Korea’s food and entertainment giant CJ Group is set to expand investments and speed up its delayed plans to tap more markets around the world by carrying out a personnel reshuffle in March, the group said recently, hinting at chairman Lee Jay-hyun’s return to management in the first half of this year.
In the personnel reshuffle, those who were promoted to executives totaled 70, including a daughter of Chairman Lee and her husband. Daughter Lee Gyeong-hoo, 32, and her husband, Chung Jong-hwan, 37, were promoted to assistant vice president as chief of integrated marketing team and a division chief of the group’s U.S. regional headquarters, respectively.
“Sales grew slightly last year but the group’s sales remained at 20-something trillion won for the last three or four years,” an official at CJ Group said. “We need to spur growth in order to reach the Great CJ goal by 2020 and the decision-making is somewhat slower with the absence of the owner,” she said. The group’s sales exceeded 30 trillion won ($26 billion) last year for the first time. But it is far short of the group’s goal to reach 100 trillion won in sales by 2020. It plans to generate 70 percent of the 100 trillion won from overseas markets.
Between 2013 and 2016, coinciding with the absence of the chairman, the group’s investments remained less than 2 trillion won every year, compared with 2.9 trillion won in 2012.
After the chairman’s pardon, CJ unveiled a plan to invest 5 trillion won this year to seek merger and acquisition deals in bio, logistics and cultural industries. The group aims to achieve 40 billion won in sales this year, up 30 percent from the previous year.
CJ officials and market watchers see that the group making such massive investments would require Lee’s approval after his official comeback.
CJ has been grappling with slow growth due to years of leadership vacuum. Its sales growth has slowed to single digits over the past three years, with consolidated sales standing at 29.1 trillion won in 2015.
CJ aims to log 100 trillion won in sales by 2020, targeting 70 percent of revenue from the overseas market.
To achieve the goal, the conglomerate has been eyeing merger and acquisition opportunities abroad in such areas as food, bio, entertainment and logistics.
In June, CJ Group said it had joined the race to buy the Korean unit of U.S. fast food chain McDonald's to diversify its food franchise business.
CJ has been grappling with slow growth due to years of leadership vacuum. Its sales growth has slowed to single digits over the past three years, with consolidated sales standing at 29.1 trillion won in 2015.
CJ aims to log 100 trillion won in sales by 2020, targeting 70 percent of revenue from the overseas market.
To achieve the goal, the conglomerate has been eyeing merger and acquisition opportunities abroad in such areas as food, bio, entertainment and logistics.
In June, CJ Group said it had joined the race to buy the Korean unit of U.S. fast food chain McDonald's to diversify its food franchise business. The group, however, declined to give details on when Lee plans to return, only saying they hope for him to be back after the company’s reshuffle in March or in April when the group will begin to carry out its investment plans in earnest.
The biggest concern is whether the chairman would recover his status as a registered director which he dropped when he resigned four years ago due to his pro-longed illness.
_CJ중구 본사.jpg)
A view of CJ Group headquarters in Seoul. (Photos: CJ Group)
