Homeplus faces delivery halts

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Companies that have been supplying food and other products to Homeplus, which is undergoing corporate rehabilitation, are increasingly halting their deliveries.

Fears are growing that payments may not be made, and in some cases, businesses have already suffered financial losses due to unpaid invoices.

This is a report by Ryu Ran.

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Homeplus's food court.

The stores that are located here have not received their earnings from January.

[Homeplus Store Owner A/Voice altered: "I haven't received it at all (the January sales payment). No one has received it."]

The funds were supposed to be settled by the end of February, but as soon as the holiday period ended earlier this month, Homeplus unexpectedly entered corporate rehabilitation, leaving payments unsettled.

The situation is similar nationwide.

[Homeplus Store Owner B/Voice altered: ""I had to break my savings account yesterday to cover 28 million won in employee wages. By today, I need to pay nearly 30 million won for ingredients, but I have no funds, so I’ve applied for a loan."]

Suppliers are also reacting.

Companies like LG Electronics, Samyang Foods, Lotte Chilsung, Dongsuh Foods, and Otoki have immediately stopped their deliveries.

The companies have stated that they will halt deliveries until Homeplus clearly reveals its payment plan for the supply costs.

The number of companies joining the halt in deliveries may increase.

[Homeplus Supplier Representative/Voice altered: "We were expecting payments since they said it was commerical receivables, but the money hasn’t come in. They haven’t said whether they will pay or not."]

Homeplus has stated that it will repay the overdue January payments with the court's permission by next week.

Recently, Homeplus has been conducting its largest discount event of the year and is reported to have received about three times more supplies than usual.

However, the exact scale of unpaid supply costs and other commercial receivables has not been disclosed.

Additionally, even just before applying for rehabilitation, it issued corporate promissory notes worth tens of billions of won, raising concerns about potential losses for individual investors.

This is KBS News, Ryu Ran.