April 26, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] E-mart, Korea’s largest discount store chain by sales, is set to sign an initial agreement with Dutch food retailer SPAR International, a company official said on May 2.

E-mart is scheduled to sign a memorandum of understanding with SPAR at its headquarters in Seoul at 3 p.m., the official said.

Under the deal, E-mart will supply mostly cookies and teas to SPAR, which operates about 400 stores in China, the official said.

A 24-member delegation of SPAR will also visit an E-mart logistics center.

The agreement illustrates E-mart’s efforts to indirectly enter Chinese consumer markets through SPAR.

At its height, the Korean retailer operated 26 offline stores in China in 2010, but it has since sold 25 stores due to poor performance.

By Song Seung-hyun and newswires (ssh@heraldcorp.com)