Now is the time for investment,” is what officials at GS Group must have believed when they decided to make 3 trillion won in investments this year, a 48 percent jump over last year.

The investments will go to such key areas as strengthening business structures for its future stability and to secure a stable base for sustainable growth in the future. The investment figures are the largest since the group was launched by the Huh family through combining their share of the companies spun off from LG Group.

The investment will be spread around to areas including retail, energy, and construction. Specifically in the construction of the No. 4 heavy oil cracking facility of GS Caltex and the GS EPS No. 3 power generation plant, and GS Global’s exploration of oil and bituminous coal and other energy areas in which 1.8 trillion won has been allocated for investment. The retail sector will get 600 billion won to expand stores and GS Shop’s overseas operations. GS Construction will get 700 billion won for investments in its projects to develop future growth engines at home and abroad.

The group’s heavy investment strategy is based on Chairman Huh Chang-soo’s New Year speech, which called for investments during rough times with a long-term perspective and expansive business insights for future growth, creating jobs and expanding exports.

GS Retail has been reforming its business structure and trying to secure future growth engines. 

The GS 25 convenience store chain; GS Super Market; GS Watson’s, a beauty and healthcare store chain; and Mister Donuts, a special hand-made donut chain, will be strengthened to continuously expand their stores and sales backed up by strong support systems with IT and logistics facilities under segregated strategies from its rival store chains, the group said.

GS 25, which the group set up under its unique retail strategy, will expand its special areas of business with segregated stores and product development to strengthen its competitive power and secure profit for its owner with the help of such support systems as mobile and online business systems to beat its rivals and be a top convenience store chain in Korea.

GS Super Market will strive to sell the products that customers really want in terms of quality, price, and freshness by strengthening the capacity for planning in the operation of the super market chain, including online sales (iSuper), which the store kicked off last year under the belief that it is the future direction of retail sales.

GS Retail will reform its business style with the introduction of a new operational style after studying changes in lifestyle, population densities in large cities, retail trends, and government policies.