E-mart has opened its largest overseas No Brand specialty store in Mongolia, aiming to expand export channels for products made by Korean small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The retailer plans to increase the number of local stores to 15 by 2028 and to build a dedicated No Brand logistics facility.
E-mart said on the 10th that it opened its first No Brand store, the City Hall branch, in the Yarmag new town of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, spanning about 253 pyeong (836 square meters). It is the largest among E-mart's overseas No Brand specialty stores. A second store will open late this month.
The first store sells around 1,100 No Brand products, along with Korean and Mongolian goods, for a total of about 5,000 items. As roughly 70 percent of No Brand products are made by Korean SMEs, export volumes for these companies are expected to grow as the number of stores increases.
E-mart is also pursuing government-linked sales channel support. This year, the company was selected for the "Overseas Expansion Support Program for Distribution Companies" run by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA). On the 9th, E-mart signed a business agreement with local operator Sky Hypermarket to cooperate on expanding sales of Korean products and joint marketing.
Since first entering Mongolia in 2016, E-mart currently operates six hypermarkets in the country. Mongolia E-mart draws an average of about 30,000 visitors per day on weekends. The ranking of local operator Sky Hypermarket among Mongolian companies also rose from 62nd in 2017 to 21st last year.
Sales of No Brand products are also growing. No Brand product sales in Mongolia surpassed 10 billion won last year, and E-mart expects sales to exceed 12 billion won this year.
E-mart plans to increase the number of No Brand specialty stores in Mongolia to 15 by 2028 and, over the long term, to open 50 stores within 10 years. "Through No Brand specialty stores, we will continue to expand overseas sales opportunities for excellent Korean products," E-mart CEO Han Chae-yang said.
