South Korean home-shopping firm, GMM launch JV

The venture’s chief financial officer, Premon Pinskul, said GMM-CJ O Shopping was established last week with a registered capital of Bt540 million and would begin operations by the middle of next year.

CJ O Shopping started studying the feasibility of this venture two years ago. It already runs a joint venture in China, which was ranked as the No 1 home-shopping company in Shanghai from 2004 to 2008. It has also been a leader in India and Japan, while in South Korea it was named the second-largest home-shopping network in terms of annual receipts, trailing behind GS Shop, which set up a joint venture with True Visions last month.

CJ O Shopping is an affiliate of Cheil Jedang, which was established in August 1953 as part of Samsung’s first manufacturing operations. CJ Corporation, the holding company of CJ O Shopping is a leading South Korean firm that does business in various sectors including food services, bio-pharmaceuticals, entertainment and media, home shopping and logistics.

Premon said the company had earmarked funds for the establishment of a distribution headquarters and a call centre, and was currently working on marketing and promotion plans to reach its target customers.

A source at GMM Grammy said the company was also planning to set up a home-shopping satellite channel to promote and offer imported products from South Korea and elsewhere in the region. The source added that GMM Grammy believes there is more room to grow in this business.

In the first nine months of this year, GMM Grammy enjoyed a 17.2-per-cent surge in revenue to Bt7.25 billion. Its third-quarter revenue rose 13.8 per cent to Bt2.34 billion from the same period last year, mainly driven by its music business, which showed a 34.1-per-cent increase, and its media arm which showed an 8.8 per cent rise, though revenue from its film business declined 51.7 per cent.