"Unable to Cover Operating Costs"... Homeplus Temporarily Closes Hypermarkets

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Homeplus, for which corporate rehabilitation proceedings have been terminated, has suspended operations at its hypermarkets nationwide starting today (July 13). With all operating funds depleted, the company is no longer able to maintain essential personnel for security and cleaning, ultimately leading to a temporary shutdown.

Reporter Lee Seong-hoon has the story.

[Reporter]

Homeplus has temporarily suspended operations at its headquarters and hypermarkets across the country starting today.

Homeplus stated that it is no longer possible to operate stores normally, as all operating funds have been exhausted, leaving the company unable to cover not only payments for goods but also store operating expenses such as electricity and gas bills.

[Homeplus Official: A store can only operate normally when security personnel, cleaning staff, and parking management staff are all working properly. However, we have been unable to make payments, so those contracts have all been terminated.]

However, stores located within the shopping malls are permitted to continue operations if they wish to do so.

The company has also decided to allow the use of individual payment terminals instead of the existing Homeplus payment systems.

This temporary suspension affects 68 hypermarkets currently in operation, which accounts for virtually all remaining branches, excluding the 37 stores that have already closed.

Homeplus plans to pursue the acquisition of operating funds by July 20 and then decide whether to resume operations.

Previously, the Seoul Bankruptcy Court terminated the rehabilitation proceedings for Homeplus but stated that it could reconsider extending the proceedings if a plan to secure 200 billion won in emergency operating funds is prepared by July 20.

However, the 200 billion won in operating fund support from Meritz has not yet been finalized.

Video by Park Chun-bae
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.