GS has the advantage in sales, CU has the advantage in number of stores, but there are calls for profitability in the increasingly competitive convenience store industry in Korea

BGF Retail, which operates the convenience store chain CU, reported sales of 4.1242 trillion won (approximately 447.47111 billion yen) in the first half of the year, up 5.2% from the same period last year.
The turnover is close to 4.1621 trillion won (about 451.55122 billion yen) of GS Retail, which operates "GS25". On the other hand, the number of "CU" stores is 17,762, and the number of "CU" stores is 17,390.
This surpasses the number one store in the industry, GS25. Until now, CU has claimed first place in the industry in terms of number of stores, while GS25 has claimed first place in terms of sales.
In this situation, the company is competing to be the top in the saturated convenience store industry.
The number of convenience stores in South Korea increased from about 26,000 in 2014 to 50,000 in 2023. Despite this, profitability remains flat.
Currently, the average operating profit margin for convenience stores remains at the 2% level, which indicates that although fierce competition has led to an increase in the number of stores, profitability is stagnant.
There are indications in the industry that it is more important to improve the operational efficiency of existing stores than to engage in meaningless competition over the number of stores and sales.
Specifically, this could involve moving stores in poor locations to better locations to achieve results. An industry insider said, "The time has come for the convenience store industry to think about how much profit it can make.
"There are," he said.