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Real estate to nursing homes, PC builds to smart farms: Retailers are seeking the next big thing

Published: 24 Mar. 2025, 17:01 Updated: 27 Mar. 2025, 17:57

Shoppers look at items at Shinsegae Market, Shinsegae Department Store's newly renovated high-end food market at its Gangnam branch in Seocho District, southern Seoul, on Feb. 27. [YONHAP]

Korean retailers are scrambling to diversify their product portfolios as domestic demand falters, demographics change and e-commerce platforms claim larger chunks of the pie.

Firms including Shinsegae, GS Retail, Lotte Hi-Mart, Hotel Shilla and Nongshim discussed their new businesses at their respective shareholder meetings on Thursday and Friday.

Shinsegae Inc. and Hotel Shilla are looking toward property development as their new bread and butter. Shinsegae Inc. aims to create Korea’s new Roppongi Hills, or a multiuse complex that integrates retailers, department stores and hotels. At the project’s forefront is property rental and management subsidiary Shinsegae Central. The company omitted “City” from its old name at the shareholder meeting to remove the connotation that its projects were limited to metropolises like Seoul.

“We will lay the groundwork for mid- to long-term growth by expanding the boundaries of our business and preparing for large-scale multicomplex development,” said Park Joo-hyung, CEO of Shinsegae and Shinsegae Central City, at the company’s shareholder meeting on Thursday.

“We will position ourselves as a ‘comprehensive lifestyle developer’ by offering customers value beyond retail based on their lifestyle,” Park said.

Hotel Shilla CEO Lee Boo-jin attends the firm's general shareholder meeting at the Samsung Electronics Jangchung building in Jung District, central Seoul, on March 20. [NEWS1]

Hotel Shilla will create a senior living community. A motion to include in the firm’s articles of association a business to rent and operate recreational facilities and condominiums as well as develop and operate living and welfare facilities for senior residents was approved at Thursday’s shareholder meeting.

The hotel industry, in recent times, has shown great interest in luxury senior residences that operate like hotels but are tailored to older adults. The rooms’ interiors are decorated like those of high-end apartments, providing catering and cleaning services akin to those of a hotel, as well as professional medical services.

As these firms have expertise in operating hotels, they can expect to earn profit by renting or operating these facilities in addition to the proceeds from selling senior towns or condos.

Hotel Shilla, in particular, needs a new business to make up for its ailing duty-free sales.

“We will ensure sustainable growth that is not limited to Shilla Stay and Shilla Monogram and develop customized services that utilize the local characteristics of each hotel,” Lee Boo-jin, the hotel and duty-free shop operator’s president, said at the shareholder meeting.

Electronic goods retailer Lotte Hi-Mart included “manufacturing electrical and telecommunication machinery equipment and related devices and other accessories” and “door-to-door sales and related services” in its business goals to strengthen its PC assembly business and in-person sales.

“We are making our assembly PC business more competitive since the demand for customized computers, such as for games, is increasing,” Lotte Hi-Mart said.

“In the case of door-to-door sales, we will utilize the personnel we have hired to install products to encourage [customers] to have consultations and purchases without having to visit offline stores,” the retailer said.

Shin Ramyun manufacturer Nongshim included a smart farm business in its articles of association at its shareholder meeting on Friday. The company plans to accelerate the business by using the research on special crops and smart farm technology that started from a company-grown startup in 2018. The company-developed software automatically controls temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide, light and nutrition needed to grow plants. The food and beverage firm exported two units of smart farm containers to Oman in 2022.

Meanwhile, GS Retail appointed Hur Suh-hong, who became CEO last December, as executive director at its shareholder meeting.

“I will try my hardest,” Hur said at the event. “Please give me your support.”

BY CHOI HYUN-JU [[email protected]]