Dongwon Group founder Kim Jae-chul who retired from his chairmanship. (Photos: Dongwon Group)

Dongwon Group founder Kim Jae-chul retired from his chairmanship role after successfully catapulting his small fisheries company into a business group posting some 7 trillion won in annual sales. His retirement coincided with the group’s 50th anniversary celebration at the Dong Leaders Academy in Icheon, Gyeonggi-do, on April 23.

Chairman Kim, also known as “Caption Kim” has been synonymous with the development of the Korean deep-sea industry.

At the age of 23, Kim went aboard a tuna ship heading for Samoa, the South Pacific, for the first stint of his career in 1958.

“I’m still missing the moments of battling black and blue deep-sea waves aboard ships. Now I’m going to lay down the burdensome responsibilities and want to do what I cannot take up.” he was quoted as saying in an interview. As he did at the age of 23, Kim is now envisaging a future as his desk is filled with Japanese books on AI. He discussed the major managers of Dongwon Group after translating Japanese books on AI. He emphasized that anyone who preemptively adapts could survive in an era of change.

Founder Kim made numerous achievements in the Korean industry. Dongwon Industries, launched in 1969, was a major exporter, earning foreign currency in the 1970s. The company was a big supplier of tuna, a source of protein, and a pioneer of the Korean deep-sea fisheries industry.

Other Korean companies relied on domestic demand, whereas Dongwon Industries started on a global stage.

He traveled aboard on 200 occasions since his maiden voyage. At that time, other Korean ships did not venture beyond Jeju Island. The reputation and trustworthiness he gained while working at Goyreo Deep-sea Fisheries led to a helping hand from Japanese investors.
Kim introduced the first deep-sea fisheries ship with a $370,000 foreign loan. His business was launched in a small office in Myeongdong, Seoul, with tree employees and 10 million won in paid-capital.

The founder still boasts his company’s management tenet “realizing social justice through faithful corporate activities.” , announced at the time of founding. At that time, he realized the need for the corporate sector’s working together with society.

His eyes focused on the future and the world a long ago. Dongwon, which established itself as a fisheries firm, expanded its business portfolio to integrated food and financial business sectors. He maintained a principle of prudent management: one skipper aboard a ship, a big or a small one while turned to “guts management” for timing of massive investments.

His “guts management” based on his judgment power he earned as serving as skipper paid off. A huge crisis facing the company translated into an opportunity to help it grow into a business group. When the first “oil shock” caused by a Middle East war in 1973, hit the nation, Dongwon Industries was a four-year-old, small fisheries firm.

At that time, as foreign companies began retrenchment, he chose to move the other way around: building the 4,500-ton Dongsan-ho, Korea’s largest ship. Its price tag stood at $12.54 million, an equivalent to orders to build 10 longline and seine tuna ships. The money was more than Dongwon’s total assets.

Kim has turned out to employ his own tactics of cutting through high seas to make tremendous achievements. Looking at his 50-year career, he recalled three most memorable moments: venturing into the securities & investment sector, acquiring StarKist, the U.S. No. 1 canned tuna company, and rising to a global fisheries company.

Dongwon said founder Kim is expected to have an advisory role. His second son Kim Nam-jung is mostly likely to take control of the group as the junior Kim is expected to be promoted from his current post to chairman. Dongwon Enterprise, the holding company of the group will continue to work as a control tower for business strategy, with the chief executives of each subsidiary acting independently.

A view of Dongwon Group Headquarters in Yangjae-dong, Seoul.