May 02, 2024

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Customers enter a Daiso store in Seoul, Nov. 6, 2023. (Newsis)

Daiso, a popular 1,000 won store ($0.76) chain in Korea, has officially become fully Korean-owned, shedding its last Japanese corporate shareholder, Tuesday.

Although Daiso is well-known in Korea, it has often been labeled as a Japanese company, mainly because Daiso Sangyo, a Japanese entity, had been its second-largest investor with a 34.21 percent stake.

Just a day earlier, Asung Daiso announced that its parent company Asung HMP acquired Daiso Sangyo's entire 34.21 percent stake. This acquisition increased the Korean firm’s total ownership from 50.02 percent to 84.23 percent. The other shares are owned by Asung Daiso CEO Park Jung-boo's two daughters.

The deal is estimated to amount to around 500 billion won ($380 million), although the exact amount has not been disclosed.

The firm said in a statement that the acquisition marks a “crucial step” in transforming the chain into a wholly Korean entity.

Korean firm Asung originally established the retail chain ASCO Even Plaza in 1997, adopting a flat-rate pricing concept. However, after receiving a 4.3 billion won investment from Japanese retail chain Daiso Sangyo, it changed its name to Daiso. The name Daiso also resonates with the Korean phrase, “da isseo,” which means, “we have everything.”

Daiso has been hit hard whenever a boycott movement related to Japan was carried out due to the deterioration of the Korea-Japan relationship. Each time, Asung Daiso emphasized its distance from Daiso Sangyo, saying that the Japanese firm only invests and does not participate in the company’s management, and that it does not pay separate royalties to Daiso Sangyo.

Daiso specializes in selling daily supplies, including kitchenware and cleaning products, at low, uniform prices. Their products are priced within the range of 1,000 won to 5,000 won.

It has been the most preferred choice among stores selling such items at flat-rate prices.

According to a 2019 survey conducted by local research group Embrain, which polled 1,000 Korean nationals aged 19 to 59 with multiple answers allowed, 97.5 percent of respondents chose Daiso over other competitors, such as Japanese retailer Muji (52.2 percent), Eland retail shop Modern House (46.6 percent) and Shinsegae brand (41 percent).

By No Kyung-min (minmin@heraldcorp.com)