges and restoring competitiveness, with a stronger emphasis on performance than ever before.”

Shinsegae Group is comprised of two main divisions — the retail division led by Chairperson Chung Yong-jin and the department store division led by Chairperson Chung Yoo-kyung.

More sweeping changes were evident in the retail division, which replaced the CEOs of five affiliates — Gmarket, SSG.com, Shinsegae Food, Shinsegae E&C and Josun Hotels & Resorts.

Of special interest was the new Gmarket CEO, James Chang. Gmarket is set to become a subsidiary of Grand Opus Holding, a 50:50 joint venture between the group and China’s Alibaba.

Chang, a Korean Canadian, is a co-founder of Lazada Philippines, a unit of Southeast Asian e-commerce platform Lazada, a subsidiary of Alibaba.

Shinsegae said Chang will spearhead Gmarket’s renewed vision for growth by promoting sellers’ global expansion and enhancing artificial intelligence (AI) technology capabilities.

Choi Taek-won, head of sales at Emart, has been appointed as the new CEO of SSG.com. Shinsegae said Choi is a supply chain management expert and expected to establish closer cooperation between Emart and SSG.com to maximize the latter’s competitiveness in fresh food and other differentiated categories.

Both Gmarket and SSG.com are two main pillars of Shinsegae’s e-commerce business, but have been posting disappointing numbers in recent years. Gmarket’s accumulated operating profit in the second quarter of this year reached 29.8 billion won ($21.1 million), while that of SSG.com stood at 31 billion won during the same period.

In the department division, Shinsegae DF, which oversees the group’s duty-free business, appointed Lee Seok-gu, CEO of Shinsegae Live Shopping, as its new head. Lee previously served as CEO of Josun Hotels and Starbucks Korea.

Shinsegae DF posted operating losses in the first and second quarters of this year, and is struggling after failing to reach an agreement with Incheon International Airport Corp. on its duty free business license.

A Shinsegae Group official said the company will focus on maximizing its core business competitiveness under new leadership that embodies performance-oriented management.