BGF Retail outlines KRW30bn online investment

BGF, owner of Korean c-store chain CU, has boosted its stake in online grocery business Hello Nature.

Founded in 2012, Hello Nature offers compact packaged-grocery deliveries. It was bought by SK Planet in 2016. Its sales reached US$9 million last year.

Investing 30 billion won (US$28 million) for a controlling 50.1 per cent stake, BGF will run Hello Nature as a joint venture.

“The online premium grocery shopping market is a blue ocean which has been growing rapidly every year,” said BGF chief Lee Keon-jun.

BGF aims to build Hello Nature into the leading online grocery platform within the next five years by connecting its delivery service to 13,000 CU stores across Korea.

Hello Nature will also consider consider expanding into the offline market.

Demand for online delivery services for fresh food in Korea has been increasing rapidly thanks to the growing number of one-person households – 5.28 million in 2016, accounting for 27.8 per cent of all household types in the country.