GS25 Opens 1,000th Fresh-Enhanced Store... Fresh Food Sales 12 Times Higher

In Just 5 Years: A New Growth Model for Convenience Stores
Fresh Food Synergy with GS The Fresh
Daily Sales at Fresh-Enhanced Stores Top Regular Locations by Over 1 Million Won

GS Retail announced on August 3 that GS25 has opened its 1,000th fresh-enhanced store, 'GS25 Cheonan Dujeong Golden Branch'.

The 1,000th store, 'GS25 Cheonan Dujeong Golden Branch', is a new 132-square-meter location that recently opened in Dujeong-dong, Seobuk-gu, Cheonan. It is situated in a residential commercial area, backed by a large apartment complex.

GS25 has opened its 1,000th Fresh Enhancement Store, "GS25 Cheonan Dujong Golden Branch." The opening ceremony was held on the 31st, with Chunho Chung, Vice President and Head of Convenience Store BU at GS Retail (4th from right), and the store owner of GS25 Cheonan Dujong Golden Branch (5th) attending the commemorative photo. Photo provided by GS25.

The fresh-enhanced store is a specialized model with which GS25 has extended the role of the convenience store to serve as a local, close-to-home grocery shopping channel. By strengthening its selection of fresh items—including vegetables, fruit, eggs, and meat—the store enables essential grocery shopping even for one- or two-person households at a convenience store.

Launched in 2021, GS25's fresh-enhanced store model has rapidly expanded, surpassing 1,000 outlets within just five years. Notably, while GS25 slowed the pace of regular store expansion last year, the number of fresh-enhanced stores still grew by 217. This year, 226 additional stores have already been opened, exceeding last year's growth.

GS25 was able to launch the fresh-enhanced model ahead of competitors thanks to synergy with the GS The Fresh supermarket chain operated by GS Retail. By leveraging GS The Fresh's accumulated capabilities in sourcing fresh foods, its network with suppliers, and its expertise in product operations, GS25 established a management system for fresh products that is difficult to replicate in the convenience store sector.

These fresh-enhanced stores handle 2,000 types of fresh foods—not only vegetables and fruit, but also chilled meats and seasonal seafood—earning strong consumer reviews for both price competitiveness and freshness. This has solidified GS25's competitiveness in the local grocery shopping market.

A GS25 official stated, "The core competitive edge driving the widespread expansion of fresh-enhanced stores has been logistics innovation." He explained, "In 2024, GS25 established a 'Convenience Store Fresh Hub' of about 1,983 square meters within the Hwaseong Center in Gyeonggi Province, reducing the delivery time from order placement to store arrival from two days to just one. This has extended the shelf life of products in stores by over a day, allowing even fresher items to be sold and lowering disposal costs, which in turn has increased franchisees' profits. The average daily sales at a fresh-enhanced store are more than 1 million won higher than those at a regular store."

According to the company, as of the first half of this year, sales of fresh foods at fresh-enhanced stores were approximately 12 times higher than at regular stores. Sales of fresh meat products such as pork belly were 51 times (5,170%) higher compared to regular outlets. Essential grocery items like eggs (661%) and tofu (640%) also posted much higher sales than regular stores.

Both the number of customers and the average transaction amount per customer were 36% and 15% higher, respectively, than at regular stores. This is attributed to an enhanced shopping experience that has simultaneously driven additional new customer inflows and increased purchase amounts among existing customers.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.