South Korea’s E-Mart Inc., a discount store unit of Shinsaegae Group, will focus on its line of low-cost, high-quality No Brand, warehouse store Traders and private brand (PB) for ready-made meals Peacock to foster the growth, its sole chief executive officer and president said during an interview with Maeil Business Newspaper on Thursday.

The nation’s leading big-box store first introduced No Brand products last year that now offers more than 800 products boasting high quality despite low price. The products have been so popular that sales made by No Brand products soared to 24.1 billion won ($20 million) in October this year from 8.8 billion won in January, already exceeding its yearly sales target of 100 billion won. “(Compared to the past), more consumers are now looking for bang for the buck and they will continue to drive growth of No Brand,” said Lee.

He also pinned hope on Traders, warehouse store chains launched in 2011, that has also been showing an outstanding performance unlike its peers suffering from stagnant sales. Sales of Traders had steadily increased by an annual rate of 10 percent to 20 percent to near 1 trillion won in 2015 from 564 billion won in 2012.

E-Mart’s private brand Peacock is also expected to lead the discount store’s growth in the future. Sales of the ready-made meals brand Peacock for the first 11 months of this year have surged 40.9 percent to 162.6 billion won from the period last year. “Peacock would deliver unparalleled value to customers,” said Lee.

Lee also pledged to further promote online business by making a consistent investment to expand online shopping business following a shift in consumers’ purchasing habit towards online shopping sites from traditional brick-and-mortar stores. He emphasized that E-Mart would continuously focus on providing cost-effective products to beat social commerce rivals such as Coupang. “We will continue to make efforts to offer the lowest-cost products in the industry to cement our image of a retailer providing high-quality products at low prices,” he added.

Shares of E-Mart closed Friday at 190,000 won, down 1.81 percent or 3,500 won from the previous session.

By Sohn Il-seon

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]