Kurly Posts First-Ever Half-Year Profit

Retail tech company Kurly officially announced that it has achieved its first-ever half-year operating profit surplus since its founding, putting it on a sustainable growth trajectory. During the first half of this year, it successfully continued its two-consecutive-quarter streak of profitability, significantly improving profitability alongside robust revenue growth. According to Kurly's publicly disclosed half-year report, its sales in the first half of this year, on a consolidated basis, recorded 1.1595 trillion won, a 7.6% increase compared to the same period last year. The most notable point is that operating profit improved by 11.5 billion won, turning into a surplus of 3.1 billion won, achieving its first-ever half-year profit. In particular, in the second quarter, it also achieved sales of 578.7 billion won (up 7.4% year-on-year) and an operating profit surplus of 1.3 billion won, solidifying a stable profit base. EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization) for the first half surged by 106.8% year-on-year to 16.1 billion won, and the total Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV) also increased by 13.6% to 1.7062 trillion won, proving comprehensive growth. These remarkable achievements were driven by the stable growth of its main business, the successful establishment of new businesses, and the expansion of its extensive delivery infrastructure. Transaction volume in Kurly's core food category increased by 11.5% in the first half, and Beauty Kurly also maintained steady growth, driven by demand for luxury and indie brands. In the new business sector, transaction volume for seller-delivered products (3P), including fulfillment services (FBK), surged by an impressive 59.4%, emerging as a powerful growth engine. To strengthen its FBK competitiveness, Kurly recently established a new '3PL Cold Chain Center' in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province. The strategy of significantly expanding the Saetbyeol Delivery (dawn delivery) service area last year to 11 regions, including Gyeongju, Pohang, Yeosu, Suncheon, Gwangyang, and Gwangju, and launching the Jeju one-day delivery service, also greatly contributed to performance improvement by promoting the influx of new customers. To continue this growth momentum, Kurly plans to fully initiate a company-wide AX (AI Transformation) starting in the second half of this year. For this purpose, an AX Center organization was newly established in July to lead AI-based new business planning, aiming to innovate work methods and enhance service value. Kim Jong-hoon, Kurly's CFO, emphasized, "As a result of focusing on strengthening core businesses and discovering new ones, we were able to achieve significant results: two consecutive quarters of profit and our first half-year profit." He added, "We will do our best in the second half to ensure that the current trend of accelerating revenue growth while maintaining operating profit can be further expanded."